It's An Exponential Thing...

Ben Folds rocked so hard he broke two piano strings at the Ogden last night. It was such a fun show! We went with Jill & Brian, and had a great evening.

Kenton, whom you might remember as the quirky Asian who led the group the Backbeats in the Sing-Off last season, was the opener. I liked him on the show, despite his group, but to open for Ben Folds I was expecting more than a guy and a mic, singing with recorded tracks he set in Garage Band. However, his slow and sensuous cover of "Toxic" made me very, very happy.

Ben performed a great blend of classics and songs off his new album. I enjoyed hearing him explain each song before he sang it, and learned a lot about his art. Just as I was regretting that I didn't get to hear him play "Philosophy," that was the encore!

If only there hadn't been five silly girls in the section in front of us recording the entire concert, it would have been absolutely amazing. A few pics, even a few video clips, fine - I am guilty of that too. However, using a flash will only take a photo of the heads in front of you. And taking 35 shots of every song is only adding to your library of...images of the people in front of you? I paid to watch a live concert, not to watch Ben in blurry colors on your LED, randomly disrupted by your flash going off. And the fact that there are other screens distracting people in the theatre doesn't mean it's ok for you to disregard those around you. All I have to say is that Karma is a bitch, babes.

Shed a Little Light

The windows are in, and the rooms look enormous! There are giant sliding glass doors out onto the future patios, and the "sunroom" is actually just that. I know the view is the same as it has always been, but looking at the Smarts' house across the street from a different angle is rather odd...

This is the view standing in the 'sunroom,' looking through the master to the north. I love that there will be a patio off the bedroom, and I think Mom and Dad will enjoy many sunsets there.

This is in the dining room, also facing north. There will be a hood between the windows, over the (gas!) range, just past where you can see the island framed. Eventually the wet bar will go up and its glass-faced cabinets will partially obstruct this view.

The french doors on the floor are blocking the lovely crystal lights (water that collects solar energy to heat the house, for those of you non-Coloradoans), where they will remain. We're still brainstorming window treatments that might camouflage them. Don't mind the poor piano, still not sure where that is going...anybody on the market for an upright?

The Sun Will Always Come Again

My faith in the universe has been affirmed. Completely and absolutely.

My contract with CU ended yesterday, and I have been on the fence between whether I would be excited to have all day to dive back into a job search full-force, or chagrined to have opened myself back up to an unspecified period of unemployment.

But I got The Call last week. The position suits me and my education, the commute is ten minutes with traffic, and the timing will provide me with an extra long Holiday weekend. Everything fits so perfectly, I have never been more sure that I am on the right track, and in the right place!

You're the Top!

The past few days I have been pretty grumpy. Some difficult customers have been challenging my patience and I have been frustrated by how short my fuse has grown. My first couple of hours at work this morning were continuing the pattern, and then I saw this.

Tuxedos, Fosse choreography, Doogie Howser, 'Anything Goes' music, and "six-packy" Hugh Jackman. I am ridiculously happy right now, and I have no doubt that the rest of today will be amazing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkSpdvmXwDo

Nail by Nail

More updates on the house! The expansion and the main floor have been framed, and the door that's lead to nowhere my entire life now has a deck! Everything looks so much bigger, and I can't wait to see how things feel after walls are installed.

A new view of the garage - Hazel was very confused by the new doorway.

Standing in the new kitchen, looking through the pantry, the laundry room, and the master bath.

A blurry shot of the new

kitchen. I will not be sad to see that linoleum hit the dumpster.

New living room - the view will be amazing when there are windows in the sun room, and when all the moths are gone.

The House That Built Me

After six years of discussing the matter, imagining the possibilities, and cringing at the thought of taking out a mortgage on a house they already owned, it happened. Ground has finally been broken, and transformation of the house in which I was raised has begun.

We have resorted to bribing my parents with food to let us help move all of the furniture out of the main floor. The food is only a bribe because everything that made their kitchen functional was removed. The bathroom that Max and I shared growing up is now

where dishes are washed, the pots and pans are stored, and the rice is made. The stairs and the entire upper level have been shielded with plastic sheeting to minimize the spread of construction dust, but it conjures thoughts of the sterilization tents in ET and is very bizarre. Poor Hazel and Simon are visibly sleep-deprived, and the stress of having strangers around banging on things all day has induced panicked shedding and lots of extra attention.

Part of the cleaning out process meant that I had to retrieve things from my old room that somehow didn't make it to college, or ever move into subsequent homes with me. Perhaps the nostalgia I was plunged into sorting out pictures and memories from my childhood is what has made this transition a weird experience for me, but it has been much more emotional than I expected. Supporting Mom's decisions to update the house they built 26 years ago has been easy - the flooring is older than Max and needs to go! But actually

experiencing the house being taken a part has been difficult to justify in my heart. Every mark on the walls, every corner of the yard, and every box in the garage is tied to some sort of memory. I can't imagine what it is like for my parents, who picked out the lot, built the house, and raised a family there.

The floor plan just shows an extension on the back of the house and the build-out of the patio that was always supposed to be turned into a sun room. But from the inside, nothing looks the same! I know new memories will be made, and that all of the changes are for the best, but it still feels like a sort of permanent "goodbye." Alas, into the breach!

Your Choices are Half Chance

Motivation? Please? Are you out there? It's been a whole year, and I still have no idea what I an doing with my life. I am on a path, though, and sometime in the past month I have become settled with it. I don't know what July will bring, but at the moment my intuition is letting me relax and wait for it.

However, if I have ever wondered why I went to business school instead of law school, I got the best answer today: Bar Review. These brilliant students slaved away for three years, and logged hundreds of hours of service, interning, externing, and clerking. We sent them off this afternoon with a momentous celebration of the commencement of their professional careers. Except...they will be back in a week or two to start the two-month intensive process of cramming for the bar exam. How anti-climactic!

Unfortunately, you're not really Legal until you are subjected to a strenuous background check and a couple of additional months pouring through cases and multiple choice questions. Go take a nap for a few days then get your butt back here for more torture. When the test is over you won't know if you passed it for a couple more months, so you will have time then to think about what you want to do with your legal degree, and potentially recover from working your way through school.

In conclusion, my dear 3L's, I look forward to seeing you around this summer, and I am so not jealous of the adventure which you have undertaken. I'll make sure that the throw-down after the Bar Swearing-In ceremony next October is fantastic!