We went on a little road trip this past weekend to Denver (yeah- interesting weekend to be in Denver) to see Rob's brother Travis get married to our new sister in law Alicia. I must say, the Colorado mountains made a beautiful backdrop for a wedding.
Beautiful day too AND a great couple. We are glad to welcome
Alicia officially into the family (we spent Christmas with her and she
is fully approved- especially by Scout. She wormed her way nicely into
Scout's heart with about 300 games of "Go Fish").
I am making a valiant effort to get Elle to walk to her table for the luncheon.
Cooperation was minimal.
Alicia is an ex pastry chef and turns her nose at wedding cakes (rightly so- dry tasteless things that they are), so instead, each table had a gourmet cake as the centerpiece and all the guests were going around tasting as many as possible. I made it through 4 before I had to call it quits. Later that night I deeply regretted not taking a few samples back to the hotel of the ones I didn't get to. Oh well. I suppose it's all for the best.
Speaking of the hotel, this trip marked the first time the girls have ever shared a bed. Good grief they were both giggly. Elinor couldn't believe her good fortune finding herself laying next to Scout.
Scout found it pretty exciting herself I think. It took quite a while for them to settle down.
Here you get to witness Scout trying to photo bomb my picture, misunderstanding that I am actually recording a video........ Just watching this makes me tired. Those were some epic beans.
Believe it or not, they both finally gave up........ like 2 hours later.
Rob and I just watched the news. So sad. It was pretty cool being able to watch the local news though- we got a better picture and more personal view of the whole thing. Our hotel was only 15 minutes away from that theater. Still can't believe that happened.
There are plenty of other and better pictures taken by other cameras at the wedding, I just don't have my hands on them yet and don't know when I will.
As usual, my camera spent most of it's time in the diaper bag.
It was a great weekend though, and always fun to spend a few days with the fam, spread out across the US as they are (when I say spread out, I am talking from Pennsylvania to Hawaii -and a few places in between-, so we rarely get to spend time together.)
We try and make the best of it when we do though.
Congratulations Travis and Alicia!! We wish you the best!
"It’s like I’m falling out of bed From a long, weary dream The sweetest flowers and fruits hang from the trees Falling off the giant bird that’s been carrying me
It’s like I’m falling out of bed From a long and weary dream
Just exactly as I remember Every word Every gesture"
-Separator
(First
of all I would like to apologize if these posts have run a little
long. I realize they have and I am not willing to do anything about
that frankly. This was such a monumental event in my life (if you know
me or my blog at all, you get the gravity with which I view this event
(this blog is called Life in a Glass House- for goodness sake! (a
Radiohead song), and I have never been the soul of brevity anyway -let's
face it. Also- I suppose no one is forcing anyone to read this, and these posts
are the only place I am writing these events down, so I want to be
thorough for my own sake. The good news is- this post should be fairly
short. No one has complained by the way, I just have been feeling a
little guilt at the amount of posts and the duration of a few of them.
Ok, that's all, cheers--- love you guys.)
We
all stood there and cheered. Hoping that if we cheered hard enough
they would come back out with another encore. Yeah, we were greedy and
didn't want it to end. Never wanted it to end. But, the lights came up
anyway and it ended. Matt and I started the walk to the stairs to
where we planned to run into B. We passed Marcus (we had ditched our
old area during Paranoid Android if you remember). Almost without a
word, Marcus and I gave each other a big hug and said "bye".
With
every step, I could feel the adrenaline leaving my body and a weariness
I have seldom ever felt took it's place. We started up the steps and
with every step my body felt heavier and heavier and I thought they
would never end. It took a lot of effort every time I had to lift my leg to that next step......but luckily they ended before I collapsed. But it wasn't over- I had to walk all the way over to the concession stand thing to get me a shirt. There I stood and waited in a long line. The good news was that by the time it was my turn, I had memorized what shirts they had left in my size and what they all looked like front and back, so I could be quick about it. I splurged and bought a water bottle too (we saved mega on our hotel, so I figured I better get both things.) I have ended up REALLY loving that bottle so I am SO glad I got it. It was worth every one of it's over priced cents- it's awesome. (I LOVED last tour's bottles so much, I always wished I had bought one on their site when they were selling. (I've looked for them online since and they are nowhere to be found so- carpe diem.) I dropped mine on the sidewalk within about 5 minutes of my ownership of it and it got a little dent up top. I like the dent. I don't think those aluminum Swiss bottles are respectable until they have a dent or two, so I went ahead and took care of that right away (what better place for it to get it's first battle scar then the front lines at it's concert home, eh?).
