Too many words regarding Van Halen

I have been waiting for 20 years to attend the Van Halen reunion concert. I got my hopes up every time the rumors started and had the rug pulled out from underneath me time and time again. Back in the 70's and early 80's I LOVED Van Halen. I saw them every time they performed in so. Cal and since they live here they were here a lot.I loved everything about them. The glitz and the glam and the swagger of David Lee Roth and the strength of his voice….the truly amazing guitar playing and boyish adorable-ness of Eddie Van Halen, the strong and exciting drumming of Alex Van Halen, and the “everyman” persona of Michael Anthony… You put all of that together and they made magic happen. They were loud and they were funny. They were sexy. Yikes, were they sexy.

I was lucky enough to literally run in to David Lee Roth at a 7-11 on Sunset Blvd early one Saturday morning. I was certain that he had not yet been to bed from the previous Friday night. I was so awestruck that I just watched him from afar. I knew I wouldn’t be able to speak to him without embarrassing myself so I went to the car and begged my boyfriend to try to get David’s autograph. Boyfriend got out of the car and walked right up to him and was promptly turned down. OMG! Self important much?

Even after being slighted by David Lee Roth when the band broke up I was very disappointed. I had never heard of any band that had any real success after a break up other than the Beatles. I figured they’d flounder and then disappear. They did flounder for a while and they made the huge mistake of bringing in Gary Cerone as their new lead singer. Gary was the former lead singer of the band “Extreme”. They were one hit wonders in the mid 80’s with the song, “More Than Words”. Now why would a band that rocks as hard as Van Halen hire a lead singer who’s one and only hit song was sung in a falsetto whisper? Who got paid for making that decision?

I got to meet Van Halen bass player Michael Anthony one Sunday morning when he came to pick up his daughter from a slumber party. I had no idea that one of the little girls running around my friend’s house was the child of a member of Van Halen so when I answered the door and saw him standing there I just about had a heart attack. I went and got his little girl and while we were putting her shoes on and gathering up her lovely parting gifts I asked him what the band was doing and he told me about their new lead singer. He told me that he thought that it was going to be a good change and that he was really happy having Gary in the band.

David went on to a semi successful solo career. With his long blond hair and his amazing gymnastic leaps on stage David was the consummate entertainer. In the mean time Van Halen realized that they had made a mistake in hiring Gary Cerone and they let him go and he was replaced by Sammy Hagar. I had seen Sammy Hagar way back in the 70’s when he was the lead singer of a band called “Montrose”. And while I enjoyed his singing I didn’t want to admit that there was anyone who could take David’s place.

David Lee Roth wrote his autobiography and I couldn’t wait to read it. It was titled, “Crazy From The Heat”, and in my opinion it should have been named “I Am Crazy In Love With Myself”. David Lee Roth is fascinated with David Lee Roth. From that point on I saw this guy in a different light. I was no longer enamored with him or his antics. I was embarrassed for him. The next few years were pretty lean for David. His career dipped to such a low that he actually became a paramedic in the state of New York.

So while David was busy “saving lives”, Sammy and the rest of the gang racked up hit after hit after hit. Van Halen was bigger than ever. Considering myself a “purist” I didn’t want to like the new version of Van Halen and thus I wouldn’t go see them perform and I didn’t buy any of their records. (For you young ‘uns out there…music used to be recorded on these big black circles made up of plastic. There were usually 6 songs on each side once you listened to the 6 songs you had to turn the plastic circle over and start all over again. These black pieces of plastic were called ‘records’.)

After so many years of not really paying attention to Van Halen they came back around to southern California and I relented and bought tickets and went to the concert. I had terrific seats on the floor and the show blew me away. I couldn’t believe that I had been so stupid as to discount this wonderful band because I didn’t think I liked the idea of Sammy replacing David. Oh waaa taa goo siam!

I have seen 100’s of concerts and I have never seen a performer who appeared to have more fun or who loved his audience more than Sammy Hagar. Nor do I think I’ve ever seen a man, especially of his age, with more energy. Sammy was running all over the place, signing autographs, taking pictures, wearing hats and banners that had been thrown on stage from the audience and singing the entire time. He. Was. Adorable.

