What an awesome weekend that I had! It all kicked off with a nice and easy day at work. Though I normally like to be kept busy, sometimes it’s good to have a day where you don’t have to think much, and have some down time during the day. I was going to a concert that night, so a relaxing day was greatly appreciated.

The concert that I went to was MercyMe with Jeremy Camp and The Afters. I saw Jeremy Camp in concert at The Underground in August of last year and really enjoyed the show, so I was looking forward to another great concert, with the added bonus of MercyMe and The Afters. I’ve heard a lot of good things about The Afters, that they’re a great band and gonna hit it big soon. I like the songs they have on the radio and the clips of the other songs on their album, I Wish We All Could Win that I’ve heard, so I was looking forward to seeing them live. Sadly, the show didn’t quite live up to my expectations, but I’m gonna blame it on the venue. It was at the Cincinnati Gardens, a typical arena, and we sat on the side, about halfway between the stage and the back of the arena. Unfortunately, the acoustics were pretty bad where we were. It was hard to hear the singing, and there was a bad echo from the back which didn’t help at all. By the time MercyMe came on, they seemed to have fixed the vocal problems, but it definitely took away from my enjoyment of The Afters, since I didn’t know their songs as well as I did Jeremy Camp’s or MercyMe’s. Jeremy Camp was also a little disappointing, probably because I was 30 ft away from him last time, and that was a whole different experience. The smaller venues definitely make it more personal and fun. MercyMe, however, was awesome! I hadn’t heard most of their latest album, Undone, but I did know their older stuff. I actually saw them several years ago at Kentucky’s state BSU convention in Owensboro, at about the time that I Can Only Imagine and Bless Me Indeed were beginning to catch on. They’ve come a long way since then… The band, and Bart Millard especially, had a good stage presence and they all looked like they were having fun. What made the show ever better was the use of the large video screen behind them. Sometimes, the screen can be distracting and overdone, but I think they used it well for this show. For a couple songs, they showed the actual music video, for others, it was just background images to enhance the song, and others the screen was blank. Having not kept up with the band lately, I was pleasantly surprised by their songs and show. They made up for the disappointing start to the concert and made it well worth it.

I played paintball for the first time in several months on Saturday. It was a great day, nice and sunny, though a bit on the warm side. Didn’t layer up as much as I usually do, and I’ve got some bruises to show for it (gee, thanks Scott! ) We had ten people and played about 6 games of capture the flag. Fun times! We’re talking about playing a night game of paintball, with glow in the dark paintballs and lanterns hanging over the bunkers. That’s gonna be awesome!

Sunday, I took my bud Lori and her “pal” Steve to the Reds’ game for her birthday. What an awesome game it was! The Reds won 6-5 over the Astros, a division opponent that we frequently have trouble beating. Wily Mo Pena had two hits and four RBIs, including a mammoth 3-run, 498 ft homerun, the second longest in Great American Ballpark’s short history, to help the Reds’ cause. Joe Randa added a two-run HR of his own, and Danny Graves once again made it dramatic before shutting them down. Exciting game! We had good seats as well, 25 rows up from the field between third and home, thanks to my company. I like that perk

Well, that’s that…