We called Sue to pick us up and drank lots of drinks from an obliging water fountain. Then we made the trek all the way to our meeting place waaaaay down the street. Before the concert when we made pick-up plans I said, "yeah- we'll walk all the way out here- no problem, a good walk is always nice after a concert" I regretted that one a little bit. But, the walk was easier then the stairs up the arena and we had PLENTY to talk about- maybe the water had something to do with that. Plus Matt got serenaded by a group of dudes. Then we sat and waited for a little bit (it was not long though). When we got in the van, we found the whole gang there when we were just expecting Sue. It was so funny~ neither Cat nor Sue wanted to stay at the hotel and miss out on the "just after concert" hype, so they each plucked a sleeping child from their beds and strapped them in the car and came to get us. The girls were sleeping in their seats, so they must have been fine with that. I don't blame them, I can imagine us yapping all about the awesome details of the concert, getting back to the room and when asked again, being like- yep, it was great. In actuality when they asked me upon getting in the car, all they got was me opening my mouth and nothing could come out- well I did manage a squeak after a time. Where does one start explaining the absolute jaw dropping awesomeness one had just barely experienced? We managed to get some details out though eventually :)
To be honest, I don't remember much more of that night after that. I don't remember if Scout woke up and was up for a while after (or if Elle did). I don't remember if we talked much in the hotel before going to sleep. I honestly can't remember the rest of that night, there was only "Homer sleep now". So I guess that's about it for post concert shenanigans.
"And if you think this is over
Then you’re wrong If you think this is over Then you’re wrong If you think this is over Then you’re wrong
Wake me up Wake me up Wake me up Wake me up Wake me up Wake me up"
The Great RH Road Trip: Day two, Getting Into the Show or The Night the Radiohead gods Showed Mercy and Smiled on Emily
I had a hard time figuring out the RH lyric or song that would be the best fit to title this post until the obvious choice dawned on me.................Karma Police...................
(FYI: The runners up were:
A Wolf at the Door
[Nice Dream]
Fitter Happier
and
Sit Down, Stand Up)
Would have also worked: Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box................Ah, the fun I have.
You see, this post is the story of a girl, a loyal, patient fan of a certain little band. She loved this band dearly, and it took a long time for this girl to finally be able to see this favorite band in person. She was very patient about the wait too, and hardly ever complained about it (I took a liberty in those last few facts). When she was finally in a position to see this band, obstacles met her at every turn. Tour dates were announced. She wanted to see this band with her husband and he is in school until April and this was going to require a road trip. The first dates released didn't include some areas of the country they were very willing to travel to, and these first dates were all during the week, during school. So she bit her nails, sat on her hands and waited and waited for more dates to be announced. Of course they would announce more dates! Those tickets went on sale. Those concerts sold out. More dates released! She picked a few convenient locations and waited for presales. Presales for the excellent tickets (ie general admission, floor) were sold early on the band's own website.....................on her niece's wedding day. Posh........so what? So we miss the presale. There will be more tickets through Ticketmaster, even GA ones. We will be at the computer the second they are released-no problem. Ah, how young I was then.
PROBLEM. What happened next was some major sold out madness. Tickets were gone within seconds of release. A few tickets came up. Nosebleeds. Ok. No problem.......... lets wait a few days and not go to that concert, we'll go to California. Same thing only worse. What was going on???? More sitting on hands and waiting for more Ticketmaster sales. Presales: gone in seconds. Few days later: Ticketmaster gone before they were even on sale. Backup plan instigated. Go to some secondary ticket seller sights and see what's up. YIKES! Every venue had tickets we wanted...........................................for 400 + bucks a pop. Every venue except for one. Enter: Glendale Arizona. For some reason, lovely Arizona- you had tickets for just a bit over ticket price. You were hundreds of dollars less then everywhere else. I don't know why. I wonder if because you are in the Southwest, and therefore a bit out of the way for much of the country. This girl didn't care! Glendale it was. We chose GA tickets for about double the cost of an original ticket. The difference will not matter in 10 years right? Tickets in virtual shopping cart. Fees tacked on. Triple the price now? Regroup. Lets find the best section in the place and be happy we are actually seeing the best band in the whole world (and bring binoculars). Lets see........ tickets for 3 people. Can't do that? Awesome sis in law steps up and declares she will sit alone and buy a single ticket a little higher in the venue and be totally cool about it. Done. Tickets bought. Relief: sighed.
Now this girl may be getting on in years a little bit, but she can still rock it with the best of them front and center amidst a million pushing and sweaty moshing fans. In fact, in her opinion, that's the only way to do it. You know what though? Sometimes everything doesn't turn out the way we want it to and we make compromises and we deal with it and we consider ourselves lucky we get to be there at all. You know.........people are lining up for these concerts 10 hours early and waiting in a queue all day just to get a good spot. Sounds like the floor is going to be madness and scary. Perhaps being in a GREAT seat, with a little room and a pair of binoculars is going to be great. Yep. It will be awesome, don't have to show up early, chill out that day, waltz into the stadium and sit and enjoy the concert of a lifetime.
