Living in the Moment

Thursday was a very. long. day.  

Jason was out of town and I had to work, so I got to wake up extra early to get Amelia ready for the day.  Work was especially challenging and included a "vomit situation".  Traffic was awful coming back home.  

But shortly thereafter things started looking up.

You see, Thursday was the day that Jason and I had planned on driving to Columbia to see Mason Jennings.  Maybe you know Mr. Jennings, maybe you don't. He's been described as "one of the best kept secrets in pop music" and you may have heard Christian Bale lip sync two Bob Dylan songs that Jennings sang for the movie, "I'm Not There".  If you don't know him at all, consider checking him out. Seriously, I love this man.

Okay, so, with Amelia at GG and Papa's house, we were Columbia-bound by Thursday evening.  We stopped for dinner and rolled into town with only about 20 minutes to spare before the opening band took the stage at the Blue Note.  We found my college friends, Lynn and Debbie who had scored some front row balcony seats.  And from the balcony, we could clearly see my brother-in-law, Dave and his friend, Travis who were also in attendance at the concert.  They were the ONLY people on the floor by the stage, staking their shot smack dab in front of Mason's microphone.

Now, the "opening band" consisted of one Zach Gill, perhaps best known as Jack Johnson's pianist.  Over the summer, when Jason and I saw Jack Johnson in KC, Zach sang a song or two and we both thought he was really good.  When we heard he was opening for Mason Jennings we were excited, and Mr. Gill did not disappoint!  Not only did he sing and pay the keyboard, he also used the ukulele and accordion to enhance his vocals.  My favorite song from his new CD is one called "Bettina", a true and colorful description of a past landlord of his.  In fact, he was so great that my Dave decided to buy his CD following the show.  But, more about that later.....

After a short intermission, Mason took the stage and was outstanding.  I enjoyed about 2 seconds of his performance from the balcony seat, another 45 seconds from the floor near the back, before shimmying my way up to where Dave and his friend were located and enjoying the rest of the performance about 28 inches from Mr. Mason Jennings himself.  Despite my earlier teasing of Dave for staking out his spot so early when no one else was around, he was kind enough to let me get in front of him.  I was so close that I could have touched Mason's size 15 shoes.  I rested my beer on the stage.  I could lean over slightly and read the set list hidden behind the speaker (and blab it to anyone who would listen behind me).  

The best part of the evening was when Mason sang my favorite song, "Crown" followed by my second favorite song, "Jackson Square".  After a quick bathroom break and urging my friends to join me up by the stage, Mason belted out "Be Here Now" which reminds me of my days in Chicago.  

(Warning, Flashback Ahead)  

Mason's CD, Boneclouds, did not leave my car's CD player during our entire stay in Chicago.  Since I always started the CD at the beginning (on my favorite song of the CD), by the time I hit Lake Shore Drive, "Be Here Now" was right in the meat of the song and I will forever associate it with beautiful Lake Michigan and feelings of adventure mixed with homesickness.  Once the possibly of moving back to St. Louis came up, the song became even more powerful to me.

"the point"--our favorite spot to hang out by the Lake

(As a side note, I am about 85% sure that Mason Jennings winked at me during this song.  It could be that he had something in his eye at the exact moment he looked at me, but I prefer to think the former.  Never mind that he really didn't smile, wink, or make eye contact with anyone other than his band members during the entire performance.  Well, the band members and me, that is).

After Mason's 3 song encore, the place cleared out super fast.  Dave and his friend took off to another bar, while Lynn, Debbie, Jason, and I chatted a bit.  Within minutes, Zach Gill appeared from a side door and was immediately accosted by a group of young ladies.  We immediately called Dave, who I know would want to have his CD signed.  Dave reemerged, Debbie and Lynn went to grab a late dinner, and the rest of us waited for Zach to finish signing the ladies' CDs, ticket stubs, t-shirts, and whatever else they could find.

