nobody knows the truffles I've seen

I think I just had the quickest love affair in my life. And now it's over... at least I think it's over.

Two nights ago, our friend Alan taught us to play Bridge. He had just returned from France and brought what I thought to be the smallest box of chocolates ever to share with us. But when he opened it up it had at least 30 truffles all crammed in it, double stacked.

I have never stopped to consider that truffles have any sort of value. In fact, every year I give away the truffles I get from work for Christmas because I don't even want to waste my time with truffles. Why fill chocolate with chocolate?!

That eternal question was answered when I saw Alan's truffles. Or should I say Real Truffles, with a capital Real... and extra italics. Inside his little box was a wonderland - truffly speaking. Every single one was a different flavor! And not just mint and chocolate flavored. I'm talking about Lavender, and Basil, and Thyme, and Anise...and crap (not crap the flavor)! I can't remember them all! I wish I could. I couldn't resist the lavender and had to enjoy it tiny bite by tiny bite.

Yesterday, I thought nothing about it for some reason. But today... TODAY! - I can't stop thinking about them. I tried to find those exact ones online and failed. But, I was able to find several sites that sell similar truffles. Exotic flavors of them. Too bad the good sites, like this one, are in Europe so on top of the bad exchange rate prices, you pay about $30 shipping. But check out these flavors! Seriously - check them out:

ok, I thought I was over the truffles but all this talking about them made me want them again.

I also found this gem of a "chocolate review" site that helped me do most of my research today.

I have never ever seen any value in giving a box of chocolates for a valentines present. But, I think I might actually be willing to marry the man who gives me these.

part 13 of 364

Things that keep Melissa alive

Part 13: Cheese products

I was going to do a post for each cheese product in my life but I think that might take all 364 parts of the series.

Some things of note about my love affair with cheese...and cheez:

• It doesn't matter the realness or the fakeness (cheez) of the cheese, I will love it. I am a die hard Havarti fan (direct from Denmark) but I also never tire of a Mac and Cheese lunch
• When eating hot foods with grated cheese on them, I actually prefer my cheese to be unmelted, if possible. Ex: With tacos, I am a cheese on top the lettuce fan opposed to cheese right on top the hot meat. Also, when making my egg, cheese, and toast sandwiches I like to place the slice of cheese right on top just before each bite so it doesn't have time to melt before I eat it.
• If making grilled cheese sandwiches, I actually prefer using a fake Kraft single over a real slice of cheddar (probably relating to my previous point about not really loving melted real cheese). It turns out I do like melted cheez, just not melted cheese.
• I like to try exciting new forms of cheese and cheez. For example, let me introduce you to Cheez-it cookies:
  

I found the recipe yesterday while googling all things Cheez-it. By the way, are you a white cheddar cheez-it fan or a parmesan garlic cheez-it fan? (I have a poll going, and I'd like to prove myself right). These cookies actually have Cheez-its ground in the dough plus the cracker on top. They are surprisingly tasty!

What are your favorite forms of cheese and cheez? Here are mine in no particular order (I want them all to feel equally loved)

Cheese:

• Havarti
• Smoked Gouda
• Sharp Cheddar
• Feta
• Edam
• Jarlsberg
• Mozzarella (fresh, please)
  
• Parmesan (block)

Cheez:

• Kraft Singles
• Kraft Mac and Cheese
• Cheetos
• Cheez-its
• Handi-snacks (love that cheez!)
• Cheese Ritz Bitz
• Cheese Dorritos
• Velveeta
  

If cheese were a man, I would so marry him.

In a world where I get tired of eating the same things over and over again I am blessed to have so many cheese options to keep me interested. And that keeps me alive!

Durban

Day 7: The Pavillion and Braai

Highlights:

• Eating my first and only spinach and feta pie at the pavillion
• The people we stayed with who had a braai all ready to go when we arrived
• Our roommates from the animal kingdom: Dogs and Cockroaches
  

Day 8: In Sickness and uShaka

(sorry...this is actually from phezulu the next day. Don't you want to eat at that table?)

