"You've Just Got to Say It's Alright"

 Thursday - April 18, 2013

Well, it has not been an "Ordinary Day" (or two days).  I'm back from a highly sustaining and ultra-fun blitz trip up to Arlington / DC!  Months ago in the fall, Catherine suggested that we reprise our Great Big Sea concert-going tradition and I - naturally - hesitated.  Who knew where I would be when 4/17/13 finally rolled around?  Best bet (and hope at the time) was that I would be in the midst of a successful Bone Marrow Transplant at Johns Hopkins, would have avoided the perils of graft versus host disease, and would have rebuilt my immune system enough that I could have risked the germs and crowds to enjoy Goin Up with a classic Great Big Sea kitchen party!

Instead, the red letter day has now come and gone and I am not in the grips of cancer treatment.  Instead, I am blissfully up and about, able to enjoy a sojourn on that familiar Rock Spring bench overlooking the swing set, reminiscing with fabulous friends and delighting in the pure joy that is embodied by toddlers at play (I do love me some preschoolers!).

It was a full and fantastic day  :)
Lunch with Anna, Diane, Rokia, and Eileen!
Martha surprising me outside the orthodontist office (yup, that's another story)!
Meeting Eddie and seeing Nicole!
Walking with Catherine underneath Arlington's blossom-arced streets!
A delicious (and decadent) Gahres meal!
And THEN it was time for the Warner with Catherine, Elizabeth, and friend...!
... Where we ran into the Gibsons!

A truly great show.  Two full sets without a warm-up act, stretching three hours.  It may indeed have rivaled the 2002 concert at the 9:30 Club with Megan, Elizabeth Conlan, and Jonathan in his Canada hockey jersey all up in the balcony overlooking the stage.  As Alan said that epic St. Patrick's Day 11 years ago and again last night, they played "all the hits"  - even some songs from their debut album that I had never before heard live (and that's saying a lot).  I felt buoyed, grateful, happy, and UP!


With my prayers and thoughts on a hospital room in Norfolk, this morning I played Great Big Sea all the way south on 95:

"In this beautiful life, there's always some sorrow.
It's a double-edged knife, but there's always tomorrow.
It's up to you now if you sink or swim, Keep the faith and your ship will come in....
It's just an ordinary day and it's all your state of mind
At the end of the day you've just got to say it's alright."