i bid thee farewell.

one of my favorite clubs just had to move out of their current location. i was privileged enough to be able to judge the final battle of the bands night that was being held at the club the day before they moved out. i felt like an american idol judge (and i would pick to be ellen cause paula was crazy, kara liked the sound of her own voice way too much, and j-lo is such a diva). there were many things that made the night at the club fantastic, here are the highlights:

• a couple of really incredible bands
• free jimmy john's
• getting one last chance to be in the place that deepened my love for live shows
• feeling legit- my scores were the same as the judge from universal records
• hanging out with quality people

while the ministry of the club isn't over, i'm sure gonna miss the 5th st locale.

xo

i love love.

i've always been a lover of holidays, valentine's day is no exception. i had a roommate in college who would always wear black in protest against "singles awareness day"....whatever. she is now happily married and thinks valentine's day is fantastic, how fickle! but back to my story:
there has never been a valentine's day when i didn't feel loved if for no other reason than my dad always sends me a valentine and it's usually in the form of a cd or money. this year for v-day there was a free josh wilson concert in town, win!
the roommates were planning on meeting me there but the one with the car wasn't feeling well so i was flying solo on this venture. i arrived right before the show started so i ended up snagging a spot against the railing in the balcony to watch the blue-eyed crooner steal everyone's hearts. which was incredibly appropriate given the day.
he is a one man band and does a darn good job of making everyone in the audience feel included. he got the crowd clapping, singing along and laughing at his jokes. there was one point though where he called out one girl and made her feel especially special, it was his wife and he was singing the song that he wrote for her. he pointed at her from the stage and you could clearly see the love in his eyes, she reciprocated with a smile and a wave. it was absolutely precious. you could see the hearts of all the girls in the audience melting with every word, mine included.
someday i will be that girl, my husband will write a song for me and play it on valentine's day. and all the hopeless romantic girls in the crowd will think it's precious. i'll probably cry the first time i hear the song cause that's just how i am. it is going to be great, pretty stoked on it.
but for now, i will continue to feel loved by my dad and my Father.
xo

eyes like diamonds.

once upon a time i saw house of heroes. the show was at a venue where there was no stage just a make-shift stage area so we were literally standing face to face with the band. i could not help but notice that tim skipper (hoh's lead singer) had gorgeous sparkly eyes, it was literally like he had glitter on his eyeballs.
i was at the show with a friend who is friends with tim and after the show she went off to talk to him. i found a spot to sit since i had been standing at work the entire day and had stood the whole show and my ankles were turning into cankles- you know, where your ankle and calf all start to look like one big blob.
after about fifteen minutes my friend and tim wandered over to chat. tim and i shook hands as he said, "you're sara right?" and i answered, "yeah, tim right?" then word vomit happened and i added, "has anyone ever told you that you have incredibly sparkly eyes?" normally this is the part where the lucky recipient of one of my weird compliments looks at me guardedly and i want to crawl under a table. BUT this time was different, he chuckled and said thank you and launched into a story about how when he was a kid there was a girl in his class, roxy, who used to tease him about his eyes and taunted him saying he wore eyeliner. he was like, "i HATED her!"
don't worry, he no longer hates her and he's learned to embrace his phenomenal eyes. we talked for awhile about their tour and golfing (i found the tour talk way more exciting than the golf talk) and then it was time to say good-bye to my new sparkly-eyed friend.

if i ever meet you and point out something about your appearance that i find amazing, please still be my friend.

xo

booty touch.

