addicted to mute

growing up in a family where both parents couldn't find the remote fast enough when the commercials came on in order to mute them, i have inherited this characteristic. i am addicted to the mute button. our tv is hooked up to the stereo and the stereo has a mute that just turns the sound way down but not totally silent which i love even more than plain old mute. however, when people are over to watch season finales and such, i often get strange looks when i mute. like, "if it's silent, what are we going to talk about?" looks. tim is the most anti-mute person i've met however and on veg-out evenings there is quite a bit of complaining about the muteing. but i can't help myself. i used to fight it when my parents had the remote but now that it's me, i can't figure out why you wouldn't want to turn down those too-loud commercials.

in regards to real life...aka school...my first couple days have been good. it's nice to break into routines slowly without kids there for a few days and you can remind yourself about all the things you love about teaching. my whole classroom has been revamped with new furniture layouts and faux bulletin boards (wha?) and i love that. i had two major meetings today: one with our new TA in regards to a number of students that she'll be working with - 1hr 20min and one with the PR commitee of which i am the newest member - 1hr 10min. last year i wasn't on a committee (we have a few) but this year with one teacher leaving, there was an opening that required a teacher so i stepped in. i've been appointed secretary with my quick typing skills (haha) so i typed the minutes while the meeting took place. i find when you're the writer, there's less pressure on you to interject into the discussions. this is the number one reason i volunteered regularly to be the writer on the posters in education group work in university. ha. (reason number two? using smelly felts...) anyways...so a chunk of the afternoon was with other people plus coffee breaks (aka iced tea breaks). umm...really, i'm feeling like i haven't gotten that much done. tomorrow will be a more focused day. maybe i'll make a list of goals. maybe i'll schedule my time in raquel units.

muscle maker

yes, that's the name of the granola that i made tonight (recipe from Women's Health). researchers found that vitamin E in the granola's nuts, apricots, and oatmeal, helps speed muscle recovery after you workout too hard.

Ingredients
• nonstick cooking spray
• 3 cup plain oatmeal
• 1/2 cup almonds and hazelnuts
• 1/3 cup sesame seeds
• 1/3 cup honey
• 1/3 cup dark brown sugar,
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoon orange juice
• . Dash of salt
• 1/4 cup dried apricots,


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300 ° and coat a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

2. In a large bowl, mix oats, nuts, and seeds. In a separate bowl, stir honey, sugar, oil, juice, and salt together.

3. Combine the two bowls and spread mixture on the cookie sheet. Bake about 20 minutes or until evenly browned. Let cool.

4. Stir in apricots, then place granola in six airtight ziplock bags for easy retrieval.

some good vibrations

"Vibrations good like Sunkist
Many wanna know who done this
Marky Mark and I'm here to move you
Rhymes will groove you
And I'm here to prove to you
That we can party on the positive side
And pump positive vibes
So come along for the ride
Making you feel the rhythm is my occupation
So feel the vibration"

ahh yes, marky mark. i swear, i tried to find a picture of him in the funky bunch days with a shirt on and it doesn't exist. i played this song today loudly while i cleaned the living room. i went to see Invincible (in theatres now) starring Mark Wahlberg himself. I've been a fan since he did Rockstar. i recently saw a THS (True Hollywood Story) about him and his life and it was so interesting. they were saying that if his brother donny (of NKOTB) hadn't hooked him up with his own agent and helped him get started with the funky bunch, he'd most likely be in jail today with the path he was going. very interesting story. and seriously, who could move away from the pants-dropping underwear model white rapper persona and go onto acting in pretty decent movies? planet of the apes, rockstar, italian job, i heart huckabees, etc. AND when i was googling for pictures, i found out that between now and 2008, he's in 4 more movies coming out. it's a pretty amazing story -- how can you not love marky?

