Back from the dead of winter, back from the dead and all our leaves are dry

Time seems to be moving along at an exceptionally fast pace this January. Last week passed in a blur of rain and busyness, and this week has been much of the same—seriously, it’s Thursday already. I’m a little worried I might blink and miss the Olympics.

Last week, I went for an entire seven days with no car. It was not as hard as I thought it was going to be, and just revealed to me that if my car does actually give up the ghost before I’m financially ready to buy new one it won’t be the end of the world. On Saturday, one of the guys from my small group came over and replaced my alternator. I’m really glad he was able to do it because it turned out to be a way more complicated job than I’d initially thought. He had to take my front driver’s side wheel off and jack the car up and pull out all theses brackets just to get at the old alternator. It looked like he was basically pulling my car apart and if he hadn’t been explaining what he was doing as he went along I probably would have spent the whole time freaking out that he wouldn’t be able to put it back together. But he did put it back together and so far Lucy has been running no problems—although I do get a little nervous every time I go to start her still, it may take awhile to build up the trust again.

Then last Sunday afternoon as I was in a rush to park on Granville Island and make it to the evening service in time for set up, I accidentally pulled into a parking spot at a funny angle and scraped Lucy’s back end up against a tree. Now, let me preface this by saying that I am a very responsible driver (touch wood) and have actually not scraped Lucy up once in the entire five years I’ve had her. So I should get some points for that. Also, in my defence there is no side mirror on the passenger side and while I totally cleared the post marking the parking spot, the tree stuck out further. Ahem. It was really embarrassing and I had to get Josh, again to come and use his mad parking skills to rescue my car. He got her out whilst I was in soundcheck and somehow managed to not scrap her any further. I’m glad I wasn’t there because I have seriously had enough with the car troubles and couldn’t handle it anymore, ask Ariana.

In happier news, I went to see Switchfoot at the Commodore last week and lo, it was amazing. I know I’ve never mentioned it here before but Jon Foreman is seriously my hero. If I ever came across a magic lamp with a genie inside my three wishes would be for a totally paid off brand new honda fit (dark purple/blue or black), the perfect non-frizzy curly hair product and Jon Foreman’s songwriting talent.

Switchfoot 1

Anyway, this was my eighth time seeing them in concert and I can honestly say it never gets old. They played their whole new album front to back and then finished off their set with a bunch of old favorites. I really love their new album so it was great to hear the whole thing live. It was also cool to see them do a piano ballad (Always) live because they usually adapt them for guitar. The best part of all was getting to hear him explain the thought process behind the songs, where he was at and what he was reading when he wrote them. Actually, that’s my favorite part of going to concerts, period. I feel like there is nothing new under the sun, really when it comes to music— its the lyrics and stories behind songs that make them unique and give each one its own meaning and personality. And of course, nobody tells a story like Jon Foreman.

Jon Foreman

And here’s Always, because I’m in an embedding kind of mood and it’s my favorite: