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Unexpected Happiness: We Saw ‘The Police’ Live!

So around lunchtime yesterday, Scott IMed me with some Big News: a co-worker of his was looking to unload two tickets to The Police concert at Oakland Coliseum. Did we want to go?

HELL YES!

The Police broke up before I started going to concerts, so I always assumed I’d never have the chance to see them live. Then, when they announced their “30th Anniversary tour” I figured there’d be no way I’d manage to snag tickets. Instead, the tickets came to us. Nice how that worked out.

I didn’t have time to do much planning, and cameras weren’t allowed anyway, so this is the best I could do for a photo:

I’d never been to a stadium concert before, and the sheer size of the venue was definitely a drawback. But other than that — and the absolutely horribly bad opening act — we had a fantastic time. Wikipedia has a full set list, if you’re interested in that sort of thing.

Despite Stewart Copeland’s grousing, the band sounded very tight and polished to me. There were one or two moments when I thought I caught a bobble as the band transitioned into the next song, but other than that, they played extremely well for just short of two hours, including encores. Sting had to work fairly hard to get the audience energy up (I think this is where the stadium size was an issue) but the last 40 minutes or so was a big rock-out.

In short, if you get a chance to catch the tour, do so. It’s worth it.

Friday Random Ten

Haven’t done one of these in a while:

I Want To Come Over – Melissa Etheridge
Tenth Avenue Freeze Out – Bruce Springsteen
Indestructible – Matisyahu
Desperado – Eagles
Everybody Wants To Rule The World – Tears For Fears
Mercy Street – Peter Gabriel
A Bit of Earth – The Secret Garden (Original Broadway Cast)
I Feel Fine – The Beatles
Church Of The Poison Mind – Culture Club
Complicated (The Matrix Mix) – Avril Lavigne

As a reminder, The Rules: Open iTunes or your iPod. Load up your entire library. Put it in “random” mode. Write down the first ten tracks that come up–and no fair putting in ones you think will make you look cool, or omitting ones that make you look like a total dork.

Where Did The Week Go?

I suddenly realized I haven’t blogged in a few days. Sorry about that. Everything’s fine, I’ve just been a bit overloaded.

On Memorial Day, I finally got around to joining a local health club, and now I’m trying to figure out how to work regular exercise into my day to day routine. The club membership came with three free “starter” sessions with a personal trainer, which were more than a little intimidating, but at least now I have a nice workout plan all mapped out for me. Problem is, it takes me almost 90 minutes to get through the whole thing, plus changing clothes & shower time — that’s a 2-hour block of time for each session. Trying to fit that into my current schedule, especially on work days, has been a little disruptive.

I’m hoping that once I get more settled into a routine and comfortable with how to use all the damn machines, then I’ll be able to get it closer to an hour than 90 minutes, but for now it’s a real pain. Even if I leave work by 5:30, I’m not home and ready for dinner until well after 8PM. Since you’re not supposed to eat for at least 3 hours before going to sleep, the only way I can eat dinner at all is because I’m a night owl who stays up for the Daily Show & the Colbert Report. On the flip side, trying to get a 90-minute workout done in the mornings would mean hitting the gym before 7AM; and I am not at all good about getting out of bed that early.

I’ve never been much for health clubs before, so hopefully I’ll find a way to make this work for me. Ideally I’d like to get to the club 4 out of 7 days a week, which I think is a goal that’s both reasonable, and likely to actually produce some results over time. But if I can’t get the workout down to about 60 minutes, I suspect I’ll have to do the bulk of my exercise on the weekends, which means less results over time.

I have no illusions that I’ll be able to turn myself into a muscled-out fitness goddess; I find working out far too boring for that. Getting into better general shape and turning a few pounds of fat into muscle would be nice, though.

Sunday Meme-Tagging

I’ve been tagged by Sarah. So while I wait for a bunch of podcasts to download, I might as well work on my list:

Start with 7 random facts/habits about yourself.

1. My iPod Nano is red because I love the color, although the fact that some money also went to a good cause does not displease me.

2. A 7″ GUND brown teddy bear lives on my desk, next to the pen cup and a basket of paper clips. I bought that bear the year I spent my summer vacation working in a summer stock theater on Long Beach Island, NJ.

3. I grew up in a ‘dog family’. They don’t understand how I ended up with so many cats.

4. My very first Internet e-mail address ended in @aol.com. I’m so ashamed.

5. I have a weird allergy. I’m allergic to nuts — but NOT to peanuts.

6. I’ve been following the Casey Serin saga for months.

7. I hate vacuuming. Despise it. I don’t mind anything else when it comes to keeping my house clean, but that is a chore I go out of my way to avoid doing. I’ve been thinking that maybe I’d like it more if I went out and bought a really high-end, extra-powerful vacuum instead of the old, small, and slightly underpowered vacuum I currently have, but I’m hesitant to drop a bunch of money on something I dislike so much.

Then choose another 7 people to get tagged and list their names. People who are tagged have to write their 7 things on their blog. Don’t forget to leave them a comment to tell them they have been tagged and to read your blog.

OK then. I tag Dragoncaller, Sour Duck, Below The Crowd, Seamus, Bisky, Rudi, and (if he’s still paying attention to the Internet) Steve.

Memorial Day

As I was cruising around the San Francisco bay this past week, something came to mind: it’s possible that these sights, or the 1941 version of them, were the last my great-uncle Arthur saw of America, before he died over the Pacific in WW2.

During the war, San Francisco was a major naval base, and Angel Island was a major embarkation point for men going out to fight the war in the Pacific. So it’s possible that Arthur sailed out through the beautiful Golden Gate that long-ago day, never to return.

He has a grave in the Punchbowl military cemetery on Oahu, instead. We visited it when I was a child, on our one family trip to Hawaii. But he’s not there; he was MIA and presumed dead, with the rest of his crew. Whether he was shot down by the Japanese or was a victim of mechanical failure, we’ll never know.

I keep a small book that I found in a used bookstore in my top desk drawer. It’s a small, dull brown volume titled “Prayer Book for Jews in the Armed Forces of the United States” that dates to 1941. It wasn’t his, but I keep it to honor his memory.

I’m Sensing a Theme For This Week

A right rear tire blowout on Highway 280 while on one’s way to work does not generally bode well for the rest of the day. I’m Ok, but as you can see, the tire is complete toast. Great.

Being a gal who doesn’t know much about cars, I call the “car guy” brother-in-law while I wait for AAA to show up, and check with him what I should expect to pay for a new tire. He tells me. So far so good.

I get nervous when the AAA tow truck driver tells me, “I know just the place where you can get that fixed.” I’m thinking to myself, “Yeah right. How much does this place pay you to steer business their way?”

In short, I’m expecting to be massively ripped off. Instead, I get taken to a little home in the wall place on a side street off Stevens Creek in Cupertino.

Imperial Automotive isn’t much to look at. Two bays, two mechanics, lots of stuff lying around, the owner up front, and a bunch of old imports waiting to be worked on. But looks are not everything. The guys there rotated the best of the remaining tires onto my back wheels and set me up with a new set of front tires with no wait time, and for $40 less than the brother-in-law said I’d probably have to pay for the work. They also, and for no charge, reattached a plastic guard thingie on the underside of my car that had gotten knocked loose by the tow truck guy.

While they were at it, they checked my brake pads and suggested that the next time I get an oil change I might want to have the pads replaced. I was so surprised that they weren’t trying to push me into having the work done right then and there, I almost forgot to thank them.

I got to work a few hours late, and a little worn out from the stress, but all in all it turned out to be an OK morning.