So some of you likely have zero interest in some of my “out of dungeon” adventures – but last night was freaking amazing and I need to reminisce a bit and this is where I do it! First a little background – I love live music – like REALLY love it and started going to concerts when I was sixteen. So naturally as my godchild was growing up, I delighted in taking them to shows even as a young child (think Kidz Bop and Kfest). But our first REAL concert – as in music that the kid was truly stoked about going to was Pierce the Veil on October 4th, 2016 at the Hammerstein Ballroom in NYC! The first thing that stood out to me about that evening, other than the chill in the air as we waited on a line that literally wrapped the entire city block, was that at one point were heard a lot of happy screaming on the line in front of us and soon discovered that Vic (lead singer) and Jaime (bassist) were coming around high-fiving and thanking every single person on the line for coming out and supporting their music. I was like Holy SHIT – that’s AMAZING! I had never seen anyone – let alone the headliner of a 3 band line up personally greet every person at a venue. (Okay, later on Palaye Royale did also but that’s another story). Anyway – in that moment, that level of fan appreciation cemented my respect and love for PTV (Pierce the Veil).

Once inside the fairly small packed venue I saw people crowd surfing for the first time and found myself fascinated and wishing I had the nerve to try it. But my self conscious brain told me I was way too old and definitely too heavy to try that shit safely. (I was probably at my heaviest weight ever at that point – pushing 220lbs thanks in part to quitting smoking!) But part of me thought, “someday I gotta try that!” and I added it to a mental bucket / wish list”.

Flash forward several years, quite a few concerts and maybe 20 lbs less later – we are at Warped Tour 2019 in Atlantic City, NJ and I am thinking – hmmm this would be a great place to try it because worst case scenario, if I got dropped I would hit the sand. Probably still wouldn’t tickle but way less chance of permanent damage right? And yet… I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it. Damn!! A week or so later – we had flown to Mountain View, CA for the final Warped and it was an amazing day and we get to the last band of the last night, NOFX, of what turned out to be the very last Warped Tour and something inside me just screamed: “If you don’t do this now you will regret it for the rest of your life – JUST DO IT SUZE!” So I offloaded the backpack, my phone and everything else breakable and ran up to two good size guys and babbled my request and BOOM they had me in the air – but my timing sucked because seconds later the song ended and I had only made it a few feet before…. I was gently put back down on the ground. But hey – it still felt amazing and I called hubby gushing that I did it – I finally did it!! And he just said, “Pics or it didn’t happen”. Arrgggh!! LOL! Still I glowed for a week – because I had finally taken that first step to do something that scared the hell out of me but I knew I had to try again.

I posted about the Simple Plan show last year show where I again worked up the nerve and got popped up surfing across the crowd but came to a mosh pit and got put down safely right at the edge of the pit and I took a breath and jumped in – something else that scared the hell out of me! And again no pics, BUT an ecstatic charge for DAYS afterward!

November last year – we drove to Buffalo the day after the “historic snowstorm” to see Pierce the Veil and I am thinking – “Oh yeah, This is it baby! Time to come full circle and finally crowd surf to the band that started it all for me. But as I watched the crowd from a comfy spot on the balcony with my concert buddy and their BF – I saw way too much chaos down below. The crowd surfers were getting tossed in fits and starts – and several got dropped. The band even had to pause the show several times for paramedics to go in and retrieve injured folks. Yikes! So as much as I thought it was going to be my night – I also kind of thought – uhmm – better of it. LOL There’s something about having a mortgage that can dampen your enthusiasm for doing things that can potentially cripple or kill you I guess. But I didn’t give up the dream. 🙂

Last night – PTV played Toyota Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford, CT and I bought really nice loge seats with a great view for my buddy and I to watch the majority of the show. But I also bought myself a GA “pit pass” and when PTV came on I went down into the mix to see what was up. Nice fairly short pit area… not too insane at all. Moshers were doing their thing to my right but right next to me – I saw two guys hoist a gal into the air and I watched … as she made it all the way to the barricade – safe and sound! I looked at the guy closest to me that helped the gal up and said I was dying to try that – he said I should but I hesitated just long enough for another gal to ask to get put up and I helped them get her up and then watched her also get straight across no sweat!

I even hugged the security guard that put me on the ground! I ran back and thanked the folks that put me up and my new buddy there wanted to go again and this time at the same time and hold hands all the way across – but to be honest – I truly felt complete enough in that moment. 🙂 I know this is a whole lotta chatter about something that lasted less than 30 seconds – but it had been a long time coming and I and still just completely elated that I finally got to check that little bit o cray cray off my Things To Do list. I am not saying I won’t do it again at some point but for right now I am pretty proud of myself.

On to the next item… hot air ballooning! Brett got me a gift certificate to do it and maybe once the damn air quality issues from the wild fires clear, I might just make that appointment!!