sasquatch and my busy life...

Well, here we go... I can barely keep up with my own life, but I'll try to catch my blog up to at least yesterday.

Last weekend: Sasquatch... the modern yet still hairy cousin of woodstock
I can't even begin to express how much fun this music festival was, so I won't even try. I really needed it... two days of relaxing, partying, dancing, eating junk food and camping in a cow pasture. hee-haw! And the music, of course, was awesome. Here are some bands I heard and my impressions of them:

SATURDAY

• Iron and Wine: just as sweet and melodious as ever, like a big blanket of happy covering a crowd of thousands of people...
• Neko case: We were a little distracted by bigger things while she was playing... more on that later
  
• The Shins: I love these guys more than ever now. They are such a good time, lots of stage energy. I woke up with their songs in my head yesterday morning, still...
• Ben Harper: I mean, it's ben harper... apparently he's god, according to the OBNOXIOUS teenage girls standing in front of us. Some key phrases we heard were: "oh, he's so amazing.. it's okay to cry... it's just so emotional... ". A stoned guy standing near us calmly turned to them and said "I will kill you...", at which point i just about died laughing.
  

SUNDAY

• Laura Veirs: She's a cutie! Spunky little fold singer
  
• Matisyahu: This guy is AMAZING! I'm sold. He's a jewish reggae/rapper, yamika and tisti and all, and he just has so much energy. Even though he's very orthodox about his religion, he can get everyone in the crowd fired up and feeling spiritual. While he was singing a huge rainbow came out, and it was a kind of testimony of approval from someone... mother nature? god? i dont know, but it was a really good time.. and fun music to dance to.
  
• Queens of the stone age: by this time Paul and I met up with a non-couple that were a lot of fun and adopted us into their group of friends. We weren't fans of the Queens, but they were so we got to live vicariously, i guess...
• Death Cab for Cutie: The man is a genius. Amazing to watch, he creates music that is dynamic and inclusive and emotional and dance-able. I think he was playing and average of 2.7 instruments at any one time, if you include his voice.
  
• Beck: Hell yes!!! I love this guy. He had his hat and suit and everything, and there was a marionette show going on in front of the drum set (remember Team America? except these puppets had clothes on...). He did an awesome encore, but by the time he was done playing we were done standing and dancing. Sober, tired, and ready to crash. It was a very full day of fabulous music, though...

Oh yeah... and the weather was lovely. On saturday we were all sunning ourselves on the lawn, enjoying the sweet tunes of Neko Case, and out of nowhere came this huge black cloud, thunder and lightening and the works. People weren't too nervous at first... until it started HAILING, and not just little cute dots of ice. Good sized chunks, the size of skittles or larger. (taste the rainbow.... ouch!). Everyone was huddling under blankets because those little buggars really did hurt. We expected it to blow over but it lasted for about 15 minutes, and at the end it looked like it had snowed. We were all totally soaked and freezing, but we stuck it out for the rest of the concert. I would have been cold and groucy if I didn't have Paul to cuddle up with and a fleece blanket.

Monday was spent in recovery which included napping, eating, and minor studying.

This week? Lots of busy-ness. And I'll be away this weekend too (and next week we have two tests and an assignment due). I think i'll be even more exhausted after next week... oh, here's what i'm doing for the weekend: there's a vision screening at a big Special Olympics event up in Tacoma. I've done a smaller scale screening at the winter special olympics and it was a really great experience. There is a higher prevalence of disease and anomalies in that population, so you get to see a lot of interesting things, but the best part are the athletes. They are some of the sweetest people, bursting at the seams with personality. It is also a challenge, and I tend to thrive on those.

I knew this summer would be busy, but jeez.... I'm running just as ragged as I was during the school year. And there doesn't seem to be an end in sight for quite some time. Generally, I'm having fun... but I fantasize about a time when my to-do list consists of little things like going to the post office and getting an oil change, instead of studying for boards, consolidating my loans, recruiting speakers for a conference, recruiting students for a school organization, and trying to keep up with everything else. I wish my fairygodmother would come by and turn me into a pumpkin so i can hang out in a field in the sun.