Another gloriously beautiful autumn day.

I wanted to stay home from work so much that I ached with it. It was much too lovely outdoors to be stuck two stories underground for 8 1/2 hours. But I was a good girl and went in.

The federal medical emergency facility in Waco is closing after this weekend. The patients which had been displaced by hurricanes Katrina and Rita have been placed in other permanent facilities now. They are opening a new one in Miami to help people displaced by hurricane Wilma. So any additional deployed people from my hospital will probably be sent there. Still now word on whether or not I  (or anyone else I know) will be called upon to go. So nothing to do but avoid making plans that could affect other people, and just quietly wait for awhile to see whether or not I will be called upon.

I have decided to enter this year's NaNoWriMo. It's something that I can do that will not affect anyone else in any way, shape, or form, that might also be a lot of fun. I highly doubt I could ever reach the goal of a 50,000 word story in one month even if I am not deployed. But it still might be a lot of fun! How NaNoWriMo Works 

As it turned out, I did not mind the drive down to Bedford. It turned out to be a gorgeous day, one of the prettiest fall days I can ever remember seeing. It was warm and sunny, and the soccer field was surrounded by forest on three sides, and the leaves were gloriously beautiful! I actually even briefly napped in my lawn chair on the sidelines during halftime of the game. The sunshine was marvelous! On the way home we stopped at an apple orchard and bought a gallon of fresh cider and some homemade apple fritters.

When we got home Dan and Bill helped me plant flower bulbs. The ground near the house is very hard with a lot of clay, so they wet things down with the hose and dug the holes for me with a big shovel. Thanks to their help, I planted half of the hundreds of bulbs (and all of the ferns) which were left. Dan promised to help me again later this week, and we should be able to finish up. I am so glad for the help!

Should be yet another busy week. Soccer is over, I believe, for both kids. But wrestling is gearing up. Steven is in a big tournament at Michigan State University today. Next weekend he will be wrestling in the national championships for a youth league called Border Wars. The tournament will be up in a little town called Holt, near Lansing. I had asked for a long weekend from work a year ago, so I could go to a book convention in Madison, Wisconsin that weekend -- but Stevie is a lot more important to me, so I will be watching him instead. I am glad for the long weekend! Maybe I can actually get some housework done, too. I am way behind in the laundry, and the bathrooms are really vile and need a good scrubbing from floor to ceiling!

Well, Bill's soccer team lost their second playoff game by a score of 1-0 on Wednesday. So they were eliminated, but by one of the best teams in the state. They can be very proud of their year! When he was a freshman they didn't win a single game -- now that he is a senior they were state ranked! Bill headed out to Melvindale tonight to watch the first round of the football playoffs, which our team lost. But it was the only time in the four years he's been in high school that the football team made the playoffs, so I am happy he went. The final score was close, and when he came home, he did not have a voice!

Today I planted more flowers, and was in a mood to cook. As usual on my day off, I also did some cleaning, though the house, as always, is still a complete and disgusting mess. Sometimes I honestly wonder why I even bother...it things always get trashed faster than I can clean things up.

Tomorrow I hope plant more of the flower bulbs, and Steven will have a soccer game way down in Bedford. I hate travel soccer because soem of the games are so far away, but hopefully this will be the last season of it -- in the spring he usually is still busy with wrestling, and starting next year he will have high school soccer. YAY! No more hour long drives!

I think I've finally calmed down enough to talk semi-coherently about the U2 concert.

It was the second Detroit concert -- the first one was on Monday, the second one (the one I went to ) was on Tuesday. The concerts were at the Palace of Auburn Hills, which is to the north of Detroit. It's about 1 1/2 - 2 hours from where I live depending on how crazy the freeway traffic is. Well, if there were no cars at all, maybe an hour, but that hardly ever happens.

Just driving up there was fun. The local radio station which was sposoring the concerts had the pre-concert-concert. They were playing only U2 music, and were interviewing all of these fans who had gone to the Monday concert on the air. They were all very enthused, and said that Bono was great at interacting with the fans. They were all talking about how he pulled a woman (they all said she had a very curvy butt ) up on stage with him for one of the slower songs, and slow danced with her for the whole song while he was singing.


