Alright, alright, it’s Monday, so fine.  I guess we will do this.  Even though all I really want to do is rewind the clock and go back to Saturday night, which I spent dancing and singing along with my husband in the front row at a Decemberists concert.  And feeling like the luckiest girl alive, even after a rough, rough Saturday full of Peanut tantrums and legal research.  It was all worth it to see my favorite band strumming away at songs I’ve loved since 2005.  And to share it with Steve, who normally doesn’t agree with my taste in music, but who is a newly-minted Decemberists fan after a fabulous night.  I’ll tell you all about it on Wednesday, though, because I just had to relive the whole thing in an epic long blog post (almost as long as one of the Decemberists’ twelve-minute mini rock opera extravaganzas).  Sunday was a fun day, too.  For one thing, I wore my concert t-shirt from the night before.  For another, it was a gorgeous day and we spent the morning at Mount Vernon with my parents and our dear family friends.  Of course there was a steady soundtrack of Decemberists tunes playing in my head all day – but that’s not actually that different from every day.

Reading.  I’m having just the loveliest, most serene reading streak.  Earlier in the week, I blazed through My Life with Bob: Flawed Heroine Keeps Book of Books, Plot Ensues.  I love a good bibliomemoir, and this one was really enjoyable.  Then I picked up another library book, which I was really excited about reading, but put it down after one chapter because it was riddled with expletives and I just wasn’t in the mood.  I turned to Life in the Garden, Penelope Lively’s garden-memoir-slash-history-slash-literary-exploration and am loving it.  (Plus, look at that cover.)  Along with it, I’m almost done with the current Slightly Foxed and have been inspired to pick up Swann’s Way based on one of the articles.  It probably won’t happen anytime soon, but the idea is percolating.

Watching.  Had a fun discovery this week, thanks to a Facebook video share in the Drunk Janeites group I frequent – Cunk on Britain.  For the uninitiated, there are just a few episodes available on this side of the Pond (via YouTube, so free!) but it’s a mockumentary-style progression through the history of the British Isles, starring the hilarious Diane Morgan as historian Philomena Cunk, whose take on history is brilliant and side-splitting.  (A sample: “Henry of Eight was best known for his chronic wife addiction.  He had six wives, all called Catherine.  He was a Catherine-oholic, or Catholic for short.  After he killed all six Catherines, he got bored of killing wives and he had to come up with a new way to get rid of them, so he invented divorce.  The Pope didn’t like that, so Henry divorced him and invented a new religion, which is easier to do than Popes like to pretend.”)  You get the drift.  And she delivers her lines completely deadpan, in the brogue-iest of Yorkshire brogues.  It’s madcap and wonderful.  Go watch it!  Cunk on Britain.

Listening.  Some podcasts, probably, but more to the point, I am listening to The Decemberists.  All the time.  Sometimes (like on Saturday night) I am listening to them LIVE IN CONCERT!  Other times, I am listening on my earbuds, and other times I am just listening to the soundtrack in my head, which is mostly selections from The King is Dead.  I will tell you all about the concert (literally, I am going to tell you all about it) on Wednesday, so get ready.

Moving.  Well, there was a lot of dancing on Saturday.  And a lot of walking on Sunday.  I’m a weekend warrior at the moment, and not even a very enthusiastic warrior.  But if Peanut keeps having tantrums like she did all day (ALL DAY) Saturday, I’ll probably resume my running habit just to get away from the house.

Blogging.  Going to be a fun week.  Gigantic recap of Saturday’s concert coming to you on Wednesday, and on Friday I’ll have one more poem to close out National Poetry Month.  No teasers for you this week, because I haven’t chosen a poem yet.  I was planning to end with Tennyson, but his poems are loooooooong, man.  So we’ll see.

Loving.  I will be a broken record for awhile, but this week I am especially loving The Decemberists, after that incredible concert.  I could barely sleep on Saturday night for being so happy, and on Sunday I promptly downloaded the few items I had on CD only or didn’t have at all, so I could keep binging on their special brand of literary reference-peppered indie folk rock baroque pop.  Man, I just love them so much.

Asking.  How totally right am I that The Decemberists are the best band currently playing?