st louis.

Okay, I need to write down all my St Louis thoughts before I fall asleep and forget them all.
First off I have to say that seeing this show with interferencers really made for a great time.
My adventure began tuesday afternoon when I thought I was going to miss my flight b.c I was running so late getting to midway. Turns out my flight was delayed b/c an important lightbulb was burned out under the airplane. We had to wait an hour to get it fixed.
The flight itself was about 40 minutes, not too bad if you ask me. Once I got in and grabbed my bag I headed out on the metrolink to meet up with Nurse Chrissi, ruffian, redkat and chizip at the hard rock cafe. The evening was low key and we sat around drinking a few beers, talking about who we would put on our ignore lists, etc. Ruff, chrissi and I ended up staying at the Hyatt, about 3 blocks from the venue. We got to the GA line around 1 am and ended up with numbers in the 40's-50's.
Chrissi had a tent and thank god she did. I am proud to say ruff, chrissi and I set the tent up all by ourselves.
I didn't really sleep at all. just drifted for a few minutes.
By the time 11 am came I took the first shift in watching our stuff while everyone else went to warm up, eat, run errands etc. I decided that I needed a nap. I woke up to discover that the Savvis center security had taken control of the line and split it. The were honoring the fan number system which was cool. However, there was a change in policy re: the fanclub tickets. The tickets meant nothing. You had to have your membership card, profile, keychain to get in the fanclub line. We had none of this stuff. At first security was telling me I couldn't get in line b.c I didn't have any of that stuff and that I had to move my stuff asap. I put in a few calls and started to move our stuff. I made friends with the ladies in front of us and let them know how many of us there were and all. In the end I ended up making friends with the security guys, one was from a suburb of chicago too. They were very nice.
Livluv and BLS were in the 80's behind us. They both ended up scoring GAs! The weather wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be so we lucked out. By 6:00 pm we were all ready to go in. Chip reminded us that is was "positive vibes" that gets you in so we all thought thoughts. As it turns out I did scan in and the next thing I know i'm running with chip around the venue looking for the section to go down to get into the ellipse. We picked a spot in front of Edge. Space was tight but we were determined to have all of us in the same place.
Okay, now I'm going to talk about Kanye West. For those haters out there I suggest you stop reading here b.c I'm about to sing his praises.
First of all Bono came out and gave Kanye an impressive intro. I can't ever remember seeing Bono introduce an opening act. Now, I'm a casual fan of Kanye but seeing him live was just unreal. He was just fucking awesome. Even ruff, who wasn't expecting anything, was totally impressed. The people at the front of the ellipse gave him a lots of love and he returned the favor. He was slapping hands of the fans in the front row and smiling and acknowledging those of us who were into his set. I cannot say enough good things about him. He was charismatic, engergetic, humble (he admitted he was nervous but then said that it wasn't so bad) and gave an outstanding performance. Usually during the opening act I'm constantly checking my watch to see if their time is almost up. I didn't check my watch once. He had a string section on stage with him that rocked too. Kanye also used the ellipse which was just bad ass. He was actually dancing around the ellipse! I think it was at that moment I fell in love. Damn, he can move. I got chills during Jesus Walks. When it was over I was disappointed. I wanted to see more.

I've never been on the rail in the ellipse or heart for matter. The band really put on a good show last night in spite of the lackluster setlist. The show was made even better because I was with such cool people. I stood btwn Ruff and Chip and had an unreal time. Edge is just amazing. Amazing. I loved seeing Adam and Edge interact.

After the show Chrissi Bono's setlist from his tech. And we headed over to the Sheraton to meet up with greeneyedgirl and the rocking edge. Elevation USA was playing as well. I met Tre for the first time, who is really cute for those young ladies out there. We sat around, heckled the band (I made an Acrobat and electric co sign ) and drank a few beers. Ruff and Chrissi headed back to our room and I stayed for one more. When I got back to the hotel Ruff and I stayed up for a while talking and then finally I got about 2 hours worth of sleep before getting up to catch my flight.

I looked like hell today. Even so I found people on my flight to talk to. One of them happened to be a music rep for Capitol records. I told him what I was doing in town and the next thing he asked me was if I liked Coldplay. Haha. He was really talking their tour up to me and by the end of the flight he had given me his card and told me to email him. He is going to send me Coldplay's cds and if I like them he will send me tickets to the show in chicago in march! He was interested in hearing about my students and told me he would send me promo cds to give to my students. Now, who knows if he'll do this but I'm going to email him anyway.

I didn't tell anyone at work I was seeing the show. Social studies has always been kind of a boys club. My coworkers call me groupie. I broke down and told one guy I work with where I was and he thought it was awesome. Let's hope it stays on the downlow.

I had a fantastic time yesterday thanks to not only the show but the people I saw it with.