This girl was excited. She couldn't wait. She was excited for her section on Jonny's side of the stage. Yet..........an evil little voice would rear it's head from time to time, whispering, "you belong on the floor with the sweaty obsessed people. You should be there with them. You should be as close to the band as you can possibly get. You should be sweated on by Thom Yorke. You've earned that." The girl admits to contemplating her options. She was tempted to buy a ga ticket now and then. She saw that fans on fan sites had an extra ga ticket once in a while that they would sell for cost because they felt like helping a brother out as opposed to the dirty rotten ticket scalpers that were determined to squeeze blood from these hapless fans that only want to see the band that makes their world go round. The girl knew that if she bought a new ticket she would leave her brother behind and be alone down there. Not very cool. She chose her brother and the seats and the binoculars and she was effing happy about it.
Enter the Karma Police.
Ok. So that was longer then intended, but this is really quite a story and must be told. But before the Radiohead gods shined that night, we had to deal with The Wolf (at the door).
Here we are, just stepped out of the car- there's the arena in the background:
So in order for Matt and I to get in the venue, we had to meet up with the jerk face ticket scalper at the gate, have him swipe his credit card and get handed the tickets and then give the tickets to us. He called and we arranged a meeting time. I chose to believe that he was just a dude around our age that had a million friends say they wanted to go and then bale on him so he had to sell the extra tickets. That was how I lived with myself for purchasing these tickets (I lived with myself also because I had no other choice. RH was not touring anywhere near me without me again- that had been established in 2008 and this was the only way I could figure it was going to happen). Well, my fan with too many tickets was NOT who we met. We met a over middle aged weasel with a shirt buttoned too far down and quite the obvious racket happening. We said hi to him and his associates and he gave us the rundown on how this would work: We take his credit card as if it were ours, walk boldly to the gate, flash a smile, hand over the card, get it swiped, get handed the tickets, and get our wrist bands. Oh, and if they ask you to show your id, tell them you left it in the car. Yep. He actually said all that quietly in Matt's ear and then stood shady-like on the outskirts and watched us walk up there. Matt even turned around before we approached and look at him, and Matt got a Pez nod in return. This guy seriously needed a trench coat filled with watches on the inside! I felt so gross and dirty. We did as we were told to the two nice old ladies at the gate. They dutifully swiped the card and then handed us our tickets. Then we both walked over to the lady with the fist full of arm bands and held out our wrists. She banded us up and we walked nervously back to Shady McWeaselton, gave him his credit card back and he was gone, quick as a flash. Matt and I shared a look of incredulity at what had just happened, declared that we felt slimy and that we needed a shower and then BREATHED A HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF!!! That little transaction was one I had lost sleep over for more then one or two nights. I worried worried worried that something would go wrong. I imagined us with failed tickets, calling my sister and telling her that we didn't get into the concert and to come pick us back up. I imagined how freaking hard I would cry. I felt bad for that me sometimes, hoping she didn't ever exist. I'm telling you, it was heavy on my mind quite a few times. But you know what? We had actual tickets with our awesome section on them. We were as good as in. One more little hurdle: making sure B's ticket (a paper one with another dude's name on it) worked and got her in. They wouldn't let those tickets be scanned yet, so we had some time to kill. We were still hours from concert time, so we wandered around that lame mall again. Yeah, it was lame. But we had wrist bands, we had tickets in our pockets. We were seeing Radiohead soon- who needs a good mall? We were told they would open the doors at 6:30, so it was a little after that when we said, "should we go?" No need to bust the door down, we had tickets, we didn't have to get there until the opening band was over if we wanted. We were too excited for that nonsense, so we made our way back to the venue.
Back to the gate people, only this time the shady part was over and we could just show our legit tickets and go inside. This time I greeted an old man. He took one look at me (or my wristband as it turns out) and told me that the GA gate was over there, in another place. I said, "I'm not GA" and I showed him my ticket. He studied it and said, "You're right, well I'm surprised they gave you that" and pointed to my wristband. I shrugged and walked inside and waited for Matt to finish. He got in and then we watched B get in with no problem (phew) and then I concentrated on my run in with that old man. Forgive me, but my wheels were running slow. I considered the possibility that the venue and that dear, sweet old lady may have put GA colored wristbands on us by mistake. Nope. That is crazy dreamland thinking. This is reality. Little did I know that Jobing.com arena messed up pretty bad that day. There was an article about it. I looked around a little bit looking for other colored wristbands. Many people had no wristbands at all. That is when I started allowing myself to actually consider what may have happened. I decided to let Matt in on what may be happening. Shocked Matt face. By then (all of this happened in less then 2 minutes), I was feeling more and more confidant that is what happened. We discussed it. We spoke the words of people in shock: What should we do about this? Do we go up to our seats or go to the floor? What should we do?? If we hadn't been in shock, we never would have contemplated our options, we would have flown downstairs so fast it would make Jonny's head spin. We ACTUALLY discussed going to our seats and ignoring the wristbands. Of course, we finally got level headed enough to cut through the fog and make some decisions. I did have one sensible thing holding me back: It was getting closer to 7 and the venue had been open for a while now and I had reasons to believe that all the good close to the stage spots were long gone and we would have to be far, far back and our seats would be closer and the better option. There was an easy way to prove or squelch that: peek inside. We peeked and what we saw at that moment was nothing short of another gift granted to us by the Radiohead gods: NOT THAT MANY PEOPLE DOWN THERE. And not only that: there was actually less people on Jonny's side of the stage. It was like one of the RH gods scooped 25 people away from the stage to clear our path. Yes, you heard me right: gift number 3. Shock gone. This was way too exciting and important for that. Poor B. Lamesauce. But wait- take our tickets! You can have a better seat too! Everyone wins! We hugged her good bye, gave her the binoculars, and flashed our magical, miracle wristbands and headed down the steps.
