We Can Shape but Can't Control

My Dallas adventures with Liz could mostly be summarized with the words food, drink, and movies.  We made homemade chicken alfredo; we ate at cute cafes; we snuck M&Ms into a movie theater so we could have our classic popcorn with M&M snack; I had a delicious Jamba Juice smoothie.  We drank coffee every morning and afternoon from either Liz's apartment or an assortment of coffee shops; we drank wine at night, which funnily enough, is not good in combination with Nyquil.  When you almost fall asleep to the hilarious Bridesmaids, something is wrong.  We watched a quadrillion movies and TV shows late into every night.  I made her watch Doctor Who, and she made me watch Friday Night Lights.  We went to see My Week with Marilyn on Sunday afternoon.

Of course my favorite thing was talking to Liz.  She is so encouraging and hilarious, and a wonderful friend.  She also likes to educate me musically, so nearly every hour she would appear with her laptop and say, "Okay, this is my favorite song by So And So.  Listen to the words!"  I would listen, and inevitably gasp at some profound lyric (like Mumford & Sons' "Hold on to what you believe in the light when the darkness has robbed you of all your sight") and she would jump around in excitement at my revelation.

The musical education started before I ever got to Dallas.  Liz wanted to see the band Seryn (for the fifth time, I later found out), but I had never heard them.  I bought the CD to study up, and liked them a lot.  But I'm not familiar with concerts.  So when we got to this little club at 8:00 p.m. and stood for half an hour amongst a couple hundred other people while no music was being played, I got kind of peeved.

Seryn wasn't even first to perform.  First there was some slob guy who I immediately judged.  And then took it all back when he started singing.  OH MAN he was so good.  Just a guy and his guitar, singing honestly about doubts and failures and desires.  He had this lidded eyes that looked almost lazy, but were also entrancing.  Seriously, I think he cast a spell on the place.  We were riveted for the whole hour he sang.  Also he was hilarious, deadpanning one-liners in between songs.  I definitely had a crush on him by the end of his set.

After him another band came on, but I was very not into them.  I couldn't understand the singer, and I was tired of standing.  I counted each song and guessed how many more there'd be before Seryn.  However, when they were done, it took another half hour before Seryn was all set up.  Which makes sense, because each of the five band members play at least four or five instruments, often all in the same song.

Seryn came on around 11:00, and the next hour blew my head off.  THEY ARE SO GOOD.  Each one of them is a fantastic musician, and together they make the most beautiful and haunting music.  They had some technical difficulties with mic static, and the girl quipped, "We'll probably use that as an instrument in our next album."  It's funny because it's true.  They were all the most adorable people, and after they finished, we begged for an encore.  It was already midnight, but they agreed, and basically just had a jam session where they made stuff up on the spot and sounded awesome.  I'm in love with them, and now I understand why Liz has gone to see them five times.

I met a bunch of Liz's friends.  One of them came with us to Seryn's concert.  A couple days later we went to her house for a party, and I met about twenty more people while playing Apples to Apples.  On Saturday we ate at a Turkish restaurant with a girl who went to FPO with Liz. 

And of course, we rang in 2012 together!  That was the night of our homemade meal and fancy wine.  We stopped Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day at 11:56 and ran to the roof of her apartment complex to watch fireworks explode over the Dallas skyline.

It was a pretty rad weekend.  I want to fly to Texas all the time.