I want to go out tonight, I want to find out what I got

It's always a risky proposition to attend a Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band concert on a school night. Wednesday night at Citizens Bank Park proved that - this 67 year old man and his band played for four hours and four minutes. It was his longest concert in North America and his second longest concert ever. We stood 80% of the time and as always they put on an incredible show. This was my fifth time seeing them live, and every time has gotten better (but I still miss you, Big Man). If the Boss is in town, you should go. He is our best storyteller. Seeing him live even converted MFD into a huge fan - like his music, he works the whole show from start to finish. He leaves everything on the field. 

I got my love of the Boss from my dad. This is the music I was raised on. It was awesome to be at the concert with him and Carol.

A little bit of Rosalita for you:

A little bit of Born to Run for you:

Since he played until after midnight, we didn't get home until close to 2. I didn't fall asleep until after 2:30 because I was hyped up on concert adrenaline and motor vehicle fear as I just survived an escape from a concert parking lot/ride down 95 with MFD at the wheel. I thought Jimmy, Catie, Joe and I would perish to a Thompson Twins song as MFD ranted into the great beyond about assholes stuck in parking lots but we lived to tell the tale. 

And now it's Friday. Tommy need sleepy. 

Have a great weekend my friends! 

If I knew Picasso, I would buy myself a gray guitar and play

Wednesday night after work I had some time to kill, so I submerged myself in the airless humidity of the grounds of the Philadelphia Museum of Art to check out the exterior sculpture garden behind the museum. The building itself is magnificent, I could walk all around and stare at it for hours.

Not to mention it has a killer view down the Parkway and the Rocky statue.

As well as a nice view over The Water Works. The sculpture garden is small but in general the exterior grounds of the Museum are a great place to wander, and it's free. Free is for me. Did I also mention it was hot? Hot is not for me.

After my sweaty foray around the grounds, I UBER'd down to the waterfront to meet Debbie & Melissa. We took the RiverLink Ferry over to Camden for the Rob Thomas & Counting Crows concert. I will never drive to a concert in Camden again. The ferry is the way to go. Ten bucks a person and no stress. I had a peanut butter and nutella sandwich with strawberry as a topper for dinner from Lunch Box Philly and it was delicious.

Rob Thomas was already playing when we got there. He sounded good and seemed like a cool guy that we all agreed we'd be friends with. The Counting Crows didn't come on until after 9. They were really good musically and Adam sounded great. The last time I saw them I was in college, and they played the songs off of August & Everything After very differently than they were recorded. They took a lot of liberties so it sounded more like what you hear on their live CDs. They did that with some songs at this concert, but what they also did was stray from their hits to play some lesser known stuff. I enjoyed it. I like how it's not necessarily a sing along for every song, but more like a show and of them pushing the limits of their music. I dig it. They didn't play Mrs. Potter's Lullaby but you can't win 'em all.

Let's see, what else...we broke our asses sitting on the lawn for a zillion hours, saw some awesome non-concert attire, smelled a shit ton of weed, watched drunk people fight and lose things and almost fall, witnessed a domestic dispute on the ferry back, and sweat every spare ounce of water out of our bodies.

Not bad for a Wednesday. But now it's Friday. It's still hot as fuck, but the weekend is upon us and I wish you all a good one.

TWTW - the one with the music

Friday post-work trip to the library / rendezvousing with MFD at the Barnes

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Surprise 50th for our good friend Steve with awesome Italian food, delicious cake, and a lot of laughs

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Saturday Target/Lou's Farm Market/Redner's errands & time out back relaxing with the dogs 

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Vietnam Vets Assn picked up my purged items & we finally got a new MFing dryer

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Hydrangeas cut from out front / Nails in OPI I Manicure for Beads

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Dinner at La Calaca Feliz in Fairmount

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Family night with two of our brothers and sister-in-laws and Sarah's brother for Paul Simon at the Mann. He was amazing. Really great night.

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Sunday morning out back finishing a book and relaxing after 9.5 hours of awesome sleep

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Sunday night Peter Gabriel & Sting concert with friends at BBT in Camden. Neither artist is my favorite, but they put on a great show. Getting out of Camden blows. 