We were in! We both at the same time, unplanned, breached the gap of floor to the front in ballet leaps and jigs. Back to shock.
How in the HELL did we get here??
Taking pictures with our phones of our wristbands to send to family and friends, with news of our amazing fortune.
Are we really standing ON THE FLOOR, amidst other wristbanders, feet from the very stage my musical heroes are going to be standing and singing and playing???? NO BIPPING WAY. It was then that Matt won himself the first of three long stares he would receive from me that night. He asked me, "Are you sure that this is where Jonny will be?" Stare. *crickets chirping* (My stare said, "AM I SURE? Seriously? This girl may not know the square root of 4567, but she knows this. In all of the times she has seen them on stage (on youtube) never once has she seen Jonny stand and play anywhere since 1993 then to Thom's left. And this girl knows of which she speaks.") I think my stare conveyed all these things because he laughed and said no more (for now). We looked up at B and waved. She waved back. We looked at where she WOULD have been sitting if things had gone according to plan. Yikes! It was really high up there. B's new seat was pretty dang good.
Now, we just had to stand where we were amidst an ever growing crowd for a few hours until the boys showed up. (Here is where the last post's explanation of my feeding and sleeping schedule comes into play.) I had eaten a little at the Thai place, but how much have I drunk in the last couple days? A few sips here and there. How much food? Maybe the equivalent of 2 normal size meals in 4 days. How much sleep? Oh, about 7 hours in 3 nights (MAYBE 8 tops). You see, I wasn't thinking about it much, and after all- I was expecting to chill in a seat. Instead I was to be forced to stand in the same spot, in a sea of bodies for lets calculate.............roughly 4 1/2 hours. And around 2 of those are going to be some of the most exciting moments of my life. But first... 2 1/2 hours of just standing and waiting.
That's me- standing and waiting and thinking thoughts
I stood there and thought a few thoughts. One of them was images of the footage you see of The Beatles first trip to America and the state of their fans- screaming out of their minds, crying uncontrollably and also fainting. I honestly understand that. Laugh if you want but I thought about those girls and how they felt. I understood them. Sidebar: Can I set something straight? My obsession with Radiohead is not the obsession of how I imagine The Twilight Mom's view Robert Pattinson. By this I mean in a lusty want to tear his clothes off kind of way. I hope everyone understands that. Because when I say I "get" those Beatle's fans, I think I really do. At some point in my life, I would have seen that footage and thought that is what is in their minds. Perhaps it was for some. But actually, I think for the most part, it was just the overwhelming fact that they were in the presence of some individuals that had made such an impact on them, they were overwhelmed with emotion. Ok, sidebar over- I just don't want anyone to get the wrong idea (including my husband who I think already gets all this). Radiohead has impacted me. They are not just a band. They are THE band. Using the term "obsessed" admittedly isn't totally out of line here. They turned my music world totally upside down a long time ago, and seeing them in front of me playing the songs I have played over and over and over through the years and hearing these songs get better and more amazing with each listen, and being close to these amazing men doing the thing they do so well is nothing short of total awesome overload and misunderstanding (and reducing) that emotion into me wanting them physically, cheapens what they mean to me in my life. So anyway, I stood there understanding those screaming, fainting girls. I also stood there thinking about a video of a RH concert a week or so before, where the camera shook for a minute and the cameraman's explanation was that a guy fainted next to him and bouncers had to dive in and rescue him. Some dude actually fainted? That makes a girl that hasn't taken care of her body the best the last few days worry a little. But mostly, Matt and I just stared at the stage, each other, the people around us in awe. How bippin close Jonny's area was. That is Thom's microphone right there and soon, he is going to SING into it.
This is where we were standing:
And this was a wide angle shot as Matt pointed out, making our pics look further away then we really were. I only count 7 rows of heads ahead of us (not bad for moseying in late and unexpected and CRASHING THAT PARTY!!!).
We waited a long dang time. In the meantime though, us and the people around us made use of the fact that we were freak fans that the average citizen doesn't get. Therefore, it can be lonely to be a RH fan. You can be seen as pretentious and misunderstood. But those that get it, get it and we have so much to say with not that many willing ears to hear. This music has transformed us, it's shaped our lives. And for just a little while, we are together, at a pinnacle moment in our lives with nothing to do but stand around. You can make fun of me, but on WASTE central (which is RH's official site, and a sort of social network), I joined the group "Jobing.com Arena" and had been chatting it up with other RH fans going to the same concert. We have been talking and being excited together and shared song wishlists, etc. One girl (Meg) was coming from Idaho, and we figured out we were sitting in the same section one row away, so we had plans to meet and hug. She text me as she was driving up to the arena and I had to break the news of my good fortune and how I would not be up there with her. As any gracious RH fan should be, she was happy for me. We hoped to meet up after the show anyway. She told me to look for the sign she made which turned out to be the Angry Bear logo she had fashioned out of glow sticks. I couldn't wait to see it- I loved that she did that. She's hard core.
