Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood Concert

All I have to say is WOW!! This concert was awesome! I have loved Keith since I first heard the song "It's a love thing" (way back when) and I have listened to Carrie's new CD pretty much every day for the last month, so when I got the chance to go to the concert with my friend Clint, I pretty much jumped at it. I pretty much gave him no other choice. :)

I left work a little early and had to stop and take a picture of Dupont Circle, right by my work. DC in the spring is turning out to be all I could ever wish for and more.

After getting burritos at California Tortilla we headed over to the concert and got to our seats with about three minutes to spare. Our friend Wayne and his friend Jen were fortunate enough to have gotten seats on the floor in the sixth row, but since our seats were a little higher up we could see backstage, which was quite exciting in and of itself. All my pictures are pretty blurry though, so see Wayne's blog for some amazing close-ups.

So, anyways, the concert was amazing!! I was stoked about Carrie, but then Keith came on and I could hardly contain myself!! He is such a talented musician. Sometimes when I listen to his CDs I forget that he is the one playing the guitar - oh and he rocks the guitar!! Also, at other concerts I have been to I have noticed that the artists don't always quite get their notes... not so with Keith, he was perfect!!

Clint and I sang to EVERY song and yelled and danced and enjoyed ourselves immensely. Highlights: The bottom half of Carrie's Ball gown ripping off after a slow song to reveal a sassy but still pretty modest knee length dress for a faster song; Keith jumping off the stage to sing and play in the crowd and then sign and give away a guitar; Keith playing the piano and singing.

Yeah for country music!! I am a Texan and reserve the right to love it!!

Sky

My roomie made me a CD and included the song "Sky" by Joshua Radin. I have pretty much been listening to it non-stop for 3 days, so I thought I would share it with you all. Please listen to it on my playlist.

I love his voice and I love how the song starts off slow and then surprises you with an upbeat tempo and great harmony. I love surprises.... that's why I put my Mp3 Player on random... it's exciting to find out what will come on next!!

Cherry Blossom and Kite Festivals

Another reason to love DC and the good old US of A. I thought you all would enjoy my favorite pictures from the Cherry Blossom and Kite Festivals this last weekend!!

Easter Dinner

I love to entertain - not the dance, sing, and act kind of way, but in the hostess kind of way. I love being surrounded by friends and enjoying their company… and I love to cook. I would do a dinner just about any day, but holidays are a MUST – so I hosted an Easter Dinner at my house this year. All of my roommates were out of town, so that pretty much gave me full responsibility and free range… nice! (No offense roomies… I love you!!) Thanks to those brilliant people who created evite.com the planning was pretty easy and the evening went off without at hitch. We had 17 people in total for a traditional Easter Dinner (I made a ham and everyone else brought the sides, drinks, and dessert) and a seriously hilarious game of Curses. (And then randomly tried to stuff people into our ottoman….. weird apartment tradition…)

Then after we got all of the other guys out of the apartment, the girls got to enjoy what they really came for: an evening with Jay. He regaled them all with stories and brilliant anecdotes. So, for all you boys out there who can’t seem to get attention from the ladies, take notes… this is how a real man works it.

Book Worm

I crammed my last three semesters of school into one year, so after graduating last April I realized that I had lost all interest in reading. I’d done it non-stop for 12 months and if I never saw another book again, that would have been fine by me. This was a totally new experience for me because I have always been a book worm. Story from my childhood:

In my first grade class there were two reading groups – the red group and the
blue group. I was in the blue group. On the first day of class the red group got
to sit down together first with the teacher while the rest of us colored, but I
was listening to them and keeping pace pretty well. Then the blue group sat in a
circle while the red group colored. What I discovered at this point outraged me:
the red group was for the fast readers and the blue group for the slower
readers!! I was NOT a blue-group-reader!! (See the horrendous amount of pride
already apparent at this young age… I’m working on it.)

After that the whole class was sitting at their desks and the teacher put a word up on the board. She began at the beginning of the alphabet and asked each person what the word on the board was. My name is at the end of the alphabet, so I had to sit and listen to each person try to give their answer and was shocked to discover that no one knew what the word was! By the time the teacher got around to me I was nearly
falling out of my chair and shouted “HILL! It says HILL!!” (Don’t ask me what
words we were reading in our little groups…I can’t remember, but apparently they
were easier than the word hill) The teacher asked me “You read that word?” to
which I replied, “Yes.” She put another word on the board, which I also read,
and the next day I was put into the red group, hallelujah!!

