U2 Postmortem

Many of these pics came from other people, whom I do not personally know. If, for any reason, you feel I am violating your copyright, please let me know, and I will remove them. I have only used them because they appear as public domain on other websites, and I would like my friends to share in my experience.

OK, after a few days I have had a bit of time to process the events of September 25. After looking at a few fan sites and receiving a few blog notes, I am better able to add details. The fact is that the U2 concert was one huge HIGH!!! So, here goes the follow up.

Standing in the rain for Bono and Edge's autograph was AWESOME!!! Yes, we were that close!

The concert was terrific!!! Bono recognizing the new peace accord in Ireland was awesome, as was his donning the COEXIST headband.'

He pulled a young girl up on stage and hugged her throughout "With or Without You". Wish it was me.

Bono grabbed a spotlight toward the end and flashed the audience - that was so cool.

The tribute to American troops was nice, although cloaked in peace talk, which I feel a lot of us can understand.

The Edge was ON!!!! He played wonderfully and the "dance" he and Bono carried out during "Wild Horses" was terrific. That is one of my favorite songs! This particular picture is where Bono asks the audience for a minute since he has apparently forgotten the words. (The crowd knew them though).

Adam and Larry were also EXCELLENT! This band could not survive without the two silent ones in the background. Although I wish Larry would cut his hair like the spiky punk he used to wear; that was so hot. Adam is so cool in gray! But, when Adam left Larry alone on stage at the end of "40", I knew it was over. The last drumline was all too familiar...

Regrets - "Bad" and "Running to Stand Still", which are my all-time favorites (but I did hear them in Chicago)...so, until next time.....

U2 in Milwaukee - Happy Birthday to Me!!!

My friend Kaaryn and I bought tickets for the Milwaukee U2 concert this past May after attending the show in Chicago. In Chicago we had behind the stage, very last row seats but had a great time. For the Milwaukee show we took the risk of General Floor Admission and BOY WAS IT WORTH IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We left Kaaryn's house around 10:30 and arrived at her sister Addye's house in Milwakee just in time for a little bit of lunch. Kaaryn's parents were also there. Addye was nice enough to have bought this absolutely delicious chicken salad. We visited for a bit and then headed downtown to the Bradley Center. It was pouring rain so we bought new umbrella's at the Hyatt gift shop. Then, we hiked down to the line of people standing in the rain. Everyone was waiting to watch the band arrive, and U2 did shortly after. They arrived in black SUVs with a driver. Bono and Edge were in the first two vehicles, and Adam and Larry arrived in the third. We waited for a bit but figured they weren't coming out to shake hands due to the rain. So, after asking everyone what the black numbers on their hands meant (line number for GA Admission) we walked off to try to get a number. Well, we heard people screaming and ran back to find Bono and Edge had come out to shake hands despite the rain!

Well, I had purchased sharpie markers as a joke, but they came in handy! Bono shook my hand (he is short), and I asked if he would sign my shirt, which is the Vertigo concert t-shirt I bought in May. He was very nice but said, "Sorry darling, I am not signing anything today." I thanked him anyway. Afterall, I did shake his hand so I guess that was good enough. Well, I hear Kaaryn yelling my name. So, I turn around and she is screaming, "Bono signed my shirt"! I was ticked! So, I was play kicking her in the shins, etc. Turns out, she screamed to Bono that her cousin is Joe Sadler, which he is. Joe Sadler co-founded a clothing company calle Coexist, of which Bono is a huge fan. So, Kaaryn not only received a "God Bless You" from Bono, he signed her shirt without her even asking!

Edge came around the line as well. Edge is known for signing everything so I asked him to sign my shirt, and he more than willingly obliged. No, its not Bono, but Edge is the lead guitar of this band, which would have fallen apart without his wonderful musical talent. Some people at the concert didn't believe they signed our shirts, especially Bono, but the signature is characteristically his - trust me. And, I was there when Edge signed mine so if you don't believe me then, "phbbbt"! (Of course we had forgotten the camera in the car, but if we had had the camera this probably wouldn't have happened!) So, I am happy with that. We are going to have our shirts framed with tickets, etc. That's Kaaryn holding both our shirts!

After all that excitement we grabbed a few beers at a bar across the street and had a snack. I was given a free beer since it was going to be my birthday the next day (today as of this entry). Then, we went to stand in the general admission line in the rain. We waited for about an hour and a half before the line started moving. We met a few cool people in line, two of which bought us a drink inside. We had to leave the umbrellas at the door though so so much for new umbrellas!