Matt and I started talking to this guy named Marcus and we ended up talking to him for most of the time. We told him of our wristband ordeal. Marcus and I shared with each other our story of getting into the band. We discussed the orders in which we purchased and discovered each album. Our first favorite song....... you know- we were ultra Radiohead nerdy and it felt GREAT dang it! In fact, in that first pic of Matt and I grinning in the arena, you can see the friend that joined him a bit later and the outline of Marcus (for I am totally blocking him from view). Throughout the whole show we never strayed too far from Marcus and we would occasionally look at each other and share excited grins (we were pretty packed in there, so the people around us never changed much). If you look at the view of the stage picture, and notice the man in the white handkerchief, you will see the man Matt and I dubbed "The Cam Guy". He reminded us a lot of our brother in law (Sue's husband) Cam. The Cam Guy was spotted right before the show, all of a sudden chomping on a hot dog that seemed to have appeared out of thin air. A HOT DOG??????? Seriously dude! Could you have picked a worse choice of food to mow down crammed and surrounded by hot crowded people, right before a music concert? As Rob said when I told him "Frankly, no". (get it?) By the way, the hot dog incident had nothing to do with his nickname- (just trying to clear Cam's good name).
FINALLY the opening band, Other Lives came on. This was exciting because something was happening and it was an important step to get us to what we had all come there for. What we had driven 12 hours in the middle of the night for. Other Lives were not bad at all. About 4 songs in though my brain switched off and was unable to think of anything except for the fact that this was really happening and happening soon and happening so much closer then I thought it would mere hours before. Around that time too was the realization that while they had a good sound, all the songs sounded exactly alike and the lead dude's vocal range was non existent. But of course, we WERE waiting to hear this dude:
(thanks Matt for showing me that vid long ago- it really came in handy right now.)
I really started wondering about my stamina at this point. I felt like I might be feeling a little faint. I kept putting my head down and closing my eyes and massaging my neck. Doing ok, but worrying more then ever that the excitement would overcome me and I would never make it. I had worn a long sleeved shirt for heaven's sake. Again- I thought I'd be nice and cool, elevated a bit and seated in a seat or I never would have opted for that shirt. Oh well, I was determined not to be "that guy" (remember the one that made the camera shake by fainting). I carried on. After about a million monotoned songs (I feel rude- I really liked the band, I did. I may even look them up in the future) and it wasn't even really a million songs- more like 6. They finished up and the lights came on again. Then we found ourselves waiting again. Man we waited lots. We waited and waited some more.
We turned around and took a picture of what was behind us:
I guess we did get there a bit early- look at all those people standing behind us! The arena has a seating capacity of 19,000 and we had filled it out quite nicely.
We waited another 45 minutes, I'd say. Matt noticed the band's guitars on racks on the side and started counting them. I don't remember the exact number but it was over 30 in all. Isn't that insane? There were sooo many. It was exciting. Meg told me she would have her sign out when the band came on stage, so I got my camera out again, ready to take a picture of it for her since she had expressed that she wondered what it looks like from down there (or to Thom, more like). I thought she would like to see for herself.
All of a sudden the lights dimmed and the crowd went insane. I scrambled to take a pic and couldn't get a good shot and missed the actual walking on stage of the band. Matt started shaking me or something so I took a blind pic while I turned around and there the bip they were.
"I jumped in the river and what did I see?
black-eyed angels swimming with me
a moon full of stars and astral cars
all the figures I used to see
all my lovers were there with me
all my past and futures
and we all went to heaven in a little row boat
there was nothing to fear and nothing to doubt"
-Pyramid Song
Speaking of Pyramid Song....................Here's your teaser
Footage taken by ME with my very own camera!!!!!!!!!
(I love how I move the camera over to Thom, quickly realize he is being boring and go right back to Jonny :) Would you listen to the crazy haunting sound he makes on that guitar doing that?? I was hypnotized (and in Emily Heaven). I can't believe I got to watch him do that......................but I need to save this stuff for the next post. :(
To be continued..............................................................
The Great RH Road Trip: Day One aka Pre-Concert Adventures
The plan:
Drive 11 hours to Phoenix, sleep, eat Mexican, go to concert, get socks knocked off, sleep, drive to Vegas, see Hoover Dam, play, sleep, visit a pyramid, drive home.