ANYWAYS...so tim and i went with some friends last night to see Invincible and it's a great movie. rated G so you can go with anyone and being based on a true story and about football...you're expecting some major cheesy-ness but actually...they did it really well. a little cheesy but nice. i really liked it. good story. based in the mid 70s so mark has some sweet hair (see pic) and there are a lot of mustaches too. mark has always had some wicked forehead wrinkles but there are a couple scenes where they distracted from the dialogue. umm...not that i base my movies on the main actor's forehead wrinkles though. anyways...worth a see. even if only to see how totally ripped he still is. haha.

in more important news...i go back to school tomorrow. AUGH! i know, i know, teachers shouldn't complain about having only 7 weeks off vacation and how short it is BUT it seriously went by SO fast. too fast. as a kid, i was always ready to get back to school but man. as a teacher? a little different. once i get there tomorrow it'll be good but right now, not so much. i'm excited to meet the new part-time teacher who will be teaching gr.4/5 LA and Math. i guess the other staff must have felt like, "ohh...i hope this new girl will work into the group ok" last year when i was coming but now i'm on that side feeling like, "ohh...i hope this new guy will work into the group ok". i'm sure it'll be good. so stay tuned to new tales from the classroom.

check your wallets...

so in checking my wallet this week, i discovered some gift cards that i'd forgotten were there. in seeing them i thought to myself, "there must just be a couple dollars left on there." nonetheless, when you're not supposed to be spending and you find giftcards, you figure you can find something for a few dollars to spend them on, right? so i go to old navy at the beginning of the week and discover that the card has $30! wow. i bought a skirt then took it back and bought some pants and i'm pretty sure i'm going to take those back too. i don't really like old navy. everything fits a little weird on me. the next store that i hit today was AE. if you remember, i was there the other day and spent $10 on a tube top but i discovered this card after that incident. so the card has a christmasy theme to it and i ask the girl, "i'm wondering if this has any money on it." she looks at it and says, "whoa, this is old." and then launches into a speech about how yada yada a dollar is taken off every month after non-use of 24 months blah blah blah "so there's probably nothing left on it" and i'm just giving her the stare saying, "just check." so she checks it. there was $40!!! how great is that? i'm pretty sure that these gift cards were from my mom (THANKS MOM!) at some time but when you have the card, you're way more careful about what you spend it on because you don't want to waste it right? ok...maybe that's just me. but anyways...apparently i was so careful that i forgot about the cards. happy me to have bought a sheerish white long-sleeved hooded v-neck pullover (use your adjectives kids) from AE today.

is there too much talk about shopping on this blog? when you have full days with no plans, why not walk around a mall or "power centre"?

anyways...off to JLF for some treadmill intervals.

step out

of line if you are buying tickets for step up, the movie where "Every second chance begins with a first step." ahh yes. okay okay...i was very excited to see it with all the dance hype on the ads. the critique? just not enough dancing. way too much attempt at a plot. just dance. i have to admit, i loved the main guy. highlights of the movie are twofold: (1) when the white kid is dancing with his homies in his janitor outfit outside the arts school. yeah right. and (2) all the handshake/slaps that turn into hugs in the hood...does that really happen? because these guys are hugging each other more than i get hugged. other than that, wait to rent. at this moment, i can see you laughing and saying, "i already knew that." but just in case...i'm putting it out there for you.

sunshine coast, there we were

it's official. i've been converted to the coast. i want to live there. it is so gorgeous. now, for those of you who don't know the sunshine coast, it's a part of BC's mainland but you have to take a ferry to get there as there are no roads in. it's about a 40min ferry ride. when you get to the other side, it's just full of little towns who weren't swayed by the stucco revolution in the 90s and have very quaint buildings and town centres. even the starbucks in sechelt has a cool cedar look to it. we were actually in robert's creek which has a "downtown" consisting of a restaurant, coffee shop, library, and general store. the "cabin" that we stayed in(in quotations because it's really a house) is a 1 minute walk to the beach. beautiful. let me break it down in pics.

