T-Swift, in Concert.

We called the radio station at least 800 times. I wish I was exaggerating. Being caller #9 is just not that easy. It takes a skill that I apparently don't have. But we still found ourselves with free Taylor Swift tickets through other means, like I said before. And Friday finally came. 

Can you tell that I felt like I was at work for 19 hours that day? Because I did. I was a little distracted, and more than ready for concert time. We hit up Punch Burger (pun intended) before the show and it was delicious. We split those waffle fries, don't judge.

Two days before the show Keds was SO nice to give me four more tickets that they weren't going to be using that night. !!! I had to have a drawing out of my friends who could go...no way I was choosing. Everyone was nice about it, although there was some attempted bribing afterwards. (Summer held strong and kept her ticket, even with offers of a month of babysitting and movie passes. Taylor Swift, people. You don't just give that up.) Michael and I got there early for our backstage tour. !!! (So many exclamation marks are justified in this post.)

Taylor's MOM (!!!) took our tour group around and told us all about the RED tour. We learned some crazy stuff, like...the tour hires 120 local people at every location to help unload everything, they have "toaster" elevators under the stage that literally pop dancers up on top, 70 people are on the RED tour, Taylor has 11 costume changes that night with the fastest one at 4.5 seconds, there is no auto-tuning or lip syncing in her shows and there never has been, she is crazy involved with almost every detail of the concert, and after their 66 stops in the states this summer they are headed to Australia, then Asia, then Europe. Full on world tour, people. She sings about all these boyfriends and break ups...but when does she have time for either of those?

One of my favorite moments of the tour was when Michael recognized an announcer from Hank FM (the radio station of caller #10 haters). I saw his name tag and knew his name all too well...

Me: "Hey, Dave O'Brien!"

D: Turned around, acting innocent.

M: "Oh, I've called you sooooo many times!"

D: "Really? Did I answer?"

M: "No!"

D: Laughed as though this was ok.

M: Continued on with the backstage tour, no thanks to Dave O'Brien or his impossible contests.

(We still listen to Hank FM.)

Ed Sheeran opened for Taylor Swift, and he was crazy talented. He was a one man show - recorded his own beats and guitar, then kept them playing as he sang and even rapped, all while fading music in and out with foot pedals. I thought he was incredible. And not just because I loved his English accent.

After his performance, there was some ultimate anticipation in that room that we shared with 18,000 other (mostly female and mostly screaming) fans. Then, Taylor. Everyone talks about how her performances are over the top productions, and it's the truth.

At one point her dancers carried her in front of our section to a smaller stage right by us, and we were just a few rows away from her. Poor Michael, all that screaming. 

He wasn't the only guy in the audience...maybe the only one in our section though. Good sport. He really did enjoy it. You couldn't not have fun though, it was hilarious how much people just went crazy every time she would somehow announce the next song.

I loved having friends there with us. Becca had only been to one other concert, so I think the bar is set kind of high for her third. 

On our walk back to our car, we saw this semi along with a few blacked out cars and limos. What a crazy life, right? She did Cleveland Thursday, Indianapolis Friday, Lexington Saturday...and that is just three days of one country of her world tour. How do you even have a voice after all that?

Had to get the shirt. The whole experience was just too fun to not remember. It was my first time actually applying "the secret" to something very specific in life, which is random and a little too cosmic for me, but there's definitely something going on there. We read the book in book club, but I won't go into details about it. Just know that I put this concert on my calendar in December and I just knew that somehow we would get there (preferably for free because dental school is such a money sucker). Then through a random string of events, I suddenly had two backstage passes, six tickets, and a freaked out husband.

!!!

To My Mom.

Tomorrow I will tell you all about this weekend...including the Taylor Swift concert! Tomorrow I'll tell you about how much fun it was and how I miraculously ended up with 6 tickets that night (making four happy friends and a good sport of a husband). And maybe I'll tell you about my first experience making curry with tofu in it, or my first experience making homemade yogurt (seriously). Later this week I might tell you more about my new love affair with coconut oil. Or maybe my new love affair with steam mops (ok, not this one, because that would be lame...but have you experienced them?). Maybe I'll tell you about my old love affair with Skype with some hilarious quotes from my niece as a bonus.

But today, I just want to tell you about my mom.

It's her birthday. And she is wonderful. Isn't she beautiful in this picture from her BYU days?

Happy birthday, Mom. I love you!

We had so much fun being part of your surprise party from a few states away yesterday. I hope you keep celebrating all day today!

Thunder Over Louisville

We heard it was one of the best fireworks shows in America. So last Friday, we drove down to Louisville to catch the show and celebrate our anniversary weekend. Michael surprised me with a delicious Mayan dinner reminiscent of Puerto Vallarta, and we had shrimp ceviche for the first time since our honeymoon. We should have had 32 piña coladas like we did on our honeymoon too... but we didn't. 

That morning we went to the Louisville Kentucky LDS Temple with some friends. Michael's parents are at the temple every other weekend, so we love when our trips overlap with theirs. They were so nice to take us to lunch afterwards, and we had fun catching up. After that, Michael and I debated over which was more ghetto - changing our clothes in the Olive Garden bathroom, or in the car. We had differing opinions, so we just divided and conquered. (You guys, car is way more ghetto right? Right?) Then we drove close to the riverfront and prayed that we parked in a spot that would let us out of Louisville that night...we had heard some horror stories.