Of course immediately as I fell back in love with the band….they broke up. Sammy not only left the band…he took Michael Anthony, the bass player, with him.

Sammy had left the band before and cut a couple of solo records but he came back to Van Halen. When it was announced that David Lee Roth had come back as lead singer I was very sad that Sammy was really gone but I thought that it was the answer to all of my Van Halen prayers.

I wanted to see this Van Halen reunion concert and I was not going to settle for a bad seat. I went to the Ticketmaster website and saw that the shows had all sold out immediately. Rats! I was going to have to go through Ebay. When I got to Ebay and saw the prices being asked for tickets I decided that maybe if Van Halen were going to play in my living room and I was going to get to sit on Eddie’s lap then I would possibly pay over $1,000.00 for a ticket. My plan changed and I decided that I would just go to the venue the night of the show and buy a ticket from a scalper. I’ve done this several times with great success so I figured I couldn’t lose.

The night of the show I was pretty much the first person there. I work right down the street from the Anaheim Pond, uh, the Honda Center, so I got there before 6:00 pm. There were no scalpers to be seen. The only people, who were there, other than me, were allowed to go inside. It was freezing cold and drizzling. Not exactly weather conducive to standing around outside trying to look nonchalant. (I don’t know if it’s illegal to purchase something from a scalper but I do know that it illegal to be a scalper so I didn’t want to do anything to bring attention to myself….like stand around all by myself in the rain outside of a concert venue.) So I went to the ticket booth and can you believe it??? They had just released floor tickets that hadn’t been claimed by industry people. I was able to purchase a floor ticket at face value the very same night as the concert!! YAY!

By the time I bought my ticket I was still the only one there so I went back and sat in my car for about an hour. Once I saw people start showing up I got out of the car walked over to the front of the building. I could hear the band rehearsing and stood in line with about 8 other people who were foolish enough to stand outside in the freezing cold. I don’t know how this always happens but I was standing in line behind a derelict. And there is nothing better than standing in line with a derelict unless it is standing in line behind a derelict who likes to talk. But just to make it extra special this guy was a derelict who liked to talk and he was a know it all. I generally don’t talk to strangers when I’m in crowds but hey, they were talking about rock and roll music. We, (people other than the derelict), all exchanged concert stories and had a few laughs then someone wondered out loud why they wouldn’t let us inside the venue. The derelict spoke up and said, “Hell, the bands not even here…so why would they let us in?” I told him that the band was here because not 30 minutes ago I had heard them rehearsing “And The Cradle Will Rock”. They kept playing the screeching guitar solo that happens just before David says, “Have you seen Juniors grades?”…… And with that the derelict says to everyone, in a tone that indicated that he couldn’t believe just how stupid I was, “That’s not “Cradle Will Rock”…that’s “Hot For Teacher”. I told him that I was certain that that line and guitar riff was from “And The Cradle Will Rock” and I thought about singing it for him but then I realized that I was conducting an argument with a man who was obviously not in the greatest of mental health so I decided to let him think he won the lyric debate. I might also add that of the 7 or so other people around me…no one chimed in to back up either one of us. (I HATE when I’m in a rumble and no one has my back.) I think everyone was afraid to say anything to this man lest he get upset over the fact that he was wrong and have an episode or something.

Just in the nick of time the people from the JACK FM radio station came along and gave all of us “HO HO HO” shirts. That distracted everyone from the rumble and we were all happy to get a free shirt. I was so cold that I wound my shirt up and wore it around my neck like a muffler. I’m certain that I looked just like Jackie O and I’m sorry you missed it. (I hear next season Stella Mc Cartney will have tee shirts that double as mufflers in her next winter collection.)

They finally opened the doors and let us freezing Van Halen fans inside. But not too far inside. They wouldn’t let us go inside the seating arena. Why? Beats me. That gave me time to buy a pretzel and eat it. And go to the restroom. And look at the souvenirs. And just stand around with my tee shirt wrapped around my neck. I was so cozy warm at this point that I had forgotten it was there. The time came when they finally let us in and I was so excited to get to walk all the way down the stairs to the seats on the floor. Down, down, down I walked. I. Am. So. Cool. I have floor seats. Jubilation, jubilation, jubilation.

