My parents got a camcorder when I was about eight years old. They filled countless mini-VHS tapes with football games, bicycle riding and Christmases – just anything my sister and I were doing as we grew up. At one point, they took a couple years’ worth of footage and copied them all onto a single proper VHS tape. I probably watched this 100 times or more.

Home videos and family photos are things I’ve always loved. I don’t think of myself as a particularly sentimental person, but I guess I really am. My parents kept photo albums and loose photos stashed away in boxes and scattered in cabinets; my grandparents had enormous boxes of loose photos in various closets. Every opportunity I had, I went through them all.

When I was 18, I got my first camcorder and I began recording various elements of my young adult life. I’d go on to watch those home videos hundreds of times as well. About a decade ago, I digitized all of my parents’ old tapes onto DVDs and earlier this year, I ripped and uploaded them so they could be streamed. These family records have always been and will remain a very important part of my life.

Every year since Katie and I have been together, I’ve compiled every video we’ve shot over the course of the prior 12 months and made an annual supercut of our home videos. Now that we’re at the first of November, I’m about to begin the project (I like to do as much of it as I can early on so remaining videos can easily be tacked onto the end, then we can watch it on New Year’s Day).

I’m pretty excited about this year’s in particular due to one very special video. Tucked between footage of our February trip to Las Vegas and our Memorial Day cookout, there’s a clip that captures one of my favorite moments with my bride.

Back in May, I took Katie to see Metallica for a two-night headline event that also featured metal legends Pantera and Limp Bizkit. Katie is a bigger NüMetal fan than me, so as excited as I was to see Limp Bizkit, she was even more hyped.

Then they did the unthinkable …

Fred, Wes, Sam (RIP), John and DJ Lethal started their full-on-party set with arguably their most well-known and rowdiest song: “Break Stuff.”

We immediately flung our fists and shouted expletives harder and louder than we have in years. I started my camera just as the breakdown was about to come to an end.

I pack a chainsaw … we’re dancing;

I’ll skin your ass raw … we’re getting a little rowdier;

And if my day keeps going this way I just might … we’re seemingly having a blast while simultaneously being angry;

BREAK YOUR FUCKIN’ FACE TONIGHT!

We threaten the viewer before going into a full-on headbang. I think I maybe include the “Give me something to break!” line, but Katie is too busy banging her head harder than anyone else in the crowd.

I showed the video to my mom and told her why I loved it so much:

Katie’s not there because she’s humoring me – she’s there because she means it.

She’s headbanging like she would’ve even if I weren’t next to her.

A beautiful moment of pure authenticity.

My best friend is a die-hard metalhead who is a stone-cold fox and both the funniest and most fun person I’ve ever been around in my life. To make things somehow even better, I get to call her my wife.

And I’ve gotten to call her that – officially – for three years today.

Happy anniversary, perfect woman. The metal concerts may hurt our necks these days, but here’s to head banging — together — forevermore.

I love you always <3

-jtf

This is post 6 of 30 in my most recent attempt at tackling NaBloPoMo. Funsies and such.