Spot the WICKED Fan!

We're not even going to discuss how long it took me to do this. And really, I'm sure Janette is sitting there right now thinking I ruined a perfectly nice bird picture just to make the point that I'M GOING TO SEE WICKED TONIGHT AND I'M SO EXCITED I CAN HARDLY SIT STILL! (ok, the not sitting still part might also have to do with the Coke I have consumed this morning)

Anyway, about the birds. I thought these guys were cattle egret (egrets?), but now I'm not so sure. There were a whopping 11 of them out back today, in two separate groups. Whenever I see them, they are in the grass and not on the water, which fits the cattle egret foraging, but there's no red wash over the bill and no fancy plumage on the top of their heads. Any guesses? Here's one more picture, with a great egret for comparison:

Idina!

Last night was the Idina Menzel concert at House of Blues.

I can't make my mind break down the night into anything coherent, because it was just one big blur of fabulous. She did (I think) every song off of her new album, plus 2 songs from RENT and 2 songs from Wicked. Oh, and Roxanne. Hey - every concert needs a random cover, right?

Idina is fabulous beyond words, and her set was about 2 hours long. Sweet! I love the stuff off the new album (note to self: check BMG before buying anywhere else), but the most thrilling to me were the Broadway songs that she made famous in the first place. "No Day But Today" was totally surreal for me because I was on another stage singing a much less fabulous version just the day before. And I can't even describe what it was like to hear her do "Defying Gravity."

Hearing her do "For Good" is probably something I'll never forget. That song is really special to me for reasons that I'm not going to talk about here. But I had tears rolling down my cheeks hearing her sing it live. Wow. So of course, I went on YouTube to find a video from another concert date, and the one I found has crappy video and crappy audio. She was better last night. But here you go. The song starts around 3:11.



If she came back next week, I'd go again. For now, I guess I'll just have to buy the album and occasionally watch blurry, shaky, illegal YouTube videos to relive the memory.

Wicked Was Good...Tampa Was Not

Scott and I had a really good time at the show last night. It was a lot more smoke and mirrors than I prefer, but a show about witches obviously needs to include special effects. The cast was really talented, and even though we had nosebleed seats, it was still a great show.

That being said, it's going to take the second coming of Aida to get me back to that city. Not only was all of downtown Tampa under some sort of construction, our exit off the interstate was closed and the next exit dumped us into some west-side ghetto with no stores or gas stations and we looped through downtown (once we found it) about 3 times deciding whether to find an ATM for parking money or park a few blocks away on the street (we lucked out with a spot 2 blocks away).

Tampa is also severely short on eating establishments. We walked 2 blocks from our car (opposite direction from the theater) to a mom & pop pizza place, but gave up on it when we saw the chairs up on top of the tables. Dinner ended up being 2 muffins, 2 cokes, and a pack of Twizzlers from the theater lobby ($16).

After the show, we left downtown and went back towards our hotel. In that neighborhood (east Tampa), there are plenty of grocery stores and fast food chains. Sadly, most were closed by the time we got there. We tried McDonald's, but they must have been understaffed - people weren't using the squawk box to order, they were just driving up to the window. So we kept going. Ten miles later, we settled on a Subway inside a gas station. Processed chicken has never tasted so good.

Luckily, the Days Inn we stayed at (my opinion: if a hotel is roach-free, I don't care if there are prostitutes and drug dealers as long as they don't knock on my door) had non-lumpy mattresses and we got a good night's sleep before heading back home this morning.

Today concludes our mini-vacation. Tomorrow begins my "marathon" four days of work before our real vacation. I'm so glad that trip won't require driving unfamiliar roads!

(and for anyone wondering about my tooth, it is MUCH better. I've "only" taken 6 pills so far today. it still hurts at times, but I'm pretty sure it's going to stay in my mouth)