Sasquatch 2008

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Oh, what a wonderful memorial weekend of merriment we had!

Wayne and went to the Sasquatch Music Festival again this year. We went in 2006, and it was just awesome.


(The Gorge. Gorgeous)

Last year's line-up--aside from the Beastie Boys-- was unispiring and didn't seem worth the cash the festival eats. Actually, scratch that. I just looked last year's line-up over again, and it looks really good! I don't know why I thought it was so bad. Hm. Anyway.

This year was, quite simply, AMAZING.

We drove out early and arrived at The Gorge at about 9:30am. We had prepared the night before by making sandwiches, baking brownies, chopping fruit and putting food in clear plastic bags. We had a wonderful assortment of goodies to last us the entire three days without having to spend a dime at the greasy, nasty, expensive food stands in the venue.

We felt so smart and well-prepared.

(Me. Wayne. Happily preparing)

We also got early access passes, so we were able to enter a full fifteen minutes before the rest of the General Admission (GA) crowd. It really does make a difference--especially if you want to sit on the terraced area rather than the sprawling lawn hill.

Trust. It is a big deal difference.

(The Hill viewed from up top)

We got the tippy toppest tier of the terraced area, which put our heads right against the main pathway. Not so good planning there.
BUT still great.


(Notice the people walking right by Wayne's head. Check out the bitchen camera strap).


It was a beautiful day. Sunny, warm. Perfect. Our feet were happy.

The bands play on three stages-- Sasquatch! Stage; Wookie Stage; Yeti Stage.

Day One (bands we saw are in blue):
R.E.M.
Modest Mouse
M.I.A.
The New Pornographers
The National
Ozomatli
Beirut
Dengue Fever
Fleet Foxes
The Breeders
Okkervil River
Crudo (featuring Mike Patton & Dan The Automator)
Destroyer
Kathleen Edwards
The Whigs
Dead Confederate
Newton Faulkner
Grand Archives
David Bazan
Joshua Morrison
Vince Mira with the Roy Kay Trio
Throw Me The Statue
The Shaky Hands
Grand Hallway
--
I wish we had seen The Shaky Hands and The National, but the bands we did see were great.

I was ecstatic to see The Breeders. I love, love, love the Deal sisters, and I was thrilled beyond measure to see them live. They really are fucking awesome.

REM was overwhelming for me; like, I have never seen REM live, and I just couldn't believe I was actually seeing them there right in front of my face. As amazing and awesome as that was, the next night damn near made me cry with joy.

Pictures from day one (we bought a new point-n-shoot for this trip because I was afraid they wouldn't let me take in my DSLR):

The Breeders (we were still trying to figure out the settings on the new camera)
Kim on the left Kelley on the right.


Clouds rolling in. Sun going away.

The one picture we have of REM's performance:


We stayed that night at a Super 8 in Ellensburg, and it was okay. In fact, I was impressed at how clean it was; I would definitely stay there again, if we were going to see a concert at the gorge.

Day Two...
It was a little harder to get up and moving, but we were in the early entry line by 10:15 (GA gates were supposed to open at 11 but were actually open at 11:30 all three days). We got a better place on the terrace (nobody walking right by our heads...no fear of drinks spilled on our heads). We stopped at Fred Meyer in Ellensburg before we got to the gorge and bought sandwiches, St. Arbucks and strawberries with non-dairy creamer. We still had left-over food from the day before as well.

The Line-Up:
The Cure
Death Cab For Cutie
Michael Franti & Spearhead
The Presidents of the United States of America
Cold War Kids
Blue Scholars
65daysofstatic
Tegan & Sara
Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks
The Kooks
Mates of State
Rogue Wave
White Rabbits
The Heavenly States
What Made Milwaukee Famous
The Morning Benders
The Blakes
Sera Cahoone
Cancer Rising
The Cops
J. Tillman
"Awesome"
Truckasauras
---

I wish we'd also seen:
The Cops
Truckasaurus

---

The weather wasn't as nice, but we did get a nice spot on the terrace.


