On Thursday we saved Greta the embarrassment of having to someday admit that her first concert was Miley Cyrus or something equally atrocious by taking her to see Old 97's at Party in the Park, which is a yearly free concert series in Rochester that features some local and some national acts. We actually listen to Old 97's (and Rhett Miller), so we jumped at the chance to see them play, for free no less. Music is a huge part of our lives, so Greta's first concert is an important milestone to us. Here is first-day-of-school-style picture before the show.
Greta seemed a little out of sorts by how loud the music was at first (I forgot how loud live shows can be), but after walking around a bit and eating some ice cream, she grabbed our hands, smiled, and led us to the front, and I literally mean the front row. Interestingly, there was a bit of a love connection between the Old 97's bassist and Greta. During the last song, he looked directly at her and smiled and nodded for a good 30 seconds, and then as they left the stage, he waved at her. After he/they left, Greta was clearly upset. If I didn't know better, I would have thought the Beatles had just played.
Greta was crying, hanging onto the fence in front of us, and looking longingly in the distance. Of course the band came back out for an encore, but Greta was a young woman scorned. She looked so sad and mad at the same time and refused to clap after the encore. By the time we got back to the car, though, she was in a better mood and asking to hear Old 97's on the iPod. Personally, I am pleased Greta picked the bassist, who looks sort of like a grown Harry Potter, to crush on rather than the more obvious choice, the pretty-boy lead singer. (Atta girl.) Here is a picture of Pat and Greta enjoying the show.
As an aside, Greta was "this close" to having her first concert be Molly Hatchet, as that was the concert last week.
Over the last few weeks, Greta has been transitioning into a new classroom at day care, a preschool room! The transition, as far as we can tell, has been seamless, and I was thrilled when I picked Greta up on Friday and one of her new teachers reported that Greta is a pleasure to have in class, that she eats well, sleeps well, follows directions wonderfully, and that there is no question that she's ready for preschool. Does this mean I have to stop calling her a "toddler" and start calling her a "preschooler"?
The other milestone this week is that Greta got her first real haircut. After a lot of trepidation (on my part), we decided to take her to a place specifically for children, based on a recommendation from Greta's best buddy Colin. I'm so glad we did. Greta seemed a little stressed out about getting her hair cut until the pretty lady gave her a pink sucker and put Cars on. Here is a before shot of our shaggy dog.
Greta was so good during her haircut.
The little girls get to pick out ribbons for their hair. Greta is actually squealing at this stage of the haircut.
Yesterday we were eagerly awaiting our news regarding the offer we put in on the house. We offered the asking price, and we knew there was at least one other offer that had been submitted. We ended up finding out three hours after we asked them to respond by that they had accepted another offer, one that was "significantly higher" than the asking price. If someone else likes it that much (even with the small-@$$ kitchen ;-)), all I can really do is shrug my shoulders and say, "That's fair." I admit I'm disappointed that things didn't work out with the house, but neither Pat or I thought the house was perfect, so I'm sure I'll be over it soon. Part of me wonders if my disappointment has more to do with me hating to lose than anything else. I'm staying positive about the whole thing, and to show how happy I am for the new potential owners, I've written the following open letter to them:
Dear new owners of the house I really liked:
I hope you like your new house. Good luck in that toy kitchen of yours. I hope you really, really like take-out.
Sincerely,
Frances Q. Reed
Okay, I should probably polish that up a bit more...and maybe wait until I stop feeling bitter.
We didn't let the news put a damper on the fun evening we had planned, luckily. We dropped Greta off at my parents' house and went to Ithaca for dinner/drinks with friends and the Neko Case show (on a Monday night no less - we're coo-coo-crazy!). It was our friend Todd's birthday, and he wanted to get a couple pre-dinner drinks at Chapter House, where he spent his 21st birthday many moons ago, and then we went to the Nines for pizza, wings, and corn nuggets (the latter of which taste way better than they sound). Crooked Fingers (a band we also like!) opened for Neko. I admit I'm not a huge Neko Case fan, but Pat went to last year's show and hasn't stopped talking about it since. Pretty much everyone I know who has seen her live feels the sudden urge to propose to her (man or woman), and I have been intrigued by the hype. I will say that the show far exceeded my expectations, and I get "it" now. She is great live. Everything was perfect. You can consider me a fan, but I think I'll skip the proposal...I can only take so much rejection this week.
I am only slightly reluctant to admit that if I'm not specifically listening to something else, I basically always have Dan Zanes songs running through my head. The kicker? I don't actually even mind.
As an aside, Pat loaned some DZ music to a coworker who has kids, and another coworker listened to it without realizing it's "kids' music." (It was the Sea Music album, which, I may have slight musical nerve fatigue, but I would argue is barely for kids.) And coworker #2 said to Pat, "What, is that music for retards??" Um, no, it's for kids, you DB.