Highlights:

• Nursing Tracy back to health after a long night of bathroom visits; chilling with the cockroaches
• Super warm weather at the beach!
• Finally touching the Indian Ocean
  

Day 9: Phezulu and Tala game reserve

Highlights:

• The Zulu dancer that reminded me of Scott (the one on the left)...yes, Mary Ann's Scott
• Holding the biggest Python I've ever held (I almost cried)
• Seeing "wild" animals on a cheap 2 hour drive
  

Day 10: Amanzimtoti and Visits

Highlights:

• Visiting the Amanzimtoti ward again and all the sisters that pretended to remember me. Very kind of them
• Hitting the Toti beach that my missionary flat was on and finally touching the water (no fly eggs in my eye, but a wave did manage to drench my skirt)
• Visiting the Botha's
• Dinner and FHE with sis Ngidi, Thembisile and Jabu. Best night of the trip because of them
  

Day 11: The market, Sis. Mbisana and Driving

Highlights:

• Driving dangeresquely to the Indian market in downtown Durban
• Being blown away by the smell of spices
• Discovering my most hated road interchage in the world as we tried to find my Companion
• The "raping" window cleaner at the stoplight
  
• Driving long and late hours to the Drakensberg mountains and our Hostel we stayed at
  

Day 12: Tugela Falls

Highlights:

• Possibly the most sun I have ever gotten
• Most amazing views I have ever seen
• The 250 meter bouldering portion of the hike that almost did me in and made me ornery
  
• Chain ladders that brought us down the cliffs
• The sweet sockline momento my sunburn left
  

Day 13: Sis Mbisana, the beach, fly out

Highlights:

• The petrol station that could not get any of our credit cards to work
• Spending some one on one time with Kay (my comp) after we dropped Stacey and Tracy at the beach
• Finding Pinky's (a member) house in a miraculous manner and finding her at home, also in a miraculous manner
• One last cooling dip of my sunburned legs in the Indian ocean and we waved goodbye
  

Day 14: Fly fly fly

Highlights:

• Midnight 11 hour flight. Need I say more
• 1am dinner. Who eats at 1am?!
• Being the last flight allowed out of Amsterdam before the airport closed for days
• Arriving at Minneapolis at 5pm, getting our luggage, going through customs, checking our luggage and going through security in time to still sprint to our 5:15 flight
• Somehow our luggage was not lost in all of that!
• Sleeping in my own bed for approx. 10 blissful hours that night
  

That's it! Too painfully long? ....now back to real life, I guess

Cape Town

Ok, sorry for the delay as I got my thoughts together about the trip and decided exactly how many details I wanted to subject you to... I think I will do 2 posts for the two areas we visited. One picture will represent each day. Then I will list the highlights. Ok, all set?

Day 1&2: Flying, flying and..... flying.

(This was not me, btw...you would have found me wide awake possibly staring at nothing in particular for 11 hours straight)

Seriously folks, that was some major travel time. We left Friday morning at 10 and got to South Africa Sat. night at 10pm. ...Jealous of our trip yet?

Day 3: North Cape Town and wineries.

Highlights:

• Driving on the left side of the road. So much more fun than I remember!
• The views we saw of table mountain from the north Cape Town coast
• Wasting time after finding out there was no general conference broadcast at the church by driving out to see the much heralded wineries. They were all closed for Easter, so sorry...no free wine samples for us.
• The views of table Mountain on the drive back into the city
• Finding a coffee shop with wifi to listen to three conference talks live
• The only day we ate at Nandos! Good thing we did at least once.
  

Day 4: Cape Point and Boulders beach

Highlights:

• Finding out that so many things we wanted to do that day "wouldn't be open today" because of either the wind or being the day after easter
• The wind at cape point literally held us up when leaning over the cliff
• Finding the most beautiful beach I've ever been to (not saying much)..pictured on day 7
• Seeing the cute, tiny penguins on Boulder's beach
• Eating at Bertha's in Simon's town. Good food and we discovered that if we share 2 meals between the 3 of us we don't have leftovers to take to the hotel and rot. Plus, extra money for dessert!
  

Day 5: Clifton Beach and the downtown market

Highlights:

• Lazing on a slightly windy beach avoiding the cold water
• Getting swindled at the downtown market (we're so weak at bartering)
• Visiting the waterfront at dusk to take some sweet sunset pictures
• Dinner at the rotating restaurant on top of our hotel
  

Day 6: Downtown museums, Kirstenbosch gardens and Table mountain.

