extremely excited / a quick reflection

Just then I ordered a super deluxe package of the new Dave Matthews Band album Big Whiskey & the Groogrux King (such a strange name, yet SO awesome), which means everything will arrive in a special box which includes the album itself, a 2nd CD with 4 extra tracks, a DVD, a 40-page Photo book, 14 lithographs featuring the drawings/artwork by Dave Matthews and a 24-page photo booklet.

I also recently purchased tickets to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo live at the State Theatre at the end of June. I've never seen them performing live before, so I'm looking forward to this concert. They've been around for such a long time now, i.e. over 20 years. It'll be unreal.

I'll be taking my boyfriend along, but I don't know how much he'll enjoy it. We've been to a number of concerts lately, and each performance was by artists that I really respect and adore, so he wasn't really as excited as I was. Fair enough - it's always harder to be equally excited as somebody else when it's not your thing. But as a result, I felt as though I wasn't able to fully enjoy the experience because he was either bothered by something/somebody there, or I'd look back at him and he'd have an unimpressed look on his face. But I can't blame him for his expression - I'm probably the same when I'm listening to music. Unless you're in an extended state of sheer excitement and happiness, it's hard to look happy while you're concentrating on something else, such as watching the performers.

Take for instance the Ben Harper concert we recently went to. I know I wasn't smiling for a lot of the show, and I kept looking at certain people around me, to see what their reactions were. Looking back, I feel like I wasted the experience a bit because I kept looking at other people. And then my brain would wake up and tell me "Ben Harper's right in front of you". with that thought, the excitement would begin to seep through my mind again, and a smile would spread itself across my face.

I can't believe I saw Ben Harper live.

Oh man.

:)

But back to my original reason for posting. The two recent musical purchases have each cost me over $100. And I don't like to spend a lot of money these days, so I don't know what compelled me to make those purchases. I can say with confidence though, when it comes to these kinds of things I am usually faced with two extreme opinions: Completely forget about the item altogether and be perfectly okay with not having bought it, or be fully committed to the item and buy it with little to no regard of the cost. When I'm fully committed, I am 100% sure about the purchase and I really enjoy the experience that the item provides, through and through.

I like the fact that I can do that - I cherish every [relatively expensive] item I purchase with a sense of love and gratefulness. I don't ever want to become a person who gets used to being able to buy expensive things, and fills their life with such goods. I doubt I'll ever have the capacity to do that anyway, but living life with lots of thankful thoughts makes everything feel much better and more positive.

I'm currently listening to the new Ben Harper album White Lies for Dark Times online. The whole album is being streamed on Myspace before its release in early May, and it is definitely a great set of tracks. One of the songs sounds A LOT like the Paul Winn Band which I think is kind of cool! I should probably do an album review later..

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So far, I think my life can be summed up like this:

1988-1992: The Hazy Years or The Photographic Years (because I hardly remember anything from this period, and my memory is stimulated by the plethora of photo albums)

1993-1999: The Primary School Years

2000-2005: The High School Years

2006: the Year of Work & Uni

2007: the Year of Much Doubt

2008: the Year of Life-Changing Relationship Mistakes

And so far, 2009 has been the Year of New Friends and Musical Experiences.

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Life's crazy. It's too short, but there's so much time that gets wasted too.

But you know what the best thing about life is?

Music.