They had an airshow going on all day, and we loved it. Michael loved it much more. It took us a while to walk to the airshow because he wanted to stop and watch every plane on the way. We met up with a lot of our friends on the riverbank who were so nice to save everyone spots. (And bring extra blankets for the thoroughly unprepared and forgetful couples, which was only us. Dang it.) We killed time watching planes, laughing with friends, playing with their cute kids, eating delicious food, and watching the sunset over the river.

Then the fireworks started. I grew up thinking that the Opening Ceremony of the Utah Summer Games, one of Cedar City's many gems, had the best fireworks around. They really are good, you guys. Stadium of Fire was pretty good too, but somehow in my mind Cedar's still ranked higher (my love for Cedar is strong, and apparently beyond reason).

But these. These were like nothing I've ever seen. They went on and on, from barges on the river and off the bridge. Sparks flew as they landed in the water, and they blasted a great arrangement of America's favorite theme songs over all the speakers. It was so.much.fun. you guys. I couldn't believe how great the fireworks were. Then, after an amazing "finale" that left us completely satisfied, they started them again. And THIS part was straight up crazy. They lit so many fireworks so fast for so long, it shook you. The sky filled up with smoke and almost hid the fireworks that were all competing for attention. It was incredible. 

After a few hours of waiting on the bank of the river, I had decided that it was a fun day but something we'd probably only do once. But after that fireworks finale....whoa. We will be there every year of our Midwest time. You should come.

We raced to the car after, and Michael took us straight down an oddly traffic-less road, right onto the freeway. There were no other cars, and no one in front of us as we crossed the bridge. Super odd, right? Then texts came pouring in from all our friends asking how to get home, because freeway entrances were closed. We still don't know 1) why Louisville wanted to close the freeways, 2) how the heck we found our way on so quick, and 3) if we did something illegal. ? We made it home in record time, people. 

So illegal or not, we're doing the very same thing next year. :)

p.s. Thanks to Heather for the photo of the fireworks, since my phone conveniently died right before the show!

Best Day.

I planned on posting all about Thunder Over Louisville and our fun weekend in Kentucky... but we have to interrupt previously scheduled programming for an important announcement. Important as in, absolutely made my day and made me dance around and around. 

Today I won two tickets to the TAYLOR SWIFT concert this Friday! And two backstage passes! Thank you thank you to Keds for sending us to to the show and giving us the backstage tour.

There was a time in our lives when Michael loved Taylor Swift more than I did, it's true. But that was long before "We are Never Ever Getting Back Together" which almost took away his fan card. Me playing it on repeat while cleaning could be to blame for that. . .

But don't worry, we're both big fans still. I just admit it a little more freely than he does. We both just love how Taylor Swift knows how to be famous while maintaining who she is and what she stands for. Apparently that's harder than any of us realize, because so few stars manage that. I just think she's refreshing. And who doesn't love her lyrics? Don't try to tell me there isn't at least one Taylor Swift song out there that hasn't hit you, or hasn't made you sing loud in the car on that I-15 stretch driving home after finals and feeling like there is nothing you'd rather be doing than driving that road and heading home and...ok wait, that one's probably just me.

I'm excited.

Happy Anniversary to Us!

April 21. I can't believe our first year of marriage is already over!

We should be eating a piece of this delicious cake today.

But...we each only ate that one bite of it. And it just didn't make the move to Indy with us. Whoops!

Maybe Oreos tomorrow? Totally justified. We had fun celebrating all weekend, more on that to come.

Happy anniversary, Michael! I love you!

And for the rest of you, I'll leave you with a little reminiscing.

Good good music

Anytime you make Thursday feel like Friday is a good thing. Until you go to bed at 12:30 on Thursday, and remember that you do still have to go to work the next day because it's only Friday in your mind.

Still, no regrets. Our good friends/neighbors introduced us to Josh Ritter and told us that we had to come see him with them. So glad they did!

After some faithful listening to the mix they gave us, we were excited to go see Josh and his joyful ways. He really is the happiest performer, just completely smiley and genuine the entire time.

It was impossible to not enjoy watching him. It's so fun to see people doing what they love. His band was loving it, too.

Thanks for introducing us to him, Toblers! And thanks even more for convincing Michael to come even though it was the night before one of his infamous tri-weekly Friday tests. That took some work.

But, he still rocked it guys. Maybe the concert took some of the pressure off? And made all the studying more effective? This could become a pre-test tradition!

(Chances of that happening: 0%)

Real Time

Last night he...

Studied and studied and studied. And studied. This week, he studied and studied. And studied. And ate a lot of chocolate chip cookies and the last Easter bunny of the Easter stash. So that he could keep studying.

Last night I...

Studied and studied....a new skill? No, I didn't study. But I appreciated Michael's studying, and told him so, and worked hard on this new found [developing and not quite yet a] skill. It makes me feel very...mature? And kind of like I have ADD. And no, I'm not crocheting a Yamaka.  The beginning stages are just a little deceiving.

And tonight we...

Are off to see and hear good music. With good friends. Then we'll get home so Michael can study and study...

And study.

Can you even handle the excitement that is our lives this week? This weekend looks promising though.