∆∆∆ we live in the flicker tonight ∆∆∆

Friday night was a big night.

After the party started to subdue itself a bit (or when we realized how late it was getting) Jared and I cut out from the restaurant in Newberg and returned north to Portland to meet up with The Camaraderie. 

Sadly, this meant a quick change out of our fancy clothes, but let's face it - much as I love getting dressed up, throwing on jeans and Fryes feels pretty good. So we suited down and rushed off to The Hawthorne for... Wait for it...

(I may be watching too much How I Met Your Mother) 

Sundowner

Back when I first met the original Indy Kid, one of the first things he did was teach me what good music was. The first three CDs he burned me were:

Chuck Ragan - Feast or Famine

Tim Barry - Rivanna Junction

Sundowner - Four One Five Two

And now, four years later, we've seen all of those guys live right here in Portland.

And better yet, I've shared those shows not just with him, but with the people who have populated every story and every experience that music has been the soundtrack to.

All these nights, all these shows, all these memories I have of us  - these are those days you guys. 

These are those days and nights that create the lives we look back on and smile. The nights spent in grubby theaters, cold beers in our hands, brothers and sisters in our arms... My God. Could it be that I am actually this lucky?

No.

Because there's no such thing as luck here. 

I am not lucky.

Oh, but I am so blessed.

I'm not sure I'll remember everything about that night forever. 

I may not always remember what kind of beer we drank (PBR, Rainier and Olympia), there's a good chance I won't remember exactly what Dean said that made us all want to slap him (it won't really matter, you just kinda always want to slap the guy for some reason), and even now, just days later, I probably couldn't tell you the full setlist.

But here's what I will definitely remember:

How happy I was. 

How truly, purely happy I was to be there with some of the people I love most in the world, wrapped in each other's arms, howling our favorite songs into the rafters of yet another old theater in the city we call home.

Oh, yes. We are lucky blessed.

// My favorite part of this is not hearing this song straight from Chris McCaughan's lips, but hearing it screaming from the mouths of the people I have sung with for four years - loud and perfectly off-key \\