From the Desk 7/7/2008

I woke up this morning wishing I could sleep longer, but I knew that work had to be done. I did quickly have a smile on my face as I remembered that the Dave Matthews Band concert was tonight at 7:00! That was enough to wake me up and get me moving. I made a few stops on my way to work to buy gas (at $4.05 per gallon) get breakfast (at Chick-fil-A) and run by the ATM. I got to work and was pleasantly surprised to find no messages and no emails waiting to begin the week. I caught up with everyone on their weekends and 4th of July activities. I then begin the task that would take the majority of the day for me to complete. I had a list of zip codes with address quantities for each that was given to me by Chris for our winter marketing piece. I had to eliminate 7,000 addresses by zip code and then send the revised list along with our in-house mailing list to the company assembling our winter piece. In order to make sure that we did not exclude any valuable zip codes, I had to run a zip code purchase report for each store and verify that the top 25 zip codes (by sales) were included on the list. I then had to figure out which zip codes could be removed due to lack of sales and low-level of addresses on the list. I took a break for lunch and was about halfway through the project.

During lunch I visited the website that we were told would have our (Christina's and mine) picture from the Braves game yesterday. You can see it here. (We were mostly dry when they took this picture) After lunch I continued to work on the mailing list. I managed to shrink it down to the desired number of addresses and then sent that list along with our list to my contact at the catalog production company's mail house. I also began researching the different lifestyle categories that Claritas, a demographic/psychographic research firm, has used to label the zip codes in which our stores are located. I began to watch the clock the closer it got to 5pm in anticipation of the concert tonight. Of course, it only seemed to make the time pass slower, but eventually 5pm did roll around.

I drove home and found that they had closed the parking lot by my apartment to re-seal the pavement. It was curious to me that they had not mentioned this event previously and I wondered how they got all the cars cleared from the lot. I parked across the way and changed into clothes more suited for an outdoor concert. I grabbed a quick bite to eat and then Christina arrived to pick me up so we could go to the concert. We made a brief stop on the way down at the OK Cafe in Buckhead to meet another Dave Matthews Band (DMB) fan who was going to purchase Christina's two tickets since we decided to use mine as they were closer seats. We met and exchanged the tickets for money and then continued on our way down to the concert. We hit stand still traffic about 3 miles from the exit we were going to take. We sat in creeping/stationary traffic from 6:25 until 8:25 when we finally were guided to a place to park and we walked quickly into the Lakewood Amphitheater. We arrived at our seats just as DMB played their first note. The rest of the concert was nothing short of amazing. The opened with the song Bartender off of their Busted Stuff album. They played many of their greatest songs and even played two cover songs: "Sledgehammer" by Phil Collins (Genesis) and "Money" by Pink Floyd. Both covers were excellent. They finished the concert with an encore of "Crash Into Me" and a 12 minutes version of "Ants Marching" that allowed all the band members an opportunity to let their skills shine. The concert featured three guest musicians. First, Tim Reynolds, arguably one of the best guitarists in the world and a long time friend and recording partner of Dave Matthews. The second was filling in for

an injured band member. LeRoi the saxophone player was injured in an ATV accident on his farm about 2 weeks ago. He suffered several broken ribs and a punctured lung. Needless to say he will not be back for the remainder of this tour. Taking his place was Jeff Coffin, the saxophone player from the band Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. The third guest was a trumpet player named Rashawn Ross from Soulive, who played better than I could ever dream. It was hands-down the best concert I've ever been to. The journey home was almost as congested as the drive down. We managed to find our way back onto the main road and stopped off at a McDonald's to get some Cokes as we were really thirsty from the dancing/singing at the concert. We made our way back to I-75 through downtown Atlanta. It wasn't the quickest route, but it was good for site seeing and it delayed the end of such a great night. Christina dropped me off at my apartment and I went inside and almost immediately crashed into my bed. I faded into sleep still hearing "Crash Into Me" playing in my ears.

Meditation for the day: Psalm 138:2 “I will bow down toward your holy temple and will praise your name for your love and your faithfulness, for you have exalted above all things your name and your word.”