Once inside we ordered a black and tan, which they serve on tap and found our place on the floor. We were really close to the stage, and everyone was very friendly. We even met two young athletes. One from Iceland and the other from Brazil (no kidding). We also ran in to one of the guys we met in the bar who was asking advice on how to keep a girlfriend. The opening act was called Dashboard Confessional, and they were a bit grungy for me but did a fine job.

After U2 came on we danced and sang and shouted for two hours straight! We did not leave the arena even once due to fear of losing our spot. We didn't need to though. We had stopped drinking water or beer long before U2 even came on stage. Plus, about half-way through we were so soaked in sweat that we were literally dripping all over the place! At one point Bono talked about how September 25 is the 29th birthday of the band, to which of course I started yelling, "it's my birthday too"! One of the best parts of the concert was when Bono forgot the lyrics to "Wild Horses". He laughed at himself and asked for a minute, but the crowd kept singing! This was the best concert I have EVER been to!The setlist was not as good as the Chicago show, but we had a better time because we had better "seats". For those of you who know U2, here is the setlist.

Main Set: City of Blinding Lights, Vertigo, Elevation, The Electric Co., The Ocean, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, Beautiful Day - Many Rivers to Cross, Miracle Drug, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own, Love and Peace or Else, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet the Blue Sky, Miss Sarajevo, Pride, Where the Streets Have No Name, One - Ol' Man River
Encore(s): The First Time, Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, With or Without You, All Because of You, Yahweh, 40

WHAT A BIRTHDAY PRESENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Final Product

My students finished their Pantheon models on Friday. Tuesday we will carry them down to the Learning Center where they will be only display for two weeks. This project was really a challenge for some, but I think they did a wonderful job considering their materials were posterboard, newspaper, masking tape, glue and paint. They also had to write a brief description of the Pantheon's purpose and architectural characteristics, which will be displayed alongside their model.

Hurricane Rita

My sister, Donna, and her family live in Austin, Texas. Right now they are prepping to leave for vacation in Florida (of all places!). Unfortunately, a lot of "spin-off" from Rita can be expected their way. I told her tonight that she can't control nature, and we would rather have the house in her pool with the family gone than the house in the pool with the family home. Who would have thought all the Colter girls (born and raised in Illinois, or Bunch, - ha, ha) would live in hurricane danger zones? P.S. I have tried and tried to upload images of trajectory, etc. of this storm and blogspot gets stuck....so here are the URLs for anyone interested...
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/refresh/graphics_at3+shtml/205648.shtml?3day
and http://www.enchantedlearning.com/usa/states/texas/map.GIF

The Pantheon

Today we started building models of the Roman Pantheon, a temple dedicated to all the gods. The Pantheon was built under Emperor Hadrian and is one of the most famous buildings in the world. Many buildings in the United States are modeled after this building.

Red Red Wine

The kids and I went to a local restaurant, Costas, with our friends and neighbors The Heglund family last night. The adults split a nice bottle of Chianti over our meal. Costa's serve Italian and American food. It was packed last night since there was a local homecoming dance. So, there were a lot of teenagers there dressed up like there is no tomorrow (we were all in jeans). The poor waitresses were running like chickens around the restaurant trying to make sure everyone had what they needed. Our waitress was so overwhelmed. She brought out our salads before she had even brought our drinks. My meal came out lukewarm, which I can't stand, so I asked her to heat it and she was gone for 10 minutes. No kidding! The food was good though. I love their bruschetta, which the waitress pronounced as brushetta. Just so you know it is really pronounced brusketta - just to clear that up the "sch" is a hard -k sound not a soft -sh sound.

I invited Bill and Julie in for more wine after dinner, and we ended up finishing off another 3 bottles of various reds from our wine rack!!! I need to head up to World Market to restock soon. We talked until 2 am about this, that and the other. It was a very nice evening with them. Next time we do something like that I hope Brian will be with us as he would really have enjoyed it.

Oualie's origin

I just found this:

Prior to the Columbus saga, Nevis was named Dulcina "Sweet Island" by the Arawaks and later Oualie "land of beautiful waters" by the Caribs.

I miss Oualie!

Football Games and Yahoo IM

I had to chaperone the football game tonight. It is a part of my extra-curricular supervisions that I have to do each year. The game was Hononegah at Harlem. These two schools are located in neighboring towns and the rivalry is fierce. The sophomore team won and the jury is still out on the varsity game.