day one: friday night we arrive on the 5:30 ferry (aka arriving at 6:10) and we have dinner then walk to the beach for the sunset. here we are. (minus judy who's taking the photo)


we started building rock statues. here's tim in action.

this is my artistic attempt at a photo of both my statue plus dad and bro in background.


day two: we went on this mini-hike to find a cache (don't ask if you don't know) and took a few photos. some of them are pretty dark with shadows and such. i upped the brightness on my computer screen and that helped a little. then we headed onto a bigger hike.


katie and i are unimpressed by this display of sea-food.

we headed up the coast to skookumchuck falls where we hike for about an hour to a place where when the tide comes in, it makes these crazy waves that are apparently the thing for kayakers to attempt. there were masses of kayakers who go a little upstream, jump in the kayak, and flost towards this constant wave and then they paddle hard while trying to stay on the wave for as long as possible. it's pretty amazing to watch (that's what we're doing below) and harder to explain. worth the hike.



day three: cleaning up, reading, played a game, ate macdonald pizza out of it's natural environment then went to catch the 7pm ferry. turns out, it was a busy weekend on the coast and everyone was catching the 7pm ferry and we had to wait for the 9:15pm. we played a lot of euchre. we were pretty tired when we finally hit home.



sunshine coast is the place to be and i recommend it to all. you can come stay with us when we live there. haha.

sunshine coast, here we come

this weekend, tim and i, jamie and judy, and matt and katie are all heading over to the sunshine coast to spend the weekend at my parents' friends' cabin. we really haven't done anything like this as a family before so i think it's going to be awesome. (plus i'll have photos at the end with jm's camera...) i'm picking tim up at work at 1:15pm then we're heading into walnut grove to pick up katie then out to downtown van to get matt at work. then we catch the ferry. it's going to be a bit of a crazy directions day as none of us are very inclined that way. but once we get there, it'll be good. :) i have a number of errands to run this morning plus packing so i have gotten up earlier than maybe ever all summer. umm...8:30am. heehee.

here are a couple photos that came up when i google imaged sunshine coast:

i'm a sucker for deals

so i've been "off" shopping for a little while as tim and i work on saving for cars and loans and such but today i found a white button up dress shirt in my closet that had never been worn with the WINNERS tags still on it. hmm... $19.99. i took it back. i probably bought that shirt about a year ago and today i cashed it in. i love the return policy at WINNERS. of course, they only give you a gift card which meant that i should do a little looking around when i got there. the clearance was on and having not been shopping in a good couple weeks, i was ready to hunt. having already worked out this morning and eaten a healthy, well balanced lunch, i was loving everything i tried on. shoot. i limited my purchases to four: a black and gray camo tank for working out, a long black tank with a great neckline, a diagonally navy and baby blue stiped t-shirt with a huge v-neck that is intended to wear something under it, and a long-sleeved light gray AE shirt. (that last one may be going back as it was over $10...unlike the other three at $7-$8 each!) with these wonderful purchases under my belt, i headed out to the mall with something to return at the Bay. i'd bought these journals in a crazy state of mind b/c they were only $11.99 for two (lime and black) with leathery covers but...who needs another journal? not me. (i have a blog...haha) anyways. i stand in line thinking about where i can go and spend this credit of $11.99 when the i get to the front and the lady tells me that i can't return them because it's been more than 90 days. WHAT? how annoying. well not getting my credit doesn't make the problem of a shirt to go under the huge v-neck shirt less pressing so i head on out to AE to check out the sales. there were these reversible tube tops for sale at the beginning of the summer for $34.95 (or something) that i loved and wanted but knew that was way too much to spend. then about a month ago, in a sale rack discovery, i found some of the white ones left over but it was too small and so very sad. well today there were NAVY ones! navy is in fact the perfect colour of the day so i got the tube top i'd wanted for only $9.95. gotta love it. and so ends the shopping tales of the day.