Screeeeeeech. Stop the presses. Please refer to the venue seating chart to see where my seat was.

Ok, sections 101-106 are the floor seats. See at the very back of section 104 where there is a little notch that abuts section 225? Yeah. That was my stellar floor seat. Floor seats are usually the best seats in the house unless you have approximately 1,000 people standing in front of you. Urgh!

I was so disappointed. And then to add to the disappointment I had to sit through an opening band. I HATE opening bands. What makes concert promoters think that anyone wants to be forced to listen to someone they've never heard of before? And why would you hire a reggae band to open for a rock 'n roll band? I will apologise in advance for saying this because I'm bound to offend any reggae fans out there ...but...I swear there is only one reggae song in the entire world and it just gets sung over and over again. Fortunately the opening band only sang for 45 minutes.

When Van Halen came out it was wonderful. The show started out with Eddie running out on the stage in his typical concert outfit of torn jeans and tennis shoes and no shirt. David Lee Roth was up on a riser at the back of the stage waving a huge purple flag. Alex was already on the drum set and the bass player just kind of snuck on to the stage. The new bass player is Wolfgang Van Halen, Eddie Van Halen and Valerie Bertinelli's son. He is only 17 years old but he has the musical genius of a much older soul. You can tell that he isn't entirely comfortable on stage just yet. He stands in the back ground hiding behind his long, straggly hair, never really looking in to the crowd. One day he's going to blossom and he's going to be a force to be reckoned with.

The guitars were wailing, the drums were pounding, the crowd was clapping and cheering....and I was thinking this isn't so bad. I can certainly hear the music and I can see what's going on on the stage because they are showing it on the huge screen behind the band. Then it happened.

Someone stepped on a cat. Or Pee Wee Herman had grabbed the microphone. I don't really know what happened but I couldn't believe what I was hearing. That strong, confident voice with the perfect rock and roll timing had been replaced with this..this farce. I don't know what was going on. David wasn't singing to the beat, his voice was unrecognizable and it was just awful. I think he was trying to sing in a different pentameter to sort of jazz things up, but how foolish is that? You don't record a song and have 50 million people memorize the song then invite them to a sing-a-long and then change it! And I'm not kidding with the Pee Wee Herman statement. There were a couple of times when David's voice sounded just like him!

Aside from the disappointment of his voice....he kept walking around with that shit eating grin of his. Back in the day I thought it was cute, but now I find it completely annoying. In addition to the grin he likes to walk around with his arms out to the side in a pose that looks like he's asking people to revere him because he is so awesome. YUCK!

Someone had better check the temperature in hell because I have come to the conclusion that Sammy Hagar is the heart of Van Halen, and not Diamond David Lee Roth. 'Tis a sad, sad day indeed.

I hope David has not let his EMT license expire.

"Livestock, Mind Bending & Live Music" or "My Night At the OC Fair"

Last week I was on my way home from work and I got caught in traffic on the 55 freeway. The traffic was caused by the concert that was scheduled for the Orange County Fair later that evening. I had read that Chris Daughtry and his band were going to be there so I decided to stay in the traffic and go to the fair and see if I could get a last minute ticket to the concert. Besides I'd never been to the Orange County Fair and I thought it would be a good distraction to the chaos going on in Fleaville, uh, rather, my house.

Even though I paid for regular parking I was able to park right outside of the gate. (I later found out that the amphitheater was on the opposite side of the park, but for the time being I thought I had a wonderful parking spot!) The lady at the ticket booth told me that the band had just released their tickets back to the booth and I got to choose from a handful of awesome seats. I chose the seat in the 3rd row after the orchestra pit, dead center. I got my ticket for the fair included with the ticket for the concert all for $29.00. Quite the bargain considering I buy most of my concert tickets on eBay.

I meandered around the fair for a while. It was a beautiful summer night. I didn't even need a sweater.