Look at those clouds in the background!


Brownies!! I really do make the best ;-) It's all about the butter you use.


It rained a lot this day, and my suggestions for having a dry time at the gorge will be forthcoming.


Me. Wayne. Warm. Dry.


The Presidents of the United States of America. They are a favorite of our whole family, and I get warm fuzzies when I listen to them. You would also see me sporting a HUGE grin.


I love this picture.


The one semi-decent picture we have of The Cure.

The Cure made me cry. As awesome as it was to see REM, I was waaaayyyy more into The Cure when I was a teenager. Never ever in my mind did I imagine that I would have an opportunity to see them live, but omg, there they were right in front of me. I so wanted to be down on the floor, but I can't hang with those crazy kids. I am, quite honestly, too damn old.

The Cure ended the show with my all time favorite (well, one of them) song, and I was like, NO WAY!! Wonderful. Brilliant. Fantabulous.

Setlist: Underneath The Stars, Prayers For Rain, A Night Like This, The End of the World, Lovesong, To Wish Impossible Things, Pictures Of You, Lullaby, Fascination Street, The Perfect Boy, Hot Hot Hot, alt.end, Sleep When I'm Dead, Push, Inbetween Days, Just Like Heaven, A Letter To Elise, From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea, The Only One, The Walk, Shake Dog Shake, Never Enough, Wrong Number, One Hundred Years, Baby Rag Dog Book

1st encore: A Forest
2nd encore: Boys Don't Cry, Jumping Someone Else's Train, Grinding Halt, 10:15 Saturday Night, Killing An Arab

Total = 31 songs.

Back to the Super 8 that night; we upgraded to a 2 queen room because Paige's friends were crashing with us and the night before they had to sleep on our floor.

Day Three:

The Flaming Lips U.F.O. Show
The Mars Volta
Flight Of The Conchords
Rodrigo Y Gabriela
Built To Spill
The Hives
Matt Costa
Yeasayer
Dyme Def
Ghostland Observatory
Jamie Lidell
Battles
The Cave Singers
The Little Ones
Pela
Thao with the Get Down Stay Down
Delta Spirit
Kinski
Kay Kay & His Weathered Underground
Say Hi
Siberian
Whalebones
The Choir Practice
The Moondoggies

We stopped at FM again for coffee, edamame and more salt and vinegar chips. And sunscreen...we really went through the SPF this weekend.

Back in the early entry line at 9:30. Front of the line, baby. Thanks, esurance. When we got there, there was a line of people, but they were all in the wrong line. We probably should have let them all in front of us, but it's not our fault that they can't read the huge "ESURANCE EARLY ENTRY LINE" sign.

We had a National Geographic Experience while waiting in line:
a green snake ate a mouse right in front of us. It was sick. While the mouse was half in (tail and back feet hanging out of the snake's mouth), he was squeaking like crazy. It was really...gross.


Though we were first in line, I don't run to get a seat. Wayne got held up at security because he had a girl check his bags who happened to be working her first day, and she wasn't sure what to do. The guy who checked my bag barely peeked, but Wayne had to take everything out, unroll our pads and shake out the blankets... it was really frustrating for him-- and for the people behind him.

Nonetheless, I staked out the best spot we had for the entire weekend. Sweet.


I still needed the umbrella...

to provide some shade. When the sun is out, the sun is really out, and there is nowhere to hide. Unless you have a big soccer umbrella.

I forgot to mention my favorite indulgence of the entire weekend:

Vanilla Coke Slushies.
$5 a pop. I had one each day. That was the only thing I bought from a stand at the gorge. Wayne spent $24 on TWO beers on Saturday, but the beer was too pricey to drink more than that. It was only Heineken, too.

We didn't really move off the main stage this day.

It was good to just chill.

Have you seen the Flaming Lips live?
They are a trip:

Doozers.


Teletubbies.


