The Best Day Of My Life
I awoke at about 7 am as I was all excited about the concert tonight. After my son, James went to work I started up my computer to start writing about my time on the AF1 Travel Package to Calif.
At about 10:30 my phone rang, it was Kathy (AF1 President). We started out with small talk like, how are you doing? Are you going to the show tonight, etc.?
I told her that I was bummed because I had forgotten to pay my phone bill and now I didn't have my internet access. She then broke the news to me, she said, " Your Meet & Greet for tonight's show has been approved!!" I didn't know what to say. Right after I said my thank you's I let out a humongus scream. I've never been this happy before.
Like I said in earlier posts, I was going to take my best friend to this show but she canceled out at the last minute. I hung up the phone and headed for my bathroom, to get ready for the M&G. At the one in Concord I wasn't able to do my hair & makeup as I had left my things in my luggage, in the bus, and I wasn't allowed to go and get it. I was determined to look my best for tonight's M&G no matter what. I showered, did my hair and makeup and then I called my son.
I asked him if he wanted to go to the concert with me so we told his boss that I had hurt myself and was on the way to the hospital. They let James come home but I met him at the Seattle side at the ferry terminal. We jumped on a bus and headed to the Key Arena. The Key is an indoor arena, where our basketball team and hockey teams play their games. It's just been remodeled and this was the first time I had been in it since the remodeling took place. The last time I was there was for the GAG Tour concert on August 13, 1993.
I get to the Key and I find out where the will call window is, then I'm told that I have to wait till 6pm for the box to open. There are a lot of people lining up at the window, mostly AF1 members waiting for their tickets. I asked if there was a Jess there and to my surprise she was only 3 people behind me. I gave her the cd that I had for her, told her about the M&G and said that I'd see her inside. The window opened at 6:05pm and there were some people in front of me that were waiting for backstage passes. When they got to the window they were told that their passes weren't there and that they would have to wait. I was horrified, I thought, that'll happen to me, I won't be able to see Steven, again. Like you've all heard, the Concord M&G was horrible, none of us had time to say anything to the guys as they were being mobbed by Japanese girls, guys, too.
Well, my passes were there and I gave James, my son, his. I put my pass on my T-shirt, right on the left tit. We were asked to go to the front of the arena where we would be called for the M&G. We waited and were finally called inside. We went to a room downstairs where there were contest winners from KISW and the Mountain, local rock radio stations. This was great because I finally got to meet my friend Cathy Faulkner and Twisted Tunes one and only, Bob Rivers, and Spike. I listen to them all day, when I'm not on one of my missions in the outside world.
Mind you, there were over 200 people at the Concord M&G and when I got inside I thought that there were going to be that many again. I'm very happy to say that there were only about 60 of us.
The guys came out, looking fine I must say, and we had group pictures taken with them. My son was totally in awe of these guys. He only likes the old Aerosmith stuff so he didn't think that he was going to be impressed. He was. Then the guys split up to sign autographs. There were no pictures allowed at this M&G.
I made my way over to Tom and then to Joe. Later I found Joey & Brad but I was there to see Steven. Since we were only allowed to get 1 thing signed I got Tom, Brad, Joe, & Joey to sign my poster from the PV era. I had a special one just for Steven.
At the M&G in Concord I had Steven sign my picture of him in just his G-string. He signed it on his butt. But now that I was home, I had the poster, from the Livin' On The Edge video, and I gave it to him to sign. I told him that I had gotten him in the G-string the night before in Concord and now that I was home I wanted him in the all together, right? He gave me a big smile and said, Oh, you're the one, I thought you looked familiar. He signed it across the stomach, with an arrow pointing down to his crotch. Then, since I had seen him give hugs before, I asked for mine. He grabbed me and pulled me real close to him. I thought that it was just gonna be a quick hug so I started to pull away from him. He grabbed me again and pulled me in REAL close to him and then he gave me a BIG kiss. My mouth dropped, I just couldn't believe that this was happening to me. It WAS!!
My son had been talking to Tom and the other guys, he told them that he wanted to thank them for making his mom's life complete and so very happy. The guys really loved hearing that and I really think that James meant every word of it. I was able to talk to Steven for several minutes and then Big Mike came out and ushered the guys backstage so that they could get ready for the show.
The show started late. Steven, being the perfectionist that he is, couldn't get his look exactly right. That's what he gets for staying with his fans so long, I wouldn't have it any other way, would you?
Since I hadn't gotten my tickets from AF1 I had nose bleed seats but I wasn't disappointed as I had been in the first 3 rows at the other shows in Calif. Then they broke into Seasons Of Wither. That's my sons favorite Aerosmith song and he was, as we say up here in Washington, as happy as a clam.
We got home at about 2 am and fell into our beds. I had some really wonderful dreams that night. I can't wait for the next Travel Package, to the East Coast this time, to come along, I'm now saving for another AF1 trip.
All I can say now is, THANK YOU KATHY AND RUSSELL!!!!! You, Kathy fulfilled all of my dreams and I owe you one!!
-Barbara
