Concert 23-St. Louis, Missouri: A Hummingbird Day
Thanks to Christine Hammond for sponsoring the blog today. (Love ya!)
For more information on sponsoring a blog, go to www.livealifeworthcelebrating.com
****************************
Concert 23-St. Louis, Missouri
A Hummingbird Day
I began the day yesterday with reflections about the anniversary of the death of my husband, Hurley Cox. All of the beautiful blessings from friends and family yesterday, and the desire to focus on the hummingbirds, created the most magical day of the entire tour.
As you know, Hannah and I are going to 45 Jonas Brothers concerts this summer. Yesterday was the middle, number 23. Like climbing a hill, reaching the pinnacle point and now it is all downhill from here. Each concert takes us closer to our goal. We are savoring every moment knowing that it will be over in the blink of an eye.
Yesterday was like having a fairy godmother wave her magic wand over us. Or was it a loved one in Spirit, Hurley, guiding the way?
We spent the morning taking care of a variety of details and then hopped in the car to find our way to the Honor Society in-store Verizon Wireless event. When we arrived, we got our wrist bands that guaranteed a place in line for a poster signing with the Honor Society band, Michael, Andrew, Alexander and Jason. I scooted off to Target to refill the car with snacks and bottled water.
I received a mildly frantic call from Hannah to come back to the store. There was a contest for free tickets. This was a contest that required us to work as a team. To get the tickets, you had to have the most people there in a group with you supporting you to get the tickets. Hannah sent messages on twitter. I worked the crowd to tell them our story and ask them to support us. We eventually gathered about twenty-five people and won two tickets for the show last night!
In the process of winning the tickets, we met a variety of people. We met Kelsey who is the head of the Honor Society street team in Missouri. She is a natural networker, promoter and journalist at the age of 15. She connected me with Taylor J from Z107.7, a radio station personality in St Louis. I did a 30 second audio promo about our blog and then Taylor recorded me for a vlog. It is on her site.
http://www.z1077.com/pages/taylorj.html
We met another girl Hannah who had extra meet and greet passes for the Honor Society and she gave them to us. She was so sweet and smart. She is a perfect example of what I am seeing with the young women we are meeting. She knew that we would need to connect to get the passes. She took our phone numbers, sent Hannah a text message, found us at the venue with the passes, made sure that we had the meeting time and the code for the pictures. Smart, efficient, caring, open hearted young woman.
The Honor Society guys know my daughter, Hannah and me. We first met them in Denver when there was a small gathering of people. We told them our story and Alex, in particular, has been so enthusiastic about this journey. As they were signing my poster yesterday, I was telling them about the Oprah e-mail campaign. It is a long story and I am going to do my first Vlog about it very soon! Alex wanted to know if I had talked to Ned about it. Yes, and it is a silly story.
After more dancing and talking with people, Hannah and I found our way to the Scottrade Center for the concert. The weather had changed from hot, sunny to a windy, cool, thunderstorm.
In one of my blogs I wrote about the community that is formed around the venue with the staff from each of the sponsors. Everyone supports each other. We were huddled under the Mike and Ike’s canopy and I was talking with one of the Mike and Ike guys, James. He is a great guy, a college student who is working an amazing job for the summer. He is traveling around the United States, eating meals with all of the musicians, meeting sports figures who stop by the venues (he is a huge sports fan!) and occasionally, meeting a famous musician like Bono. It is fun to hear the stories and share in his excitement.
Well, last night, there were extra Jordin Sparks meet and greet passes. He knew how much we love Jordin and he gave us two tickets. This doesn’t happen often but tonight was our lucky night.
When the rain slowed down, he took down the canopy and we wandered over to the Verizon Recording Studio Bus. There were only a few people in line, so we climbed aboard for the tour. Michael and Mikie were giving the tour that day with Jesse hanging out in the front. It started pouring again so we hung out there for about 45 minutes. The bus travels with a variety of musicians who can use the bus to record songs while they are on tour. Instead of just a 5 minute tour, last night they were showing us how they mix the songs and demonstrated the instruments and played a wide variety of music for us.
Hannah and I split up and talked to different people until the doors opened and we found our way to our FREE front row seats. All of a sudden, I look up and I see two people I met in DC. This is one of those weird moments in life. In the parking garage after the concert in DC, I talked with 2 people who were parked next to me. Tonight they were in St. Louis, bought tickets and the tickets were right next to Hannah and me. Hannah is going to connect with one of the guys on Facebook. Nice people. Okay, Universe, what was that all about?
We knew so many people there last night. From other concerts, from the Verizon Wireless event earlier in the day and from the Jonas community.
We watched the Honor Society set, went backstage to have pictures and get hugs. We met two members from the band Since Forever. I am going to check them out on myspace and write a review.
Back to our seats for the end of Jordin’s set, then backstage to talk with her. She has been sick and was not allowed to speak, but I told her how I am having so much fun watching her grow as an artist this summer. She smiled, clapped her hands and hugged me. She is so nice.
Back to our seats for another great Jonas Brothers concerts. I danced and danced and went crazy with the band. I was so into it I kept bumping into Hannah and even scratching her with my nails. Sorry! I need more space to dance!
All in all, it was a Hummingbird Day.