There is a first time for everything. Sometimes it's something you look forward to all your life, other times you wish you'd never experienced it in the first place, and then there's those times where you have absolutely no idea how you got there, or how you did it, but from what it looks like in the pictures that your friends show you later on.. it was fun.

I have "firsts" all the time. Don't we all? Just last week I had my first experience growing mushrooms - on accident. That's right. Thanks to a leaky shower, TWO kinds of mushrooms popped up out of nowhere within the span of a WORKDAY. How the heck does that work? I have no idea, but they were there.


And now they're not, thanks to the wonders of Lysol...


But, by far the best first I've had in a long time was on Wednesday night. I went to my first concert. Ever.

And who did I get to see for this momentous occasion? The Eagles, on their California Tour. Daddy would have been proud. Actually... he was pissed off and jealous, because I called him right in the middle of "Take It Easy" so he could hear what he was missing. They played all my favorites, like "Boys of Summer", "Dirty Laundry", "Life in the Fast Lane", and of COURSE, "Hotel California". They also played a relatively new song, called "No More Cloudy Days". I loved it immediately.

Eventually, things began winding down... and I hadn't heard "Hotel California" yet.. no way were they going to end a concert like this without it! .... right...? The lights were out, and then you could hear a lone trumpet begin a beautiful opening aria, as a red spotlight shone down upon a trumpeter dressed in a Mariachi-style outfit, sombrero and all. So clear and bright was the melody as it led the entire Cox Arena down into the depths of "Hotel California". It brought down the house. Almost as good as the live cut I have from their Hell Freezes Over Tour. They played so many songs. It was awesome. The show started at 8pm and including the encore, it didn't get out until well past 11.

The next night, I got off work at 4, ran in the house, changed my clothes, jumped in another car with my mom, and then made my way to the Symphony Hall in downtown San Diego to see Rob Thomas!!! We met our friends Kerry and Laurel there. Mmm.. Spanish Tapas for dinner.

Anna Nalik opened and played my two favorite songs by her, "Breathe" and "Wreck of the Day". She's going to be something! Rob played a number of good songs, and even though it irked me to hear him perform songs from his Matchbox 20 days WITHOUT Matchbox 20, I'll forgive him since it sounded great... He also played a spiffy version of "Let's Dance", and of course, "Smooth". Then, he broke out his acoustic and performed a song he said he'd written over 10 years ago for friends from his Irvine days... and it took him a while to play it. Apparently he hadn't played it since then, either.

During a nice version of 3AM, my friend Laurel and I stood up (along with about 25 other members of the audience), mainly to see over the people that were standing up front. Some jackass behind us was yelling at us to sit down. What a cockjockey - I thought concerts were for standing and enjoying the show; not for sitting on your ass like you would with a radio in the kitchen! He even had security come to tell us to sit down. Security was not-so-politely told by our party to shove it - It's a concert for chrissakes.

Then my mom got up to go use the restroom. A good fifteen minutes later she comes back and says, "There were men in the bathroom!" Laurel looks at her and says, without delay, "that is because you were probably in the men's bathroom, dear." CLASSIC!!! Could it have been due to the three (or was it four...?) cosmos and margaritas that we'd downed only an hour earlier at dinner?

He didn't play nearly as many songs as The Eagles, but then again it's probably only fair, since he doesn't have anywhere near as much material as they do to work from! He ended his show with "This is How a Heart Breaks" and a charming duet with Anna Nalick.

Out of the deal, I kept my ticket stubs and dropped money on an Eagles shirt (see photos below). It was probably 5 times what I would have paid for it on Ebay, but c'mon now. My first concert ever. This was going to be an experience to remember. And damn, it sure was. I took some photos, too... but you'll have to excuse some of the blurriness. My camera is a POS and the lighting isn't camera-friendly. In fact, I think I was lucky not to have my camera taken away, because security confiscated Kristy's. Apparently that big sign that said "No Cameras" at the entrance was important...




The Eagles:

Rob Thomas:

Now, if only I'd made it to the Rolling Stones concert last weekend... that would have completed it!

We won't talk about how late I got in each night.. and how early I had to get up to be at work by 7:30am... hence why I'm sitting at home on a Friday night blogging. Recharging for the next round, set to start tomorrow at 5pm! YEEHAWWW PB here I come!