#2073 three things:

Last night I volunteered to work at a concert at Red Butte Garden and I'm pretty sure I can come up with three things to tell you about it.

1. Ticket taker. I had a new assignment last night: I was a ticket taker. We don't actually take the tickets away from the guests, we scan the bar code. There is a special little hand-held device that you point at the bar code and then press a button. It mostly works really well, but there is no practice for it. You learn what to do and then you do it and hope like hell it all works. Fortunately for me, last night's concert was a performance by the Utah Symphony, so it was a mellow crowd and they weren't freaking out to get to the first row by the stage, like most other shows. I was lucky to have this mellow, friendly crowd for my first ticketing experience. I'm pretty sure I let people through whose ticket I didn't scan, but it was okay. I'd probably do it again.

2. The Utah Symphony with Jenny Oaks Baker. Like I said, last night's performance was the Utah Symphony. They performed several numbers themselves, then invited special guest Jenny Oaks Baker to the stage. She's a violinist and she's from Utah. If I remember correctly, I have been to one symphony performance before last night, but I enjoy classical music, so I was excited to be able to hear the performance. The fact that JennyOaksBaker (you say it like it's one word and it's fun to say) was there was a total bonus. My favorite symphonic instrument is the cello, and the violin is second. She is a phenomenal violinist. I was heading down to get my bag so I could sit down to watch and listen when I was stopped right in my tracks by the sheer beauty of her performance of "When You Wish Upon a Star." When I did sit down, I found myself moved to tears by a couple of the songs, particularly "Beauty and the Beast." It just went directly to my heart and soul. Sounds super corny, I know, but my eyes were watering and my throat was tight.

The weather last night was perfect. It has been very hot and dry here (of course) and the valley is blanketed with smoke from all the wildfires here in Utah. Last night a cool breeze was blowing down Red Butte Canyon. The smoke made the sun look extremely huge and orange and the sunset was spectacular. There was no moon last night so you could see stars and especially Mars. It was glowing red right over the stage.

3. Did I mention Jenny Oaks Baker? I don't think I can over-emphasize how much I enjoyed hearing JennyOaksBaker play. After the intermission, she came out with her four musically-endowed children to play a rousing number called the "Copland Rock Suite". JennyOaksBaker mentioned that they had made a video of the song at Zion National Park so I had to find and watch the video. I will attempt to share it here, but if I don't do it right, do yourself a favor and find it on You Tube. The kids are lovely and so is JennyOaksBaker.