In the meantime, Dave decided he would have Zach sign the CD to me and I would buy a copy for him at a later date.  When it was our turn, Zach was great about signing the CD and taking loads of pictures with us.  We talked to him for about 15 minutes about a wide range of topics: like the age of his daughter (he sang a song about her at the concert), his wife's desire to "make another baby" when he returns from this tour, his feelings about Bonnaroo and the embarrassing moment he had backstage with Eddie Vedder, Mason's size 15 shoes (this was initiated by looking at the size of Jason and Dave's shoes), what it was like for his family to tour with him this summer, and how he sees Mason's current tour like a "Men's Retreat" since all of the musicians are about the same age and have families and children.  It was more like we were talking to our next door neighbor or an old high school friend instead of a multi-millionaire musician who has rubbed shoulders with some of my favorite artists. Very cool.

By then, it was a little past midnight and Jason and I decided it was time to head back to St. Louis.  Stopping only twice for bathroom breaks, we made it home and in bed shortly before 2 AM.

Long day, indeed!  But it was definitely worth it!

As a side note, if you choose to check out Mason Jennings' music, might I suggest:

Crown

Jackson Square

Be Here Now

Your New Man

I Love You and Buddha Too

Butterfly

Lemon Grove Avenue

If you Ain't Got Love

Living in the Moment

(I could go on and on, but I will spare you)

There and Back

We're back!  We had a fabulous time in Kansas City.  We were there for about 24 hours when it was all said and done, but it was a 24 hours well spent, for sure.

We had lofty goals to be up by 7:00, Amelia dropped off by 7:45, on the road by 8:00.  In reality, we were up at 8:30, Amelia dropped off at 9:20, and on the road at 9:55.  We had planned to meet my cousin Laura and her little man, Evan for lunch, but obviously missed the boat on that one.  We ended up rolling into KC about 1:45.  We checked into our hotel (which we once again secured through priceline for a decent price) and walked around a bit to check out the area. While walking around we came to realize that our hotel was connected to Crown Center, which mostly consisted of small shops and restaurants.  We ate at a so-so tourist trappy place and did some shopping.  Actually, I should probably say window shopping because the only thing we bought was a bag of random sweets from a candy store.  Union Station was across the street from our hotel (and actually connected to it by a large clear, covered tunnel), so we wandered around over there for a bit before heading back to the hotel to rest a little before heading out to the concert. 

view of Union Station from our hotel room

We had noticed while checking in that there were two large tour busses that were not typical passenger busses.  There was a lot of activity around the busses--people getting off and on, coolers getting loaded, etc.  We also noticed several younger, musician-looking (I don't know what made them this, they just were!) people wandering around the hotel and traveling to and from said busses.  So, I wouldn't say we were stalking the busses (or the people for that matter), but we definitely kept them in sight at all time while wandering around the area.  We also were lucky enough to have a room that faced the front of the hotel were the busses were parked.  But, unfortunately, I do not think the busses were those of Jack Johnson, instead I think they belonged to one of the opening bands instead.

We eventually headed out to the concert, grabbing a quick dinner on the way.  There was TONS of traffic heading to the ampitheater and by the time we arrived, there was little parking left.  In fact, we ended up paying $10 to park in a field with grass so high we feared the Corolla may not make it back out.  Then, we hiked about 3/4 mile to the site of the concert.  I was a sweaty, muddy mess by the time we arrived and cursing myself for wearing heels to the concert.  We found our seats, which were incredible, and listened to a little bit of Rogue Wave, the second of two opening bands, before deciding to use the bathroom and get some drinks.  Well, 45 minutes later, I was STILL in line for the restroom and by then we had both decided it might be too risky to put anymore liquid into our bodies for fear of spending the entire concert in line for the bathroom.  I met some nice ladies in line and even chatted with someone from Kirkwood before finally making it through the line just in time to get back to our seats before Jack Johnson came on.

He.  Was.  Awesome.  That is all there is to it.  Jason and I were both almost giddy during the whole experience.  I have always been a fan, but I think his new stuff is the best yet. He played 26 songs, which was basically all of his good ones, several new ones, and a couple of cover songs as well.  He is super mellow and relaxed up there, so much so that he forgot the words to a few songs (which apparently happens fairly regularly).  He came out for a 6 song encore and ended with a beautiful combination of "Angel" and "Better Together" that was simply amazing!  Needless to say, we both enjoyed the concert very much. Even though our tickets ended up being free, he is definitely someone I would pay to go see in the future.

