The year has been an absolute whirlwind. I am not doing well with social media or blogging. If you listen to Celestial Compass, I am active there. many want updates from Taylor Swift and it’s really too long of a post for social media.
It is May and word of the year is intentional. What does that mean? Right now, living in the moment. It means soaking it all in. It means re-evaluating a lot of things.
Work has been crazy busy and different. I don’t know how to explain it. Coaching bas been crazy and different. Things are moving in a directions not quite expected. Not bad. Just different. At work, we are defining what my department and our larger business unit looks like. I have revamped my coaching program: Pulling Back the Curtain multiple times. I am currently stuck in a “is it good enough to re-release”!
My health is been ok and finally started losing the weight I had gained. Now I have a kidney stone. UGH. It’s awful. I signed up for an Ultra-Ruck which is 50k or 31 miles. My friend Norberto convinced me to do it. He recently passed away from cancer. So I have been feeling a lot of things. I knew when I was considering doing it just how stupid signing up would be. But I am glad I listened. Maybe I’m October I will feel different.
It was first stupid thing I have done in a very long time except maybe sit in the Ticketmaster queue for 7 hours and at Nissan stadium for a 4 hour rain delay.
When she announced her new tour, Georgia said she wanted to go and suzie agreed. Lets recreate the first one. OK – let’s do it. We did all we could to get into the lottery for tickets. Thankfully we got there and got seats. Now they were center stage BUT high. I don’t like high and neither does suzie.
I rented us a hotel room so it would be easy after the concert. We get there and head to Wildhorse Saloon. There was a lady singing 90s country. It was great until she moved into 90s rock. Let’s just say she should have stuck to country.
Head to our room to freshen up. Now we are all dressed from a certain era for the evening. Suzie and I were in dresses and cowboy boots – before she left country eras. Georgia was in the Lover era. She was so stinky cute. I don’t know how she found the outfit but she put it together less than $12. As we are in the room, my kidney stone decides to act up. I was pretty sure I was going to miss everything but it subsided and we head over.
They want shirts and we have a list from others for stuff too. The line outside was insane. The line inside was even more insane. They decided I could go during Evermore or Folklore era since I don’t really know it. Take one for the team, they said.
It is raining more like a sprinkle and we head to our seats. They have videos and what seems to be documentaries playing. We have about an hour before opening acts come on. And we hear “There is lightning in the area, please move to the inward part of the stadium. You will be told when you are clear to return to seats “. Ugh ok. Weather map says it will be short lived. We find a spot and security tells us we can’t go there because it is too close outside. Dude we are outside.
We shuffle and it is getting crowded. Someone starts singing. And the crowd joins in. People were so off key but it was fun. It passed the time. Then they start shuffling people downstairs. We asked why. He said more room. Suzie said do we have to go. He said I can’t make you. So we stayed. It was not crowded at all. We found a seat.
Georgia was growing ancy. We are all were but the storm just kept growing and extending It really seemed as though it was going to be cancelled. So the speculations started, reschedule or cancel. I said she was too committed. The lady next us was sure cancel was coming. The rain picks up and it is actually getting quite scary. Staff was handing out trash bags to help keep people dry because the rain was entering where we were so hard.
On the off chance, it might be canceled the girls decided they are going on a merch hunt. Cool I am not. They come back and they are soaked. They decided to change into their shirts to see if it would help them not freeze. Temps were fine but the wind was autrious.
Singing is still periodically happening. We get some sign that we might be able to start soon but according to my map there is no way because it is storming until after 930. Taylor makes a social media post that people take as she is going to take the stage regardless at some point. I read it different BUT we needed the hope. I was enjoying being there with the girls regardless BUT we wanted this concert.
The little kids were getting bored. Parents were growing tired. I told the girls at one point, I can’t imagine how we would have felt if this had happened 10 years ago. It was Bridgestone and it did rain but were inside My point was they would have been tired and whiny too.
We see this woman crying and security says have you seen a little girl. She is in a room scared and we can’t find her. My momma heart was hurt. The girls were worried. We were talking to those around us about how scary this must be. They find her. Yay! That girl was not little she was more like 13/14. Now I understand she was scared but I was keeping an eye out for an elementary school kid. I was little perturbed by the misclassification.
The storms pick back up and I told the girls. It wouldn’t be safe to leave even if it is cancelled. we have to walk across the river to get to our hotel. The storms seem to be getting worse. It just stops. It was a bit crazy or maybe I just don’t remember it dying down. Next thing you know we are going to our seats. Taylor us going to do a full set but no opening acts. Georgia is disappointed because she likes the opening acts. I never heard of them but that nothing knew. Ed Sheeran opened up 10 years ago and I didn’t know who he was. Look at him now. I am guessing Taylor is pretty selective on her opening acts. However the shiny moment is knowing that Georgia is going to turn 18 during the concert.
She finally takes the stage and emotions are high. There are tears. I don’t know why there were so many tears but there were. My kidney stone was acting up again but I was not turning back now. No way no how. We were in seats 13,14 and 15. Taylor’s lucky number is 13 and she has a song 15. Silly and kind of cool.
To my right are my girls, to my left are a family with three girls maybe 5, 8 and 13. Roughly those ages. Dad is wearing a shirt “Look what they made me do”! The two older girls are next to me and the 8 year old reminded me of my girls and their first concert. I found myself watching her remembering then I would lol over and I didn’t see my old children. I saw my babies standing there. They were 8 and 9 again. They were having more fun this time than last time.
People tell me they don’t like Taylor and they have all the reasons why. I can’t say who she is behind closed doors. But I can tell her dancers and back up singers looked ecstatic to be there. She introduced someone new to the crew which was pretty. She brought out Phoebe Bridgers – her opening act to do a duet. Y’all she cares about her crew and her fans
At one point she stopped as the crowd was going nuts and you can’t fake the geniune feelings from her face.
It is raining. She loves rain shows. We are getting soaked. She keeps going. I look up at Georgia about 1145 and realize it is lightning. Apparently it had been doing so for a while. I just watched them for 15 minutes. I soaked in what was her very last moments as a child. I cried. I knew in the moment, the 7 hour ticket debacle AND the 4 hour rain delay was worth it. Because they joy in their face – just like in Taylor’s face can’t be faked.
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 HAPPY BIRTHDAY! We celebrated like it was New Years. The people behind her wished her a happy birthday. She cried. I cried. We all hugged and loved. Our baby was now an adult. Then we went back to our rain show. I still watched them as though they were 8/9.
I looked over and little one had fallen asleep. All three girls were giving out and mom and dad were trying so hard to push through. Those girls will NEVER forget the night they were given. My girls will never forget and neither will I.
You can read all you want about how awful it was. How bad things were handled. Maybe there is some truth. From where I sat, everything was done the best it could be in bad situations. In the end, it was all WORTH IT. I am not sure I would change a thing because we will always have our stories.
A I
