Cowboy Boots at the Winspear

I love blogging at work. It imparts that sense of doing something illicit without actually breaking the rules. But, on to the update.

This weekend was fantastic. In fact, the only way it could have been better was if I hadn't had to work, and thus could have gone to Calgary. Hey, hey, calm down, I haven't lost my mind - we all know that Calgary isn't a place I would ever actually CHOOSE to be - but, Calgary's Folk Fest was this weekend, and traveling down there would have afforded me the opportunity to see Ani Difranco live in concert twice in two days. Yes, that's right - this was the weekend of the much anticipated Ani concert at the Winspear Centre. And oh my goodness, what an incredible night.

First, That 1 Guy opened. Now, for all those of you who haven't heard of him, don't fret - neither had I until Friday night. And I honestly have absolutely no words to describe his act, except to say that I really, REALLY liked it, and y'all should check him out. I can now say I've seen someone play an electric cowboy boot, at the Winspear no less. Bragging rights, thou art mine!

On to Ani. Well, for those of you who know her, you already either love her or hate her. There are surprisingly few people of my acquaintance whose opinions of her music fall between the extremes. For those of you who don't know her, she's somewhere between folk and acoustic punk, full of political diatribes and intense guitar. In fact, she plays her guitar so hard that this tour has already been cancelled once; she was experiencing severe problems with her right hand, the nature of which I am not exactly certain. Something akin to carpal tunnel, though.

Injuries notwithstanding, she put on an incredible show, including one of her well-known spoken word pieces and a good dose of the dialogue with the audience for which she is famous. Actually, one audience member was, perhaps, somewhat too enthusiastic in expressing her adoration for the folk singer - it made for some pretty funny moments in the concert, though. Still, to that anonymous woman: next time, shut the hell up and let the woman sing! It's what we all came for!

The standing ovation before the encore was absolutely deafening. I have never hear Winspear so loud - it was a great deal of sound enclosed in a (relatively) small place engineered particularly for its acoustics. And Ani came out to do one of her more popular tunes for her encore, and the crowd got louder, improbable as it seemed. Actually, one of the highlights of the entire show for me was that encore; she actually popped her D-string in the middle of the song, and finished it anyways, re-tuning her guitar on the fly. Now that, my friends, is showmanship.

At any rate, the remainder of the weekend was rounded out by working a surprisingly busy shift yesterday, followed by an equally surprisingly slow one today, interspersed with my mum's birthday celebrations, which were alright if a little underplanned. Tonight I'm driving her back home to Cold Lake, so that I can drive home at 6 AM tomorrow, stop at my house to grab my uniform, and head off to work. However, looming on the horizon is my first day off since July 3rd. Believe it or not, I'm actually looking forward to spending the entire day in my laundry room.

Man, do I ever need a vacation. Speaking of which, I'm heading to Jasper at the end of August (Monday the 28th - Friday the 1st), so if anybody out there has that week off and would like to go camping, or even just like a ride, let me know! I'm woefully lacking in company for the trip.

But, with that, I should probably get back to work. Incidentally, I apologize for the lack of hyperlinks to the pages for Ani and That 1 Guy, I'm on a work computer so I don't have my favourites list handy just now. You can find them both at Righteous Babe Records, though - Ani's own recording label.

At any rate, hope you all had as great a weekend as did I. I will, perhaps, post another update soon if I can find the time!

Long Time Coming

Ok, I know this post is woefully late, especially for those of you who read the Ninja's blog also. But, in deference to the Dorklord, I'm updating my blog. (On a side note, Brent, I know it was unconscionable of me to request an update from YOU and then be so tardy in one of my own. But, I've been busy. Read on to find out why!)

I've started my summer job. IT'S AWESOME! I'm working in a drop-in program for kids age 6-12, and we get to have so much fun every single day. It's been tough this week because it was so bloody hot, and it's going to be hot for a while yet, but that's ok becuase I do have access to water fountains and bathrooms at the park I'm posted at. So, it's all to the good.

A summer job like this one, however, requires certain adjustments to one's wardrobe. I haven't spent large amounts of time outside during the summer in several years, so I had to go buy some shoes. I spent a bit more than was probably prudent, but I consider shoes a long term investment. So, shoes: check. Next, I needed some shorts. I hate shorts. I am aware that actually wearing shorts would get me a tan, which would do a great deal to lessen my hatred of my legs, but it's a vicious cycle. So I picked up some boy's knee-length surf shorts, which (as it turns out) were perfect on several counts: they weren't so short that I really, really hated them, they're technically swimming shorts so they're lightweight and fast drying, AND they have cargo pockets so I can carry my phone and keys and bandaids with meat all times. So they turned out to be an excellent buy.

And then I had to buy a sports bra.

Now, I hate shopping in general. When I'm shopping for somebody else, at least it's kind of fun to look at things and try to imagine that person's face as they open up the... whatever it is I've bought them. That's fun. But shopping for myself is just a chore - I'm VERY picky, I know exactly what I like, and it makes me a difficult customer. Ask anybody who's been shopping with me. As a result, I tend to view shopping for myself with no small amount of dread. And my experience trying to find a sports bra is a perfect example of why.

First, the assumption seems to be that nobody with a cup size above B even wears sports bras. Actually, that's a fairly reasonable assumption - running, even with a sports bra, is an extremely awkward and painful endeavour for those of us who are considered 'well-endowed'. Nonetheless, the 'regular' type of sports bras are NOT meant for girls of my size. So I had to look at the 'specialty' sports bras (read: expensive) that actually have different cup sizes. And, of course, there were very few in my size even available. Actually, at first (and second) look through, there were NONE. Apparently, the marketing people for these things feel that it's a good idea to put all the big sizes on the very, very bottom of the shelves. Now, I may be biased here, but it seems to me that it would be a good idea to, oh, I dunno, not make the girls with boobs so big they have back problems bend over to look for a bra!

Anyways, I did eventually find one (that I had to shorten the straps on, since sports bras don't have adjustable straps and apparently if you have big boobs they MUST also be saggy) and, thankfully, my shopping trip came to an end. And my job rocks, and my kids are great, and I'm very, VERY tired since I don't get another day off till Aug. 28th. But, I will endeavour to update at least semi-regularly between now and then.

Better, Brent? Do you forgive me?