A few months ago, Jaime won four tickets (face value of $380) to see Hair at the Kennedy Center. Musicals are not my thing, and I didn't have the faintest idea regarding the premise of Hair, but it's fun to put on a tie and go out to dinner and a show. We went with C&C (newlyweds) and it was a good double date.

I honestly didn't have a clue about Hair. I thought it was something from the 80's (getting it confused with Hairspray?). I had no idea that it is a controversial product of the counter-culture and it premiered on Broadway in 1968 when all of the topics were current. Instead of an orchestra, there was a more traditional rock band. Electric guitar, electric bass, american drum set, percussionist, keyboardist, and a brass section of four people. The band was on stage for the entire show, sort of elevated above the set. The set... hmm.. it is safe to say that this musical has no real set and a vague plot that takes two hours to develop (a large portion of the second act was the drug-induced hallucinations of the protagonist, for instance). It's mostly just a bunch of hippies dancing around and singing songs about having multiple sexual partners. My main problem was that there was usually 10+ people singing and I couldn't understand anything they were saying. Also, a lot of the elements that were risqué in 1968 are just kind of cheeky and cute nowadays. For instance, one of the main themes involves males with long hair. In my opinion, that has been a dead issue for a long time. Some guys have long hair, some don't. No one really cares anymore. It has come in and out of fashion several times in the past 50 years. There was lots of stuff like that.

I looked a lot of places, but I couldn't find a version of this that sounded as good as the one we saw live. We had a great cast, apparently. Let the Sunshine In. The ultimate refrain. Cool vocal harmonies. One of the catchiest tunes ever. Again, I had no idea this song was from Hair. The song is famous in its own right and is used in other movies and even some commercials. At the end they invited tons of people up on stage for the reprise. It was funny. There were a lot of excited 60-somethings strutting their stuff on stage. The whole thing had an atmosphere closer to that of a concert. I feel like it was maybe the most informal thing that has ever played at the Opera House, hehe.

Yesterday, we went to Home Depot and picked out some potential flooring for the basement. I liked the stuff we were looking at, but it would come to $1200-1500 after installation. So, we have something to think about. First we have to do the ceiling.

Stephen was really good this morning. It's been over a week since I could say that. It's amazing how teething ravishes a baby's body sometimes. Diarrhea, pain, diaper rash, drooling, fever, loss of appetite, odd sleep patterns. When he opens his mouth, it looks like he has a full set of teeth except for canines. I haven't tried to count them in a while because he uses his teeth primarily as weapons.

Stephen needs only the slightest excuse to get as angry as possible. I don't even understand. It's as obnoxious as you can possibly get, with some violence thrown in for good measure. If you do or say one thing that he doesn't like, he either spits his food onto the floor, knocks everything off the coffee table, or tries to inflict damage on us or our computers. My wife can attest to the fact that this happens at least 100 times a day. You know he is trying to intentionally anger you or hurt you. It's hard to stay calm and be the adult in that situation. He is doing everything he can to bring you down to his level of kicking and spitting and biting.

He is really good at walking in all different situations now. To go out to the car, I just hold his hand and he plops down the front steps with me. When we get to the car, I just barely lift him up into the back seat and he crawls into his car seat all by himself and waits to be strapped in. It's so much easier! Also, he can go get his own shoes, socks, and jacket and bring them back when we're all getting dressed and ready to leave. Then he calmly sits in my lap while we put everything on.

Yeah, I'm a bit late with these. These are pictures I took at 11am before it got too crowded to move. For pictures of the full crowd, you can go here and here.

I could write a very, very long post about yesterday, as it was a huge and memorable event. The national mall was completely full, shoulder-to-shoulder with people from the capitol building to the Washington Monument. There were enough people there (initial estimates are 215,000) to completely shut down all traffic on the roads during and after the rally. We were standing so close together that I couldn't use my camera, take off my jacket, or see my feet. There were about a dozen surprise musical guests. I got to see Cat Stevens sing my favorite song of his. But I'm more interested in briefly discussing the purpose of the rally, and why people were drawn to it.

