My First Two on Tuesday (c'mon, everybody's doing it...)

Okay, this is my first attempt at Blogging Mama Andrea's Two on Tuesday, which I've considered doing in the past, but this week my total lack of interesting events in my life made it the perfect week to start. So, here is the 411 from Andrea:

It's time for another addition of Two on Tuesday! This week's theme is music so I hope everyone will participate. If you're not familiar with ToT here's what we do. On Tuesday I post two questions, two thoughts, two of something.

On with today's Two -

#1 What song (or lyrics from a song) best describes your life? It can be something that fits your mood right now or just a song you like as well. Make sure to tell me why it fits you!

The song that immediately came to mind after reading Andrea's question was Galileo by the Indigo Girls. This is not necessarily my life theme song, but it is one that I've been coming back to again and again since B's suicide.

Galileo by Emily Saliers

Galileo's head was on the block
The crime was looking up for truth
And as the bombshells of my daily fears explode
I try to trace them to my youth

And then you had to bring up reincarnation
Over a couple of beers the other night
And now I'm serving time for mistakes
Made by another in another lifetime

How long till my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of Galileo
King of night vision, king of insight

And then I think about my fear of motion
Which I never could explain
Some other fool across the ocean years ago
Must have crashed his little airplane

How long till my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach that kind of light
I call on the resting soul of Galileo
King of night vision, king of insight

I'm not making a joke, you know me
I take everything so seriously
If we wait for the time till all souls get it right
Then at least I know there'll be no nuclear annihilation
In my lifetime I'm still not right

I offer thanks to those before me
That's all I've got to say
cause maybe you squandered big bucks in your lifetime
Now I have to pay
But then again it feels like some sort of inspiration
To let the next life off the hook
But she'll say look what I had to overcome from my last life
I think I'll write a book

How long till my soul gets it right
Can any human being ever reach the highest light
Except for Galileo God rest his soul
(except for the resting soul of Galileo)
King of night vision, king of insight

How long
(till my soul gets it right)
[til we reach the highest light]
How long
(till my soul gets it right)
[til we reach the highest light]
How long

I guess that I'm just really hoping that his soul will get another chance to reach that highest light. If I try to say much more I'll end up in tears, and really, the lyrics say everything that needs saying.

#2 What's the best concert you've ever been to? What made it memorable? If you've never been to a concert tell me what group you'd like to see.


The best concert I've ever been to was blues legend Buddy Guy at the Atlanta Botanical Garden. It was actually the last concert that JR and I went to before becoming parents, although at the time we didn't know it! More on that later...

The Botanical Garden is obviously a gorgeous place to do just about anything, but a concert under the stars, with the lights of the Midtown skyline behind the stage was really something special. [Also, you can buy wine by the bottle, which goes a long way toward creating a memorable concert experience.]

JR and I love the blues, and Buddy Guy is one of our favorites. He has such great energy and humor that he brings to his performances. When the crowd is rocking, and singing along he grins like the Cheshire Cat and it's just so infectious!

This particular evening was in early June, and over 1,000 miles away, our son was 3 days old. I believe that he was still in the hospital, although he might have gone home with his foster family by then. The timeline of his life before he joined our family is somewhat sketchy for me.

I remember so clearly waiting at the gate in the Atlanta heat so that we could get a good spot on the lawn (we did, 4th row center) and then sitting on a blanket with JR as we sipped Pinot Grigio and watched the first stars light up the evening sky. I remember feeling so excited because our homestudy was nearly complete and the chance to become parents was so close. I remember wishing on the very first star of the evening that my baby would find his or her way into my arms.

And then the show started and Buddy Guy swept me away with his music, his showmanship, and his sense of presence. He just seems to always be truly in the moment.

Two weeks later, a phone call changed our life. We traveled to that city over 1,000 miles away and found our son waiting for us, along with the life I had wished so hard for on that sultry June night.