Packing to Travel? Splendid!

I'm fortunate enough to get to travel quite a bit this year, especially in the next couple weeks.  As I write this, I'm sitting in the Atlanta airport on my way to Orlando for a conference, followed by a day of supremely nerdy behavior with a couple friends at the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal Studios before a roadtrip home.  For years now, anytime I'm away from home for more than two days, I prepare a packing spreadsheet to help me make sure I have everything I need.

This really started in 2010 when I was going from a week-long work trip to Memphis straight to a long weekend in Chicago and Milwaukee.  I decided to pack two suitcases - one that would travel to Memphis with me, and another that would meet me in Chicago with my boyfriend.  Since the long weekend included two non-consecutive days at Summerfest, a wedding, and a Cubs/White Sox game, I didn't really need the same kind of apparel appropriate for the work trip.  In order to make sure I have everything I needed for both legs of the trip, I started listing exactly what was going into each bag.  Eventually I turned the list into a spreadsheet (my preferred way of sorting data), and I've never looked back.  

My packing spreadsheet includes each day/date of my trip, a one or two word description of that day's activities (travel or Harry Potter), a detailed account of what I plan to wear, including possible wardrobe changes.  I color coordinate my clothing to cut down on the number of shoes and accessories I need to bring.  My carry-on bag is no different in terms of organization, though it doesn't always necessitate a section of the spreadsheet.  I check and double check that I have everything I need.  This time around everything I need includes the following:

First we have, of course, my wallet.  I purchased this wallet in Florence, Italy a few years ago, and I have yet to find one I like better.  In addition to my ID, money, and various cards, I also carry single pack wet wipes, a couple Advil, and some oil blotting papers.

I can't go anywhere without my iPhone.  On this trip, I was able to send my boarding pass directly to my phone, which was great.  I'm usually super paranoid that I'm going to lose my boarding pass somewhere between security and the gate, and this alleviates that part of my travel stress.

I've been in love with my purple wayfarers since I bought them at Target last summer.  Their bright frames make me feel very summery.  Possibly the best $15 I've ever spent.

I try really hard on trips to pare down what makeup I bring while still having everything I use on a regular basis.  Thank goodness for sample sizes from some of my favorite brands!
Here's what I brought with me for the week:
Benefit Pore-fessional primer
Nars Radiant Creamy Concealer in Custard
Benefit Erase Paste in Medium
Urban Decay Eyeshadow Primer Potion in Original
Bare Minerals Matte Foundation in Medium Beige
Ulta Mineral Blush in Flush
Benefit Hoola Bronzer
Benefit Watts Up Highlighter
L'Oreal Infallible Eyeliner in Brown
Maybelline Color Tattoo Metal Cream Eyeshadow in Barely Branded
Urban Decay Naked Basics Eyeshadow Palette
Maybelline Mega Plush Volum' Express Waterproof Mascara in Brownish Black
Revlon Kissable Balm Stain in Honey
Benefit Coralista Lip Gloss
and to top it all off, literally, Urban Decay All Nighter Make Up Setting Spray
Also in this bag, are my contact re-wetting drops and my eyelash curler.

To apply all that makeup (which seems like a lot more once I've typed it out), I need my brushes, which also fly in my carry-on.  Like with everything else, I try to limit what I bring.
This is what I have with me now:

Real Techniques Buffing Brush for foundation

Bare Escentuals Heavenly Blush Brush for, you know, blush

Real Techniques Contour Brush for bronzer

Real Techniques Flat Shader Brushes (2 - one for matte shadows, one for shimmery shadows)

Real Techniques Accent Brush to line lower lashes using eyeshadow

Urban Decay Dual-sided Eyeshadow Brush (from Naked 2 palette) for blending crease color

I never manage to eat proper meals on the days when I travel.  Either I'm flying over lunch or dinner time (never breakfast - let's be honest here), and until I'm seated at my gate, I can't focus on anything.  I like to pack a couple snacks in my bag in case I don't have time to eat in the airport during layovers.  (Once I had 35 minutes to make it through the Atlanta airport and had to make the choice between using the bathroom and eating.  I chose the bathroom, and made it to my gate as we were starting to board.)  Pre-packaged snacks are obviously the easiest, and the Clif Bar will be substantial enough to keep me from getting hangry.  I'm mostly just addicted to the breath mints, and I'm paranoid that I'm going to run out of them on the trip, so I just brought essentially a whole package.