The execution:
It started with 1 mini van, 5 adults, and 2 Kids. It started at 5 O'clock at night. In all my mommy wisdom, I came up with the idea that driving half the drive at night would be beneficial with kids so they could sleep instead of asking a million times how much longer till we get there. I knew that we (meaning me and 3 siblings and a sib in law) could keep each other up just fine, since we do that anyway whenever we are together. Well, the sib in law not so much, she is more in the Rob camp (ie a "light weight" when it comes to staying up late). I was imagining leaving more in the neighborhood of 4, and yes, we left my house at 5, but we were still leaving Orem at 5:45 (thanks to an ill fated trip to Arctic Circle- why Arctic Circle? BECAUSE we needed food and needed something fast and there it was. But it wasn't fast.)
You might worry that starting out this way was a bad omen for the trip, but you would be wrong! The trip felt magical and enchanted and turned out to have some wonderfully fated surprises in store. Sorry- that just spilled out.
We drove. And we drove. We listened to podcasts, we laughed and talked. We listened to OK Computer, we played Ticket to Ride on the iPad. The sun went down. Matt and B did some sleeping. Poor kids had to drive that day from Wyoming so they were already 6 hours in plus we listened to the soothing sounds of Adam Kempenaar of Filmspotting and bored them to sleep. But we drove on and we were tired. The kids did sleep and it was nice. Around two we were excited to figure out that Arizona was behind us one hour, so we gained an hour. We needed that hour, but too bad it still felt as late as it was in Utah for us. Scout woke up about an hour before we got there. She'd had a pretty good night's sleep at that time. She was about as awake as I was tired. (Brief explanation: The week before we left, the kids and I were sick. There was colds, throat ordeals and stomach flus happening. All I kept saying was "better this week then next week". I felt very sick all day Monday, had a touch of the stomach flu myself and ran a fever all night. Only slept for a few minutes here and there. Tuesday I didn't want to eat, but nibbled a few things here and there. That night was the night before the trip, so I stayed up taking care of last minute things and packing, then I had a lot on my mind and then Elle woke up for over two hours in the middle of the night. Not sad- just up and a little beanie. I stayed up with her, and then got up early to get Scout off to school. That brings us to "trip day" and I was a busy, busy bee all day and too excited and nervous to eat, again- just nibbled here and there. Alright you're up to speed, sidebar over.)
We arrived at the hotel, where Sue had made a reservation- she works for The Marriott, so we get good rates, especially good ones when Sue is with us. Yeah, it's awesome. She was in there a long time and we watched her and she even shook her head once. We got scared that there was a problem. We were soooo tired and plenty tired of the car and the thought of a problem was so very bad. She got back in the car and the only problem had been that the credit card she used to secure it had expired in the mean time, so they had to put in the new information. Phew. All I wanted to do was crash in bed. All my girls wanted to do was be awake after their wonderful long naps. We finally got them in beds (and I use that term loosely for Elles, since her bed was a couch cushion in the kitchen area of the room) Sidebar: we opted for one room that had 2 queen size beds and a hide a bed. We would rather share, save money and giggle together then have personal space and separate. We had no regrets about that decision either (well a small one when it came to showering and getting ready). Anyway, I got the girls in bed and Elle decided to sleep, but Scout decided to stay awake. I let her watch Scooby Doo on the iPad with headphones with one strict rule- let mama sleep. She broke it at least 5 times that first hour, waking me up to go potty, ask questions, get a drink, and to watch a funny thing Shaggy did. ARGG! So, after no more then 2 hours of sleep, Elles woke me up by being a tad whiny. When I got up to get her a bottle, I found her perpendicular to her cushion and scrunched into a 8 inch space in between it and the mini fridge. And thus the day began. The hubub woke up a hungry Scout. I quietly tried to entertain the kids while the others got a little more sleep, then we headed down to breakfast. I actually ate a fairly decent amount for that meal (I was very proud of myself). Then we got ready and headed to the venue to see how far it was, and get the lay of the land so we would have no surprises come concert time. There was a little outdoor mall around the venue, so we wandered around the stores and fountains and took a look at the die hard, lucky fans that got general admission tickets and queued up early that morning for a front and center spot. You know, just basically cased the place. Did I mention that Rob is the greatest ever! it's true.
Scout really wanted to swim in the pool with her aunts while we were at the concert, plus we needed snacks for the room, so we drove around and ended up at............Walmart. I know. What the crap. I hadn't been in a Walmart for a long time and it instantly pissed me off by not having any Cran-Raspberry juice. I bought Scout a couple pool toys and some flip flops and Elle's some swim diapers and then insisted on paying for the drinks and snacks because "TODAY IS RADIOHEAD DAY!!!" Drinks were on me.
We desperately wanted some good Mexican food- we figured it would be tasty in Arizona. We went back to the hotel to get ready for the concert and to ask the concierge for a recommendation. He gave us one along with directions, we got ready and made sure we had everything (ie B's ticket, binoculars, camera, I.D....), and we were off.