It was pretty late when we finally got back to the hotel, so we slept in on Saturday morning, watched some cable TV we don't normally get to see, and then headed to the City Market, the region's largest farmer's market.  It was a beautiful morning.  We grabbed some breakfast there and bought tons and tons of produce.  The prices were decent and many vendors offered samples of their produce which made it virtually impossible to walk away without wanting to bring some home.  We ended up with zucchini, squash, watermelon, grapes, lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, and corn.  After the market we headed back to the car for the journey home.

I think it was the combination of watching Jamie Oliver on the Food Network that morning and visiting such a wonderfully abundant produce market shortly after that led Jason to come up with an elaborate dinner menu for Saturday evening.  We asked my parents to come over as a thank you for watching Amelia and shortly after returning home, Jason went straight to work preparing a delicious dinner for all of us.  The menu included a tomato/basil/mozarella salad (similar to what Jamie Oliver made on his show on Saturday morning), grilled chicken with mango, cucumber, and cilantro relish, grilled corn with herb butter, multigrain bread, and fresh watermelon for dessert.  I cannot even express into words how good this meal was!  I am seriously considering getting cable just so Jason can get inspired more often ;)

Kansas City seems like a great place to visit and we plan on returning soon with Amelia.  Everywhere we looked there were kids enjoying themselves.  Kids were playing in the fountains, watching the jugglers at the market, eating at a restaurant where a train delivers your meal, and there were even kids at the concert--lots of kids!  As an added bonus, Amelia already has built-in playmates in KC since she has four second cousins living there!

And We're Off!

In less than 24 hours, Jason and I are taking off to Kansas City for the weekend to see Jack Johnson!  These tickets were part of Jason's 30th birthday present (back in April) and it seems like we've been waiting for this concert for a very LLLLLLOOOOOOONNNNNNNGGGGGG time.  So, after a trip to the park this morning, Amelia and I have been busy trying to pack and get ready.  

As you can see, I've had plenty of help.  Although, I've yet to break it to Amelia that she won't be coming along :)

Redemption

On Tuesday this week, Jason and I decided after going back and forth that, yes, in fact, we would like to see John Mayer this year.  Thanks to my dad, by Thursday morning, we had 4 VIP tickets, a VIP parking pass, and access to the VIP club (the best part of which is the VIP bathrooms where the VIPs do not have to wait in line because there is no line!). Thanks Dad!

If you are wondering why we were undecided about whether or not we wanted to see Mr. Mayer this year, its hard to say.  We are both John Mayer fans, own numerous CD's of his, and have seen him 2 other times.  But, last year when we saw him, we didn't really enjoy the concert too much.  Maybe it was all the annoying faces he makes!  Maybe it was the crummy weather that night. Maybe it was that he was in desperate need of a haircut that night.  Maybe it was that the songs he sang, would not have been the songs I would have chosen.  Maybe I had lost respect for him because he was dating Jessica Simpson at the time. 

But, I must say, he redeemed himself this year.  Not only is he dating a much more respectable, Jennifer Aniston (who was rumored to have been at the St. Louis concert backstage), but he was also trimmed up nicely, and sang many of my favorite songs.  (Including a funky version of Daughters, which I've never heard him perform).  The weather was perfect, considering it was early July--I was actually chilly despite wearing a sweater!  And to top it off, his annoying faces seemed to be under control!  I think the camera man just chose not to focus on them as much and instead spent a lot of time focusing on his amazing guitar handy work instead.

All in all, it was a wonderful night and we were fortunate enough to share the experience with one of my fellow mommy friends, Amy, and her husband, Trey.  I sent an email out Thursday morning stating we had extra tickets, offering them up to the first person to email back that could use both tickets.  Amy replied in an astounding 2 minutes after the email went out! We grabbed some dinner and drinks beforehand, although I think that some of us partook in more drinks than others.  (I believe I said something about Air Supply being "magical" ?!?! ).  Either way, it was a wonderful night and I'm so glad they could join us! 

And, I will be looking forward to seeing John Mayer next year!