Death of a Bachelor

Hey, Friends.

I went to a concert last night.  Now, normally I don't do whole posts about such a thing unless it is Heffron Drive , but I'm going to make an exception on this one.  I went to see Panic! At The Disco last night with a friend at Mohegan Sun Arena. Why am I making an exception on this one?  Because I know my niece will be dying of jealousy.  She went to see them last year, and pretty much lived in that tour t-shirt a majority of the summer.  (And they played with Weezer!  I'm freaking jealous, and she didn't even invite me to get my ass to Texas and go with her.)

Anyway, this post is pretty much for her benefit, and anyone else who may have wished to go to the concert.  If you have no interest in the band you should probably just skip this whole thing.  Honestly, I also need to get all of this off of my phone because it is taking up too much storage space.

Let's start with the pictures first, shall we?


Saint Motel opened, and they were fantastic.

Not familiar with them?  You should give them a listen.

Next up was MisterWives -- new to me, but I enjoyed them as well.  And then we heard them on the radio on the drive home, which was cool.

Next was a moment of fascination watching this happen.

I don't know how I have managed to never witness this before, but it was really cool to watch them go up and situate themselves up there.  

And then it was time for Panic! At The Disco.

Hell yeah!

I made a video, Friends.  Kind of shitty camera work on my part, but you'll have that.  It was mainly to send to my niece at some point, but might as well share it here.

Someone was also handing out these hearts before the show.

It did look pretty when they were all lit up during the song.

Since we had a VIP package, we also got gifts.  I guess you could consider this a spoiler alert if you are going to a show and don't want to see.

Tote bag, guitar picks, vinyl, and a t-shirt

I got home around 2 am.  Much less traffic driving in the middle of the night, although I could have done without the patchy fog and bits of rain.  Can't really complain though, as the concert was worth it.

I rounded out my exciting night (or would it be morning at that point? Whatever, you know what I mean.) with a bowl of chicken noodle soup before passing the hell out.  

And that brings us up to date, Friends.  So far I have had a shit ton of coffee today so that I resemble a human being.  I blame my cat (Jazz-kitty) for being evil and deciding that I really needed to wake up at 8 am because she could hear the birds outside.  I have a ton of things I need to do, but there might be a nap in my future -- not gonna lie.  

Flying Solo

**This is going to be a long one, kids.  Pull up a comfy chair, snuggle in, and get ready for an epic adventure.  Get yourself a drink.  Personally, I'm having a beer.***

Hey, Friends.

I'm a slacker.  I've got so many stories that I need to tell you here, but I haven't had time to get around to it.  I'll do my best to catch up.  Promise.  For now, let's start with the most recent events, shall we?

If you've been hanging around here with me for a while, you might remember that last summer I took my niece, Lili, to see Heffron Drive at Webster Hall.  We got to meet them, and she got all swoony and refused to wash the shirt that she wore because it would clean off the "Kendall Loving".  (Don't remember?  Of course not -- you've got far more important stuff to keep in your brain.  You can click right here for the recap, if you are so inclined.)

Last night I went to see Heffron Drive, again at Webster Hall.  Sadly, I was flying solo this trip since Lili was back in Texas already.  For some unimaginable reason, my brother was just not cool with her skipping the first week of school to stay in New York and have happy-fun-concert-time with Aunt Tammy.....well, not anymore concert fun time.  I did take her to see The Lumineers at Speed of Sound Fest and we saw Twenty One Pilots at MSG. She made out alright, but was incredibly bummed out that she was going to miss getting to see Kendall and Dustin again.

So, having learned absolutely nothing from our adventure last year, I once again decided to work half the day before catching the fabulous Hudson Line down to the city.  I had to run an errand, return some taxidermy that I had borrowed for book group decor (again -- story for another time, people) to a coworker down in the main branch of the library.  You know, the usual.  I was feeling pretty good with the state of the universe, as at said book group the night before I had served fortune cookies along with the taxidermy (WTF?!  I know, but it did make sense, promise.) and had gotten 2 fortunes in 1 cookie:

Bring it, fortune cookies!  Hope you're not lying.

It was all going swimmingly, until I made the fatal mistake of going to Dunkin Donuts to get coffee and a sandwich to eat on the train ride as my lunch/dinner. Friends, if you know me at all then you know something is about to go horribly wrong if I am even remotely hinting that coffee was a mistake.  I love my coffee.  I write love letters to my coffee pot when it needs a little ego boost.

Everything was fine for about....oh, half an hour or so.  I ate my sandwich, and was happily reading my book.  I went to take another sip of my coffee -- a nice, big, large iced coffee -- when I accidentally unleashed the Great Coffee-pocalypse on the feet of my unsuspecting fellow travelers.

Friends, I have never seen coffee spill so thoroughly and with such speed as it did on that train car.  I'm thankful that it wasn't completely full, and that I had the reflexes to get it before the entire thing dumped out.  I desperately tried to pick up all the loose ice cubes and mop up as much of the mess as I could with my one napkin and the two tissues I had in my purse, all while apologizing to the people around me like crazy.  I was mortified.  You know those moments when you would be happy to find a bottomless pit and just chuck yourself down it?  That's where I was living.  The woman across from me tells me it was just an accident, and I'm lucky because it's mostly all guys on the train headed to Yankee Stadium so they don't have bags on the floor. Then she gives me a Wet Wipe and tells me to use it on my hands after I'm done trying to mop up.  She told me I was braver than her because there was no way in hell she would have even considered touching the train floor.