We found the restaurant and parked a few blocks away. When we got to the place, it looked pretty dark. There was a note on the door that there had been a fire and it was closed for a few days to recover. That was a pretty crazy thing we thought, so we walked back from where we had come from, since we had passed a Japanese place that looked good. Sushi and Radiohead: sounded right to me. Well, it was closed. The restaurant next to it was closed too. We wondered what the crap is going on downtown Phoenix? I mentioned that there might have been a zombie apocalypse we didn't know about yet. I secretly hoped that if there was, they hadn't gotten the band yet and the concert would still go on. But that was a moot point because we passed a little Thai place and by some miracle, it was open! We ducked in there and ended up having a fabulous meal. We decided to chalk it up to kismit- maybe the Mexican place would have been gross and we never would have known about the yummy little Thai place with the nice, friendly, little server. Poor Elles though grabbed a fist full of pipping hot orange chicken (that girl can be FAST when it comes to food- don't let the tenuous command she has over her hands fool you, when food is on the table- she can be as dexterous as anyone). It was sad though, the look on her face when she felt the searing chicken was heartbreaking. Our nice, friendly, little server felt awful for putting it down within her reach. Didn't slow her down long though. Nothing ever does (except for walking or crawling).
We dropped Cat and the kids off at the hotel and set off. It was finally here! Let the mass excitement ensue.
To be continued..........................
"I’m on a roll,
I’m on a roll this time
I feel my luck could change."
I just took the ticket off the wall and packed it in a bag. Today's the day. We're leaving in a few hours and I think I've remembered everything. Elle and I were both up with beans for two hours in the middle of the night. I guess she's excited too. Wish she could be there, I think she'd like it- music she is familiar with, lots of lights, masses of excited people........ Scout would like it too I bet. So would Rob. Sigh. Oh well, they will all hear plenty about it. Matt and B are going to love it.
Well, here's to a safe trip, lots of fun, no sickness (this has been an
issue at my house), nothing going wrong with the tickets, a dancy Thom, Paranoid Android, etc...........
I celebrated my birthday a few weeks ago. The last few years, my birthday's have gained a slight reputation of being on the bad side. Two years ago, my beloved and wonderful husband totally forgot it. He had an excuse, he had court the next day to defend himself from being sued and had remembered my birthday for the days leading up to it, but it escaped his mind entirely the day of. Last year, while planning where to celebrate with a nice dinner, Tiny E somehow poked herself in the eye REALLY bad and cried for over an hour while we conceded and warmed up frozen spaghetti. This year, I found myself driving on the top of a mountain amidst the worst snow conditions I have ever driven in. There is more to it, but you can see the pattern here. Nothing I would define as epically bad, but still.......Anyway, I wanted to record that weekend I spent, cause it was an interesting time.
My birthday fell on a Friday, and it happened to fall the weekend that Breaking Dawn Part 1 came out (for those of you that follow my life, you would know that my family has a strange tradition of seeing these movies up in Wyoming in this crappy theater together. More on that in a bit.) Also, my sister in law Bronwyn was in her very first play, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" as a made up fairy "Foxglove" at the local college. Also, my dad was speaking in church that Sunday and planned to tell some life experiences he doesn't share very much. It was a total no brainer to go up there. So my sister Cat and her son Booker, my sister Sue and me and my girls headed out on Friday afternoon in two cars. We were making good time until we were about 2 hours away, the snow started to fall. No problem, we just needed to be there by 7:30, to make B's play that night. We had plenty of time. Did I mention that my family lives on the other side of the infamous "South Pass"? This is an infamous place in Mormon Pioneer stories, it is the place that the Martin and Willy Handcart Company got stuck in a winter storm that caused a lot of suffering and many to lose their lives and had to be rescued. Anyway, we were making our way through this pass with some MAJOR snowfall. You know the kind that pretty much blinds you? The very lucky thing was that there was miraculously no wind. South Pass winds are legendary. They cause the pass to close a lot in the winter cause they are menacing and blow semi trucks down and little cars right away. Speaking of closing, they closed the pass that night WHILE we were in it. We must have barely made it in there before they closed it, and there was an official vehicle waiting at the other closure, waiting for us last crazy people to get out so they could lower the gate.
Yeah, my skills got us through without one slip (with the help of the 4 new tires Rob had made sure were on there before our trip). Man, it was a good thing we had those things. It didn't get any better off the pass, we still had a 30 minute drive to Riverton, which took waaaay longer then that. We didn't make much of the play. We made it for the last few acts and pretty much missed B's entire performance. My birthday dinner was wolfing down my requested sweet and sour chicken cold my sister had lovingly prepared in my honor and then left the girls with Cat, who decided the play was a total loss and skipped it. It could have been worse, I could have spent my birthday dying on the top of a mountain as a tin can a semi ran over. OR, it could have been spent turning around because the pass was closed and spending the night in a flea bag hotel in Rock Springs. We shuddered over that thought more then the dying one. So we triumphed South Pass, not a bad birthday after all I say.
