Last night, I had both a wonderful time and one of the worst nights in recent memory. I went to see Ben Adkins, who was really, really good live. He has an excellent voice, and he played all the songs I considered favorites. Plus, he is super nice in person! If you ever get a chance to catch him or One Second Hero live, be sure and do so.

I should have known, however, that something disastrous would happen last night. I had been too excited and happy about finally getting to go to a show for nothing to go wrong.

About 3/4 of the way through the show (I was sitting at a table in the very front of the cafe), the girl I was sitting with got up to go to the bathroom. When she did, one of the waiters grabbed the chair she had been sitting in. When the girl came back, she had no chair at all. Finally, I noticed that the waiter had vacated the chair, and I jumped up quickly to retrieve it. Big mistake. Somehow, the tablecloth caught on my clothes or my shoe or both, and the whole thing swept off the table, along with my camera, my keys and an empty beer bottle. Thankfully, the bottle didn’t break, nor did my camera, and there wasn’t anything messy on the table to clean up. However, it made a horrendous crash, much to the amusement of everyone. I could have died. I could have literally crawled under the table and died.

The next step of disaster occured after my husband arrived. I was quite glad to see him, to have someone to comfort me as I writhed in humiliation. We stuck around the cafe for a bit after the show, talking to the nice girl who had been sharing my table. She was going to head to a local bar afterwards, and I decided that I wanted to go as well. We dropped off my husbands car at a nearby place that we considered safe, and headed to the bar. We had one beer there, chatted with the girl, and decided to head home. Now, I was considerably tipsy at this point, but I wasn’t drunk. However, I had consumed a few different types of beer that evening, because the cafe had offered a huge selection and I always want to try new beer given the opportunity. We got back to where my husband left the car, and he decided that he wanted to drive my truck and he would let me drive his car. I hopped in the car and started to put the key in the ignition, when someone came running across the road, yelling that his car was on fire and he needed water. He was calling 911, and I ran to the building where we were parked to try to get some water. I got back outside, and gave the water to the young man. The fire trucks arrived, the (small) fire was put out, and all was ok. That is, until I turned to get into the car. My husband, when I left to go get the water, had opened the car door, locked it, and closed it again, not realizing that I did not have the keys with me. We do not have an extra set. At this point, I was full of adrenaline from having ran frantically to get this guy some water, still recovering from my humiliation at the cafe, and now, seriously pissed because we were going to have to call a locksmith in the middle of the night. We called said locksmith, and proceeded to wait until he arrived. In the meantime, I continued to yell at my husband for locking the damned car, and he proceed to yell back. Well, not actually yelling, but we were pretty damned emphatic. We finally stopped fighting, or I stopped bitching, rather, and we settled down to wait. As the adrenaline ebbed, I began to get nauseous. REALLY nauseous. So of course, to top off the evening, I got violently sick. I don’t know if it was the mixture of the beer or a combination of the rest of the evening, but I was sicker than I remember being in a long time.

So that was my lovely evening, boys and girls. I am seriously thinking about never showing my face in public again.

I was at home all day today, having woken up with a SPLITTING headache, and I couldn’t imagine having to stare at the computer screen all day at work when it felt like demons were trying to escape from my skull. I slept off and on most of the day in my big comfy recliner, and finally emerged from my hibernation around 5pm. I worked for a bit remotely, to make sure there was nothing pressing I had missed throughout the day (there wasn’t), and relaxed for the rest of the evening, though still a little dizzy and nauseous. I’m beginning to think that these weird issues are migraines, but I don’t know for sure. I went out and got some dinner with the husband, chatted with a friend, and now I am back home, trying to relax for a bit more before work tomorrow.

This week has been extremely stressful, due to work crap and the stress of a test, a paper and a final coming up at school.

On the upside, I am planning on taking some piano lessons this fall if I can find a good teacher. It’s part of my plan to better myself and become the person I TRULY want to be.

Things I would love to accomplish:

*Learn German
*Learn to read music and play piano proficiently
*Learn American Sign Language

This is, of course, in addition to my current goal, which is to become an embalmer. :)

Well, that’s all for tonight, folks. Given the fact that I slept all day, I will probably be up late, so I may micro-blog a bit later.

Until then, ciao!

I’ve been crawling the internets as of late, searching for new music to treat myself to. Mostly, I’ve been sticking to independent artists because I respect and applaud their efforts so much.

I’ve ran across a few, of varying styles and genres, that I would like to share with you, all 2 of my readers (on a good day!).

Without further ado:

Ben Adkins: This is my newest discovery, only found because he is coming to my town next weekend to play at a local wine bar/coffee shop. Billed as Alternative/Rock/Pop, Ben expertly blends guitar, piano and a damn good vocal to make tracks I could listen to over and over. The vocal is the best part, in my opinion. Slightly gritty yet delightfully smooth, he makes every song stand out. This is long car trip music, sing along like you mean it music. You can download his song “Amazing” for free until tomorrow night here.

Darin Davies: Best (and first) known to me as the bassist for one of my favorite independent bands, Joan Red, I was interested when I found out he also has recorded solo. About as far away from Joan Red as you can get, Darin uses acoustic guitar and a smooth vocal, to make music that is both surprising and enjoyable. Vocally reminiscent of a chill Jim Morrison, this music is best enjoyed while relaxing, preferably with a glass of good wine and time to let the music sink soul-deep into your psyche. He has tracks available on MySpace, and while he isn’t touring at the moment, you can catch him playing bass with Joan Red, on tour now!

Echovalve: I was bitterly disappointed that I missed a show featuring Echovalve this week. One of my newer finds, I’ve found myself liking them more with every listen. Each song blends a different riff and melody together with a vocal that I love, and the result is tracks like “Loathe to Remember” which quickly made it to the top of my iPod favorites playlist. I love it when I find a band whose tracks have music and vocals I love, along with lyrics I can relate to. Echovalve really hits the spot when I want something I can turn on, crank up and sing to emphatically. :) This band is signed, and currently on tour across the midwest. If you like rock, good lyrics and a vocal that’s a little off the beaten path, Echovalve might be for you.

Uh Huh Her: Leisha Hailey, actress of “The L Word” is one half of this lovely female duo. The sound is heavily reminiscent of Garbage with a little Yeah Yeah Yeahs thrown in (IMO), this electronic-driven indie-pop is definitely girl music, but is pretty enjoyable nonetheless. I must say, these ladies are quite talented. I tend to veer away from girl-fronted bands, simply because I like a grittier vocal than most females can deliver, but occasionally I will run across one that doesn’t make me run screaming. While I could not listen to Uh Huh Her for extended periods of time, I will definitely be putting a few tracks on my iPod to shake my music up a bit.

That’s all for now, my lovelies. I will definitely be adding more as I run across them. I am even thinking of doing a sticky post (man, that sounds dirty) regularly, maybe a “Artist of the Week/Month” etc. Let me know what you think of the idea, and send me any new bands or old bands I might not know about.

♥♫