Highlights:

• Waking up to clouds on the one day Table Mountain was open
  
• Finding out it was actually open the day before, our hotel had just lied to us
• Wasting time at kirstenbosch gardens and downtown Cape Town just hoping and praying that the clouds would break
• Finally giving up and heading up the tram into the cloud to see the amazing view...of the cloud
• Discovering that walking around in a cloud causes water droplets to form on every bit of body hair showing and our clothes. Also, it made us cold.
  

Day 7: Turn in rental car and fly to Durban.

Highlights:

• Going through the maze of roads and signs to find the one petrol station at the airport.
• KFC at the airport. You don't even know
• The free mint on the plane (they are so generous in South Africa)

Next up: Durban

hello internet, your face is the same but your breath...

I can't believe I spent the last two weeks without phone or internet service. But, this is how I felt about it:

Give me a snake and I'll be happy.

It was a trip full of ups and downs, but I guess I shouldn't expect everything to go perfectly for 2 weeks straight. Yet, somehow I loved every minute. Every cockroach (ok, I just love the memory of them...and killing them). Every wrong turn. Every 10 hour flight. Every lie our hotel told us. Every elevator squealing through the night. Every view from Table mountain (hint: there was no view). Every sunburn. Every stomach cramp. Every mosquito.

There. Those are all the low points of the trip. Next post will be about the high points.

Side note: I have come to realize today how miraculous it was that we made it out of europe yesterday. Our flight was the last flight allowed out of Amsterdam before they closed the airport because of volcano ash. Good, good, good to be home. And thank you, bathroom sink, for not being infested with cockroaches.

pickers and blowers

It's taken me a long time to get up the courage to talk about this. But, rest assured, I've been thinking about it for a good 2 years.

My mom is a blower. I know I heard her honking blow at least once a day growing up. Dad, on the other hand was a picker (I just know, ok). I saw our family divide down the middle with most of the boys (I don't know about all of them) becoming blowers and the girls pickers (yes, that's me... and sorry, Jo, your secret is out). I didn't really think about this divide spreading across the human race until I moved into my current apartment 2 years ago. For some reason, it felt like I was living with my mom... then I realized it's because every night and every morning, I would hear honking sounds from my roommate above me. Then it hit me: She's a blower! I mentioned it to my other roommate and admitted to her that I am a definite picker. She also admitted to being a picker but had the desire to switch teams.

So, what is the benefit of blowing? I'm pretty sure it would not get the job done for me. Only when I have a cold do I actually blow my nose. But, daily blowing? I can't see how that would produce satisfactory results.

side-note: Just in case you are thinking of switching from the blowing team to the picking team (you know you want to), you should know that being a picker can be risky. I understand that some people are pickers but are more conservative about when they choose to pick. I, on the other hand, have fallen pray many times to the classic blunder of thinking no one is around and it is safe to proceed when that is never, ever the case. When will I learn?

part 12 of 364

Things that keep Melissa alive

Part 12: Perspective


Sometimes I am reminded that I need to get back to my roots. I remember loving our perspective lessons in my jr. high and high school art classes. In a way, that is my roots. Things that have made me what I am today: an art weirdie that also likes sciency, left-brain things.

But today I'd like to talk about perspective in a slightly different manner. The last 24 hours have taught me a lot about the beauty of comparing our lives to other's. I know, I know, everyone says comparisons never make us feel good about ourselves. But when you come across others with struggles you could only nightmare (opposite of dream) of going through you suddenly become grateful you are only a mid-single old maid living with over-active stomach acid.

Part 1: Last night, while standing unassumingly at a rather public spot in the temple, a brother worker asked me if I would go into the women's dressing room for him and get his wife and tell her they had a family emergency and she needed to get dressed in her street clothes to go home. I had to try to patch this message to her in intiatory and when she finally made it out to where I was standing, I told her to dress in her street clothes and though she didn't ask what was going on, I'm sure her heart was failing a bit at not knowing why they were leaving early. She left to go change and I stood there trying to imagine what she was feeling while dressing. I'm pretty sure I felt enough anxiety in that moment for her.

