Joe opened the grey metal door for me and I passed through into a wonderland! A full size stage had been erected inside the huge building, and loads of people were scrambling over it, rigging lights, sound systems, and all related acoutriments. I gazed up at the ceiling, watching guys scurry along the catwalks, stringing wires, admiring their agility and lack of acrophobia.
"Wren?" Joe brought my gaze back to earth. "We sign in here." He indicated a long table directly in front of me. A blonde woman sat there, with a sea of blank name tags in front of her and a typed list of names beside her.
"Hi!" said the blonde lady.
I recognized her from her photos on the web. "Hi! You're Jossie, Shawn's wife, aren't you? I'm Wren, and this is Joe."
"Hi Wren and Joe!" she smiled. "You are our guitar techs, right?"
"That's right," said Joe, "Pleased to meet you." He shook her hand.
"Likewise!" She wrote our names and jobs on the name tags and handed them to us. Mine read :"WREN" and beneath it "Asst Guitar Tech". Joe's read: "Guitar Tech Joe", all on one line. We both laughed over that. Shawn ambled over to his wife and stood beside her chair. "Shawn", she said, "Meet Wren and Joe, the guitar techs."
"Hey there!" he smiled and his piercingly blue eyes twinkled. I was now in the presence of My Hero, Shawn from Elysia...twenty years of wanting to meet this man had come to an end. And, it wasn't a fan thing, either. By that I mean, I didn't meet him at a meet and greet, or in the capacity of a fan, but, rather, as a co-worker. I would be *working* with Shawn from Elysia! Gawd, suddenly it was good to be me!
Shawn turned and called over his shoulder "The guitar techs are here!" A voice whose body I didn't see called out of the cavernous shadows "Hot diggity ding dog! I've got a busted whammy!" To which we all burst out laughing.