Then the conductor comes back through and is all, "Whoa!  What happened here?" and I told him my coffee spilled and apologized some more.  I thought maybe he would get a mop, or hand me a roll of paper towels to try to clean up my mess.  Nope.  Apparently we were all just going to enjoy my coffee puddles, rolling around the train, for the rest of the trip.

Coffee-pocalypse after cleaning.  Go Big or Go Home.

I had to ride the train for the next hour like that, folks, wincing at every stop as I watched people try to negotiate the aisle without slipping or stepping in the puddles.  The woman across from me very helpfully told me that the Coffee-pocalypse had made it 6 rows in front of me.  OMG.  I was just waiting for someone to get up and start bitching me out about having ruined their shoes, or their bag. Thankfully that never happened.

Should I have put my book down and paid more attention to what I was doing?  Obviously, yes.  But I can't help but feel that Dunkin is slightly responsible for this as well because my lid clearly wasn't fully locked on.  That might just be wishful thinking.  And I might have felt just the slightest bit of joy when, about 30 minutes after Coffee-pocalypse had been loosed, someone farther back than me dropped a bottle of chocolate milk that proceeded to roll down the entire length of the car.  Not just my mess now, and I had nothing to do with the milk.

Please let me escape my coffee nightmare

Finally, blessedly, we arrived in Grand Central and I could escape the scene of the crime.  I headed for the ladies' room to try and de-coffee myself and my shoes.  After ensuring that I was as coffee-free as I could possibly get, I headed outside.  I could have walked, but it was way too hot and I would have been a sweaty, coffee-scented mess by the time I arrived.  The line for a cab was loooooooooong.  So I wandered off down the street to try my luck elsewhere.

I got really lucky and an Uber driver took pity on me.  He explained what the normal fare would be, but that it might be more with a surge since it was after 5 pm now, and "it's so hot out today that everyone is taking cabs.  You couldn't have gotten a cab there for hours."  Thanks, Buddy.  I'll take my chances with the surge.

So we're driving along and chatting.  He asked where I was from, what I was going to do.  I told him I was from Poughkeepsie and headed to a concert.  He tells me that he gets a lot of people from Poughkeepsie on the weekends, and I was filling him in on how it's so convenient since it's right on the Hudson Line. Then he busts out with, "Did you know that Poughkeepsie is the murder capital of the country?"  Seriously?  If it's true I'm not proud of it, but what do you say to that?  And, in a strange turn of events, he was not the first person to tell me that this week.  It made me ponder a few things:

1. How are we possibly the murder capital of the country?  That seems pretty far-fetched.  Is this determined by number of murders per capita or something?  I mean, I'm not going to lie and say no one ever gets murdered.  They do, and it's sad.  I just didn't think that we were murdery stabby blood-thirsty enough to be number one.
2.  Where are people getting this statistic from that everyone seems to have heard it?  
3. I feel moderately better now that the only part of the trip I was really worried about was the walk to my car in the parking lot back at the train station, and that was mainly because I would be alone and it would be the middle of the night.  Apparently not an unfounded fear.

So we finally get to the corner near Webster Hall and he drops me off.  There was a surge, of course.  $50.  It cost me more to get from Grand Central to Webster Hall than it did for a round-trip train ticket...and I somehow doubt that my Uber driver would have been as nonchalant about a spilled coffee as the conductor on the train.

Friends, I was so happy when I finally got to the end of the line outside Webster Hall!  It had been a long damn day already by that point, and I'm sure I looked like it.  So I took a picture of the Webster Hall sign and posted it to Snapchat as Heffron Drive has a cool filter for each show.  Immediately I get a message back from Lili about how bummed she is and how she wished she was with me.  I struck up a conversation with the woman and her daughter who were ahead of me in line, since we were going to be spending some quality time with each other.  They were from Toms River and were very cool.  They hadn't gotten there much before I had, but apparently people further up the line had been there since 2 pm.  Possibly earlier.  I don't know how early the front of the line had arrived.  Apparently a lot of people in line already knew each other, and were walking back and forth to chat with different groups of friends. One girl had already been to like 8 shows this year or something.  They would all squee with excitement when someone else arrived and be all excited that they made it.  I kind of got the feeling there was like some elite group of Super Fans or something, and I was clearly not a member of that club and had no idea who any of these other people were.  It's fine. I'll just hang with the ladies from Toms River.  We get each other.

We finally get inside, and it isn't set up anything like last year.  Last year you immediately were in the queue for the Meet and Greet, and that clearly wasn't happening.  The ladies from Toms River are looking at me, and I'm like, "Yeah, I've got nothing.  This isn't the way it went last time."  But I did notice there was a bar, and that was awesome because I was going to need a drink.  Causing the Great Coffee-pocalypse is not something that is easy to get over, Friends.

Heffron Drive comes out, and they sing a cover of Iris by the Goo Goo Dolls. I have never seen more phones whipped out with such speed in my life.  I looked around for minute because I kind of felt like I was the only person not documenting the hell out of it.  Not that I have ever been a performer on stage or have even the vaguest frame of reference, but that has got to be a weird moment.  Like before you even get a word out of your mouth there is a battalion of phones recording your every move.