so, as promised, here's the story of the time i touched toddie funk's butt.
it was the toby mac after party at club 3 degrees and the diverse city band had their chance to really shine. almost all of the members of toby's band have their solo side projects and this after party was really giving them a chance to showcase their own stuff...so naturally they had a chance to sell their merchandise and yours truly was manning the table. now there were three artists who had all their merch on the same table (toddie funk, shonlock, and mr. talkbox) so it was a challenge keeping all the money separate.
after the show things only got more confusing when the band members came to the table to greet fans and sign. they all grabbed their piles of cash and got to signing. we were still selling merch and all of a sudden i had ten bucks in my hand that now belonged to toddie funk and had no idea where to put it. so i leaned over and asked, "hey, where's your money going?" without skipping a beat he said, "in my back right pocket" and lifted a cheek in my direction. so i did the whole grab the folded bill with my pointer finger and my thumb trick and tried to stick it in his pocket without touching him. can't lie, i failed, totally grazed his butt but he didn't seem to notice, praise the Lord.
now one might ask, why wouldn't he just take the money and stick it in his own pocket? well see his hands were a little full with trying to open cd's to sign and hands to shake.
the things you do as a merch girl.
xo

MOA

i grew up in a small town but am a city girl at heart. i love living in the city and all that it offers. i happen to live fairly close to the largest mall in america which is great because there is a stage in the middle of the mall that often hosts free music, how fabulous is that?!
so there have been a plethora of shows that i haven't been able to make it to but there have been a handful that i have seen.
1. saw rascal flatts play a mini-acoustic set. some friends and i got there wicked early and held our spots all day. they were late due to the weather (thank you minnesota winter) but it didn't stop the thousands of people from going wild once they got there. they were fantastic.

2. i wasn't even planning on seeing someone play live but i was at the mall doing some christmas shopping and heard some pretty great christmas music. so i stopped and realized it was katherine mcphee. remember when she was on american idol and took second after the dude with the grey hair?? there were like a hundred people listening to her....i felt a little bad for her.

3. christian artist brandon heath played. i was impressed at how many people were there- just as many people were there for him as for rascal flatts! the show was going great and i looked over and saw a guy standing backstage that i recognized but i couldn't remember how. so, of course, i stopped caring about the show tried to figure out where i knew him. frustration growing at not remembering i hit up the caribou that was right by the stage for a coffee so i could still hear the music. about halfway through my coffee i realized two things: i recognized the guy from behind stage because of a mutual friend and had seen him on facebook with that friend and that i really had to go to the bathroom. so i made my way to the bathroom and who should be walking out of the guys bathroom but mr. backstage! could i just let him walk by?? oh no, of course that is not how my brain works so i approached him and asked, "do you know josh danielson?" he confirmed that he did and after some more small talk i realized what a bad idea this was....i didn't know this guy and i used our one common point of interest in my opening question! so i tried to bid him farewell gracefully and scurried into the bathroom.
when will i learn not to talk to strangers?
xo

beautiful things.

so one of my jobs is to book and travel with the two ministry teams that go out from the college, crown college to be exact. one of the teams is a musical drama team and the other is a contemporary worship team. it's kind of like being a road manager for a rock band but not nearly as cool since they usually play youth rooms instead of clubs. anyway, the contemporary worship team recently lead worship at a senior high retreat at a bible camp. the weekend was filled with outdoorsy things, camp food, a phenomenal speaker (his name is james grout if you want to check him out) and some really great times of worship.
one song that really hit me over the weekend was the song 'beautiful things'. it is written by michael gungor and performed by gungor (the band) and it is one of those songs that is so simple and so complex all at the same time. here's the chorus:
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of the dust
You make beautiful things
You make beautiful things out of us
aren't those words gorgeous? to think, the same God who created man out of the earth wants to make our lives as beautiful as He's made His creation. neat, huh?
xo

shameless plug.

i have a little radio show. it is absolutely fantastic and i get to play the best christian music on the planet. okay so maybe it's actually not fantastic but i think it is, i mean, i am a little biased....my name's in the title of the show. anyhoo, it's called the dinner rush with sara walz and anyone can listen online at www.crown.edu/crown-radio from 4:30pm to 6pm CST monday through thursday.
and how's this for a bonus: you get to hear me say stupid stuff! i know you can always read the stupid stuff i say right here on this very blog but now you get to hear it live. i know, exciting hey?
i hope your new year is off to a fabulous start! here's to 2011 being the best year yet!
xo