Fall

The summer is drawing to a close. But not before I get to head off to Anaheim for work. Summer will end with my first trip to the beach and a trip to the much discussed and long awaited Griddle Cafe. It's quickly looking like my first day in California will consist of a lot of time sitting on the beach enjoying the feeling of my toes in the sand and the sun possibly roasting me for the second time this summer. (I swear I'm going to wear sun block this time.) 

As excited for this trip and the chance to "look out in to infinity"- as Andrea puts it- as I am, I think I may be more excited about the week that follows it. Something about actually getting to physically work to accomplish something rather than accomplish the simple task of typing and filling out spread sheets is looking insanely rewarding. I know there's nothing glamorous about schlepping boxes and organizing name badges but to know that I've effectively DONE something with my day is a feeling I'm really looking forward to.

I'm doubling up the song for the day. There's so many things that I'm looking forward to and so many things that I have to get done before I go that my head and my heart are being pulled a million different ways.  But the two songs that seem to run through my mind the most here are:
Cold in California by Ingram Hill
Mostly for the lines "Didn't anybody know, didn't tell anybody else that I was gonna go. Didn't anybody see, didn't tell anybody else that I was leaving".  It's a solitary trip for the most part. I'm looking forward to it, and while pretty much everyone knows now that I'm going no body knows the details of the trip yet and that's refreshing. Solitude and the ocean and me.
and
If Only by Hanson
Trust me, those of you who are Hanson fans know the fear this song strikes in calves and legs around the world. If they could talk, they'd be screaming "I don't want to jump! Please don't make me jump!".
I can't help but think of California when I hear this song.  "Every single time I see you I start to feel this way, makes me wonder if I'm ever gonna feel this way again " there's something magical about the simple thought of California and I'm pretty sure it's irreplaceable.   Hmmm maybe it's time for a visit to Grandpa Redwood.

Balance

Lately, I've been thinking about balance. Balance of everything from balancing a check book, to balancing quiet time and a social life, friends and boyfriends, and balancing passions.

It's amazing how difficult the balance can be. 

Balancing the check book is really tough to do when all you want to do is rent a car and travel a few hundred miles to see friends and a few bands on tour, and in stead you find yourself sitting at home thinking about all the albums you're not buying that you desperately want to. The quiet voice in the back of your head saying "Don't buy it... seriously, don't buy it" gets quieter and quieter... 

Balancing quiet time and the social life is dangerous to screw up. Too much of a social life and you start to lose yourself in the mix. Too much quiet (alone, or me) time and you forget how to be social in the first place.

Balancing friends and other relationships is equally difficult. Screw that up and someone is bound to feel neglected and you can watch as your friends turn on their heels and walk away.

Balancing passions is just about as crucial. One passion will burn bright and fast while the others sputter out and stifle out. 

But here at the end of the summer, at the end of August, at the anniversary of the deaths of two of the women I most want to emulate, I'm thinking about this balance.  And just how strong a person has to be to maintain it.

Song for the day: Broken Bells - "The High Road"

On the way that you're still sleeping

I've been in one spot for a really long time. Well, a really long time for me anyway. Typically eight months is enough time for me to feel antsy. After eight months, or two semesters or enough time for my friends to think I might make it a year without changing my cell phone number (always the number, never the phone...sigh) I'm ready for a change. It’s is odd, really, because I hate change. I don't merely hate change the way people hate cold weather and humidity, or hate the feeling of lint in their pockets. I hate change with a passion. I loathe it. I despise it. I dig my heels in to the dirt, stick my head in the sand and avoid it like the plague, yet every eight months or so I'm itching for a change of some drastic proportion; a new job or a new apartment or a new hair cut or some shift in the cosmos. Seriously, I start looking for the stars to appear red as if they started traveling towards us rather than away.
But it's been eight months since my car died and I moved home, and I'm not itching to change. If anything I've gone and dug my heels in to keeping my long term plan which presents very little room to change now but promises MASSIVE change in a year and a half.
I'm not sure what to attribute this shift in my personality to. I'm going to have to assume that it's a new found zealousness for the plans of my life, and that I've finally found a head space I'm happy in. Either that or there have been so many changes in my life that I’ve failed to actively notice. That’s probably more likely.