A Wayne in a bubble.

We headed home right after the concert, and we arrived home at about 3am. Not bad. The show was out around midnight, I think.
My favorites the third day were definitely
The Hives
Flight of the Concord
Rodrigo y Gabriela
The Flaming Lips.

I wish I'd skipped:
Mars Volta

I wish I'd seen:
anyone but Mars Volta

--

All in all, this Sasquatch! Festival was totally worth the money. I hope they have a great line-up next year, too, because I really, really, really love Sasquatch.

sponsor a child

One of our local radio station shows, The Bob Rivers Show (I used to babysit for him and his wife..their kids are in their 20's now, and it makes me feel old) is trying to get 1,000 kids in a village in Senegal sponsored. Bob Rivers went there a few weeks ago, and while he was there, he reported daily on what he was experiencing. Wow. It was intense.

Listen to the show's podcasts from April 28-May 5. It's good stuff.

Well, coincidentally at the time they were doing their radiothon for WorldVision, we had a reduction in our auto insurance. Like, a big reduction. It's really great and gives us some extra money in our budget, which means we could afford to sponsor a child. The problem is that WorldVision is a Christian organization and Wayne is so Atheistic that he cannot bring himself to give money to a Christian organization. Well, I can't really blame him because it says right on their site (from the FAQ):


Q: How does my sponsored child learn about Jesus?

A: In everything we do, World Vision's dedicated staff strives to model Jesus' example of love to children and the entire community. Like all of the Body of Christ, World Vision staff members are at various stages of maturity in faith. Yet our staff works hard to ensure that the way they live, the words they use, and the deeds they do point others to a loving God.

In countries where it is appropriate, World Vision also integrates Christian activities into our project work. For example, World Vision partners with local churches in the communities where we work, providing training for pastors and church teachers, mobilizing churches to care for the needy, and facilitating cooperation among community churches. We also arrange for interested children to attend events such as Bible camps or clubs so they can learn more about the Christian faith.

World Vision's desire is to follow Christ so that His love and life can be experienced by community members, young and old alike. If you have other questions about your sponsored child's spiritual training, please write to our office. When you write, please include your account number and child identification number found in your monthly statement.

I think I've found a program, though, that is not operated by a Christian based group that has a quality child sponsorship program. They receive the same ratings as WorldVision through www.charitywatch.org. It's called PlanUSA.

I will look into it further, but I have a good feeling that PlanUSA is the one to go with.

Ed

Anyone from the northwest is familiar with Ed Hume. he's the garden guru around here (and he's less annoying than Ciscoe Morris)He's pretty cool, and he's a local guy. Local as in living in my town...next door to one of Maya's classmates.

Maya's class went to his Children's Garden last year, and her 1/2 class went this year as well to release some painted lady butterflies that they have grown and cared for for the past several weeks.

Maya cried the night before the release because she was going to miss her butterflies (she had two--Mariposa and Claire). The teachers were all glad to finally have them out of the classroom. 40-some odd butterflies are pretty high maintenance. Well, by the time of the release, there were fewer due to unexpected demises. One kid even said (they weren't told when there were butterflies that died), it seems like there aren't as many as we used to have. I had to suppress a chuckle.



Maya with the butterflies.



Ed Hume.



Maya watches the first butterfly finally fly away.
It took awhile because they have to warm up their wings before taking flight, and though it was 70 or so degrees and sunny the day before, this particular day was overcast and cool-- not good conditions for wing warming.



Painted Lady Butterfly.



This is a dragon made from bowling balls that children have decorated. It's really cool.
And one last photo of Ed (he's holding leaves from a Venus flytrap).



Our kids took a field trip to PLU last week, and they have one more field trip to Red Robin in two weeks, and that will be the end of our field trips for the year. I swear we had about 15 field trips this year. Yet one more reason why I love the co-op.

one of several today, likely

Ergh.

