| I was at an Al concert in a small room in an airport. The chairs in the room were facing the front, and off to our left was the stage. On the stage were the band...and Al, minus some hair. The top of his head was entirely bald, and he had that little horseshoe-fringe thing around his head. My head was craned around so I could watch Al and the guys perform, but no one else seemed to care that Al was even there. Uneducated philistines. ;) Well, Al got a little irritated that I was the only one watching, so he came down into the audience, stood right in front of me, and continued singing Gump. At the end, I cheered REALLY loudly, and Al grinned at me. The other people in the room looked away, bored or annoyed or whatever. I, however, was having the time of my life. Al looked over at Bermuda, who nodded and started beating out the rhythm for the new polka medley! It was awesome. After that, they sang a whole medley of unreleased new songs…just for me! After that, the band kind of lost interest, since it was all songs they’d played hundreds of times before, so they all packed up and left. Al started to leave. “Hey…Al?” He turned around and looked at me questioningly. “Will you…can you…will you give me a hug?” He grinned and walked toward me. Suddenly, he grabbed me under the arms, lifted me in the air, and swung me around before he put me on the ground and bearhugged me for a good five minutes. (Good? GREAT five minutes!!) Eventually, he released me, grinned one more time, eyebrow raised, and strode off to his bus. I collapsed in my chair and just smiled for about ten minutes. Later that day, as I was checking my mail, I found a package from Al! It was a bar of perfumed hotel soap from the airport hotel. (From his collection of hotel soaps, of course!) My Take On It Next Dream |
| Airports and Al Hugs 10/23/01 |