C is for Chicago

Posted on April 3, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Day three of the A to Z challenge brings us to the letter “C” and if you guessed Chicago yesterday, you were correct! First a side note to you my faithful followers. In profiling these groups I am not really going to give a history of the band or anything like that. I know during the A to Z some folks can write volumes about their specific topic and that’s wonderful but I also know that not everyone has time to read the whole thing, especially during the heart of the month so I’ve chosen to keep it simple and merely write about the show that I went to and tell the story mostly with pictures and videos I took from that show. The histories, if you are interested, can usually be found on the Internet somewhere.

Now for Chicago. I’ve mentioned that I won the tickets to this concert from a local radio station, no longer in business sadly. As you can imagine, the seats were not very close but the concert bug bit me anyway. I have scrapbooked that first show but the pictures are pretty bad because not only were we far away but my camera at the time was not the best. Still, it’s the memories, right? I can’t quite figure out what my husband was pointing to in that picture. My scrapbooking has evolved from those first pages as well.

I didn’t even get a setlist from that show and we didn’t take a selfie together. Honestly, Huey Lewis was the opening act and we thought he was better than they were. He came out and sang a few songs with them and that was the best part of the show. We actually left before the end. Not too many times we’ve done that. I think we really missed Peter Cetera’s voice.

In 2021 we were excited to get back into the concert scene after having to stay at home through the pandemic year of 2020. Since it was a shortened season at the Mountain Winery there were fewer options for us to choose from and we decided to give Chicago another try. We were significantly closer this time and it turned out to be a really good show. Their lead singer is still not Peter Cetera but he did a passable job and we enjoyed it much more than the first time. They played two sets with an intermission in between.

We decided to see them again last year and we weren’t as thrilled. We didn’t get up and leave early but it definitely made us realize we probably won’t pay to see them again. It may have had to do with the song selection. They were playing two consecutive nights and it seemed to us that they played a lot of songs that we didn’t know, which in reality is not surprising given the extent of their musical catalog. Still, it’s not as much fun when you can’t sing along!

Here’s a video from the 2021 show, part of “Just You And Me,” one of my personal favorites.

Show #1

  • Date: 6/9/2006
  • Venue: Concord Pavilion, Concord CA
  • Artist/Tour: Chicago
  • Setlist:
  •  ?

Show #2

  • Date: 9/5/2021
  • Venue: Mountain Winery, Saratoga CA
  • Artist/Tour: Chicago
  • Setlist:
  • Questions 67 & 68
  • Dialogue
  • Wake Up Sunshine
  • Call on Me
  • I’ve Been Searchin’ So Long
  • Mongonucleosis
  • If You Leave Me Now
  • Look Away
  • Make Me Smile
  • So Much to. Say, So Much to Give
  • Anxiety’s Moment
  • West Virginia Fantasies
  • Color My World
  • To Be Free
  • Now More Than Ever
  • Alive Again
  • Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?
  • Old Days
  • Hard Habit to Break
  • You’re The Inspiration
  • Beginnings.
  • I’m A Man
  • Just You ‘n’ Me
  • Hard To Say I’m Sorry/Get Away
  • Saturday In the Park
  • Feelin’ Stronger Every Day
  • Free
  • 25 or 6 to 4

Show #3

  • Date: 8/29/2023
  • Venue: Mountain Winery, Saratoga, CA
  • Artist/Tour: Chicago
  • Setlist: ?

I’m really kind of winging it this year. Although I had the bands in mind for each letter and did a draft with the titles, I haven’t added the pictures or written the stories yet. So far I’m able to keep up. Maybe this weekend I’ll try and get a little ahead. It means I haven’t had a chance to check out any new bloggers yet either but I promise I will! Any guesses for who my “D” will be? Hope to see you tomorrow.

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B is for Berlin

Posted on April 2, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Welcome back to day two of the A to Z Challenge where I attempt to go through the concerts we’ve seen. As I mentioned, we’ve been to close to 150 concerts, mostly since the year 2006 when I won tickets to see Chicago through a local radio station. As you can imagine, it is getting harder and harder to see “new” bands given that my musical preference is for the groups from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. Also, since we’ve been to so many shows, a lot of performers we’ve seen more than once. This abecedarium is about folks we either have not seen before OR that I didn’t write about the last two times I used this theme.

