Recently we went to see Jeff Beck live here in Portland. Occasionally I see something and in the moment I’m not feeling all that into it, but then I end up with a delayed reaction after it is all over.*

In the moment I wasn’t sure how I was feeling. I am pretty sure in the middle somewhere I was a little bored. I was also a little bit mystified by everyone screaming and yelling and jumping up. Mike and I have a snarky attitude towards people standing up as a sign of how overcome they are with a performance. It is like an epidemic here. Portland is giving it away to everyone which, to me, cheapens it…but I digress.

Jeff Beck is undoubtedly one of the greatest guitarists of all time. I was pretty jazzed to be able to see him live and the man has still got it. But I am a singer and it is harder to get me to invest in instrument-only work. It isn’t impossible of course. At the core I love music and am incredibly impressed with people who can play instruments. Pieces like Joe Satriani’s “Cool #9” comes to mind, and Mike continues to introduce me to some very good ambient music that sparks my own creativity. But the endless wailing of the guitar after a handful of songs just sort of…well…bored me a little bit.

When we got home Mike and I talked about the performance and I mentioned that it was a little strange that I once again saw a Jeff Beck performance and walked away talking about the amazing bass player. That is when it hit me though; Jeff Beck not only travels with some kick ass musicians in their own right but he is thrilled himself to play with them and also showcase their talent. It was as much their show as his. This is where I became incredibly impressed with him. I picked up no real sense of ego from him, just a love of the music and the performance and the collaboration and the experience. Which at this point in his career is nothing short of miraculous. Mike and I commented on the contrast of Jeff Beck to Robert Plant. I’ve seen one too many interviews with Plant to be comfortable with the man. His ego indeed has grown to magnificent proportions. I could be generous and think that maybe it is the editing of the interviews that is giving the egotistical slant, but at the core I’m not convinced. Plant has been similarly traveling with some stellar musicians in their own right, but you never quite lose the sense that they are just his back-up band.

So hats off to Jeff Beck. It felt like an honor to see him and I’m really glad we went. Some nice person put a video of Rhonda Smith’s solo, the bass player traveling with Jeff Beck up on YouTube. This video is from the performance in Canada which was the show immediately preceding the one we saw in Portland so it is essentially the performance we enjoyed seeing.

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 *A lot like the movie Valhalla. When I was watching it I wasn’t really sure what I was watching (except I distinctly had the thought that it seemed impossible that someone that filthy and with one eye could actually still seem hot). It was only later thinking about the film that I decided I really liked it. One Eye was supposedly the savage barbarian, but in the end he was really the only one to retain his humanity.

The health update is that my body would really like to continue to reject food but has reluctantly started processing it again. As long as I eat small meals that are light in nature (no red meat for example) my body is handling it fairly well. If I don’t eat light/small I am either immediately, debilitatingly, nauseous and have to lie down or I break out in a sweat, get stomach cramps and have to lie down. I just reread that and it seems more sad than it really is. I’m actually doing a lot better.

Some things I/we did since my last post:

•  Went to see Jeff Beck in concert
• Carved the rest of our Pumpkins
• Escaped the potential trick-or-treaters with our annual Halloween dinner out
• Ordered my favorite, and hard to find, tea in bulk online
• Made chicken and lentil soup
• Booked a trip to visit my sister in San Francisco / Redwood City

It occurs to me each one of these things could be its own post….so more on these things later.

For your viewing pleasure, a really funny picture of my dog with her rawhide “stogie” hanging out of her mouth.

I’ve been ill. I’m not talking run of the mill flu – which I had the week before thank you very much. I’m talking about break out in a sweat and don’t stray far from the bathroom ill. And today it is going on four days. Some improvements in the last day: I am no longer running a fever; I am no longer thoroughly nauseated right after eating food; my kidneys haven’t shut down yet; and I no longer have to take pain meds religiously every four hours to manage the pain from someone beating me with a crowbar in my sleep. Some downsides: no improvement in spending less time in the bathroom; a massive sinus headache; and an intense wish that the makers of the tissues “Puffs Plus with Lotion” would start manufacturing toilet paper.

I’ve been managing to work until about 2pm each day and then I go home and crash. A coworker recommended taking this super probiotic called Bio-K because it helped someone else she knows who recently also had the Black Plague (The Crap Plague? Have I coined a phrase?) and it helped her. So I shelled out twenty-six bucks for a six-day dose and I am currently pinning all of my hopes on it.

In between trips to the bathroom I managed to at least have a little fun and carved a pumpkin with Mike and our friend Michelle V. That was about the only light this week. Well, that and having a wonderful boyfriend who is being sweet to me and at least making me laugh about my situation.

