This has been a fairly good week, all things considered. I worked 13 hours Sunday night into Monday morning after pulling a double only 6 hours before that. My mom called me Monday morning saying that Elton John would be at the Tacoma Dome that Monday night at 8pm. My thought was that if there were any tickets left, they would be nose bleeds. I asked her how much she had to spend and she said $300 and I knew I had the money to swing something.

In a matter of fifteen minutes, I told my clients to leave me alone so I could call my mom back and discuss seating and purchase tickets. I went on this resale sight and I had no idea if it was legitimate or not but I prayed it was. (It was). Second level seats were like $140 per ticket and I for the hell of it went to look at floor seats. Obviously right up front they were over 1k per ticket. However, right in the middle of the venue, on the floor, to the left side, I found two aisle seat tickets next to each other for $225 each and I quickly asked my mom if she trusted me and would spend the $225 for her and I would buy my own ticket… she said yes and I scored them!!!

I was elated and man, the concert was surreal. It was like having a spiritual experience the whole time. We left at 4pm, got to Diego’s house to pee at 5pm, then went to my favorite diner near Diego’s house where mom had breakfast and I had pot roast, mashed potatoes, and veggies and loaded potato soup. By 5:45pm, we were on the road again. An hour later we could see the Tacoma dome and from that spot, we sat literally a hour and a half in traffic dead stopped because cops blocked off every entrance to the dome. Somehow we found good parking for $20 cash and I was shocked because at that point I was willing to pay $200 to park because I was so desperate to see the show.

We walked in at 8:25pm, blood, sweat, and tears. We first sat in the last section of the floor in what we thought was our seats and then we were escorted to our new seats around 9-9:15pm. They were at least 30 rows FORWARD so I got even better seats than we thought but it was so dark we couldn’t find them without the escort. We sit down and the guy behind us says, Y’all just wanted to listen to the concert, you didn’t want to see it, right? And we look forward and I kid you not this guy in front of us was 6’7″ tall and his girl was at least 6’0″. I guess they stood the whole time and so nobody behind them could see even the big screens.

THe people around us were moderately drunk and they said I should tap on his shoulder and tell him to sit down. This guy looked like he was or could still be a marine, the tall guy. Now at this point I was sober and was the whole concert. And if you ever meet me in real life, I am the nicest small little lady you will ever meet. Especially to strangers. So in my highest pitched voice I tapped this guys shoulder. “Excuse me, ummm, sir. My mom and I were wondering if you and your girl could sit down…”

“What do you want me to do?”

“Trade seats with me and my mom we can’t see with you standing there the whole time.”

“WHAT?! Am I supposed to trade seats with the whole concert?

I stuttered and had no response to that…

He turned around and went back to standing the whole damn time. Then when the song “I’m still standing” came on our little group stood up after sitting the whole concert and we were singing and laughing and well, standing, and dancing. I stood in the aisle so I could see around the asshole. We ended up titling them “The trees” because they were tall, motionless and had literally no rhythm.

During Elton John’s encore, they played some remix of one of his more popular songs and I asked my mom if she wanted to leave and she was ready so we made the five block trek to the car. Did I mention that our parking space was so small, I had to climb out the drivers’ side door to get out and we had our mirrors closed in? So mom backed out and I got in and away we went.

It was a good show and if you can swing it, go see him. It was always a dream of mine to go see Elton John in concert. I would bring his CD’s to show and tell in elementary school and all the kids would make fun of me for being old. But joke’s on them! They were missing out, not me.

All in all I regret nothing, we had a good time despite the trees being obnoxious but oh well live and learn.

In other news, I am almost caught back up in school and I am doing well otherwise.

Much love,

Dani