For the letter B I’m writing about the group Berlin. Honestly, the only song I thought I knew was “Take My Breath Away,” from the movie Top Gun. Once they started singing, a couple others sounded familiar. I am not sure if I’d have paid to see them on their own but happily they were the opening act for Pat Benatar and Neil Geraldo, who we have seen lots of times.

It is always fun going to the Mountain Winery and this was no exception. Terri Nunn looked great and I loved her outfit! I’m all about the sparkles you know.

Wish it was a better quality but here’s “Take My Breath Away.” Another reason we like the Winery so much as a concert venue is that it is so intimate. Terri came down into the audience and walked around connecting with the crowd on a more personal level. If you see a guy with long white hair following her, that is Miles, one of the event staff. My husband has made friends with him, especially since his first name is our last name. Enjoy.

As I do when I’m scrapbooking, for each of the shows I’ll include the details:

  • Date: August 30, 2022
  • Venue: Mountain Winery, Saratoga, CA
  • Artist/Tour: Berlin
  • Setlist:
  • Masquerade
  • The Metro
  • Touch
  • Animal
  • No More Words
  • Dancing in Berlin
  • Take My Breath Away
  • She Sells Sanctuary
  • Sex (I’m a…)

Pat Benatar put on a good show as well, just so you know. And that’s a wrap for the letter B. I may have given a hint as to who I’m using for the letter C. Can you guess? Make sure to check in on some of the other great bloggers doing this A to Z challenge!

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A is for Bryan Adams

Posted on April 1, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Hello folks. We are off on our alphabet adventure every day for the month of April, not including Sundays. If you’re new here, welcome. As I mentioned in my Theme reveal, this is my 9th year participating in this abecedarium. Once again I am going to merge my two favorite things, concert going and scrapbooking. Some of the shows I haven’t been able to scrapbook yet because we have been to so many and I am quite behind. The first time I did this theme for the A to Z I didn’t finish on time because I wanted to scrapbook each concert before I posted it and that put a lot of pressure on me. The second time I scrapbooked one or two pages for each one but that left me with a lot of unfinished concerts to work on and I don’t like that either. This time I’m not going to worry if the shows are not in the scrapbooks yet. I have pictures and videos and that will work.

Okay, enough chatter. Up first is Bryan Adams. He has always been a favorite of mine but we hadn’t seen him live before so I was excited when I saw he was coming to the SAP Center. We got tickets on the floor and I thought they were pretty good but about a week before the show I happened to see that there were a bunch of tickets closer for the same price. I contacted Ticketmaster because for some shows if you find better seats closer you can make an exchange. This is where we ended up.

As a scrapbooker one of the things that makes me sad is that most of the time tickets are sent electronically and are on your phone. That means I have no ticket to use in my album. For Bryan Adams, there was a commemorative ticket issued! The problem is the ticket was for our original seats. Still, you can see how much closer we got, from row 29 to row 9!

While waiting for the show to start we try to take a selfie. It is all for the scrapbook, you know? This was the “So Happy It Hurts” tour. All of a sudden a car started floating across the auditorium. There were no strings attached and at first I couldn’t figure out how they were making it float. Then off in the corner I could see a guy with a remote control. You can see him if you look quickly at the beginning of the video right before I zoom in.

When the car got back behind the stage it was time to start the show. Bryan and the guys came right out and started off with “Kick Ass,” which got us all up on our feet where we remained most of the night. At 64 he still has lots of energy and really seems to love what he is doing. He is a very personable guy and had a lot of stories to tell about the songs and went through most of his hits.

At one point he looked through the crowd and there was a woman with a sign that said she wanted to sing with him. He got down from the stage and went into the audience and sang with her. She wasn’t bad actually. Then he asked for song requests. A few folks shouted out some tunes and he sang them. The band sang a total of 29 songs for us and it was really a great show. Better because we were so close!

As I do when I’m scrapbooking, for each of the shows I’ll include the details:

  • Date: January 26, 2024
  • Venue: SAP Center, San Jose, California
  • Artist/Tour: Bryan Adams/So Happy It Hurts Tour
  • Setlist:
  • Kick Ass
  • Can’t Stop This Thing We Started
  • Somebody
  • 18 til I Die
  • Please Forgive Me
  • Shine a Light
  • Room Service
  • Heaven
  • Go Down Rockin’
  • It’s Only Love/The Best (Tina Turner tribute)
  • You Belong to Me
  • I’ve Been Looking for You
  • The Only Thing That Looks Good on Me is You
  • I Will Always Return
  • Here I Am
  • Thought I’d Died and Gone to Heaven
  • (Everything I Do) I Do It for You
  • Back To You
  • So Happy It Hurts
  • Run to You
  • Summer of ’69
  • What if There Were No Sides at All
  • When You’re Gone (with the fan)
  • Lonely Nights (fan request)
  • Cloud Number Nine (fan request)
  • Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman (fan request)
  • Cuts Like a Knife
  • Encore:
  • Straight From the Heart
  • All For Love (Bryan Adams, Rod Stewart, Sting cover)

I’ll leave you now with one of my favorites from the evening.

