oh sarah

Tonight I got to see her (yes crappy mobile pix of the screen--the zoom is not exactly spectacular on a phone) ... and there were so many things I thought of saying about her but now none of them seem to quite fit.

She writes love songs like no one else, a way that's genuine and performs them like she wrote them yesterday; "Ice Cream" for example:

Your love is better than ice cream/Better than anything else that I've tried ...
Your love is better than chocolate/Better than anything else that I've tried

She's a woman who's been after my heart since I was in 7th grade listening to her songs on my little black Magnavox boombox ...

or "I Will Remember You"

I'm so tired but I can't sleep/Standin' on the edge of something much too deep
It's funny how we feel so much but we cannot say a word/We are screaming inside
But we can't be heard

But I will remember you/Will you remember me?
Don't let your life pass you by/Weep not for the memories
I'm so afraid to love you/But more afraid to lose
Clinging to a past that doesn't let me choose/Once there was a darkness
Deep and endless night/You gave me everything you had/Oh you gave me light

Every song on "Fumbling Towards Ecstacy" and "Surfacing" are ones that have a memory attached to them ... a middle school best friend, a high school crush, a college love, a long lonely drive in the middle of the night ...

The girl understands my relationship anxieties like no one else-- self-deprecating, painfully emotionally honest, longing, desire, and frustration ... I almost feel like I'm debasing her performance if I say I liked seeing her more at Merriweather ... Sarah is so organic ... it was awesome sitting in a lush green field under the stars last summer watching her perform. She managed to get everyone up standing and dancing even though the concert venue was the ill-disguised basketball stadium of GMU's Patriot Center.