Margaritas with Tori didn't happen... but I did finally get to see her!!


November 6 - Pittsburgh, PA.

Hi guys, I am home and I think I had a great Tori related dream that lasted for 12 days... 

It was the 6th of November 1998 -my 25th birthday- and I was on a train to Pittsburgh(the longest trip I ever took...I left when I was 24 and arrived at 25.. bad joke I know :)  ). My friend Richard was waiting for me at the Station and I was waiting to give him a hug that I owed him for years. He drove me to the outside of an Arena, it was 8am freezing cold, a girl named Phillys came and suddenly I found myself with a number written on my hand. It was number 2 for the meet and greet with TORI AMOS! what was I doing there? I didn't belong there. People weren't even speaking my language..

Then another person with another different language arrived. The only difference between Rurik and I, was that the people knew where he came from when he told them "Germany"... I, on the other hand, had to show the map on my passport to them, after saying " I came from Uruguay...South America.. on the Atlantic coast...right in between Brazil, Argentina" :-D  other than that, we both were the crazy people that came from more than 5.000 thousand miles away, east and south of the world.

But more people were arriving to this wonderful place... Maria (the "blue keetcha") and her friends, Jeremy, Melissa and Marian, Paul, Joey and his friend, Matt P. Then I was introduced to the wonderful trio: Carolyn, Gina and Emi. It was a lot of people from a lot different places... but somehow I was just like them. That was something that never happened to me before... I was surrounded by people that loved Tori as much as I did... wow.. amazing! I was hanging out with EWF's ..like me !!! I *was* dreaming. 

So we talked and froze together for hours, and  I was as happy as I could be... then someone came with the sort of bad news, there wasn't going to be a Meet & Greet that day, as Tori was having a photo shoot for the live album. Well, that didn't bother me too much...I was hanging out with great Tori people, and I was still going to see the first Tori concert of my life... And I did. It was a great show and as like in every dream when you want to run and you can't move your legs... well, from my seat I couldn't see Tori's face during most of the concert because of the Bösendorfer (I never hated a piano before... not even when my brother started playing). I saw her hair and her upper body, and her face once in a while...

There were some technical problems and so she was joking and laughing... she played everybody's fav songs (family and friends from Uruguay)... Past the Mission (my mother's), Little earthquakes (my sister's), Precious Things (Gonzalos's), Talula (Dario's), Caught a Lite Sneeze (my brother's)  and Iieee and Spark, two of my faves from FTCGH and Iieee being one of the songs I *really* wanted to hear live.  She also played Northern Lad and Pandora..  (until that concert) my least fav songs from FTCGH.. but seeing them live was awesome, especially Northern Lad, that was like a whole new song to me. Merman was hauntingly beautiful.

As I said, there were some technical problems... which reminds me of something .... While being in England, Richard got a poster signed for me and told Tori it was for his friend in Uruguay that was planning to go to the USA to see her... Then in August after  a M&G Richard send me this message in reply to my message where I confirmed that I was going to the USA before the end of the tour.


Laura> I'll be booking a seat for the 15th Oct to Miami...
Richard> Wow--that's amazing. Tori will be expecting to see you in mid-November.  She said she'd try to be sick for those shows. No joke--I told her you were definitely planning to come up for at least three shows in mid-November and that's exactly what she said. How hilarious.  :-D
Hilarious?!?! you bet :-D, especially after hearing her say during my first concert, that the piano was sick and that "she just needs a Margarita". What can I say?...it was a very fun/crazy show. Tori left me speechless for what seemed days. I think it was after Rochester that I could actually speak after a concert... actually I screamed in Spanish after the concert in Ithaca, but I still wasn't able to "speak" as nobody understood what I was screaming...

But mm yes dreams always go back and forth so lets go back to the after concert scene in Pittsburgh, PA. After the concert me and Richard were walking to the barricades. There were a lot of people there, but somehow there was this spot that nobody had taken yet... it was a column and a step, so I was standing a bit higher than the three rows of heads in front of me, and therefore I was able to see Tori when she came out. She was signing stuff for people and I was there with the biggest smile on my face, just looking at Her signing, talking to people and then doing the same thing with the next person. I was just happy for being there able to see Her from such a short distance... and then when She was right in front of me She looked up for a second and waved at me. If I had a big smile before that moment, then after *that* my lips stretched even more till they reached my ears.  Yes, I was walking on clouds after the show.

Part II coming soon. I haven't been online for months so I am posting what I should've posted a while ago ...

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November 7 - Indiana, PA.

