Rock on!

Today was sweet. My class was actually pretty good. I learned a bunch of stuff that will help at my job. Then I had dinner with a beautiful girl that I met in class. And then I went downtown and got tickets to two shows at the Fine Line Music Cafe downtown for Brian and I late in May.

The two shows we're going to go see are Porcupine Tree and Kasabian. They are both from the UK and you have probably heard of neither of them. Porcupine Tree is pretty much completely awesome. They have some sweet stuff. I hadn't heard of Kasabian until Brian mentioned them this last weekend. I was able to listen to a little of their debut album and they sound much like a typical British punkish rock band. But I trust Brian's judgement, so I'm really looking forward to the show. For Kasabian we were able to get upper level reserved tickets, so that should be pretty sweet. The upper level for Porcupine Tree was sold out.

It is pretty awesome that I'm getting the chance to see a lot of live music that I really didn't know if I'd ever be able to see. I never got into going to shows, but while living out in Bozeman there were a few acts that I decided that I'd like to see if I ever got the chance. The first was Paul Oakenfold, who I got to see in July of last year. Another was Porcupine Tree, which I get to see in about a month. I'm pretty stoked about it.

Like I said, the class was pretty good as well. I didn't learn anything huge, as it was the "basic" day, but I learned some pretty good techniques and tricks that will help me work more efficiently and a few things that I didn't know I could do. I'm looking forward to the next couple of days as well.


Oh! Wait! Did I say something about dinner with a beautiful girl?
Oh yeah, I did.

So I got to class a little later than most of the people (but still before 8am) and there were only two spots left in the room. The room was laid out with 3 tables of two seats each on each side of the room with an aisle between. The two spots that were available were on either of the front two tables. At one table was a girl who was against the wall, so the open spot was the aisle seat. At the other table a guy was sitting on the aisle with the wall seat open. I of course sat down next to the girl since I didn't want to have to walk behind the guy and make a big scene.

No big whoop, so I'm sitting next to a girl in a 2-3 day class. Well, there were a couple of times where she fell a little behind in what the instructor was talking about or she didn't quite get something and who was there to help her out? Why, me, of course.

We talked a little bit during the breaks and got along alright. It turns out that she's from southern Florida where her parents own a cabinet shop and she's trying to learn all she can so she can take over the place. While she was up in our great state she figured that she had to see the Mall of America, so we headed over to walk around a little and have some dinner. We attempted a couple of places before arriving at our final destination. The first was Jillian's Fire Stone Grill. That sounds nice enough, right? Well, it was a "Dining & Entertainment Megaplex" that included a bowling alley. Not exactly what we were looking for. So then we tried Wolfgang Puck's Express (we didn't know what the Express would mean, but we wanted to see) but even though it was listed on the map it wasn't open yet. Strike 2. So I then suggested Tucci Bennuch, which is italian and which I knew was there. We had a lovely dinner, a glass of wine and just talked for the hour or so that we were there. It was really nice.

Including this dinner I can only remember two "dates" that weren't with a serious girlfriend in my entire life. The other one was dinner at a Chinese restaurant in Stadium Village at the U witha really cute swimmer girl that I met through a roommate. (and I guess, to be fair (to her) that really wasn't a date either--we just went to dinner during a break of the swim meat we were watching) I've just never been a "dating" guy, I've always been a "relationship" guy. But it was really fun to just go out and have a nice time with a cool girl tonight knowing that I'd see her at class tomorrow and then that was it.

So I had a pretty good day.