Let's talk about Washington

And let's start here:

This is the motel we were staying in. At first, it seemed rustic. I liked the way it looked from the outside. Nobody needs too much luxury in Moses Lake, WA. We checked in at 2am, so we were pretty tired. As we walked in the room, it smelled old. Of course it did. Look at it. Then we started noticing some weird things. Nails and screws on the floor, no screens on the windows. That's still okay.

The bathroom seemed fairly clean, which was, in my mind, a good indication of the overall cleanliness. We pulled back the covers to check the beds. My bed was fine, but the blanket was pretty tattered. Damien's bed had a dead spider in it. Oh well, that happens. We pulled down the blankets to the sheets. Again, mine was fine, but then I heard Damien say, "Why is there glitter in my bed?" That's kind of weird. As he pulled THAT sheet off, there was a nasty stain at the foot of the bed. A pee stain. We hightailed it out of there to the motel across the street. Motel 6 never seemed so high end.

 Night 2 of the weekend was awesome. We had seats in the 21st row, dead center. No waiting in a pit, no fighting with anyone to keep our spots. It was divine. Our view of everything was phenomenal.

The setlist was amazing. I got a little choked up during certain parts. Granny was played for a fan who lost his life, and all over the crowd, little "LoVE" signs went up, replicas of the one this particular fan brought to every show. It was a touching sight.

A couple lines got me that night- "Out of my head and into the room/So when my ghost takes me from you/you can remember the fool that I am/Don't cry baby, don't cry." Maybe it hit me because I'm so looking for my legacy. What am I going to leave behind? Do I have anything to offer? Might as well give what I'm good at, and hope it means something to someone.

"And as you go, I will spread my wings...." I wasn't taking it in the context of the song, but that line made me smile. Sad, but smiley.

Also, there was a pretty, sparkly firedancer being held up.

See the love signs?

My favorite part about having actual seats instead of being in the pit on night 2 was the time I got to spend with friends. To ask a group of people to wait for hours in a pit is a bit much for me. I think I was resentful by the time the band got onstage the next night. I am happy for the fans who got to see the band from close up for the first time, I just wish that there had been an even number of pit vs. no pit shows. Here are some pictures of friends.

Jim from Philly

Damien, Jodi, Me, Kim, Cory (Kim's hubby).

Night 3 was.....a concert. I think I could have gone home after night 2 and been fine. I always feel like I'm going to miss something, though, so I go to too many. My fault. Maybe it was a combination of being so tired, plus being in the pit (or a line for the pit) from 3 o'clock until 11:30, or maybe it was hearing Dave Matthews say HE'S having a good time, so he doesn't give a $*#@ if the rest of us are. I'm paraphrasing, but still. Maybe I'm not being fair about it? Or cool about it? Maybe Shoreline was a big fat fluke. Maybe? I might change my mind on this.

I sat down to wait. My feet hurt. It was about 8 pm at this point. I had been waiting for 5 hours. 5. Hours. Again, they are fine with asking their fans to pay money to wait around for 5 hours.

The end.