Miranda Lambert

We were supposed to go to the concert in Lexington scheduled in January, but it was one of the concerts rescheduled after her father-in-law passed away.

Because the reschedule also involved a day change (Friday to Sunday) I was faced with a difficult decision - cancel the trip with my three non-LDS teenaged cousins for whom I bought the tickets as a Christmas present so that I could be letter-of-the-law sabbath worthy, or suck it up and realize that sometimes there are more important things and that imposing my beliefs on them would be not only unproductive but probably detrimental. We came up with a compromise: originally the plan was to drive down the day before, spend the night and do lots of ice cream and pasta eating, movie watching, and running around UK campus with my cousin who's a student there, then go to the concert. Instead, we drove down and back in the same day so that I could still teach my 12- and 13-year-old kids.

The girls met me at my aunt's house after I was done at church so that we could drive down to the concert last night, and we had an absolute blast! I LOVE Miranda Lambert. She's honest about who she is, she doesn't ascribe to the I'm-gonna-be-anorexic-to-reach-size 2 philosophy that's so prevalent, she plays the guitar for most of her songs (and they're in multiple keys, unlike another twit of a country pop-tart), and she sings songs that speak to my heart. And she says things like "Where I come from, it is never okay for a man to beat up on a woman" in response to our society's rewarding of Chris Brown and his escapades (why on earth do we give him prizes and money for singing about such doings? It is incomprehensible to me). I love that she's outspoken about it.

And no, she's not a man-hater. Last night at the concert she must've mentioned her (extremely handsome - that's my addition, though I think she said it too) husband that she's just cute-newlywed-in-love with 15 times. It was adorable. A lot of her songs are really strong in terms of the way they respond to the idea of men who mistreat women, but she also sings really sweet, lovey songs. This one in particular I could sing to Ben and it's pretty spot-on explanation of how I feel about him - especially the "I'll always call YOU home" part. I like the balance between "stand up for yourself" and "a good relationship can be really satisfying". Her music makes me happy! And it's great for running hills, but that's an entirely different element. :-)

I had three favorite parts about the night. The first was my sweet 13-year-old cousin that hadn't ever been to a concert before - the other two dressed her up, we went out to eat at a fun pizza place, and she just had a great time - I don't think I've ever seen her so excited about anything! The second was talking in the car on the way down and back with my 18-year-old cousin....she and I aren't the closest from the group. It was fun.

The third though, had to have been the all-time best. We had all been sort of wishful-thinking-hoping that she'd have the Pistol Annies along, but there was nothing on the concert site about it so we didn't think it would actually happen. Surprise surprise, they came! We all screamed. Better harmonies than I've heard in years. I like Ashley Monroe's voice a whole lot. The three of them together, though......so old school.

Pretty much the best time I've had in years, totally worth the sleep deprivation leftovers today. :-)