November 7. well yes, my dream kept going on for several days.. and even more days than I actually expected... So Richard, Jeremy and I arrived in Indiana, PA and I got another number... 18. So this was going to be my second concert, and I was already happy because most the EWF with whom I waited the day before were there, plus I met Dor, Tucker and Becky, the girls from England and (after the concert) Jenny & Mel from Germany, Jessica and Tony. I hung out most of the "wait" with Becky, Richard and Rurik. BTW thanks Becky for putting up with my english :-) and Dor you do speak great spanish!! By the time we talked I had been speaking in English for more than 2 weeks and I was going crazy as my spoken english has never been even good.

Anyway after waiting since 8am the M&G was about to take place. We formed the line and then discovered that they set up a *very* tiny barricade so I was in third row and wasn't able to see much. I didn't want to scream at Tori to get her attention so I just remained silent and smiling just as the day before. Right before she went in I was able to hand her a little note in which among other things I said, I asked if she thought Flying Dutchman was going to show up during the upcoming concerts...When I was about to hand her Cynthia's package Joel stepped on the way and took her inside... But he came back out and I gave it to him :-) Cynthia is my email friend from Colombia, she was the first person who wrote to me when I first joined "Precious Things" mailing list and we've been pretty much in contact since then... In October she sent me something to give to Tori if I had the chance. I am happy to be able to confirm that it did reach Tori's hands... Cynthia received an authographed picture that is awesome. I am so happy for her.

I couldn't talk to Tori, but I certainly had time to take several pictures of her hair :-). Also during the M&G Rurik handed Tori a letter from Becky and asked her to play "China" for her. Becky was a bit dissappointed that she couldn't talk to her, little she knew what would happen later that night. Richard also handed an email from a friend of his to Joel. In that message she requested "Black Swan". This was a really small theatre and we got fifth row center tickets I thought this was great.. but when Tori came out everyone stood up ... and it was still great for a while... until the guy who was in front of me decided that he couldn't stand still so he was changing position every minute during the whole show.. I thought about ripping his head off to keep it out of the way...but managed to reamain calm. So there I was, my second concert and my view partially obstructed by this guy...grrr.

The concert was very good. But also *very* different from the day before. This one had a lot less energy. I can't really explain, it just felt like that. The songs were great but something was different. Maybe it was that I didn't sleep much as I was hiper from the day before... or maybe not.. Anyhow, right before she played Black Swan, she sung something like, "we get emails, and letters" she did a whole improv about that and I knew which song was coming... and Richard knew too, he grabbed my arm tight..

A guy from the press was seated to Richard's right, I guess there is a better review of the concert written by him somewhere... But I bet he didn't write about what happened after the concert...  I went to the barricades to see if I could find Becky. Tori did play China for her and I wanted to talk to her one last time before I left. But it took me too long to get there, and by the time I got to the barricades I was behind a million people. So I just stood on the side where I was able to see Tori while she was looking at Marian's awesome book. It was amazing, she stayed a very long time.. like 5 minutes or so, looking at every page. It was so Cool!! she did exactly what we all did that afternoon when we saw it :-).

After that I couldn't see her but I stayed there anyway. After a little while Becky came out and she was as happy as ever(well I knew her just from that day but still). She could talk to Tori... actually something like this happend: Becky thanked Tori for playing China for her, and Tori said that she'd read the letter and she thought that she needed to hear China. And then asked Becky if she wanted something signed. Becky said that she didn't have anything to be signed for her... just things to be signed for other people and Tori said "screw that, give me something to sign for you" and as Becky didn't have anything... Tori put her hand in her pocket and pulled out Juicy Fruit gum and signed it for her. Becky was really happy that she got to talk to her and so was I for her. Another good ending to my day.

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November 8 - Ithaca, NY.

November 8. We left Indiana late in the morning and drove to Ithaca, we didn't expect the drive to be that long, so we got there right before the show. There had been no M&G that day as it was general admission... and as we got there at 7.15 our seats were pretty far from the stage.. actually it was like 30 meters from the stage but the furthest I'd been so far. *But* the good thing was that this time there was *no* possibility that anyone could stand on my way. I was right at the beggining of the second bleachers..  so unless someone 9 feet tall came, I was in for a *complete* *unobstracted* view concert. The show was *awesome*, it was *very* charged, it was amazing the difference from the concert the night before to this one. The setlist was awesome and I do remember almost falling to my knees when I heard Yes Anastasia. I had been saying that I wanted to hear that song to everyone and their mother the day before.. but of course I had also been saying that I wanted to hear Upside Down and Flying Dutchman and those didn't happen that day. Later on I found out that it was the first time that she played Yes, Anastasia on this tour. Right before she played it, she said that she would probably fuck up... she started it from "..thought I'd been through this in 1919..." and then she did forget some of the lyrics and kept on repeating one part until she remembered. It was just awesome. She smiled a lot during this concert.. oh yes besides the perfect *unobstructed* :-) spot I was at.. Richard shared his opera glasses with me :-)  Crucify was another highlight. I don't know, I guess every song was a highlight..