Sadly though, early that afternoon a beloved member of their community and orthodontist to my nieces and nephews, crashed his plane and was killed. This is the man that makes his own fireworks and then puts on a free show every 4th of July that totally kicks butt (spoken about in a previous post, here). So sad. He was a good friend to my family and husband and father to his family, was a good support to B when she joined the church and is very missed by all. Kind of sad it happened on my birthday, it's weird to think that day will be such a sad day for his family for the rest of their lives.
The next day was Saturday and we went to a matinee of Breaking Dawn. I don't want to complain or anything, but the movie was legitimately pretty good and the theater had gotten a new sound system and the generator had been replaced and the audience was pretty quiet also- Taylor Lautner has obviously noticed the way his voice sounds when he talks and modified it this time (WHERE IS THE FUN IN THAT????). Luckily, the movie did give us some gems such as the werewolf pack conversation. I sure missed that generator going off every 15 minutes or so, picking it's times to go eeeerrrrrrrrrrrrr...bumbumbumbumbum..... during a particularly brooding Edward moment. The theater did seem to want to at least remind us where we were at the very end and produced a loud and nondescript crash somewhere in it's annals at the very last poignant and quiet scene. Thanks old friend, you still have it in you, at least a little.
We were in our own that night, Amy and Scott had their company party that night, but in true form, mama bird made us a yummy casserole before she left. We hung out that evening with my parents and watched a movie, then at about 10 they decided to head home (they live in Riverton too, but when we come to town, we stay at my sister's house). Anyway, my parents had taken separate cars, coming at separate times, so they left in two different cars. Shortly thereafter, I saw to my crying baby and then went back downstairs in time to see my brother shoot up and say, "you did WHAT?" Turns out he was on the phone talking to my dad who had just rolled his truck on the ice. He had called 911 before Matt (surprisingly, if you know him), and thought he better let us know what's going on. We couldn't believe it. We immediately bundled up and drove to where he was, thinking that he could be in shock and hurt worse then he thinks, which was not hurt at all according to him. Amy and Scott were still gone and my mom wasn't answering her phone. We got to the scene and there was a police car there already and surprisingly- Amy and Scott. They had driven past and seen his truck there. My dad was fine! Crazy guy was fine. The police man called the ambulance anyway just to be sure, we were glad, as we think we should be a bit cautious seeing as he is the "octo dad" and by that I mean he had 8 bypasses this summer on his heart. He didn't have a scratch on him! While they were checking him out we noticed that we were about 7 people standing on the side of the road in like 0 degree weather at 11 at night next to an ambulance, a cop, and a rolled truck- laughing and making jokes. Don't come across that every day. I took a picture on my phone and didn't send it to anyone and my phone has been washed since and is dead, so I guess those pics are gone forever. I am sad, cause it is quite the memory.
The next day was Sunday, and at nine o'clock that morning, my dad stood up at church and delivered his talk. Scott told him that he is a hard man to kill and he is right. This world is not through with him yet and for that I am grateful. I am not ready to be without him, and I am glad someone agrees with me. After church Sue, Cat, Scout and I went to the first part of B's play for the matinee. I am glad we did, it was fun seeing B and it was Scout's first play and she liked it. In fact, B's part was pretty much done, so we all agreed to slip out and I told Scout and she said that she wanted to watch the fairy princess (Titania) wake up and see who she falls in love with. I love that she was following along and liked it and wanted to know what happened next. I loved that she had no idea that it was going to turn out to be a man that was turned into an ass. I knew she would get a kick out of that. She loved that group of guys (Bottom and company) and laughed really hard when they were on stage and I wish she could have seen the play they put on, she would have loved it. We'll take her again when she is a few years older. Good to know she enjoyed it though.
We went home that next morning and had a beautiful clear day and two of the best behaved little girls on the planet. I can't think of one thing to complain about them on that drive home. They were fabulous. We got home and gave Rob a big hug and Lola sure was glad to see us too.
Notable moments to remember:
The giant Twilight cups and my disgust that I got Bella. Then, Matt offering to go back to get me an Edward cup and then thinking it through in his head that he would have to ask the girl for the Edward one.
Leprechan Puck
Matt imitating leprechan Puck
Watching Paranormal Activity 2: B staying awake the entire time and not watching a second of it, then asking us questions to get the story clear, Kyle's creepy room happenings and my rational explanation of the circumstances.
Did I forget anything? I know I did, but I am out of ideas tonight.
I promise I didn't forget Hunch Cat. I will NEVER forget Hunch Cat. We watched that video on Amy's big screen tv I am not lying- no less then 50 times. It kept getting funnier and funnier and I will NEVER ever not laugh upon viewing hunch cat. I laughed just as hard on viewing number 49 as I did on viewing number 2.
I dedicate this video to my fellow hunch cat peeps, you know who you are and I know you are going to laugh:
For all of you that haven't seen Hunch Cat, first of all: you're welcome and second, do yourself a favor and watch it at least 3 times back to back.
Beautiful day too AND a great couple. We are glad to welcome
Alicia officially into the family (we spent Christmas with her and she
is fully approved- especially by Scout. She wormed her way nicely into
Scout's heart with about 300 games of "Go Fish").
