Neko Case is standing next to me!

Hello everyone!I had a really great weekend. Friday night I went over to Elaine & Gina’s for a fantastic dinner. Kyle, Diana and Fooqua (aka Matt) joined us. We had chicken thighs, mashed potatoes with real gravy, beets & steamed broccoli…mmmmmmm! After dinner the girls did some Dance Dance Revolution and Fooqua danced a few rounds with Gina too. It’s very entertaining to watch! From there we all headed down to Sabala’s, a club on the west side of Mt Tabor. Someone from Elaine & Gina’s bowling league was having a big karaoke birthday party. Some of the singers were good, most were awful. Fooqua did an awesome version of Wonder Boy, a Tenacious D song. Gina and I left around midnight. The bad singing was starting to give me a headache.

Saturday morning I did a bunch of work in my garden, pulling out the dead stuff and planting some seeds. I planted phlox, lupine and foxgloves. I also planted columbine & poppies from seeds I’d collected in Wampler’s garden last summer. All the bulbs are popping up like crazy and every week I pick some paperwhites which smell divine.

After all that work I read my book for a while then napped. In the evening I showered and started to get ready to go out. Elaine, Gina & I had tickets for Neko Case & Merle Haggard at the Schnitz. I absolutely love Neko Case! We were definitely going to see her rather than Merle. I met the girls at their house and we left to go for dinner. We had reservations for Tabla, a Mediterranean restaurant off Burnside. We’re friends with Paul, the chef, so we like to sit at the back bar overlooking the kitchen so we can chat with him. We shared an order of the steamed clams then ordered off the prix fixe menu. The food there is always sublime! We shared a yummy bottle of Spanish red wine and were so full by the time we left.

Our cabbie friend, Tim, gave us a ride downtown so we wouldn’t have to deal with parking and walking around in heels (we were all dressed up!). We arrived at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall just as Neko was starting her set. This was the first time I’d ever been here and Gina had gotten us some great tickets in the first row of the mezzanine. Neko has a voice like no other. She can belt it out with unbelievable power or she can hold one note quietly with perfection. I got goosebumps more times than I can count and almost cried when she sang “I Wish I Was the Moon”. I swooned. I sighed. I love Neko Case! Gina and I have seen her three times now though the first time (at the Sasquatch Music Festival in the Gorge) was cut short because of an insane hailstorm. Her songs are devastatingly beautiful and I was so thrilled to see her again.

Next up was Merle Haggard. Wow is he old! His 11 piece band seems to have mastered the art of not moving at all. It’s wasn’t the most exciting show. The songs all started to sound the same and he had a hilarious way of shouting into the microphone in the middle of a song, “The piano’s too loud!” Elaine wondered if he was just old or tanked. Gina said “Probably both.” When he stopped playing we clapped then hightailed it outta there, not interested in any possible encores.

As we were leaving the building who do we see standing next to the Neko Case merch table but Neko herself. My heart started racing and I lost the powers of speech. Gina got her to sign our tickets and her Neko t-shirt. She then agreed to a photo with us. She warned me that she might smell bad (sweating under the stage lights) but I just grinned and stammered some response. I couldn’t believe the woman with THAT voice that writes all THOSE songs was standing right next to me. We grinned and thanked her and left the building floating and laughing. I couldn’t believe our luck. Melissa was right, that polka dress she gave me is a lucky dress!

We walked a couple blocks to Dragonfish where we got drinks and gushed about Neko. Eventually our cabbie friend picked us up and dropped us at Elaine’s car by Table. We went back to Elaine & Gina’s house where we played some cards and drank some wine. It was a fantastic night. I can’t wait to see Neko sing again!

Sunday I went into the museum for my volunteer shift. There is less than a month left before the Egyptian exhibit ends so it’s getting really crazy around there. All exhibit tickets for that day were sold out before the museum even opened. My shift flew by with me handing out and explaining the audio guides. When I was done I headed back over to the east side of Portland to Crush. Amy was celebrating her 30th birthday there beginning with 11 am brunch going into the afternoon. I ordered food and a yummy dark beer and had a great time talking with friends, taking photos and watching the birthday girl dance it up.

After leaving Crush I went to Elaine & Gina’s house. We watched a movie, The Science of Sleep, which was uber bizarre. I like strange movies but this didn’t really gel for me. It was very, very odd. After that we watched some trashy television then heated up some leftovers for lunch. We watched Iron Chef (Battle Chocolate) before I headed home for the night.
So that was my weekend. Please let me know how you are and what you’re up to!

xoxoxo,
carolyn