Concert...and the Trouble I Went Through To Get There

Today was brilliant. I'm just throwing that out there to start off. It's my "Attention Grabber," if you will. I'm hoping it makes the rest of this post sound nearly as exciting as it really is. :D

I started off my day by staying up until 5am. You may be wondering why. Oddly enough, I'm wondering the same thing. I was pretty excited to have tickets to see Stellar Kart and Seventh Day Slumber. Kiros was supposed to be there, too. I didn't really know who they were, and they ended up not being there for some reason.

Crawled out of bed a little bit after 3:00 in the afternoon. I tried to see if a few more people wanted to come to the concert, but, having no such luck, resigned to the idea of going by myself. I was NOT going to miss this!! I got ready for work and shoved a pair of jeans and an overshirt into my (awesome) green backpack and bounced merrily out the door with a cup of yogurt in my hands.

I worked from 4:30 to 6:00, ran into the bathroom there and changed and pretty much floated out to my car. It was at this point that I realized that it was about 6:15, and I still had no idea where I was actually going or how long it would take to get there. Fortunately, high class restaurants offer free wi-fi. I sat in the parking lot of the KFC next door and Googled a map. 35 minutes. From my house. I was about twenty minutes further than that.

"Okay. I need... Oh. I need a comb. Badly." There was no comb in my car. Run to Wal-Mart. Left Wal-Mart with two combs (You never know when you'll need back-up) and a Monster (because this Wal-Mart apparently doesn't carry Rockstar. Ew.) at lightning speed at approximately 4:30.

Twenty minutes later...and I'm lost. By this time, I'm on the phone with Devon, and I'm sure she thought my complete and total lack of planning in the Navigation Department was hilarious. I land myself in some dinky little town next to a large, gold SUV. Their windows were down.

Me: Hey. Quick question.
Driver: Yo, what's up?
Me: What town am I in, and how do I get to Kansas City? o.O
Driver: Get behind me and follow us. We headed that way.

Normally, this screams "DANGER: This person is going to lead you to an empty field and leave you for dead." This time, though, they actually took me exactly where I needed to be. I found the highway and was on my way again.

Only to get lost a second time, about five minutes later. Time: 7:04. Place: Kansas City International Airport's Marriot Hotel. ...how did I get here!? I had no idea, but I ran inside anyway, past a huge bus that was unloading a bunch of luggage. All I could think was, "I really need to get into that lobby to the desk before all of them do..." I made it. Barely.

Me: I'm lost.
Clerk: Okay. Where are you headed.
Me: This address. -hands over concert ticket-
Clerk: -prints out directions- You're only about ten minutes away.
Lady Behind Me: It's only about 7:00 now. You can make it!
Me: -swift walk out the door-

Anyway, I got there at about 7:15. I was hugged by the lady (Ashley) who gave me the ticket. She then took me into the auditorium and...over to the VIP seating area. I pretty much died. Front row, just SL of the stage. Not that I sit during any concert.

Stellar Kart was amazing. Like...brilliant. There was fist-pumping, headbanging...pretty much everything I love in a concert. And they were funny. Like...really funny. :D Between sets, I hit up their stand in the lobby and got a poster (which I had them autograph) and an armband. Yes, I splurged a little...I'm not ashamed. Oh, and also, this:

This was incredibly cool. Like...it's my profile pic on Facebook. That's how cool I thought it was. :D Ashley came over and kinda told them how I'd gotten the tickets after my little "Oh my gosh, I'm ringing up Stellar Kart's groceries!" thing...which totally happened. I'm definitely a fan of their music, and by sheer chance, the lady buying the water for their concert was in my check-out line. You'd freak out a little bit, too, I bet! 

I also checked out Seventh Day Slumber's stand, but didn't plan ahead, so I couldn't get anything. 

Between sets, there was a give away of a few things. I got a Switchfoot's "Hello Hurricane" album. And then Seventh Day Slumber came on. I managed to snap a few pictures of them, but the lighting made it a little difficult to do without flash, but the lighting was so cool I didn't really want to use flash. Flash pretty much always ruins live performances...

Joseph Rojas had...a pretty much amazing testimony to give. It really reminded me a lot of ConsuME, which I miss. I miss being on-stage doing worship. Okay. I wasn't on-stage at this concert, but I was really, really close to it. 

That grey bar there marks the first step of the stage. I was really, really close to the whole concert. The concert was...a blast. A really big blessing, and something I needed badly. The way these tickets came about and how perfectly everything came together was really, really cool.

I had to leave right after Seventh Day Slumber finished playing, because it was about 10:30 already, and I was afraid of getting lost on the way home. Which I did. I ended up on the other side of Liberty, Missouri. Twice. The 35 minute drive took two hours.

Today was awesome. Thanks, Ashley, for the tickets, and thanks to Stellar Kart and SDS for being there and just being awesome in general! God bless! :D