Sorry I've been a total slacker lately on the blog front.

However, there's lots of exciting news today!

Last night I saw TRAVIS in Philadelphia! It was an AWESOME concert -- they played a lot of their new stuff, but songs from all the old albums too. We were super close to the stage and I got to watch and laugh at Dougie, their bassist. He cracked me up, the way he was tapping his extremely skinny leg to the music and just kind of grinning. Trip and I went last night and got there around 8:40 pm. The show was supposed to start at 8 pm, so we thought that the opening act hadn't gone on yet...meaning that it was going to be a late night with the drive back to Baltimore still ahead. But Travis went on instead! I didn't really realize it until midway through their intro. We got up and started walking towards the front and this guy came up from behind us and put his arms around me and Trip. I thought it was a random guy, but then I noticed the bassist (he's the most recognizable, being taller and blonde) coming up. Then Trip realized that Fran Healy had put his arms around us! Squee!! I've been touched by Travis! The show was great -- they played for about an hour and fifteen minutes and then did an accoustic/non-accoustic encore, which included "Flowers in the Window," "20" (not my favorite, it's a hidden track on the US version of The Man Who), and "Why Does It Always Rain on Me?" I did the interpretive dance that Jenny, Kelly, and I made up back in 2000 when we saw them open for Oasis. It was a GREAT night. And I bought a T-shirt (of course!) -- from their new music video "Selfish Jean" that says "Music. Art. Jaffa Cakes." on the front and "Travis" on the back. Wee! And I'm not tired today, despite getting home at 1 am! Life's good.




The past few weeks have been super busy though. We met with our pastor on Tuesday for some wedding ceremony planning. I will also be involved with Confirmation again next year, and it looks like Trip will be too, to some extent. But it's really neat to start thinking about the whole service. It's the part that will probably stick with us the longest -- the whole vows and everything.

And there was the trip to New York City! It was really good, after a bit of a rough start. We got into Brooklyn and parked and were totally ready to get going on Friday, but had trouble with directions. Mainly, finding either the Brooklyn Bridge or Grimaldi's Pizza (which is near the base of the Brooklyn Bridge). We finally managed to find the pizza place, had a small cheese pizza to go, and enjoyed it at the base of the bridge. Tasty pizza, although I'm not a huge fan of the Brooklyn style pizza. It really hit the spot though! We walked across the bridge and meandered through SoHo, Greenwich Village, a smidge of Chinatown, the East Village, and a little of Tribecca. It was a hot day, so we took a couple breaks in Washington Square Park and Union Square Park before meeting Amy and Ana (and yes, we got lost going to dinner) for dinner at a Greek restaurant in Brooklyn.

Saturday we got tickets to see the matinee of 110 in the Shade, a super awesome musical! We had excellent seats, eight rows back. It was a really good old-fashioned musical with some awesome actors -- Audra McDonald as the lead and the guy who played the bartender on Northern Exposure. (Don't remember his real name or his character's name!) The musical made me laugh and cry and I would totally recommend it -- but the show closes at the end of the month, so hurry up! Also, to give away some of the fun at the end, it rains for real! In the theater!

After seeing the show, Amy, Trip, and I wandered around Central Park for a bit before heading back to Brooklyn to the Brooklyn Museum to catch a tiny bit of live music and some the exhibits. It was fun -- and I wish we'd been able to see more music! Then we headed back to Manhattan to see Ana's show (she's folk-rock-singer/songerwriter person) at The Living Room. We got some Middle Eastern food before the show -- I tried farafell, tasty but a little crunchy! Ana's show was fun and we got home kind of late.

Sunday was a relaxing day -- we got dim sum for breakfast at this really fun place in Brooklyn with pink table clothes. Amy picked out stuff for us -- made sure that we just got either vegetable or seafood. Apparently going with meat can be a little sketchy. And after seeing the Asian guys we were sharing the table with get some tripe, I agreed with her! It was super tasty and really fun to see these women pushing around metal carts full of dumplings and other tasty snacks. My favorite was a sesame ball with sweet rice paste in the center. Trust me, it tasted better than it sounds. Afterwards, Amy showed us the view of Manhattan from the Sunset Park in Brooklyn. Then she got to work and we headed to the Met to get cultured. Trip and I only spent about an hour there, but we managed to see a really interesting exhibit of Frank Stella "Art into Architecture" and modern photographs from their collection. The photographs were my favorites -- they showed very ordinary things from life that the photographers had managed to find something interesting in and could get this across to me, the viewer. I wish I had the eye for detail that they did! Although it took longer than we thought it was going to, Trip and I went to the Magnolia Bakery in the Village to get some cupcakes. They were quite tasty, although I don't know if I would buy the red velvet cupcake again. Frosting is what I look for in a cake, and the red velvet frosting was a little lighter and fluffier than their ordinary buttercream, which was divine!

We finally got on the road back to Baltimore around 6:20 and I was home by 10 pm. But on Monday morning I was feeling totally overwhelmed and tired from all the activity. So I ended up taking a personal day and staying home. It was very relaxing -- a good change from the hustle and bustle of our vacation -- and I managed to get some things done (grocery shopping, cleaning).

Tonight looks like it should be fairly relaxing. We're going to check out an apartment in Towson, but that's it!

Hopefully the next update won't be so long, but I've just had so much exciting stuff happen recently!