however...in dance news...BENJI WON! what a finale. ang came over and we danced to nelly furtado in all the commercials. how can you watch so you think you can dance and not want to dance yourself? tim joined us for a couple but hurt his back at the driving range today so his moves weren't as stellar as usual. nonetheless, it was a party.

mr. gray

liz and i attended a david gray concert last night at deer lake park. what a perfect night for an outdoor concert! it was gorgeous. but the new plan for the next deer lake concert? don't buy tickets. just sit on the other side of the lake where i'm sure you can hear all the music no problem.

anyways. we got in line at 5pm (concert's not til...7:30ish) and the doors opened at 5:45. we walked down the hill and got a fantastic spot for our blankets. we had two large blankets for three of us (a friend of liz was also with us) and really hogged our space. i've never been to an outdoor concert before so as the time got closer to concet time, i hadn't realized that people just showing up would be walking way up to the frnt where we were and finding tiny patches of grass to settle on even if the personal space is way too close. we had no issues though because our huge blanket. heehee.

david gray is the kind of concert that you relax at on your blanket...however, the people in front of us got the idea they should stand up. we couldn't see for a long time because we didn't want to stand up. when he left the stage then came back for his encore, we decided to stand. the encore was about 50 min! it was great.

the band all had suits on plus there's one girl who played the cello in a lot of songs and she was wearing a really nice strapless dress.

if you haven't listened to david gray before, i recommend him to anyone no matter what genre of music you enjoy. he's good mellow listening but not soft rock. he plays the piano and the guitar and switched back an forth. i'm so impressed by people who can do that.

it was a great concert.

camping sans photos

yes, camping was good. we've returned safely. we took along a professional photographer since my camera is still lost. haha...we took her along for other reasons as well...one being that she's fun. ang came along last minute too. good times for the four of us in manning. in tim style, let's recap:

we leave super late from abbotsford.

stop in chilliwack for wendys.

get to manning at 11pm.

no spots left in the main campground (with the bathrooms).

go up the road to "Hampton" and set up at a lesser campground (with outhouses eww).

get firewood and make a fire.

make smores.

sleep 4 people in a 4-person tent. it was bursting at the seams. it never got less funny everytime we were in there.

"good morning" lady wakes us up too early to get money for the site. we were very annoyed.

ang and matt make fire and eggs and bacon for breakfast.

head to the day beach at the regular campground.

hike mt. frosty. super steep.

a few hours in ang and i turn back because we've seen the views we need to see and are ready to be finished.

lay on the beach staring at people.

matt and tim return after trail running the entire way down. an hour and half for ang and i to come down...30 min for the boys to come down.

competetive bocci. tim&ang vs. matt&bec

dinner in princeton because i forgot the hamburger patties. chinese food. it was great.

sit around the fire/lay in tent with head sticking out, listening to tim stories. haha.

sleep 4 people in the 4-person tent. haha.

"good morning" lady returns but this time, tim and i are up already. still annoying but to a lesser degree.

tim and bac make fire and pancakes for breakfast.

clean up camp.

matt has an ash incident.

head to the day beach again. it's hot out.

hike around the lake is vetoed unanimously.

lay on the beach/play frisbee/throw the football/stare at people making up stories of their lives.

eat "lunch" consisting of grapes, bananas, pudding, yogurt, rootbeer, diet coke, iced tea, tostitos, salsa, ritz, trail mix, nature valley bars, and fruit leathers.

competetive bocci round two: no shirt guy and bikini girl vs. hat guy and pink tank girl. (these would be the people watching and making up stories about our lives names for us...can you guess who's who?)

head home. matt and ang sleep the entire way.

camping is over.

look for pictures of this event at a later date...or on angela's blog maybe.