So then they explain that the pictures/Meet & Greet session will take place off to the side, and to line up.  The doors for General Admission will open at 7 pm whether we are done or not.  As we wait and time goes by the Mom from my Toms River ladies starts to worry:  what if we aren't done by 7? Does that mean the GA people will get our good places close to the stage?  Her daughter isn't that tall, she won't be able to see.  Maybe she should go hold our places (which her daughter was not having because she was getting super nervous and didn't want to be alone.)  Those other girls put their purses on the ground to hold their spots.  Should she do that -- but her purse cost a lot of money.  I tried to reassure her that the line was moving quickly, and we would be fine.  I told her my bag cost $15 at a street fair, but I wasn't about to leave it on the ground unattended either.  She said she wasn't above elbowing people out of the way to get their spot back, and I'm not entirely sure she was joking.  I told her that I was right here, if it got close to time she could go hold the spots and I would stay with her daughter -- that someone would be there to take the pictures with your own phone anyway, just keep it cool and it will all be fine.

And then the first few people were coming out the other end.  One girl was crying in joy, a couple were shaking.  Maybe I was too far back in line to notice last year, or maybe I was too busy talking to Lili, but I don't recall anyone totally losing their minds.  

By the time we got to the door and my new friends from Toms River were next, the daughter was starting to get super nervous.  It got worse when she could actually see Kendall and Dustin.  Her Mom hadn't been planning on going in with her, but that was apparently out the window at this point -- they were both going.  I told her that it would be fine, she's got this.  She can handle it.  Friends, that is truly rich coming from me.  Last year I was a total tongue-tied spaz, overly paranoid about my niece getting lost and/or broken when I took my eyes off of her for .5 seconds.  So yeah.  I knew exactly how she felt, and I also knew it would be okay and the guys are both really sweet to their fans.  Plus, I was going right after them and was really trying to get my shit together so that I could maybe seem like a coherent human being this time.  If I focus on them, then I won't have time to worry about myself.

You see, Friends, I had a mission.  I wanted to make Lili feel like she was included, even though she couldn't be there.  To that end I had made a little sign that said "Hi Lili!" that I was hoping Kendall and Dustin would be cool enough to hold when we had our picture taken.  That was going to require me to keep my shit together and be able to speak -- preferably in full sentences -- so that I could explain. As adorable as I find my niece to be, they meet a shit-ton of people at concerts, and the likelihood of them remembering her (or me) was zero.  Talking was going to be necessary in my mission.

First up was Dustin, since he was right there.  I introduced myself and gave him a hug, and he told me his name was Dustin, but I could call him Lord D-Belt.  And I'm like, "Okay," because it was unexpected and amused me.  And then Kendall said to just ignore anything that Dustin said.  It doesn't sound like much, but I was amused and it helped me relax.  Maybe I looked like a nervous wreck and they were trying to help -- I really don't know.  Then I introduced myself to Kendall and got a hug, and explained about the sign I wanted them to hold.  Like the whole story about how she came with me to see them last year, and she couldn't this year and was super bummed but she lives in Texas and school had already started, and my brother would not let her ditch the entire first week to come with me.  I rambled, in essence.  Shocker, I know.  But they agreed to hold the sign, so mission: accomplished!

They're cute, I'm a mess.  But at least I wasn't covered in coffee.

And as we are getting the pictures taken, Kendall says something about it being too bad Lili couldn't come, but school should be her priority right now.  He's absolutely right, and I totally agree with him.  And that really is what I meant to do, but instead I found myself saying, "Well, right now her priority seems to be coming up with ways to violate the school's dress code."  OMG what the fuck is wrong with me?!  I go from barely being able to speak to them last year to being unable to just shut the hell up, and now I'm oversharing details that they do not need to know.  Maybe if they come back again the third time will be the charm.  No promises though.

And then something magical happened.  Kendall asked to see the sign..

They are made of awesome!

I was floored.  I hadn't even thought to ask them to do that.  I thanked them (at least I hope I did.  If not, thank you so much!!)  I know I told them that she was going to die when she saw it -- cause I apparently just say whatever comes to mind at this point, filter be damned.  And when I got back out with my ladies from Toms River I showed them, and then immediately sent Lili a picture of it on Snapchat.  Her brain pretty much exploded with joy, in both text and video.  I have now inadvertently scored all the "Cool Aunt" points in the universe, so everyone else is out of luck.  Sorry, peeps.

Mission accomplished, and with 5 whole minutes left until General Admission would enter?  I decided it was high time to get a beer.  Leading the Great Coffee-pocalypse on a train and then mentally face-palming yourself because you can't shut up will take a lot out of a gal.  I asked my ladies from Toms River to hold my spot.  We had bonded at this point, plus I know she's not above throwing an elbow if need be.  I got my drink, and shortly thereafter the concert started.

First up:  The Assembly Line

Second: This Is All Now

And then, Heffron Drive.

Lord D-Belt in action

Now, I like to take pictures.  That should not be a surprise to you, Friends. However, I really try not to take that many pictures at concerts.  I like to actually watch the concert and enjoy rather than screwing around with my phone.  Ideally, that is what I would have liked to do at this one.  However, a certain niece in Texas would be crushed if I did not do my level best to document the hell out of the concert for her.  I really had no choice.  As you can well guess, you are about to be inundated with pictures.  Feel free to skip them if this is not your cup of tea, Friends.  I'll never know.  