In the small amount of news coverage leading up to this event, it was billed as a liberal rally hosted by Jon Stewart. It was announced in response to the tea party rally that occurred in September, but it was not a liberal rally. The tag line was "Take it down a notch... for America" and the intent was to tone down all of the extremist rhetoric that is present in typical rallies. If you think about it, most every rally/march in DC represents extremists in some way or another. Signs that say Bush is a Fascist (anti-war rally) or signs comparing Obama to Stalin (tea party rally). These viewpoints do not represent the whole of America. This was a rally for the rest of us... because, why not? Why should the crazies be the only ones to march in DC? This event instead promoted togetherness and cordiality, and I felt that everyone who attended did a very good job of representing that.

Signs were a big part of the event; people were encouraged to bring "signs that show your rationality and civility." Memorable signs included Agree to Disagree | Give Peas a Chance | I disagree with you, but I'm pretty sure you're not Hitler | No major complaints here! (thanks for reading) | DON'T SHOUT (it's bad for your throat) | Speak Softly and Carry a Big Schtick. <---my favorite

The message was not "apathy." People don't turn out in droves from across the country to demonstrate apathy. The message was that we're all trying to make our country better, and blaming the people you disagree with for "ruining the country" is not helping anything. This is something I can get behind, and yesterday I found out that there are many more people like me--too many for Washington DC to handle! When I was driving towards DC, I started seeing all of these cars with faraway license plates (Texas, Illinois, Deleware, Ohio, Iowa) just packed full of people. At this point, I started believing the hype about the rally. I had to skip the first couple of metro stations because there was no parking left and the traffic was backed up onto the interstate. By the time I got settled down about 1/3 towards the front at the national mall (an hour and a half later), I was surrounded by people from Florida, Mississippi, Texas, and Delaware. I couldn't believe it. It felt like we were sending a message that might actually have an impact on our culture. It wasn't a gathering of like-minded people; instead it was a gathering to show that we are all like-minded in all of the most important ways. We all love our country. We all agree on 95% of the issues... but the other 5% of issues are magnified until we can only see our differences.

When there is an event that is so large, there are bound to be a lot of negative aspects. It took me ten hours to attend a 3-hour event, and I was traveling alone! Even for DC, that is not typical at all. The metro was completely unprepared for the event, and riding it in either direction was more than a little bit scary. Every metro train that came by was already full, and people were getting frustrated and even angry. Some were trying to force their way on while others were forcing them back off and yelling at them ("There are kids in here and this is a very dangerous situation!"). After the rally ended, crowds started moving all in different directions. I headed up towards Pennsylvania Avenue and it took over two blocks before there was some breathing room in between people. This was a massive and diverse turnout. I still can't even believe it. A sea of people in every direction, and each and every person was my friend, if even for a moment.

I went to the 9:30 Club on Thursday night to see The Books with Steve and Coren. It rained pretty hard for the drive there and the drive back. Driving into DC is hard enough without the weather interfering. I have to say I was fairly underwhelmed. I've sort of made it a point not to attend electronic music concerts, but The Books are somewhere in between. On stage, they synchronize a video and a background audio track using a laptop -> projector. Then they pick up the slack and play whatever instruments are not present in the backing track. They don't try to add anything new and do "live" versions.

Overall it was enjoyable, but for me, most of the reason to see a band live is to take in the nuances of the live version. This show had none of that. Afterwards, we met the band and passed Nick one of our earsauce cd's, which he pretended to be enthused about (they are very nice guys).

Yesterday was Stephen's second "Music Together VIVO" class. The premise of this class is this: the parents are the only ones who have to do anything; the kids can do whatever they want (including nothing). All of the kids walk around aimlessly at some point except for Stephen. Stephen sits in our laps the entire time. If an activity requires us to stand/walk/dance, we have to pick him up or he cries. There was a slight bit of progress yesterday in that he was very interested in the instrument portion, but there was also more crying than the first week.

It's been nice working on new music for a change. No more obsessing and re-obsessing over 5-year-old songs. Out with the old, in with the new. Finally.

My "big computer" (the tower) is back to running normally. I had a slew of problems for months, and it was all ubuntu-related. For the time being, everything is running properly, which is why I'm back to posting pictures on here.

