Paul Simon and Sting on Stage Together

This last weekend I took my mom to go see Paul Simon and Sting on Stage Together.

The concert was so fun and I had a lovely time with my mom.  She grew up listening to Simon and Garfunkel and then raised me on their music.  It is very much our mother daughter "thing.'  Around her birthday I saw a commercial advertising the show at the Honda Center in Anaheim and I knew I had to get tickets for her birthday earlier in the month.

We started off the night at one of my favorite places JT Schmid's and had my favorite meal of salmon, veggies and rice.  And a lovely banana briose, which I could eat every day.

After we stuffed our faces we went over to the Honda Center to get ready for the show.  I loved the audience at this show.  There were so many baby boomers there that I instantly felt young and amazing!  Of course there were some hipsters like myself there too, yeah right like I am a hipster!

My favorite people were the grown ups who never quit being a hippie at heart, dancing like no one was watching even though we were all watching and loving it!

Before we could go in I realized that the security for this thing was really tight and my mom and I were trying to smuggle in water.  I told her to "be cool" and not act weird when we were being let in so they wouldn't really look at our water bottles.  She said "I am always cool!" and then blew it.

The security guard asked to look in her purse and she told him, "I don't think so."

Goodbye water!

I am surprised they let us in with her clearly anti-establishment attitude. But we did get through and enjoyed the random musical styling of Paul Simon and Sting ensued. And I loved every minute of it!

I would have never thought to put Sting with Paul Simon, I mean they are so different, but it worked.  They were a little comedy duo too.

The show was so seamlessly executed that it was three hours of non stop music!  They would play a few songs together, solo, together, solo.... and on and on.

One of my favorite moments came when Sting sang "Roxanne!"  One of my favorite things to do is sing that song, very silly and it was 2700 times better in person. Also I thought about this friends episode the wold time which made me laugh.

The whole concert was so much fun and I chair danced with the best of them!  I usually stand as close as I can, but with the mom I toned it down but still had the best time ever.

This photo was an accident but it felt artsy so there you go. I am pretty sure it should be an album cover now.

My all time favorite song by Paul Simon is America.  The pictures that come to my mind when I hear this son are beautiful.  It also makes me want to get out and see more and more of the world.  I am pretty sure a lot of people feel that way about this song but dang it I love it.  I was a little bit bummed out that Paul Simon didn't sing it.  Sting actually sang it and did a nice job, maybe I almost cried

Overall it was a wonderful evening that I would recommend to anyone.  I had fun with my mom, jammed to some sweet tunes and remembered that I like other music more than country music (sorry country music you are fun, but I gotta go with my heart!)



Does anyone else out there love Simon and Garfunkel as much as I do?  What are some bands or songs that define your life?

Happy Birthday to You, Momma!

Here we are at Wednesday and most of you would probably just go through the day and not realize the vital importance of February 5th.  I am sure you guessed it.  Today is my momma's birthday!

In cause you did not guess what today was I am appalled!  If she wasn't born I would not have been born and this blog would never be clouding up the internet.

In honor of my mom's birthday I decided to pay a little tribute to her and her impact on my life. I can think of no better way of doing this than a list, because lists are what bloggers do right?

My mom has always been one of the most unique, kind, and intelligent people I have ever met.  I do not know how she manages to be the smarted and most individual people I know.  So here is my list of ten things my mom did that make her amazing.

She has read every book ever.

So that might be an exaggeration by like five books.  really though I do not have a memory of her without a book in her hands or on her table or in her hands and on a table. We had bookcases of books she read all around the house and I always wanted to read as many as she.  I will never accomplish that goal



 

My mom went to high school in Germany.

Yeah you heard me right!  My mom was an army brat and moved to Germany for three years so my grandfather could be a principal of a school on the base there.  She was fluent in German for a while and still can speak a bit.

[caption id="attachment_698" align="aligncenter" width="620"] Bottom right is my mom, os cute![/caption]

She was a hippie (but just the peace kind, not the drug kind).

She was up in San Francisco during the late 60s and I am sure she has some stories.  Whenever I see a movie set in the 60s and there is hippie girl I just pretend she is my mom.

She met Cesar Chavez.

If you do not know who Cesar Chavez is read this Wikapedia article and them come back and admire this fact.

She has one brown eye and one green

I mean that is just pretty cool.

She is my favorite travel companion.

We have traveled to Europe together and last summer had a lovely time in Hawaii.  She is super chill and reads a book all the time so we can lay out and tan and enjoy life.

[caption id="attachment_693" align="aligncenter" width="612"] Hawaii 2013[/caption]

[caption id="attachment_694" align="aligncenter" width="672"] Ireland 2012[/caption]

She likes to take fun photos. 

We once took a photo by a grungy lake because it was "funky."

We also had to take a photo of every McDonanald's we saw in Europe.  I don't know where this one is but it was in Europe!



My mom has a fantastic sense of humor. 

I remember the first time I really made her laugh.  I was in middle school and I write something about Elvis wearing a hula skirt.  She laughed and laughed and I loved it.  She says and does the silliest things and I love that she is a kid at heart.

[caption id="attachment_695" align="aligncenter" width="720"] Look at all that joy in the family![/caption]

She was the first person in the family to go to college.

I am telling you this lady is smart.  No one on our family had go past high school and she just decided heck why not get a Doctorate degree?

She made me love music.

My momma has the most varied taste in music ever and I am so glad she made me listen to it even when I complained.  I have a deep appreciation for great music.  From classical to Simon and Garfunkel this lady would listen to it and share why she loved it with me.

