The concert

The concert last night...

FREAKING AMAZING!

Those are the only words that come to mind to describe the actual event.

The house of blues was packed. I've never seen it that crowded. It was a sold out show, as is tonight's.

Hanson was totally amazing, I can honestly say this is probably the best show I've seen them perform. They all look thin and healthy. The energy was high and rocking. And oh yeah...Taylor is sexy as hell. He sort a looked a bit like Keith Urban last night, his hair is getting long again and man that just works for him. He definitely has a Samson thing going on when his hair is down below his chin. Ooh yum.
Shut up! he's 24 now, I can say he's sexy out loud now. lol.

HANSON ROCKS!!!

Honestly, they really do. If people would just give them a chance in concert they would become instant fans. Hey, THE GRATEFUL DEAD didn't have any top ten songs for the like the last thirty years, but toured all the time. Not saying Hanson is the Dead, but still. If they can still pack venues just on their names, then GOOD FOR THEM. I'll be there when they come around again. Or should I say...THIS TIME AROUND. Yeah, a Hanson song.

Salsa Day.

Here are a few pictures of SALSA DAY. We started out with three bushells of Tomatoes. That's six boxes. Ten pounds of chopped onions, probably five pounds of chopped green peppers and countless hot peppers, that Jodie bravely chopped by hand.

The tomatoes were blanched, peeled, cored and then thrown by the cup fulls. 96 cups to be exact. Do you have any idea how much 96 cups of tomatoes are? A LOT! that's how many.

Things continue to be crushed, added and stirred until it is all together, then the cooking begins.

While all this is being done, the jars have to be cleaned, sanitized and made ready for the hot tomato guts to be added. Once those are filled. (76 jars or around abouts)(double the amount in above picture) they THEY have to go into a hot bath in boiling water for twenty minutes or so. Then you stand around and wait, and wait to hear those little tops POP which tells us that they have sealed. OMG that is the best damn sound. It means we are almost finished.

This entire process takes about 11 hours. Start in the morning, finish way into the night. THEN....we clean up the tomatoes guts, which have a way of splattering everywhere. Once everything is cleaned, scrubbed, reloaded into my car. I then have another hours drive home. To unload and put away all the stuff. And by stuff I mean....

40 jars of salsa.

4 canning pots.

2 50 cup soup pots.

strainers, ladles, jar holders, lid magnets.

and many many other things I can't think of right now.

Then you sit down and think... I NEVER WANT TO DO THIS AGAIN. But we do. Every September.

But I gotta tell ya, I think SALSA DAY is easier than COOKIE DAY. Which comes in December. Oh God, only three months till Cookie day.

A great class tonight.

First off when I walked in two of the ladies, within minutes of each other came up to me and congratulated me. For what? no clue. But they both said that their guides had told them this week that they needed to congratulate me.

We did a really cool meditation on raising our awareness, and seeing ourselves in a past life. You go up through rainbows, of different colors. Upon reaching the top you go into a room and look into a mirror. The purpose is to see yourself in a past life.

When I made it to the top of the rainbow, in front of me was a large spinning prism. It was throwing off lights everywhere. It looked like it was on a long chain and was spinning really fast. Very cool. There also was a man there, whom I assumed was James Malcolm. My in charge guide. (don't tell him different, I let him think he's in charge.) lol.

Well, I went into the room, found the mirror amongst all the red velvet Victorian curtains. I immediately saw a woman. She had on a bonnet, English style, with a white blouse, belt and big skirt. The room was paneled half way up with wood planks, but every other one was about six inches taller. Then a shorter one, a taller one. Gave a really cool look to the room. It was a library. The girl told me that I needed to "remember the master." It wasn't threatening, but she did sound urgent. "Remember the master"
I had to come back then before we had a chance to go any further. But I will do this meditation again. I wonder who the master is in this life? Do I know him already? or am I about to meet him? and what do I need to remember?
In that life I didn't feel afraid or frightened of 'the master' his lordship or whatever. My teacher thought I might have been a nanny, or school teacher for his children, for I certainly wasn't dressed as a maid or housekeeper. And I was in the library.

When we were finished with the meditations, we gave messages. I was sitting on the floor when I heard in my head. A broken voice that sounded Indian/Buddha like and it said and showed me an elephant lying on a bed. "As the elephant lies upon the bed. So is the apex of your lives." what the hell does that mean?? lol.

I then saw and was given the message...a square with a revolving earth inside. the message. "you all must begin to think outside of the box.' Hmmm.

