Earth Wind & Fire

Every once in while my good friend Devin, who covers concerts & does CD reviews for a couple of Charleston newspapers, treats me to a show.  He asked me the other night if I would like to go see Earth Wind & Fire at the North Charleston Coliseum.  Um, YEAH!  I was super excited to see them.  I think they are one of those legendary acts that you should really see before you (or them!) die!  Devin told me that he saw them last year at the Dock Street Theater.  Wow.  I can't even imagine seeing such a dynamic, bigger than life band in such a tiny venue!

For the first part of the show I sat by myself while Devin was up front taking photos of the bands.  I always enjoy people watching at large events and this one did not disappoint.  It was such a bizarre mix of people!  I wasn't really enjoying the opening band and I was starving since I went home and changed clothes and went directly to the coliseum - no time to eat!  I decided to get a hot dog and a soda.  Our whole row was practically empty so it wasn't a problem getting in and out.  Loved that!  In between acts I spent my time playing Words With Friends and surfing Facebook.  I get so aggravated at the short battery life of my phone.  grrr! 

A couple songs into the main show I was joined by Devin.  I was so amazed by the energy of Earth Wind & Fire!  The original three members are in their 60's and they didn't stop moving from the beginning of the show to the end!  They had a large screen in back of the stage and they would occasionally play old 70's videos of the band singing the same song they were playing.  I thought that was really cool.  They played all their hits and the crowd was going crazy.  There were these people directly in front of us that were completely entertaining to me.  I can't remember what song it was but this one woman practically fell out when they started playing it.  She threw herself back, collapsed in her chair and flailed her arms about in total pleasure.  Devin leaned over to me and said "This is her jam!"  Oh my god!  I almost peed it was so funny!

I took a couple of pics with my phone.  I would have brought my Canon but Robin spitefully kept it.  Not sure why since she has her own camera and isn't interested in photography.  She claims I "gave" it to her but why would I give my partner my camera that I had before I even met her??  When you are in a relationship don't you "use" your partner's stuff and if you break up you give it back?  Yeah, that's what I thought too.

 

Yeah, it was taken with my EVO.  Crappy quality, I know!

Earth Wind & Fire bokeh.  I found this amusing.

You can find Devin's review here!

Overheated

My doctor put me on a higher dose of Synthroid last week.  This is not going to work well with the extreme heat in Charleston!  I was hoping that my levels would be normal this time around but she said they are still elevated.  After I had my thyroidectomy my level was 11.  When she gave me a higher dose it brought it down to 3.5.  Apparently I'm supposed to be at level 1.  This medicine is of the devil!  It makes me so hot.  Some of the side effects are hot flashes and excessive sweating... they weren't lying! 

The hot flashes and sweating started the Summer after my surgery.  It's not like a normal sweat.  I can feel it coming on.  I get flushed and my body temperature rises and then it's totally out of control.  It's not like a sweaty "I just worked out" sweat.  I always say "my elbows are sweating!" when it happens because sweat will be literally dripping from may elbows like a leaky faucet.  Beads of sweat cover my entire body.  It can be 60 degrees outside and I can have a sweat attack.  It's so unpleasant.

Saturday I went out with my friend Ashley to take some photos.  We went to Pon Pon Chapel, Donnelly Wildlife Management Area, to the Avondale murals, the Sheepman murals and then for a long walk downtown.  It was so hot outside and I looked like a hot mess when we were ready to go home!  I decided that there is no way I can date in the Summer because people will think I'm some crazy excessive sweater!!  Not attractive!!

We also went to The Early Bird Diner in West Ashley which was once featured on Diner's Drive In's and Dives on Food TV.  I have been there several times and always get the chicken and waffles, which are delicious.  This time I decided to try something different and opted for the meatloaf with spicy chipotle glaze.  The meatloaf comes with two sides so I got macaroni and cheese and collards.  I'm always so hesitant with meatloaf - you never know what you are going to get.  I was so intrigued by "spicy chipotle glaze" that I decided to go for it.  omg!!  I was not disappointed in the least.  It was delicious!  There were two pieces of meatloaf that were topped by some of the best onion rings I have ever had.  I think they were made with sweet vidalia onions.  Sooo good!  The mac n' cheese was fantastic.  I sprinkled the collards with pepper vinegar and they were out of this world!  It's definitely my new favorite!  I wish I had the recipe!!

 

 

 

Time

For the past couple of weeks the weather has been so rainy and cloudy.  I'm the first to admit that I love a nap while the rain beats on the roof, but I am over it.  Today the sky was blue, full of huge white clouds and so beautiful!

Finally!

