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This past weekend I flew to Jacksonville to see Thomas (my boyfriend) for the long weekend.  I just saw him the weekend before, and met his parents. Which, for those curious minds who want to know: it went EXTREMELY well considering my original concerns!  Anyhow, as I was preparing to head to Jacksonville this weekend I noticed Thomas started getting concerned about my luggage, and my arrival time.

“So can you get up early and catch the 6am flight here?”

“No, I thought we decided I would just catch the 11am one and get there at 2:30pm? Besides, now I have to work Friday morning, so I can’t go to the airport early…why did you change your mind?”

“No reason…”

He also asked about my luggage.

“So, you aren’t checking any luggage are you?”

“I am trying not to – I don’t wanna pay the extra $20 (by the way – for those who don’t know, they’ve up-ed the fees by $5 for each bag. Instead of $15/$25 it’s now $20/$30 – sucks, I know.)”

“Good. Well try hard.”

“Uh, ok. And what if I can’t?”

“Pick something you can leave behind.  I need you to not have any bags checked.”

“Ok. Are you up to something? You are acting strange. What’s going on? Why do you care about my arrival time? And my bag? Wait…”

At this moment I am reminded of a conversation we had about 3 weeks ago when, after he decides against going through with it, he tells me of his plan to pick me up and start driving to Atlanta to take me on a surprise road trip. He planned to play Britney’s greatest hits in the car and figured I would eventually realize we were not going to his house. At which point he hoped I might put clues together and figure out we were going to a concert (which, I’m not really confident I would have figured that out).  After which he would tell me we were heading to Atlanta to see Britney Spears.  Now before you get all judgmental on me let me say a few things:

1. Thomas is NOT a Britney fan, but he IS a me fan, and I like her.

2. Yeah, that’s right – I like Britney. I didn’t say she was the best singer. I just said I like her. Her beats are fun and addictive – admit it – and she’s a great dancer.  Besides, you gotta admit that despite all adversity and bad decisions the girl is a business powerhouse and is doing pretty well for a 27 year old.

3. I have always wanted to see her in concert, and even considered asking my mom to buy me tickets to her show for my birthday (she was in Dallas March 31), but then I quickly realized I have no liberty to be asking my mom for a $300* birthday gift. (*note: $300 gets decent seats – not the best, but also not nosebleed.)

So I ask Thomas, “Wait. Are we going to see Britney after all?!?!?!”

“Maybe.”

“OMG!!! But wait! I thought we decided against it. We don’t have the money to be spending right now.”

“I know, but I figured we’ll be even tighter on money once we get married and I want to give you a once-in-a-lifetime gift.  I know what it’s like to have always wanted to see someone in concert and then not be able to (BTW – he is a HUGE concert-goer and he was referring to not getting to see Michael Jackson even though he always wanted to).”

“O-M-G. Are you serious?!??! We are going to see her?”

“Yep. It’s your Christmas present, just a bit early.  So I need you to be on that plane and get here on time because as soon as you land we have to drive 5.5 hours to Atlanta to make it there by 8pm to see the show.”

And wouldn’t you know the one day I needed to be there on time my plane was delayed? Delayed 1.5 hours. Yeah – he was a little peeved. BUT – I made it to JAX eventually and we made it to Atlanta at 9:10pm (a little over an hour after the show started) – luckily she had 2 opening acts.  So when I ran to the stadium, imagine my joy when I realized she hadn’t even took to the stage yet – I got to see the opening song!

What’s even better is Thomas bought SECOND row seats – they were PERFECT.  Any lower and I would have had to tilt my head up to see her. Any higher and I would have been too far away to see her.

It was a great, entertaining show – lots of upbeat fun.

But I think my favorite part was looking over at Thomas and seeing that most of the time he wasn’t even looking at Britney, but at me.  And he had this smile from ear to ear because he knew I was just having a ball and that was all that mattered for him.  So this is what selfless love looks like…