Two points to keep in mind:

1.  It is much harder to take pictures and/or video when you are attempting to use only one hand.  I had a beer in my other hand for a large part of the concert, and was also trying to keep my bag on my shoulder.  

2.  I'm not saying Dustin put a voo-doo hex on me when I agreed that he was Lord D-Belt, but it was a heck of a lot easier to get pictures of him that were in focus than it was Kendall.  Maybe it was the lights.  Maybe it was the fact that he was almost directly in front of me.  I just know what happened. And I'm okay with it, whatever the cause.

Now, onto the pictures!

 I love this one

 There was a mad crush when people tried to touch Kendall

This is my favorite.

About that last one.  You might be thinking, "That's not even in focus, and you can barely see either of them."  True, but it's all about this heart.  This girl pushed in front of us at one point, and not one person even complained.  She was so incredibly excited to see the concert. She kept making that heart and screaming that she loved Kendall over and over again.  She just radiated such pure joy at simply being there.  So the picture is kind of about her, and kind of about Heffron Drive, and also about how  nice, friendly, and generally lovely everyone in the crowd was to each other the entire time.  I can't even tell you the last time I went to any concert where there wasn't pushing, or elbows, or general cattiness taking over.  It was like everyone had silently agreed to just have a good time and let it all go.  That's what the picture is about.

And I had to try to shoot some video, because -- Lili.  It all comes back to Lili.

Passing Time. This is one of my favorites -- either version. Is it wrong that I was hoping that Logan would magically appear on stage and join in?  Yes, yes it is.  First because he sang on the acoustic version, which this clearly is not.  Second, he wasn't here last year when they did play the acoustic version.  Third, and not the least important, he has his own life and shit to do.  I dare to dream.  He went to Italy with Heffron Drive.  Maybe one time he will grace us with his presence in NYC.

Heffron Drive -- Nicotine. Webster Hall. @HeffronDrive @dbeltwrites #HeffronDrive pic.twitter.com/329QZirYz7

— Tammy (@tammyshampoo) August 27, 2016

And this last bit is really super short, as it was originally posted to Snapchat.

The concert was excellent as always.  I hope I never miss an opportunity to see them, even if Lili can't go with me.  So thank you again, Kendall and Dustin, for a great show and for just being you.  I can't even begin to explain how happy you made Lili by taking that picture and writing that note, and it means so much to me that you would do that for her.  You rock!

And to round out my little adventure, for those of you still bothering to read at this point....

I got a cab back to Grand Central with no problem.  Do you know how much it cost?  $15, including the tip.  You and your price surge can kiss my ass next time, Uber.

Also, I'm pleased to report that I managed not to spill anything all over the train on the way back. Granted, I only had a bottle of water with me, but still.

I got back to Poughkeepsie around 12:30 in the morning, and even had company on the walk through parking garage because people were coming home from the Yankee game.  That was nice.  I was feeling pretty darn good about the state of the world, and then I pulled out of the parking garage.  I don't know what went down, but there was a cop car, an ambulance, and a crowd of people.  I'm hoping this does not turn out to be proof that maybe Poughkeepsie is a little more murdery than I thought.  We so do not need to live up to that particular title.

All things considered, I think my fortune cookie was spot on.

I Feel Like We Just Did A Complicated Math Problem

Hey, Friends.

Math was never my best subject in school, which is a big part of why I ended up majoring in English. I'm still pretty convinced I only passed Calculus in college because my professor was leaving at the end of the semester and we all reaped the benefit of a wicked curve.

Why are we discussing math?

Remember those word problems you used to get in school:

Train A, traveling 70 miles per hour (mph), leaves Westford heading toward Eastford, 260 miles away. At the same time Train B, traveling 60 mph, leaves Eastford heading toward Westford. When do the two trains meet? How far from each city do they meet? 

(You can read all about that fun problem, if you are denying for the technicalities, here.)

My friend and I are going to see a concert tomorrow night down in New York City.  I feel like we just completed the same type of math problem while trying to figure out which train to take to A) ride together if possible, and/or B) at least reach Grand Central at approximately the same time.

It really shouldn't be that hard, as it is just reading the timetable of the train, but there are a lot of factors that went into it.  

Person A has the easiest part of the schedule.  She took the whole day off from work as soon as she got the tickets.  She rarely calls in to work and has a shit-ton of benefit time to use (assuming she can get it approved in advance -- that's the tricky part), so why not?  Not knowing what the plans would be, she wanted to have the whole day available for fun time --even if that only meant being able to sleep in late.  She literally has nothing to do but drive the 5-10 minutes to the train station, pay for parking, buy the train ticket, and get on the correct train.  She is a slacker. I'm Person A so I can say this.  I wouldn't defame my friends!

Person B is a responsible adult and is going to work all day.  This is one of many reasons why she is allowed to educate your children.  She will be getting on the train at a different station, approximately half-way to the destination.  She does not have to work the next day, so no worries that young minds will be unduly impacted by the concert experience.

What train should Person A take that will work with Person B's schedule and still get them to Grand Central in time to eat before the concert?

Person B has two different times she could potentially leave work, one of which is far more likely than the other.  Person A starts checking the train schedule, and comes up with a train that looks plausible:  it leaves her station and stops at the station where Person B would be boarding the train. They agree that it might just work.

**2 hours later**

Person B reports that the plan is not going to work.  Traffic is going to majorly screw things up.  I will take poor Person B 45 minutes to get near the train station, judging from today's traffic.

