Pageant

The Indigo Girls played at The Pageant last night.

Back when they announced the date of their St. Louis show, a huge wave of relief washed over me (sorry, that was a cliché statement, but I am too exhausted to be creative at the moment).  After my completely inappropriate and probably deeply confusing reaction to meeting Amy Ray at her solo show a couple months ago, I was paranoid that her first course of action would be to call up Emily and say, "Hey, there is a crazy girl in St. Louis who may be obsessed with me.  Let's never go there again."

But she didn't.  Thankfully.

The very instant that the tickets went on sale, I went to The Pageant and bought them.

Rob and I have been to 3 Indigo Girls concerts, I think.  Or maybe just 2.  One of them was at a Lilith Fair approximately 10 million years ago.  It was the day after I got my wisdom teeth out, so I was still woozy and in a lot of pain and don't remember much other than being hungry but without sufficiently pureed food.  Another one was in Champaign/Urbana right after I ran the Des Moines marathon.  I must have screamed/cheered/sang along because I lost my voice, which was unfortunate considering that I had to present the results of my dissertation pilot study at a conference just a few days later.

I was pretty excited about this concert here in St. Louis, although I was bummed that a friend of mine (the friend who went to the Amy Ray show with us) wasn't going to be able to make it.  But of my limited circle of acquaintances in St. Louis, most people I know like the Indigo Girls (who doesn't like the Indigo Girls, really), and after I spread the word about their upcoming show, two more of my friends/coworkers bought tickets.

On the Thursday before the show, Rob saw the schedule for a 3-stage bike race he'd been planning to do over the weekend and discovered that it would prevent him from going to the concert.  So he was faced with a real conundrum.

He chose the bike race.

I wasn't upset because 1) I had two other friends who were going to be there -2) I know where The Pageant is and I could get there on foot, car, or train- and 3) probably nothing in this world would keep me from seeing the Indigo Girls.

After Rob made his formal decision to back out of the concert, I posted on Facebook to see if anybody wanted his ticket.  Within the hour, one of my friends took me up on the offer.

The whole night ended up being amazing.  I had so much fun hanging out with my "date," and we made new BFFs with the hilariously awesome couple who shared our table.  Of my two other friends who were in attendance, I saw, hugged, and chatted with Friend #1 and texted back and forth with Friend #2, who was sitting to far away for me to see.

One thing I loved about the show is that Amy Ray was wearing khaki pants, a blue short sleeved dress shirt, a green necktie and glasses.  Also, she was chewing gum the whole time.  The other thing I loved about the show was everything.

The used so many guitars.  So many.  I lost count of how many different guitars they used.  At one point, a "stage hand" even came out  during a song and switched Emily's guitar for her.

I was sad when it was over.  The whole thing had been 2 hours of pure happiness, and I didn't want it to end.  I think I would be happier with life if the Indigo Girls came to St. Louis every night, although I guess my parents might get sick of driving down here to babysit my kid.

Hopefully they'll come back again soon.

Set list published on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=10321291&l=01f67f23f3&id=39413943443

 

Dear William (35 months)

Dear William,

Today you are 35 months old!  This would have been your great-grandpa George's 98th birthday (Grandmaw Nan will have to correct me if I'm wrong about that).

 

We started out the month in San Francisco, where you visited the ocean:

 

Rode in a cable car:

 

Played at the beach:

 

And saw the Golden Gate Bridge:

 

The pictures make it look like a barrel of fun, but let me tell you, it was one rough trip.

When we came back to St. Louis, we were in for an Extreme Heat Wave.  I guess we'd better get used to it, what with that whole Global Climate Change thing going on and all.

 

Luckily, you didn't mind the heat too much.  You cooled off in the park with a Slip and Slides.  At first you approached the Slip and Slide exactly like I would.  That is to say, like an 80 year old woman would.  You really did not want to fall.  But after a few tries you got the hang of it and started having a blast.  (It was really tough to pull you away from it when we had to go home).

 

Your grandparents visited and they brought you a New Hat.

You ran the Macklind Mile.  Well, the kids' version of it.  A quarter mile dash.  You did it last year, too.  Remember?  This year I thought you were totally going to dominate the race.

I explained to you, when that man says Ready, Set, Go, you take off running.  You said you understood.

But there was a bit of confusion at the start.

You paused and you got trampled.  Someone bumped into you and it scared you, and then you sat down on the pavement and cried.

All the other kids passed you.  You cried and cried for two full minutes.  I picked you up and carried you.  I felt so sad, because you had been so excited for your big race, and now you weren't even running it.  It took a lot of coaxing, but finally you decided you wanted to run again.

So I set you down and you took off.

You passed all those kids who had trampled you.

You finished in 4:15, which was at least 2 minutes faster than your time last year.  I was so proud of you!!  I think next year you and I can do the mile run together.  We'll just bypass the kids' race altogether!  Someday, I just know you're going to pace me to a 3 hour marathon.  You are such a fantastic runner.  You are so amazing!

Your dad and Grandma Barb also ran the race.  It was Grandma Barb's very first race, and we were all excited for her.

 

Aside from traveling and racing, you have spent the last month playing with trains while wearing your underpants:

And being cute:

 

Looking forward to more fun with you.

 

 

Love,

Your mom :)