Weekend Wrap-Up

May 6, 2008 /

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbpzJRWz6rg[/youtube]

Other than the stress related to my mom’s condition, this was a lovely weekend! Friday, Ted and his brother went out for a yummy dinner at Wente, while Maya and I had a nice evening doing some last minute birthday shopping and making plans for the birthday boy.

Saturday, Ted’s parents invited everyone to their house, and we had a birthday BBQ for Ted. His mom is smart, and the majority of family functions are ‘pot luck’, meaning we all bring something, and no one has to cook or pay for everything. We feasted on pork ribs, lamb ribs, chicken, corn on the cob, fruit salad, the best potato salad ever, artichoke dip, and bruschetta. No wonder some of us didn’t have any room left for cake! It was a relaxing, lovely day, with perfect weather.

Sunday, of course, I ran up to visit my mom and get her moved from the hospital. While I was gone, Ted and Maya went to see Iron Man, which they said was really good. After a few delays at the hospital, I was able to cut out and get home in time to see RUSH with Ted and Maya. That was FUN! And I’ll tell you, I needed a little fun right then. I’m a Rush fan, in that I really like some of their songs, but I’m not a fan like Ted and Maya are. They LURVE Rush. Anyway, the first half of the concert was so-so to me. That being mainly because I’m a casual fan, and didn’t know a lot of the songs. The guy in front of me was probably 6’1″, and had lovely flowing curly locks of hair, which is good, since that’s most of what I could see. But I twisted around a bit, peeked between him and his buddy, and was able to see more.

The second half, though, they ROCKED! They played a lot more songs that I was familiar with, and gosh, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen another rock group work so hard for their audience, and I’m happy to say, the audience responded. What a happy group of people. And by people, I mean white men. Well, at least 3/4 of the people were men, and I would say 7/8 were white. So yeah, lots of white men. Geeks and rockers, mostly.

I’ve never seen Rush live before, though Ted has, plenty of times. I’ve seen them on videos, but live was WAY better. There was one song, I have no idea which one, where the drummer, Neal Peart, had a really long drum solo, and it was AMAZING. Just the difference between seeing him beat those drums on the monitor, vs. looking and seeing his arms totally blurring they were moving so fast. I was amazed, and I had a LOT of fun. Ted and Maya did as well, even more so because they took Monday off from work/school to recuperate from the late night. I couldn’t, because of time I’ve already taken with the whole mom thing. But I did sleep in. One of the benefits of working from home!

Hope your weekend was all of the good, with none of the bad. And if you get a chance to see Rush in concert, I’m going to go out on a limb and say, go for it! And if you’re a fan, or want to see if you MIGHT be a fan, go check out Popdose, where Py has a Rush-centric Mix Six today!

10 Comments

  • Py Korry

    May 6, 2008 at 7:23 am

    They did a fantastic job! And despite all the stress related issues with your mom, it was a very nice birthday weekend. 🙂

  • Cherry

    May 6, 2008 at 7:52 am

    Oh good! I’m glad you made it back in time for the concert. I wasn’t sure if you’d be able to make it with all that is going on.

    Sounds like a very good weekend indeed, and a good one to sleep in from. I’m totally pooped!

    BTW – Lamb ribs? I’ve never heard of lamb ribs and now I want some!

  • Lalunas

    May 6, 2008 at 5:45 pm

    Wow J, You had a full weekend with some fun things and some very responsible stuff. Glad you were able to cut loose and enjoy.

  • CJ

    May 6, 2008 at 8:31 pm

    I am so jealous! I was a casual Rush fan, too, until my first live show (back in 1980 something), when I had a set of binoculars and could barely look away from the amazing Neil. Since then I have become a bit obsessed (I own pretty much all of the studio albums) and I have the power to impose their music on my students, as well. Glad to hear you had such fun! (By the way, I have been reading for a while but don’t think I’ve left a comment before–I found your blog through a link from the favorite ex-blogger you mentioned in your post about books and The Westing Game in particular.)

  • Karen MEG

    May 8, 2008 at 1:10 pm

    What a busy weekend, but lots of fun! How cool is it that Maya loves Rush too 😉
    I’ve always been a Rush fan, not hugely, but I did grow up in Scarberia, so there’s a weird affinity to them (I always think about my youth when I hear Subdivisions…), but when hubs bought tickets to see them for this tour I just had to go.
    And I agree, Neil, live drumming for 7 minutes, something you just have to witness live to believe. And funny, the audience here was very white and male too … first time in a long time that I felt like a minority in Toronto! No lineups for the washroom though… THAT was a treat.