Now what train shall they take to get to the concert?

Person B looks at the train schedule and comes up with two possibilities:  one where they ride together part way, and one where they meet in Grand Central.

Person A is still a slacker, and now only needs to get on the train an hour later.  She will sit by the window and save a seat in case Person B is able to catch that train and continue their journey together.

Will Person A and Person B manage to get on the same train?  

Will they end up meeting in Grand Central, taking trains that will arrive approximately 15 minutes apart?

Will there be a problem on the Hudson Line, and Metro-North will make all of their planning irrelevant?

Will they eventually get to see Of Monsters and Men in concert?  

Stay tuned!

And this time Person A is going to make sure she brings her portable charger, complete with all the necessary pieces, so that she does not end up with a dead, phone-shaped paperweight before the day's adventures are over.

The Taylor Swift Concert

**This should really be called The Taylor Swift Concert: With Several Mentions of Heffron Drive.  My niece has fallen in love with them  (particularly with Kendall Schmidt), and everything in the universe gets compared to them.**

I'm terribly overdue with this, I realize.  It's been a month since I surprised my niece by taking her to the Taylor Swift concert at MetLife Stadium, and I'm only just now getting around to discussing it here.  My niece and nephew were here for about 6 weeks visiting, and all of my time went to hanging out with them, as it should.  You, Friends, got put on hold.

First, I totally surprised her!  I did not tell her about it until the night before the concert.  For all of the elaborate plans I tried to come up with, I ended up just giving her a picture from a magazine and telling her it was a clue to her surprise.  Watch the reveal here!  (If you're wondering about the hugging comment, I had already taken her to see and meet Heffron Drive, and Kendall stole her heart.  There's a blog post.)

I had mentioned in a previous post that my friend was also coming to the concert with us.  We headed out to her house, as we had a car take us down to the concert. Honestly, that was probably the best possible way to get there.  I would, no doubt, have gotten lost trying to follow the GPS, and we didn't have to worry about parking.  We just got dropped off and picked up.  It also meant that I only had to do a short drive when we got home around 2:30 am, which was awesome.

The surprise twist to our concert adventure was that my friend was now on crutches.  She was such a freaking trooper through the whole thing!  The staff at the stadium could not have been nicer from the moment we arrived -- they got us a shuttle to the stadium from the drop off so she didn't have to walk, we got an elevator up to our floor in the stadium, they kept offering her a wheelchair -- they really tried to make it as easy on her as possible.

Remember how I was worried that we would be in the nose-bleed section and Lili (my niece) would be disappointed?  We so totally were, but she was too happy to care.  I actually think it was pretty cool.  Granted the stage looked tiny from where we were seated, but they have the big screens to watch.  However, we could pretty much see the entire stadium.  It really gave you the feeling of just how enormous the place is, and how many people were there.  Also, no obstructed views from that height.  We were literally 7 rows from the top of the stadium.

That's right, folks -- seven rows between us and the top!

Beautiful day with a nice view.

I will say this:  I don't know that anyone with a fear of heights would be remotely comfortable sitting up there.  You can kind of tell from the picture of the seats, but it has a pretty steep pitch.  I can see it freaking people out, thinking they would fall over the edge.  The stairs also made things interesting for my friend and her crutches.  She actually had to go back down to the floor before the concert ended as she was worried about negotiating the stairs in the dark with people crowding to get out when the concert ended.  I think that was a wise decision.  

And then the concert finally started!  

First up: 

I tried to get a picture of the stage, but we were way too far away for that to come out clearly.

Lili freaked out, and immediately started messaging her friends.  Apparently one of them loves Shawn Mendes a lot.  He was really good, and Lili was singing along with the songs she knew.  

Next up:

Vance Joy

Lili:  Aunt Tammy, is he going to play Riptide?

Me: I'm sure he will, Lil.  It's a big hit.

......

Lili:  Okay, when is he going to play it?  It's been like 2 songs now!

Me:  Calm yourself.  You should know this song, it's on the radio too.  I'm sure he'll play Riptide at some point.

......

Lili:  *practically spazzing at this point*  What if he doesn't play it?  I love that song!  When is he going to play it?!

Me:  I'm not psychic, Lil.  Just chill out.  He's probably saving it for the last song -- go out with a big finish.

.....

Lili:  Riptide!!  YES!!!!!

At this point, I was kind of floored by the number of seats that were still empty.  

Those are a lot of empty seats, and they weren't cheap.  The whole floor area looked like that, even while Vance Joy was performing.  

Maybe all of those people were coming from work, stuck in traffic or something.  Maybe they were off getting food or souvenirs.  

I don't get it.  To me, if you are going to a concert, you go to the concert.  The whole thing.  It's fun! You get to hear the music, see all of the performances.  Why the hell would you spend the money and not be there to experience it?  These are pretty big name musicians who get played on the radio all of the time!  Why would you miss out on the opportunity to see them live?

Maybe they only wanted to see Taylor Swift and didn't care about the opening acts.  If that's the case, we obviously do not dwell in the same financial bracket.  My tickets were not cheap -- I can only imagine how much it cost to sit that close to the stage.  If you are willing to drop that much cash and then only show for one act?  I can't relate.  