samich

there's an commercial for McDonald's on the radio right now (because that's all i can listen to in the old boat - i know all the commercials) talking about some new sandwich and the girl is "interviewing" people to find out why they like it. you know this commercial. well, she keeps saying "samich" but she says it so fast that i've heard this ad numerous times before i noticed it. then yesterday, i heard it and i was thinking, "did she say samich?" and then the radio dj comes on and says, "did she just say samich?". it was good to know that it wasn't just me who'd heard it. listen for it.

in other news, tim and i are going camping with matt this weekend in manning. no, we haven't made a reservation and yes, we came up with this plan tonight but i think it's going to work out well. i'm a big fan of car camping. you can take everything you need with you. for example, tim wants to take peanut butter and jam sandwiches on the hike that we'll do on saturday and suggested we make them tomorrow. i said, we can just bring the pb and j with us and make them at camp on saturday. because we can. plus the luxury of bathrooms? i just can't go without it.

sad news though...my camera is officially lost. last time i had it was at kara's on scrapbooking day then i took to WR to upload the photos (which you saw) and now it's nowhere to be found. i'm hoping that by openly admitting that it's lost, it will now appear in the dumbest place that i should have looked in first. this is what usually happens when i lose something. it's gone forever and when i finally admit that it's lost, it reappears. maybe it'll happen again. but i guess this means no camping photos. shoot.

the final chapter: the run

the title of this post should really be called "the run" in quotations because i mostly walked.

and that's really all there is to the story. every so often i'd tell myself, "run to the next curve in the road" and i would but i was so unbelieveably tired after the bike that i wasn't ready to run. something to work on for next time. i saved up enough energy to run the last little stretch because no one wants to walk across the finish line, right? so i made it. under two hours.
getting my medal and removing my time chip
angela and i
dad-dad-daddio

(notice the medal never leaves my hand in any of these shots. haha)

part two: the bike

and away i go.

the first part of the bike ride is along the side of a highway so that's a little sketchy. i was riding a mountain bike and all these people on road bikes were whizzing past me. "on your left!" i tried not to let this get me down.

finally i crossed the highway and headed up the part of the course that was a less used road. as it turns out, the course is not as flat as i had remembered. i guess when you're in a car driving on the road, it seems flat but there was quite a bit of slow incline. unfourtunately, i'd been mostly training on flat courses. my legs were tired very soon into the 20km.


so i'm riding along when the paparazzi come up beside me in a pink jetta. oh wait! it's ang and judy hanging out the windows with their cameras. it was pretty funny. as you can see by the picture, i'm still able to smile at this point.

angela had put a squirt bottle in the bottle thing on the bike but as i was dying of thirst, it occurred to me that i hadn't practiced getting the bottle out while riding. my first attempt was pretty wobbly and i couldn't pull it out. second attempt, i slowed down a little and was able to get it out. i only pulled it out a couple times on the route despite being thirsty. people were still passing me fairly consisently as my legs were getting heavier and heavier. a lady with a basket on her bike and wearing a paisly dress passes me. that was a pretty low point.

as you're riding up the road, people who were way ahead of you are riding down the road toward you. so you're seeing how many people are in front of you. this stream of people seemed never ending and i still hadn't reached the turn around. when i thought i may never reach it, a guy riding towards me must have seen the desperation in my face and yelled out, "you're almost there!" thanks to tattoo boy for that!

on my way back down the road, i have to admit that i was happy to see that there were still people riding towards me. i was not the last one! i called out, "you're almost there!" to someone and kept going. now the running portion of the race also takes place on this road -- people run up the road then back down the road. so as i hit the 2.5km marker where runners turn around, i begin to see the people running toward me. in fact, as i ride down the road, i'm passing runners who are also going down the road! that's how much faster they were.