I saw blond cows, pink and black pigs, goats, huge rabbits, tiny rabbits, turkeys, and sheep.I asked this young lady, "Have you any wool? I have a friend in Texas who would certainly like to knit it up in to something pretty for her niece in Alaska who is still pending." She said, "No, I have no wool but I do have this cool Hawaiian Lycra one piece bathing suit. Would you like to go swimming with me?"
Sorry but I had to take a pass on that. I didn't want my hair to be messed up when Chris Daughtry spied me from the stage and fell in love with me.

I walked around until I found something that I wanted to eat. There was no lack of food available however since I do not eat meat that eliminates about 98% of the food offered. I settled on a vegetarian burrito but I had to eat it with out anything to drink. Apparently Pepsi Co. made the OC Fair Food vendors a deal they couldn't pass up because most of them were serving Pepsi and this Diet Cokeaholic will not drink Pepsi. After I ate my burrito I found the wine tasting patio. There was a man with a guitar singing Jimmy Buffet tunes so I figured that this was the fair gods telling me that I was supposed to hang out there for a while. Unfortunately by the time I got my $6.00 plastic dixie cup of Merlot the singer was finished for the night. So there I sat just me and my wine. The wine was pretty gross for having been an award winner so I threw it away after only drinking a couple of sips.

As I walked out of the patio I saw a crowd of people gathering at a small stage area so I went to see what was going on. IT WAS A HYPNOTIST SHOW!! I LOVE hypnotist shows! I had recently seen a snippet of a show on You Tube where someone was hypnotized in to thinking that he was Ricky Martin and it was pretty funny. I hoped this show would be as good. There were many, many people packed in to this little arena and all of the seat were filled. This is one of the few times that being a small person comes in handy because I just made my way through the crowd and sat on the grass in between the two sections of benches. I had the best seat in the house! I think I was the only one in the pavilion who didn't want to be hypnotized. When the hypnotist asked for volunteers to come up on stage everyone from 6 year olds to 86 year olds were raising their hands. Once the show got going the hypnotist had one big guy thinking that there was a mean dog under his seat and the only thing he could do to console himself was to jump out of his seat and skip around singing the "I love you, you love me", Barney song. He had another guy who would jump out of his seat, swat his own behind and say, "Who's your daddy?", and when he did that his neighbor would slap him on the behind and say, "I'M your daddy!". There were a couple of girls who thought that their butts kept falling off and they would have to run around the stage to find their butts and reattach them. There were guys with tattoos who thought their tattoos were biting them. There were dance contests and air guitar players...it was really fun. The very best part was at the very end as he was telling the hypno-tees that they would not be embarrassed over anything they did that night...he also told them that for the rest of their life they would never, ever get behind the wheel of a car if they had been drinking. I hope that post-hypnotic suggestion worked, and if so I think every bartender in the world should utilize it in their daily work routine.

The hypnotist show ended just in time for me to go to the concert. When I got inside the amphitheater I was shocked to see how enthusiastic the crowd was. I was very surprised to see how many men were there and you could tell that they were there enjoying the concert not just escorting their wives or girlfriends.

Chris Daughtry put on a very good show. He plays to the crowd by hitting his signature high notes that seem to come from the depths of his soul. He threw many of his water bottles out to the crowd and his guitar player tossed at least 15 guitar picks out, too. I'm happy to report that Chris Daughtry is every bit as good looking in person as he was on American Idol. I think they need to do a recount!















When the crowd was not standing...this was my view.
How is it that I am always the lucky one who gets to sit behind the water polo goalie or the starting line backer? It never fails!

Grevious Personal lnjuries June 2007

Last week I met up with my mom so we could go see our favorite local band, "Suave'". We've been following them from park to festival, from celebration to swap meets for the last couple of years. They are a cover band and they play a middle of the road
style of music such as selections from Earth, Wind & Fire, Chicago, Michael Jackson and Al Green. They also play a few Mexican songs. I have to admit that I'd never thought I hear myself saying this but I enjoy these Mexican songs. I have no idea what they are saying but the lyrics seem light hearted and fun and the crowd loves to dance to them. The band has two lead singers, (a guy and a girl), a small horn line, a couple of guitar players, a key board player and a drummer. In all I think there are 10 people up on stage. However.. the main reason I go to see this band again and again is:

This is one of the lead singers and his name is Devin. He. Is. So. Cute. He sings his heart out and he dances up a storm. He used to have long hair and I almost had a heart attack when I saw him last week. Why, oh why would he cut his hair? This picture does not do him justice. I must have taken 100 pictures of him and this is the best one and it is actually pretty crummy. I have a theory on why I couldn't take a good picture that night....

