Its good to be home for more than a couple of days.  From June 18 through August 13, I spent 36 days away from home, about 2/3 of the time traveling to a beach twice, then to a conference and then to visit my mom in Missouri.  I’m trying to get back to a routine. I remember right after our son was born, my mom and godmother returned home after spending a couple of weeks with us and leaving me home alone with him. Mother kept telling me to put the baby on a schedule and I was clueless on how to get our little baby to eat or sleep at regular intervals.  I didn’t want to wake him to eat because getting him back to sleep was difficult.

While working I had a routine to my day, starting the day scanning news items and emails for brewing problems, making a daily to do list including phone calls to make and emails to send, reviewing the upcoming calendar for conflicts and to ensure coverage, attending meetings, and reviewing long term projects and monitoring progress.  All of this planning was quickly tossed aside to address the latest fire, be it a policy issue blowing up with unhappy constituents or operational issues like IT systems being down-that happened A LOT and appears to still be happening, or staff coverage or transportation problems.  A couple of weeks ago, there was a metro derailment at the Smithsonian, good news is that it was an empty train but bad because it shut down the station and the blue/orange/silver lines for most of the am commute.  I thought of the problems this caused back at my old position and all the kerfuffle and stuff just NOT getting done.

So I have an evolving routine including writing, working, walking, gym, and gardening (early morning before it gets so hot!).    Over the next week and a half, I add in helping son get ready to return to college.  And then I head back to the beach as we close soon on the condo!

We enjoyed another routine the other evening, catching ZZ Top with openers Blackberry Smoke at Wolf Trap.  Those guys have it down, what a show!  Loved the screens playing videos on either side, and they played a lot of songs doing most of their major hits + some covers.  Heres the setlist:

1. Got Me Under Pressure
2. Waitin’ for the Bus
3. Jesus Just Left Chicago
4. Gimme All Your Lovin’
5. I’m Bad, I’m Nationwide
6. Pincushion
7. I Gotsta Get Paid
8. Flyin’ High
9. Foxy Lady
   (The Jimi Hendrix Experience cover)
10. Catfish Blues
    (Robert Petway cover)
11. Cheap Sunglasses
12. My Head’s in Mississippi
13. Chartreuse
14. Sharp Dressed Man
15. Legs
    Encore:
16. La Grange / Sloppy Drunk Jam
17. Tush
    Encore 2:
18. Sixteen Tons

I loved the second encore, after researching a bit, ZZ Top plays Sixteen Tons in concert more than any other band. Weird moment after the show, while waiting on hubby to come back from the restroom, a guy walked by asked me what I thought of the show, I replied that I loved it, especially Sixteen Tons, and he was all upset  “they didn’t play LaGrange!”  I was like oh well, and shrugged my shoulders as he walked away.  But they did play LaGrange – so not sure where he was?

One more freaky, funny side show item, do you remember spray tans?  And how your skin can turn orange from it?  We arrived around 6 pm and were waiting in the parking lot as the venue didn’t open until 6:30.  A lady walked by with the most orange legs I have EVER seen, I thought about a photo but isn’t that rude?  I mean Hokie Orange, Neon Orange, Not Attractive At All orange.  After she passed, we caught her backside and the orange ended at the knees going up and the ankles on the way down to her feet, and pale white took over.  I REALLY wish I had taken a pix.  Too funny! Hubby was like “does she think that looks good?!!!”