Congratulate me – I made it to 9:15 before making a face about the annoying music. (The song was “Hey Santa” by the Wilson Sisters).

Only 19 days to go!

In other news, yes, I *DID* sing along to Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)” when that came on. I’m not a total grinch

Leonard is in his mid-70s. He is not a young man. And, well, I’ve tortured most of you with listening to my Leonard Cohen CDs with me, so you may recall that even the early stuff from the ’60s had a froggy voice. So.

He played last night for 3 freaking hours. OMFG. I wish I could put into words the three hours of joy we experienced. All the great songs (that no one but me cares about ) – Suzanne, So Long Marianne, Bird on the Wire, Hallelujah. My beloved Eagles can suck it, by the way, with their 3 encores topped off with Desperado. Leonard left the stage and – surprise! – came back for an encore that lasted at least 5 songs and 30 minutes. The last song was Closing Time (from his 1991 album The Future – and my first Leonard Cohen exposure).

But wait! It wasn’t the last song – although with that title, it was apropos. The last song:  I Tried To Leave You (from one of the older albums).

The night blew my mind – I went into the venue with exactly zero expectations. I didn’t read the fan forums (YES there is one ) to check out the set list or anything. If the witty asides, jokes and cartwheels (from the backup singers – YES, female backup singers, love it!) were part of every show (like when Glen Frey calls “Take it to the Limit” the ‘credit card song’), I do not know. Or care.

Basically, he could have walked out, performed the current Top 40 or his favorite Lady GaGa song and I would have been totally cool with it. But that’s not what he did. He sang, he recited a little spoken word poetry (just a tiny bit), he let his band shine (did I mention they all wore hats?? YES, hats!).

In the end, it was the realization of an almost 20 year dream. Been there, have the t-shirt. (Two, actually. A tour t-shirt and one that just says “Beautiful Losers”).

(And I take back what I said about the ticket prices – apparently we got a crazy bargain because identical tickets for the show later this week would have been $534 for two…WOW).

Did Lindsey Buckingham lose a bet or something?

1) Devastating, as in “The last thirty minutes of Atonement were devastating” or “OMG, the ending of that Carly Simon song was devastating.” If I knew how to blog via text message, I would have used both of these sentences already. Apparently, everything is devastating. That probably means something, but I don’t know what.

2) Fuckery, a word I used a day or two ago to describe Gene’s un-raise. Here is a not-safe-for-work sentence using this word: “If that biotch at work doesn’t stop that personal phone call fuckery, I will throw a stapler at her.” You can thank Dlisted.com for that – lately, the guy who runs the site hasn’t been able to write three straight posts without using it.

Anyway.

One of my favorite things was when the Muzak would play “It’s My Party” and then “It’s Judy’s Turn to Cry.” Those songs are amazing! You really feel the narrator’s heartache in “It’s My Party” and then her triumph in “It’s Judy’s Turn to Cry”. I was trying to explain this to Stefania (old boss) a few weeks ago, how glad I am that Judy, that bitch!, got dumped right back. I mean, Johnny clearly is a loser not worth either girl, but that doesn’t mean that Judy deserves her.

(Don’t mind me, I’ve been meaning to get that one off my chest).

(Apologies for the announcer at the beginning. This is REM’s acoustic performance of Half a World Away from Unplugged. It’s not their best song, but it is definitely their prettiest).

I hope all is well with all of you.

Wooh. Boy did you all dodge a bullet! So instead of cashing my paycheck and grabbing the necessities and driving…somewhere… instead I’m in a rental car (Murano’s at the body shop – loooooong story) in Staples parking lot. I need to get back to work but – newsflash – I don’t want to.

The good news at work is that Muzak loves me. While yes, there is a fuck ton of Xmas music at work right now, it’s not every song being played and while my beloved Eagles version of “Please Come Home For Christmas” is not on the play list, Darlene Love’s “Christmas (Baby Please Come Home),” a song that I feel is too, too sublime, is played at least once a day.

Then again, her equally sublime version of “White Christmas” is also not being played, which is good. If I had to listen to her sing that verse about “It is December 24th and I am longing to be up north” (don’t have time to get the quote right, you get the point), I might be forced to puncture both eardrums or run away to Indiana after all.