Michell Madness

Friends, there is something strange that happens to me when I go to a concert. It's almost like I become a different person. Seriously, you would not recognize me. My husband and I both picked concerts to get tickets for. Coincidentally they fell on the same week. Last night was our first adventure in concert going this week. We went to see The Doobie Brothers and Chicago at the Gibson Amphitheatre. Here are the highlights (or the low lights depending on your perspective!):

1. Mistake #1, listening to hubby when he said to turn right in the parking lot. We ended up in a deserted parking lot at the far end of City Walk. It was a good 10 minute walk to the theatre. We seemed to be the only ones parked there. This ended up being a good thing...read on.

2. I packed a picnic dinner and a bottle of wine. We climbed into the back of the mini van and ate our grub. I forgot the bottle opener. Resourceful hubby used all means possible to get the cork out. The end result was an explosion of wine all over us and the van and the pencil penetrated the cork. We had to push the cork in to pour the wine...pencil attached. We are saving that bottle for when we need a good chuckle.

3. Decent seats, but right in the middle of conservative lane. We were surrounded by people not talking to each other, arms folded over their chests, staring straight ahead. Oh, and the lady 2 seats down from Jon with her stinky feet that smelled like stale nylons, on which she eventually sprayed a liberal amount of flowery perfume. All was calm in our atmosphere...until the sisters sat down. I say the sisters because they reminded me of the fun sisters that sit in front of us at Church. They were out to have a good time last night! They breathed life into our section.

4. For the first 20 minutes we were cracking up laughing and trying to figure out if we were being "punked". A very passionate Italian man took the stage. I just can''t even explain what it was like. Part comedy, part tragedy, part romance. All I do know is that he means every word he sings, sometimes emphasising it with a slam of the mic stand in the middle of a ballad, a bowed head or raised fist, stripping off his jacket mid song, or my favorite, crawling along the floor apparently begging some girl to love him. The sisters thought he was hot because he's Italian. I was having a giggle fest. I really thought we were at the wrong concert.

5. The lights went down...and then it happened...I became "concert Gina". The sisters and I stood on our feet and danced our rears off. For the record, there was NO ONE ELSE standing except for a few die hards near the front of the theatre. Eventually Jon joined us but I am sure we were getting some mean looks from the people behind us. I think we were technically sitting in the no standing zone. I even spent some time dancing on the landing after coming back from the bathroom, mostly because I couldn't find our row, but also because it felt like a huge Gina stage!

6. I WAS SO MAD when some really nice official guy came over and gave the sisters backstage passes for being so enthusiastic! WHAT???!!! I told him I was with them but he said just them. I could have kicked him in the teeth. The sold me out. We had been buddies for almost an hour and they didn't even try to get me back stage with them. So off they went their their stinkin' backstage buttons. I figured it was time to make my own fun!

7. About this time I analyzed the situation and discovered that security is pretty lax at a concert full of people in their 60's. I said the 5 words Jon never wants to hear me say "just act like we belong". We walked down the aisle and secured ourselves some awesome seats about 10 rows off the floor. A few songs later, I discovered security also was not covering the floor. We danced about 2 songs on the floor until security asked us and some of our fellow dancers to return to our seats. We went back to our fake seats. But within 2 minutes that guy disappeared and we were back on the floor. The guard that was there was totally cool and just let us dance away! So Jon and I were one person back from the stage. Ahhhhh....this is how you are supposed to be at a concert. I danced and screamed and had a great time!!! Oh yeah, I also drank 3 beers but I think I burned off 5000 calories in dance and sweat so I think it's OK!

8. When the lights came back up I became normal Gina again. We hiked back to our car and I immediately climbed into the back seat. I was way too tired to drive home. It was midnight and I am not used to being out that late! I needed a nap. So there is our deserted parking lot Jon listened to talk radio while I took a nap. Eventually he gave up on me and decided to drive home. He was fine to drive sobriety wise but he is a wise man to have tried to stick it out for me. I get very car sick when I am not driving. I am a horrible passenger. AND I hate his driving. The man wanted to go home so I let him drive. I even kept him company the whole way home. A luxury he rarely affords me at those hours!

We returned home at 1:30 am to barking dogs, a daughter that had puked all over her bedding and my Mom asleep in the living room. Life is back to normal...

...UNTIL SATURDAY!!! DISCO FEVER BABY!!! I promised Jon I would be even more embarrassing at that concert. I think he is currently trying to sell his ticket on eBay.