Berbati's Pan, Embassy Suites, Hair and Nordstrom

That's Andrea with Gary the Merch guy.

4:30 am came very quickly for us two moms. Thankfully, John had taken the Cooper-shift during the night, and I got about 4 hours of sleep. Racing to North Bend to pick up my sister, I had the chance to sit back and begin to relax as I rolled along in the fog and darkness before dawn. I could only hope that everything we had planned for Portland would come together. John had remarked when I asked if he had a map, "It's not having a map that's the problem. It's how to read it." With that ringing in my ears, I MapQuested the daylights out of Portland, figuring I could not have too many maps to offset any problems getting into, around and out of the the city without the help of a husband. Six hours later and we were out of our state and into Oregon.
It all turned out perfectly, despite the craziness of the city. Our hotel was perfect, we enjoyed our girlie time at the salon, ran off and spent a bundle at Nordstrom (Not on jeans, though! I figured it was time to get more makeup when one of the youth at work told me I looked like I hadn't slept in two months...and he's the one doing crack and crime, not me!) enjoyed chatting with Anthony at Berbati's, who let us in early, and thoroughly enjoyed our time at the show. Coming off the Kenny show at Qwest, you can really appreciate what being back up at the stage affords you instead of looking down from the rafters of a stadium. I'm almost to the point that I'm equally amused and enterntained by the people we meet and chat with as the show itself. We didn't meet the artist, but we met a person associated with him, felt assaulted by PETA protesters and anti-war protesters, stared at the hideous Halloween costumes slinking around the night alleys and enjoyed the antics within the venue by too drunk men losing themselves to Eric's music. What a night it was! And as we stumbled our exhausted bodies through a throng of Jack Sparrows and Bloodied Zombies, then across the street to our hotel room, I pondered just when will he make another Northwest run so I can do this all again.