"Rain"

Things have been a little crazy these days. Work has been all-consuming, with a big project, and putting in long hours. Throw in a stomach flu on top of that, and the result is yuck. Tired, busy, exhausted. Three words that equal me right now.

Last weekend, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry when I looked at the calendar. When I'm tired like this, it's hard to get me out of the house. My tendency is to hibernate. Last weekend was no exception. I wanted nothing more than to spend the weekend in bed, but I had a busy weekend ahead of me. I spent time with some work friends, and had a fun evening of "girl-talk." The next evening, it was off to a jazz club for another wonderful night with my sweetie to celebrate a special anniversary. On Sunday, Canada won the Olympic gold in hockey (Go Canada!), and then it was off to see Rain, the Beatles tribute for a family birthday.

I must say that before arriving at the Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, my expectations of Rain were about medium. From the moment the lights went down, however, I was hooked. A montage of Beatles clips from the 1960s flashed across two big screens, culminating in the Beatles' famous appearance on the Ed Sullivan show. Sullivan introduces the Beatles, and the curtains open. The "Fab Four," on the stage, breaks into song. Punctuated by periodic video clips from the different stages in the Beatles' history, the Rain band puts on a riveting live show of Beatles hits from every era. From the early days, to Abbey Road and beyond, Rain delivered. The crowd danced, screamed, clapped, it was a true concert experience. The song choices were amazing, and the Rain band did a great job of engaging the crowd, even congratulating Canada on its gold medal win. I left feeling renewed, energized, invigorated. I wanted to go home, and pull out my Lennon-McCartney sheet music and play Beatles songs on my flute. Rain returns to Toronto in July, and I definitely want to go again.

On my way home from Rain, I realized that during these busy times, it's so important to schedule in fun time, and time to feed the soul. I am so happy that I reconnected with the world last weekend, and it gave me the fuel to face another busy week.