15 Hours in Seattle

So, my trip to Seattle.....

LOTS of driving.

LOTS.

And then more.

Why did I go?

Silly, you know why I went.

I went to go see my girl, Brandi.

I was supposed to see her twice, but only got to once. The story is coming.

Now, as much as I love Brandi and the twins, they are not complete without her drummer, Allison Miller. She is not only the frosting, but the sugar IN the frosting.

Serious.

So after their headliner, they dimmed the the lights. Then Allison snuck up on stage, sat at her drums, and without any notice, went INSANE on the drums. INSANE!!

I think it scared everyone.

And here she is, going CRAZY!!

Oh man, it was SO GREAT!!

THEN, here is the song........

(There are some swears here....)

I WAS SO EXCITED!!!! I have always wanted to see her do Creep Live!

I cant even tell you how AMAZING it was!!!

In this video, she is singing with her sister Tiffany (who is engaged to Phil)

While we were in line, I mentioned to Jen and Cristina (our new friend) that I bet she will bring her sister on stage, since they are playing at home. OH, and MAYBE even her mom.

Guess what, SHE DID BOTH!!

This is Tiffany and Brandi.

I love, love, love, love, love her.

But, you know this.

So, bum deal though. We didn't get to see her perform with the Seattle Symphony. :( Sad.

There was some gnarly weather headed our way, and I DID NOT want to drive in it.

I woke up Sunday morning with 6 different weather alerts on my phone and ALL of them were places we had to drive through.

I just had a pit in my stomach. Leaving was the LAST thing I wanted to do. Well, second to last thing. (The VERY last thing I wanted to do was drive home is gnarly weather.)

So, as I listened to myself say to Jen, "Jen, we cant stay, we need to go."

While the rest of me way saying "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I knew we had to go.

I had been nervous the WHOLE trip about driving home.

I like to believe that I made the smart choice, even though we STILL had to stay the night in Baker City......AGAIN!

Oh Baker City..... I really dont care if I EVER go there again.

INFACT, if I drive to the Northwest again, I will drive straight past Baker City to Pendleton. If I have to break it up, I will stay in Pendleton for the night.

Our first night, we stayed in Baker City. We stayed at Knights Inn.

Oh lala.....

When we got in, I think it was 21 degrees.

We checked in, and sorry, but I could only understand about every 5th word that came from the man behind the desk.

We get up to our wood paneled room and bundled up. IT WAS SO COLD!

It looked like there were about 3 different ways to heat our room. So, I picked up the phone in our room to call the front desk to ask which way I heat our room that was, no lie, 45 degrees.

Im not kidding you when I tell you that the phone in the room, WAS A PROP!

Serious.

There were no hang up buttons.

AND, there was nothing plugged into it.

Yeah. Things were goin' great.

So, I called the number that they had on the pad of paper that they provided.

Apparently, Knights Inn has a call center.

A women answered the phone and I told her what room we were in and we needed to know how to turn on the heat, My Land, THE HEAT!

Mother of all that is warm, I NEED HEAT!

The girl on the other line says, (quite condescendingly, I might add) "Listen, Im not at your hotel, this is a call center."

I say "This dump has a CALL CENTER??"

Her: "........"

Me: "Well, then I bet you have the number to the one that I am staying at. Im in Baker City, Oregon."

She gave me the number. I call it.

Again.... every 5th word is understood.

However, I did understand this part: "If you like, I can come up there and help you figure it out..."

Uh, Thanks, and NO THANKS.

We did what we thought we needed, bundled up, and tried to fall asleep. (Worst night of sleep on a LONG time)

I figured the heat came on around 2 or 3 in the morning.

Nice.

So, as I said....back in Baker City again. I was NOT a happy camper.

Anywho, watch those Youtubes and love her. LOVE HER!

Consistantly Inconsistant

Holla!

Can I just tell you.... I AM SO AMAZINGLY, TRULY, GENUINELY EXCITED!!!

Really, I don't get REALLY excited about much. Day to day stuff just isn't exciting.

Don't get me wrong, I am comfortable in my daily, boring and predictable routine.

Comfortable- VERY

Love it- Not all the time

I have a great job. It really is a good gig. Minimal stress. Casual setting. Great people to work with. As far as jobs go, I have a sweet gig.

BUT- There are the mornings when I wake up and I say out loud "Please...no....not again. I cant do this routine one more time...I cant!"

Then I think really hard.

And then I remember, ITS SATURDAY!

Now, dont think that just because it is saturday, there is anything exciting going on.

