Pinch me.

It's been an utterly nutty few weeks. Shortly after my bout with the flu I got strep throat with a virus chaser. I feel like I have spent the majority of 2011 either sick or getting over being sick. I am done. I am just now getting back to normal and I never knew normal felt so good! I even went to get my hair cut and colored (thank you Lisa!) and it felt like my own mini version of Spring!

Anyways, I have a question for everyone. Do any of you have a "People I want to see before I die" list? Like musicians? 'Cause I have a had a list like that for years and have been slowly chipping away at it. Well, I am down to one person on my list. And he was probably the one I would most want to see of my whole list, but also the most inaccessible. He rarely plays, certainly never in the states. I just resigned myself to it not happening. WELL. He is here in Austin for SXSW. The thing about South by is that it's new bands mainly. It's not like your big week end festivals that are cram packed with big name bands. This is a week of getting to see new, up-and-coming music, a chance to say "I saw them when" kind of thing, a way to discover and be discovered. So it's not the place to cross names off of your "before I die" list. And the way I found out that this person (who I have loved since I was 14) would be at South by was totally random, happenstance. Just last Saturday I heard one of his songs playing behind a commercial for an upcoming episode of a tv show. I said to Tom, "I don't know that song. He doesn't have anything new out does he?" Tom says, "I don't know, let me look" and he pulls up the computer and a couple of minutes later says, "He is going to be playing here on Friday" to which I said "Shut Up, you're lying" to which he said, "Seriously, he's playing South by". It was surreal. Like if I hadn't seen that commercial I might not have know he was in town and I would have heard later "Did you see so-n-so when he was here?" and I would have said "NO!, I didn't know he was here!" and I would have fallen over and died. Anyway, I did find out and he is playing tomorrow and I am getting there like six hours early just in case. And no, I am not telling you who it is until it's over because I am being ridiculously superstitious and I don't want to jinx anything. I'm still scared it's not real. I know I sound like a complete nut job. I really am not normally like this. I don't get all worked up about famous people at all. But like I said, I have loved this man, his music, for 25 years. When it's all said and done I will happily report back and if I am really lucky I will have photos.

So my loooooong story was leading to this: who is on your "before I die" list? I would love to know who other people hold dear, musically speaking. Share your list with me and I will throw your names in a hat and send you a surprise bit of jewelry. How's that for fun?? Don't forget to add your email address so I can let you know if you won. Have fun.