Also, I think it is kind of rude to the musicians who are performing.  The stadium is huge, and even with all of the visibly empty seats, there were probably hundreds -- if not thousands -- of people there at that point.  (I think the news said later that it sold out to 60,000 people.)  I just think it must be a bit disheartening to go out on stage and see all of those empty chairs.  

Not that it is a remotely comparable situation, but I can remember playing a marching band competition in high school at Giants Stadium.  It was so exciting to know that I was on the same field that I saw on television during football games.  We were always in the last group to go, late at night, as we were one of the biggest (size-wise) bands.  I can remember looking at the stands thinking there was really no one there, and it was disappointing.  I found out later there were a few thousand people there, but it looked like nothing compared to the number of empty seats.  Yeah.  So, not at all the same thing, but it made me feel bad that there were so many empty seats during the first two performances.  I hope they didn't feel that way when they were on stage. It was probably a much different perspective from their point of view.

But I digress.  End of rant.

Next to take the stage:

Haim.

I enjoyed their performance.  I had never heard any of their music before, but they were good.  That didn't seem to be the feeling shared by most of the people in my section.

Lili:  They said it was going to be a jam session.  What's a jam session?

Me:  It's when musicians get together and just rock out, just see where the music takes them.  It's not necessarily individual songs.  

......

After about 10 minutes....

I see Lili getting out her headphones.

Me:  What's up, Lil?  

Lili:  Yeah, I'm not feeling this.  I've got my headphones.  I'm just going to watch and listen to Heffron Drive until Taylor Swift comes out.

Me:  Okay, honey.  Do what you have to do.

There was a little girl with her mother and grandmother sitting in the row in front of us.  She was there as a surprise for her birthday.  (We'd been chatting earlier.)  The girl was sitting on her mother's lap with her hands over her ears.  Many other people were just sitting and talking, taking selfies -- not a lot of people were paying attention to the band.

They were good.  I don't mean to sound like I am bashing Haim at all.  I really enjoyed their performance.  I don't think they were successful with the younger part of the audience.  Their sound is very different from the previous artists.  

On to the main event:

First song of the evening

When we entered the stadium we were given these white bracelets.  We had no idea what they were for, and were joking about them tracking us so no one got lost, and generally wondering what purpose they served.  Turned out to be a really cool purpose.  As you can see in the video, at times the whole audience seems to flash white.  They bracelets were synced up to the concert, and would flash different colors during Taylor Swift's entire performance.  

That's Lili, rocking out with her bracelet all aglow.

Our view of the stage.

She brought out a surprise guest in the middle of her set!  I was excited, and Lili about lost her damn mind.

Yeah, that's right.  Awesome!

Taylor Swift was incredible!  She was on stage for at least 3 hours.  She brought out the Women's National Soccer team, fresh from their parade in NYC that morning!  She had some of her friends from her Bad Blood video on stage during the song -- in the costumes they wore in the video!  Part of the freaking stage spun around at one point.  

Pretty impressive view from our seats!

There was one point in the evening where I got worried for a moment.  When she started to sing Blank Space, people lost their damn minds!  They were jumping around and dancing so much that the entire freaking section we were sitting in was vibrating and shaking -- more so than at any previous point.  I remember thinking, "We are seven rows from the top of this fucking stadium.  This is not going to end well if the damn thing collapses."  I had to remind myself that many other events had taken place here, and everything was fine.  That the stadium was designed and built to handle this kind of thing.   And then my brain, being the slightly warped creature that it is, felt the need to point out that we were only seven rows from the top, and we would be a lot better off than the people below us who would be getting flattened like pancakes.  I'm just a ray of freaking sunshine sometimes.  Obviously, since I am here writing this and there were no reports on the news of a tragedy occurring at the concert, everything was fine.  If you had felt that thing shaking and vibrating like that?  You might have had a moment of doubt, too.

And then it was over.  It was a fantastic experience!  Taylor Swift puts on one hell of a show.  As we made our way back home I tried to get a picture of the NY skyline.  Our driver was so nice, he even pulled over so I could get a better shot.

The view was much better in person.

It was the perfect end to a great night!

We got home around 3am.  Everyone had a good time.  

Lili was thrilled.  She even made a playlist of all the songs from all of the performers at the concert.

I have to say though, as much as she loved it, Heffron Drive was still her favorite concert.  I had bought her an autographed cd at the concert, which she made us listen to any time we rode in the car. She also has it on her iPod.   My nephew, who is 8, now knows the words to all of their songs.  He even has opinions on them, although he is far too smart to say anything that will piss his sister off too badly.  It leads to moments like, "I like Passing Time.  Logan sings it better though, no offense."  Of course Lili got all offended, and I had to point out that Austin (my nephew) was entitled to his opinion too.

The tl;dr version:  Taylor Swift is a hell of a performer.  My niece had a good time.  Did it make me the coolest Aunt ever?  No.  I already managed to do that when I took her to see and meet Heffron Drive.

But I got to have two wonderful experiences with my niece, and that is priceless.

In Which We Go To See Heffron Drive

(aka I May Be the Most Awesome Aunt Ever!)

**This is going to be kind of long, and there are pictures.  You've been warned.**

Hey Friends.

So I took my niece to see Heffron Drive at the Studio at Webster Hall last night.  If you need a recap on things leading up to the grand event, see the previous post.  I'm not linking you to it -- you can get your scroll on and find it yourselves, I have faith in you.