finally i round the bend and can see the end of the biking portion. i can hear my dad cheering on the people ahead of me. "Go number 35! Go number 248!" when he sees me he begins cheering, "Go 127!" afterwards, he told me that he thought i was going to fall off my bike, i looked so tired. i guess the smiling was no longer possible. my shorts that i'd bought two day prior and had never worn before were riding up (as you can see in the picture) and were driving me crazy. i now know why bikers wear spandex. i ride down the little hill to where the bikes are parked and there are what looks to be hundreds of bikes already there. my mom and ang are sitting in their lawn chairs and are suprised when i appear. my mom calls out, "i'll take your bike!" and when i look over, she's snapping pictures. apparently, i was a little rude in saying, "are you gonna take my bike or what?" i plead fatigue. :) she grabs it (thanks mom!) and i turn around and run through the finish line to start my 5km. the winner of the race is running towards me and calls out, "go get 'em!" to me. it's the motivation i need.

i run past jamie yelling "Go 127! You can do it!"...

part one: the swim

i had decided that "all i had to get through was the swim and the rest would be fine".

in the envelopes that i got when i checked in there was a flourescent green swim cap. in my mind, i thought, "haha, a memento." panic strikes in at 9:50am when the organizer calls out to everyone, "put on your green caps and come down to the water's edge for instructions!" jamie was running for the envelope that i'd left in the van! apparently, we were all supposed to wear them. he got the cap in time. thanks dad!

listening to instructions: swim out to and around buoy #1, then swim across to buoy #2, parallel to the shore and then back to #1 then back to the shore. it was like a figure eight in the water. are you imagining this? let me tell you, these buoys are way farther apart then you are imagining. way farther. (you can't see buoy #2 in this pic) the saving factor? the water level in the lake was so low that i could touch this far out and still be only up to my chin. this meant that when i got tired of my doggy paddle, i could touch the ground and walk for a little ways. thank goodness.

there was technically no doggy paddle but there was no front crawl either. i did some front crawl with head above water, some poorly performed breast stroke, some backswim, and some side scissor kick. (i might have made some of these titles up). next year, my goal is to be better at swimming and actually put my face underwater. however, i was glad that i was wearing my goggles because a lady in front of me started kicking so hard and splashing so violently that i got a lot of water in my face.

only panic-y moment was the when i accidently swallowed some water and started to choke. if i hadn't been able to touch the bottom i would have been waving for the kayakers to come help me. i stood still and coughed up a lung before being able to continue the swim.

when i came out of the water, angela said that i didn't even seem concerned about the next leg. i didn't run towards my bike...i walked. she said that it was like i thought the race was finished. then when i got to my bike, i took some time to towel off while people around me are in high gear. finally she yelled at me, "quit drying off and get your shoes on!" and i remembered what was next. she helped dry my feet while i pulled on my clothes over my suit. next time, i need to bring a little bucket of water like everyone else to clean the mud and guck off my feet before putting on my socks and shoes.

i got the helmet on and rode away...

to be continued...

nothing on my plate

literally. i have no ideas for dinner.

but actually that statement describes my day. this morning i was up at 7am to see tim off on his hiking trip with his buddy ryan. they're going to be gone until monday. yes...he's missing the triathalon this saturday. unbelieveable i know but he did actually have this hike planned before i signed up for my triathalon. i called my brother in law to find out if i could use his van on saturday to get my bike to the race and he was totally stunned that tim wasn't going to be there. he's like, "don't worry -- we'll get you to that race." nice to have family around. my parents will be going with me so i'll have someone to hold me towel and running shoes for me. :)

anyways...back to the day's events. up at 7am then back to sleep. the phone rings at 8am and leave it figuring the person will leave a message. they don't. that's so annoying. then it rings again at 8:05am. i answer it. it's our tenant asking me to reboot our internet router because the internet's not working. ok...at 8am? so then i go back to bed and i'm feeling a little sad about tim being gone for 5 days so i just lay in bed all morning. because i can. i'm finally finished little altars everywhere and have moved onto it's sequel, divine secrets of the ya ya sisterhood. yes, i never read them when the movie came out so i'm attempting now.

