She always forgets how old she is but she doesn't forget her birthday.

I took today off, partially because of her birthday but also because last night was sashagee's birthday present--a Babymetal concert:


Babymetal always put on a great show and this time was no different--they have basically infinite energy even though they've been doing this for fifteen years. The last time we went to see Babymetal, the show was very long--Babymetal didn't even come out on stage until 10:30 p.m. or so. This time they were out on stage at 8:30, finished by 9:40 or so, and we were home by 10:15 p.m., albeit having to run home in the pouring rain. I did think it was kind of funny seeing all the metal fans scurrying for cover. sashagee's comment was that it made her mascara run so it was extra metal cred (she was full Baby side of Babymetal, in pink with glitter on and odango hair).

When we got there the line was wrapped almost all around the block, so we waited for a while and were eventually joined by confuciousdragon. He split off when we got inside because sashagee wanted to grab another Babymetal T-shirt, and the whole time we heard music coming from upstairs. We thought they were just pumping up the crowd, like what happened later when we were waiting for Babymetal to set up and they played System Of A Down's "Chop Suey" and almost the entire crowd started singing along, but when we got through the line, finished paying, and finally got upstairs, it turned out that Bloodywood had started their set at the exact time the doors opened(!!) and were almost on their last song! We got about one-and-a-half songs before they left the stage and then we had to wait thirty minutes for Jinjer to set up.

Jinjer wasn't really my thing--I was probably a more little critical than I should have been because the last song I had heard from Bloodywood was fantastic--but the story that user site="instagram.com" name="confuciousdragon"> told us did make me more sympathetic. He said they're a Ukrainian band who were just getting big when the war started and most of their songs are about their experience. It makes me wish I could have understood the lyrics to their songs.

Babymetal, of course, put on an extremely high-energy show that was tons of fun, and unlike last time, sashagee didn't start feeling bad so we could keep our place the entire concert! We were in the back left the whole time, watched the whole show, and then sashagee bought two more t-shirts (for Bloodywood and Jinjer) on the way out. Good thing we had them, too, because we needed them to cover our heads as we ran for cover from the rain.

I took the next day off because it was the actual day of sashagee's birthday, and so she would have time to recover, most of the day she didn't do anything. We sat around for most of the day until the evening, when we went to her birthday dinner downtown at Ema. We ate there before last year, when we were wandering around down town and passed it and I suggested it as a good place, and sashagee liked it enough that she seized on it for her birthday dinner. We got some of the same things we got last time, a hummus and a salad, and I got a "charred eggplant" that turned out to just be baba ghanoush under a rename (I was hoping for actual charred eggplant). The real start was the dessert, though, just like last time. We skipped the vanilla panna cotta and I got a lava cake and sashagee got a pear honey pie. Both of them were delicious, though sashagee didn't realize that the pears had been absolutely soaked in alcohol until she was eating them by themselves (without the pie).

When we were done, we didn't have any other plans and sashagee was a bit tired, so we got back on the L and headed home.