NikB #26 (tentatively moving to Piecing, again)

[NikB]

Thanks L2 and Michelle!

OK apologies as none of this has to do with R/M or really DB'ing but I already told everyone IRL who cares so I'm posting too.

WOW what a show. WOW WOW WOW. I now have a valid excuse for not talking to H, my voice is GONE from singing at the top of my lungs for 2.5 hours straight. (I'm kidding... not even thinking of it as an excuse, but yes, my voice is totally gone). I was singing and "BRUUUUUUCING" so much my voice was already iffy. Late in the show Bruce turned it over to the crowd to sing "Badlands, you gotta live it every day..." I know the words but my vocal cords said "Nope, we're done!" I need to get at least some voice back to sing tomorrow.

L2 - thanks for checking in. Wow long time since I've seen you post! I will need to catch up with you.

On the Bruce - it's a funny story actually. As a kid I had a lot of severe medical issues. I was in the hospital a lot - and one summer around age 10 was in Oakland Children's hospital for 4 months for intensive physical therapy. One of the things I used as motivation to exercise was Springsteen CDs. For some reason I just loved his music and message from a very early age. So...this was during the Born in the USA tour. One day I found out the cancer ward was having a raffle for Bruce tix, and I spent every $ I had to enter the drawing. (my Dad gave me a small allowance to "match" what my bro got at home even though I was in the hospital and couldn't do much). In hindsight I'm pretty sure they rigged the drawing.. ... but I "won." The docs wrote me a 4 hour pass to leave the hospital and one of the nurses took me to the concert. Totally life changing experience for me.

My Mom liked the music too but couldn't make it down in time to go to the concert after I won the tix. I of course went crazy telling her how awesome the show was. She went with me to the next show we got tix for, and we literally haven't missed a local show since. I even painted the back of a jacket to match his first album cover, and he autographed it for me once. These shows are a bit of a money stretch but I'm so glad we get to see these two back to back.

It's a bit bittersweet as it's pretty clear this will be the last "full band" tour.. sooo excited to see two shows.

Tonight they did 2 songs I love but never thought I'd hear live, plus another one that somehow we seem to miss everytime and it was also great. I was trying to go to bed early to rest up for tomorrow but I'm still flying . I can sleep Sunday right??

I am already trying to figure out how to afford a show in NJ this summer. Never seen him there and I bet it'd be amazing.

And I realized something funny both during the show and later posting tonight.. THAT was me, truly me, for awhile. Before the show I was a stress case buying water, getting dinner, upset about having trouble finding the right gate.. WHY?? That's not me, it's me trying to be perfect and it's just not worth it.

When Mom and I got in the arena it was like we both shut off the stress and I felt like just ME. Hard to explain, but just several times I felt really peaceful and present (well OK peaceful is a stretch given all the singin' and dancin' my butt off, but peaceful in that I wasn't going through mental gymnastics). I think I especially noticed it because the girl in front of me was clearly a huge fan, wanting to dance to every song and knew every word. Guy she was with.. not so much, but she had less fun because she was trying to make sure HE had fun - sitting down when she didn't want to because he didn't feel like dancing, ignoring the show and flirting with him when he wasn't into it. I found myself GLAD that 1. H didn't go if he's not really into it and 2. glad that my Mom and I went and were totally uninhibited and REALLY had fun. I realized somehow "Hey this is me, this is how I wanna be NO MATTER who I'm here with."

Just random musings late at night after a really amazing show...

Can't wait for tomorrow. My voice should be completely gone by then.