I came home to chat with Brian and managed to for a little while. But he blew me off after a bit to go to some student's birthday party. So, here I am crying in my beer, surfing the net, and basically feeling sorry for myself.

EDIT 10:18 : Brian ended up not going to the party because a torrential downpour came through...so, we chatted back and forth on IM for a bit longer. Still feel a bit sorry for myself though. Varsity football team won 18-20.

Romulus and Remus

We started a unit on Ancient Rome today. The assignment was to make a 6-panel story and/or cartoon about the founding of Rome. The students really like this assignment because they get to re-word the legend (as long as it's school appropriate) and draw pictures. Typically, my students are pretty talented artists. For those of you who don't know the story it goes like this (more or less).

Mars, the God of War, and Rhea (a vestal virgin) had twins named Romulus and Remus. Rhea's father, Numitor, was king. Numitor's brother, Amulius, overthrew his brother and forced Rhea to become a vestal virgin so she would not have any more heirs. Then, he took the babies and threw them in to the Tiber River (that's in Italy).

The babies washed ashore where they were found by a she-wolf who suckled them. Later, a shepherd (Fastulus, I believe) found them and raised them. When they were older, Romulus and Remus discovered who they really were, killed their great-uncle and restored their grandfather to the throne.

Later, the twins decided to build a city of their own, but they argued over its location. They finally settled on Palatine Hill, where the she-wolf had found them. When it came time to decide who would rule the city, they argued again. But this time Romulus killed his twin brother Remus and became king of the city the brothers founded. This city was called Rome, which is named for Romulus. Romulus ruled Rome for 40 years.

The Limeys

Nolan's dance went well last night. He seemed to have really enjoyed himself. Today was his first soccer game. The team named themselves "The Limeys" because their shirts are lime green. He played very very well. He had a few shots on goal, a few headers, and some nice steals. Unfortunately, the team lost on a penalty shot but overall played quite well considering they have only had 6 practices!
After the game we picked up Micha's best friend, Kylie, for a sleepover. Then, we ran to Rockford for a little shopping and lunch. The girls had a blast messing with the digital camera on the way home. We were invited down to the Heglund's for a few drinks. Julie even brought out a globe so I could show her where Nevis is.....hahahaha.....it looks like a microscopic blue dot!!!

Nolan's First Dance

I dropped Nolan off tonight at the Stone Quarry Park for his first middle school dance. He was so excited to go. Me, not so much. I sent him off with Brian's cell phone...just in case. He didn't ask anyone; he just planned on meeting friends. So we went through the whole pre-dance thing....take a shower, brush your hair, put on deodorant, brush your teeth, etc. We will see how it goes. I pick him up at 10:00.

The Sty in My Eye....

...is much better. It is really amazing what a few rounds of good old antibiotics will do. I am expecting that by the weekend I may be able to wear my contacts again! We are fine here. Nolan is adjusting (not sure how well) to middle school. Seems like a lot of that pre-teen teasing is kicking in and some kids are just plain a-holes. Otherwise, soccer is a bit rougher this year since he is in an older age group, so Nolan is really having to step up his effort. He comes home from practice really tired. Michaila is really enjoying science and math this year since Mr. Bradford is a very fun teacher. She doesn't mention her other teachers at all so I need to ask about those subjects. Other than that she has been talking my ear off! Brian seems to be getting along well on Nevis so far. Apparently the MUA pool still looks like swamp water - ick!

Our grandfather (well, Brian's, but its been 15 years, so I think of Gramps as my own) is in the hospital right now. He has some pretty severe blockage in two arteries and a decent size aortic anuerism. So, the cardiac docs are doing tests to be sure what's what. Gramps is otherwise in pretty good shape for 86 (87 in October) so the docs are pretty optimistic that they can repair what they need to. This will be a few stressful days for my in-laws since I am sure they are just downright sick of hospitals right now, and since George is an only child they have a lot of responsibility there. So, please keep Gramps in your thoughts and prayers (and George and Shirley too).

When everything goes wrong.....

Have you ever noticed that when things go wrong, they go wrong all at once? Well, as you know Brian was stuck in San Juan last night. Then, the kid's toilet gets plugged up, and I cannot get it plunged! Plus, you can't use Drano or anything on a toilet because it will break the toilet. So, I am up there scooping "water" out of the toilet and trying to get it to flush to no avail. So, I dumped some bleach in there to lessen the stench until I could get to the store for possibly something that can be used on a toilet. So, this morning, I wake up bright and early for work and my right eye is swollen shut. I thought I scratched it or was getting a small sty, but it looked like I got smacked in the face with a "Weasley Punching Telescope". If you don't know what that is, you had better start reading Harry Potter. Anyway, I am trying to get the swelling down and I manage to be able to open my eye at least after a nice hot shower, but I still look like crap. So, reluctantly I call in for a substitute. I hate having subs for things like this; it just screws up your schedule! (Not to mention uses a sick day!)

