Sunday, November 14, 2010

Two years late but worth the wait!

In the late 1990's I became a fan of the Dave Matthews Band, thanks to my good friend Mandy! She had purchased tickets for her and a male friend to attend the concert. When things didn't work out between the two of them, she asked if I would join her for the show. I was vaguely familiar with his singles but definitely up for a live show. Little did I know it would be the first of many many many DMB concerts I would attend. I tried to count as Katrina and I waited for this years show to begin but I don't know that I can accurately say...probably 15 or so, spanning several western states.

For the last 2 years the band has had to cancel, first because of the death of saxophonist Leroi Moore and the next year because Dave was sick. They refunded tickets both years and put on a free show in Salt Lake City this year to make up for it. Katrina and I were very excited and it was a pretty phenomenal show!






The playlist was one of the best I've seen and he danced and joked all night!

Tuesday Aug 17 2010
USANA Amphitheatre


Squirm *
Shake Me Like a Monkey *
Stay Or Leave *
Seven *
Crush *
Still Water
Don’t Drink the Water *
Lying In the Hands of God *
Gravedigger *
Grey Street *
Write A Song *
Corn Bread *
Jimi Thing *
Why I Am *
Needle And The Damage Done +
You and Me *
Ants Marching *
__________________

Sister ~
Two Step *



Show Notes:
* Jeff Coffin
+ Dave Solo
~ Dave, Carter,Tim and Rashawn

It was Cecily's first Dave Matthews Band concert, she has hated him all her life but thanks to her new husband Collin, she has been converted. She loved it, thank you Collin!

The Great Egyptian Adventure

Its been a while...I know. Please keep your expectations low as I am guaranteed to be deficient in my updates. I went to Egypt in May, it was amazing! Since it would take too much effort to recap the whole incredible two weeks I will post some pictures and fill in with some captions.

We spent a few days in Cairo, visiting the Pyramids and the Sphinx. We rode camels, sometimes voluntarily, other times forcefully being lifted onto the camel and then being expected to pay for our unwilling ride upon descending the camel. We learned our lessons quickly, Egyptian men have no real respect for women, believing we seek the obnoxious attention they harass you with. I am also pretty sure that Egyptians in general do not understand the meaning of the word NO.







We took a trip up to Memphis where the believe they have only discovered about 10% of the treasures and ruins buried there.


This one of Elba is a favorite!

We flew to Luxor and proceeded through Egypt by way of the Nile on a river cruise. We stopped at many sites as we headed south...






Our southern most stop was in Aswan, we were able to see the dam there as well as Philae Temple. We went sailing on the Nile and we did lots of shopping.






From Aswan we took a short flight to the two temples of Abu Simbel built by Ramesses II, one for himself and one for his favorite wife Nerertari.




It was HOT!

We cruised back up the Nile, again stopping at a few temples on our way back to Luxor where we spent a few days going to the Valley of Kings, The Valley of Queens, the Temple of Hatshepsut...







...and finally Karnak Temple.





When we left Luxor we headed to the Red Sea for our last few days. We spent some time on the beach, took a tour of the beautiful reefs on a glass bottom boat and even had an amazing Turkish Bath at the resort we were staying at.

It was an incredible trip, I feel very lucky to be able to see so much of the world and its history. If you are interested in seeing all 400+ pictures, you can click the link to the right for my PICASA and go to the EGYPT folder...

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Consumerism


While this post was mildly inspired by Avatar, it is not about the movie at all. It is a frustrating thing, thinking about how much is consumed and discarded each year by each person from the most wasteful to the most green. Wasteful people seem to disregard the fact that others are affected by their carelessness. In Avatar, the Na'Vi believe they are all connected to each other, to nature, one eternal round so to speak. I got thinking about consumerism and how there are people who, in not considering their connection to others, are emotional consumers.

There are people out there, I know some of them, who say they do not "need" others. People who do not form close relationships or who have so many "associates" that they do not really invest in others. We have all heard the concept emotional bank accounts, we make deposits so that when we need our friends, we can make a withdrawal. Emotional consumers do not make deposits because they do not intend to ever make withdrawals, they don't "need" anyone. These individuals have forgotten that just because they do not invest does not mean that their friends are not investing in them.

I just decided that I don't really want to expound on this subject any further...I will conclude by simply stating:

Emotional consumers suck!