You should know by now - we're all liars

Hmmm, I meant to write when I returned from my trip to see my friend Alice in Alberta, Canada. And now that was a week ago. Well, I'll post about Canada separately.

I just got back from the Toad the Wet Sprocket concert at the Moore Theater in Seattle. And I'm so happy. The last time I saw them was in 1997, I think, also at the Moore. I was really sad when they broke up. Their music completely and totally reminds me of college. This was the seventh time I've seen them - the first time was 14 years ago, at the University of Redlands.

It was a great show - they played nearly all the songs on Dulcinea, some from Coil, a few from Fear, and a few other random ones. We're all a little older now :). They came out for two encores, the first was for "Walk on the Ocean" and "Hello" and the second was "I Will Not Take These Things for Granted".

And just like almost every single other Toad concert I've gone to, I went with Jasmine and Chris. But this time, I had new friends with me as well - Dre and Dave met me there, and Dave scored some incredible seats from some folks he knew, so instead of sitting on the balcony, we ended up with seats in the 4th row!! It was amazing. (The Moore Theater is pretty small, so even our balcony seats were great.)

Some people are movie people (like TJ) - they'll watch the same movies multiple times and will watch all sorts of new ones. I only like movies where I have a reasonable chance of liking them - a bad movie will put me in a bad mood for days. And except for a few movies, I typically don't care to watch them more than once.

I'm a music person. I will listen to the same few CDs a million times and not get sick of them. I seek out new music and there's nothing like "discovering" a new artist that rocks my world (Hello, Vienna Teng or Kasey Chambers). If I go on a road trip, there are a few CDs I make sure I have with me: Queensryche "Operation Mindcrime", Matchbox 20 "Yourself or Someone Like You" and Toad the Wet Sprocket "Fear". Everytime I hear those albums, they're comforting and familiar, as well as new and interesting. A certain song will take me to an exact point in time where I can remember where I was and who I was with, even if that was 15 or 20 years ago. And my brain is full of song lyrics from approximately 1983 (when I discovered Cyndi Lauper and Madonna) onwards. If I used that brain space for something else, I probably would have done much better academically...

I've seen *a lot* of concerts since my first one - David Lee Roth/Poison at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh, 1989. TTWS and Queensryche are the two bands I've seen the most (7 or 8 times each) and I'd still go see them every time they play somewhere nearby.

At this point I'm just rambling and trying to share some of that happy vibe I'm feeling right now. (And no, this isn't chemically induced!) All is right in the world tonight. :)

It's all worth waiting for...