My mom and I got there early enough that we were able to park our chairs right in the front row. In all the times we've seen them we've always been off to the side or towards the back. They draw a very big crowd and I wouldn't dream of trying to cut in front of any of their familia. (I grew up in the mean streets of La Puente. I had to learn something..!) Before the band actually started to play they were doing a sound check. I figured I had plenty of time to go to the coffee shop and get my mom and myself an iced coffee drink. This sounds like an easy task, right? Well, for those of you reading this who don't know me very well...I have quite the propensity for tripping. In public. In front of God and everyone. See the picture below:

This is what I tripped over. No, not the big, obvious hazard that says "CAUTION" in big huge letters....that is for amateurs. I tripped over the 1/2 of a milimeter of uneven-ness where the grey cement meets the green cement. Only a skilled ballerina such as myself could trip over such a minor exposure. Was I wearing 4 inch high heeled peek-a-boo pumps that would surely assist in the tripping factor? No, I was wearing these sexy numbers:

When I tripped I landed on my hands and knees which is a very, very attractive stance for a woman of my age, especially in a public place. And just to make it even more embarrassing I almost landed in the lap of another Suave' fan. As I scrambled to get up and put on my, "I meant to do that" face I noticed that the sound check people had played a clip from the song "Low Rider" that goes: "Take a little trip, take a little trip, take a little trip with meeee". I'm sorry to say that I saw no humor in that particular display of immaturity. (When I'm injured my sense of humor goes right out the window. That's normal, right?)

By the time the show was over and I dropped my mom off and drove the 45 minute drive home, this is what my knees looked like:

Yesterday my entire knee was a brilliant shade of purple and today it is mostly green. It's almost as pretty as the peacocks from yesterdays post.

I'll close this post with a picture of a woman who has to have more self esteem in her little finger than I have in my whole body. This woman was dancing directly in front of me at the Suave' show. She was wearing a scarf and jeans.

Happy Birthday to me, my twin sister, my brother in law and the key board player from My Chemical Romance

Last Saturday was my birthday. That would obviously make it Tori's birthday, too. Her husband's birthday is the day after ours. To celebrate our birthdays we had dinner with family and friends at The Spaghetti Factory. Fun and spaghetti was had by all. Tori and I ordered chocolate martini's. Unfortunately when they were delivered to us they were clear. I have had this trick pulled on me before and I don't appreciate it. For some reason there is an unwritten joke in the universe that if you pour a glass full of iced frangelico and call it a chocolate martini no one will notice there there is not a drop of chocolate in the glass. A couple of times I have accepted this act of maleficence but I was not about to do so on my birthday. Tori and I marched up to the bar and we were promptly ignored by the bartenders. Did they not SEE the ribbons dangling from our shirts declaring that we were birthday girls? It took us about 10 minutes but we finally got a drink with chocolate involved. In my, & Tori's, quest to find the perfect chocolate martini...The Spaghetti Factory, along with Princess Cruises, are both out of the running. Not even an honorable mention. Anyway...I digress...the salad and spaghetti were wonderful. I stopped just short of licking my plate and was shocked to see that most of my neighbors had to request "to go" boxes for their spaghetti. Amateurs.

I got a lot of beautiful gifts...an outdoor solar lamp with kitties on it, a trip to San Diego, flamingo pajamas, lounge wear, an outfit including SHOES, a picture frame, bathroom accouterments, and a gift certificate for See's Candy with a warning that I was not to share this box of candy with Ashleigh and Lorenzo! (new post about them to follow, but after the way they've been acting it will not be difficult to not share my box of candy with them.)