And speaking of addictions and paranoia,  I can't go anywhere for more than a day without bringing multiple tubes of Chapstick with me.  If I happen to lose a tube (more than likely), I don't want to be without a backup... or two....

When I travel, I like to keep all the cords and chargers and dongles for my electronics together in a little pouch.  I've got my iPhone/iPad charger, my earbuds, my Fitbit charger and dongle all ready to go.

I'm also bringing my iPad Mini, but that's what I used to take all these photos, so it's not pictured.  I love that my Mini is small enough that I can hold it comfortably in one hand.  Since I know I'll spend the majority of my day reading on it, this is a big concern.  I love to travel with it, because it doesn't take up as much room as a book, and I know I'll always be able to download another book or re-read one of mine if I finish whatever I'm working on at the beginning of the trip.

If you've made it to the end of this post, congratulations!  You must be a teacher on summer vacation.  Kidding!  I don't know if anyone will find this remotely interesting, but I know that I find myself watching countless "What's in My Bag" videos on YouTube.  Maybe that's more of a comment on my life, though...  Anyway, we've fast forwarded a few days, and my conference is going to wrap up tomorrow.  The expo at this conference was great, and I picked up a lot of goodies.  So if you've made it this far, leave a comment telling me what's one thing you can't travel without.  I really am interested!

Ben Folds & the SLSO? Splendid!

Charlie Kinzer introduced me to Ben Folds around 1999.  Charlie was one of my best childhood friends, and one of the smartest kids I had ever met.  Back then my friends and I would would spend our nights firing up the dial-up modem and chatting on the ICQ instant messaging system.  As Charlie and I were chatting one night, he told me he was going to send me a song I should hear.  He sent me a copy of "Brick" by Ben Folds Five.  He said it was a great song, and that I would love it.  Fifteen years later, I do love the song.  But lately I've been thinking a lot about the night I first heard it.  I certainly did not understand the subject matter of the song, and now I wonder if Charlie understood the gravity of the lyrics.  I mean, he was the smartest person in our class, so maybe he did understand it.  I certainly didn't.

The second time I was really exposed to the music of Ben Folds was in my friend Kevin's car in 2005.  A group of us were making the trek from Champaign to West Lafayette, IN to watch the Illinois vs. Purdue basketball game.  Kevin was a HUGE Ben Folds fan, and we therefore listened to Ben Fold/Five the entire length of the journey.  At the time, I thought Kevin's devotion to the music was a little extreme, but I can admit I've always liked the way Ben can slip the word "fuck" into so many of his songs.

Over the years I grew more and more fond of the music, and I've been lucky enough to see him in concert a number of times, including last summer with Ben Folds Five.  Right on the heels of that Ben Folds Five concert last year, I found out that Ben would be playing a number of shows in 2014 with orchestras around the country.  Two dates with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra were announced, and that sealed the deal for me.  

I contacted one of my SAI sisters, Amber, who moved back to Missouri a couple years ago, and we got tickets.  We found out that another of our SAI sisters, Clare, would be in attendance the same night with her husband, and we made a plan to meet up for dinner and the show.  A week before the concert, I learned that the guy who taught my saxophone methods class in college would be playing with the SLSO for the concert.  How cool is that?  He's been playing with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra this season as well, which is cool, but those shows did not include Ben Folds!  Holmes is so cool.  (Clearly.  Based on the number of times I used "cool" to describe him/his situation.)

I had enjoyed each of the three previous Ben Folds/Five concerts I attended, and this was no exception.  After the orchestra was situated on stage, Folds took to the piano and opened with one of my personal favorites, "Effington".  That song holds a special place in the hearts of Central Illinois fans, because it was inspired by his drive between Effingham, IL and Normal, IL for a show at Illinois State University.  The first part of the show included "Smoke", "Jesusland",  and "Picture Window".  At that point we were treated to the first movement of the piano concerto Ben had spent most of 2013 writing.  He'll soon be performing it with the Nashville Symphony and the Nashville Ballet.

