Delusions of... Everything

Love

The following conversation took place in the car on the way home from school between Star Wars Son and myself.

SWS:  You know how we are doing Cinderella in drama this quarter?

Me:  Yes

SWS:  Well today in drama class we were discussing Cinderella and Mr K said the most amazing thing.

Me:  Mr. K is always saying amazing stuff.

SWS:  I know but this was about love and it blew my mind.  Seriously my head almost exploded.

Me:  I can't wait to hear it.

SWS:  He said that in a long term relationship love is always changing.  He said sometimes you are in love, sometimes you are not.  Sometimes you can't stand to be in the same room with your partner.  Other times you just don't care.  But if you stick it out love always comes back and is usually stronger than before.

Me:  I completely agree.

SWS:  Do you know how freeing it is to know that love isn't always happily ever after?

Me:  But if you stick with it the happily ever after comes back over and over.

SWS:  Like right now the last thing I want to do is call (g/f).  I'm so happy to know it's normal to feel like that.

Me:  You're too young to be in a long term relationship.

SWS:  I know... But I'm still so relieved.

Pearl Jam in Ten - Track 7

For previous installments of my Pearl Jam story click here.

Track 7 - Oceans

"The currents will shift... Glide me towards...

To dream of the next time... Oh the next time... We touch"

If you've been following my Pearl Jam story you know so many amazing things have happened to me as a result of being a Pearl Jam fan.  I've had great experiences and made some wonderful friends. To date I don't think any of what I've shared has been as amazing as the next couple of stories.  These events took place between 2002 and 2004.

The first one, ironically, did not occur at a Pearl Jam concert or Pearl Jam related event.  It happened at a July 9, 2002 Neil Finn show.  Have you heard of Neil Finn?  He was the front man for Crowded House and before that was in a band started by his brother Tim Finn called the Split Enz.  When I heard he would be coming to Seattle and performing at the Showbox I told Handy Man we were going and that was that.  I'm a big fan.

We arrived early, had a beer and milled around the crowd for a while.  There was an electricity and excitement in the air that I couldn't explain.  I had a feeling that something very special was about to happen, and boy did it!  While we were people watching I heard a voice and a laugh.  I voice I'd listened to so many times come through my speakers or headphones.  Then I spotted him to the side of the crowd talking to someone.  I grabbed a completely oblivious Handy Man by the arm and started steering him in the direction of the voice.  As I was doing that the voice wrapped up his conversation and started walking straight toward us!  Meanwhile Handy Man is saying, Where are we going?  Why are we going over there?  I just looked at him and looked forward willing him to get my message, which he didn't.

At this point I had to decided what to do.  Do I stop Eddie Vedder to say, Hey I love you.  Your band means so much to me, blah, blah, blah?  Can I even talk to him without throwing up from being so nervous?  Do I just keep on walking willing us to make eye contact?  Do I just keep walking and hope we DON'T make eye contact?   Seriously I had all these thoughts going through my head in a matter of seconds.  At the last second I opted for "accidentally" bumping into him.  He said, excuse me... I said, sorry and we both kept on walking.  All the while Handy Man had no idea what's going on.  I turned back to him beaming, he looked at me, then looked behind him and looked at me again, Was that....? F*** Yeah it was!  I responded.  Then two women came up to me to ask the same thing.  I was in heaven for hours days weeks... Hell, I'm still in heaven from the night I touched Eddie Vedder.  Oh and later he came out and performed the first encore with Neil Finn!  It was truly an amazing night!

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In 2004 Pearl Jam was part of the Vote For Change campaign.  They performed at the Showbox and I failed to get tickets.  It was phone in only ticket sales and even though we had three phones dialing we had no luck.  After a few minutes I knew it was sold out, the Showbox is a very small venue, but I kept trying.  Soon my phone rang and it was my friend Dan asking if I got tickets.  I said no and he said... You're going to see Pearl Jam at the Showbox again!!!  It took me a second to process, but he was taking me to the show!!!  I have the best PJ friends.

Dan and his friend Shane came to our house from Oregon, they would be staying with us and we took off for the show, early... Like before lunch!  I knew there was going to be people at the show from the message boards I frequented, so I was keeping my eye out for someone who looked familiar (we would share photos on the boards).  I spotted a tall redhead standing out in front of the Showbox who I knew had to be Nick.  Nick helps run The Sky I Scrape one of the best PJ sites out there.  I boldly went right up to him and asked if he was Nick (or maybe I said Green Habit, that's his board nickname).  He looked at me curiously and said he was and I told him I was pjmom!  Big hugs followed, then he asked if I had an extra ticket.  I didn't, but I told him to stay close we might be able to get him in.  The next part I'm not going into detail about because it's just too confusing and boring, but here are the highlights...

