[ Thursday, June 22, 2006 ]
Ohh. I've been on cloud 9.
The Ani DiFranco concert at Moonlite Gardens in Cincinnati was amazing. The tickets were all general admission so after standing in line for about an hour and a half we entered the gardens & headed directly for center stage. We were in the equivalent of the second row. It was just amazing. I don't know that I can really put it into words, but seeing her performing live was the best birthday gift I've ever received. When she came on stage & started playing the guitar, I teared up. It was unbelievable.
The ride up there not so fun. It was so hot. Even with all the windows down, it was oppressive. By the time we got home last night, our legs were weak after standing in one spot for so many hours & we were stinky & absolutely wet with sweat. After thirteen hours of sweating all your body fluids out, nothing holds up. Nothing.
We made it home around 1:30 last night.
But it was at least 2:30 before we unwound & could go to bed.
Dave had a good time & I was so happy that he did.
As amazing as these last few shows have been, with Ani (second row) last night & The Black Crowes (third row) last month, I can see how it would be so easy to sell what you own & just follow the band.
It just takes you to a different place.
But tonight I'm in my usual place. In front of this computer with the dryer running its hardest, a heap of clothes beside me in the laundry basket waiting to be folded & the washer lid up waiting for another load.
The attempt to eliminate filth is important. (A half-hearted scribble that never really made its way into a poem.)
We're packing, trying to get everything together so we can leave for Berea tomorrow for Billie's wedding. Packing for the weekend is hard enough as it is. Packing everything you need for the weekend plus everything you need to be a bridesmaid is awful. I've got a list a mile long.
But I'm having fun tonight.
My playlist has grown over the course of the evening.
I started out with some Iron & Wine & now it's just gotten crazy. Neil Young. Canned Heat. Bob Dylan. Willie Nelson. The Band. The Allman Brothers Band. Buffalo Springfield. Johnny Cash & little George Jones thrown in. God we're rocking tonight!
So many good songs. I love it.
I love how they just take you back in time. To a certain moment. To a specific parking lot. To one person. Or maybe just a period of time in your life. A decade. A year. A month. A second.
Here's a line from last night that just floored me. Even with the heat I had chills.
"just show me a moment that is mine
its beauty blinding and unsurpassed
and i'll forgive every moment that went by
that left me so half-hearted cuz i felt it so half-assed."
That line just grabbed me by the shoulders & said "Listen, girl. Listen hard."
And I have.
I've been listening to that song today & thinking.
Thinking.
Thinking.
Thinking.
Last night I read a review of one of Ani's early albums, Little Plastic Castles. And one line in the review read 'Even if you're not a fourteen-year-old girl with issues, listen to this album.'
Isn't that all we are sometimes. Underneath everything. Sometimes we're still just fourteen-year-old girls with issues. Twelve years old. Eight years old. I think even when I'm old, I'll still feel like a little girl sometimes.
I hope so.
Playing 'Ring Around the Rosies' with Cody & Alana this week made me feel alive. Watching Cody laugh when he fell & try to say 'again' through the laughter--that made me feel alive.
And I loved it.
It didn't leave me half-hearted at all.
Cuz I didn't feel it half-assed.
~ Rebecca 10:37 PM [+]