I don’t know what it was about that experience, but having the teacher recognize me as a good reader and recognizing it myself, I started reading as much as I could. I am notorious for staying up all night just to keep reading.

Flash back to 2007: So there I was – a fish out of water – a reader who didn’t want to read. That inevitably didn’t last, and at the end of last year I started to look for a good book to get me back on track. I have the soundtrack for the musical “Wicked” (but I haven’t seen it… anyone up for a trip to NYC?) so I decided I should read the book, everyone says it’s so great. Bad choice. Aside from being pretty dirty, I was bored out of my mind! I know that there are lots of people who think it is the most brilliant book ever, but it just didn’t appeal to me, so be it.

I kind of felt like I’d gotten burned and stopped reading again, but a few months later I said to myself “Self, you have to get back in the saddle, let’s find you a good book.” I began by creating a nice atmosphere for me to read in: I chucked the old couch that was left in my room by previous tenants and made myself a reading nook, pictured here. Note my comfy IKEA chair – come have a sit…. You’ll probably run out and buy yourself one too.

With my reading nook complete I began to search for the book that was going to help me find myself again. When I explained my plight to my friend Wayne (holla) the sun broke through the clouds – he had just the book for me: The Glass Castle. I guess I am just not much of a fantasy person (aside from my guilty pleasure: Harry Potter) and this book is anything but fantasy. It is the memoir of a woman who grew up surrounded by/in poverty in the United States and it is the story of her family. A lot of sad things happened to her and her siblings, but I loved her style of writing and it is fascinating to me to learn about how other people live their lives. I read the book in 2 days (mind you I work full time so I basically didn’t sleep) and I was so engrossed in my reading during my commute that I ran right into and nearly knocked over a little old lady in the Metro. Since then two of my roommates have read the book as well…. I don’t know if Wayne will ever get it back.

Moral of the story: I am a reader again! The only problem now is that I finished that book… so I have decided to ask you all for suggestions!! What book should I read next?!!

Tag...

Kami Tagged me, so I get to answer some questions about myself.... should be interesting!

What you were doing 10 years ago...
I was 15 years old and attending High School. I played the French horn in marching band and wind symphony, was in the German club, and shared obsessions for Doc Martens and Sun In with my friend Jared.

5 things on my "to do" list today...
1) Make Dinner for my roomies and myself
2) Work.... endless Excel Sheets.
3) Watch a movie
4) Watch the lunar eclipse
5) Blog

6 Snacks that I enjoy...
1) Anything that includes avocado
2) Popcorn
3) Gelato
4) Pudding
5) Almonds
6) Fruit

Bad habits...
Spending too much time on the internet
Not posting often enough to my blog :)
Singing along to the music I am listening to when I am on the Metro

If I were suddenly a billionaire I would...
Make sure that my family had the things they needed, set some aside for my future, and then give the rest to: AICGS :), the Church Missionary and Perpetual Education Funds, Children’s' Miracle Network, etc.

Jobs I've had...
Laundry worker
Nanny
Laundry worker again
Research Assistant
Database Coordinator

Things people don't know about me...
I like to sing "Oh, Holy Night" in the shower at all times of the year
It drives me nuts when I forget to put my watch on in the morning

The Great Bambino

I love living in the DC area because there is so much to do! And if you absolutely can't find anything going on in DC, then there's tons of other great cities just a short drive away. This weekend my friends Saint Mary, Clint - the human GPS, Wayne - the Navigator and I went to Baltimore for "Babe Ruth's Birthday Bash" at the Sport's Legends Museum in Baltimore (I refrained from singing any Hairspray songs out loud, but you can be sure I was singing them in my head).

This museum is literally one of the coolest places I have ever been. We climbed on things, we played soccer, we tried on sports uniforms/equipment and we ate hot dogs and hot wings while doing it..... a sport's junkie's dream.

Mary and Clint even made a new friend who shared with us his vast knowledge about the Colts and Sports Illustrated DVDs.

After the museum closed we walked around the inner harbor and got some cheesecake which nearly put all of us into sugar comas. Mary and Clint even got into a little trouble when they tried to climb down into a boat that was near the street.... needless to say the security guard didn't find it as funny as we did.

All in all a VERY successful adventure, but as I'm sure you all know, it's not what you do, it's who comes with you!!