Berkeley, Conshohocken, Insiders, and more....

[skcin]

OK, I'm back. I thought I'd better spend a few hours with my husband after leaving him for a week to hang out with all you WaMu's. But he's out & about running errands for family so here I am.

So. Ry & I leave his place at 9am Friday....and promptly stop for breakfast. It was some little Mexican dive diner type place, and ho**** was it good. I had a breakfast burrito (eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, cheese & ketchup in a huge burrito - did I mention I wasn't counting points this trip?) I swear I was full for about 8 hours. Sooooo good. Plus, an old black guy checked out my ass. I knew there was a reason to stay chubby.

The drive up to Oakland was not great. We passed through Boringtown, then Dullsville, and then we spotted the cows. THE COWS! As far as they eye could see, thousands of cows in a pasture. The smell lasted for at least 15 minutes & made me ill. So if you travel up the 5 in Cali, be prepared for the cows. I've decided that as far as the central part of the state goes, No Cal & So Cal are the best, and the rest is a parallel Nebraska universe.

We drive up the street & see an insane woman jumping up & down on the sidewalk. Of course, it's Amber, and of course I told her to do this to welcome us or we'd be offended. We take the conshohoken to the grocery store for beer & snacks & return to get ready. Amber's apt. is small, but not as small as she lets on. Of course, there are lots of books, incense, pics of Stevie & herbal tea - just as I had imagined. And the kitties - I don't think any of them hated us, but Spanky was not happy when I had a towel on my head & went down to pet him. I think he's racist against people with turbans.

Jaz arrives & we chat for a bit until it's time to jet. Deborah is late, so we assume that she's ditching us & call the cab. We're in the cab (a mini van that reeked of Eau de Smelly Drive'r) and Deborah calls, so we ask Mean Mr. Smelly to stop & wait a minute. Mind you, we've only gone 3 blocks. He whines, then Amber points out that the meter is still running, so why should he care. He says he'll wait & Amber jumps out to run & get Deborah. I tell Jaz to leave the door open, and thank God because not 30 seconds had passed when he started threatening to leave. I say "they're right there, I can see them walking down the street now, they'll be here in less than 1 minute" and Jaz chimes in "one of them can't run because of her hip dysplasia." Anyway, they get tot he cab in 45 seconds & we're off.

We went to Blake's. Great food, not pricey at all. Jaz & Ry flirt with our gay Guatamalan waiter & get his number, and he gives all of us Amber's student discount. I still can't figure out how dinner for 5 including several drinks came to only $54, but I'm not about to look a gay gift horse in the mouth. Eliza & her friend Pam (Kim? Damn...) meet us there briefly & then go to find parking. We decide to hoof it, since it's not really that far from the venue.

Now, if you'll recall, I had tix for Sat but not Fri. Amber was vey sad about this, but we had decided we just didn't want to pay $80 (after fees) for a SRO ticket. So we tell her we'll walk up there with them to check out the neighborhood & meet them after the show. Of course, we find 2 tix for $60 each from a scalper & we say "screw it" and go. They were section 5 row 19 (dead center, but almost top row.) Decent deats that had a face value of $65+fees.

I won't go through every song. Petty's always good, he has never disappointed me. The lights, however, did annoy me to no end. If ya'll haven't heard, all the lights went out during "Listen to Her Heart" - the opening song. I mean, ALL the lights. They shined flashlights on Petty & Mike Campbell for a bit, then got the spotlights up & running. Eventually, the lights/screens were back, only to go back out later. All I could think of was "Oh, no, La Nicks will NOT like this, it's all about lighting, oh no..." So that sucked, I don't know why it bothered me so damn much, but it did & I honestly couldn't relax & completely enjoy the show. Except Insider, of course.

Although Jaz already posted his vid, here's mine anyway. You can never have too much Insider.