I left work early for an appointment in West Ashley and on the way home I remembered that I still had to take my photo for the June Photo-A-Day challenge.  Today's theme was "Time" and I thought throughout the day of what I could do to represent the theme.  As I drove home I remembered there was this big clock in the old section of North Charleston - perfect!

It was just about 5pm and as always traffic on the I-526 was horrible!  BUT, the day was gorgeous and for the first time in a long time I felt good!  It was nice to be able to enjoy some sunshine on a weekday! 

WWFM IX

 

Little by little the Charleston geocaching community is growing!  Finally!

Yesterday was the 9th annual World Wide Flash Mob which was the brainchild of Sonny and Sandy of the Podcacher Podcast.  My friend Mike (gundark2000) bravely organized and hosted the event.  We went back and forth on the Charleston Geocachers Facebook page about what kind of flash mob we wanted to have and we finally settled on the theme of "Bubbles in the Park."

I really wanted the WWFM to be my 600th geocaching milestone.  I only needed 3 more caches to reach my goal and Mike only needed 3 more to reach 300.  We met at White Point Garden on the tip of the Charleston peninsula at 11am so we had a bit of time to cache before setting up for the event.

I really didn't think out my wardrobe very well.  If you think that each cache has to be at least 500 feet apart and the fact that might not even find one and have to move on to another... well, flip-flops aren't really suited for that much walking.  There was no way we could drive to the caches either.  The Spoleto Festival was happening and traffic downtown was crazy!

We started off in the park and I got a cache that Mike already had then we took off to the other side of the park to find one I've searched for before.  We looked for a while with no luck.  When we checked the last couple of logs there were several DNF's (did not find) l logged.  We decided to move on.

As we were walking I started feeling one of those weird sweating episodes building up.  Ever since my thyroidectomy I get these bouts of becoming totally overheated.  It can be 60 degrees out and all of the sudden I will just start pouring sweat (but it's more like water!) from my glands.  My skin gets cold and clammy and it's absolutely uncontrollable.  I never know when it's going to happen and this was one of those times where I wanted to avoid it because it can totally ruin the day!  That on top of wearing flip-flops I bailed out. I told Mike that I was about to fall out.  He was walking so fast and I knew how much more we would be walking!  I told him to go ahead and I would meet him back at the park.

I had a prime parking spot right on the Battery at the site for the WWFM IX and went to cool off in the air conditioning of my Jeep.  Once I cooled down I moved to the wall of the Confederate Defenders of Charleston monument and sat there for an hour or so.  There was a really nice breeze coming off of the harbor and the temperature was perfect.  I sat and watched and listened to the tourists come and go.  That's always a fun thing to do.  I like hearing them talk about Charleston and the beauty and history of the city.  There are a lot of misinformed tourists running around the city.  It takes every ounce of effort to not jump in their conversation and take them on a tour!  I was really wishing I had my Nook and a blanket with me.  It was the perfect day to relax in the park and read.  Instead I did some Facebook surfing on my phone and played Words With Friends and Solitaire to pass the time.

Around 12:40 Mike came back after running around South of Broad and said there were so many muggles in the area that he had no luck finding any caches.  I was so thankful I didn't go with him!!

Mike grabbed the WWFM IX supplies out of his car and came to my Jeep where we finished creating the swag bags for the event - the rules, logs and the official WWFM IX "meal" which was a bite size Laffy Taffy!  I think the normal "meal" is chocolate but Charleston is way too hot to be toting chocolate around!

As 1pm drew closer we could see more and more people hanging out around the area.  At 1pm Mike put the buckets down at ground zero and chaos ensued!  Everyone grabbed their bags, filled out the logs and started blowing bubbles.  I was the photographer for the event so I was running around trying to take photos.  We had such a great turnout!  Mike would call out the cues for everyone... first was to eat the "meal" and next was the raffle.  I won a Pathtag!

 

 

  

 
The final part of the event was the official photo.  I soooo wasn't prepared when Mike called out for the group photo!!  I hurried and put the camera on the tripod and moved the setting to wireless remote but I didn't have time to set the lighting or anything.  I had 50 people staring at me and waving to the camera - ack!  I tried to run up to take the photo with the remote and it didn't work.  Then, I tried to use the timer and that didn't work.  I finally just took the photo of everyone else!  Mike ran down to take a picture of me with the group but for some reason the photo didn't take.  Oh well, the story of my life!

 

After the event a couple of us hung out and chatted for a bit.  I love meeting new cachers and I love how the community is finally coming together!  Hopefully the word will spread in the area about caching because the more new members we have the more new caches will be placed! We even had several people come from out of town for the event!  So cool!


I told Mike that the next Summer WWFM we have should be at Waterfront Park.  We can all bring beach wear, our floats, beach balls and we can all wear floaties and play in the fountain.  He looked at me like I was crazy!  We shall see!