Music, yoga and food

View from Row J at the DTE Energy Center - I took this photo at the beginning of the evening before my phone battery gave out

In keeping with recent concert outings, this Tuesday night I went to a concert about 20 min from my apartment at the DTE Energy Center (an outdoor venue once known as Pine Knob).  There are around 6,000 seats under the pavilion roof and space for another 8,000 people out on the lawn.  Basically for all the concerts I've been to in the past few years, I bought last minute tickets on Craigslist.  There is something incredibly infuriating about paying relatively steep ticket prices on ticketmaster only to be charged another $6-12 in processing and delivery fees (charging for delivery via email?  c'mon - I hope that never happens with regular email ::shudders::).  I just refuse to do it.  So, instead, the day of the concert I picked up a single ticket for 20% off of the list+fees original total.  Woohoo!  I swear, to some extent Michigan (metro-Detroit anyway) really is about cars and music.

The first band playing at the concert was My Darkest Days (didn't know much about them, ended up getting there a little late, so only heard their last song).  Primary comment - the main guy had a purple guitar which made me happy.  Next was Bush, a band where, turns out, I knew more of their songs than I expected, mainly thanks to someone at CTY sharing some of their tunes with me back in the day (I was at CTY, a summer program from after 7th to after 10th grade).

Finally, the headliner, Nickelback went on.  They had lights, fire poofs, the whole deal.  They even played music!  I knew almost all of their songs from the radio.  Many I was pleased to hear, but those few that were played to death on the radio I really wished they didn't bother playing again.  They were very interactive with the crowd and put on a good show.  Overall, I'm happy I got the ticket and was very happy with the seat I ended up with.  I could see all the band members the whole time.

Last Thursday I started going back to hot yoga classes again at Detroit Bikram.  Since then I've gone four times and hope to keep going at least twice a week.  It's hard but satisfying and, dare I say it, relaxing at the same time.  I have naturally good flexibility, but my balance, unfortunately, seems to be as bad as my flexibility is good.  Sometimes it gets frustrating.  On the whole though, it feels like I've done something beneficial for myself, it stretches and uses muscles I wouldn't use nearly as much otherwise and it's a nice reminder to drink more water throughout the day.

This weekend I finally checked out the farmer's market here in Rochester Hills, on the hunt for peaches.  There was one vendor selling them and he had just one left, so he nicely just gave it to me.  Since that didn't fulfill my mid-July peach desires, I went to the farmer's market in the town where I used to live, Farmington Hills.  My favorite stand  there (Kapnick Orchards) had plenty of fruit still and so it looks like I might be making a longer trip down there on Saturday mornings for their Flaming Fury peaches.  It doesn't hurt that on the way I can listen to Wait Wait Don't Tell Me on NPR and things like that.  Farm fresh peaches with juice that runs down your chin cannot be beat.

My stash!  Peaches on the left, and a bowl of nectarines, plus the peach from Roch. Hills on the right

Today, I opened the sliding door to the balcony to let in some fresh air while it's still warm, rather than HOT out.  It feels good to hear wind and birds and bugs rather than HVAC.  Hope you're having a good weekend, too.