#2107 powering through

The last time I wrote I was catching a cold. Well, I caught it. You know, some years when I get a flu shot I feel fine and some years I get sick. I've been coughing and sneezing and I even lost my voice for a couple of days but I'm doing mostly okay. I've had stuff going on and I don't have time to be sick.

On Wednesday MT and I went to see Jimmy Buffett in concert. Jimmy Buffett is one of those artists that have always been in my life soundtrack. When I was in college, I had a friend named Mary who, when we were at the bar, would always sing, "Barmaid bring a pitcher". That's when I learned about Jimmy Buffett's song "Why Don't We Get Drunk and Screw" (which he did NOT perform here in SLC). When I was in Palm Island eating a delicious cheeseburger, I knew I was having a "Cheeseburger in Paradise". And who hasn't fantasized about singing "Margaritaville" in a karaoke competition on a cruise ship? (It didn't happen to me, but I saw it happen). Another great Jimmy Buffett memory is the couple celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary and dancing to "Come Monday" on a sailboat off the coast of Cancun during a snorkeling excursion.

Seeing Jimmy in concert was everything I hoped it would be. I didn't know every song, but every song was fun and sounded good. Jimmy looked like he was having a great time. He was wearing shorts and a Hawaiian shirt and he was barefoot and smiley, running around and waving at the crowd and hopping up and down and bantering with the Coral Reefer band. The dude is 71 years old! He was awesome! MT and I both had a great time. Seeing Jimmy perform "Margaritaville" live was a thrill for me.

Here's a review of the concert from Salt Lake Magazine. It's not the best written piece, but I agree with what she says.

On Thursday and Friday I volunteered at Red Butte Garden for their annual Garden After Dark event. The theme this year is a magical school. The people who come up with the themes and the decorations every year are so creative and talented. I had the chance to walk through the whole thing on Thursday night and it is fun and beautiful and even kinda magical. I was stationed at the potions maze, which is the second "class" on the agenda. The guests were all into it and I had fun too.

Yes, it gets cold out there when the wind blows down out of the canyon. I wear lots of layers of clothes along with a hat, coat and gloves. I suck on cough drops. I drink warm water. When I get in my car, I crank up the heat and turn on my seat warmer. I've been okay. 

Today I made a promise to myself that after I was done with a couple of must-do tasks this morning, I would stay home and rest. I bought some Tylenol Extra Strength Cold and Flu Severe and that stuff is powerful! I took some and went to bed to read and rest. I didn't read at all. The medicine pulled me right into sleepy-land for a few hours. It was great. I'll definitely take some more of that tonight.

Right now though, I'm sitting on my couch. I'm wearing sweatpants and a long sleeve shirt over a short sleeve shirt. I'm wearing socks. I still feel cold. MT and I are watching the USC vs Utah football game. So far Utah is looking good. Hopefully the Utes will hold on and get this win. It would be a big one.

Have a great weekend everyone!

#2106 uh oh

sneezing  - check

coughing - check

sore throat - check

achy - check

tired - check

I'm taking some meds and going to bed NOW

#2105 First Man

imdb.com

This afternoon MT and I went to see the latest Ryan Gosling movie, First Man.  It is the story of Neil Armstrong who is, of course, the first man to walk on the moon.

Right from the start, the film is jarring and a little hard to watch. Armstrong is in a test plane/rocket and it is shaky and loud and the images are flashing in front of you so fast that you're not sure quite what you're looking at and you realize it was probably just like that for Armstrong.

I came away with the feeling that Neil Armstrong was so smart and so focused that he was a bit socially awkward. A life-altering event happened to him and his family early in the movie and he seemed changed afterward.

By far my biggest take-away from this film is that it is nothing short of amazing that NASA was able to actually send men to the moon. (I'm a big fan of NASA.) The math and science is incredible, and so is the bravery of the astronauts and the scientists who were willing to take such tremendous risks to accomplish the task. Twelve men have walked on the moon, all American.