The day after our birthday dinner I took Rebekah to see "My Chemical Romance" at the Anaheim Convention Center. As per usual we had to park in the east 40 which is basically in Garden Grove.
We had to pass many doors before we could find the proper door that would allow us access to the "pit". I knew we had finally found it when I saw this sign posted, "MOSH AREA. ENTER AT YOUR OWN RISK." This was one of those moments where the question, "Am I too old for this?", crossed my mind. The opening band was playing when we got there and unfortunately for Bek we got there just in time to hear them play the very last note to their very last song. When the lights came up the crowd kind of burped as people headed for the restrooms and the bar. Bek and I were salmon swimming up stream as we weaseled our way toward the front of the stage. We were about 5 rows back at first but after a very few minutes enough people had crowded in front of us and that put us about 10 rows back. Of course "Fatzilla" wound up standing in front of Rebekah, and I was next to a bunch of squirrely, shrieking girly girls. Psycho Mike from KROQ came out and got the crowd pumped up before the band came out and that was all it took for me. It instantly got too hot and too crowded. I told Bek to ring my phone so that we were sure we could find each other. It worked like a charm, and with that I told her that I would be standing in the back of the pit where there was sure to be more air and less people. Once I found a nice spot right next to the sound board I text messaged her so that she would know where I was in case the crowd got to be too much for her. She didn't respond to my text. I texted her again. No response. I thought about trying to go back into the mob and finding her and just then the music started. There was no way the crowd was going to let me back in, and plus there was no way of knowing that Rebek would be exactly where I left her. She had sworn to me that she would make it up to the front of the stage and I really didn't doubt that she would.
The music was loud and wonderful. The band was amazing. Their last album is called, "Welcome to the Black Parade", and apparently they fancy them selves as members of a marching band in the black parade. They were all wearing black band uniforms. It was amazing to me how they could rock like maniacs, jump and sing and dance while wearing long sleeve jackets all buttoned up to their chins. I was wearing a tank top and I was not standing under the lights or near the pyrotechnics and I was too hot. I could feel the sound reverberating off of my stomach. There were strobe lights flashing and fire pots bursting. Each song was an audience sing-a-long. There was dancing, there was moshing, there was "floating", (this is when the crowd picks someone up over their heads, horizontally, and people keep him suspended over their heads and move him all over the room by moving him from hand to hand,etc.) There were several people doing fast and furious punk versions of swing dancing. The band sang "Happy Birthday" to their key board player and of course as I sang along I put my name in there, too.

I saw kids as young as 5 years old out there with their parents. That never ceases to blow me away. It is amazing to me that they can tolerate such loud music but I guess some people are just born to rock and roll. And at the price of tickets I just can't help but think that a baby sitter would have been much, much cheaper.

The band sang every song I wanted to hear and yet when the concert was over I thought that it was over too soon. They ended with "I'm Not OK" and "Helena". Even though I was standing among a couple thousand of my closest friends I danced and sang, "I'm Not OK" as if I were in front of my bedroom mirror with a hair brush for a microphone. I was awesome and I will be waiting for the call from the band asking me to join them on the road.

When the concert was truly over I stood at the only door and waited for Rebekah to emerge. My phone rang and I heard her ask me where I was...I told her I was standing at the door and we stayed on the line until I saw her tiny figure emerge from the crowd. I was not prepared to see what I saw next. The bright eyed, hair straightened, meticulously made up, neat and tidy little daisy now resembled something along the line of a banshee. Her hair was standing on end. Her cheeks were so pink that I thought she had been slapped. Her shirt was completely soaked and her mascara was running down her face. "OH MY GOD AUNTIE!!!!", she said. A total wave of panic washed over my body. What in the hell was I thinking leaving this little girl out in a mosh pit all by herself. She'd obviously been tattered and torn and it was all my fault because I was not there to protect her. She continued to talk in a voice that only dogs could hear and was showing me her shaking hands. I am the worst aunt in the world. She will never recover. Once we got a couple of steps outside of the arena I realized what she was telling me. Apparently as soon as I left her she managed to weasel her way to the front of the stage where she proceeded to rock her socks off. "Gerard spit on me!!!", she said with glee. "HE SPIT ON ME." (Uh, yay?) "And did you see when he threw his arm band out to the crowd?" (yes, I did.) "I caught it. I had it in my hands and then this old lady, who looked like Sue from Survivor, ripped it out of my hands. I grabbed it back and we were FIGHTING over it. Her boyfriend grabbed my arm and pulled me backwards the woman's arm was in front of my face so I BIT HER! She pulled my hair and the only reason I let go of the arm band was because there was an open safety pin on it and it was cutting my hand." I was so excited for Rebek that she actually caught such a coveted item but I was instantly incensed that someone would have the nerve to snatch it out of her hand. I wanted to find that woman and climb up her back and beat her until she gave the arm band back to Rebek. Why are some people so selfish and thoughtless? As we walked through the halls of the arena Bek pulled WADs of hair off of her arm and shirt. I was hoping that it belonged to the woman but Bek was pretty sure that she was the original owner.

