In which the universe does me a solid

Last weekend I had the stomach flu. Like curluponthebathroomfloorIwantmymommy stomach flu. It was ugly.

I think the universe decided to try for balance, and do something nice to counter the OMGIwanttodie stomach flu. It did me a solid.

A few weeks ago on a lark I threw my email into an online contest to win concert tickets. I do this periodically, if it's a band I'd actually like to see. I'm certainly not entering every contest. I honestly have to want to see the band or I don't bother.

The band in this case? Cake. It was CAKE. A band I've been listening to since late high school/early college but have never had the chance to see. And they don't come to the East Coast that often.

So I entered. Just once. You could enter every day, but I only entered once.

And then I forgot about it.

On Monday, the first day I was able to eat solid food, I get a phone call. It's the radio station running the contest. I won. I thought it was a joke. Asked what the punchline was. The nice woman on the other end of the phone just laughed and told me it wasn't a joke. Really, I was one of the winners.

Wait, what? Pause...I let it sink in for a moment.

OMFG I WON. I won two tickets to the show. In box seats. bouncebouncebouncebounce

And then she says: "And you won a meet and greet with the band after the show."

I froze. Mouth open. Holy effin' shite I GET TO MEET CAKE!!!

She gives me the details about where to pick up the tickets. The concert is Wednesday. Holy crap. I manage to pull myself together and figure out who to take with me.

So the show was last night. And it was full of so much awesome win. I have no pictures, as the band has a strict no-photography no-recording policy. The event staff were enforcing it, too (saw them throw a couple of people out).

Cake did three sets. Two main plus an encore. A nice mix of early stuff, their big hits, and a few songs off the album coming out in January 2011. Truly an excellent mix. They even played one of my all time favorites: "How Do You Afford Your Rock'n'Roll Lifestyle?" (from Motorcade of Generosity (1994)). They have no set list, choosing instead to play whatever they feel like that evening. They were clearly having as much fun as the rest of us were watching them and dancing at our seats. John kept the crowd engaged, really interacting with everyone between songs. There were moments of complete random hilarity.

Did you know they give away a real live tree (a sapling in a bucket) to an audience member at every show (info here)? And they make the person swear to plant the tree and take care of it. They have to submit pictures to their website as proof. They want progress pictures too, even if the tree dies. You can see pics of people with their trees here in the gallery. A dude named Ian won the tree at this show. A Fuji apple tree, specifically.

All around a good time.

And the people watching? Priceless. What a crowd.

The meet and greet after the show was predictably weird and awkward yet very cool. The guys actually talked to us contest winners. Mingled and chatted. They're nice very down to earth real people, which was a very pleasant thing to have confirmed.

It was an excellent evening. There really isn't another word that's better. Just excellent. Yeah, awesome works too.

But don't think you're off the hook yet, universe. This was a nice little interlude, but not change. I still need things to change. So, thanks, I had fun, but let's work on the bigger long-term picture, m'kay?

Neglect

Dear blog,

I know I've been neglecting you. I just haven't got much to say.

Actually, that's not true. I have much to say, just none of it I can say here. Let's run down some topics, shall we?

*Work (i.e. day to day): I can't talk about what's really going on. I WON'T talk about it. I refuse to think about it outside of when I'm actually at work these days.

*Career: going swimmingly. Really. I've been achieving a lot of goals recently that I had set as "sometime in the future" goals. As in, I never expected to achieve them already. I'm young, and I know it. The struggle now is accepting the positive reinforcement and accolades from colleagues and believing I can actually succeed now that I am where I am career wise (i.e. silencing the "don't f*ck it up" voice in my head).

*Dating: MEH. Just a big ol' MEH. Online dating sucks. It really does. It's going nowhere. It's to the point that lately I can't even muster the energy or interest to log in and check my account. I contact people, they don't respond. Meanwhile, those that do contact me obviously haven't even read my profile.

*Philly: I've been here for 4 years now. FOUR YEARS. I've come to the conclusion that I don't love Philly, and never will. Some (most?) days I don't even like Philly. I just don't feel at home here. I feel like I'm a half step off from the rest of the city. Like I'm out of sync.

*General: Lately I feel like I'm just passing the time, keeping myself busy. Cooking. Doing counted cross stitch. Reading. Hanging out on the balcony with my cat. Listening to the radio. Just functioning on a day to day basis. Trying to keep myself from dwelling on the negative ('cause there's a lot of it). Trying to accept that this is how things are for me right now and hope that things will change for the better sometime soon. Trying to believe that something has to give. The universe has got to throw me a bone soon. Some days are definitely better than others. But I keep putting one foot in front of the other, and taking one day at time.

So that's that. Not much I can or want to talk about. So, blog, my apologies for the neglect, but for now, that's just the way it's gonna be.

Love,
Me