Best. Concert. Ever.

After an extraorindarily long hiatus from blogging (sorry about that), I am back to tell you I went to the coolest concert ever last night!  Chris got floor tickets on Monday for Houston’s U2 concert at Reliant Stadium (never been to a stadium tour,by the way).

I (very reluctantly) got talked into going at 5pm so we could try to get into the pit (although U2 calls it the “inner circle”). I must also confess that I have never quite understood Sarah and Brian’s fascination with the pit – until last night.

The opening band, Muse, was like an old school British 80s rock band – right down my alley. So the night was off to a good start.  And our mediocre position in the inner pit improved greatly when the bathroom weenies left between Muse and U2.  We went from say 3 o’clock to 5:30 baby.  It was great.  We also moved back a bit, so we were 1 person deep from the outer stage (and those people were so short!!!).

The bridges from the main stage to the outer ring move around and were 4-6 feet away at least three times…it was so a-w-e-s-o-m-e!  It almost pains me to write it cause I sound so much like Sarah writing about Springsteen.

So here are some pictures – no slide show from me (sorry, don’t know how and Sarah is busy with work so she won’t fix me this week either); no page jump either.  It’s low tech week at the Garden

And before I go, if U2 hasn’t come to you yet – pay for the babysitter and pony up for the floor – its sooooo worth it!!!

PS.  I hurt from head to toe (especially toes – heels are necessary for added height but not good for the jumping and dancing How does Bono do it at 49, and Bruce at 60?

Surprise: It’s a Book Shower

Two weeks ago, Amy and Emily pulled one over on me but good.  Emily had asked to do a girls day with us (she has a four year old and 9 month old at home) – something fun like mani-pedi’s and a movie. As our day took shape, we decided to see Julie and Julia, and added a decadent snack to our outing. Emily suggested we dress up; she said she is “tired of being frumpy,” which seemed like a perfectly Emily suggestion.

So Saturday came and I called Emily to see if we had selected a theater – I was looking up movie times and none seemed conducive to our plan. Then Amy called and said her husband had a work emergency, so she’d have to join in after mani-pedi’s (her baby boy needed parenting, after all).

I was a little put out, to be honest, by my girlfriends uncharacteristic flakey-ness. And when Saturday afternoon rolled around, I had no interest in a dress…but I got ready (albeit grumpily).  Chris egged me on. He told me I looked beautiful. I hate it when he says that and I feel nothing of the sort.

Anyway, when I called Em to say I was at her place she said she ran to the store to get Tylenol and would be there in five minutes…odd, I thought, but okay. She showed up and off we went.  When Em and I were done getting our nails done we called Amy, who said she could now go, so we went by her place to pick her up. I left the car running and got out to clear Amy a spot in the back seat. Em clearly wanted to go in for a minute. Then Amy showed up at the door and muttered something about wanting to show us something. So as I went to go in, I left the car running. We were, after all, only going to be a minute. But Amy said to shut the car off, so I did (but I left my purse on the front seat).

When I got to the end of Amy’s hall, there were all my friends, yelling “Surprise!” I was stunned. Stupified actually; and speechless. No one has ever thrown me a surprise party. And Amy and Emily were relieved – they had pulled it off and could finally stop lying to me!

It was a book shower / tea party, and it was lovely! They had raspberry lemonade, and lemon bars, and Amy’s awesome chocolate chip cookies, and dips, and little finger sandwiches.

Everyone had chipped in to buy a bookcase that Amy and I had admired on a recent trip to Ikea and brought their favorite children’s book to build our library. They had old fashioned library pockets for each person to decorate and the card inserts for each giver to write why they selected the book that they did. It was awesome!

The big winner of the day was The Little Engine That Could.  We received three copies of it. It was so much fun.

Emily said the goal was to build up the kiddos who live in our home with some good old fashioned picture-book brain food.  Mission accomplished! I can’t wait to read every one of these books and tell our little ones the stories of the friend that gave each to us.

It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad (Men) World

A little more than a week ago, I shared my amusement with AMC’s promo for season three of Mad Men – madmenyourself.com — and asked for submissions of Mad Men alter-egos. Six of you took me up on making your own 60s-era representative, and now everyone gets to play who’s-who. Here are your clues:

• I am related to three of these people.
• I went to college with two others.
• At some point, I’ve lived with three of them.
• Three live in the greater DC area, the other three don’t.
• Five are at least semi-regular commenters on this blog. One is strictly a lurker.

Click the tiny images to embiggen.

OK… leave your guesses the comments!

(To keep us all on the same page: the top row, left to right, is 1-2-3 and the bottom row, left to right, is 4-5-6.)

***

Answer time!

First, the clues:

• I am related to three of these people. Jen, Eileen, Common Loon
• I went to college with two others. Joanne, Sionna
• At some point, I’ve lived with three of them. Sionna, Joanne, Eileen
• Three live in the greater DC area, the other three don’t. DC: Jen, Joanne, sprite; non-DC: Eileen, Sionna, Common Loon
• Five are at least semi-regular commenters on this blog. One is strictly a lurker. The lurker is Jen; everyone else is accounted for, I think.

And the players thusly accounted for, here’s the rundown:

1. Jen
2. Joanne
3. Eileen
4. sprite
5. Sionna
6. Common Loon

Please do note that Eileen is so comptetive that she incorrectly guessed her own picture in order to throw everyone else off!