a message of peace....One World Concert...

Yesterday...

1. After 9 school kids and the college kids left, Suri and I went on our errands. First to town to pick up a parking pass for the Dome.

2. Quick stop at insurance agency to get insurance cards.

3. Department of Motor Vehicles. Suri got to get out and walk down the sidewalk and bark at a few people while wagging her tail. (the good news is that I actually had all the forms I needed and got the car registered!)

4. Grocery store to get drink mix and nuts and gum for the last package to Ben in Afghanistan!!!

5. Post office to mail it.

6. McDonalds. What? I needed a coffee! So I got one for Sam too, plus a few other things for him, and a yogurt parfait for me.

7. To pick Samuel up from school (I told him I had McDonald's food in the car, but I forgot the fries...we got in the van, he looked in the bag, and we accidentally scored a large fries! AND I didn't get charged for them!) Anyway, he was a happy camper, I ate only two fries...Suri had three. For being such a good puppy. She could have totally trashed that whole bag of fast food while I was signing Sam out.

8. Gas station.

9. Home. Ahh, home. But only for ten minutes! We had to get moving to the Dome!
I fixed myself a peanut- butter- on- a -rice cake quick, changed my clothes, used the bathroom, and we were out the door...Paul and I, Emily, Mirielle, Joseph, Aaron, and Samuel.

I got in with a Balance bar, as did Emily. Mirielle brought in a pear and banana. But one of the other guys there got his pear taken from him. We were "wanded", and one of the girls had her purse searched...but she opened it up, there were Girl Supplies on the top, so the guy was embarrassingly okay with not searching the whole thing. I mean, we had to have ibuprofen and gum and chap stick with us! No purses, ha. One poor kid didn't get the security memo and had to return to his home with his backpack, as he wasn't allowed to even leave it at the gate...he missed quite a bit of the event. He stopped to buy water because his water bottle was confiscated at security, and we were nice, shh, and gave him a courtesy cup. When we told him not to tell all his friends, he said he didn't have any, don't worry. I am hoping he just meant at the concert.

One World Concert: it was decent. I am not a big fan of most of the music played, but it was loud and clear, and some of it was enjoyable. The Dalai Lama was very interesting. My niece and I took a break while he was speaking, climbed those steps right up to the top of that seating in the Dome, and listened for a bit. Unfortunately the kids behind us didn't care much for his message, so they were noisy and rude.

The crowd last night was much different than the usual football game/basketball game crowd. Overall, more respectful. The hippie-ish clothing was great, too! Most of the people I interacted with were really nice, kind, thankful people. There is one in every crowd though, and it seems he always finds me...the one rude guy. My rude guy last night...

He was with his wife. She ordered two pretzels(3.50 each) with cheese ($1.50extra each), and a coffee. I was helping fill the order, and didn't hear 2 cheese cups, so I put one on the counter. He said that if he was paying a buck and a half for a cheese cup, he damn well better get his cheese cup. I just got him one, said I was sorry, and smiled at him. He snarled that we were robbing people with our prices. I said that we just volunteer there, we don't set the prices. He was in a very bad spirit, complaining...so I said to him, "Give peace a chance!"...he didn't appreciate it. His poor wife. When I handed her the coffee a minute later, she thanked me and apologized for him, while he said to her, "better hold onto your purse, or she'll steal that too!". Meaning me. Like I would ever take anyone's purse. jeepers. No one made him go to that event, or made him buy cheese with his pretzel. What a huge adult brat. His poor wife, she looked like she was mortified.

And one lady complained about the price of the waterbottles to Mirielle, then proceeded to just grab it and walk away without paying. Mirielle says that lady will get her just reward when she ends up in hell. Wouldn't it just be easier to pay the three fifty?
But most of the people there were just happy to be there.

We didn't get home until one a.m., I took the dog out, cleaned up some of the mess she made by having a hip hip horrah party in the compost can, took a shower...then finally, my comfy bed. But could I sleep? ha! I had too much coffee, too much diet Mountain Dew. Perhaps I just wanted to go over in my head all the different people I "met"...and remember all the things that happened....

One lady was irritated at another woman for being noisy, so she yelled at her, "Show some EFFIN RESPECT!" I still find that hilarious. The total irony of the statement. because in real life, she didn't say, "EFFIN".

There was the handsome kind black gentleman who said to me, "How is your evening going so far?" right when I was about as frazzled and tired as could be. It just was nice, like he didn't see us as mere workers, as most people do, especially at the sporting events. I lied and said It Was Fine.

It wasn't really a lie though. Even though my feet hurt and my mind was starting to blank out, and I was getting tired of telling people that Sorry, We Ran Out Of Pretzels, it was satisfying to be there with friends. One of my nieces made a mask, totally out of register tape, and wore it for a while. One of my sons draw a ninja warrior on the white paper, which said, "Peace? lol!"

Today, my feet hurt. I am tired. But I am home with just housework and Suri. Paul had to go to Real Work, and my poor college kids! And Sam, he had to get up and go to regular school this morning. I will be thinking of them today!

Anyways....I texted with Benjamin this morning. He will be home at the end of November! Home to his home base in Washington, that is. He texted me a picture...he looks sunkissed and healthy, and happy. I emailed it myself and spent like ten minutes trying to upload it to the blog, but it didn't work. Oh well.

Enough of my babble for today.