The plan for the day -- and I did have one -- was simple:  I go to work for half the day, pick up my niece and hop on the train, walk to the concert, do the Meet & Greet and enjoy the concert, walk back to Grand Central, catch the train home and we are done.  Easy peasy, right?  I thought so, until reality kicked in and all of my planning was for naught.

The morning was the usual.  Had my coffee, work was hectic, but everyone showed up and I got to leave on time.  I was a little worried someone would call in or be late and screw things up, but fortunately that didn't happen.

However, my awesome plan did not really account for all that much time between leaving work and catching the train, and that would be the moment when the flaws in my plan started to arise.

Stupid traffic!  It took me longer than anticipated to get home.  Literally had enough time to feed the cats (because they are the most important -- just ask them), freshen up, grab the tickets and head out.  In my haste, I grabbed my portable charger but neglected to grab the connector to actually hook it up to my phone, which I did not realize at the time.  This will become relevant later on.

We made the train with literally 5 minutes to spare.  I was starving, since I hadn't eaten and my super planning skills had neglected time for that, but whatever.  We should get to Grand Central around 3:45-ish and I can grab something there before we head out.  I'd like to give a big thank you to Metro-North and the Hudson Line for running on time with no delays.  I hate being late, and was still freaking over my poor planning thus far, so that would not have been good.

Lili (my niece) was all kinds of excited about going to New York City and seeing the concert, but was doing her best to reign it in.  Even though we were on an "Express" train, she didn't seem to realize that it was going to take quite so long to get there.  You're going from one end of the commuter line to the other, kid.  That's going to take a while.  She did enjoy the decor of our car.

Apparently it is very important -- to someone -- that no one put their feet on the seats.  Many people ignored that.  Lili also wanted to know why they needed a sign to tell people that they should not assault the train staff.  Good question, Lil.

We got to Grand Central, grabbed some food and headed out, as I figured we could eat while we walked.  I had Google-mapped it (Is that a word?  It is now.) before and it should be about 1.5 miles.  Totally doable.  Me being me, however, I decided that I should pull up Google Maps on my phone and have it going as we walked, just in case.  No way was I going to get us lost and/or axe-murdered as my mother thought.  That would a) suck, and b) lead to the biggest "I Told You So" of all time.

Now, I don't want to blame Google Maps, as the walking directions are in beta, but they failed.  They failed hard.  Maybe it was my phone, I don't know.  I was pretty convinced prior to yesterday that Apple and Sprint are in cahoots to get me to upgrade my phone, but I wasn't expecting this nonsense.  The map on my phone kind of went berserk.  It could not keep up with where we were walking, and kept telling me to turn onto streets we had already passed.  The Meet & Greet started at 5pm, so at 4:20 I declared the walking portion of our adventure over and we took a cab. 

We got to the venue and got in line.  It wasn't that hot out even though we were standing in the sun, but you would think we were on the surface of the sun from the amount of bitching about it being too hot and people's hair getting ruined that was going on around us.  Unfortunately, it must also have been garbage day in the near future, as there were many bags lining the sidewalk.  Let's just say Lili got to experience the smell of New York on a summer's day.  It also killed any thought I had of eating my sandwich, so that just went into the garbage.  I'll eat after the concert, eventually.

We were between two groups of young ladies.  The girls in front of us had apparently been to many, many Meet & Greets, and to listen to them talk they were the experts on such things.  The longer we waited in line past 5pm, the more they hypothesized how it was all going to play out.  They compared it to having met Big Time Rush, One Direction, and a couple of other groups -- one of which had something to do with people arriving on a fire truck?  I don't know.  They were friendly though, and one of them complimented Lili on the James Maslow "Save The Music" t-shirt she was wearing.

Some ladies somewhere behind us in line had apparently met Kendall and Dustin (Heffron Drive, for those who were too lazy to click the link at the beginning of this post) several times before, as we overheard their conversation, and they were analyzing every previous meeting.  I mean, it was an in-depth discussion about where Kendall had put his arm around the one girl each time they had previously met.  The first couple times it was apparently around her waist, but the last time it was around her shoulders.  Did that mean he thought they were friends?  Oh!  Maybe it meant he remembered her and liked her as more than a friend! Same discussion for Dustin's arm placement. We didn't turn around to look and see who was talking, but I raised an eyebrow at that discussion, and Lili just gave me a look.  I'm going to hazard a guess that the gentlemen in question have no freaking clue they are in such an involved relationship with these ladies.  Maybe I'm wrong.  Feel free to draw your own conclusions.

Finally, blessedly, we got our tickets checked and were given wristbands.  By the time we made it inside it was a little after 6pm.  People were getting antsy since they had been waiting.  Lili was super about the whole thing and never complained once.  My coffee had long since worn off, and I was starting to get a bit tired having been on my feet for the majority of the last 10 hours.  However, inside was fantastic!  Even if we ended up in the back, there was literally not a bad place to be.  No matter where you ended up standing you were going to have an awesome view of the stage.  Lili and I are both relatively tall, and there were a lot of shorter ladies there, so as long as we stood behind some short people we should be golden.

This was taken from the line for the Meet & Greet.  The stage is right there.  Impossible not to have a great view.

