That Bruce Springsteen sure knows how to put on a good rock concert!

What a great show! As long as I've known Sean he's gone on about how fantastic Bruce Springsteen concerts are and last night I finally got the opportunity to experinence one for myself. Even though I thought the venue had some piss poor acoustics and therefore the sound was a bit echo-y it was amazing to see such a legend perform so easily along side his friends aka the E Street band. Before the show I had asked Sean "Who's opening tonight?" and Sean looked at me like there was a microwave tower growing from between my eyebrows and cooly replied "No. One. Opens. For. Bruce." Ok then! There was however a pretty cool surprise when Arcade Fire came out to perform State Trooper alongside Bruce and the band. It was actually freakin' awesome. Then they did one of their own tracks which I wasn't fond of. But I think in the beginning the youngins were a little rattled by the caliber of their hosts so I'll cut them some slack. They did manage to pick it up near the middle again. Apparently Bruce really likes Arcade Fire and he and the E Street Band provided flawless back up. I usually like my Echo and the Bunneymen type music sung by Echo and the Bunneymen but this time around it worked really well and the crowd went wild. As Arcade Fire left the stage he thanked them and said "What could be better than that?" and then they launched into Born to Run followed by Dancing in the Dark. Well now, there you go. The show was a little short by Bruce Springsteen standards (a little over 2 hours) but they're not spring chickens anymore and they never stopped moving on the stage the whole time. And man can that guy sing. I don't know how he can move around so much and still belt it out so clearly. Like I touched on before it's amazing to see a group of folks performing so well together. They communicate in a way that only long time partners can and the result is night of extremely passionate and energetic music.

It was a great show to get Sean and I launched back into one of our favorite pass times which is going to see music performed live. The last concert we went to was Ben Harper in 2003. We went thru a real painfull dry spell in Japan. Many more millions of thanks to my big sis for securing the tickets for us and for watching Keenan while we were out.

Breathing again

It has been too long since I last posted. I almost feel as though I should be starting out with "Forgive me Father for I have sinned". I've felt both guilt and frustration for not having written anything in the past two months. Poor old blog it's served me so well for so long and well to be quite honest I've felt a little over stressed for not having my usual written word release in my life.

Here's the deal...once we hit Canadian soil again my brain went into hyper overdrive...where will we live? Will we be able to find daycare? If so, can we afford it? Do we need a car? If so, can we afford car insurance? Where will we live? Will we both find jobs we like? Will our jobs and daycare mesh or will the 3 of us never be in the same room until we take Keenan off to preschool? Will we feel reverse culture shock? If so, what the heck will that be like? Will Jose and Tony really be able to put up with the Japan O'Flanagans? Will we pine endlessly for Japan and our friends? So many "ifs" and questions and I haven't even listed them all.

Well, one of the "Big 3" has finally been answered. I am now employed full time. So, I am now officially breathing again. The world looks so different when you breathe and let big chunks of stress roll down your back. Actually 2 of the "Big 3" have been struck from the list as Sean landed an awesome job less than 3 weeks after we got back. You won't find the job details here but Sean has and I will post them to Facebook. Now the last piece of the puzzle needs to fall into place...daycare for Keenan. That's my most pressing task right now. Then a car, then a home and then we can officially promote ourselves to the level of Ottawa O'Flanagans (would that be O'ttawagans then?)

Now that I've got the whole job thing sorted out I can reinvest a wee portion my energies in some "me" time again. I just couldn't relax enough up until now. And now I'm so wound up it's gonna take me a while to come back down. First step is to come back here and that's the only expectation I have of myself at this time. I'd like to do some catching up. Write a bit about Tokyo and Kamakura, the trip back to Canada and what we've done, seen and felt since we've been back. We don't have high speed internet so there will be no photo's until we move into the city. I'll just have to paint a more detailed picture with my words.

It feels good to be back. I particularily like the inhaling and exhaling part. Peace.