Song for the day: Tomorrow is Like Today by Guster
It’s a bit of an oldie, but it’s great.

Glasses

It's been twelve years since I've had glasses as my primary vision aid. For the last twelve years I've woken up every day and poked myself in the eye, and wound up making myself cry. Today I picked up two pairs of glasses and put my last pair of contacts to the side. And while the general opinion is that the glasses look amazing (again pictures will follow tomorrow) I'm already pretty sure I know why I was so ready to put my glasses aside a life time ago. The headache and odd eye strain just from changing the way I see is exhausting. But the worst part about glasses is that my peripheral vision is crap. The corner of my eye and the bottom of my line of sight might as well not exist. I'm going to have to get contacts again. I'll wait for a while, but this can't be my only way of seeing. I'm too blind for this.

Song for the day: No Rain by Blind Melon

The Week in Photos

The Blister Tour - Highlights

Michelle! The first to arrive! She came complete with a magazine about Ireland and baggage delay from Delta. Our first stop? Mexican. What else?

 

Andrea! A-Sizzle! The second to arrive! Our first stop? Mexican! What else?

Last week was a week of amazing friends and travel. What might have been most amazing about the week was how having friends visit from other cities can cast your own in such a different light. I've lived in St. Louis for 22 years of my 24 year life, and in the course of those 22 years I've gotten to the point where the awesome things of this city lose some of their shine and uniqueness. Take for example the Arch. As a resident of the "Lou" I've seen the Arch SO many times and it's become synonymous with the city. Every tourist wants to see it, and I'm not always so prone to ushering them to Laclede's Landing when the Loop and Forest Park are at my door step.

This trip however, Michelle and Andrea both requested, nay, demanded that we make it down to at least get a photo spread of the Arch and Michelle needed to get to the top. Apparently getting to St. Louis and not going is like going to Philly and not getting a cheese steak, or going to Seattle and not wearing plaid or getting coffee. Arriving at the Arch, I was reminded at how cool the city actually is. How neat the view really can be and how epic some monuments really are.

The above shot of the Arch looks like it was taken in bluescale but it wasn't. That was the actual color of the sky and Arch that day. It's one of my favorites.

As we rolled in to Minneapolis, I was fully expecting to be swept off my feet for some culturally epic moments. While I was astounded by IKEA (seriously, I'm designing houses around that store), I'd already spent a weekend in the Mall of America and we chose to make this trip a touch less tourist and more everyday Minneapolis. We stopped at the local awesome coffee shop, the amazing ice cream place and while we're finding the similarities between Minneapolis (Izzy's Ice Cream) and St. Louis (Ted Drewes Frozen Custard) we stumbled upon things that we over look in the every day, like Taystee's Bakery Outlet.  

Still a trip to the Midtown Global Market (actually in Minneapolis - thanks Andrea) left us in full appreciation of the things that are every day awesome, and completely tourist worthy. The Midtown gives a very local feel to some very international stores. It is truly a mosaic of America's immigrant history and is a reminder of the cultures that have blended to create the culture of America.  Here we found our similarities and our differences (Andrea and I are both Swedish and German -we're the flip flops of intensities- and Michelle is Czech. ) The differences make our friendship richer, and honestly make the world a better place, particularly when we're willing to embrace them with our similarities. 

This shot was of the truffles at the Swedish and Nordic sweets shop. Yes the Peanut Butter Truffle was worth the million calories.