The concerto movement was lovely.  I found it interesting that Ben's posture changed significantly during that piece.  While Folds is known for a more relaxed posture at the piano (sometime including standing in front of, or even on top of the keyboard), for this part of the performance, he sat up straight.  He didn't stomp his foot down on the pedals.  He demonstrated for the audience the removal of the tape he typically wears on his fingers to protect them while they bang into ivory for hours during a show.  He was a different performer.  The music was different, too, obviously.  The word "fuck" was nowhere to be found, for one.  But the music was still distinctively Ben Folds.  The influence of his rock music was apparent, but that only enhanced the concerto movement for me.  I wanted the piece to sound like a piano concerto composed by Ben Folds, and I truly believe he delivered that.

One of the illicit photos I surreptitiously took during the show 

The rest of the first set included "Landed, "Fred Jones pt. 2", and "Steven's Last Night in Town".  The last song of the set was terrific.  One of the few pieces that includes wind instruments in the original version, the orchestra was really able to make that piece come alive.  It kept the energy high going into intermission.

Following intermission (and one of the longest bathroom lines I have seen EVER), Folds and the SLSO took the stage for the second set.  They opened with "Zak and Sara", followed by "Cologne", which was preceded with a humorous story about the birth of the song while Ben was on tour in Europe.  Ben Folds is known by his fans for improvising music on stage.  This often starts with some fan shouting "Rock This Bitch" at the stage.  At that point, Folds will launch into an improvised song about whatever is on his mind at the time.  Thankfully this concert was no different in that regard.  What was pretty magical though, was how he incorporated the orchestra.  The sections of the orchestra were instructed to play different parts as he built the sound up from the bottom.  Over the top of the orchestra, he sang to us about how he was staying at the hotel with the casino (where our friends Clare & Bill stayed!) and the trouble with trying to eat healthy while on tour.  Apparently it's very difficult to eat vegetables when you're getting room service on the regular.

Instructing the instrumentalists on their parts for "Rock this Bitch"

The rest of the set was amazing.  After thoroughly rocking the bitch, he played the unmistakable opening chords to "Annie Waits".  That was actually a really interesting social experiment on audience reactions in different genres, but I'll get to that later.  Next we were treated to a somewhat rare performance of "The Luckiest", which was the first time I had heard him play it live.  That was followed by "Not the Same", which included some more patented Ben Folds on-stage shenanigans.  One of the reasons I really love seeing him live is because he invites audience participation.  For "Not the Same", he broke the audience into three voice parts, taught us a chord change by rote, and invited us to sing along on the chorus. 

Following "Not the Same", he played "Brick", and I thought of Charlie Kinzer.  Is that weird to think of your childhood best friend during a song about a teenage abortion?  Hmmm, that might be a thought to ponder another time.  Anyway, he wrapped things up with "One Angry Dwarf and 200 Solemn Faces" and "Narcolepsy".  After a standing ovation, in which I happily participated, the orchestra left the stage, but Ben returned for an encore.  I'll be honest.  I don't remember what the first song he played was.  I know that for the Sunday night show, he played "Rockin' the Suburbs" first, but that wasn't the case on Saturday night.  He closed out the whole evening with the song "Army", which is one of my favorite Ben Folds songs ever.  I always hope he'll play "Army", but I was interested in whether or not he would perform it with the orchestra on this concert.  The song features a horn break in the middle, and a concert with an orchestra would be the perfect opportunity to perform it.  I have to admit, however, that he played it in my preferred way - by splitting the audience in half and having us sing the horn lines.  I seriously love that he invites audience participation.

Beyond my notes on the individual songs performed, I made notes about the performance as a whole.  I love that the conductor danced throughout the concert, even singing along at times.  You could tell he was an actual fan.  The lighting director for the event also did a great job.  I assume the lighting concept was a watered down version of what happens during a typical Ben Folds show, but seeing in the context of the orchestra concert really changed my perception of the performance.  I thought it might be distracting at first, but I found it totally enhanced my experience.  It was surprisingly wonderful.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the evening for my friend Amber and me was the eclectic mix of patrons at the concert.  There was a fair mix of Ben Folds fans and St. Louis Symphony Orchestra ticket holders.  The audience interactions made this distinction more apparent.  As I mentioned earlier, the song "Annie Waits" has a distinct opening that includes singular claps from the audience before the first verse.  For example:

Many Ben Folds fans in the audience clapped in time as we've been conditioned to do over the years.  The season ticket holders near my seats were noticeably startled when that happened.  Amber and I discussed our own internal struggle about appropriate behavior at the concert.  Both of us bridged the gap between Ben Folds fans and orchestra fans by being rock music loving classically trained musicians.  I would never yell or "WOO!" during an orchestra concert, but I absolutely do during rock shows.  Finding the appropriate response during this concert was interesting to say the least.