Neither of us had ever been to a Meet & Greet before, so we had no clue what to expect. We had already bought autographed copies of the cd at the merchandise table while in line.  I had a copy of Happy Mistakes Unplugged already, and had brought it with me just in case.  Lili realized people were getting autographs as well as pictures, so I gave her the poster from my cd to  get signed.  I opted not to get anything signed.  Yeah.  I get super-awkward and shy at the least opportune moments, a point which will come up again!  This would also be the time when I realized my phone was at about 20% of its battery, went to use my handy charger and realized that I forgot the connector.  Shit.

Lili went first when it was our turn to meet them.  The kid is made of awesome, and she just bounded on up there -- even kicking her foot up in the air when she hugged them..  She got the poster autographed, and her picture?  Totally precious!

I know I'm biased, but she's freaking adorable!  Kendall and Dustin are pretty darn adorable as well.

And then it was my turn.  I had hoped to be charming, witty, humorous, or at least calm and normal about it all.  Remember how I said I get awkward at inopportune moments?  Yeah, that happened.  I introduced myself to each of them when I got a hug, cause it seemed kind of weird (at least in my head) not to do so.  And then, because it is me, the woman taking the pictures said my picture came out orange. Say what?  It totally did.  I think she was willing to try again, and the guys seemed like they were willing to pose for another photo....and instead I said something about it being okay and I could fix it with a filter on Instagram. Yeah.  That happened.  Kendall was really sweet and said it looked like it had a Soap Opera filter, and I mumbled something about having to find my niece.  Told you the awkwardness would be back.  I really didn't want to impose and take up too much of their time.  I knew there was still a long line of people waiting, some of them being really excited about it, and I didn't want to lose my niece in the crowd.

Here's my picture,  Not quite as adorable as my niece, and this is after trying to remove the orangeness.  Soap Opera filter it is.

Lili, and several other people,  sat on the floor while we waited for the concert to begin, after we picked out our spots.  I didn't.  I just wanted to make sure no one stepped on her.

The concert was fantastic!  I only wanted a few pictures, and luckily managed to get them in before my phone died completely.

Janet Devlin, the opening act.  She was really good.

Heffron Drive

Lili took more pictures and a few videos during her favorite songs. Nothing crazy.

Some of the other people?  Never put their freaking phones down.  At all.  I don't get this particular phenomenon.  I kept glancing at one of the girls in front of me a bit, as she seemed to be watching the majority of the concert through the view of her phone.  I understand you want to record your memory of the concert, document it for all posterity, but I really don't get it.  The view is much better if you actually look away from your phone and look at the stage.  Maybe she was just really into filming it and making sure things stayed focused properly -- I don't know. You are at the concert.  They are mere feet away from you.  Why watch it on a tiny screen rather than raise your eyes?  

After the concert we took a cab back to Grand Central.  My phone was dead.  As we had failed to navigate our way there in the daylight I did not even want to attempt it in the dark. I had also lost part of the ability to hear in my right ear, as the chick next me was screaming the entire concert at some inhuman frequency. We arrived to discover that we had missed one train by about 2 minutes.  Now we had about an hour to kill.

I decided that it was time to finally get something to eat.  Not a lot of options left at 10pm, at least that weren't super busy with long lines.  We could not risk missing our train, as it was literally going to be the last one going back to Poughkeepsie that night.  Camping out in Grand Central was not going to happen.  We had pretzels.  That was my awesome, and only, meal of the day.  I got a coffee around 10:30, and Lili wanted a cannoli.  Sure thing, kid!  We've got about an hour and a half train ride ahead of us, so getting wired on sugar isn't going to be a problem. 

Sitting on the floor, waiting for our train.  I was so done with the day by this point.

We finally got on the train and headed for home.  I feel the need to specify that we were not in a quiet car.  Everyone was just relaxing and chatting amongst themselves.  There was a family with a bunch of kids/teenagers sitting in the front of our car.  They weren't being loud, just talking and being excited.  This woman on the other side of the car yells at them to shut the f@*k up.  One of the teens yells back to watch her language, and that they weren't being loud.  The woman yelled back, other passengers yelled at her to shut up.  I really thought Lili was going to get a first-hand demo of why there were signs up about not assaulting the staff.  Luckily the woman shut up.

We chatted the whole way back, while Lili posted to Instagram and texted her friends.  She had a fantastic time!  It came up that I had never seen Big Time Rush on television, and had only heard of them because of her.  She informed me that it was, "really funny, and we can probably find it On Demand, or Netflix, or Hulu.  You'll like it!"  So I have a feeling that a viewing is in my near future.

But the best part?  She told me, complete with a little smile, that Kendall had always been her favorite, and she can't believe she got to meet him and hear him sing.

And that moment?  That made the whole thing -- complete with all of my awkwardness -- worth it.  I'm relatively sure Heffron Drive is now her favorite band in the universe, and Kendall has stolen her heart.  

My mother informed me (my niece and nephew are staying at my parents' house, not at my place since I have to work) that any time they were in the car today Lili played her new Heffron Drive cd for them.   I was just happy to wake up with my hearing back in my right ear before dragging myself off to work.  

I still haven't told Lili that she gets to go see Taylor Swift in concert.  No offense to T-Swift, but I don't think it is going to be nearly as memorable as Heffron Drive.  

**Edited to add:  Video Lili shot of the concert, which she allowed me to post on Twitter since she doesn't have an account.**

@HeffronDrive From Webster Hall 7/1/15 pic.twitter.com/0BwsWkbbE9

— Tammy Myers (@tammyshampoo) July 6, 2015