My hubby is typically not very organized when it come to shopping for Christmas or birthday gifts. He shops sporadically - when he has a little time while traveling or when he happens across an interesting catalog or website. He’ll often buy what he thinks is cool, or artsy, or funny, without thinking about who he might give the gift to until much later. He’s never been one for checking names off a list or keeping track of his purchases, so he might end up with many presents for one daughter and few for another without intending to - in fact, he is as surprised as they are! We had one of these “surprises” Christmas of 2008. Lying in bed after a lovely Christmas Eve and Christmas Day of celebrating with the family, eating too much and opening presents, Jim asked if I had had a nice Christmas. I told him yes - it was wonderful to have everyone home for the holidays! And, I said (not able to stop myself), “it was a very nice jar of jelly.” “Jelly?” he asked with a blank look on his face. “Your Christmas gift” I said. “You got me a jar of jelly.” “There was more, no?” he said. “Nope, just a jar of jelly.” Inadvertently I had been the ‘victim’ of Jim’s haphazard shopping style!
Well this Christmas Jim went overboard to make up for the lonely jar of jelly. I was completely taken aback when, on Christmas morning, I opened a box with contained tickets for Country Thunder for me and my daughters, airline tickets and a rental agreement for a RV to camp at the music festival grounds. Bless his heart - he had looked up where Keith would be playing and arranged every aspect of the trip!! What a man! (I’ll take a jar of jelly anytime if this is what follows!!)
The school year is not yet over for me so I had to do some juggling to find substitutes for my classes while I played hooky in Florence, AZ the end of this week. Thursday morning three Walsh women flew into Phoenix from Iowa, Ann Arbor and Chicago (my youngest couldn’t leave college at the busiest time of the semester so had to miss this event). Enterprise Car Rentals gave me my choice so I picked a fire engine red rental car for us and off we went to pick up the RV. Of course none of us had ever driven anything that large so this was an adventure in more than one way. Sara stepped up to the plate and did a terrific job driving the 50 miles to the concert venue. We did, however, call upon the skills of a more experienced and helpful gentleman to back the RV into our campsite at the very crowded makeshift campgrounds that totally surround the Country Thunder performance area.
Today we heard but didn’t see Jo Dee Messina’s set as we got settled in (perfect concert sound at the campground), then headed over to catch Gary Allan and then Miranda Lambert. It had been in the nineties midday but cooled down nicely for the evening shows. The Country Thunder stage has a long catwalk but neither Gary nor Miranda made full use of it. They came out on the first 20 feet or so, but never went the full length (I’m betting things will be different tonight when Keith plays!). Security periodically cleared away fans that tried to stand up front or along the catwalk even though the performers were actually saying things like “Don’t let them make you sit down!” and “There is more of us than them - go on and stand!” I think they would have liked a lively group of standers upfront because the reserved seat section was generally a group of quiet sitters! They better not expect me to sit tonight!
Both Gary and Miranda put on terrific shows. I must say though that I prefer their hits and softer country sounds to a few of the louder, harder rock numbers - especially when you are sitting in front of those giant concert speakers!! Whew - my ears were ringing several times during the night! Some of my favorites:
Gary - Right Where I Need to Be
Miranda Singing Blake Shelton’s Home
No comments:
Post a Comment