Got to the Palace about half an hour early, and was glad that they checked purses and had everyone hold open their coats, but didn't actually pat everyone down like they did for the Green Day concert back in September. They also did the security checks inside, as opposed to at the door like with Green Day. That was most welcome, as it was a chilly night and looked like rain.

The opening act came on right at 7:30, like the tickets said. I was sitting behind the stage, and never did catch the name. They did some covers of some songs I did recognize, like Bush's Machinehead. Usually I enjoy the opening act, but that night I just seethed with impatience. I just wanted them off the stage so I could hear my favorite band of all
time!

They finally finished, and the roadies came out to set up for U2 (who eventually came out abour 8:50PM). It was a circular stage (which is why they were able to open up the whole stadium for seating). There was also an elevated circular track of sorts that came off of the stage and did a loop through the general admission crowd.

It turned out that the edges of the track and stage were equipped with different colors of lights. There were also strings of giant beads, like curtains, that they raised and lowered during different parts of the show for lighting special effects, which could also be used as screens. Very unique and very cool! There were also regular large screens, split into four, with a close up view of each band member throughout the show.

Bono and Edge in particular did come out on the track and interact with the fans. Bono also came to the back side of the stage for some songs, to sing to those of us seated behind the stage. He didn't do any slow dancing the second night, but he did go around the track and the edges of the stage and reached out and touched the hands of the fans. He had a very pleasing stage presence. He was quietly confident without being swaggering or arrogant. I guess you could say that he was quiet and commanding -he had the air of someone who has been doing something and doing it well for a long time, and still enjoys it.

the songs:
City of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
Gloria
The Ocean
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
In A Little While
Beautiful Day
a medley of Beatles songs
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
No Regrets
Love and Peace or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Get Up Stand Up
Bullet the Blue Sky
Miss Saravejo
Pride (In the Name of Love)
Where the Streets Have No Name
One
MLK

for the first encore:
The First Time
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
With or Without You

for the second encore:
Crumbs from your Table
Bad
People Have the Power

One very touching moment was when the band dedicated a song to the recently passed Rosa Parks.

On the way home the radio station had the post-concert-concert. So we got to listen to U2 songs and fellow concert goers all the way home. The band did play some different songs on the two different Detroit nights, according to fans lucky enough to attend both shows. On the first night, Bono reportedly tried to sing Ole Man River but couldn't get his voice low enough, and everyone (including Bono and the rest of the band) got a good chuckle from that.

Yesterday was sort of a weird day. Because of getting home from work around 4AM, I slept pretty late. When I woke up I felt all hung over and icky. Dan came home in the early afternoon and we ran errands (like picking up Bill's senior pictures) together. I got a bad headache, then realized that it might be because I hadn't really had anything to eat or drink yet (told you I had woken up feeling really out of it). After a stop at a party store, and a bottle of water later, my headache started to go away. I must have been dehydrated.

We stopped off at a sub shop on the way home and got sandwiches and chips. We gave the kids theirs, bolted ours, then headed up to Auburn Hills for the U2 concert.

Oh, that was sooooooooooooooooooo good.   

We got home around 1AM, and were really surprised to see the World Series game still going on. Turned out it was the longest game in World Series history! I know someone who is a big time Chicago White Sox fan  so I've been following the series this year, and rooting for his beloved Sox. I was glad to see the Sox win last night, and take a commanding lead in the series.

I now know more about deployment, as someone in my department is now in the middle of hers. It would most likely be in Waco, Texas. You are flown in and out of Dallas, and met by a government employee there, so you do not have to rent a car. You work with spinal cord injury patients who have been displaced by the hurricanes. They have set up a huge inpatient facility in Waco specifically for that sort of patient, as a place for them to receive care until a permanent bed in a rehab or nursing home sort of facility can be found for them. So it is hard work, but rewarding! You are put up in a local hotel (you do not need to pay for it), and there is a driver to take you back and forth between work and the hotel, so you do not have to worry about having a rental car. You work 12 hour shifts for six days, have a day off, work six more 12 hour days, have a day off, come home, and get a week off from your normal work to recover (you do not have to use your vacation time for that week off -- you earned it through all of the extra hours you worked in the previous two weeks). So, we will see...

