Once upon a time, not so long ago, two friends embarked on an epic journey.
No for real though, a couple of weeks ago Carly came out to visit me. (For the record, I live in the frozen tundra of KCMO and she and Jenn live in Seattle. I'm a transplant to the midwest and frozen to the core.) I had a milestone birthday, 27 again, and Carly came out to celebrate. We had a jampacked weekend planned. First I'd pick her up from the airport and we'd head to Lawrence, KS to see my boyfriend/favorite singer/dreamboat Matt Nathanson. Probably grab some dinner but I'd purchased tickets to the concert in August maybe? And the trip was kind of centered around Matt & Hunger Games Catching Fire.
Carly was familiar with the music Matt makes and thumbs ups his songs on Pandora but she wasn't familiar with the magic that surrounds Matty when he performs. Her face when he stepped on stage was seriously priceless. There's something about Matt that just brings you right there and makes you feel like the only two girls in the room. Anyway, the show in Lawrence was amazing. We were pretty close to the stage about 3 people back, smack dab between "heart hands", Drunk Lady yelling "Aaaaaaaaron, you're the shit!!!" and the short couple that cut right in front of us and then proceeded to make out the entire time. (PS they were my parents' age.) Gosh I sound like such a fan girl but he was making eye contact with us pretty much the whole show. I'm just saying if you haven't seen the dude live, well that's a mistake on you. His songs don't sound overtly sexual, I mean obviously there's a reference here and there that might clue you in but seeing him live just proves that every.thing. he does is sexy. Also once you see him live you can't listen to the songs he's sung for you and not imagine his hips. Lawd. Those hips.
After the concert we didn't feel the cold as we strutted to our car parked behind the Granada in Lawrence. As soon as we were safely enclosed in the four doors of my Accord I pulled out my phone and pulled up Matt on spotify.
"Oh, he plays in Tulsa tomorrow. I wonder how far away Tulsa is." I said innocently as I selected Some Mad Hope to listen to on the 35 minute drive home.
Carly pulls out her phone and types Tulsa into google maps.
"Huh, about 4 hours."
"Oh that's not too bad."
"Yeah..."
So we listened to about half of the CD all while musing about how not that far Tulsa was. Plus we'd never really spent any time in Oklahoma. And she was only here for a short time. My husband had already planned on taking care of our kids that day so that I could have a legit girl weekend since he had to work on Saturday. We were justifying the expenditure in our heads all while driving home. After the realization that tickets were only $20/each we bought tickets for the next night in Tulsa! And then we almost died.
After our brush with death I was a little nervous about driving 4 hours to Tulsa. We'd bought the tickets though, and remembering the way we felt Thursday night we decided to go on and go forth and drive to Tulsa. I mean we were driving south. It's warmer in the south. Right?
Have you ever taken a road trip with your best friend? Belting out music, crushing pink Rockstars, and eating jalapeno chips? If not I suggest one, STAT. For some reason the GPS on my phone took me on a two lane highway from The Plaza in KC to Tulsa, OK. I'm pretty sure there was a more direct and less boring route, but whatevs. My phone knows the way.
After being mistaken for twins not once, but twice, we finally made it to Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, OK. It definitely wasn't warmer in Tulsa. You don't know this about me, but I'm a shy person. I don't talk to people I don't know. I have a very bitch face. Nobody talks to me. For some reason, standing outside of the concert venue in 28 degree weather made me feel chatty. I talked to a really cool couple in front of us. They were there to see Joshua Radin who was the opening band. :yawn: and pass the dude some Red Bull. He needs some damn wings. We talked about our love for Matt and his hips and blah blah. So the doors opened and we were literally RIGHT THERE. I could touch the stage. Get spit on. Sweated on. Whatever! It was the most ideal position for the concert!
I kid you not, Matt stepped on stage and made a "hey! I recognize you" face at Carly and me. Probably at Carly. I mean obviously she's the hot one. So throughout the night Matty made eye contact again with us throughout the whole thing. I made him laugh when I fanned myself during Faster. (Seriously there's just something about a guy singing falsetto.) I sang "Can't stop thinking about the guy in the Make shirt." and he saw me. Basically I made a fool of myself for over an hour. He totally asked Carly what her tattoo says. Basically we felt like rock stars. We met the drummer, Chris. And guess what? He said he noticed us in the front row. WHAT?
So perspective, it's a funny thing. Matt and his friends rocked our world. They noticed us. Matt tweeted us and thanked us for coming to the show both nights. So for Carly and me it was one of the most amazing and memorable weekends of our lives. For Matt? Just another show. We're just some crazy fan girls with lipstick and teeth that drove 4 hours to be groupies. By now he's probably forgotten us (or has he?!)
Just in case he somehow finds this blog:
Dear Matty,
Thank you for the weekend full of memories. It was probably just as amazing as being tangled up in hotel sheets (with you). For hours. Over and over again. Or maybe not.
xoxo,
Sunshine
--Christia
