The rest of my day (yesterday) *Warning: very long*

.
Well, the roads got VERY bad here as the afternoon went on, due to the snow and ice. Traffic jams and car accidents were all over the news. My mom called at about 2:30 and asked if we were still planning on going. I say yes, it's way too soon to decide not to. The snow's supposed to stop and then during rush hour the roads will clear up (this was my heartfelt wish/belief, and I was sticking to it!). We didn't have to leave until 6 or even 7 if we had to. Mom, of course, had to be negative and not believe it would clear up, and proceeded to be all worried about my drive. Between you and me, I was concerned, too, but there wasn't any point in trying to tell her. She doesn't listen to me. I was hoping it would clear up like I planned, but I also knew that if it was absolutely treacherous out there, I couldn't bring my son out there, and I would have to cancel.


The snow stopped at around 4, which was earlier than the weatherman thought it would, and was also just what I'd hoped. The roads were still very dangerous, though. I kept checking the traffic reports as time went on, hoping to find it would be clearing up. At 5 and 5:30, traffic was still horrendous (hours of delays). But at this point the snow had stopped and it would not be snowing again for the rest of the night. I still felt that the roads would be cleared up after the rush hour traffic. So we were a go. Now I just had to decide what time to leave. If we left too early, we'd be stuck in horrible 3-hour-long traffic jams. If we left too late, we would move faster but might still miss the beginning of the show. (I already knew we'd miss the opening act, which was fine with me, but Bon Jovi were supposed to take the stage at 8:30.) Finally, at around 6:30, the traffic web site showed the traffic had settled down to reasonable snowy-day slowness.

After warming up the car, clearing the snow off of it, and making sure we had everything, we left at nearly 7.
The first highway, the one closest to me, wasn't too bad, and traffic was light and moving at about 40 mph. As I moved on to the second highway, it was a bit scarier, because it was covered in ice. But we made our way slowly and carefully, and did fine. The next highway (Route 93 into Boston) was a little icy, but traffic was moving nicely. Unfortunately, when we got off at the exit we needed, we were stuck in a huge, barely moving line of cars, whom I guessed were mostly headed to the concert, too.

From that point, we crawled most of the way, and finally got to the place about 8:45. Ran into other fans in the elevator, and asked if they thought the band had started yet. One of them said her friend had arrived there at 8:30, and they hadn't started yet. So I was hopeful. I reminded the boy that we were late because of the snow storm, and there was nothing we could have done differently to get there sooner, and even if we miss the beginning of the show, we should be thankful that we got to go at all. Rushed to use the ladies room, then found where we needed to go in. As I bought us some water, I heard the crowd shout and the band playing. Damn! I asked the guy selling the water how long ago they'd started, and he said only about 10 minutes. Ok, not so bad.

And in we went. What was really cool was that we entered on the floor, but about half-way back. And we had 6th row tickets. So I took the boy by the hand and maneuvered through the crowd, and I got to walk the boy closer, and closer, and closer, all the way to the front, to our seats. From the point of view of a little boy going to his first concert, I felt this was probably very impressive. Actually, those are the best and closest seats I've ever had, so I was pretty impressed to be walking that far up, too.
We had a great time. I think I was actually *gasp* happy. And I saw it as it was happening and was thankful to feel it. But I'm sure once it sinks in, I'll have some sort of guilt thing to work through with my councelor, about feeling alive and happy while...well, you know the rest. But the feeling happy was actually significant to me. This was the first thing I'd actually been looking forward to and was happy about in so long. And we were SO close to the stage. That was so cool. And the boy had a great time. I'd warned him ahead of time that it would be very crowded and very noisy, but I was still a tiny bit afraid he'd get scared and either not have a good time, or have to leave. But he did great. We'd gotten him some earplugs and he was fine. Some of the songs he didn't know as well and he was a bit subdued. But on the songs he knew, he came to life. It was so great. He was smiling, singing along, pumping his arms in the air. Coolest. Thing. Ever.
The band wrapped up about 11:00, but that was just a tease and they did 3 encores, so it didn't stop until around 11:30. The poor boy had gotten very tired by that point. He was sitting and kept checking my watch, but he didn't complain. He did so well. He did say that he wished he'd taken a nap in the afternoon, like I did. Then it finally ended, and we went to buy tshirts and a program, and a COFFEE MUG! I didn't know there would be coffee mugs. I love coffee mugs. I kind of collect special ones, of places I've been, etc.

The ride home was good, still some ice on the roads, but we just took it slow. And the fact that I found the right street to take me back to 93 was a plus. (Have I mentioned that I DO NOT drive in Boston?) We got home at about 1 am and went to bed. So now I have my Bon Jovi Have A Nice Day coffee mug. I washed it already, and just made a pot of coffee, so I'll have my coffee in my new mug today. YAY!

So, to sum it up,

Scary:

• bad weather-were we going to crash on the way there or back, or have to miss it all together?
• were we going to miss a good chunk of the show stuck in traffic?
• was the boy going to be scared or too tired and need to leave early?

Grateful:

• the weather let up just when I needed it to, and we were able to go
• we only missed about 10 minutes of the show, and I'm good with that--I honestly don't see how we could have done anything differently to get there earlier.
• the boy had a splendid time
• I had a good time
• Jon Bon Jovi is even sexier up close
• 6th row tickets, so cool!
• got home safely
• coffee mug!

AND, they're coming back to Foxboro in the summer! I asked the boy if he'd like to go again, or did he want to think about it for a while (I wasn't sure if it had been too overwhelming/loud/long for him, and I wasn't 100% sure he'd want to go again). His answer: "Oh, I don't need to think about it--I definately want to go again!!

I am going to be poor and have to sell all my belongings, but, damn it, we are going back this summer!