Nope. On any given Saturday you can find me cleaning my house. Just so it can stay clean for 3 days. Then it becomes a mess and I do it all over again on Saturday.

Hows that for routine?

BUT- Not this Saturday. Hip Hip Hooray!

I will be in SEATTLE!!

Serious, this little ole Utah girl has wanted to go to Seattle for-EVAR!

The gloomeyness of it. The GREEN. The grunge. And I am positive that Seattle just always smells like coffee. ALWAYS.

Oh man, i am SO EXCITED!

So in this post, I blogged about why im going to Seattle. Remember how I mentioned that we paid 400+% for our symphony tickets?

Well, shortly after I blogged that, I got this email....

Hi,

I read about your unfortunate experience with the symphony tickets on your blog. I just wanted to let you know, in case you didn't already, there is a secret show with Brandi and the Twins on Saturday 11/20 at Neumos in Seattle. Tickets are still available. The show is listed as "The Story Guy and his Band".

https://www.etix.com/ticket/servlet/onlineSale?action=selectPerformance&cobrand=neumos&performance_id=1342018

.

Hope you can make it.

Roberta

(www.againtoday.com)

WHA????

How did this chic know to read my blog? Don't get me wrong.....SO GLAD SHE DID!

Againtoday.com is a fan website for Brandi Carlile.

So, yeah....I've been on it a few times.....what of it?

Anyway, the next day I went online to the venue website.

Sure enough "The Story" guy and his band.....

But, there was no bio for them. I get it, is supposed to be a secret show.

But I wanted to make sure!

So I called the venue.

Ring Ring Ring

Them: Neumos

Me: Hi. I have a quick question.

Them: Sure. What is it?

Me: So, Im looking at your website and the shows coming up.

Them: yeah

Me: Well, Im reading the bio's, but there isnt one for "The Story Guy"and his band....

Them: ................

Me: Hello?

Them: Why are you asking?

Me: Well, as I mentioned just now, you have bios for all the other bands, but not this one. What can you tell me about them?

Them: Well, actually, its a secret show.

Me: Secret show? How is it secret if its on your website? ( I knew why it was secret.....I just like to ask alot of questions)

Them: Well, its a band that is pretty popular in Seattle, so they are doing a show only for those loyal, hardcore fans that would know how to find out that they are doing a secret show.

Me: So, you're talking about Brandi Carlile.....Right?

Them:...................

Me: Hello?!

Them: I cant tell you that.

Me: Well, OBVIOUSLY Im one of those fans you speak of since I just asked the secret question about the secret band.....

Them: Per the contract, I cant say the name of the band. BUT, I can tell you this. Get your tickets.

IM SO EXCITED!!!

AND Brandi was on Austin City Limits on Saturday night.

It was like watching someone I know on TV.

I know, I am pathetic.

I am pretty much a stalker.

Wait, no, im not.

I don't know anything that anyone else couldn't know.

Its not like I know the color of her drapes. Or her route to the gym......past the grocery store and next to the library in the small town she lives in.

Sheesh...its not like I know that she likes to eat brown sugar on her cream o wheat with one boiled egg while she reads the paper (local section first)

THAT would be icky.

Funny Grace story (havent done one for a while)

We went to the dentist today.

I knew that she had at least one cavity. So, I wanted to make sure I used my insurance before things changed the beginning of the year. AND, I wanted to make sure we didn't have to deal with any bigger problems later.

I know, good mom, right?

So, she HATES the dentist. She gets scared. But, we have a great one for her. She gets to watch a movie on the 3-D glasses magigado thingy.

AND, she gets laughing gas.

SHE IS HILARIOUS!

All inhibitions out the window. At one point the dentist was giving her a numbing shot. It was pinchy and it hurt.

Grace was saying "Ow! Owie! Stop. Please Stop!"

The dentist said "Im almost done.....5 more seconds...."

Grace YELLS (with the dentists hand in her mouth, but heard VERY clearly) "DONT LIE TO ME LADY! TAKE YOUR EVIL MACHINE OUTTA MY MOUTH!!"

hahahahahahahaha

The dentist looked at me, I just shrugged my shoulders. Thats my girl.

Then, as the dentist was working on her, and she was watching Tom and Jerry, at one point she started laughing and could not stop. The dentist stopped for a second and asked "Whats so funny Grace?"

Grace responds with sticking her pinky finger in the air and giggles "Look how skinny and little my pinky finger is....I wonder how bendy it is...."

Yeah, she was feelin' good.....