But, oh -- U2 was so wonderful in concert!!! That was truly a dream come true for me!     And hopefully John's White Sox World Series victory dream can come true for him very soon, too!

U2 Lyrics - One

Is it getting better
Or do you feel the same
Will it make it easier on you now
You got someone to blame
You say...

One love
One life
When it's one need
In the night
One love
We get to share it
Leaves you baby if you
Don't care for it

Did I disappoint you
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without
Well it's...

Too late
Tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other
One...
Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head

Did I ask too much
More than a lot
You gave me nothing
Now it's all I got
We're one
But we're not the same
Well we
Hurt each other
Then we do it again
You say
Love is a temple
Love a higher law
Love is a temple
Love the higher law
You ask me to enter
But then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on
To what you got
When all you got is hurt
One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other

One...life

One

U2 in concert tonight. A dream come true!

U2 Lyrics - Beautiful Day

The heart is a bloom, shoots up through the stony ground
There's no room, no space to rent in this town
You're out of luck and the reason that you had to care,
The traffic is stuck and you're not moving anywhere.
You thought you'd found a friend to take you out of this place
Someone you could lend a hand in return for grace

It's a beautiful day, the sky falls
Abd you feel like it's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away

You're on the road but you've got no destination
You're in the mud, in the maze of her imagination
You love this town even if that doesn't ring true
You've been all over and it's been all over you

It's a beautiful day
Don't let it getaway
It's a beautiful day
Don't let it get away

Touch me, take me to that other place
Teach me, I know I'm not a hopeless case

See the world in green and blue
See China right in front of you
See the canyons broken by cloud
See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out
See the Bedouin fires at night
See the oil fields at first light
And see the bird with a leaf in her mouth
After the flood all the colors came out

It was a beautiful day
Beautiful day
Don't let it get away

Touch me, take me to that other place
Reach me, I know I'm not a hopeless case

What you don't have you don't need it now
What you don't know you can feel it somehow
What you don't have you don't need it now
You don't need it now, you don't need it now

Beautiful day

U2 Lyrics - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

I have climbed highest mountain
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you

I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I have kissed honey lips
Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire
This burning desire

I have spoke with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for

I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well yes I'm still running

You broke the bonds and you
Loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Of my shame
You know I believed it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for
But I still haven't found what I'm looking for...

Detroit #2 Setlist

The second show in Detroit featured numerous different songs to the first concert, including just the second performance of Gloria on the third leg, and Crumbs From Your Table in All Because Of You's normal setlist position. The full set was:

City Of Blinding Lights
Vertigo
Elevation
I Will Follow
Gloria
The Ocean
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For / In A Little While (snippet)
Beautiful Day / Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (snippet) / Blackbird (snippet)
Miracle Drug
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own / No Regrets (snippet)
Love And Peace Or Else
Sunday Bloody Sunday / Get Up Stand Up (snippet)
Bullet The Blue Sky
Miss Sarajevo
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
Where The Streets Have No Name
One / MLK (snippet)

Encore(s):
The First Time
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
With Or Without You
Crumbs From Your Table
Bad / People Have The Power (snippet)

Ay yi yi! What a night! Had a call in on midnights, so I stayed after for overtime, as it was very busy, and just got home. It's nearly 4AM. Ay yi yi!

Bill' soccer team won their first play off game. In Michigan, you lose and you're out. So they are still in the high school playoffs, and later this week they get to meet one of the state's soccer power houses in Grosse Ile. Maybe that should get another ay yi yi!

This morning was absolutely gorgeous. Sunny, with little gusts of wind that brought down swirls of bright yellow and orange leaves. Just lovely!

Its starting to cloud up a bit, and it is chilly today. Hopefully the rain will hold off until tonight, though. Bill has the first round of the state soccer districts tonight...of course, I will not be able to watch him play, as I will be at work, as usual.

