Live from Portland

I'm in Portland right now. I just got to my grandma's house after going to the Howie Day concert downtown in the Crystal Ballroom. And yes, it really is a ballroom. We stood for the ENTIRE concert on a wood floor as the band played on a stage in the corner. It was like a scene out of the OC. It was like a club with a band. It was an experience.

First of all, we spent the day shopping. I spent a little more than I should have, as always. But it's okay. My dad says the money I earned from working this summer will all go towards school. My mom said I better hurry and spend it then and not tell him how much I made. I love my mom. So my expedintures today were quite reasonable looking at them in that light. It's either use the money on clothes or say saranara to it forever...

Olive Garden called our name for dinner. It was delicious as usual.

We left my grandma's house at 7:00 and headed to Burnside for the concert. It took us an hour to get there since Michael was driving. At one point he started driving up a one-way street with a stampede of cars racing towards us. That was a rush. Or not. At another point in our trip downtown, Michael took a wrong turn and we found ourselves on a different freeway headed to the zoo when we were supposed to stay downtown. I am so driving home.

At the ballroom, a woman by the name of Missy Higgins played before it started. She reminded me a lot of Sarah McGlouchlin (spelling?). She had that rich, folk voice and she played both the guitar and piano and was accompanied only by one other guitar. I was impressed with the Australian musician. Then the concert started and Anna Nahkin (spelling?) who sings Breathe (2 AM) on the radio opened for Howie Day. She started off shaky, but quickly gained my respect. She was quite impressive actually. Finally, at 10:15 p.m., after having been standing on the wooden floor since 8:00 p.m., and about to double over in pain from having chosen to wear high heals (I thought I'd be sitting, oK?), Howie Day finally came out on stage and put on a good performance. It would have been better if I wouldn't have so tired and in pain. However, Howie still rocked the Crystal Ballroom. He was suprisingly good live. He changed up his songs so they were quite a bit different from the CD. And then there's always "Collide." I can dig 'em. He did come across as a jerk, however. You know how you can just tell? Yeah. I could tell.

So yes, I was the brilliant navigator who brought us home to West Linn from smack dab in the middle of downtown Portland without making one wrong turn. We arrived at my grandma's with t-shirts and sore feet, where we found my grandma up waiting for us and baked rice crispy treats, banana bread, and cranberry-orange muffins. My grandma, I swear!

Well, kids. It's been been real. Stay groovy............