Hallelujah!

A few years ago, I made a list of things that I wanted to do in this lifetime. On it, I included things that were possible, things that were improbable, and things that were highly unlikely.

On the "highly unlikely" list was seeing Leonard Cohen in concert. At the time I made the list, he was living in a Buddhist monastery in Los Angeles, and it really didn't look like a concert was going to happen any time soon.

My first introduction to Leonard Cohen's music was, unfortunately, Jennifer Warne's album Famous Blue Raincoat when I was in high school. I'll be honest -- her voice drives me nuts -- but I thought the lyrics were really, really interesting. And then I headed off to university where I took a degree in English Literature (including lots of Canadian poetry), and I had a boyfriend who believed that Leonard Cohen was a total genius. And he is a genius. (Leonard Cohen -- not the boyfriend. Although the boyfriend would say both.) I believe that everyone comes into our lives for a reason, and one of only two good things to come out of that relationship is my love of Leonard Cohen. (The other is that I wound up becoming the deliriously-happy wife of the owner of the computer store we used to frequent. But I digress.)

Well, Leonard Cohen is coming to New Brunswick. The tickets are a little pricey for a girl trying to go back to school, but it's LEONARD COHEN.

In my ultimate dream, I'd be seeing him at the Imperial Theatre here in Saint John. In fact, I think I have actually had that dream, and part of me is still holding out a teensy shred of hope. But in the meantime, I'm pricing accommodations in Fredericton for the night of May 11.