i must have missed that class

last week, my dear husband told me i'd need to block out from 3:30 until at least 10:00 p.m. on saturday for him. being that he is an incredible person to spend any amount of time with, i gladly did as told. only hitch? he wouldn't tell me what we were doing. an envelope came on saturday from quantum arts in fort collins, i could have googled it, but i hate to run surprises (as a kid, my sister and i unwrapped all our christmas presents one year, totally cured me.). he told the kids and e was giddy with the knowledge that he knew something i didn't know. poor kid wanted to tell me so badly what i was doing on saturday, but i wouldn't bite. kelly doesn't often plan surprises like this, so i relish the wait. he just told me to dress casually.

so saturday morning was packed. i played the piano for a wedding of my friend's daughter. not the traditional wedding march, but the ice dance from edward scissorhands and pachabel's canon in d. and some other miscellaneous stuff as filler. you might think a movie theme song by danny elfman an odd choice for a wedding entrance, but for aubrey and jeremy, it was perfect. i was delighted by their choice and really enjoyed it. i got to edit danny elfman, come on! pretty cool.

three thirty came around and we got in the car and headed north to fort collins. there was a light rain and a lot of traffic on the freeway, so we took a backroad (one we'd discovered the day before when we went to the benson sculpture gardens in loveland. i want to live in loveland.) it was such a lovely drive, fall really in full swing here in colorado. we enjoyed the back roads, the barns, the fields, it was a beautiful drive all around.

we made it to fort collins in a leisurely amount of time, drove around the city, and now i want to live in fort collins too. what a lovely place! i've only been to the scrapbook store there, which was wonderful, but i never knew fort collins was so delightful. something about a college town! kelly finally told me we were going to see peter mayer.



no, not john mayer.

that name was familiar, how did i know that name? ah, yes, from our days in minnesota. we had this amazing radio show called the morning show on minnesota public radio. i listened religiously. dale connelly and jim ed poole not only played the most eclectic music, but provided excellent intelligent humor to start my day off with. that's where i started my love affair with public radio. anyway, peter mayer was a local folksinger/songwriter who we'd first heard on the morning show. i have to admit we did not own any of his CDs, i couldn't have told you what he sang, and i had a vague idea of what he looked like, but i did know i had a positive connotation when i heard his name, so he had to be pretty good. he's from minnesota, he had a lot going for him.

we found the club where he was playing, an intimate little place called avogadro's number, peter was just finishing up his sound check, we got to meet him and make our goofy connections to minnesota made known. i always feel silly telling someone i used to live where you do now, but you've got to make connections you know? he was really nice about our goofiness. then headed to a fabulous thai restaurant called bann thai for dinner. yum. i'd definitely recommend it! i had the phad thai and kelly had the panang curry. both were delicious.

we got back about 30 minutes before the concert to a full house, good thing we'd saved a table! the concert was wonderful. he sang a gorgeous song called holy now about how differently a person sees the world as an adult versus when he was a child. it's beautiful. peter's range of songs was delightful, from songs about pajama day to very deep world relationships. he's a great performer, very connected with his audience. he played for nearly three hours, with a short intermission, then ended to a standing ovation and came back into the room for an encore of john denver's country roads.

here's where i realized i must have been sick that day in school. he started singing the song and EVERYONE in the room, even my husband, started singing along with him. now i know "country road, take me home, to the place i belooooooong, mountain mama, west virginia, take me home." and i think that's pretty standard. but i was in the minority with that line. even my husband knew all the lyrics. so i just sat there and tried to look like i was into the emotion of the song, i mean it's john denver, rocky mountain high, there's some connection there...

we said thanks, bought some CDs, drove home listening to them, and went to bed.

and now if you'll excuse me, i need to google the lyrics of country roads and start learning them!

have a lovely day!