Rainy Weekend and a Summer Forecast

Last weekend I took a mini vacation.

Wednesday, I went to see Jenny Lewis at First Avenue. It was fantastic. She is fantastic. I saw her a couple of years ago after Rabbit Fur Coat came out and she seemed very rigid and nervous to be out on her own. But she has certainly loosened up. It was a great show.

So, I took Thursday off of work so that I could enjoy myself on Wednesday night, which I did. I also needed to prep for the camping trip we planned on taking that weekend. Friday through Monday.

My friends have been trying to convince my husband and I to go camping with them. They have a favorite site and go all the time. We finally agreed and this past weekend was the time.

We drove down Friday afternoon and set up camp. It was great. The weather was perfect. The campsite was great. We played games, drank beers. It was a good time.

I had checked the weather and new that rain was in our forecast and the weather was supposed to cool, but I packed responsibly and felt prepared.

As I crawled into our tiny tent Friday night with my husband and our dog, I suddenly couldn't sleep. And neither could my husband. It didn't help that parties started erupting around us at other sites. Then, a whippoorwill started to "sing". It sounded like a car alarm and went on for at least 2 hours. When it finally quit, the temperature dropped drastically. I was freezing. I had on sweat pants, wool socks, a sweatshirt and a hoodie and still froze under my sleeping bag.

Around dawn (4am) the whippoorwill started up again. It went on until about 6am, which is when I finally fell asleep. I slept for about an hour until my friends got up and it started to rain.

At this point, my fingers were frozen, I could see everyone's breath and I wondered where June went.

The rain began to fall heavier and the wind picked up. As I looked at my soaking wet dog, I began to imagine what that night would be like with the wet dog in our tiny tent.

I made a decision. Pack it up and leave. So we did.

It was a bummer. I was really looking forward to camping. I never do it and got really excited by the idea of being off the grid for 4 days. It was also just another milestone of my summer to cross off the list.

Here are other things I'm looking forward to this summer (in order of when they are happening):

1. Shopping for new bathroom and kitchen floors.
This weekend, our handyman is meeting us at Home Depot and we are going to pick out our new floors, toilet, and oven hood and all other supplies for our upcoming remodel. I am super excited. We keep planning things for the house that keep getting set aside for whatever stupid reason. It is seeming like this one might actually happen. I just want to get to the store and buy everything so we have no excuse.

2. Drinks w/ Mia
My cousin, who I adore, has invited me and a few of my other cousins and our significant others over for drinks and vinyl album listening in a couple of weeks. Mia is a few years older than me and an accomplished musician. I've always admired her musical talent. We've tried for years to establish a closer relationship, but our schedules never seem to match up. I'm excited to hang out with her and this side of the family, whom I never get to see.

3. Rock the Garden
My summer festival consists of Rock the Garden, hosted by 89.3 The Current and the Walker art museum. My husband and I are volunteering, which gets us in for free. Though I'm not super excited about the bands this year (I've never really listened to any of them besides Solid Gold) it is sure to be a fantastic time and a great place to run into old friends. Keep your fingers crossed for nice weather.

4. Regina Spektor cd
Regin -ah, Regin -ah, Regin-ah! Cannot wait for this album. I've already dedicated a whole post to her, though.

5. Remodel
Hopefully our bathroom/kitchen update will happen by the end of the month. I would like to have it done before...

6. 4th of July
The past couple of years, we've had impromptu bbqs at our house for the holiday. My husband's out of town friends always seem to be in town. Phone calls are made and people start to show up. I hope it happens this year.

7. The National
I've fallen in love with this band over the past year. Though I'm nervous that seeing them live might ruin them for me (I've talked about this elsewhere in this blog).

8. David Cook
Oh, David. I'm probably most excited for this. His shows look unbelievable - though short. Here's to hoping he tacks on another half hour of show time.

9. Wedding anniversary
On August 3rd, my husband and I will have been married for 7 years. Is this when the itch happens?

10. 30th birthday
Dear god, I'm turning 30. Not sure how I feel about it yet. One hand, I'm depressed. The other, I'm relieved. It's strange. We'll see how it goes.

11. Ani Difranco
Ani announced a show at First Avenue on Sept. 20th. I've never seen her in a club before. Should be a good time.

And that's it. That's my summer.

I Hear In My Mind...

It is rare that I connect with an artist nowadays the same way I did when I was a teen or an early twenty-something. I can find a lot of good music these days, but I find I usually only listen to the album a few times and then I'm done. I may connect with a couple of tracks, but rarely do I find someone who makes me what to scour the internet for every last morsel of their creative output. There are few new bands where I find myself mentally counting down to their next album.

But, I have found one. Her name is Regina Spektor and she will be releasing her new album "Far" on June 23rd - that's 21 days from now.

I discovered Regina shortly after her album "Soviet Kitsch" came out. I fell in love with the songs "Us" and "Ode to Divorce" and "Somedays". The rest of the album took me a while to fall into favor with. Instead, I picked up her earlier album "11:11". Loved it. This led me to take another listen to "Soviet Kitsch". This time it hit me. I loved every song and every odd little lyric and vocal twitch.

It seemed not too long after, that news of her next album, "Begin to Hope" was going to arrive. She started out by releasing 4 singles from the album, all of which got me excited. I bought the album the day of release and found it to live up to every expectation.

It was around this time that my Google search engine became familiar with the words "Regina Spektor unreleased music". I was so pleased to find that she is one of those artists that seems to write a new song each day and has no problems playing these new ditties at shows. She reminds me a lot of Ani Difranco in that way. Always writing, always performing, always releasing some sort of musical nugget for her fans.

So now it is 21 days from the release of "Far". I heard the first single, "Laughing With" and I was worried. It's a very pretty song, but I'm not much into religion and songs overtly about religion don't do it for me. I don't think Regina is some uber-Christian and I know that is not what this song is about. But, still, not my cup of tea. When the track list was released, I became much more excited, for I saw the one song I was hoping would be on it: "Folding Chair". I've recently fallen in love with this song. I got an mp3 of her performing on XFM. I don't know why I love it. It's just one of those songs that grabbed me for whatever reason. She just put up the album version on her MySpace page and it is so awesome. She's added drums and other instruments and it's just such a fun and happy song. So perfect for summer. I can't wait to own it.

I pre-ordered the album off of iTunes to get the bonus tracks. I eagerly await the morning of June 23rd when I can add it to my iPod and listen to it on the bus ride to work.

In the meantime, here is a list of my must have Regina Spektor tracks - Go Get Them!:

Rejazz
Braille
I Want To Sing
Samson
Consequence of Sounds
Ode To Divorce
Carbon Monoxide
Us
Somedays
Fidelity
Better
On The Radio
Field Below
Hotel Song
Summer In The City
Another Town
Bartender
Folding Chair
Dance Anthem of the 80's

And pick up "Far" when it is released on June 23rd!