U2 and back again . . .

Last night as britta, Jessi and I were walking away from the Rose Garden, we were trying to come up with words to describe the concert. We couldn't come up with any. We'd been looking forward to it for so long that when it was over, we could hardly believe that it had actually happened.

It snowed on Sunday. The worst possible day for a snow storm to hit Portland and the 5, but it did. It did, and there was talk of canceling/postponing the concert. The Rose Garden decided not to make a decision until Monday morning. Luckily, since we are in Oregon, the snow had all turned to slush by 10am and we were saved. I love coastal weather.

So, after homemade alfredo sauce and very tender chicken, some Conan, troubles with a toilet and an extra trip to the 7/11, lunch with Jessi's uncle at McMenamin's (I think) with REALLY good burgers, many hours at Lloyd's Center, walking around downtown in the rain, and some gourmet pizza, we made it to the Rose Garden, bought some shirts, and sat in our seats. First, Kanye West performed and I honestly couldn't understand the bulk of what he said. I did hear most of the beginning of the song about his grandma, "pre-nump", "Jesus walks", and "as I walk through the valley of the shadow of death", but that was about it.

Then, after a forty-five minute wait that was ridiculously painful, they came. They were right there. So many fantastic songs. They opened with "City of Blinding Lights" which hadn't occured to any of us as an opener, but worked splendidly. They played several of their most political songs including "One", "Pride", and "Sunday, Bloody Sunday" among others. Surprisingly, Larry was the last to leave the stage at the end of it all. That was very refreshing. Larry is actually outstandingly talented. They all are. It was brilliant. Brilliant. I loved how loud we sang during "Original of the Species" and I love that britta recorded it on her answering machine . . . along with a "THAT'S cool" from me. I loved the little red blood cells all over the floor and the 21st century Christmas tree was awesome. I nearly cried when they started "With or Without You" . . . I had been waiting for it. There were, of course, other favorites of mine I wish they would've played, but I am in no way complaining.

The weekend was, as Jessi would say, "AMAZING". I loved the Hotcake House and hope to go back sometime in the next year. Who knows if I'll make it back to downtown Portland before I have to get back to Utah.

U2 in Portland at the Rose Garden with two of my closest friends and 20,000 others screaming along with us. What more could I ask?

City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / In a Little While
Beautiful Day / Many Rivers To Cross / Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)
Original of the Species
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own / Torna A Surriento
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Rock The Casbah
Bullet the Blue Sky / When Johnny Comes Marching Home / The Hands That Built America
Miss Sarajevo
Pride
Where the Streets Have No Name
One
Help
Instant Karma / Happy Christmas (War Is Over)

Until the End of the World
Mysterious Ways
With or Without You
Yahweh
40


Pictures to come. britta, flickr is downright astounding.

And so it starts . . .

Thus beginneth Finals Week. I probably won't be open to much communication this week as I will be spending most of my spare time sleeping, but I will check the blogs occasionally because I'm sure I will want to procrastinate some time or other. It's going to be killer. In every way. Wish me luck.

And, I have instituted a new tradition for myself. Every finals week, I get to buy myself a new CD. This semester: Achtung Baby.

John Lennon

Happy 25th.

stroke of brilliance or just lameness?

I have an idea. A tenative suggestion, if you will.

What if we basically abandoned the idea of having seperate blogs and had only one which we shared? For instance, the recent conversation we've been having through email would be more convienient on a blog space. My blog is mostly for you two anyway. I think it might be ideal for us to just share one so each of us could post what she wished and we could all respond. For me, this would probably result in total abandonment of my blog because if I tried to split my attention between two, it would just never happen. I was trying to think, "What would I do on a personal blog that I couldn't do on a Jennifer-britta-Jessi blog?" and I couldn't come up with much. I suppose there would be fewer bitterness posts and less room for stuff like my background picture of Dave on Timp and things like that. There are downsides. But, we could personalize the template to our collective hearts' content and make it awesome and representative of each of us.

So, mull it over . . . think on it . . . ponder, if you will.

Then post some pros and cons and we'll see where this goes (if anywhere).