A few minutes later, her husband walked by and was stopped by the head of the temple emergency team who told him right in my ear shot that a family had member had called about an attempted suicide. It's amazing how being so close (spatially, not familially) to a situation can make me realize how far away my life is from that kind of drama: Perspective.

Part 2: This morning, a coworker brought a card over for me to sign for another coworker who was diagnosed with skin cancer a few months ago. After a few surgeries and tests he was declared clean. But, apparently they have just discovered cancer spread to his liver and lungs. Let me tell you about Andy. He can't be more than 25. From the moment I started working here, he was always super friendly and happy to be around. My heart goes out to him and his wife.

Perspective, you are a cruel cruel teacher. But I thank you, anyhow, for showing me the distance between my struggles and what they could be.

marketing for the reincarnate

I was heating up my michelina's lunch today and decided to wander around the break room looking at the vending machine options.

A familiar sight greeted me:

You see, whoever fills the vending machines in our office complex likes to jazz things up by putting a bunch of random items in one slot for 25 cents each. (if they weren't pretzels and raisin cookies, I'd totally go for it) He also likes to advertise this fact and other items he feels we should take note of with classy sticky notes. I have to admit, I like it. It gives our cold business-like office a down-home ghetto feel.

Are you wondering how I know he's a he? It's because he has my Dad's handwriting. This, to me, is proof that my Dad is still involved in my every day life. Telling me that the cream cheese danish and king sized snickers are only 75 cents is another way of him saying "I know the thoughts, desires and struggles in your life, and I am working on them... I thought I'd start with your office vending."

One thing I've never looked at is the drink machine. So I wandered over to inspect it's sticky:

Now what would you do if you saw this? That's right.. I had to buy it, of course. In my heart I knew it had no chance of coming out as a bottle of A&W rootbeer but I couldn't resist so I stuck my 75 cents in as my pulse raced and I pushed the button.

Apparently dad wanted me to drink a diet pepsi with lime that expired in Feb 2010. Lesson learned.

decisions are hard

So I'm in the market for a road atlas for my upcoming trip and it was looking like this was probably going to be my best option:


59 Rand is currently $7.77. That's not too bad

But lately I have been a loyal customer of Amazon so I also made sure to check their site and found this beauty:

The good news is, it's only $3.99 for the shipping! ~maybe I better add shipping insurance to my 7 mil dollar purchase....

february happenings

Ah... it's that time of year again when the weather starts to warm up and the trees begin to bud. Then, everything freezes up again and there goes our apricot crop for the year. Why do you have to be so cruel to plant and human life, February? On the bright side, Timpanogos has looked amazing the last 2 days. Take a moment to look at it right now... see what I mean?

Over president's day weekend I went to Lubbock, TX for a visit. If you told me 5 years ago that I would visit Lubbock, TX approximately 5-6 times in a 3 year period I would have predicted it must be to visit my boyfriend down there. And I would have been right! (If, by "boyfriend" I meant my nephews and niece) We ate at the best bbq place I have ever tasted (not saying too much as I never have bbq) so now I'm in search of bbq in Utah that is as good. Help me out...what is the best bbq place you've been to here? For me, it's all about the ribs. The meat absolutely fell off the bones of the lubbock bbq. Is it too much to ask to have the meat fall of the bones? maybe it is.

One day before we flew to Lubbock, I bought a real computer for the first time since 1999. Yes, you heard me right...1999. My devastatingly disappointing eee pc that I bought 1.5 years ago does not count. The only thing I could do on that was watch hulu and when hulu even stopped working on it I decided it was time. I am now $1800 lighter thanks to my new Macbook Pro decked out with the Adobe premier suite. Send your designing requests my way as now my evenings can be spent in good quality time with my real BF, Mac.... He's no Ken, but he's shinier and metal, not plastic.

all youtube considered

Welcome back to this lunch-time segment of "music melissa is listening to lately".

