It took forever to get her to go to bed the night before, and the picture I took of her on the train at 7:55 in the morning show a slightly grumpy looking child clutching her monkey a little too tightly, looking like she just got drug a 1/4 mile at a fast hike,(it wasn't THAT fast) but she does have short legs I guess. We were all a little giddy and punch drunk that early in the morning, and I dont do well with the unknown or things out of my control and I was damn sure dealing with a WHOLE WORLD full of that, working around my friends schedule,(WHAT A TROOPER!), the 100 Monkeys and the venues, Portland traffic, a Max that was running behind all stinking day and weather that was honestly hotter than BALLS! The fact I did not end up going rabid super ninja on someone before 12 noon speaks to how well I am doing.
Talk about putting me out of my comfort zone? How about just erasing my comfort zone all together, snuggling up against me and breathing down my neck? I let my daughter wander around with people I dont really know. I let her not only hug a young man I dont know all that well, I let him pick her up! I talked to him! I dont think I stuttered too much, though I know for a fact my damn hand shook pretty hard because my tattoo got noticed and when he asked to see it, the shake was pretty evident. I got my picture took with the band. Yup, me! Turned my back on a group of men, one of them holding my baby, and I got my picture taken with them, though if you look at me, you can tell Im a might bit twitchy by that point, the clenched fist and the hand holding onto the arm is pretty good evidence, but I did smile.
My daughter was in heaven. She got to talk to her Jackson a good long bit and they bounced together, she got him to sign her monkey. They ended up giving us,"Meet and Greet" Passes because she was just such a little charmer. I swear, I loved the Voodoo Donuts show the best, but for getting to spend a moment talking at him, yesterday was awesome for her.
They played 3 songs at BB, and it wasn't as intimate or as charming as Voodoo and truthfully the manager of the BB in Beaverton was an ass to the fans waiting for the show and lost the store more than a few sales of guitar strings and even the possible sale of a guitar in the next month, but Im not going to dwell on one guy who wasn't even affiliated with the band. We got a decent spot and when the band came in, a photographer managed to successfully totally block my daughters and my view of the band, so my son stood her on the stool she had been sitting on so she could sort of see, and I just made do. I could see my daughter swaying back and forth with the biggest grin on her face in the world when they started with,'Shy Water" and it brought home to me that its been a year of such changes and that she is such a happy child now. We were in such transition when we first heard that song live together, and its with out lives in transition we hear it live again, and so with all those people around me smiling and laughing, my goofy self had tears rolling. I fly out of Portland this Wednesday to go to Flagstaff to get the boys, thanks to not only my cousin, but 100 Monkey fans I will be bringing them home to Portland.
Once we left the store and walked back to the Max, allowing for me to have a moment of collecting myself on the sidewalk and a brief stop to get some treats for the kids, we headed directly to the venue because we were worried about getting good placement for the little kids. Stevie quickly got bored with sitting on the hot sidewalk and once the bus got parked, she wanted to be up with the girls who had all the interesting things like balloons and where the water was. Since I could see her, and they seemed like a harmless bunch that wasn't cussing a lot or acting too disreputable, I gave permission. The next thing I knew, she was singing her songs and dancing for them and clapping coupled with hysterical giggles were coming from the direction my child had taken off in. I hear her saying,"Oh thank you, thank you! you are too kind!" Followed by more of her singing, then joke telling and then a dramatic retelling and re-enactment of 'The Adventures Of Super Monkey".
My daughter made friends yesterday. She made fans yesterday. She was filmed multiple times singing her song. The crowd clapped for her enthusiastically and laughed at her antics and I stayed out of it. Like I told one young woman who asked if I was,"Stevie's Mom"? I said that I was her mom, but that I am just the person who handles the transportation,pays the bills and makes sure she goes to bed by 830 on school nights, I dont tell her to stop what she is doing and I dont try to direct or control what direction it goes as long as she is safe. Stevie is a free spirit with a high creative drive and one true abiding love that fuels her and makes her happy and that is that boy. I dont encourage or really discourage. I may groan and tease her and remind her that he is a,'Stinky, sweaty boy" but she is 7 and all she cares about right now is that he is a very kind boy who signed her monkey and talked to her and oh yeah, hung the moon.
She knows he is a sweaty boy now because after the show was almost over, and he had performed his heart out, rocking the house to her and everyone's delight, he came to the edge of the stage where she was standing and he handed her his headband, his sopping wet with sweat, red headband. All the girls around her said,'Aww How CUTE!" simultaneously while she turned to me and said,"Mom, its wet! Eww, can you take it?" I had to laugh, but I took it and wrapped it around her monkey. I am really appreciative to him for finally busting the myth that he isn't a stinky sweaty boy, she now knows different. It does not make a whit of difference to her, because after all that went on yesterday she is even MORE convinced he is the best thing ever, but at least she knows hes human and not a demigod.
It was a great night, a great show and we left out of there having seen 4 fantastic bands, 2 of which I hadn't paid attention to before, but after hearing live I will be looking to see them again as well as buying their music. I really liked "Bleeding Horse Express" and "The Angry Orts" and even my son admitted he enjoyed them quite a bit. My son was pretty taken with,"Kissing Club" and wants their CD, so once we get the boys home and things situated next month, I will have to buy some new music.
For Chances second real rock concert, it was quite an eye opener for him. He looks quite a bit older than he is, and I dont require him to stay attached at my side, in fact, since Stevie and I were dancing and doing things that would be embarrassing to a teen boy, I gave him permission to stand away from us a ways, if I had known then what I know now, I wouldn't have done that.
My son is a good looking boy. I dont say that being egotistical, I say that being pragmatic. He is over 5'9, hes an athlete, and even though he had shaved the night before, he was already rocking stubble by concert time. His grey Affliction t-shirt was tight, and his skinny jeans were to, and I guess you add a good looking young man to a crowd of hormonally challenged and in some cases drunk, women, you are going to get some out of hand behavior. There was a drunk woman in the crowd, she was obnoxiously drunk and she was behind my son. Her bellows can be heard at the beginnings of the recording he did when they opened with,"Sleeping Giants".
She started off with bumping into him several times, that is why many of the pictures he took ended up blurry, then she graduated to playing with the back of his neck and making comments about,"How Hot" he was. She finished up with a full on grope of him and tried to pull his pants down. I wish she knew that the guy who she tried to molest and who ended up elbowing her in the solar plexus to get away was the 15 year old son of an ex-cop that would dearly love to find her today? He didn't tell me about all what had gone on until we had left and were in the cab on the way home because he knows me well.
All in all though, it was a wonderful day. We met some new friends, and though we missed our old ones, we knew they were there with us in spirit. Seeing the power of my little girl and realizing that the wings she has to fly have just gotten stronger.
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