Chicago Weekend

This past weekend I went to Chicago for a visit with Lynnea. It was my first trip out since Nolan arrived and it was past time for me to meet the little guy. Plus, I was also coming out for my first Keane concert in Chicago. I want to try to keep the tradition going to see them in different cities and Chicago seemed like a logical choice.

The weather on Friday when I arrived was rainy, but that was the worst of it. The rest of the weekend was beautiful and much cooler than the record temperatures here at home. Once Lynnea and Nolan picked me up we headed out for a quick stop to pick up some dinner and head back to her house to settle in and visit. Nolan had some different ideas. He is getting close to the 2 year mark and the fun antics that accompany that age. After making a bit of a fuss while waiting for food, we got home and got back on track.

The first night we just took it easy and we watched a movie after the little guy had gone to sleep. Well…and after Lynnea fixed the remote for me. It seems that her simple directions for using the remote were too complicated for me. Long story short, I ended up pushing all of the buttons. Once she came back and fixed it, we were all set. We ended up watching Ghost Town. It was hilarious. Didn’t seem like the movie did too much when it came out or stayed around too long, but we both thought it was good.

Next day was spent playing with Nolan until grandma arrived for babysitting duties. Dave’s mom is really cool. We didn’t get to visit too much before we headed out the door for the show, but we had some time on Sunday morning. Once we got grandma and Nolan settled, we were off to the Aragon Ballroom for the show. As usual, people were already lined up when we got there. It’s always interesting for me to see the types of people that come to these shows. In general, it’s such a nice looking bunch of all ages. I think Lynnea’s comment once we were inside was that it was a warm nice smelling crowd.

The ballroom was very pretty and easily the largest venue I have seen them perform to date. Even with the long line outside, we were still pretty close to the stage. One concern I have for any show like this is that tall people will be in front of me and blocking my view. This place was great because the stage was up nice and high. So same as last week, the first 2 bands came and went. I really like the Helio Sequence. The drummer was just as weird as before and I had a much better view of him this time. Matt Kearney sounded better this time around which led me to believe that the sound system in LA wasn’t all it could have been. I still don’t have an urge to run out and own anything by him, but at least the sound was much better.

The only tense moment (for me) was when 2 guys tried to push their way to the front. Lori would have appreciated this I’m sure, but I wasn’t having it. They pretended to be looking for someone up front but seemed to be getting stuck right in front of me. One guy made a show of trying to apologize and I told him he needed to leave. We talked for a few minutes and I think I actually shamed him into leaving. He made some comment about maybe staying anyway since the view was so good and I told him that yes, the view was good which was why I had arrived so early so I could have it. And then I told him again (nicely) that he was being a jerk and that he needed to get out of my way. He finally apologized to me and then he and his friend (who wisely kept his mouth shut) blended back into the crowd. It’s funny again to think about the type of people who come to the show. How many concerts do you go to where you reason with the idiots and they actually listen, let alone apologize?

And then Keane came on. They changed the set list a bit from last week which was cool. I really tried to stay calm about it, but I could not seem to stop myself from providing some commentary for Lynnea about the band and the songs. Hopefully I wasn’t overly annoying about it, but I might have been. I kept telling myself to just shut up, but that didn’t work out so well. Maybe there is a reason I tend to go to these things by myself? Anyway, it was a great show and the band as always seemed genuinely appreciative of the support and energy of the crowd. I love them.

We were feeling a bit dehydrated after the show. It was so freaking hot in there by the end. So a stop for fluids on the way home and we were still back at a decent hour. The next morning Nolan was nice enough to sleep in until 8. Apparently it was a treat. So Sunday morning was a nice visit with grandma before she hit the road. Then we took a trip to the park near Lynnea’s house. That’s where these pictures were taken. As you can see, Nolan had warmed up enough to me to play and hold hands while crossing the street.

The timing of my flight home and Dave’s flight back from Vegas worked out well, so Lynnea only had to make one trip to the airport on Sunday. The flight home was uneventful although I did end up spending some time talking to the guy next to me who was traveling out on business. I was really trying to stay awake so I could sleep that night, so I didn’t mind chatting.