My first offering is from Mika's new album. I know, it's been out a couple of months, but I haven't gotten around to listening to it until now. Just like his last album, there are a few songs I could probably do without. But, also like his last album, there are songs not to do without (applaud my use of the double negative). If you haven't heard any of his stuff, give this one a listen to start:



Most of his music videos are actually available on youtube, but I find that watching him dance changes my perception about his music, so I prefer you to listen untainted :)

The next group I discovered just today because I have been watching the movie 500 Days of Summer (finally) for about 30 minutes a night. Last night, I saw my favorite part:



Thank you Hall and Oats. Looking it up on youtube today, I started wondering why Zooey Deschanel doesn't do more with her singing than sing in every single movie she's ever in. And guess what I found? She not only is in a tiny little group, but she even writes the songs, too! (I think). So here is one from their album She & Him: Volume 1 - Enjoy!:



wow...was that too much youtube at once? Sorry for those of you who have it blocked at work....

part 11 of 364

Things that keep Melissa alive

Part 11: Poached Eggs, a food of the gods

Few foods comfort me as much as poached eggs. That's why monday was a comfortless day. Due to my milk disappearing trick, I had to resort to cold cereal that day. Cold cereal is just that: cold. Comfort had to be put off until last night when I brought out the frying pan once again and settled in, unmoved, to watch my pot of milk take forever (of course) to boil. But, it was all worth it. When the eggs were finally done (20 minutes later) I had myself some soft, warm, eggy, buttery, toasty goodness.

For the record: I have never had an egg poached in just water. Does that seem bland to anyone else? Growing up, our eggs were always poached in either milk or tomato soup. Then when you lay your eggs on toast, you can drizzle milk or tomato soup over it all to soften the toast and make it even more divine. Imagine drizzling water on your toast? Not comforting.

Another interesting poached egg note: I don't think I know anyone my age that actually eats them... and most haven't even tried one! Am I right? I find my only poached allies (not that the allies are boiled in liquid..) are my old lady friends at the temple. They have given me good tips about poaching and, in return, I have seen their eyebrows raise at the suggestion of a milk or tomato soup poached egg.

I believe poached eggs are a food of the gods. Other foods of the gods include:

• Avacados
• Peanut sauce
• Boef bourguignon
• Butter
• Peaches and Cream
• Cheese
• Limes

I tried to keep this a list of classy foods (because would gods really eat twinkies?) but these are not the only foods I like. Just the less processed, more pure ones. What are your foods of the gods?

my particular set of skills

On friday, I watched Taken. A movie where, at one point, Liam Neeson says: "I have a very particular set of skills." Those skills seem to be killing everyone with the slightest flick of his wrist. But, for the record, I think he also has voice skills.

btw, I'm practicing falling in love with older men... don't you think he's kind of hot?

This made me think: What kind of skills do I have? Are my skills particular, as well? Or are they just peculiar?

Here are the skills that I tallied up from just this weekend's events:

• Intense movie watching skills. Somehow, I was able to watch Taken without feeling stressed or having nightmares about my upcoming trip to South Africa - So I might get kidnapped and thrown into a prostitution ring...so what?
• Snowshoeing skills. I was the only one in our group of about 12 that kept gracefully tripping on her snowshoes... Why won't any of those guys call me?
• Crying skills. This has been happening for a while: If I'm visiting teaching, we can be talking about nothing (seriously..movies, sports...nothing) and my eyes will water up. I'm sure this is confusing to those I visit teach and I blame it on my weird sinuses.
• Looking like a fool while conducting relief society skills. Seriously. Can't I just keep my fat mouth shut and conduct the meeting like a normal RS president?
• Milk disappearing skills. This happened just this morning. I decided to poach an egg and so I put some milk in a small frying pan and put a lid on it on the stove to heat. I went downstairs to put lotion on my face for 2 minutes. When I came back up and lifted up the lid to the pan, every last drop of that milk was gone. I later discovered it transplanted underneath all the burners. I'm magic! Also, my magic smells like scorched milk.
  

find my ken in 2010

Ok, let me preface this with a caveat: I'm not talking about my brother Ken. He is a good (perfect?) guy, but I really shouldn't marry my brother. This post is about Marriage. Or my lack of it, more specifically.