We had no idea how to get back to the car as the crowd was being ushered in one direction. Oddly enough everyone had to walk past the souvenir stands before they went out of the building. Bek wanted a tee shirt. We stood in line for about 45 minutes. (yay, more standing!) I told her that this was her birthday present so she could have whatever she wanted. I honestly thought she'd pick 2 tee shirts and a jacket and a flag and her very OWN arm band, but she decided on one jacket. Everything else had skulls on it and she was certain that she wouldn't be allowed to wear them, but it still surprised me when she decided on one item.

A good time was had by all but I don't think I will buy general admission pit passed for myself again. In fact I think I will start a petition that they should now implement a "Lazy Boy" section. Cuz that's just how I roll.

Bek and her boys of the weekend. First picture is with Tom Delong of Angels & Airwaves. Second picture is with Michael Gotto of "Sanctified". Third picture is with Daryl Gotto, also of "Sanctified".

On Saturday Bek and I went to The Universal Hilton and checked in. Our room was very nice and we had a lovely view of the roof of the floors below us. After we got un-packed we took the hotel shuttle across the way to Universal Studios City Walk. We walked around and shopped. We stopped in a chocolate store and had chocolate fudge with cayenne pepper in it and it was muy bueno. We found the stage where "Sanctified" was going to be playing and we staked out a place where we would have something to lean against. After much waiting the band finally showed up and did a sound check. Rebek was pretty much instantly in love. I'm not sure who she liked the best...Daryl, Michael or Nation. They are all 3 talented, good looking guys. The sound check went really well but pretty much as soon as they were finished the skies opened up. Bek and I searched for dryer ground and we wound up sitting with Michael and Daryl's dad and grandma. I was very shocked to find out that Mr. Gotto actually remembered me and welcomed us to squeeze in under the heaters with his family.

"Sanctified" put on a wonderful show. They sing, they rock, they jam. When the show was over one of the band members, Gabe, brought his girl friend up on stage and then proceeded to get down on bended knee and propose to her. It was so sweet.

