Frankly, I'm thunderstruck

Even though it is several kilometers away, I can hear the AC/DC concert from my apartment. I can hear the crowd roaring and the drums banging and good ol' Angus wailing on lead guitar. (Hark, is that "TNT" I hear? Yes, yes it is).

I can also hear the dog in the apartment below me barking and barking. I don't think he's a metal fan.

Truthfully, I'm not a metal fan either. I'd rather hear the Lost Fingers do "Shook Me All Night Long" than AC/DC. (If you don't know the Lost fingers, then you MUST click here for a snippet. They do 80s songs in a Django Reinhardt-type style.) Regardless of my dislike for the heavier stuff, I'm a little sad I didn't go to the show. I mean, it's AC/CD! My small prairie city doesn't get many huge acts and you never know which concert will be the one where an aging rock star falls and breaks a hip or something.

Speaking of concerts, have I ever told you about the time I snuck into a Rolling Stones concert? Oh yeah. I'm hardcore.

Like I've said, my small city doesn't get many big name acts, so 3 years ago when the Stones concert was announced I knew I had to go. I've always fallen firmly on the Beatles side of the Beatles/Stones debate, but going to a Beatles show would be a hell of a lot more difficult. The Stones were playing 2 shows here, one on the Friday and one on the Sunday. My step dad has connections and he managed to snag me 4 tickets for the second show.

Friday came and went and I heard great things, so I was pumped to go. I was attending with my two friends Mike and Kate, and my mom's weird cousin Larry, who had driven down from Calgary for the concert. We lined up with the crowd, got our tickets scanned, and made our way to our seats. They weren't awesome but none of us minded - we were going to get to see the Stones! About 15 minutes after we sat down, four people approached us and said that we were in their seats. We checked their tickets. We checked our tickets. They were for the same section, same row, and same seats.

We were about to raise a fuss when I noticed something different on our tickets, so I hissed to my people that we should go talk to someone about this and let these nice people sit in the seats while we straightened things out. Mike and Kate objected but I kept insisting that we needed to just go. After I got them away from the stands, I pointed out that our tickets were, indeed, for those seats but for the other show. The one that had happened two days earlier.

Larry wanted to find someone in charge IMMEDIATELY so that things could be fixed. Mike, Kate, and I were pretty sure that all that would be fixed is that we would be kicked out of the stadium and miss the show. The people scanning the tickets at the gate had messed up and let us in, and we weren't going to ruin it by hoping some event manager had a heart. Our plan was to hang around the concessions until the opening band was done, and then find a row that looked like it had empty spots and sidle in. Everyone was on their feet for the concert, anyway, so we figured it would be a piece of cake. Larry didn't like our plan. He was worried that if we snuck in, the ticket police would find us and throw us in ticket jail. But he was outnumbered and begrudgingly agreed to stay.

The opening band finished and as the Stones took the stage and the concession area emptied out, we made our move. We walked up the stairs, scanned the rows, and found one that looked perfect. There were still a lot of people milling about and as we made our way to our new seats, our group got separated. Nevertheless, we made it. Well, actually, most of us made it. Somehow we had lost Larry. We looked around for him but the music was starting and we figured he had just found another good spot to blend in.

The show was great in a cheesy, big spectacle kind of way. Mike, Kate, and I searched outside the stadium for Larry for 45 minutes afterwards but we didn't see him, so we walked back to my place. That's when we finally found Larry. He had been sitting in his car for the past three hours. He got separated from us in the stands, panicked, and decided he couldn't handle the stress of sneaking in, so he went back to his car, unrolled his windows, and listened from there. He drove 8 hours from Calgary to sit in his car and listen to the Rolling Stones.

So that's my badass rock 'n' roll story. Ahh, but tonight there will be no sneaking in and I will not be able to rock out with my cock out. However, this weekend has not been without it's highlights. Behold, the newest member of my household.

"Swept Away" - no, really, that's the name of the style
Lucy, my cat, is enamored with her and she was ridiculously expensive ($300? are you kidding me?) but how could I resist those luscious lips? Shopping for her was considerably less fun than I anticipated, mostly because the woman who helped me at the wig store was rather humourless. Listen, lady. I'm getting chemo soon. I'm going to lose all my hair. If I want to try on the the Farrah Fawcett just for fun, let me try on the gawddamned Farrah Fawcett. I don't care that you don't think it will flatter my face shape. I don't care that you think blond will wash out my skin tone. I'm not purchasing it, I'M JUST TRYING TO HAVE SOME FUN! I sneak into rock concerts! Don't piss me off!

Anyway, I haven't named her yet but I'm working on it. Perhaps in honour of tonight's concert I should call her Angus.