• Tickets were not given out to this show. 

• Your name was on a list with the number of tickets you had and you had to show your ID and then point to who your guests were.  It was all very confusing.

• You had to be there early to get into the Green Room, which is the bar off of the Showbox.

• We waited in there for hours, through soundcheck, which we could hear.

• I met and got to know the greatest people while waiting, one of them was Mariann and her husband another was Kathy who helps run Two Feet Thick another fabulous PJ site.  Mariann took care of me all evening, making sure I could see, she's amazing!

• Nick got into the show!

After an amazing show we all met up outside and Nick mentioned he didn't have a place to stay and that he would probably just find a place downtown.  I said he was welcome to stay with us.  He was prepared with a sleeping bag and everything, so he followed us home.  So picture this... I'm in a car with two very young (and cute) men and I have third man following me home in his truck.  I couldn't help laughing.  Only in a dream world!  I climb into bed with my husband and gently woke him up to tell him the following...

Don't panic if you wake up tomorrow and there's a strange man on sleeping on the couch.  That's Nick, I met him at the show last night and brought him home, he didn't have anywhere to stay.

Handy Man and Nick got along great.  All's well that ends well, but what the hell was I thinking?!!

******************************************************************

Spring 2005 The Northwest School (where my kids would go if money were no object!) had a benefit concert.  The headlining band was Pearl Jam, other bands included Anne and Nancy Wilson of Heart, The Presidents of the United States of America and Bill Frisell.  The MC for the event was Tom Skerritt, remember Viper from Top Gun?!  Yeah, that guy!

One of the only ways to get tickets was to apply for a lottery pick.  Since it was a charity show the cost was high.  There were three levels of prices, high, higher and highest.  I applied for each price range never imagining that a) I'd actually get picked and b) that I'd actually get picked.  I won the chance to purchase the highest level tickets (of course).  Since it was for charity and it was Pearl Jam and there was a very good chance of having phenomenal seats I talked Handy Man into letting me purchase the tickets!

Night of the show I picked up the tickets, opened the little envelope and read Row A, Seat 7.  I was dumbfounded.  Did row A, mean row 1, as in the front row?  Or was it a trick of lettering?  It was the front row and the view was amazing!  So worth the highest ticket price!

In a Funk

I just finished reading a great book called The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.  It was required reading for Dancing Daughter by her Advisory teacher.  I try to read everything she reads, just because and I'm so glad I read this book.  It's a wonderful story of a freshman Indian who decides to go to high school off the "rez".  He's a likable dork who I found myself cheering for and crying with.  I highly recommend it!

I went to the thrift store over the weekend and bought 4 books for $6.00.  I'll be starting one of them tonight before bed, after I watch some Mad Men on dvd.  I'm on the last disc of season 2.  I really don't want it to end.

I'm still savoring the Pearl Jam concerts I went to last week.  I haven't even started writing about it yet, but I will.  I've been listening to their new album non-stop for two weeks and am not even close to being sick of it.  It's by far my favorite album since Yield came out in 1998!  I miss my friend Chrissy who came for the shows from Boston.  I don't know when I will see her or Pearl Jam again and it's really got me in a funk.

It's hard for me to describe the amazing weather we have had in Seattle all summer.  Tomorrow the rain and cool weather return.  I might actually wear socks tomorrow!  I haven't worn socks, except to work out in months.

After much back and forth in Handy Man's head, he's decided to go ahead with getting the house appraised for a refinance.  He filed pre-qualification paperwork last night, we should hear something by Wednesday.  Hopefully we will have an appraisal appointment early next week.  I'm ready to get this done and over with.  Even if the house doesn't appraise where we need it, at least we will know.

Ms. B is Our Hero

I typed up a fairly long post about how Dancing Daughter has been doing in school and before I could publish it, *POOF* it was gone.  I'm not retyping it, so here is a condensed version.

DD:  I'm depressed, I don't like my new school, I want to go back to my old school.

HM & I:  You complained all last year about how much you disliked it there and how you didn't like the teachers, or the kids.  Remember the ranting you did about how you needed a bigger school?  How you needed more kids to choose friends from?  How Mr. W didn't teach you anything in math?  Remember how many times you said you hated that school?