I would be remiss if I didn't tell you about the concerts. We made it to the Hanson shows in St. Louis and Minneapolis. We met up with my mom and friend Jen in St. Louis. The venue was (as usual) amazing, and the Pageant impressed as it typically does. The set was amazing and the opening act Darren Raser was pretty good. Not the same as if it had been This Is Energy but he didn't take us out of the mood so... (maybe I'm biased... ). Rooney was amazing and the fact that it was Taylor's birthday just made the set all the better.   Hanson's set was fantastic! Old songs that we never hear (Madeline! Strong Enough To Break! Minute Without You!) and an extended medley of songs that evoke audience participation. Sigh. I was eleven again for a night. The audience broke out into the TBS dance (well what we knew of it) and that was a fantastic moment that solidifies St. Louis as being the home of some of the best fans in the world.
Minneapolis' show was amazing for different reasons. We were almost rained out.  The rain abbreviated the set and Rooney was canceled. We got Hanson for an hour and a half before we finally rained out. We were rained on long before that. Dancing to "And I Waited" in the rain was some how magical, and the chorus of "If Only" seemed only so much more fitting as the rain fell closer and closer to Isaac's guitar pedals. (Please don't go, 'cause I need you!)  I would gladly sit through the rain for a show like that again. Taylor has said it before and it's still true, the reason why Hanson and Hanson fans are willing to risk illness and broken gear for each other is that "They love us and we love them. It's as simple as that".  Minneapolis proved it again. Where's the love? Right there, on that stage, in the front row, and in the back dance group and along the bar in the back of the house.

Song for the trip: Pink Moon by Nick Drake

Sunset at Swan Lake

Fade in to the sunset
Hold tight to the lime light
And run away like the day we met

Wind twists through your hair
Let go of the stress tonight
I'll be waiting, come back if you dare.




Song for the day: Good Life by Audio Adrenaline

The Blister Tour

Every time my friends and I travel to see a concert or three, we nickname the tour. The Use Your Soul Tour became the ticket tour because no matter where we went we got parking tickets.  This tour has been not so lovingly named the Blister Tour. Blisters, that's right. We're feeling some pain.
The St. Louis Walk was insanely hot, and I'm pretty sure no one really knew how hot it was before we started walking but it was over 100 degrees. The Walk could have easily been canceled but the band and a hand full of dedicated souls went ahead and trucked through it. There's so many details to the walk but the important notes, Taylor's emotions blistered to the surface and the people who walked with shoes got  a pretty intense guilt trip and a harsh reminder of the severity of what we're working towards. Isaac, I'm pretty sure, has some intense blisters on his feet for the sake of stopping and helping a lost child get through the walk and find their family. It was simultaneously the most exhausting, briefest, and emotionally stirring Walk I've ever seen and that includes the Tulsa Walk in 2007 without Isaac (although in an entirely different way). Needless to say between the Walk, Andrea's broken shoe and my attempt to save her feet by giving her my flip flops, we've got some gnarly blisters on our feet.

That alone wouldn't have won the title of Blister tour. The rental car for the drive to Minneapolis was a good two hours late and so due to some polite calls on our end they upgraded us to a convertible... a Chrysler Seabring, silver with a black soft top. Oh go ahead and drool.  I'll post a few pictures of the little beauty I've named Crystal. The sky was clear and it was all of 80 out side. We rode through Missouri with the top down... again... go ahead and drool.  Please... I'll wait. 
None of us have ever driven a convertible before. All of us were way too excited by the prospect of the convertible for the trip too consider that the sun burns over long periods of time. And over too long a period of time, one winds up with second degree burns on their arms, and that means blisters. Yup. Blisters thanks to Crystal and my overzealous excitement about driving my Mom's dream car. (I want one now too.) 

From the blisters on our feet to the blisters on our arms this has become a full fledged Blister tour. Sigh...

That said this has been the most amazing tour ever. That is a blog that can wait until after the Minneapolis show.

Song for the day: Straight Lines by Silverchair

Friends

The friends from Minneapolis have managed to arrive!  It's been amazing so far and there's still two days left! Here's to friends and Hanson.