It was really a spectacular evening, though.  I was able to spend a night enjoying music I love, performed by musicians I admire (and 1 I know!), with people who bring me great happiness.  It may have taken me two weeks since the concert to finally write about it, but clearly that was because I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on the matter.  If you've made it to the end of this, gold star for you.  When I started writing it, I thought it would be a love letter.  I didn't know it would be a love tome.

Fitz and the Tantrums? Splendid!

First order of business: have you read my last post on Charitable Giving 2013?  Tell me where to give my money!

Now, on to this ridiculously long love letter to the band I saw last night.

I first heard about Fitz & the Tantrums back in April when I saw this mention of them on Hello Giggles.  I immediately purchased the first album, Pickin' Up the Pieces, based on the iTunes clips of the songs.  I also pre-ordered their sophomore album, More Than Just A Dream, that was set to come out a few weeks later.  

Image via

Lead singer (and band namesake) Michael Fitzpatrick has said in interviews that the band is heavily influenced by the classic soul music that was produced in the 1960's, specifically at Motown and Stax.  That was evident to me from my first listen.  The opening vamp on the second track, "Dear Mr. President" sounds like it could be the opening of an Aretha Franklin song.  I think that's a large part of why I like Fitz & the Tantrums so much - it has the edge of new rock and pop music paired with the comfortable familiarity of decades old soul music.  The marriage of the two styles works so well for this band, and I feel like it's a style that isn't represented as much in current music.

The band also differs from many current rock bands in that there is no guitarist.  James King plays guitar on a few tracks, but more often than not, he's manning the keyboard or wailing on bari sax (he even plays flute on a few tracks!).  All of the musicians in the band are great, but it's no secret that there is real power in the combination of lead singers Michael Fitzpatrick and Noelle Scaggs.  Their voices mingle so well together, and by having both a male and a female lead singer, it opens up a lot of lyrical choices.  They can sing about love and heartbreak, and it's like the audience is watching an actual couple sing their feelings.  The chemistry the two have on stage is so fantastic that a lot of people actually think the two are a couple.  (They aren't - Fitzpatrick's girlfriend gave birth to their son while he was on tour in September.)  The strong chemistry isn't only seen on stage; it can also be heard in their voices.

Both albums have been in heavy rotation on my playlists since then, so when I saw that the band was coming to Assembly Hall (sigh... State Farm Center) in November, I was thrilled.  LP Stacey and I bought tickets weeks in advance.  The Bright Futures Tour was co-headlined by Capital Cities and Fitz & the Tantrums.  They tapped fellow LA musicians, Beat Club, to open for them each night.

Beat Club is a band that is clearly wet behind the ears.  The music was more electro-pop than I prefer, but it wasn't wholly unpleasant to listen to.  I was not a fan of their lead singer and his unnecessarily foul mouth.  As a fellow potty mouth, it's not that he was dropping f-bombs that bothered me.  It's more that it felt forced, like he was trying to be edgy.  It also seemed to be the only adjective he knew, and he applied it liberally between each song.  Lame.  However, I did think it was kind of adorable that the drummer was wearing a Fitz & the Tantrums shirt.

It's hard to see, but trust me, it's there.

Following the Beat Club set, Capital Cities took the stage.  Honestly, I hadn't really listened to Capital Cities till last night.  Of course I do hear "Safe and Sound" on the radio about a million times a day.  I did try to familiarize myself with their album, In a Tidal Wave of Mystery, over the week.  I didn't dislike the music, but I think my excitement over Fitz was clouding my honest judgement of the music.

Capital Cities put on a thoroughly enjoyable set.  They have great energy, catchy hooks, and my favorite (of course) - a trumpet player!

Okay, so his moves were kind of cheesy, but he was still a great horn player.  And the crowd loved him.  At one point he swapped his trumpet for a purple pBone, which also went over well with the crowd.  They unsurprisingly closed with "Safe and Sound", and the crowd went wild.  It seemed like the song would never end, and that was okay, because we were all having a fantastic time.  We were safe and sound.

I wasn't expecting to enjoy the Capital Cities set as much as I did.  But it was so lively and energetic, and just plain fun.  I may not have known many of the songs before the concert, but I woke up with them in my head this morning.  Catchy jingle writing jerks.  I decided that Capital Cities may be less of a "listen at work" kind of band and more of a "bathroom/kitchen dance party" kind of band.  And I'm okay with that.