DD:  Yes.  Can you get me back into that school?

HM & I: *SIGH*

Handy Man and I met with DD's counselor, Ms. B, last Monday (while we were supposed to be entertaining out of town guests).  We told her everything that's been going on with DD.  She was very helpful coming up with suggestions to help DD cope with the major differences of this very large and new environment.  She transferred DD out of a class she couldn't handle.  She hooked her up with a couple girls who are well matched for DD's personality.  She suggested she join the Key Club where she said there were kids like DD.

Dancing Daughter joined the Key Club and loved it.  She was thrilled to get out of photography and into ceramics.  She's excited about her new friends and even though they are older they are being very nice to her and sit with her at lunch.  She made it through last week only crying a couple of times, most importantly she made it through the weekend without having any kind of breakdown.

Handy Man said that if DD makes it through the first quarter of school and doesn't want to leave we are sending flowers to Ms. B.  I feel so blessed to have this wonderful woman advocating for DD.  I know it's her job, but wow, does she do it well!!!

Sky Watch Friday

Des Moines Marina Beach Park, September 21, 2009.

Sing-A-Long Saturday and Other Stuff

Pearl Jam's 9th studio album Backspacer comes out tomorrow. 

It will be available at Target, independent record stores and iTunes.  I pre-ordered one through iTunes because it comes with a special video.  My friends Chrissy from Boston and Nick from Idaho will be arriving today and we will all go to the midnight sale at Easy Street Records tonight to pick up a hard copy!

It's possible that I already got my hands on a copy of the record through the great invention called the world wide web.  It's possible that I've been listening to it non-stop for days.  It possibly has some of the most honest feeling music they've put out.

Here is the tracklist with commentary on my part and some quotes from an interview given by singer/songwriter Eddie Vedder.

Gonna See My Friend - Fast paced, high energy song, best listened to loud!

Got Some - Another high energy song with some definite punk influences.

The Fixer - Very catchy tune.  It's the first single off the album.  It plays well on the radio and pretty soon you find yourself humming along.

Johnny Guitar - On first listen I didn't care for this song, but that attitude went away very quickly.  It's reminiscent of a 50's type song to me... It's catchy, the lyrics are fun.  The inspiration was an album-cover photo from a record by pimp-blues guitarist Johnny (Guitar) Watson that was pasted over a men's room urinal. “It's actually not the first time we've got our inspiration from something on a bathroom wall. It's a made-up story about a kid falling in love with a girl on a record cover. I imagine that must have happened a few times.”...Eddie Vedder.

Just Breathe - Beautiful song!
“There's never a dull moment on the road – every day it's something. Maybe that's why my goal is the dull moment. That's what this song is: It's saying, ‘Just stop, and be together. Don't talk now, just breathe and feel each other's presence – now that the kids are in bed."... Eddie Vedder.

Amongst the Waves - I LOVE this song.  It was my first favorite song off the album.  I love the message in the lyrics and I find myself humming this song even when I'm not listening to it.
“On the strength of this album, we feel good about where the band is at. Our relationship is long-standing, but it's turned into a forthcoming relationship. We're open and honest. Things go pretty easy – we feel like a gang. We feel like a galvanized group of individuals. As far as waves, I think we're up there.”...Eddie Vedder.

Unthought Known - This has surpassed Amongst the Waves as my favorite song and will probably remain in my 10 top favorite Pearl Jam songs forever!  Eddie's vocal just rip on my soul. 
"...I think the thought of the song is that there are things that you know, and they're in us, but we just haven't thought of them. But they're there, and we base decisions on them.”...Eddie Vedder.  (Have I mentioned how much I love this band?!)

Supersonic - I'm not going to do this song justice.  I've been sitting here for far too long trying to articulate what this song reminds me of, but it's just not coming to me.  The best I can say it has an old school sound.  To quote Bandstand... It has a great beat and is easy to dance to?... That's not quite it, but it will have to do.

Speed of Sound - This is an interesting song.  It's different.  I like parts of it but other parts of it are too cheesy to be Pearl Jam.  I love the vocals, but some of the music makes me embarrassed to be listening.  How's that for a mixed review?!

Force of Nature - Another fast paced, back to Pearl Jam basics type song.  It's not one of my favorites, but it feels like how a Pearl Jam song should feel.  Familiar. 
I love what Eddie had to say about the song.  “It's about the strength of one person in the relationship, when they can withstand some of the faults in another – maybe drug addiction, or straying off the path. The person in the song is the lighthouse for the other person caught in the storm.”