Hope you enjoyed the Bryan Adams Concert. Come by tomorrow and see which performer fills the letter B. Make sure to stop by some of the other folks who are also going through A to Z Challenge this year. You never know what you’ll learn!

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Marching On – 2024

Posted on March 27, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

My daughter is moving to Idaho and won’t be around for Mother’s Day so she asked if I would like to do something special with just the two of us. I remembered when I did the A to Z of San Francisco that there was the Wax Museum at Fisherman’s Wharf so I suggested that we visit that and then either wander Pier 39 or go up to Ghirardelli Square. She was game for that so I got discounted tickets through AAA (if you have that auto insurance, be sure to check your benefits too!)

We were surprised that there was no one else there on a Sunday afternoon but it was a nice day out so maybe everyone wanted to be outside. We didn’t mind as it allowed us to take our time going through. My daughter was taken aback a little bit by how real some of the wax figures looked. Here are a few of my favorites. Recognize them? I almost thought there was a real Steven Spielberg when I turned the corner and saw him there. Morgan Freeman’s eyes seemed to follow us as we walked around.

Some of them were not quite so convincing, in our opinion. Really disappointed in the Elvis and even Clint didn’t quite make it. Robert Pattinson was a complete fail as far as we were concerned.

There was an option for a photo tour where the museum will take your picture with different “celebrities” and I’m glad we didn’t pay the extra because since there was no one around, we could take our own. Was so excited to meet President Biden and VP Harris – LOL. When I stood next to Alfred, the sounds from the Psycho shower scene started playing. Freaked us out! George was very nice and the bike ride with ET was fun too.

After we toured the museum we walked up to Ghirardelli Square and walked around before coming back down to have lunch. I had to take some pictures of the sock store because my son always had fun socks to wear. When at the wharf you have to have some sort of fish so we had delicious crab sandwiches and shared a salad.

After eating we went to the “Worlds Largest Candy Department Store” and got some treats for the rest of the family.

There were definitely some old time favorites but a few that I wouldn’t touch with a 10 foot pole! It is always fun to see the street performers too. We caught this clown juggling with a bunch of bubbles floating around.

We never made it to Pier 39 but that’s okay. It was a great day to spend some time with my oldest daughter before she makes her way to Idaho. Just so happened to be my birthday too so it was even more special.

Just a few days until the A to Z starts on Monday, April 1. Am I ready? No but since when did that stop me? What have you been up to? If you are doing the A to Z are you ready?

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Marching On

Posted on March 20, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

It is getting closer and closer to the big A to Z and I feel like I have to get started with blogging on a regular basis in order to get the momentum going.

Hearing a lot lately from the big orange guy about putting people in camps, I happened to walk past the Tanforan Memorial to the Japanese who were held there during World War II.

Tanforan was initially a racetrack from 1899 to 1964. In 1971 a shopping mall was built on the site. But during the war from April to October 1942 it was the detention center for almost 8000 people of Japanese descent. They called it the Assembly Center but I’m pretty sure that’s just the government trying to put a pretty name on it. Internment camp is what it was.

Nestled in the triangle between the shopping mall, the police station and the BART station is the Tanforan Memorial. I’ve passed by it a few times when we take BART to the city but hadn’t ever really stopped to look at it before. Today I had the chance to do that.

On the ground in the middle of the area are plaques from some of the different families who were held there. A few of the plaques are from sponsors of the memorial.

In the corner is a wooden stall, similar to the horse stalls that the families were forced to live in.

Around the perimeter are huge plaques with the names of the 7984 people who were detained during those months.