At long last, the house lights went back down, the LED heart lit up, and Fitz & the Tantrums took the stage!

They opened the set with "Keepin' Our Eyes Out" from their second album.  They followed that up with "Don't Gotta Work it Out" from Pickin' Up the Pieces.  The whole set was a nice mix of songs from each album, which was great.  Because let's be honest, when you go to a show, and the band only plays songs from the new album without honoring its own past, it's disappointing.  

The middle of the set had lots of energy, sandwiching "Breakin' the Chains of Love" between "Break the Walls" and one of my favorites, "Spark". 

One of the strangest and most enjoyable moments of the show for me was the cover of the Eurhythmics' "Sweet Dreams".  I feel like even Annie Lennox didn't have as much fun performing this song in concert as the Tantrums have.

During the second half of the set, they played "Out of My League" which has been getting regular air play for the last couple months.  It even made it to the top of the Billboard charts in September.  

They played some of their slower tunes after that, but they closed the show with "L.O.V." which was a total blast.  The band vamped on the ending for quite a while.  They even brought Capital Cities trumpet player, Spencer Ludwig, out to improvise with James King on saxophone.  The best descriptor for the end of the show would be raucous.  The crowd was going wild, everyone was dancing, and the band was clearly having a great time.

Despite the fact that the show was not as well attended as it could have been, the audience was deafening at the end of the show.  The band came back out to perform a two-song encore.  First they played MoneyGrabber from their first album.

They closed the show for realsies with uber-catchy tune, "The Walker" from More Than Just a Dream...

 complete with confetti cannons.

I just had such a great time at this show.  Sure, my ears were still ringing when I went to sleep, my body physically aches from dancing so much today, and getting out of bed this morning was nearly impossible.  But it was all totally worth it.  I enjoyed the show so much that I looked at the rest of the tour schedule today to see if I could make it to another show.  Sadly the only two shows that are remotely near enough are both sold out.

I've been really lucky to see some really excellent shows this year, and this was most certainly one of them.

Oh yeah! You also might recognize some of the Fitz & the Tantrums songs from various commercials and TV shows.  I made a playlist on YouTube of all the commercials I could find.  Grey's Anatomy also featured the band three times: "Dear Mr. President" in season 8, episode 4; "Spark" in season 9, episode 19, and "The End" in season 10, episode 5.

Seriously give this band a listen.  They make me super happy.

Summer Adventure? Splendid!

Back in January, I knew my life would be heading in a direction I like to call "shambly".  I knew that my interim position was ending and that there was a good chance I wouldn't be returning to my previous position.  Knowing my income status would likely change relatively quickly, I did what most slightly irresponsible 20-somethings would do: I made fun summer plans and bought concert tickets.

I've been a fan of Zooey Deschanel and M. Ward's band She and Him for at least three years now.  They recently came out with their third album (aptly titled Volume 3) and launched a tour to promote it.  I got an email about a pre-sale at the end of January, contacted some friends, and purchased tickets immediately.  To say I had been looking forward to the concert was an understatement.

At the same time as I bought the tickets, I also started a quick descent into the Joss Whedon fandom.  For those of you who don't know, Joss Whedon is the mastermind behind shows like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Firefly, and Dollhouse as well as Dr. Horrible's Singalong Blog and The Avengers.  He also has some surprising writing credits including Toy Story and Roseanne.  He has a tendency to work with the same actors because he knows their strengths and their abilities.  In between principle photography and editing for The Avengers, he brought a bunch of actors to his gorgeous home and filmed an adaptation of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing.

I had been looking forward to Much Ado's release for a months, and I got very excited when release dates were finally announced.  I was less than thrilled, however, that "wide release" only included 5 theaters in Illinois - all of them in the Chicagoland area.  Thankfully I found a theater screening the film as a matinee on the same day we would be attending the concert.

Stacey and I headed north to meet our friend, Jenny, who would serving as companion and tour guide for the day.  As we got to the city, we looked for parking near the concert venue.  In case you're wondering, yes I did take a picture of what must have been the She & Him tour bus in front of the ballroom.  

Because I'm a creeper.

