Good for your dad!! I passed my driver's test first time out. Of course, I'd been driving off-road for 6 years AND there was no parallel parking test. I totally agree that older adults should have to be re-tested regularly. And, that means older than me!!! As for Hiedi...I've ridden with her. I've also ridden with Mandy. Shall we just say that they both went to the same Bat Out Of Hell School of Driving where the motto is, "We haven't died YET!"?!! Weirdest thing I've seen on the road? Probably don't want to mention it on a site potentially seen by children. :P

AWESOME, Ryan!! A very cool use of the song. AND, will reach a lot of listeners.

Proud of you and for you, Ryan!!

Hiedi always says it better than I do, so I'll just add my Thank YOU!

A recap of sorts: Although I was extremely excited to go see Ryan Star in a headlining show, I was more than a little nervous since I was going to be by myself at the show. I figured I would get there and enjoy the show just fine, but would be pretty uncomfortable afterwards when I was waiting around to talk to Ryan. You will see how all that went later… There weren’t that many people there at that point, so I scoped out where there might be spots down front that I could move into and decided to take a restroom break before the show started. (It was essentially a student only show.) I headed out the door to the hallway where the restrooms are just as Kris came in from another door. We talked for a moment as we walked down the hall until I got to the ladies room and he got to the dressing room. Cool start! I went back into the auditorium and after waiting (im)patiently for a little while, I decided to move on down front to the second row on Dan’s side of the stage. Around 7:15 p.m., the lights went down and there was movement onstage. When the stage lights came on, Ryan was onstage by himself. Seated at a grand piano! He began the set with We Might Fall which was so incredibly amazing with just his voice and the piano. I find guys playing piano extremely sexy and Ryan, well, Ryan is so sexy and sensual anyway that it was melt in a puddle time. But, only until he was finished and the whole place erupted with screaming, shouting, and clapping while everyone jumped to their feet. You can see a picture of the set list above, so you can look at it and imagine how phenomenal the rest of the music portion of the night was. The band came out to join Ryan after We Might Fall and proceeded to rock that tiny conservative Baptist school right out of their polyester pants! The look on Ryan’s face when he asked a front row student (literally in polyester pants and dress shirt) what his major was, and got the answer “Divinity,” was priceless! However, there were a number of people singing along besides me. Most everyone stayed on their feet during the entire set and was totally responsive to Ryan’s banter. Well, the divinity guy stood, but didn’t smile much. When Ryan said it was their last song, more than an hour had passed. BUT, the house lights didn’t come back on so we just kept cheering until they came back up--with Ryan alone on stage at the piano. He played/sang a medley of Sink or Swim and Losing My Religion. I think my heart stopped when he started in on Losing My Religion—I only wish he had done the whole song. I had thought I would never ever get to hear that live. Sigh. He continued after that by singing an acoustic guitar version of So Ordinary. I know he was exhausted, but he could have gone on all night as far as I was concerned. He exited the stage by being led right beside me down the aisle to the back of the auditorium and out into the foyer area. People exited from both sides and Ryan stood in the middle to talk to people and sign autographs. I talked to Hallie, Michelle, Dallin, Dan, and Artie while I waited for the students to finish talking to Ryan. They are all wonderful people! Finally, the students were gone and Ryan walked over to me and gave me a hug. I can’t remember what all was said, but we talked for a minute and he asked if I wanted him to sign the set list I was holding. I hadn’t thought about that, but I said, “Sure! If you want to!” Once he wrote my name (I still can’t believe he knows it!) he realized that his solo portion at the end of the show was not on the list and wrote it in. After Ryan was finished he gave me another big hug and told me he hoped to see me again soon. I said good-bye to everyone else and scooted out. While I was inside, the parking lot had moved, but I tracked it down and found my car. The trip home was uneventful except for praying for no cops being around while I read the set list to Hiedi while driving at 65 mph. However, I didn’t go to sleep until 6 a.m. because my body kept saying, “Sleep!” but my brain said, “More Brand New Day!” Another epic night with Ryan Star…

The actual set list...

Working on it right now!

My favorite.

This one turned out pretty good.

I like this one a lot!

Sometime later...

This is a difficult venue for photos because it is ALL backlit.

A little later...