Holy crap that was a good concert. Woo-hoo. Now you get the story. As I was getting ready for the concert, Eric called me and said his brother was taking him, so we would see him there! Yay! After buying film and my mom some Sonic, Tony and I left for the crazily long drive to Norman. Very uneventful, really, except that we listened to Michael Jackson’s number one hits. Fun. So we get to Norman, and there’s all this OU crap everywhere, and we both want to blow things up. I personally had the sudden urge to buy a house in Norman so I could paint it orange and have thousands of OSU logos on my lawn. The only good part of Norman was Lindsey Street. Yay! It’s even spelled right. It’s in the wrong town, but… ah, well.
So we get to the concert, and because we had e-tickets, we had to wait to get down to the ground floor, so it was already a little crowded when we got there. But Tony really wanted to fight his way up to the front. And so did I. I’ve been to concerts before, but none as big as this, and there was significant pushing, but I’ve always found myself in the front row. So I’m thinking, cool, I can handle this. Story of the Year comes on, and they’re actually pretty good. Then Hoobastank comes on, and by this time, I am so crowded that I can just see shoulders and the back of people’s necks, and just the very top of the Hoobastank banner, which was really cool-looking. We are right smack-dab in the middle near the front, and I discovered this is not the best place to be. During the first two songs, we all get pushed around a lot. I was okay, I was dealing. Then it got scary. Despite Tony trying to hold people back, it started to get a little crushing. Where we felt like we were going to fall over several times… not just Tony and I, but the whole crowd around us. I’ve been in the middle of crowds like this, where people would mosh and you had to push them out of the way, or crowd-surfers, where my strategy would just be to crouch a little and let the tall people handle it, but I’ve never been in anything this bad. I would sway around, first almost falling one way, and then the other, desperately trying to keep my balance, and then I would get the wind knocked out of me by being crushed in between bodies, and then it would stop just long enough to take two breaths and it would start again, always getting more violent. It was madness. I totally went into survival mode, and I didn’t even hear the music at this point. It was too much to concentrate on not falling over. At the end of the third song, I was really getting tossed around. Tony and this guy I didn’t even know were trying to help me by pushing people away. I was so grateful to that guy for just helping. I think he saw how panicked I was. I thanked him, and then said to Tony, ‘I CANNOT do this again.’ And so I made my way to the edge of the crowd. It was terrible. I felt really bad immediately after, because I knew Tony wanted to get near the front, and because I was too wimpy to stick it out. I just kept seeing headlines of people getting crushed and killed at concerts, and an image of me falling and cracking my head open and no one even noticing. I really wanted to start bawling, because I had been so scared, but I didn’t. I got over it, and by POD we had made our way close to the corner of stage right. Still some pushing over there, especially during LP, but nothing crazy like before.
POD’s setup was really awesome, and they did pretty well even though I’m not their biggest fan. And then a big curtain was put over the stage that had Linkin Park with Meteora under it. We waited for a long time, and they started playing, and the curtain dropped, and it was so awesome!!! Their stage was really big, and a part of the stage they hadn’t uncovered yet was raised and Mr. Hahn was up there with all his equipment. Mike was way cuter in person, and Chester was really not. It was really really freaking awesome. I can’t even describe. And if I ever wanted to know if I could go for a really long time without water while being really sweaty and hot and still jumping up and down and dancing, well, I can. Although some of the staff were holding bottles of water up and pouring them into people’s mouths, and I got close enough to the rail once to get some. It seemed that one mouthful of water sustained me for another hour of Linkin Park. It was just great. I took some pictures, although it was with my regular camera, but you can get some of the pics digital, so I’ll try to post some when I get them developed.
I got to see Eric but only for a little bit after the concert, because him and his brother had seats. I went home amazingly sore, amazingly deaf, and amazingly thirsty, but it was still great. I wouldn’t take it back. Even the scary part. I still hear a fuzzy ringing in my ears, but uh… I’m pretty sure it’ll go away.
Sad news: my turtle died. Very sad. It was my fault, because I didn’t research it enough before I bought him. I didn’t know he needed a UVB light until I couldn’t afford one, but ah well. I’m just gonna clean out the tank and get some fish when I have money again. I think I was too poor to afford a turtle. I didn’t realize how much expensive stuff they needed. Rest in Peace, poor Chiyo!
And Shayna, I remembered that you were coming here on Spring Break after I said that. Yeah, I defenitely want to visit in the summer though.
And now I have to go, because I have a crap-load of stuff to do. My room is a wreck and everything is disorganized because I’ve been so busy this past week. Yay friends though! I love you guys. See ya later.
Have you ever read poetry you’ve written so long ago that you don’t even remember it? And when you find it and read it again, you’re just like, “Damn, that’s good. I wrote that? Damn.” Yes, well, I have found several. So I’m making a poetry page. As we speak. And here is the first one I found, written in February of last year:
Take Notice
Notice two shadows in the half-light
Upon flying inside and looking around
One shadow, a doorway to a sunny meadow
Full of promise and laughter and shining
The other shadow, the entrance to Hell
Disgusting and putrid with feces and vomit
The silent figure of which the shadows originate
Sitting in a cleft in the middle of the world
The sun passes over, and shadow fights shadow
And time moves on in her pressing way
