Has it already been nearly a week????

Really? Thursday last, we boarded an early ferry(in our Fluevogs) to Vancouver...woot woot. One of my best girlfriends and I were on our way to see k.d. lang.....at long last. We got off the ferry, jumped on the express bus and found ourselves in downtown Vancouver. Exactly where we were supposed to be!

This is the Vancouver Library from the deck of where we stayed....sweet!!!!!!!! The Vancouver Performing Arts Centre is right around the corner, literally. That's where k.d. would be later. But we had hours to be tourists....and shoppers...and diners....and drinkers.

This is the inside of the library entrance. It is such a beautiful building. Glorious. Magnificent.... and did I mention that it's a LIBRARY?!?!?!

Fluevog's.... otherwise known as the holy land....although I have to admit that I was disappointed to find several of the shoes I was most interested in buying were made in China. That's a new twist, and one that I am not very fond of. It just doesn't work for me, John Fluevog. Sorry. I may, in fact, have to find a new favorite shoe. Are you listening? Pay attention.

We ate snacks at a lovely Italian restaurant and, later, dinner at Delilah's. And some martinis...cuz that is what Delilah's is famous for. When in Rome. Don't tell Eem-er, but I had RABBIT!!!! And guess what?!? Tastes exactly like chicken. No lie.

So, yeah, the concert...where to begin? The Vancouver Performing Arts Centre was beautiful. Thank goodness I dressed up in black velvet and Fluevogs( and my friend in silk and Fluevogs). It totally deserved it. As did k.d. Yeah, you ladies in your tie-dye? You must try harder next time, okay? It was k.d., not the the Dead. There is a time and a place for everything...and this was neither. Sheesh.

Dustin O'Halloran opened for her. He was soft-spoken and engaging...he played beautifully for about a half an hour on a piano that responded well to his touch, as did the audience...and then there was k.d.

What can I say?!? She was everything you hope for (and so very much more) in a memorable event. She was radiant and lovely, gracious and happy to be home in Canada after touring elsewhere. She made me feel like she'd hand-picked this audience to see her, like she couldn't have been happier to see anyone other than us...like she adored us as much as we were so obviously adoring her. Thank you, k.d., for your absolute graciousness, for your joy in the music, for making it feel like the first time you sang Constant Craving and not the one thousand and first, for having fun with us, for involving us, for singing your "bottle of vintage, " as well as

your newly vinted.... , for the jokes, for your smart, groovy band and you letting them have their own lead, for giving us your very best even though we all know you've been on the road a while now...thank you for giving us your best.

She had a standing ovation halfway through the show after reducing us all to jello with Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah directly following Jane Siberry's the Valley. A standing ovation and we still had 40 minutes of music yet to come!!!! Holy moly. The tears, the tears....I could barely see her sometimes...and we were only eight rows back, in the middle...so close, so close. Three encores.

Three.

Wrung-out, literally, we stumbled back to our room with a view, and had a glass of wine, watched the nighttime traffic for a while, then collapsed into sleep.

Next day, we hit the Vag, ate lunch and parted company...my friend caught a float plane home, and I hopped on the sea bus(yes, I said sea bus) and went to visit....

my very good

friends. So we visited, ate more food, drank some beers and I spilled some beers(poltergeist in the fridge, I swear!), and went to bed and then in the morning we all headed to Nanaimo on the ferry....we were on our way to a very important birthday party celebrating a toddler becoming a little boy....

However, when I got home, I found Michael laid out on the bed, unable to function....just home from an overnight trip to the emergency room and doped up on Morphine. Seems he'd fallen down the basement stairs the night before, and with nobody home, and the place locked up tight, he'd had to make his way back up, make some calls, and unlock the door so the ambulance drivers could get in. Needless to say, I missed the party.

Still, we had company overnight that night, and Michael managed to get out of bed for a couple hours. We bbq'ed and ate too much, visited. Sunday came, company left....I took Eem-er out for a little special walk, but there's no room for those photos here today.

Monday and Tuesday were hectic...up at 6:30 am to run before work, make coffee, make breakfast, pack the dog's dinner and the cat's....pack a lunch for me, get Michael to work(for as long as he can stand it with his back!), and off to work where it's busy busy busy, then come home and make a late dinner cuz Michael is useless with that stuff at the moment(normally he is fantastic in the kitchen but he's in a world of hurt right now!), clean up and hit the showers, in

bed by ten...and somewhere along the way, I picked up a cold. Nice.

Today is my only day off during this week of training...groceries, laundry, banking, dog walks, clean the house(hardly), take cold f/x, neti pot my nose(disgusting, I know, BUT IT WORKS!!!!), and make a giant dinner so there's plenty of leftovers for the next couple of days.....

How did I get so dang busy?!?

EEEEEEK!!!!!

Oh, and....I know I haven't commented on anyone's blogs for a while but I am still reading!!!! I am with you guys! I am!