By the time we got to the movie theater, previews were rolling, and I realized I wanted to see every single movie they advertised - even the one in Spanish.  Much Ado was everything I wanted it to be.  I loved seeing my favorite actors from the Whedonverse perform what is essentially the original romantic comedy.  I enjoyed Whedon's use of a backstory that I always thought was hinted at but never explored in the original play.  I'm happy the traditional song "Sigh No More" was incorporated in the masquerade scene.  Clark Gregg really impressed me as Leonato.  That character goes through probably the most drastic changes in demeanor throughout the play, and Gregg gave such a fantastic performance of the entire range of emotions.  Tom Lenk and Nathan Fillion's portrayals of Verges and Dogberry cracked me up, as they would for any Whedon fan.  And Alexis Denisof had me in stitches throughout the scene between Benedick and Beatrice just after he's heard Don Pedro, Leonato, and Claudio describing her alleged love for him.

I'm SO happy I got to see this in the theater.  Thankfully the Art Theater in Champaign was able to get it after all, so I took my boyfriend to see it last weekend.  It made me just as happy the second time around.

After the movie we found a pub with outdoor seating and enjoyed the unusually mild June day.  For dinner, we moseyed down the street to try the burgers at Kuma's Too. 

Waitin' for our food with JNance

While visiting the restroom at Kuma's Too, I noticed all the graffiti inside my stall.  My eye was drawn to the top of the door, though, where a quote from one of my favorite movies, Empire Records, was scrawled.

Shock me, shock me, shock me with that deviant behavior.

After dinner we headed back to the Aragon Ballroom for the evening's main event.  I hadn't been to the venue before, but I had read up on it (like I do for just about everything).  It was a general admission show, and we got there right as the opening act was finishing their set.  That timing worked out fairly well for us, because a lot of people were walking out to use the bathrooms and/or buy merchandise and alcohol.  Signs were posted asking fans not to take pictures and instead enjoy the moments live.  I do respect that sentiment, I promise, but there was just no way in hell I was going to be in the same room with Zooey Deschanel and not snap a few quick photos.

Knowing we had just built ukuleles, and that I was already fangirling very hard about this concert, our friend Caitlin asked how I would react when Zooey started playing ukulele.  I told her I would probably make a lot of what we call "baby pterodactyl noises".  Then I demonstrated the high pitched "EEEEEEEEEEEEE!" sound.  I think Caitlin was sorry she asked.  I also may have given her tinnitus.  

She and Him put on a great show.  In addition to being starstruck by Zooey and M., I was also impressed with the other members of the band.  Most She and Him songs are under 4 minutes, and the other band members covered all kinds of instruments.  That meant a couple of the guys basically ran from one side of the stage to the other every 4 minutes for the entire set.  There wasn't much banter in between songs, either, so there was no time to dawdle.

As expected, when the show ended after a high-energy cover of "Roll Over Beethoven", the audience kept applauding and cheering, hoping for an encore.  My friends and I all saw a roadie bring out a different guitar at the end of the set, so we knew it was coming.  That didn't make it any less awesome.

After the encore, people started shuffling toward the incredibly poorly designed exits, but I kept looking back toward the stage.  Why?  Because the house lights weren't up yet, and the show ain't over till the house lights come up!  When the band scampered (seriously, they scampered) back out on stage for a second encore, I took off back toward the front of the room.  (Before the show started, I made Stacey promise not to leave without me.  I had a feeling something like this would happen.)  I probably haven't moved that quickly in years.  The second encore was their pretty well-known cover of "I Put a Spell on You".  It was great.

Once we finally made it down the treacherous staircase of doom to the main lobby, I pulled the girls aside so we could document our evening together.  I figured I would just ask the nearest event staffer to do it.  Of course, I didn't realize the nearest employee was approximately 70 years old.  So I had to explain in great detail how to take a picture with an iPhone...  We ended up with a grainy backlit photo that looks like it was taken in a subway.  Still, it's a MEMORY!  I'm so glad I got to share that memory with these particular girls.  When Stacey asked me afterward if I had fun, I told her I wish everyone in that room had enjoyed the show as much as I did.

 We also knew that one of Stacey's former students would be at the show, because Stacey was the one who alerted her to the pre-sale after my email.  We didn't expect to see her but thought it would be funny if we happened to run into her.  Lo and behold, as we were making our way past the merchandise vendor, she and Stacey spotted each other.  Apparently they arrived super early and were in the front row.  She also took illegal photos, but I have to believe that the performers were not nearly as washed out and unfocused in her pictures as they were in mine.