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Weekly food prep

1 - Breakfast is egg muffins with spinach & cheese and strawberries

2 - lunch is homemade sloppy joes on whole wheat buns with a side of plums and carrots

3 - Dinner is chicken with cauliflower flavored with cilantro & lime (recipe tomorrow)

I'm worn out. 

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending &

Living just enough, just enough for the city

Yesterday a few coworker friends and I walked a block and a half to Dilworth Park, joining hundreds of strangers for an impromptu visit from Stevie Wonder. We ducked out after a speech on love and a song. I love you Stevie, but standing in a sweaty crowd with no air flow and body odor on the rise is not for me.

City Hall, that was the best place to be. Open those old windows and listen to some sweet Stevie crooning.

Despite the heat, humidity, crowds. and BO, it was still a nice surprise on a Monday afternoon. There aren't enough nice surprises on Monday afternoons, are there? I appreciated this one.

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Haikuesday

Hot days bring fresh fears:

Body odor in a crowd.

Nose and soul perish.

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TWTW - the one spent mostly in New Jersey

I had a blast at Sannelli Doyle day, even though we reached sweat inducing speeds passing a motorcycle club thinking our death soundtrack would be the Joan Baez version of The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.

Our first stop of the day:  The Anchor's Bend in Asbury Park to see our friend Mark's band Gringo Motel play. Let me tell you, I didn't expect the food to be as good as it was at a little bar on the beach. Collectively we had a shit ton of food - fish taco, lobster roll, cod sandwich, burger, calamari, crab brioche, chips & salsa & guac, cuban shrimp - it was all really good. As were the views, music, and company. The only bad thing is that the concrete floor with sand on it is slippery AF. I was basically doing the shuffle down the ramp out of there. No whammies no whammies.

Our second mission had to be aborted after we scored a sweet parking spot right out front. The Stone Pony. This is my second attempt to get into this joint. Is it ever open where you can just go in and have a drink and hope Bruce Springsteen walks in and sits down next to you and talks about his song lyrics? Things I should google.

We celebrated our fabulous friend Jill's 30th bowling party with Jill and family and friends at our third and final Sannelli Doyle day stop. Birthday joy, cheesesteaks, beers, a lipstick cake, bowling, and good friends. It was a solid end to a great day.

After visiting a grocery store for the first time in weeks (thanks grocery delivery for routinely saving me from that), I did my weekly food prep: grilled chicken, roasted sweet potatoes and onions, and steamed broccoli & cauliflower for lunches; celery and carrots for snacks; hard boiled eggs (shitty photo, yes?), nectarines, and power breakfast muffins from the freezer for breakfast; and grilled chicken, salmon, steamed veggies, and grilled potato and onion packets for dinners.

This photo of death and decay sums up my feelings on hausfrauing bullshit like deadheading flowers, the typical Sunday sheet change, general pickup (still cannot get the freaking dining room table cleared from recent travel, etc), and minor purging that I did while MFD was out working Saturday morning.

Sunday MFD had realtor things to do down the shore so I tagged along to steal two and half hours at the beach in the late afternoon. It was nice to have a hoagie under the umbrella, read some mags, and just chill out.

Have you forgotten what my dogs look like? Here are Gus and Geege chilling out back on Saturday morning - thanks to my awesome neighbors for letting them out during our long days out Saturday and Sunday. 

You heard nothing about Friday because I was in bed before 8 and slept for 11 glorious hours. Hallelujah and amen.

Sunday night I showered and painted my nails and slept a deep and blissful sleep. It was fabulous. I also came home to a detailed car, a surprise from MFD. I'd been bitching about it and he had someone come do it while we were out. I'll keep him for another week!

So basically I was home Friday night and Saturday until 2, Saturday and Sunday nights to sleep, and spent the rest of the time cavorting around Jersey. 

We jammed a lot in this weekend and logged a lot of hours in the car. I'm tired and ready for another. You? 

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending

Sing us a song, you're the piano man

Billy Joel's show last night at Citizens Bank Park did not disappoint as a reunion between me and him. And 20,000+ other people of course. It had been 20 years since I last saw him in concert, and it was MFD's first time seeing him.

