Last weekend, I flew down to Palm Springs to meet John for a concert. I shouldn’t even call it a concert. It was more like a private show for ~150 people. And we were part of it.

About two weeks ago, I read a bulletin on my MySpace announcing a show in Palm Springs featuring Pat Monahan, Mandy Moore, Emmerson Hart (from Tonic), Dolores O’Riordan (from The Cranberries), and Matt Nathanson. Not only am I a HUGE Pat Monahan fan, but we’re friends with Matt Nathanson. How awesome was that?! And for only $60 it was a meet-and-greet! What?!?!? For $60 I can meet Pat Monahan?! Holy crap!

That following Saturday, I promptly got on the phone to get my tickets that went on sale at 8:00am. When I called though, they said they weren’t going on sale until 10:00. So of course I called back 2 minutes later to make sure. Then I started calling again at 10:00. They still didn’t have the box office open and they wanted to take my name and number and they would call me back. Huh? That’s when I think I started to sweat. I thought for sure I was going to miss out on the tickets. But sure enough, they called me back, and I was able to get 2 of the 45 VIP meet-and-greet tickets!!!

I left Saturday morning to meet John in Palm Springs. The plane ride was nice and smooth and when I landed in Ontario, the weather was beautiful. John picked me up and we drove the hour to Palm Springs. The ride was nice and we stopped in downtown Palm Springs at a place called Tylers. The majority of their seating was outdoors, reasonable prices and yummy food!

After lunch, we walked around downtown for a bit, then headed to find our hotel and the casino. Once we settled in at the hotel, we walked across the street to the casino. We picked up our tickets and headed to the Cascade Showroom to check out the venue. My eyes nearly popped out of my head when I saw how small it was! There were ~45 chairs set up on the dance floor for the VIP tickets and the rest were tables and chairs and maybe the place held 200 or so people, at the most. I could hardly wait until 7:30…

Around 6:00 we got in line for the show. It was pretty fun too, we met some really nice people while we were waiting. At 7:00 them came and took us to the outside patio for the meet and greet. We stood around for a little bit then lined up to meet the artists. First up was Pat Monahan. I think I actually stopped breathing when he walked by me. There he was! Oh. my. god.

After Pat walked by, he was followed by Matt Nathanson. Matt is a friend of ours but I haven’t actually seen him in a few years. I caught his eye as he was being escorted by and when he saw us, the look on his face was absolutely priceless! I’ll never forget, his mouth dropped open and you could see the wheels turning in his head trying to comprehend why we were standing here! It was a pretty awesome moment and it was so good to see him again!

The line to meet the artists moved pretty quickly and next thing I knew, it was our turn to meet Pat Monahan. I was holding two pictures that were given to us for him to autograph. I couldn’t even say anything. John had to prompt me to ask him to sign the pictures. I think I stopped breathing again. We got our picture taken with him and all I could think was “he’s touching me”.

After I started breathing again, we went over and met Mandy Moore. Poor thing, she was running a little bit of a fever and you could tell she was under the weather. Even still, she let us take a picture with her. She was a lot taller than I thought she’d be.

We then went and hung out with Matt for a little bit. It was really cool watching people come up to meet him and ask for his autograph. I’m so proud of him.

The show was absolutely AWESOME! I can’t even begin to explain how great it was! We were less than 10 feet from the stage. How cool was that?! Matt was out first, followed by Emmerson Hart, Mandy Moore, and then Pat Monahan. The music was great, the fans were great, it was just a perfect day!

Matt Nathanson

Mandy Moore

Emmerson Hart of Tonic

And of course, Pat Monahan

We had to get up at 4:30 the next morning to fly home, but it was so worth it.

Yay! We’ve got our Christmas Tree up!! Well, it’s almost complete. We just need to decide who gets to put the angel on top this year. I have to look at last year’s pictures to figure out who’s turn it is this year. Anywhooo, here’s some pictures of our tree and some of my favorite ornaments.

From last year’s Disneyland trip. Sadly, this ornament broke two days after taking this picture.

Macadamia nut ornament from Kauai, our first trip as a family to Hawaii.

Yosemite Bear from October 2005, it was soooo cold!

Last but not least, Breezy’s ornament!

We attended Alanna’s Conservatory Recital program this evening. I really enjoy going to these recitals, you get to see the kids at the beginning of the year, then again at the end of the year. It’s amazing how much some of them develop. They’re all so fantastic!

Alanna struggled with this recital a little this year. In the past, she’s always performed an original piece, something that was completely different than what the other students perform. She’s also one of the few vocal students in the music conservatory program. This year, she decided to sing “My Funny Valentine” instead of performing an original. We’re used to having her just pull something out of the air and it turns out great, so having her performing a song that wasn’t her own, was a little disappointing. None the less, I was looking forward to the recital.

What a surprise it was when she walked out on stage and said “I know in the program it says I’m going to perform My Funny Valentine, but instead, I’m going to perform an original song”. Huh? What? Did I hear that correctly???

She never ceases to amaze me how talented she is. She can just come up with something on the fly, perform it and have it be fantastic! I loved the song she performed. The best part was that she performed it on the piano, where in the past she performed with her guitar. She’s so talented.

Alanna announcing she’s going to play an original song.

At the piano

…picking the kids up from school. Since I’ve gone back to work, either John or Nani picks them up. Today they needed to stay late so I was able to get them on my way home from work.

Every day I pick them up is different. Some days I’m crabby and don’t feel like talking much. Some days we laugh all the way home. Some days are just goofy. Today was a little of it all mixed together. I think the highlight was Kaileigh asking “Why is it called Raindrops Roasting on an Open Fire?”

but the funniest thing just happened. John and I were relaxing in the hot-tub when all of a sudden, SPLAAASH! Next thing we knew, we had a cat in the hot tub with us! I was amazed how fast he got himself out of there! Poor thing, it was like 47 degrees outside and the hot tub was around 101! Bet he won’t do that again!

I think Bobbie was trying to figure out what was wrong with him and why he did something so stupid…

Is Halloween over already?! It seems like we just finished getting those decorations up and now I’ve gotta take ‘em down already! Bring on the holiday lights! Guess ya’ll know what I’ll be doing this weekend!

I’ve taken for granted the fact that I used to get paid for holidays. Now that I’m working as a contractor, no work, no pay. So I had to put in 8 hours today. And the same tomorrow

So I’m going to bed early tonight. It’s my only chance to sleep in!

I am so full. We had Thanksgiving dinner at Nani’s house this afternoon. It was a nice relaxing evening but I’m stuffed.

The table

The Man after he finished carving the turkey

The men patiently waiting…

…for the marshmallows to finish browning

The flowers

The relaxing