I realized a while ago that even though my blog is titled "I saw the elephant" (referring to the elephant in the room) I never really talk too much about the elephants in my life. Let's face it, you probably like it that way. Well, lately I've felt how much my lack of marriage is an elephant in my life and it's time to talk about it. Today is the day. I apologize in advance.

You probably think that I've given up on marriage with how much it doesn't come up in my blog. No. Believe me, it's always there.

When I say I'm looking for my Ken, I really do mean a guy with helmet hair and skin colored underwear. Don't forget the chiseled abs and perfect calves. Also, his arms should only bend to 90 degrees angles making it impossible for his hand to ever reach his mouth (how does he eat!). Here's the problem: I don't think this guy exists.

So...am I really looking for someone TOO perfect? Can I enlist your help to find him?

Here are some things to help you recognize him when he crosses your path:

• He will be my age or younger. Younger is nice because (I will say it over and over again) I want to die first. None of this being the one left alonely while the other is converting thousands at a time up in the spirit world.
• He will have a big nose and minuscule chin.
• He will be strong in his testimony. Is that too much to ask (I really am starting to wonder)?
• He will carry on the Cox male tradition of self-deprecation and constant devotion.
• He will be as clever as me; no more, no less. (I shouldn't ask for more than I can give)
  
• It would be nice if he wore houndstooth polyester slacks every once in a while.

If you see this Ken, send him my way! (bonus points if his name is actually ken)

farewell to the mole me

So... I haven't updated you on my mole situation (I know you were all waiting with baited breath). About a month ago, I went to the dermatologist just to ask him if it was possible to have it removed. He had me lie down on his little table and take care of it right then and there.

I spent a week with a lovely band aid on my face which people would then get up the courage to ask about, and to which I would respond, "what do you mean?... what's wrong with my face?!"

Now the sore has mellowed into a sort of soft red spot on my face and people probably just figure that it's a zit that I will not let heal. When the truth really is, I'm so paranoid about infection and scarring that I rarely ever even touch it. Maybe I should have all my zits surgically removed so that I treat them with the same attitude.

This picture (from when I had my own cooking show) makes me miss my short hair... and my mole.

part 10 of 364

Things That Keep Melissa Alive

Part 10: Pecan Pie

I've had a lot of people tell me this weekend that my love of Pecan Pie makes me an old person. I have to admit, that's what I used to think before I tried it as well. For some reason it reminded me too much of mince meat pie (I still don't know what that is...and it frightens me). Take this side by side comparison... can you tell which one is pecan and which is mince meat?










Ok, so it's probably not that hard...that mince meat looks terrible.

Finally, at age 15 my horrible prejudice changed. I went to my cousin's wedding in St. George and for their wedding breakfast they had pecan pie. Since I had no other dessert to choose from, I figured I might as well try it and I was amazed how tasty it was!

I then started making the pecan pies for our thanksgiving dinner and I found out why it tastes so good. The filling is basically sugar, butter and eggs. Can't beat that! I have to admit, the pecans are my least favorite part of the pie, but the rest is just so dang good that I'll take the pecans as part of the package.

Add some real whipped cream to the top and you have a pie I can live on for a week straight. And believe me, I have.

view from church

ok, I walked out the back doors of our church yesterday and this is what greeted me.

So much for the smart car....how smart can it be if it scampers up a tree when it gets scared?

Did anyone else see this? What was it doing up there? Maybe it's like what the guy that spoke in the 5th ward stated at the end of his talk: "when you run out of gas, that's a good place to stop."

part 9 of 364

Things that keep Melissa alive:

Part 9: Space Heaters

To illustrate the importance of the space heater in my life, allow me to relate my typical nightly bed routine (keep in mind, I live in the basement):

9:30 - Enter 65° bedroom and turn on space heater. Change to pajamas and exit bedroom, closing door behind me

9:35 - Enter bathroom and perform nightly face routine and teeth brushing

9:37 - Re-enter 70° bedroom and sit in front of my bed next to the space heater with a blanket over me and the space heater to read scriptures and about 1 page of a book before the hard ground causes my sits bones to start to throb.

9:55 - Turn off space heater and light. Enter my bed where I have previously placed a heated rice bag at the foot to warm my feet that are still ice-cubes after sitting huddled next to a space heater for 18 minutes.

