Well, it’s now been two days since I’ve last visited my keyboard. It’s great to be back. Lots has happened, mainly my trip to NYC to see the mistress of folk, Ani Difranco. The trip started under horrible circumstances. First of all, up until the morning of the show, it was unclear as to whether I’d have a ticket or not. My uncle had gone out to find me one and I was very grateful for that. As the night progressed I was less and less grateful due to what felt like the babysitting job I was doing but we’ll get to that. Ok, so the concert was Sunday night and as of Saturday night I hadn’t heard from my younger cousin who was supposed to go with me. Turns out she was at the Dave Mathews Band concert all night. I, knowing she wouldn’t have prepared any plans, looked up driving directions and train schedules that night, just in case. So, Sunday morning rolls around and I wake up early knowing that I have a 3½ hour drive a head of me to Connecticut and a 2½ hour train ride from there to NYC. As I look out my window I can see some of the darkest storm clouds I’ve ever seen begin to roll into our area. This isn’t good, especially for an outdoor event. Anyway, I get ready and wait for my cousin to call, which she does around 10. I head over to her house to get her and ask if she has any idea how to get there and for driving information (I’m playing dumb). She doesn’t have any and assumes that I know my way into Manhattan. She had assumed I was going to drive the 6 hours into the city, magically find somewhere to park and then drive home. I was fairly mad at this point but chose not to voice my opinion, knowing we had to get on the road. So, off we went into what I’ve now come to learn was the tail end of a tropical storm. This makes driving so much fun. I don’t think I got the car above 40 the entire way down. That of course makes a 3 ½ hour trip into 5. Half way down Connecticut I say “forget this” and pull off the highway into New Haven, CT. I’ve been to New Haven before and know that there is a Amtrak stop there. I tell my cousin that we’re taking the train because I was no longer willing to drive. She then informs me that she doesn’t have any money for a train ticket. Yippee. Matt’s extremely happy with her at this point (sarcasm). So, after buying two round trip tickets, we’re on the train to NYC. At this point its 3:30 and so we get there around 5:30. We then walk the 32 (!) blocks from Grand Central Station to Central Park. We get there around 6:15, grab some water from a street vendor and wait for the show to start. The opening band came on around 7 and was absolutely horrible. They were almost painful to listen to. It was basically very bad spoken word poems about racism and how he, the proud black man, had been oppressed all his life only all set to very bad bass and piano jazz. Racism is one of the worst things on the planet and I’ve always been against it in any form, but the things this guys was saying made him sound like a racist himself, anti-white this, anti-white that. It was very insulting actually. Thankfully he left the stage after only a very “songs”, if that’s what you’d like to call them. After a brief stage equipment change Ani came on. To say that she rocked the place would be an understatement. Now, I’ve been to a few Ani Difranco shows in my time. Usually they fall into two categories. Either they are 95% her and her alone, playing all her old and more famous tunes, or it’s her and her band playing funked out versions of her new stuff. This concert was both. She played all her famous old tunes, plus my favorite tracks off the new albums. It was a great show. Afterwards, we walked back along 5th avenue toward Grand Central, caught the 11:15 back to New Haven and got to the car around 1:30. At which point, my cousin decides not to remain awake and goes quickly to sleep. Leaving me to talk to myself and sing along to the radio in order to stay awake. So, I quickly threw in CD after CD and sung along to keep myself going as I drove home. Pulling into my drive-way some time around 4 and after dropping my cousin off, I started to notice the horizon getting lighter and lighter. I’ve only been up at 4am a very times, and this was one of the least pleasent. None the less, I had seen an awesome show but I just wish I didn’t have to drive so far to see it. Needless to say I was very tired (still am) and fell right asleep. Before I did I managed to loose my cell phone somewhere between the house and the inside of the car. I had it in the car on the way home, I know because I made a call from it. And I thought I brought it in. I guess it’s here somewhere, but that can be a project for tomorrow. A nice game of “find the missing cell phone”. At any rate, I had a good time, but I’m defiantly not going to anymore shows with my cousin. Later.