The most wonderful concert ever

I don't even know where to start. So, I'm combining last night's Eddie Vedder concert with the latest on my health status.
Beauty first. To say I was blown away last night is an understatement. Here was my favorite (living) male singer, in beautiful Benaroya Hall, where no matter where you sit, it's good, and the sound is immaculate everywhere.
The opening act, Glen Hansard came on right in time. He's an Irishman, and totally fabulous. So this morning I was researching him, and he not only wrote the song "Falling Slowly," but he was in the movie "Once" for which it won the Oscar for best original song a couple years ago.
I bring this up, because the high point of the night was when he and Eddie performed the song together with acoustic guitars. My tears just flowed. It's the most beautiful song; it should be criminal. Google it. You'll cry, too.
Eddie's stage set was like his living room. Nice rug, trunks, a reel-to-reel player. The hometown crowd greeted him with ear-splitting applause - great, great crowd. Everything from old PJ fans to "kids."
He sauntered out casually, and went electric with a song called "Lucky Stars in your Eyes," by, I believe Daniel Johnston. That was a surprise to me that he plugged in so early since this is the tour behind Ukulele songs.
Ah, not to worry. The uke came out next with four in a row from "Ukulele Songs," first, "Can't Keep," which opens the CD and is a PJ song, the beautiful "Sleeping by Myself," and equally heartbreaking "Without You," and from 1929 "More than you know." I was mush.
At this point he visited with us. He said this tour wasn't exactly around the world in 80 days, but nonetheless 30 days all over the U.S. and it was good to be home. In fact, he was so happy to be home, he couldn't wait to do laundry. Wait a minute, he says, yeah his wife knows "that fucker doesn't do laundry!" He was so funny and sincere. We were all in stitches. There were also ongoing jokes all night about it being a bad week for male genitalia, what with the lady cutting off her husband's you-know-what and tossing it in the garbage disposal. Eddie said he didn't know if he could do dishes now either, because he can't look at a garbage disposal!
From 1929 to sometime in the 70s he said, he did a lovely Pete Townshend song that Pete did on Uke originally, called "I Like Every Minute of the Day." It was so positive and uplifting, just what I need these days.
It surprised me that we were the first audience to hear "Longing to Belong," live, the big hit off "Ukulele songs." Apparently he needed his cellist, a guy from here named Chris. Stunning.
Eddie plugged in again and did a song I think from the "Dead Man Walking" soundtrack, but he also did two songs from "Into the Wild" throughout the night, which he scored. The final encore included "Hard Sun," which was unbelievable. He and Hansard did it together, and rocked the fucker out, with smoke and the whole rock star scene, first real rock-star moment in the night. That is such a cool song, too. Read the lyrics online. Devastating.
He did a few more PJ song's including "Around the Bend" and "Betterman," (one of my faves) on the acoustic guitar, and a lovely acoustic number called "Rise."
He's funny. He brought out a string section, (including PJ drummer Matt Cameron's wife), and said something about not getting boring, and they whaled out "Luken" a totally nutso rocker off "No Code," before the totally recognizable and beloved "Just Breathe," and "The End" from "Backspacer," PJ's brilliant last studio LP that should have won the Grammy (it was nominated). What's wrong with those fucking idiots?
Lights dimmed. Couldn't see Eddie. But then he went into a very long chant, and disappeared, only to come back to don a banjo for an old Cat Stevens song!! Brilliant! He slipped in the Beatles "You've Got to Hide your Love Away," which he did for the soundtrack of "I am Sam," and the audience totally sang the chorus. He followed with a song called "Fourth of July" by a band he admires called "X," - it was a brilliant song.
Glen Hansard came back out, and here came my other favorite moment. They stood together, center stage, no mics, nothing plugged in, and Eddie had his ukulele. He told us all to be quiet to see if they could pull this off. You could have heard a pin drop. These two men, stood side by side, singing "Sleepless Nights," and it was crystal clear. The audience erupted in madness when it was over. I about died.
That was shortly before "Falling Slowly," and I was a happy, emotional wreck. The boys plugged in again for a few more PJ songs, including "Porch," the only song they did off "Ten." What a shocker that was! "Hard Sun," was the big encore, they left, and Eddie came back for one more song, the standard, "Dream a Little Dream," off "Ukulele Songs."
I had to get this out. I don't think people understand me sometimes and my love for songs. Music has been a soundtrack for my life. Songs mean things to me. I can honestly say, other than the Beatles, no musician has touched my heart and soul like Eddie Vedder and also Pearl Jam. He said he was also glad to be home to get back to "the compound," with the boys, and how proud he was to be a member of that band. Pearl Jam will perform live at the end of September in Vancouver B.C., but they are not playing Seattle. I will be to weak to go up there, I am sure.
So, how am I? It's been a miserable, shitty week. I am so weak it's not funny. Thank God I only have to get A/C every other week or I would seriously want to die. I did want to die Monday and Tuesday. You have no idea how hard this is. Everything is a huge effort. Brushing my teeth, making my bed - victories. I feel amazingly okay today, in fact I even plan to go to the Nordstrom sale! But I run out of steam fast. I only worked 21.75 hours this week, a lot of it from home, but I got my stories in.
I keep telling myself, I'm doing the best I can.
Good news - I'm finally getting into a support group at Gilda's Club (after Gilda Radner). There are only like 13 Gilda's Clubs nationwide. It's all free, per her instructions before she died. They're really nice, but I had to wait because of demand, and they don't want the groups to be too big. I need to talk to other people experiencing this same thing. You cannot comprehend it if you've not lived it. Also, I never threw up all week! However, my big toe is hurting like hell again, and I'm worried it might be infected. I plan to call my doc when I wrap this up.
Infection is bad news with cancer.
Oh holy cow, more good news!!!! My dear, sweet, wonderful Joni is coming to be with me when I have my surgery, which will probably be in mid-September. I can't bear the thought of going through this without an old friend. It's going to be traumatic, I just know. I saw my breast surgeon this week, and he said it's day surgery, but I'll feel like shit for several days. And if I feel less like a woman if they have to take out a big chunk, I'll probably need another woman to cry on.
But last night......made life worth living again for a few hours.