11:00 - My feet finally warm up and I fall asleep

So... do I have a circulation issues? How does one keep warm in this stinking cold weather?!

On Saturday morning, our furnace started blowing cold air. Question: why does the furnace wait to die until the coldest day of the season to date? We lived in a 55-60° degree house until Tuesday night, but I was mostly fine because of (you guessed it) my space heater. I didn't really even use it much more than I usually do. Just my same bedtime routine and an occasional 10 minute (warm up my aching bones) sit in front of it during the day.

Now we have a nice new furnace and, of course, the weather has also warmed up.

november concert series: part 2

This was totally a week ago, but it feels like a dream. And yes, I mean a dream come true! I'm almost ashamed how happy this concert made me. If you ever get the chance to see Regina Spektor live, take it.

There were so many things that made me nervous heading into this concert. Like: Where to park? How to get to the concert? How smashed would I get in the mosh-pit? How achy would my cursed flat feet get from standing so long? How hot would I get? How well would I be able to see? How many times would we get mugged in scary downtown west salt lake?

Most of those fears turned out to be unfounded (we only got mugged once). Everything worked out as slick as a schoolmarm's leg (as grandpa would say). Maybe that's because I had a schoolmarm with me (and she really does shave her legs a lot, I think). Luckily we are drinking age, so we could head up to the slightly less crowded balcony and even squish into some seats behind a railing (#1 best part of the night: sitting).

While we waited the 45 minutes as they set up the stage between the opening act and ms Spektor, we were relishing our padded bench balcony seats with excellent view of the poor unfortunate souls on the ground floor. I figured it was a good time for the standard self portrait shot of the two of us. We took approximately 10 that looked like this:And unfortunately the final one was the most decent of me (the only one with my eyes open):

Here's a piece for you to enjoy, though I'm guessing it's not the same if you weren't there.

november concert series: part 1

Busy week for me. I miss the days when I would just sit on the couch and stare, expectantly, at the door waiting for my roommates to come home.

I'm not usually a concert attender (unless it features a symphony and/or the MoTab). I have made a few exceptions in my life. Here is my lifetime list of semi-popular music concerts:

• New Kids on the Block (12 years old, with ear plugs in my ears supplied by the marriott center).
• Lillith Fair (c 1999). It rained (beer and h2o) the whole time, we stayed for Patty, Dar, and Paula then gave up.
• Billy Joel 2007 - (hey, free tickets!) and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Wow, is that really it? I'm lame... So, considering I've only been to 3 real concerts in my life, going to 2 in one week signifies a busy week for me!

It kicked off Monday night with David Gray. Bad omen of the night: I was sweating the moment we sat down. Did they really have to have the heat on with thousands of people and flashing lights? Did I also have to wear a long-sleeved shirt with a wool turtleneck over it? (ah, my concert naivety)










The opening act came out and immediately started playing. She danced about like I would if I were on stage in front of thousands of people. That just made me like her. She even played the banjo! Ok - mostly, she just held it through half a song, but she did pluck out a few notes at the end. The thing I loved most about her songs are the variety of crazy instruments she used. There was some sort of crazy hand pump organ, a thing you blow into that has piano keys attached (my family totally had one of these growing up!), an instrument that sounded and looked like they were playing a saw and a lute...I think.

Learning of new artists always excites me so I visited her website yesterday and found this jewel of a "hello there" page:

"Welcome to my web house.

I suppose this means I'm a grown up now and shouldn't eat chocolate biscuit cake for breakfast.

Starting tomorrow.

Feel free to look around and stay awhile. Like my real house, I'll continue to add things until one day I can't find the cat and have to move,

Lisa

ps. thank you to my mother for knitting the wallpaper"

Reading that made me want to try her chocolate chunk cookie recipe also posted on her site. Too bad I don't know what "preheat your oven to 150 for fan ovens or 170 for fanless" means. (Cooking overseas is so confusing!)

The simplicity of her songs were a great contrast to David Gray's electric guitars and drums. I have to admit, I liked the songs best that were just him on the piano or acoustic guitar and his base player.

ps... you can download a free Lisa Hannigan song here at Amazon. Do it!