Matt Costa

About a month ago I fell in love with Matt Costa. And his music, of course. On Wednesday I went to his concert and it was great! I drove down to Fairfield Wednesday late morning and had the most beautiful drive I've ever been able to enjoy. The landscape was a dream. Rolling, green hills with an occasional blushing orchard covering it's shallow slopes. The sky textured with so many clouds and colored with so many hues of blue. The blue-violet mountains silhouetted in the distance against the gorgeous sky. Last Sunday was Stake Conference and almost each person who spoke (including Elder Uchtdorf) talked about how beautiful and wonderful Northern California is. At the moment I shrugged them off, I have a lot of dislikes about the area I live in, BUT while driving I decided that they were right. It IS beautiful. Especially in the spring. Once I got to Fairfield I went and watched Matthew at his tennis match. Mark was ever so kind as to explain to me the rules and what exactly was going on. ...I don't understand tennis at all! Then afterwards I headed in to SF to meet up with Tammy. The doors opened at 7 and the concert itself started at 8, and I wanted to get there as close to 7 as I could so that we could be as near to the front as possible. I made it into the city pretty quickly and found the venue easily. I also found a free parking spot that was only a block away rather easily.
I ended up waiting for a while and then when Tammy got there she had to check in to her hotel first so we didn't end up getting there until just at 8. But it worked out fine because there weren't very many people yet and we were able to make our way forward and get a great spot somewhat near the stage. As the night progressed we ended up only a few feet away from the stage. So we hung out and listended to the opening bands. There was a group already playing when we got there and I never caught their name. The other two who opened for Mr. Costa were Robert Francis and then An Horse. Tammy and I found Robert Francis's bass player really entertaining. He would bob or jerk his head to the rhythm and after a while we decided to immitate him to get our practice in for when we have our own band and are performing. During one song he was doing his little head jerk and looking out around the audience, mostly in our direcetion because we were directly in front of him. We wanted to make eye contact but anytime he came near to looking at us we chickened out and looked away (but kept up our head nod!).
Finally (it seemed liked forever) Matt Costa came out and played. He's really good. And I find his music inspiring. He looked older than I thought he would and I just think he's a really swell fellow. After the concert we hung around so I could get his cd signed. When I met him I shook his hand and said, "Hello Mr. Costa." The fact that I shook his hand AND called him Mr. Costa caught him off-guard, I believe. He asked where I was from and I was about to tell him further up north but then Tammy who was getting ready to take our picture blurted out "She's from Germany!" Thanks Tammy. I gaver her a look and then I decided to run with it and said yes. So now he thinks he has an international fan. After we took the picture I was trying to get the sharpie back (because we borrowed it from some random dude) but he wasn't offering it back and I think he thought I was going to say something important. But I already told him I enjoyed his show and that I really like his music, so I didn't know what else I could tell him. :) I probably looked like a fool BUT I'm hoping that anything he thought was odd or strange about me he could blame on me being German. Haha! Once I got that pen back and said thanks I pretty much booked it cause I was embarrassed and as I was practically running off he called out, "Tschuess!" Oh man. Of course, I smiled and said it back. I'm just a dorky, little girl.
Tammy and I were starving cause we both hadn't eaten anything all day so we drove around and all we could find at 1 am was a gas station. We got some snacks and then she dropped me off back at my car.
Before I left home I printed out directions from any possible starting point to any possible destination. So I pulled out my handy directions to get back to the freeway. I did get a little lost a couple times but I eventually found it ... And the on ramp was closed. Ok, ok. I pulled out another set of directions and followed it and got REALLY lost, then found it ... And it was closed. What?? I saw some signs that said Bay Bridge and Oakland so I followed them, came to another on ramp ... AND it was closed. HOW AM i SUPPOSE TO GET OUT OF THIS CITY IF THEY CLOSE ALL THEIR ONRAMPS??? By then I was getting really nervous so I just followed the crowd of cars. We came to a stop light and there were some construction workers standing around. The car in front of me was talking to them and I assumed he was asking how to get to the freeway. I saw the man point straight ahead. The light turned green, we all moved on but when I got to the limit line it turned red again. I heard the car behind me yelling to the construction workers asking how the heck do we get to the freeway and I could hear a little ... go straight, turn right, bla bla bla. Light turned green and I jetted forward. I saw the truck that was in front of me turning right a few blocks ahead so I barely skimmed through a yellow light knowing that if I lost him I was doomed to stay in San Francisco forever. I turned right where he did and saw him turning right at the end of this street. I hurried on down and did the same and then I found myself at a carpool onramp ... And it was OPEN! So that's how I made it out of SF and got safely to the Martineaus an hour later than I had expected.

Once at Martineaus I ended up playing the Wii with Mark. He was shocked that I had never played one before. We bowled and I kicked his trash! Any other sport he kicked mine, though. :) The next morning I slept in nice and late, hung out with Mark again and he left so I waited for Matthew to come home (to make sure he could get in cause I took his house key). Once Matthew left for tennis practice I jumped in the car and headed home. The drive home was almost just as beautiful as the drive there. So I enjoyed that. And when I got home everybody was so glad to see me! THE END