I just cannot get back into the swing of this blog thing; I have a lot of transient ideas that don't go anywhere. Maybe my brain cells are dying. I'm experiencing short term blogging-idea memory loss.

Mother's Day was grand. Wayne made me breakfast. Paige and Maya were here, obviously, but Brittani was also able to join us for breakfast this year, which was a real treat because she is usually at her mom's for Mother's Day (duh). She was here for breakfast, then her mom picked her up again, so they did spend quality time together that day.

I got a pedicure gift certificate for $100; that should get me 4 pedis, which makes me very happy. I need pedicures more than you would ever care to guess during the summer. Flip flops and Birkenstocks wreak havoc on the heels, ya know.

I love my Mother's Day breakfast every year. Wayne makes croissant french toast, which is fabulous, center cut bacon and vanilla yogurt with strawberry puree and fresh strawberries. It's very pretty (and yummy!):











Nice, huh?

drought

It's May, and I went a whole month with no new blog posts. I started some, but they never really developed. So it is.

I'm in a bit of a drought of sorts. I haven't blogging; my camera has been tucked away in its bag. Its been a dry month. I did spend about two weeks sick, so I guess I can attribute my dry spell of inactivity to being overwhelmed with yuck.

I have been reading more. A friend of mine started a group for moms of elementary schoolers, and one of the activities has been a book club. Thus far I failed at reading one book (The Historian), successfully read one book (The Glass Castle) and I am currently in the midst of reading one book (Atonement). I've also done a bit of "open" reading on my own. Under the Banner of Heaven. American Fascists. I think there's been more, but I can't recall.

I finished my Winter 2008 class series this past Monday, and I have a new class starting this Monday. Usually I try to take a few weeks off between classes, but it just didn't work out this time. It actually feels better to get right into it. My binders are ready to go; my workbooks arrived in plenty of time. It's all coming together nicely. I have 4/5 couples, and I anticipate some refreshers to come through as well.

I attended the REACHE in April. It was great. The topic was cesarean...the forces behind the rising cesarean rates. Pam Udy, the president of ICAN was there, and her speech was so heart-wrenching. I was near tears. My friend, Jen, got up to read a passage from a book called Cesarean Voices, and she started crying. It was so moving.

A few women were grumbling that Pam was "too radical." Please. I was thrilled with her candor, and she really was speaking from her heart. It was good to hear. One woman asked Pam a question and prefaced it with, "I have been a nurse for 30 years..." which always annoys me. Who cares? What is the implication? That she has more experience than Pam? It's just annoying. Anyway, it was a question about a mom who refused another cesarean and the baby died. It was one of those "Are you saying THAT is okay?" kind of questions. What's annoying is that if the mom had a repeat cesarean and "something bad" happened, would people say things to make the mother feel guilty for choosing cesarean?

It comes down to informed choice. If a woman can choose to have an elective cesarean-- and have their insurance companies pay for it-- then women should also be able to choose VBAC-- and have their insurance companies pay for it. The VBAC climate is getting so bad that women are having to go to great lengths to have the birth of their choice.

Anyway, I had a burst of students have cesareans recently, so I hope this most recent class will be cesarean-free as well as this upcoming class. My last three moms who had cesareans had a really rough time of it.

What else...
I need a job for next school year. I still haven't finished my application with the school district because, well, I'm lame. I haven't had a real job in ages. I realize how much nothing I have when I fill out the application. It's depressing. And I have to be honest--working as a paraeducator at my kids' school district is definitely not where I ever saw myself working. I'm That mom. That woman. Ugh. But it works with my kids' schedules, and it works with my class schedule. It really comes down to working to live instead of living to work. I need some play money, and working for the district, I can get it.

We're planning a camping trip to Crater Lake this summer with all three of our girls. We haven't been camping with all of them since, well, ever. It should be fun. I'd also like to plan a trip to Disneyland in February. Those will probably be our last two family trips since Paige graduates next spring and Brittani the year after.

Okay, I have more to write, but I have to get a kid to bed.