at noon, i ate lunch and watched people's court which is my favourite day time television show and i will argue vehemently that these people are not white trash despite what tim says.

i finished a unit plan for my solar system unit and i went to the teacher store and bought a few unit books (solar system, plants, and exploring Canada).

i went to the bank (holla to rs for TD) and deposited 50 rolls of pennies (from my penny drive back in...umm...february) and worked out a little issue i had with the adding of two cheques that i deposited yesterday. heehee...shorted myself a few hundred dollars. why don't they have calculators at those bank machines? they expect us to be adding whizes?

then i got a pedicure - bubblegum pink.

then i went to winners and bought a pair of shorts for race day to wear over my bathing suit. yes, i'm planning to wear my bathing suit for the biking and running portion of the race and i'm not sure how that's going to turn out. i also got an adidas jacket that i love and most definitely don't need. but paln to wear a lot.

after that, i went to the public library to return a few books and while i was there, i realized that, "i could rent movies here for free!". i think i may have discovered a wonderful way around the $4.50 that it costs even for a an old release at rogers or blockbuster. request your movies at the library. see...i often want to rent movies that tim doesn't so they get put by the wayside until he goes away and i go and rent them. sometimes you forget what moview you wanted to see though. plus, if you've seen a movie once a long time ago and you want to see it again but don't want to pay the money, you can request it! now, you have to request knowing that you're not going to get these movies on the day that you want them or even on a weekend that my husband is away BUT at least if i'm getting them for free, maybe he'll want to watch it with me. haha. of course, i'm number 300 to have requested Bewitched (with nicole and will) and number 193 for collateral (with tom and jamie) but i don't care when i see these movies. just that i'm paying nothing for them. i'll just wait until they show up! where they get me though is in late fees. is this all too much information about requesting movies?

anyways, my plate is now full because i'm going to langley for dinner at the chaletswiss with matty. yep, just the siblings because my parents are out of town and his girlfriend is unavailable. i can't wait to eat chicken.

benji and heidi dance it up

oh you know those names if you watch So You Think You Can Dance...benji has got to win. as goofy as he looks in this pic, he's a star! he's a swing dancer and that's all he danced until this competetion and as it turns out...he is great at every type of dance! man, i love this show. it makes me want to dance. finale next wednesday.

not just tom...

well, what a concert. first of all, it wasn't at the gorge. tim made that up in his head and convinced himself that it was true. dave obviously wasn't that clear about where it was but he definitely never said gorge. we don't know where that communication broke down but it caused some unnecessary stress on my part because i knew it took 4 - 5 hours to get there yet dave kept telling us it was only 3 hours and tim was taking dave's side. anyways...it took us 3 hours because the concert was at the White River Amphitheatre in Auburn, WA. still outside but it has partial seating and partial covering. we had lawn tickets which are at the top of the theatre but they upgraded us to level 2 seats which was awesome. unfourtunately...another cause of stress before we left...i couldn't find my camera so that was sad. no pictures of the concert.

well tom is looking old but he still has some great moves in his leather pants and sparkley jacket. i don't exactly know that many petty songs BUT the concert was really a "greatest hits" cd...i knew almost every song which was so great. my favourite part was tom playing the maracas. then out comes STEVIE NICKS! and she sang a couple songs with tom. as she leaves the stage, he says, "don't worry, stevie will be back later to sing some more with us." actually, she came back two more times, each in a different weird outfit. the last outfit had a big top hat with feathers sticking out of it. anyways, then tom starts talking about how lots of people cover his songs but the best version of the song they're about to sing was done by Eddie Vedder. "So let's bring Eddie out here to sing it." And out comes EDDIE VEDDER!!! what?!?!?!? it was the greatest concert ever. the encore was tom, stevie, and eddie singing together. oh man.

here are some pictures i could've taken if i'd had a camera. i'm pretty sure that stevie was wearing this outfit for one of her songs.