It was such an awesome show. And it was so unique- hehe not only because she fell *twice* on stage :-) The first time was during Little Earthquakes, she was dancing pretty hard and right at the edge of the piano bench... until she slid down. She kept playing on her knees and Marcel blazed out to fix the bench. She got up with a BIG smile.... and a copule songs later she altered the lyrics to a very funny  "doesn't take much to SLIP us into pieces".  BTW, Richard saw Mark *laughing* really hard the second time she fell (she turned to go backstage and tripped).  When she came back for the encore she was guiding her legs with her hands, step by step ..it was hilarious... I wished Becky had been there because I remember her saying she wanted to hear Siren.... mmm It makes me wonder if anyone heard us making our "perfect setlist" and made notes ;-) 

Anyway, after the show we went to see if we could get to see Tori, but the barricades were packed. We just stood far away but still from a place where we had a fair view of her while she signed things. Meanwhile I recovered my voice ... I hadn't been able to speak after the previous shows.. well at this one I *could* but it only came out in spanish. I remember Carolyn asking me about the show and I was just bouncing and telling her "fue impresionante, que lo pario. estuvo tan demás que no lo puedo creer, que hija de puta. impresionaaaante.!". Also after that show I met Jessen but I didn't get to talk much to him until a couple days later. Some of the EWF that were in Indiana, also came to this show and they were standing there talking with the guitar player from the Unbelievable Truth. When Tori came out Linda (whom I met there for the first time) yelled Toriiiiiiiiii! and Joel pointed at us so Tori waved, I don't think she could see us very clearly but anyhow :-). Linda has some lungs let me tell you.. and she used them a couple more times while I was with her. Linda was in for the rest of the tour but needed a ride, so after Ithaca, Linda was the 4th passenger of Richard's car.  We stayed at a hotel in Ithaca and as the following day was "our day off ", we were going to sleep in. Needless to say we couldn't sleep as much as we needed to... at 10 the people from the hotel called and asked if we were staying.... if you pay for the room for two days... it's kind of obvious that you are going to stay. We needed that rest. Anyhow that morning we went to a chinese buffet, and guess what my fortune cookie said? " You are about to embark in a most delightful Journey"... actually I already started my jurney some time ago but there were some great things still to come. oh, yes. :-) This is the review I posted to the Dent right after the concert:


From Laura (EWF from Uruguay)

November 9, 1998 - this is by far the best concert I've seen, well I have only seen 3, but this one left me screaming in spanish.. song after song Tori kept surprising me. Ladies and Gents, wherever you are, save up a couple dollars, you can't miss this. Please come see her in concert, that's all I can say, and all that my wallet can give to "kinkos"

este es el mejor concierto que he visto.. bueno aunque solo he visto 3 este me dejo gritando en espaniol... cancion tras cancion Tori no dejo de sorprenderme. Sres. por favor, sea donde quiera que se encuentren junten unos dolarillos porque no se pueden perder esto. Vengan a verla en concierto, es todo lo que puedo decir, y todo lo que mi bolsillo puede darle a "kinkos" :-)


If anyone is wondering what "Kinkos" is... it is a place where you can rent a computer to connect to the Internet... and it costs $12 an hour. hehe.. It takes me almost 6 hours at my job (I work for an ISP in Uruguay) to make $12 . So 6 hours of work for one hour on the net....mmmm it didn't sound very good to me.  I guess now you do understand why I didn't post my stories a while back.

Well to put this message to an end, I would like to say once again to all the people that haven't been able to see her in concert --- and think that it is impossible for them to get to the US..Europe.. which ever place it is closer to your country--- save up some money and go there, it *is* worth the effort. It took me several months to get the money to go to the USA .... and I think during that time I ate like 4000 miles of spaghetti ... but it was worth it. *and* I am seriously thinking about saving up money for next tour.. so I 'll join "the Germans" on their "world tour with Tori" ! :-D nah I won't be able to save as much.... but I'll definetely be there next tour.

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