Tag: fun

It’s a sunny Wednesday afternoon.  Where am I going with a backpack?
 

The fun headboard, the painted walls, the lamps.  I must be at a McMenamins Hotel.
 

Indeed it is.  It’s the McMenamins Crystal Hotel located in downtown Portland.
 

Each room is  named after a song and I was excited to have the “Louie, Louie” room.  The very nice desk clerk told me that the song was recorded just up the street.
 

Here’s a map of the whole hotel layout.
 

 And here’s my room’s “Louie Louie” painting.

 

Why am I here on a weeknight?  Why to see fun., of course.
 

You know, FUN.  The band’s name is fun.?  It’s the worst name ever, because no one has any idea what the band’s name is.  It’s like a mini “Who’s on first” conversation every time I bring them up.  But if you have been anywhere near radio (including pop radio, alternative and adult contemporary formats) in the last year, you’ve heard fun.

Notice the ticket says “A December To Remember”?  And notice it’s March?  The show was postponed twice, I was supposed to go on December 19, but they moved it to March.  Because I decided too late I wanted to see the band, the show was sold out, so I stayed in the hotel and was able to buy a ticket.

How was fun.?  fun. was fun.  The band Family of the Year opened and they were great to watch. They said we were an “amazing” crowd.  This was very flattering, although I’m sure they say that to all the crowds.  Here’s a clip from the show.  This song was clearly their big hit as the sing-along got very loud.  I particularly enjoyed watching the bass player, whose hair and stage mannerisms were straight out of 1994.  I say that with love.

fun. was a good time.  They were apparently jet-lagged, but enjoyed us as a crowd as evidenced by this clip. I was interested to see how they would sound live as there are only three of them, and yet many more sounds on their songs than three musicians can make.  They solved this by having additional musicians on stage.  I particularly enjoyed watching Emily Moore (at least that’s what Wikipedia says her name is) who played a lot of instruments.  I learned the lead singer’s sister lives in Portland, which was an interesting fact.  And I particularly enjoyed hearing “The Gambler.”  Here’s a clip of “Carry On.“

Found outside an apartment complex near my house.

I work in the office of an elementary school, so gifts find their way to me around Christmas and I’m very appreciative.  Most of them tend to be food.  That’s usually a quite delicious thing.  Today, though, one of the gifts I received was just perfect, in my opinion.  It was from a Kindergartner and she made it herself.  I love homemade, I love when tokens of appreciation cost less then a few dollars, I love that I can use this, and I love that the gift shows  the effort the child put into it.  Well done, parents!

Somehow the juxtaposition of “fraud” and “grand” were quite delightful.

One of the things that happened during the kickoff party for NaNoWriMo was that we all got a Plot Ninja.  We were all handed sheets of paper, and we wrote down an idea, folded up the paper and sealed it.  Then we exchanged the pieces of paper. The idea was that if you got stuck writing your novel, you would open up your plot ninja and incorporate it into your book.  I didn’t need my plot ninja and had forgotten about it until I came across it today, while cleaning.  Not a bad plot ninja, eh?

No really.  That’s actual money.

One of the classes at school made money for a project they are working on.  I became the ten-cent pieces.  Nice, eh?  I love how I’ve also become my own country.  The United States of Patricia.  I like the sound of that.

My Aunt has had the peeps for quite awhile, and I was momentarily alert when she came over for the Art Party.  But then I got distracted by party duties and forgot about the peeps, which would have given her ample time to hide them.  But no!  She did not!  Because today a package arrived in the mail from Hawaii, where my Aunts are currently vacationing.  I usually get a postcard, but not a package, so I was pretty excited.  “I hope it’s food.” I thought, forgetting, once again, to be more specific with my hopes.

And my hopes came true, because the peeps went to Hawaii.
 

Curses!
 

I hope Kamuela was fun for them.  They will be returning to their rightful home soon, as Thanksgiving is just around the corner and Aunt Pat always hosts.
 

When we bought collage material for the Art Party, Matt grabbed a bunch of photos.  I donated nearly all of them back to Scrap, but I held on to these two.

If you can’t tell what this is from the front, check the back.
 

I love that someone was so excited (or perhaps angry, though I think not) that they took a picture of something happening on TV.  Matt said they took several pictures, but he just brought home the one.  This was the first election I was able to vote in and the presidential candidate I voted for won!  I don’t think I watched the swearing in, but I remember waiting up on election night for the results.

And I love this photo, not only because it affirms that my awful clothing choices in the late 80s were not really my fault, but fashionable, but also because I love the interaction between the women.  And that woman’s wedding dress is gorgeous (though sadly not in fashion right now)

A jeans skirt at a wedding?  What were we collectively thinking?