good show

I honestly cannot believe that it is August already. I am amazed at how quickly time has gone by, specifically since our return home from Colombia in February. Janine has found others who have been in the process or have adopted from Colombia, so we periodically check their blogs. It is always a reminder to me of our own time, our own process, and how it all seems so recent and at the same time so distant from where we are now. We have had our kids now for a little over six months and it is difficult to imagine a time without them. The surreal moments now are the moments, like this past week, that I spend without the kids. They are such a part of my reality that I feel quite empty without my family around. I am very anxious to go see them tomorrow, to hold their little hands, to hear their voices saying "Papi" and to have our family completely together again. Six months has gone by so quickly and has deeply rooted itself in reality in such a way that it almost seems as if we have had these kids from the beginning (although Shirley is two years older than our marriage:)). All that to say, I am absolutely blessed to have such a beautiful and wonderful family, my wife and kids, and I am excited to see them tomorrow.

So I did go to Ryan Adams last night, arriving at the venue four hours before the show started and still finding that my buddy and I were behind over 150 other people in line. There was very much anticipation in the air to see him, so wanting good seats (in the outdoor amphitheatre with open seating) people arrived early. I had packed sandwiches for dinner, so we just relaxed and talked about work (we both work at Stantec) until the gates opened at 6 PM. We rushed down the grassy hill to get good seats and ended up about 100 feet from the stage with no big-heads in front of us. We were happy with our seats. We had nice people around us, not too many loud talkers, which was nice. They were actually there to see Ryan Adams and not to socialize, as is often the case. The show started late, and while thunder clouds threatened us, they never really followed through, so we got a dry show. The band played for about an hour and forty-five minutes, mostly stuff off his last four albums, and had some Grateful Dead-ish moments of jamming out. It was quite fun, and I would certainly go see him again, although we were all disappointed that he didn't encore. The crowd was left standing (they were pretty lame with their cheering at the end) for about 15 minutes as we screamed and waited for his return. Soon, though, the stagehands began dismantling gear, and we knew that it was over. Next up: Calexico.

Today should be busy for me. I will be wrapping up some cleaning around the house before I go, making sure that I have mail, dog, and rides to and from the airport covered for the trip. I will drop a couple of things off at the library and some stuff at Savers, as well, so the day should go pretty quickly. I also will be going out to eat with our friends Josh and Becky and Jill and Josiah, so that will be good. We are going to go downtown to a pizza joint, which actually sounds good right now even though it is not yet 9 AM. I am pretty sure that I could eat a couple slices right now. I'd like to find time to do a little recording today, too, but whenever I get wrapped up in that I lose many hours on end just staring at my recorder with headphones on. We'll see what happens.

Pak will be going over to Rich and Corina's house for the time while we are gone, and I am pretty sure that she will like that. It is funny how she misses her buddy Rufus when he is gone. She has been trying to turn to Brad and Traci's house to get Rufus every time we go for a walk. She is so used to having him around. So the walks have been solo, much quieter than normal. It is odd to not have the Clemens family here, although we get good reports from Costa Rica. They really seem to be enjoying themselves, which is good for them. Everybody needs a break now and then, and I hope that they are getting theirs. But we miss them a lot.

We finally got rain here the other day. It stormed like crazy, actually. Thursday night. It was right after I ate with Josh and Becky, I was leaving their house (had Pakak with me, so she could play with Jack) and we saw the dark clouds hanging over the west side of the SL Valley. The fat drops of rain peppered my windshield as I drove off in the direction of home. I had forgotten that I was supposed to pick up a crate of produce in Taylorsville that day, so I knew that I had to drive the 30 extra blocks to go get it that night (it was already 9:30). As we drove in that direction, the wind was incredible. I could feel it picking up underneath the van as I drove. Pak was freaked out by the lightning, and her usual hyper self was put on hold as she simply laid down on the front seat and looked around at every flash of lightning. Anyhow, we finally made it to get the food and I got soaked getting it. It was quite an adventure. To top it off, the onions were really pungent and smelled up the car on the way home. Crazy. But we all made it.

Anyhow, I need to go eat breakfast. I slept in a little this morning, actually making it to 7 AM. Usually, me sleeping in means that I wake up around 6 AM. People think it is crazy that I consider that sleeping in, but it is about an hour after I usually get up. So 7 AM today was a nice solid sleep for me. It felt pretty good and probably would have been even longer if a certain heeler mix didn't come nosing me to get out of bed. Crazy dog.

Tomorrow I fly out. I see Janine and the kids. Maybe eat a cheese steak. I am excited. It will be good. I miss them a lot. Tomorrow.