I then was told that there was a doctor guide waiting for me. The teacher said his name was Thomas. I had to laugh because Jodie and I just yesterday were trying to think of another name for the Tommy character in my book. We couldn't, he's just too much Tommy to us. But the doctor guide told my teacher that he was proud of me. That I had been very close to giving in. Very close in being defeated. He said in the past few weeks, I could have gone either way and he was happy that I had overcome. I then laughed and said. Omg, I know who he is. He is Thomas Rupert. My teacher had a strange look on her face. "I was just gonna say that." So, do all my important guides have two names? James Malcolm? Thomas Rupert? lol. I guess so.

I told them that yes indeed I had been sick for two weeks. Couldn't eat anything, couldn't do anything. So, I guess I wasn't ready to leave just yet huh.

So what do you think the "As the elephant lies upon the bed, so is the apex of your lives." mean?
When I saw the elephant I thought of Jen and her Ganesha. But this was an entire elephant.

And were they were congratulating me on staying on this plain? I wonder. Cause they didn't know what it was for either.

So, what does all of this mean. Feel free to free associated, meditate or just plane think on it.

Isn't an apex a sorta half pyramid? two sides of a pyramid?

Going to a concert

AND WE'RE GOING TO SEE HANSON!!! eeee!

Jodie, Megan and myself will be at the CHICAGO HOUSE OF BLUES on sept 29.
Jodie and I and Megan have seen them I think four times. And I've seen them two more times with my kids. So, this will be seven. SEVEN times I will have seen my boys in concert.
EEEEEE! (in my best little girl squeee)

Updates

Well, I've been to the doctor, twice. I've had to go and get blood work done, twice.
I can finally eat. I swear I didn't eat anything that I actually kept down for ten days. Now if I could just get through the day without death defying headaches I'd be doing ok.
...Oh I forgot, I also have these really strange contraction type cramps that are in my sides. Right in the curve of my sides. It feels like a contraction, where it starts off and just tightens up. It doesn't feel like a cramp, it doesn't hurt, it just feels really strange and annoying. They wake me up from a sound sleep. And they keep making me dream I'm in labor. LOL. Yeah, that's gonna happen again. NOT!

Inventory is OVER thank god. I thought I'd go nuts getting ready for it. They brought in a company to do the counting, 75 people actually. And let me tell ya, they were slobs. I came into work after they were finished, and the entire store was in shambles.
Due to everyone using up all the hours getting ready for the inventory, last night there were actually FOUR people working the floor of the entire store. It was insane.

John Barrowman and Torchwood

http://www.out.com/detail.asp?page=1&id=22846

The above cutie is John Barrowman. Aka Captain Jack Harkness. And for those of you who have BBC AMERICA...two more days until TORCHWOOD!
I gotta tell ya I'm really looking forward to this one.

Jack Harkness is a Dr. Who alumni who totally held his own against the Doctor and Rose so much so, that he is now staring in his own show TORCHWOOD.
The article says that he passed on playing the gay brother of Rob Lowe on Brothers and Sisters. That would have been terrific, but honestly I'd rather see him being 'the star' on his own show rather than just playing a bit part now and then. I can't wait.

Dreams

I had the strangest dream this morning. It involved actor Rob Morrow. Now, I'm not a big fan or anything and actually I was surprised I even knew what his name was in that setting.

I'm not sure where I was but it was a nice little downtown. I was walking and was lost. It wasn't like I was afraid, but it was just annoying that I couldn't find my way to where home was. Every time I thought I was just a few blocks away, I'd take a wrong turn and end up someplace else surrounded by people doing other things. People out playing baseball under lights. People wandering around gallery's. Shopping. All in the middle of the night. And the little town was hoping.

At one point I went into this pub/college town tavern type place. It was wall to wall crowded. I kept trying to get to another door and kept "excuse me, pardon me, excuse me..." all the way through the place. I was about two tables from the door when I looked over and there was Rob Morrow. And I called out his name and he turned around and came walking over to me. It seemed like we knew each other. We stood and talked for a few minutes and I told him I had to get home that my husband was probably already pissed that I wasn't home. I left and immediately became lost again. I wandered through galleries and along cobbled boardwalk type places and ended up back at the pub. I went back in. It wasn't nearly as full and I turned to leave and there Rob was again. He told me that he had left and had come back. He said he never comes back after he goes home but he just had to know if I had come back in. We stood talking, flirting like crazy. I finally gave him my cell phone number. Did I mention I was sitting on his lap at this point?? lol.

I left once again and ran into a bunch of ghouls. Vampire type creatures who were selling door to door, blood substitute products. Well, I don't know what was more surprising, that they were selling things door to door in the middle of the night, or that people were buying them. Well, I do guess vampires would have to do their door to door canvasing in the middle of the night. They were scary or threatening. More like your normal everyday Mary Kay or Avon reps ringing bells and selling products.

I do have some of the strangest dreams.