After the show was over we took the hotel shuttle from Universal City Walk back to the Sheraton. It had rained a little bit but had since stopped. I was the first one to get off of the bus and little did I know that that's when my flight was cleared for take off. Oddly enough I was holding on to the hand rail, which is very, very rare for me being the germ-o-phobe that I am. I took about a half of a step and my feet just flew out from underneath me. I dangled in mid air for about 5 minutes before my butt hit the stair steps and then I bounced down each and every one of them on my spine. I hit my head on the last step and my first thought at that moment was, "MY HAIR IS IN THIS ICKY WATER THAT EVERYONE HAS BEEN STEPPING IN!" I never let go of the hand rail until my body hit the road so I landed with my arms above my head and my jacket, shirt and sweater up around my neck. Now THAT is a good look. My flying Walenda routine took place in slow motion and I have relived it in my mind over and over since it happened. Even when it was happening I was so embarrassed I could hardly stand it. I know that I was never going to see any of those people again but I feel like I made such a spectacle of myself. Of course it only took 1 second after landing on the wet ground for me to jump up and insist that I was ok, I meant to do that, leave me alone I'm going to my room There was a lady who got off of the shuttle when we did and she strongly encouraged me to make an accident report. At first I didn't want to because I was not yet in any pain and I just wanted to get the hell out of Dodge. While waiting for the elevator I had Rebek look at my back and assess my wounds. I was so cold and so full of adrenaline that I couldn't even tell if I was bleeding or not. My spine was scraped but fortunately there was no blood. After thinking for another minute I realized that I could very well wake up paralyzed the next morning and I'd have no way of proving that I had sustained my injury during my stay at the Sheraton so I relented and went to fill out an accident report. This turned out to be a total joke and pretty much just made me mad. Can you believe a corporation as large as the Sheraton Hotel does NOT have an accident report form? A person from the securityoffice came down from his lofty tower with a clip board and a blank sheet of paper. By his demeanor and actions I would easily say he'd never taken an accident report before in his entire life. And judging by how long it took him to find me he must have been reading a tutorial before he came down stairs. The first thing he asked me was, "Do you have a picture ID?" He didn't ask me what happened or if I was in pain or what I thought of the war in Iraq. No sympathy or apology was offered. I gave him my drivers license and he wrote down all of my information and then asked me if this was my current address. THEN he asked me what happened. I had to repeat myself several times and this was not a difficult story. "I was getting off ofthe Sheraton shuttle bus, the steps were wet and I slipped and slid down the steps on my spine until I hit the ground. I hit my head and I scraped my back." That's when he finally asked if I needed to see a doctor and I said that I didn't think so. Then this yayhoo asked me why I was requesting an accident report???? I told him that if I woke up paralyzed the next morning I wanted something in writing showing how it happened. He said,"ok" and that was that. He walked away and we walked away, then I saw him at the elevator and he said, "When did this happened?" I thought that was a foolish question, when did he think it happened? Last May? I told him that it happened just a couple of minutes ago and he said, "No, you were talking to me a few minutes ago." I wanted to tell him that at point of impact I didn't bother to look at my watch, but instead I told him that it happened roughly 10 minutes ago. That was the end of our conversation.

During this whole situation he displayed not one bit of sympathy or compassionor true concern for me or the safety of others. He wasn't even matter of fact, he was completely disinterested in the whole situation. I think I will sue them because now that I have a huge bruise on my fanny my bikini modeling career is ruined. I don't think I will be going to the doctor. I'm stiff and I'm sore and hopefully this will be as bad as it gets. I think I pulled the muscles in my right bicep and chest area .n to, and never let go of the hand rail. Also for reasons I can't quit figure out...my ankles hurt, too.

Takes a bow and then shows rather large bruise on right rear end and another on lower spine to the crowd. (The one on my butt hurt enough that it woke me up in the middle of the night Saturday night before I even knew it was there.) The whole event was very pretty and impressive and I'm sorry that you were not there to witness it in person.

Since it was raining and I had just tried to kill myself...we were pretty much going to stay in our room for the rest of the night. I had no problem entertaining myself with the television and my library book. Rebek on the other hand found much folly in creating a new hair do which she dubbed "Glass Head". She took a small drinking glass and put it on top of her head and then pinned her hair all up over the glass. She took pictures and in the pictures she simply looks like someone from a scary movie who's hair is standing up on end.

We got up Sunday morning and packed out bags. We checked out of our hotel room and took the killer shuttle back to City Walk. We had a nutritious breakfast of Cinnabons and coffee. We had a few hours to kill so we went to the movies and saw "The Nightmare Before Christmas" in 3-D. I do so love Jack Skellington.

After the movie we made our way back to the VIP entrance of the concert. It was pretty cool walking past all of the other poor suckers who had to stand in line. Once we went through the gate we saw a patio that was all decorated for Christmas. There was a huge food tent and then a long hallway with pictures of all of the bands that were scheduled to play. The pictures were all made to look like family Christmas pictures. It was pretty funny.
We had to hang out and mingle. It was freezing cold and it was hard to stand still but Bek was certain that if Brandon Flowers from the Killers was anywhere around she was going to see him. We never got to see Brandon but she did get to see Tom Delong. He used to sing with Blink 182 but he's now with Angeles & Airwaves. She was so afraid to go up and ask to take a picture with him but I convinced her that THAT was what he was there for. She walked up to him and she was so giddy I could hardly understand what she was saying but he agreed to take a picture. He is very tall and Rebek is very short...so he pretty much folded himself in half so that his face would be in the same area as hers....they stood there smiling and...my...camera...wouldn't....work.