All in all, a great weekend. It was good to visit and meet Nolan and to see another great concert in a new city and venue. Maybe next year I can try Denver or San Francisco. You never know. I would love for them to come to Phoenix too so I can drag April with me. I’m sure she can’t wait…

Getting Ready

Heading to Chicago tomorrow for the weekend. I find I am full of energy today. Where was all this earlier in the week? Today I am scrambling around like a crazy person cleaning and taking care of things before heading out again. Laundry, bills, air filters, plants…..supposedly doing some work in here too.

Still, it was nice to get back into my walking routine this week after being out of town. Doctor’s visit this week says I have lost 12 pounds since January. Nice! Of course that maniac also wants me to lose about 20 more pounds. Never satisfied! With the temperatures starting to heat up for summer, it’s getting a little more uncomfortable but I won’t let it stop me. The worst part so far has been an unexpected case of allergies this spring. I was really hoping that the move to the desert would be the end of it, but I was a fool. Who knows that the culprit is now, but the windy days don’t help. I have noticed that since the wind died down 2 days ago I have felt great.

It was a great night last night for walking. Yes, it was warm, but the crowds were nice and light. The early part of the week is always the best time to be there. On weekends, I have the luxury of going out early morning to avoid the crowds too. It’s good to get out of the apartment head space and go be in a different head space on the Strip. With the music playing, I find it is a good stream of consciousness time to just let my mind wander. Plus I always manage to amuse myself when I find that I am trying to walk to the beat. Now if everyone would just get out of my way!

I have to say the weight loss is also nice given this summer’s high school reunion. Seems like a good motivator, although that wasn’t my intent when I started. Facebook has been nice since I can see a lot of friends now and the wear and tear over the years compared to mine. It feels a bit silly to be concerned by my appearance, but how can you help it with that group? These are the people you went through that time period with when appearance was everything. Time to let the insecurities of the past go.

Updates

I know it’s been awhile since my last update. I guess I just need to feel that something worthwhile has happened before writing anything. I mean really, how exciting is it to talk about day to day life here when nothing changes?

But that is not true now. So here are the updates.

First up is my new hair color. I know with Facebook that I have already made this update, but for those of you not on Facebook and that I didn’t already shove pictures at, I have added purple highlights to my hair. I really like it, but it sure is a maintenance hassle. My bathtub, my fingernails and my pillow case all tell the tale of constantly bleeding dye. So that would be the biggest drawback to this non-permanent color choice. Still, I love the color, so I guess I will deal with the rest until I can’t take it anymore. Chances are this is just a summer experiment, but we’ll see how it goes. The big test was a business trip I took last week to Montréal. If the client was really going to react in a strange way, then I would have had to do some serious rethinking on my hair choices. Turns out I didn’t need to worry about it, but more on that in a minute.

At the end of the day, the color is so dark that it really is not noticeable until I get out into the sun. The next stage is the inevitable fading and seeing what the heck it’s going to fade into. As long as I don’t see any of the orange that was there before the color was applied I think I will be fine.

Ok, so last week I took another trip to Canada. It was so nice to finally be in Canada in a season other than winter. The weather was nice, even with the bit of rain we had. I really like working with this client since they are so easy-going. Each trip I take to Canada just continues to reinforce my love of Canadians.

And no trip would be complete without an interesting travel story, and I do so hate to disappoint you. Now I know I have covered this, but since I take so few flights these days, it was a reminder tome as well. I am referring to having Las Vegas as my home airport. The trip home was the usual party plane with groups of people all excited to get through a grueling 5 hour flight and get to the playground in the desert. I had a couple of guys sitting next to me and clearly they were part of a larger group scattered around the plane. Since I had already resolved the fact that I would be getting no sleep, I finished the book I brought with me.

The guy sitting right next to me was the interesting story for this trip. I honestly couldn’t tell what his problem was, so let me just describe it here. Once he and his friend were seated, he immediately pulled out some hand sanitizer for himself and then offered it to me. It’s like an updated version of offering someone a stick of gum or a breath mint. I felt compelled to accept and I certainly am not against clean hands on an airplane, so I graciously accepted the offer. Nice Bath and Body stuff that smelled like figs. So far no weirdness, but this was only the beginning.

After applying the hand goo, he pulled out a mask. Now that had my attention. Was this guy a serious germaphobe? Was he in fact sick? Overly paranoid about swine flu? This was the mystery I had in front of me. Over the next 5 hours, he proceeded to use the hand sanitizer about every 20 minutes. I’m not even kidding about this. I think I am going to be reminded of him each time I smell figs. Given the compulsiveness of his hand washing, I was leaning toward the germaphobe explanation. But then there were things that just didn’t fit.