I remember the racetrack vaguely. We moved to San Bruno in 1957 when I was almost 2. It burned down in 1964. I remember them building the mall and did most of my shopping there until recently. Since COVID it has turned into a ghost town with lots of stores never reopening. It is now on the chopping block and will be converted into a “mega campus for biotech and technological firms” whatever that means. I’ll be sorry to lose my Barnes and Noble and Target, which are the two main stores left. I’m glad I don’t remember the “Assembly Center” but I am happy they built the memorial to honor those Japanese Americans who had to stay there. We must not forget those injustices.

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Blogging From A to Z 2024 – Theme Reveal

Posted on March 10, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Very soon we will be starting that annual journey through the alphabet as guided by the team founded by Arlee Bird. The A to Z Challenge is a month-long event with hundreds of participants sharing their various insights on a whole host of interesting topics. This will be my 9th year participating. I have done the challenge with a few different themes, some of them centering around my scrapbooking and crafting passion and some of them regarding the concerts we have seen. If you want to see what the other eight years were about, here are the links to the reflection posts:

2016 – Music – https://asmile4ufromjanet.blogspot.com/2016/05/in-marry-month-of-may-2016.html – A general discussion of music, instruments, etc.

2017 – Concerts Scrapbooked – https://scr4pl80.com/2017/05/08/a-to-z-challenge-reflection/ Combining my scrapbooking passion with the concerts we had been to.

2018 – Michaels – https://scr4pl80.com/2018/05/07/blogging-from-a-to-z-2018-reflections/ I worked at Michaels Arts and Craft stores for about 6 months and this was a trip through the aisles there.

2019 – Paper Crafting – https://scr4pl80.com/2019/05/06/a-to-z-challenge-2019-10th-anniversary-reflection/ General paper crafting and card making supplies and examples.

2020 – Concerts Scrapbooked – https://scr4pl80.com/2020/05/04/a-to-z-challenge-2020-reflections/ Another set of the concerts we had been to, mostly scrapbooked.

2021 – San Francisco – https://scr4pl80.com/2021/05/03/a-to-z-2021-reflection/ Traveling through the streets of San Francisco.

2022 – Dating – https://scr4pl80.com/2022/05/05/a-to-z-reflection-2022/ The art of dating through the alphabet.

2023 – Illuminate SF – https://scr4pl80.com/2023/05/01/a-to-z-2023-reflection/ Another trip through San Francisco, this time looking at the Illuminate SF sculptures and light shows.

So what to do for this year? I decided that I could make one more trip through the concerts we’ve attended. Since we first started going to shows in 2006 on a fairly regular basis we’ve been to over 140 shows. During that time we’ve seen several bands a number of times with the most frequent ones being Foreigner at 11, Pat Benatar 9 times and Journey 7. It is getting harder and harder to see new bands but we have seen a couple in the last year so I figured I could get one more abecedarium out of it. As with the other years, I will use some song titles to help fill in the letters but I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch.

I do have some of the concerts already in my scrapbooks but I decided not to stress myself out this year and if they are not done, I’m going to write about them anyway. I still have the pictures and in some cases videos so that’s going to have to do.

I hope you come along with me this year. Please also check out the other participants. It’s going to be a fun month.

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Fleeting February – 2024

Posted on February 23, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Blink your eye and it will be March! Almost time for our A to Z. I am so not as ready this year as I was last year but if I modify my theme just slightly I think I’ll be okay.

Today, though, we’re going to talk about intention setting. If you know me you know that I pay great attention to the full moon and other “signs” from the Universe. I have listened to coaches like Jamie Ridler, Andrea Schroeder and Liz Lamoreux among others and taken some of their courses. I firmly believe that if you put it out there, Someone listens. Every morning I write my positive affirmations like this:

Obviously there are days that I get money and there are days that I make an Etsy sale. There are also days that I get transcription work to do. It is a rare day that I get the trifecta. Today was that day! We got a rebate check from Costco for using the card to get gas and other things, I got an email for a transcription project that will go through March and into April and I made an Etsy sale!

Days like today confirm my belief that intention setting really does work. Now if I can just get the “I am at my goal weight” and “I have thick luxurious hair” to come true!!!

How about you guys? Do you set intentions? Ever have a trifecta day? Will you be joining in the A to Z this year?

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JusJoJan24 – 01/14/2024

Posted on January 14, 2024 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

The prompt for today’s JusJoJan24 is “writing,” something I haven’t been doing very much here! Thanks to Joanne for suggesting it. Side note, JoAnne is my sister’s name.

Back to writing, this is the first post for me this year. Half a month gone already! It is amazing.

