Jazz fest

Today I went to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. A friend of mine volunteers there and got me a ticket to go today and see Simon and Garfunkel!!

It was a great concert- a little rough since Art was obviously under the weather and unable to sing the whole set – but that in itself led to some very sweet moments of artist-audience interaction and the most tear jerking performance of “Bridge over Troubled Waters”, so I’m not going to complain.

(I did come home and comment that it did just make me want to take Art Garfunkel home for a bowl of chicken soup. The man is old, and that stuff is hard to sing even when you’re young and healthy!!)

The best parts – the breeze, the open air, the not-storming (despite doom and gloom weather forecasts), the moments shared with my two best new orleans gal-pals. Dancing to “Diamonds on the soles of her shoes”. Watching the distant stage with the tall skinny figure in untucked shirt and skinny tie and the short guy with the driver’s cap and pretending to go back in time. Wondering about the identity of the fantasticly talented guy in the band who sang, played guitar, clarinet, cello, and everything else, better than anyone else on stage (it was this guy, btw. people like that keep music happening, imo). Squishing my toes in the mud. Singing all the songs that I memorized as a kid from that one cassette tape. Singing ‘the Boxer’ with many thousand other people. Walking through the waning light back to my friend’s car still singing, still excited, and just plain happy.

It’s been pointed out to me that I don’t make a priority of doing things like this for myself very often. I think usually the logistics of doing anything apart from the kids just kinda exhausts me before I’ve even half thought it through. This opportunity fell in my lap practically fully formed. It was going to happen whether I asked for it or not – and I was pretty willing to ask for it! Even the thunderstorm and nasty weather forecast for today seemed to have decided not to mess with my lovely inevitable wonderful day.

So… thank you God, for the wonderful weather. Thank you Sarah, for the tickets and for wanting me to come. Thank you Mike for volunteering to babysit before I even had a chance to start asking!

I feel pretty darn good right now. I think I’m going to sit here and wallow in it a little while longer.

Ciao!