You know what else is amazing? The first flight, by the Wright Brothers, happened in December 1903. In July 1969, the first man landed on the moon. That's only 66 years in between those events. Just think of all the technological and scientific advancements that took place in those 66 years. It blows my mind.

The movie was well made. I felt tense in all the right places. Interesting things were done with the sounds of the movie. Sometimes it was incredibly loud to simulate what it must have been like for the astronauts. Other times, notably when Armstrong is coming down the ladder from the rocket to the surface, there is no sound at all except for his breathing. (The effect was sort of ruined for me though, because in the theater next door Venom was playing and it was noisy.)

I like Ryan Gosling. Claire Foy was fine as Armstrong's wife Jan. There didn't seem to be any chemistry between the two of them at all. I wonder if that was real or if it was depicting how the Armstrong's really were. When I left the theater, I mentioned to MT that the Armstrong's were stoic as hell. The movie itself was just all right for me. What I liked the most about it was how it renewed my interest in NASA.

#2104 a great Friday

The sun was shining. The sky the blue. The air was cool and crisp. In other words, it was a perfect fall day in Salt Lake City, so that was already a great start.

I went out to lunch with my friends Kelsie and Nicole. Several months ago, Kelsie decided that we needed to get lobster rolls from the Freshies food truck, so she figured out the the truck would be at the Gateway today, October 12, and she put an appointment on our calendars so we would be sure to go. We went over to the Gateway and there were three or four food trucks there, but not the Freshies truck. What?! We felt sad. Nicole quickly discovered that Freshies had a restaurant in Salt Lake City (we knew there was one in Park City) and we weren't too far from the SLC location, so we headed over there for lunch.

Confession: I've never had a lobster roll, so I was pretty excited to try one and I was not disappointed. It was delicious. Very lobster-y and buttery.

I can't afford to have it too often, but it will be a fantastic special treat. I'll have to take MT over there sometime. I think he would like it.

The bottom line is that going to lunch with my friends is always great, and the addition of a new place with yummy food made it even better!

I had another first time experience tonight. You may recall that I have talked about #EkpesBookClub here before. It's a Twitter-based book club that is run by Ekpe Udoh who happens to play for the Utah Jazz. Tonight Ekpe hosted his very first "Author 's Talk" in which he invited the author of the last book we read in the book club, Brad Parks, to come and talk to a group of book club members. The event was held at the Zions Bank Basketball Center which is where the Jazz practice.

I got there kind of early and was waiting in the lobby with a few other people when Ekpe walked in. He was super nice and hugged each of us and thanked us for coming. Thanked us! There was a table of snacks for us: cheese, fruit, chips and dip and some desserts. It was lovely. I'm guessing there were 30 people there. Brad and Ekpe sat at the front and chatted. Brad sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" (really well, by the way). Brad talked about the process of writing the book Say Nothing and then there was a question and answer period. After that, we had a group photo and Brad signed books and Ekpe posed for pics with anyone who wanted one. It was all very friendly and wonderful. Ekpe said that he would schedule another Author's Talk for December (hopefully not when I'm in Georgia!) And he'll be announcing our next book really soon.

Lol. I just noticed that I was so excited I forgot to hold the book up properly!

You can check out my review of the Say Nothing on the 2018 Reading List page if you want.

Now I'm at home watching Utah football beat up on Arizona.

A great Friday.

#2103 boo to Drake; yay for A Star is Born

I'm feeling a little bitter and deprived tonight. If everything was right, T and I would be at Vivint Smart Home Arena dancing to the musical magic of Drake and Migos, but no. Four days before the show, Drake cancelled. Even worse, he was supposed to be here in August; Salt Lake City was going to be the first stop on his Scorpion tour. He decided to postpone our stop and start in a different city, so he rescheduled SLC for October 10, only to cancel on Saturday the 6th. Why? No official reason was given, but my guess is the venue wasn't sold out and his sweet little ego couldn't handle not having a venue on the tour sell out. He cancelled shows in Denver and St. Paul as well.