The End - Hauntingly beautiful, lyrically heartbreaking song that almost brings a tear to my eye.  So many emotions in this song.  When it's over I just sit for a minute and think, wow, that was really amazing.  The I start the album over again!

I won't be online for a few days.  Like I said earlier I have out of town guests coming.  We are going to the midnight sale of Backspacer tonight.  Sunday we are having a Pre-Pearl Jam party.  Monday and Tuesday will do some siteseeing and in the evenings we will be seeing Pearl Jam perform at Key Arena. 

Full report on all activities will be given after I recover!

Sky Watch Friday

Taken at Anderson Island on July 26, 2009.  ISO 200, shutter speed 1/60

To see other sky shots from around the world check out Sky Watch Central.

The Kitchen is Done!!

In this post about Handy Man I talk about how the kitchen project started.  If you want you can just look at the pictures so you can get an idea of where we started... I'll wait.

Below is the best picture of the "before" kitchen I could find.  This was before anything was done.  I know the lighting is terrible, but it is what it is!

Then Handy Man started on the refinishing of the cabinets, leaving my kitchen in a confused state of "where is...."  And left the whole house in a state of "when will I ever not be dusty again?"
Do you like the white formica countertop and backsplash?

It's hard to tell from these before shots, but this corner area is turning out to be my favorite part of the re-do!

 

Below is a shot after the cabinets, gas cooktop, range hood and door were installed, but before the granite.  The door goes to the downstairs.  The other door was solid, it's really nice to have the glass door to let light down the stairs.

 

Before the granite was installed the backsplash needed to be removed.

Remember when I posted about the backsplash choices we had?  I really liked the one on the right, Handy Man really liked the one on the left.  We ended up going with the one in the middle.  The house was built in 1947, so we were trying to keep some of updates in line with the time period.  We felt the middle tile would look the best for that.  We weren't disappointed!

 

The finished project!!!  Handy Man just installed the pulls this weekend.  I love they way they look too!

The corner "island" is so cool for many reasons.  I love having the cooktop over there.  I can converse with people while I'm using it.  It houses the garbage, food waste, recycle and cat food bin in pull outs!  I LOVE that! 

 

The lighting really doesn't do the granite or the backsplash justice.  It's so much prettier in real life.  I love having the microwave off the counter and all counter space is heavenly!

 

 

 

 

We put a new door leading out to the patio too.  I really love everything about my new kitchen.  I think the dust is over for a while too!  Hallelujah!

Advice

Dancing Daughter is still not adjusting to school very well.  She did get transferred out of her Advanced Algebra class into Geometry and she's glad about that.  She likes her new class way better than the other one.  However she is struggling emotionally.

On Friday she started texting me at lunch begging to be picked up.  She said she was sick and tired and needed to go home.  I refused knowing she had math 4th period, but that she had been moved into Geometry.  I felt very strongly that she needed to make an appearance and see how she liked the class.  She kept begging, I stuck to my decision.

She seemed fine after school, tired maybe, but at least she wasn't crying.  She said she liked her new math class much better and that was that.  A few times over the weekend she seemed a little off, but it's a huge sleep adjustment for her, not to mention that she has longer hours at this school than she did last year at her small alternative school.

Today when I picked her up she was very quiet.  She said she didn't have any homework and went to her room.  A while later I went to check on her and she was in bed crying.  She told me she's depressed and that she doesn't feel like herself.  She feels different from everyone else at school.  She said she's having a hard time going to school without her friends, but she doesn't want to go back to her old school.  The challenge is her best friend goes to school in a different district and she has two other friends and they are both at different schools.  I'm not willing to transport her to a far away school.  We talked about this all summer, she knew there was no way to go to school with friends.

Then she told me how all the freshman are talking about how excited they are for homecoming and the dance.  She thinks there's something wrong with her because she doesn't want to go.  I assured her it was perfectly normal to not want to go to a school football game or dance.

I'm worried about her.  She was supposed to go to dance classes tonight, but said she was too tired to go.  She also didn't eat dinner. 

I have some very smart women read my blog and I'm asking you all for advice.  Do you think I should send DD to see a counselor?  I really want to give her more time to adjust, but I don't know how long?  Should I talk to the teen counselor at her church to see if they can help?  What can I do to help her during this transition?

Sky Watch Friday

To see other sky shots from around the world check out Sky Watch Central.