August 23, 2003 -

getting out of berwick was the difficult part, making our way down route 80 to 46 to 31 to 78 to 287 to the parkway and finally to the venue was cake. somehow the stars were aligned perfectly for free tickets. we had mangaged to get ourselves seven. yeah three of them were given to me whilst on the phone with england. maybe it was the combination of listening to the shirelles, velvet underground, and wanda jackson as i cleaned my dad's house this morning. then to hear about suds and allison reunited, and her making friends with beth "the sexiest woman alive" ditto was all too much. mama said they'll be days like this.

tori turned forty today, well yesterday to be accurate. so of course if she is playing a concert in my home state i need to be there. and oh i called out the reserves for this one. beth rachel elaine and i scrambled in joy down to the second and third rows of the pnc bank arts center for one of the best tori shows eva. we got some spicy, in the springtime of his voodoo, some sad "baker baker," some visceral "professional widow" and most age and time related "landslide" "mary" "sugar" "take to the sky" "rattlesnakes" "tear in yr hand" "tombigbee" "jackies strength" "cornflake girl" "god" "past the mission" plus a few new tunes "a sotra fairytale" "sweet sangria" "yr cloud" "amber waves" "i cant see new york" "wednesday" and more i cant recall.. beth was all smiles and then all tears through her devirgining. rachel and elaine became entangled in cancer jokes and noodles. the fortunes said it all. but the highlight of the show was US singing happy birthday to tori. first we sang the beatles version and ben folds played the ivories. then we sang the traditional version and tori thanked us and blew out all candles on three cakes! we also got a few improvs about morning sex on yr forieth birthday and tash growing up! they'll be days like this my mama said.