I was looking forward to the show. I really like Drake's music and I like Migos, too. I saw Drake a few years ago when he came to town with Lil Wayne. Their show was out at USANA Amphitheater and it was great. There is a hip hop fanbase here in SLC, but apparently it isn't large enough to sell out the Viv. Plus the tickets were over $100 apiece, so you really had to want to go. I bought the tickets through my work and we were going to be in the suite. I believe we were going to be the only people in the suite, so I know that no one else I work with was planning to go.

On Drake's latest album, Scorpion, he has a song called "I'm Upset". Pretty much sums up how I feel about the whole thing. I probably would have even bought some merch. Damn.

In other entertainment-related news, last night MT and I went to see A Star Is Born. Straight off the bat, I'm going to tell you that I thoroughly enjoyed it. Bradley Cooper is smoking hot, even though he is a bit of a greasy drunk through most of the movie. It makes the scenes when he is clean and sober even more outstanding. The way he looks at Ally (Lady Gaga) made my heart melt. Watching Jackson and Ally fall in love and then fall apart was movie magic to me. I had every single feeling you can have watching this movie. I smiled and laughed; I cried with sadness and with astonishment (sometimes music can move me to tears); I was angry and happy...you get the picture.

Lady Gaga was terrific. Ally's transformation from would-be singer/songwriter to the latest pop star was fun and kinda sad at the same time. I could understand why Jackson was happy for her and disappointed in her at the same time.

I might have to buy the soundtrack. I liked Jackson's songs quite a bit - and that is really Bradley Cooper singing! And of course Lady Gaga is already a phenomenal singer. I just read an article that said they sang all the songs in the movie live. No lip syncing. That's cool.

Before I go, I have to give a disclaimer about Bradley Cooper. In most movies I think he is cute but his chin is way too pointy for me. I like a nice strong, square-ish chin on a man.

But in A Star Is Born with that hair and that beard, oof. I was smitten.

Plus everybody know that when a man straps on a guitar, his appeal skyrockets.

All I'm done fan-girling for the night.

Sweet dreams!

#2102 meat-fest Monday

I work in the office of a big construction company. A lot of the people have those Traeger grills and they know how to use them. Today we had a competition where 10 people brought in meat they had cooked on their grills. There were categories for poultry, ribs, pork and brisket. Some people entered in more than one category. I think there was easily over 50 pounds of various types of meats for everyone to try. I had a plate full of brisket, some pulled pork and a slice of smoked turkey breast. We had side dishes too: baked beans, coleslaw and cornbread. I ate way too much meat and cornbread. My friend Nicole was teasing me that I'd have the "meat sweats" tonight. I haven't, but it sounds terrible. I do taste smoky meat flavor in the back of my throat on occasion though.

I forced myself to go to the gym for a spinning class to help myself feel better about the large amount of protein I had for lunch. It wasn't my best spinning effort, but I was there and I got sweaty and I didn't throw up, so all is well. I ate a piece of toast when I got home. I'm still full.

I think tomorrow will be meat-free Tuesday.

#2101 Saturday with Sandy

I was a homebody today. The weather forecast called for rain, so I thought it would be a good idea to stay home and clean the house and basically just chill. It didn't rain today, but it was kinda cold and a little windy. It probably would have been a good idea to go up to the Garden to record blooms today, but I have no regrets about staying home. The downstairs is a whole lot better looking and better smelling than it was this morning. I read. I did laundry. I relaxed. I feel good about it.

Kinda boring for a daily recap, but there it is.

Now I'm watching the Utah football game. They are playing at Stanford tonight. So far so good. Utes are up 24 - 7 at halftime. Utah played beautiful football in that first half. Here's hoping they keep it up the rest of the game!

Ooh! MT and I went to a pre-season Jazz game last night. The business admin team had the suite last night. It was great to be back in the arena watching Jazz basketball!




Hope you're all having a great weekend!