A Concert

I am a big concert lover.  There is just something about live music that cleanses my soul and makes me feel whole.  I am already a huge music lover to begin with.  I usually have some sort of music playing in the background while I waste time on the computer, but there is nothing quite like live music.  It is also well known that I have a special place in my heart for special education.  So the Bridge School Benefit Concert is right up my alley.  I've gone two times previously, but had to miss last year (and Jack Johnson!) due to student teaching.  This year's line up wasn't as awesome, but there were still some pretty good people.

We just did a quick trip to the Bay Area, so we left at around 7am on Saturday morning.  My entire family went.  My mom was going with her best friend and my dad had bought us all tickets.  After being out until 2:45 with my friend the night before, waking up at 6:30 was hard.  But, I knew I was going to see my brother and a concert.  So it was all worth it.

Of course, we bought grass seats because the real seats are too much money.  But this makes for a nice, cozy atmosphere.  

Instead of dinner, we just brought snacks.  Little Z got a little cheese drunk at her very first concert.

And since we are so far away from the stage, thank goodness my dad brought binoculars.  Otherwise, I'm not sure how we could possibly have seen the stage.  Except for the 12 jumbo screens directly in front of us.

I've seen Norah Jones and Neil Young previously as well as Eddie Vedder (but never Pearl Jam).  I was extremely excited about Florence and the Machine and she didn't disappoint.  Her voice is magical.  And the way she interacted with the kids on stage melted my heart.

The crowd seemed to be enjoying themselves.

There's about 20-30 minutes of downtime between sets, so as soon as it became dark, I started to take advantage of that.  I was running on 3.5 hours of sleep, so I was definitely dragging.  I can cross "falling asleep at a rock concert" off my bucket list now.

We got back to the hotel around 2am and I actually slept in.  Until 9am!  I made it down to the hotel gym for a workout before breakfast with the family.  Then it was time to say goodbye to my brother.  It's always so sad to see him go.  Then, we headed back up north.  And just like that, our quick weekend get-away was over.  The concert was amazing and I can't wait to go back next year!

Have you been to any concerts?  Ever fallen asleep?