We have been attending Race for the Cure in Washington DC for about five years now (Jaime and her family have a couple more years on me). We were not able to make it last year because we had Stephen, who was still a newborn. This year we resolved to make it downtown with Stephen and participate. Due to a family emergency, Jaime's parents had to drive to New Hampshire at the last second. We had initially planned to drive down to the METRO with them and all ride together.

Now it was up to us. As usual, we were worried about Stephen experiencing all this new stuff and possibly not getting a nap all morning. The METRO had some of the track on our line shut down for new construction, so we had to drive to a different station that did not have a parking garage. We ended up parking on the street and walking to the station. We got on a train with plenty of time. and even got some seats.

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What a day. Got up at 6am, made our way down to DC. Did the entire 5k walk with Jaime and Stephen. It was quite humid and in the mid-80's, but the clouds were covering the sun for most of the walk. Stephen didn't get any naps. He slept about 45 minutes on the drive home, but that was it. We tried a couple times to get him to take a nap in the afternoon (we got home before 1pm), but he just refused. He was in an awful mood and couldn't be satisfied.

We couldn't take it any more and put him to bed at 6:30pm. Even if he sleeps an amazing 12 hours, that means we are getting up at 6:30 tomorrow morning. I have some pictures that I will post tomorrow.

Then, since Stephen went to bed far earlier than normal, we watched a very long movie (Benjamin Button). Now I'm still having trouble winding down. Night.

The Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure is tomorrow in downtown DC. This will either be my fourth or fifth time walking the 5k (we couldn't go last year because Stephen was 2weeks old). This is our first year going with Stephen, and we are on our own. Our six-person group is just three this year, and one of them is a baby. To make matters worse, we can not take the METRO line that comes out our direction, because several stations/stops are under maintenance. So, I think our plan is to sleep at S&S' house (an empty house, because they are out of town due to a family emergency) and then travel via their METRO line. That way, we can leave the dogs at S&S' house and we don't have to make any transfers on the METRO.

This hopefully ends our streak of extremely busy weekends. With graduations and visits and birthdays and flights, May was completely slammed. I'm pretty sick of it. I don't want to dread the weekend any more.

It was hotter on Saturday than it was Friday, but at least we got to the metro station without one wrong turn. Thunderstorms were predicted, so I left my camera in the car. Since we had wised up to the prices of food in the Tennis complex, we all ate at Potbelly's on Connecticut Ave., then rode the shuttle down together with no issues. We watched a good men's doubles match (with some serves in the 145mph range) and then sought shelter. The humidity was rising while we were there. Krystle, being almost 8months pregnant, was not feeling well in the heat and the sun. Jaime and I went back up to our seats for the Del Potro/Gonzalez match, which was very good, while Krystle and Gavin went to airconditioned areas. Being there live definitely gives you a different appreciation. To be able to see just how far they are leaning inbounds when they strike a serve, or to really see the difference in speed between a backhand slice and a flat forehand. I had a great time and didn't even get a [lasting] sunburn.

August 08, 2009

As I said, I left my camera in the car due to an incorrect weather forecast, so I just took a few pictures with Jaime's cell phone camera. This shot was taken after a tough rally where Gonzalez slid and fell (and lost the point because of it). No one cheered the point because Gonzalez was staying down on the ground. In fact, there was silence and concern. Del Potro walked over to check on him and Gonzalez stretched out his hand, as if to say "you caused me to fall, now help me back up!" Del Potro hopped the net and helped him up and everyone cheered. Gonzalez was the crowd favorite, but was outmatched from the start.

I would just like to thank S&S for buying us the tickets and watching Stephen all day for two days. I had a good time.

The GPS that is built in to our new car is possibly the most inept navigation system I've ever come across. Due to that fact (among many other things), it took us a long time to find the parking garage. We were a little late, but not a big deal. We watched Tommy Haas get annihilated, then ate lunch. During lunch, we saw a message on the jumbotron that Soderling was withdrawing due to an elbow injury. Well, there goes the second match. We spent more time driving around and arguing than we did at tennis. Luckily there is another day for redemption. I believe we are slated for both men's semifinals (which will be live, either on espn or espn2 at 1pm EST). Looking forward to it.