it's never as bad as it seems.

yesterday, i left the house to run some errands. my car, which has been intermittently sputtering for a while, sputtered and missed so badly that i made the block and came back home. after that, there was some facebook drama and i ended up getting scolded at length by a friend via chat (and i was not in the wrong, but i digress). today the little boy i watch was more interested in crying and screaming than sleeping.

*sigh*

but then again...

yesterday a neighbor and friend of ours had some tickets to last night's sold-out brandi carlile show that he couldn't use. i don't really know brandi's music well enough to attend a concert, but what i know of her, i love. i was a bit hesitant, but jared talked me into going and his wonderful, selfless brother watched alena for us. b/c our friend is in the music biz (check out music city roots and bluegrass underground) we were also hooked up with backstage passes to meet brandi after the show. my first thought was...i'm so not cool enough to meet brandi (or any artist on this level). but again, jared wasn't going to let me out of it. i haven't talked to our friend yet to find out the whole story, but to get the passes, we met a guy at the stage after the show (also in the industry, though we aren't sure what he does). a few other people went back to the greenroom. these people weren't the top fans in her club or anything like that...nope. they were all in "the biz" with something to offer her (example: the people next to us were from the Opry).

short side-story: we wandered down some stairs and through some halls to an institutional-looking room painted green. the lady leading us down flipped on the lights. there were some 8' tables and chairs, and under one of these tables was a 20-something guy in sweat pants and hoodie sleeping on the floor. we thought it was a joke at first. but this guy raised his head, looked at us and laid his head back down. then he realized what was going on and jumped up and left, mumbling an apology. hilarious. he had a badge, so i'm sure he's responsible for some set up/tear down and decided to nap through the show.

brandi is performing at music city roots in the near future. i guess we took the place of our friends and represented the venue for them. i think we did ok and we knew enough about the venues to make the small talk about it, but if i'm not cool enough to meet her, i'm really not cool enough to play off like i have any ties to the industry. but it worked out ok. and of course, our pass-provider was there with us the whole time.

aside from that, this was one of the best concerts i've ever been to. the show was great, but even better, the audience was great. a downside of having so many live music venues in nashville is that people tend to show up to any random show. whether they know or like the performer doesn't really matter. so sometimes you're in a little dive to hear your fav indie band of the moment and there's obnoxious drunk college kids behind you talking and laughing loudly. so many shows have been ruined for me like this. not this show. these people were hard core fans. they all knew the words to every song, but everyone (around me, anyway) quietly sang along so as to not over-ride her voice. in between songs, the place was absolutely silent. they all respected her with an awe that i haven't seen since a sarah mclachlan concert. what a great night.

of course, when we came home, my broken car was awaiting us. so justin helped jared drop it off at the mechanic's last night. i think we found a mechanic we can trust (such a hard feat!) around noon he was done working on it and the damage to our wallet wasn't too bad either. gotta love when it's a simple fix and not something that makes you envy a car payment...

today, though it's cold, the sky is clear blue and the sun is pouring in my windows brightly enough that i don't have any lights on. days like this really lift my mood. though it is a tad depressing when the weather reporters remind us that the average high right now is about 50 degrees....

alena and the boy i watch have both fallen asleep, giving me a nice break. i had a good cup of coffee this morning, a good lunch this afternoon. i have a husband and daughter that are so wonderful. i get to stay home with alena and the world keeps turning.

life is good and i am grateful!