It was a beaut of a night - no humidity and a soft breeze coming through the ballpark. Billy was in a great mood, throwing cigars out to the audience and handing them to the veterans who came out on Goodnight Saigon as well as showing the crowd a photo of his new baby on the big screens.

Gavin DeGraw opened for him, and I am so behind the times on music that I had to text Laura and ask if Gavin DeGraw was famous. Whoops. I recognized some of his songs after that.

I love how he asks the audience to choose between two songs. New York State of Mind won out over our wedding song Just the Way You Are, but them's the breaks. Other highlights for me: Allentown (I have an awesome video but my nasal voice singing along is too much even for me), Goodnight Saigon, Don't Ask Me Why, Say Goodbye to Hollywood, This is the Time, and We Didn't Start the Fire. Piano Man is never a favorite of mine, but singing it along with so many other people in an open air arena is a pretty freaking cool experience. He played one song that got a hard no from me (No Man's Land) but the rest were fan favorites and I enjoyed even the ones I don't love like Still Rock and Roll to Me.

We had seats in section 139, the last section they sold on the lower level. That left us free to move over into those empty partial view seats and have a lot of room throughout the concert...especially after we moved away from the habitual farter and the girls who talked throughout like they were at the nail salon. Including the one who kept saying so he sings AND plays the piano? Are you kidding me lady? He's the goddamn Piano Man. Yes he sings and plays the piano. Anyway, moving next to an entire section of empty seats was awesome. We had so much room which is usually in short supply at concerts.

Thanks for a great show, Piano Man.

MFD would like everyone to know that we stayed until the very end and got out of CBP in five minutes and were home in 25. I'll give it to him, it was excellent post-event timing.

It's a long delicious slide into the weekend from here. Enjoy it my friends!

TWTW - the one with the fathers

What better way to kick off the weekend than being ladies who lunch with my friend Tara and wearing my newest Alex & Ani? St. Christopher, patron saint of travelers.

I was out on Friday night - second week in a row. One more and my old lady status gets revoked, am I right? MFD and I had dinner at Talula's Garden. I've been dying to go and it did not disappoint. A little pricey, we had the tasting menu and it was worth it. I really loved sitting outside in the garden.

We jetted over to the Mann to see David Gray and Philly boy Amos Lee. Our friend from high school plays one zillion instruments in the Amos Lee band and it was great to see Andy up on stage. All performances were full of energy and enjoyable, especially from our sweet ass fourth row seats. The Mann is my favorite place to see a concert in the Philly area. It seems homey and small and has a great view of the skyline.

For those who enjoy video, click on these links:
David Gray doing a little Babylon and Amos Lee doing a little Boyz II Men

I got up early as usual Saturday morning, then managed to go back to sleep. Sweet sweet bliss that happens so rarely as I age. When I got up, I did some laundry, hausfrauing, etc. The only food prep I did was power breakfast muffins. It's the week before vacation so breakfast is muffins and yogurt, lunch is salad, and dinner is veggies and salmon or chicken from the freezer. This week is also called the week bitches don't feel like doing anything except going on vacation.

Saturday afternoon Debbie and I took a drive down to Ocean City, NJ, and met up with Sean, my Mom and Rich.

We strolled the boards, shopped, ate boardwalk food, and touched the ocean before heading to Sean's Red Bull game right off the beach on Sixth Street. It was a great family day! Debbie's Fitbit says we walked over five miles which clearly justifies the gelato AND custard I ate. Fatassery at its finest.

Happy Happy birthday mother & Happy Father's day to my stepdad!

Sunday we met my Dad & Carol for breakfast for Father's Day and took Brother's Pizza over to my father-in-law. Previous posts on my dad can be found here and here! We're lucky to have good dads in our lives. I can't wait to vacation with mine next week!

Sunday afternoon was picking up and packing up for vacation. Since it's summer, my obsession with photographing flags has returned.

Sunday night we watched the first three episodes of Orange is the New Black. Now Alex is whiny too? Cripes. Piper is whiny enough for everyone.

Four work days stand between me and vacation. Bring it. 

Linking up with Biana at B Loved Boston for Weekending