For her birthday I am taking her to see Paul Simon at the Honda Center and I am so excited to share that memory with her.

She loves Jesus and lives for him

She is my example of a deeply intelligent, social concerned and compassionate, fun, woman of God.  She has shown me a way of follow God that few have and i am so grateful that she is herself which makes me comfortable to be myself and be happy with who I am in a world where people are constantly trying to be something else to fit in.

So here is wishing you all a wonderful my mom's birthday!

Sandy (Momma) you are one of a kind and I can not think of anyone I would want to be my mom other than you!

You Are Doing OK Dog Mom!

So there is this group at my church and practically every church I have ever heard of called MOPS, Moms of Preschools.  All the hip moms are in this group and I assume they wear their yoga pants and drink skinny lattes together at 9am on Tuesdays while the rest of us suckers are working.

In all serious I have some friends in MOPS and I know that meeting with other moms that are going through what they are going through has been amazing for them.  They talk about their stage in life and they listen to other wise women share their stories of how they made it through the tough the tough times.  I know that many ladies look forward to their group every week and they leave totally encouraged and ready to be the best mom ever.

I think I make fun of them because I am slightly jealous.  Not of the having children part, Lord knows I am happy to sleep in on Saturday mornings still.  I am jealous that they have a group that tells them they are doing good and that everyone makes mistakes.  I think we all need a group like this.

I know there are a ton of girls out there that are not moms of real babies but they are moms to cute little puppies.  I am pretty sure there are times where we all think we have totally screwed up our pup for life and if there were ever such a thing as a doggie psychiatrist we should send her there when she sent through her rebellious teenager stage.

This weekend I was convinced I was the worst dog mom EVER!  I had a little party at my house this weekend and Penny was the center of all attention. Before the party I went to my car to get the Cheez-Its I left there on purpose so we would have some to eat at the party.  Penny manages to slip out of the gate very stealth like and ran right out onto the street by my house.  No joke she ran right in the middle of the street!

I ran after her, which probably made matters worse because she thought we were playing chase.  I stood in the middle of the road and looked at me like, "Why are you jumping up and down and screaming like a wild woman?  Don't you know you are in public and people can see you? Geez mom you are so embarrassing!"

No matter what I did Penny would not come to me.  I calmed down and called her.  I ran toward the house so she would chase me.  I yelled at her.  May came out because she heard me yelling and tired to get Penny to come back.  I tried to use a calm tone with her.  If Jack London's story To Build A Fire taught me anything the 8 times I have read it, it is to remain calm so the dog doesn't sense you are freaked out.

Finally, the best person in the world saw her and stopped their car so everyone behind him would stop too.  He gave us time to coax her back to the grass and honked at her to scare her enough to move.  She ran back inside and went to her bed because she knew she did something wrong.

I am sorry, mom!

Then everyone came over and we I ate the Cheez-Its.  As someone was leaving they forgot not to leave the gate open and off Penny went for the middle of the street again.  Cue the screaming, pleading, playing, and praying.  This time she went even further in the street and I was sure I was going to watch my little girl get hit by a car.

Somehow she finally got scared.  She saw a car almost hit her and took of running for the house.  The rest of the night she kind of whined and slept but was totally fine.

For the rest of the night I texted my mom and friends and looked for as much validation as I could that I was not the worst dog mom ever and that no one was going to call DPS on me (Dog Protective Services).

Then I was watching Once Upon a Time and the following commercial came on.  I just pretended it was about puppies and not babies.

Anyway, I am tired of the moms to human children getting all the attention and encouragement.  I think that us dog moms need to unite and make MOPS mean something else, Moms of Puppies.  I promise we can still wear the yoga pants and drink lattes as we talk about how perfect our puppies are and all the trouble they get into. So who's in? By the way I can not even begin to imagine how hard it is to have a human baby! Oh and don't forget tomorrow is the first Tales From the Classroom Link Up! In case you missed it read about it here. 

Friday Faves - May 10

It's Friday!  My neighbor at work plays Rebecca Black's Friday song most Friday's and it almost seems incomplete if I do not her auto-tuned voice.  I actually feel quite bad for that girl. I need to have a serious talk with her parents. 

This weeks Friday Faves is just a list of great people or groups of people in the world.

Moms!

In honor of Mother's Day this Sunday I just wanna say, "Hi Mom!  Thanks for being my faithful reader! You have a beautiful child."

Teachers!

Yes this week was Teacher Appreciation Week. In case you forgot or didn't do anything for the teachers in your life you are not alone as I wrote about here!  Chipotle looked out for this little teacher when no one else would.  Thanks Chipotle you know how to keep a girl happy. 

I enjoy this video Jimmy Kimmel had on his show.  Yes it is kind of mean, but it does make me laugh. 

Gatsby! 

That's right folks after TWO YEARS of waiting my love Leo is coming to the screen in The Great Gatsby! This movie was supposed to come out last year and then was delayed to this last Christmas and then delayed again until now.  I honestly have never waited so long for something in my life.  I told my students this and one snarky girls said, "Haven't you waited forever for someone to love you?"  Sometimes I need more teacher  appreciation days...  

AA

I am taking my students to see Gatsby this weekend for extra credit and I am really excited about it.  Here's hoping the scene with the shirts is everything I want it to be, it is by far my favorite part of the book. 

Well Old Sport, I hope you have a great weekend with your mom, a teacher, Gatsby or all three!

love! Erica