So, after the kids get on the bus for school I head up to the immediate care clinic, which is a 30 minute drive. I take my number and am called up to the check-in desk after 30 minutes! Then, I wait another 20 to be called back. The nurse does all the regular intake stuff (I really need to lose a few pounds!) and wait for another 10 minutes for the doctor who spends probably an entire 2 minutes with me. Seriously, I took off my glasses and all he said was, "You have a sty in your eye". So, he writes two prescriptions, since the infection is obviously spreading if my eye looks like I have been punched, and sends me on my way. Then, I drive the whole 30 minutes back to Byron and drop off the prescriptions and am told it will be at least 30 minutes to have them filled since they are backed up from Labor Day. I run to the hardware store and they have nothing for the toilet that wouldn't make it explode so.......

I drive home to print some stuff for work, manage to unplug the toilet (finally) with the plunger, and then head back to the store to pick up a few groceries while I wait for my medicines. Oh, I forgot, I also failed to send in the property tax check on time, so I had to pay the county an extra $30.00! (I managed to get that in the mail today). Plus, being a woman when all this stuff is happening really sucks too, if you know what I mean.

On the plus side, I was able to take Cleo for a walk and lift some weights, although it is hard to see out of my right eye since I am trying to look through eye ointment. Hopefully tomorrow I can wake up with a little less swelling so my students don't ask if Brian has been hitting me. (Which we all know that if he did hit me, I would knock him out!)

I don't want to land in no San Juan airport...J.B.

I just heard from Brian. His flight to Miami was fine. But, the plane from Miami to San Juan was delayed for nearly two hours so he and 20 other students missed the plane to Nevis. American Airlines is putting them up in the hotel airport and giving them food vouchers. He is tired, but in pretty good spirits considering. I told him that life is a J.B. song line....he lauged real hard at that. Anyway, for all of you on Nevis, please take care of him for me.....

Buffett at Wrigley

We took a bus to Chicago for the first ever concert held in Wrigley Field. The gals who organized the trip did a really nice job. They had a trivia game about J.B. and Wrigley Field. We won a few door prizes from that and had to sit on our hands after awhile because we knew all the answers. Brian even threw in a question. Let's see if you get it....On what island is Domino College? If you said Nevis you would be right and probably only knew that because you know us. The prize was $5 (EC of course). Brian and Micha managed to make me a few Carib beer cap necklaces and earrings, which got a lot of comments and compliments from people. They also had upside down margaritas before people got off the bus. (That's Sharon doing one in the picture.) Jimmy Buffett played all the favorites and then some others. Our seats were on the field, which made Brian about as happy as one major Cub fan can possibly be. I found out later that he managed to scoop some of the infield dirt into an envelope without getting caught. Sharon snuck in a disposable camera too so when Buffett sang a song out in the bleachers she got a picture of him sitting underneath the scoreboard! The only bad thing that happened is I left behind a new Illini sweatshirt along with my concert shirt. Of course when I went back to check both were gone. But overall we had a really nice time. We got back to Byron about midnight. Brian grabbed about an hours sleep, woke the kids to say goodbye and then was off to the bus station for his trip to O'Hare. So far I know his flight to Miami is on time, so we will see from there. We have had a pretty tearful morning so far though.

Roomba

My sister-in-law has a Roomba that she let us borrow to try it out. If you don't know what that is, it's a robotic vacuum cleaner. You can set up virtual walls to keep it in a contained area. Then, turn it on and let it go. We did the entire downstairs last night. It did a pretty good job too. So, I have a 20% off coupon for Bed Bath and Beyond that I am going to use to buy one. That way, I can go to work and come home to a swept house!

Katrina

The devastation of Katrina is overwhelming. We have traveled so many miles and worried for a long time, and yet a hurricane of this magnitude has hit families all over the Gulf Coast and spared us as we lived in the Caribbean. Some of those terribly affected are families of our friends. We pray that they are okay and that they may return to their homes soon.

And yet, more tropical disturbances loom in the Atlantic as I write this. I will keep tracking these storms, as it has become an almost second nature for me. And I hope that all those I love and have come to love are safe. Brian leaves Monday.