I really thought last year was my year of the concerts, but this year is turning out to be yet another fantastic concert year. The 2008 concert season began with The Bravery and a ho-hum note. But I followed up that concert with The Police and Elvis Costello.
Yeah, you heard me. I said The Police. With Elvis Costello. I never believed in a million years that I’d get to see The Police live twice in my lifetime. The only sour note of the evening was missing the first 30 minutes of Elvis Costello because some jerk wrecked his Camero on the freeway. At least we were there when Sting came out to sing along with Elvis to Allison. Yum!
I used to think Sting was my favorite member of the band, but I’ve noticed that my tastes have changed over the years (may have something to do with Brand New Day and that lute CD). The percussionist in me gravitates to Stewart Copeland. He’s proven himself as not just a trap-set drummer of a punk band, but an experienced percussionist.
Over all, great concert, outside in a laid back setting. I’m still surprised that they’ve made it together on tour this long and they’ve stretched out the tour for two years. Could this mean possible new music and a new CD from The Police? Hmmm…very intriguing idea.
The cemetery where J is buried puts a flag up for each person buried there who have served in the armed forces. They had to add a hundred flag for this year alone. This was my first flag ceremony and it was actually really neat. The kids from the Junior ROTC were in charge of putting up the flags. It was rally cool to see all these teenagers running around, acting goofy, acting like…teenagers. But as soon as they came over to put up a flag, they were all business.
I have serious spring fever and vacationitis. I really have very little to blog about. I’m taking off three days next week and embarking on a mini-vacation, but blogging about that must come later, when something has actually happened to blog about. I know I could be telling all kinds of stories about living with Chris’s mom, but it really isn’t that bad.
It’s like living with Ms. Swan. You know; that MAD TV character. The other night she came home from a friends house and I swear to God she was stoned. She’s not the alcohol type and we couldn’t smell the pot on her. Chris and I have decided that it must have been some funky Thai ’shrooms. She would seriously mumble her words and that along with an even thicker Thai accent made her almost intelligible. Her hair was sticking out all over head like a Troll Doll’s. She became obsessed with finding a document for her car after we told her not to worry about it; we’d just request a new one. Chris and I just sat through the rest of the evening translating her random mumblings to each other before she finally toddled off to drunk call someone in Thailand. She probably passed out with the phone stuck to her ear for all we know. It took every thing in me to not say “Woman, you are fucked up. What are you on and why can’t you share?”. Other then that, living with Chris’s mom is kind of like taking care of Grandpa. She comes and goes and eats when and what she wants. We are only needed when some sort of paperwork regarding a bill or insurance shows up that we have to explain to her in a crazy pantomime to be sure she gets it. Then, you’re not even really sure she does because her reply is usually some thing like “Yeah, OK”. This puts me on alert because I know I’m going to have to regurgitate the information again at any given moment and I don’t always have all the information, just parts of it.
It’s important to keep your sense of humor in this situation. Occasionally I have to remind myself that there are no hidden cameras or someone hiding behind the couch prepared to jump out and say “Ha! You’re on Candid Camera!”. Though I will admit to peeking behind the couch a few times just to make sure.
Saturday, my sister Janell graduated from Oklahoma State University with her degree in History. This was a very big deal and here comes the part where Janell’s going to go “Ack! Don’t tell the internets that!”.
Janell was the floater in the family. She married her first husband pretty much right after graduating high school. She worked at a bunch different places, had a baby, got divorced, and got remarried. She put off college. In the mean time she took a basic car mechanics class and learned how to fix her car. She made jewelry and other crafts. She cultured her inherited green thumb and grew a ginormous aloe vera plant and she nurtured various number of ducks and geese in her backyard.
Then Janell decided to go to college. I think we were all a little skeptical at first, but she stuck with it. She worked hard to earn her diploma. Sometimes she worked part time to earn some extra money. She juggled classes and work to be home at the end of the day to pick Amanda up from school. She did not have it easy, but she did it. We couldn’t be more proud of her. We all went to graduation and then Mom put together a party at their place afterward. It turned out to be a really nice day. And I can’t say it enough. Janell, we are so proud of you!
We experienced our first major storm of the season. We didn’t get the tornado, but we got some nice sized hail. Sangwon’s car windshield got busted up pretty bad. Our car has a few dents. Of course we did what all Oklahoma natives do when the storm sirens go off. We stood outside and watched.