A few weeks ago my 3Gs iPhone was no longer able to 3G. It was frustrating to say the least. Rather than purchase a new phone I figured I would wait until the rumored new phone – 4S or 5? – was released and upgrade. Mike’s phone suddenly had problems connecting to wifi and his blue tooth device so he decided to upgrade too. Well, today is the day and we are excited indeed. I just finished watching all the videos singing its praises to get myself even more excited (a lot like listening to an artists songs as you are driving to their concert). Still, I have some nostalgia about my 3Gs. It has served me well and I am truly spoiled by having this device. Last night I took some cute pictures of our dogs and had the thought that they might be some of the last photos I took with it. So silly to become attached to a device! However, it is indeed handy and fun and shiny and maybe my photos on this blog won’t suck as bad as they have been to date. So, Mike and I are super excited. And it turns out the last photo my 3Gs took was the note on our front door for the UPS delivery person.

This morning a man committed suicide by jumping off the Fremont Bridge.

Friday a friend told me that her company just experienced layoffs; some of the people let go were people who had worked there 20 years.

A dear friend of mine has been battling brain cancer and was doing very well until the latest MRI – a mere two weeks ago – showed the tumor was back and currently the size of a golf ball.

I came into work today, where we are still understaffed, and I made a self-deprecating remark to my boss, we laughed, and then I launched into the piles of work that need to get done. I’m exhausted from not getting any sleep (no exaggeration – I had zero hours of sleep last night) and I’m admittedly not in the best frame of mind.

Today I am feeling undervalued, tired, lethargic, and guilty about it. I’m not battling cancer, I haven’t been laid off, and I know this feeling will pass, which I’m quite sure the man jumping off the Fremont Bridge did not know.

I’m watching the clock and am desperate to go home. There are plenty of leftovers in the fridge to make for an easy night, and I have no plans other than reclining with a comforter, my puppies, and a book.

I’ve mentioned it before briefly. When the weather cools – even slightly – my body decides it is freezing. Thank you thyroid gland!

Today I am not dressed warmly enough in jeans, a t-shirt, a long cotton cardigan, and ballet flats with no socks. So on my lunch break I decided to fantasize I was dressed more warmly. Specifically I wish I was dressed in some wool, a pair of tall boots, and had some gloves handy.

I’m finally back to work as of yesterday and I’m working at a breakneck pace. It is intense. It feels good to be getting things done, but wow it’s exhausting. Of course the end of my first day back was filled with people complaining, people turning things in late, and the phone ringing off the hook. Then I rushed home to change, let the dogs out, and race out to my guitar lesson where I am currently attempting to learn “Lifeboats” by Snow Patrol. It is a pretty simple song so I think – with practice dammit – even I can learn it.

As soon as I walked into the music studio I texted Mike about possibly getting a drink after and he was up for it. So we rounded out our evening last night by swinging by Bushwacker and getting a little tipsy on hard cider. It didn’t make for a restful night’s sleep.

The cacophony of two dogs snoring (Serena is home! Yay!), coupled with Mike having a restless night filled with bad dreams, and yours truly was up most of the night. It of course made me wake up late this morning so I was rushing around trying to get out the door. I hit a lot of traffic and went around the world a bit to try to avoid it. When I finally got into work, before I had even put my stuff down, I was dealing with a disgruntled faculty member. Then I opened my bag to discover my yogurt had exploded all over the place. Then my allergies flared up and I didn’t grab any allergy medicine on my way out the door.

But you know what? It is a really pretty day here in Oregon; 70 and cool and sunny. I’m wearing my cute new loafers which is fun. In a burst of optimism I dug through my purse and found a lone, linty, allergy pill in there which will get me through the day. And I remembered to bring some tomatoes from our garden in to give a coworker; it made her day and she gave me a big hug. So I’m turning it around! It’s Friday, and beautiful. We have plans to get together tonight with a friend we haven’t seen in a while and I plan to roast a chicken, which I bought yesterday so no need to stop at the market on the way home.  And – drum roll please – my new couch it being delivered this Sunday! So excited.

Mike’s parents are scheduled to visit us from Toronto-area Canada this Thursday, so we have been watching the Air Canada situation carefully. And when I say carefully I mean obsessively I am checking the latest news postings every hour or so. If they do strike it will be at 12:01 a.m. tomorrow. The latest is that a tentative deal has been made (twitter link).

It has been interesting around our house lately. Ever since the fairly recent elections in Canada, Mike has been on a hair trigger of needing to express his disgust with what is happening in his country. The government’s interference has added fuel to his fire. I can’t help but compare the Canadian government interference in Union matters to American politicians discussing the merits of doing away with minimum wage. It makes my guts churn. It’s always the little guy, the low man on the totem pole, that gets the shaft. I don’t know how some people sleep at night. Let’s take care of each other for crying out loud. Is it really so hard to do the right thing?

And here I go, eh*? Anyway, we do hope an agreement is reached and we do hope Mike’s parents are able to visit. I would hate to have cleaned for no reason…other than a clean house of course. But there are levels of clean and I’ve gone for the Big Clean. So let’s all keep our fingers crossed, not only for the little guys in Canada, but for me too…because that Big Clean is no small effort.

*in honor of Canada