karenor | well...here i go

ok, shall i start from the beginning? i guess. realize this will be entirely based on memory...

So it's Friday the 13th, and I begin my morn by packing up me car and schlepping to San Diego. I'm wear my Toad shirt because I feel oddly disloyal going to San Diego to see Tori when Toad is playing there the same night. I don't remember when I left exactly, but I got to my hotel about noonish, after getting briefly lost. I called my mom told her i was alive, then set out for the venue, wanting to get there as early as possible so as to sell my extra ticket, due to jessica's bailing on me. Easier said than done. UCSD is a HUGE campus....ridiculously so. It took me some 20 minutes to find the venue once on campus and then another hour or so to figure out how to get to it and where to park. but i finally did after the parking info booth thingy opened. The first ppl i see thankfully are danni and jessica (different one) and some girl they are with, walking back to the cars. It was like 1:30 or so now. They point me towards the m&g gathering, which i still get lost on the way to, but find my way more or less. I go up, say hi to Dor, announce that i have a ticket, and go sit down towards the end of the pseudoline. I talk to the ppl arround a little bit, but not much. i'm not so good at selling tickets. Danni and Jessica and Chris come back, and we sit and be silly for a while. Danni is someone I've known since Jr. High, but we go thru long periods of not talking at all, and i hadn't seen him since the tori shows in l.a. last november, but whenever we get together, it's like no time has passed. anyway...it's another hour before jessica gets fed up with my weak attempts at selling my ticket and yells at the top of her lungs "does anyone need a ticket!" and i'm not kidding when the girl right next to us turns around and says "i do". she had been there the whole time i was, and surely would have heard us before, but whatever. i sold it for face, losing money, of course. She introduced herself to me (we were supposed to be sitting together, but she didn't sit there, she moved up) and for the life of me i can't remember her name, but i saw her at all the remaining shows. Alright, so the m&g rush to the barricades begins, and i hang back, not wanting to be crushed or really to stand for that long. Also it was really cold. So i sit on a short wall for about two hours while they are all in the m&g melee. Bored out of my mind, but whatever. i thought about looking for something to sign to give to danni, who was in front, but didn't have anything. i took my ever present pink golf ball out of my purse (do not ask) and thought she could sign that, but it was dirty, so i didn't do it. When Tori came out, i kinda stood at the back and got a coupla pictures (tried to anyway, don't knwo if they came out), but i did see her a little. but at this point, i was basically huddling for warmth it was so cold out. and i love hearing tori speak in person. it's weird. anyhoo...so that was over, and danni and jessica and chris emerge. it's dark now and we're all starving, so we attempt to find food around this vortex that is ucsd. we get to a mcdonalds, which i knew was a bad idea, but whatever. we eat, chris goes and buys a 4 or 6 pack of little wine bottles (i'm pretty sure she was an alcoholic, but danni and jessica had just met her that day, so i don't know). and anyway, this thing is way to detailed and boring. so i'll cut to the chase. we get into the venue, which is very crappy. a mini arena with these rickety bleacher stairs. my seat is ok, 13th row or so, center. i sit up close for howie day, who i love. when the sage starts it is extremely over powering do to the fact that there was no backstage, just a thin curtain. i was glad that it wasn't like that every time, cuz really it was nauseating. i won't go thru every song, cuz i can't really remember, but it being my first show in a year, the regular songs were still fresh and generally not boring, and tori seemed quite jazzed and energetic. didn't she have a few days off or something? i don't recall. here was the set:

Wampum Prayer
a sorta fairytale
Precious Things
Little Amsterdam
Sugar
Lust
Sweet Sangria
Waitress
Wednesday

Band leaves

Abbey Road (only a portion of it, which went right into...)
China
Famous Blue Raincoat
Carbon

Band returns

Josephine
Juarez
Scarlet's Walk
Cornflake Girl
Crucify
I Can't See New York
Spring Haze

1st Encore

Taxi Ride
Virginia
Hey Jupiter

2nd Encore

A Case Of You (solo)
Concertina
Your Cloud
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i believe this was the only show i heard scarlet's walk and virginia at, and they are my favorite songs off the album, so that was great. a case of you also has a special place in my heart. i only wished she hadn't ended with Your Cloud, as i HATE that song, and it left a bad taste in my mouth. i was surprised and pleased to hear a close to album version of waitress too. i hadn't read any setlists except the first to florida shows, so i was entirely suprised by everything.

so that was that, i did not get lost on the way back to hotel...and despite the fact that it was weird staying alone, it was an adventure...all went ok, and i slept well. in the morning i failed to find the free continental breakfast and went hungry again, not allowing myself to stop till i got to barstow (about 2 hours from vegas)...but i'll save vegas for the next post, cuz i'm tired right now. ;)