Well, our weekend was good, from what I can remember of it. Of particular interest, Pat and I went our separate ways on Saturday night, a rare occasion indeed. Pat went to see Neko Case in Ithaca with a couple of his library buddies. I’m not a big enough fan of her to warrant the logistical nightmare that would be finding someone to watch Greta from 4:15 PM on Saturday until 1:00 AM on Sunday, so I opted out of going to that show. Greta and I pined over Pat as quickly as possible and then headed over to the Moens' house for Greg’s 30th birthday party. We only stayed a couple hours, but Greta and I had such a wonderful time. Greg and Kimmie are such generous and thoughtful hosts, and Maddie has super toys, so we were both having a blast. Unfortunately, Greta started rubbing her eyes and getting very tired around 8:30 or 9:00, but it was clear she wouldn’t be going to sleep in the Pack n Play that they so graciously put out for us. Drat. The good news was I got to go home and pick up the house, read, and still get to bed at a very respectable hour.
Pat had a great time at the Neko Case show and had many stories about how funny and awesome Neko is and what a great singer she is and, oh, did he mention how terribly funny she is??? I am guilty of this myself, but I know I’ve mentioned before how concerts are totally a you-had-to-be-there type of event but Pat still tried to relay quite a few anecdotes from the show. It really did sound like a great show, though, and, more than anything, I’m so happy Pat got out to do something fun. He seems to never have the opportunity to get out for adult time these days, so it was especially good.
Sunday can be summed up as one giant Greta tantrum. Sigh.
Monday can be summed up as one giant Fran tantrum. Overall Pat and I are happy with our day-care situation, and having Greta at RIT’s day care feels like the ideal situation. Pat visits Greta at least three days a week during lunch, I visit her at least once at lunch during the week, and my mom is there for a few hours one day a week. It’s not like we’re spying on the place, but we obviously keep our eyes open for things that may seem troubling, including how Greta is treated and how the other little rugrats we’ve all grown to love appreciate so much are treated. Yesterday was one of the few days where I shook my head and wondered what the hell we’re thinking entrusting our kid to anyone but ourselves. I left on the verge of tears and, to add insult to injury, when I got to my car I had a big, fat, juicy $30 ticket from the fine law enforcement enthusiasts at RIT. The thought of it MAKES ME SO MAD for so many reasons. I’ll just say that the parking situation there is completely bogus and I am hoping to do something about it. Some days I just want to climb under a blanket and not come out until the first Saturday above 65 degrees. Yesterday was one of those days. The kicker: This all seemed moot at the end of the day when I got a very sad email from a good friend of mine telling me her brother had recently passed away.
So this week has had a rather bad start, to say the least. What? Not every story can end happy, people.
Does anyone have any good news for me? Because I already tried chocolate and that didn’t really help much.
Last night Pat and I went to a concierto de rock. For our non-Spanish-speaking friends, that means we went to a rock concert. I know what you’re thinking, “First a movie and now this! What’s next, a trip to Vegas?? You’re so exciting.” I know, I know. We are quite exciting and we go where the road takes us.
For real, though, we went to the Bright Eyes show last night at the armory, and it was wonderful. We live close enough that we were able to walk and avoid any parking annoyances, so that was a bonus. When we got to the armory, there was a long line of hipsters outside, and it was cold and windy and it started sprinkling. With the walk and the cold, my knees started to ache from arthritis, and I got one look at those hipsters and I thought, I have no business being here. Within a few minutes, the hipsters to our backs and the hipsters to our fronts started chatting with us, and the line started to move, and the sprinkling stopped – things were improving dramatically. We got inside and immediately saw some of Pat’s library buddies, and we got some beer – things continuing to improve.
I won’t go on and on with the details because I understand that concerts are a you-had-to-be-there experience, but I will say that it was a fantastic night. As far as concert-goers go, this was by far the most polite crowd I’ve ever seen. The sound in the armory was kind of awful, but it somehow added to the experience. There were two opening acts, one that was mediocre and one that was great, and Conor Oberst came out incognito during both of their sets (but we totally knew it was him) and joined in. By the way, Conor Oberst is so cute and mini; I wish I could carry him around in my pocket. Anyway, Bright Eyes was great. I am a bit of a purist about my music and I fear change, so I become a little alarmed when things don’t sound the exact same live as they do on the album (I kept expecting Emmylou Harris to come out during certain songs), but it was really great nonetheless. We weren’t able to stay for all of Bright Eye’s set because we were going to turn into pumpkins soon, so Pat said, “I think we’re going to have to leave after the next song.” I said, “Ooooh, I hope it’s Bowl of Oranges.” And GUESS WHAT CAME ON NEXT? Bowl of Oranges! So we missed the finale, but that was the best possible finale I could have imagined.
In honor of the Bright Eyes show, Pat woke up this morning with bright red eyes. Yup, I think he got the oozy infection that Greta had last week. Fun times. School has been absolutely crazy for him, but the good news is his last project for this quarter is due tonight at midnight, and then he will be DONE. Such a relief. Pat’s coworkers commented to me last night that he has been sans funny bone lately, likely due to school (in addition to everything else), so we’re all looking forward to getting our Pat back.
Happy Friday, y’all. What was your best concert experience? Or, possibly more entertaining, what was your worst concert experience? Quickly, my worst concert experience, hands down, was going to see Tori Amos at the non-air-conditioned Landmark theater in August, when I had a kidney stone, with my ex-boyfriend (who was newly my ex at the time). Fun times!