The pharmacist who got deployed to Waco has been calling us every day. It always sounds frantically busy in the background. We are all thinking she might be working very hard and might be missing being at her usual work and her usual coworkers. Not to mention her missing her home and her family. Hopefully she's OK; working 12 hour days every day for two weeks could really grind someone down to nothing...supposedly she will get a week off without having to use her vacation time to recover after she returns home...

Another hurricane hitting Florida today. The natural disasters in the last 12 months are beyond comprehension or belief. The tsunami in the Indian Ocean, the recent earthquake in south Asia, all of the hurricanes and the resulting deaths and damage, not only in the US, but also in Central America. Depressing. Just depressing and tragic and horrible.

http://www.quizilla.com/users/mysterytwinkle/quizzes/Deep%20inside%20you%2C%20there's%20a%20creature%20trying%20to%20get%20out...%20What%20is%20it%3F%3F%3F%20(Beauitful%20anime%20pics)

You are the Sugar Fairy, the one who grants little children's wishes! Little kids always whisper your name and call you for help. You appear to give them what they want. You are beautiful and never seen in the eyes of those who are cruel to others. You are invisible to those who are terrible; they do not deserve to see your beauty. You try to make the world a better place and are kind and caring, and when someone needs you, you don't mind helping them! You are sweet and you are the kind of fairy that eveyone knows to go to if they need help. It doesn't hurt to help, so why not just do it, right? Your friends love you and you probably don't have even one enemy! You are always trustful and betraying is the LAST thing you would do! Be that way forever, and no one will give you a hard time!

RAVEN EYES

You have Raven Eyes!
Positive Traits: Intellectual, Wise, Experienced, Honest, Trustworthy
Negative Traits: Pompous, Condescending, Withdrawn, Pessimistic, Depressed


http://quizilla.com/users/LadyTigerEyes/quizzes/Your%20eyes%20are%20the%20windows%20to%20your%20soul.%20What%20type%20of%20eyes%20do%20you%20have%3F

PALADIN

You are the Paladin, the ultimate warrior for God. The Paladin represents all that is good in the world. Paladins fight evil at all costs. They do not care for material pleasures of this world. They have sworn their lives away to protecting the innocent, avenging the victims of cruel murders, and chasing after those who deserve their punishments. The Paladin will do anything to fulfill their duties. They will even sacrifice themselves to save another.

Color: White
Animal: Dove
Gem: Diamond
Symbol: Sword

Image: http://www.deviantart.com/view/14400235/
http://quizilla.com/users/LadyTigerEyes/quizzes/Who%20would%20you%20be%20if%20you%20were%20a%20character%20in%20an%20epic%20fantasy%3F%20(beautiful%20pictures)/

Steven got to play goalie this afternoon. I warned him that he shouldn't play so well, or they will stick him with it all of the time.  He only let in one goal, and that was from this huge kick from way back at midfield. That one would have been very difficult for anyone to stop.

Came home, we had pizza , and I baked some chocolate chip cookies. I am still doing more laundry, too!

Bill took his ACT test this morning, and he feels pretty good about how he did. So I think he did pretty well, other than any possible "silly mistakes" he might have made. Going by his practice exams, it sounds as if he scored in the high twenties or low thirties. I took him out to lunch to celebrate. We went to the Olive Garden, and had soup, salad, and breadsticks. It really hit the spot.  Especially the soup.

I decided not to plant more flowers today. Yesterday was glorious and sunny -- the perfect fall day, in fact. Today is cold and cloudy, and it looks like it might start raining at any moment. So I have been working on housework all morning, especially laundry.  That needs to be done, as well. I got so far behind in the laundry when I stripped all of the beds at once, and have gotten even further behind from going out of town last weekend. So I am probably doing more loads (due to having a septic tank) than I should today to try to catch up a little bit.

Steven is off in Ann Arbor today with his best friend. They are playing in a Nintendo tournament at the library. This is the second time they have done that, and they have a lot of fun. When he gets home, it will be time for him to go play soccer. That is going to be cold, and I hope the rain stays away until the game is over!

I am about to go digging in my closet and get out some of my Halloween decorations! YAY!! I love Halloween!