Mike and I drove up to Northern Virginia this weekend for his sister Lauren's baby shower. Saturday all the men went golfing while the girls gathered to celebrate Lauren and her precious baby girl. I was a co-hostess and it was great meeting Lauren's friends; they are so much fun and really talented at throwing parties! There was a lot of delicious food-- I made deviled eggs, which I learned are really hard to make, but the 'spiked punch' I brought was a hit---go figure.
Lauren is just a few short weeks away from her baby girl's arrival and she looks beautiful! There were lots of presents (An "I Love My Auntie" onesie courtesy of yours truly) and lots of laughs. Such a fun time!
Saturday night we went to Mike's family's house for a barbeque and then headed to my parent's house for an early birthday celebration for me. My mom made me gluten-free cake; I haven't had birthday cake in forever! I also received an apron with cupcakes all over it--I think Mike will look adorable in it when he cooks for me. But I am swooning over this full-length mirror they bought us for our bedroom:
It matches the furniture in our room perfectly and now I can see my outfits before I leave the house. Bonus!
Sunday we said goodbye to NOVA and headed back to Richmond. But the weekend festivities weren't over. Mike had surprised me earlier in the week with a birthday present--tickets to see the Counting Crows, with the band Augustana as the opener. I really like Augustana and have never seen either band live, so I was ready to rock!
The weather was beautiful for the outdoor concert and we arrived at the venue with some time to spare since it was supposed to start at 6:00, but no one started playing until 7:30. We spent the time people-watching the interesting characters that were around us...lots of hippies and babies. It was confusing.
But not as confusing as the concert itself! The show had a 'traveling circus' theme, so instead of an opener and main act, the bands all played like one or two songs together, switched to Augustana, then the Counting Crows played with the members of Augustana....and then some random white rapper came on. He was awful, but kept yelling "What up VIRGINIA?!" so the crowd kept cheering. It truly was a circus.
The few songs Augustana played were amazing. The lead singer has such an incredible voice. Mike and I agreed we would be finding somewhere to see them again in the near future.
The Counting Crows let me down though! Apparently Adam Duritz (Counting Crows lead singer) has been suffering from mental illness, which makes sense after seeing him. He was wacky. I have this weird thing about bands playing their hit songs live the same way they recorded them. It's the song that made you popular--play it normally.
'Mr. Jones' might be one of my favorite songs of all time and I was AMPED when the opening chords started. But the song ended up sounding all distorted, going from fast to slow to jumbled. As Mike so eloquently stated, "I'm sure Billy Joel is sick of playing 'Pianoman' but I bet he still plays it." So true.
Either way, the concert was a ton of fun. I never thought I would see the Counting Crows in concert and Augustana was a great treat.
Maybe 26 won't suck.
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