He had no problems touching the tray table, the touch screen TV on the back of the headrest, or the beverage cans that were handed to him. That doesn’t make sense, right? I was expecting to see some serious cleaning or avoidance behavior and I got nothing. Just the constant had washing. He even switched out to a clean mask about halfway through the flight. Then I wondered if he was ill after all? He didn’t strike me as being sick though. Oh well, I just have to live with the mystery I guess. If nothing else, it kept me occupied while I flew ever closer to my own bed.

Friday was back to work, but not a lot going on there and I had to get ready for the next trip to LA. It was finally time to see Keane again!!!! Los Angles is now the first time I have seen them in the same city. Since they don’t appear to be coming back to Las Vegas any time soon, it looks like that may be the trek I have to make each time they come to the states. Still, it’s not a bad drive at all. And rather than stay in LA, I end up near Pasadena which is a bit better for me on the way home again. I didn’t really pay much attention to the name of the hotel I had booked, so it was funny to me when I arrived and realized it was the same place I had stayed 2 years ago when I last saw them.

This year they were playing at the Hollywood Palladium. It was an interesting old ballroom that has been around forever and hosted all sorts of entertainers from Lawrence Welk and Glenn Miller to the Rolling Stones and the Grateful Dead. Standing room only of course, and there were 2 opening bands. I got there about an hour before the doors opened and the line was already stretched halfway around the block. Still, I was pretty close to the stage, so I settled in and waited. Luckily, I didn’t have amazons standing in front of me this time.

The first band was called the Helio Sequence. Kind of an electronica/ dance sound to them and they were fantastic. The drummer was easily the most entertaining drummer I have ever seen. I love watching drummers anyway since they seem to be in their own world behind the drum kit, but this guy was extra special. He has these facial expressions that were so funny, I thought for sure that he was doing it on purpose. Just really over exaggerated stuff. I swear he had a rubber face like Jim Carrey. Anyway, they were great so it looks like I can add another band to the list.

The next act was Matt Kearney. He was kind of dull, frankly. I know one single of his and its ok, but it sounds like so much other stuff that it doesn’t really make much of an impact, at least not for me. He reminded me a bit of Jack Johnson although not quite that sleepy. Still, my knees were beginning to hurt and I just wanted him to leave. After feeling like he played forever, he finally left. I seriously thought I was going to pass out that that point. I had to keep reminding myself to stop locking my knees. Keane finally took the stage around 10 pm. At that point I had been standing for about 4 hours. I found my mind wandering to how much Aleve I had packed with me and why didn’t I think to take one before the show? Not exactly something I worried about in my 20’s you know? Ugh. Oh well. The boys finally came on and I felt no more pain.

Since this new album is a bit more upbeat and they have finally added guitars back in to the mix, it was a much more rocking show than in previous years. They played the songs a little faster and a little sharper than they perform them on the album and it really works well for the live audience, in my humble opinion. They played lots of songs from the new album of course, along with some mixed in from the previous 2 albums. It was a good set list, but I was a bit sad to see that some of my favorites didn’t make the cut. They finally wrapped up around 11:30 and I had to remind my legs how to work again to get out of there.

Getting back to the hotel was a bit of a nightmare and took about an hour and a half. I am really disappointed over the stupid directions I got from the Internet. Trying to get to the venue, the roads just disappeared and I literally stumbled across Sunset. Trying to go back to the hotel, I tried once again to follow the directions and it was a disaster. I realize I was in Hollywood on a Saturday night, but I could not believe the traffic on the 101. It was bumper to bumper for miles and made it no faster than about 15 mph. Again, fate intervened and I saw an exit for the 110 to Pasadena. Granted, I wasn’t staying there, but I was close enough to it that I figured I would take my chances. Thank God I decided to do it. The highway ended and dumped me out in Pasadena. From there I had no clue where I was. I went another block and there was the sign for the 210. Awesome!!!

This week I am headed out to Chicago for another show and to visit Lynnea. This time, I am probably going to end up in sneakers and take an Aleve before I go. They are going to be playing in another ballroom and it will be my first time to see them in Chicago. I am really excited, but I also know that once it’s over I will go into my Keane hangover. Still, I get to spend time with Lynnea and baby Nolan, so it won’t be so bad.