To update, we had a fun New Year’s Eve. We went to our friend’s house for a small gathering. It was supposed to be a “geriatric” party and we were going to watch the ball drop at 9 PM so that we could all go home before it got too late. Most of the party did leave (even though our host had the TV on the wrong channel and we didn’t actually get to see the ball drop at 9 New York time – LOL). However, a few of us stayed until midnight and watched the ball drop “for real.” We haven’t been out on New Year’s Eve for many years and it was nice.

I did also make my annual Vision Cards, writing on the back of each my goals for the year. It is my “resolution” system. I figure if I get one thing accomplished in each category during the year I’ve fulfilled my goals. Much less stress this way. Here are this year’s cards:

I have been using the same 6 categories for several years now. It seems to work best for me to cover the areas of my life I most want to work on. We’ll do a check in around June to see if I’ve actually been able to accomplish anything. LOL.

Coming up I have another pop-up craft show next weekend. This time I have Valentine’s Day items…

…and I’ve also been working on a new set of cards. These are hidden reveal cards where you pull the tab up and a message appears:

Here is what it looks like:

They are already up in my Etsy shop in case you are looking for something unique.

And last but not least, we have our first concert coming up, Bryan Adams. We have not seen him in person before so it should be fun. Dave Stewart from the Eurythmics is the opening act. Haven’t seen him yet either.

So that was a little bit of writing plus some pictures. What have you been up to so far this year?ā€‚

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Decidedly December 2023

Posted on December 23, 2023 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

Well, here’s to another year just about gone. I don’t know where my blogging spirit went. I don’t know where anything went actually. I do some end of year reflecting and one of the questions was “What was amazing this year?” I couldn’t think of anything amazing that happened during the year. I mean, there were some cool things. My A to Z lights adventure was interesting, our concerts were good, our trip to Las Vegas was fun, but nothing hit me as an OMG THAT’S AMAZING moment. How about you? Anything amazing for you this year?

I haven’t posted since October I see. I’ll give you a quick recap of the last couple of months.

We had our 50th high school reunion and it turned out very well. We figure that over the course of three days we managed to see about 100 or so different classmates. We are thinking of having a birthday party for us all when we turn 70 in two years!

I caught the full moon as I do, but I need a new camera because mine broke and I had to use my husband’s and I don’t like it as much as my old one.

I fell going UP the escalator in Barnes and Nobel because it was broken and I had just gotten new bifocals so I wasn’t used to the line. I got a big bruise on my thigh but you don’t want to see that.

I made some new things for the Holiday Boutiques I was doing. I had a total of 4 of them over the course of about 3 weeks. Didn’t do as well as I hoped but at least I made the table fees at all of them. You can find these goodies in my Etsy shop now too!

I have a pair of slippers that have sparkles on them and when I stand in the reflection of the light coming in from the window it does a light show on the wall. You should see it when I move!

We went to see my idol, Stevie Nicks, as our final concert of the year. She never disappoints. Did you hear they made a new Barbie doll in her likeness?

Caught the sunset from my front porch. It is amazing what the sky looks like some times.

Last but not least, our little Christmas tree. It is the smallest one we’ve had since the year of the Charlie Brown tree when I was the only one home. I just wasn’t into doing all the work it takes to put up a big one and decorate the whole house.ā€‚Maybe next year.

This will probably be the final post from me this year. I’m still going to make my vision cards for next year but probably won’t post about them until then. I hope that you all have a wonderful holiday season with your family and friends and here’s to a prosperous New Year for us all.ā€‚Appreciate you for stopping by!

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October Offerings

Posted on October 18, 2023 by scr4pl80 (Scrap Lady)

What’s happening to this year?? I swear I just turned the page on September and now over half of October is gone too! Let’s see what I’ve been up to…

We started the month with our last concert of the year at the Mountain Winery, John Waite and Pat Benatar. Fun night for these old folks.

Then the whole family got dressed up fancy and went to a wedding. Our son was one of the groomsmen. I danced.

I made a baby album for a customer and then I added some holiday items to my Etsy shop, including some glow in the dark Halloween cards.

And we had one last planning meeting before our 50th! high school reunion coming up this weekend. Sheesh!

Sometimes I think we’ve had more fun planning the reunion than we will have at the actual event – LOL. We are doing a three day weekend with a Friday night mixer at a local bar, Saturday dinner and then picnic on Sunday. It worked really well for our 40th so we just repeated it. Definitely going to need to rest next week! What have you been up to?

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