A Full and Musical Weekend

I spent no moment of calm between work and revelry on Friday, leaving almost immediately from my apartment upon arriving home to catch a bus back downtown with Charlie (Chuck, for you Mudders). We grabbed some delicious ravioli and then skipped to 9th and Pine to see the Decemberists at the Paramount.They were worth every single penny.

Their set was tight and quick and their energy was just fantastic. They played almost exclusively songs from the new album, Crane Wife, but somehow made the album last most of two hours. Their closing encore number was an inspired rendition of "The Mariner's Revenge Song," complete with a paper maché and fabric whale that swam on stage to eat the band. Brilliant! I was a bit disappointed that they played neither "Summersong" nor "Sons and Daughters" but overall satisfied with the Friday night, as was Charlie.

I awoke Saturday on a mission to use my Macy's 20% off coupon purchasing new sheets and towels. Yes, I am an adult. After spending far too much on linens, and grabbing some new Reef sandals at PacSun (I LOVE THE MALL), I bought two of every vegetable at Whole Foods and a delicious 12-pack of Negra Modelo. Happy Cinco de Mayo! The peppers bell and hot, onions red and green, tomatoes, cilantro, lime, and mango warranted nearly a half hour of chopping but were just delicious when combined with black beans, corn, vinegar, salt, pepper and cumin. I am a salsa ninja! Does that make any sense? Salsa Samurai?

The salsa and beer accompanied me to the Opening Day / Cinco de Mayo party thrown at Willy (and Abby) and Joe's house right next to the Montlake Bridge south of the cut. Joe and Willy are my spring league teammates on RainDogs and they throw a solid bash. I whiled away afternoon and evening, 2PM - 10PM, drinking beer homebrewed and commercial and eating grilled fajitas and sausage, chips and salsa, and fish stew. I spent the rest of the gathering realizing over half the people there were from the Northeast and partaking in the best party game ever, Stump. So we're drinking, right, and then we take turns hammering nails into a stump but we have to spin the hammer in the air once before you swing down. Totally not dangerous, totally awesome.

I was again hardly home at all after the party before zipping over to Ballard to join Deirdre, future housemate RV, and other fine Seattle Ultimate folks: Lina and friend, Liz, Gretchen and Chewy. I arrived at Tractor Tavern as Clumsy Lovers, a Vancouver-based bluegrass and country jam band, was getting rolling. I was not aware of the possibility but they actually were even more into it than the Decemberists and, in the small venue, the crowd was just electrified. Electrified like the hot electric banjo action: man, that guy was awesome. So we danced and sang along and exhausted ourselves from 10:30 to 1AM, with naught but a twenty minute break. Apparently Deirdre and Lina see Clumsy Lovers everytime they are in town and I look forward to joining them again.

Well, I need to shower, and get to work, and I have not even touched upon Sunday, which admittedly was less frantic than the rest of the weekend. The summary is a spring league loss, lunch at Blue Star, napping, more napping and then dinner with Sarah, Brooke and Micah. Time to get the work week rolling! Woo!