ok, so this was originally written february of 2006, but i saw it and i decided to post it again. it was kind of a reminder, i might not always have things in my control. i might have to rely on people ive never met before. sometimes i have to ask for help or accept it in times when i dont want to.. but its not always a bad thing. sometimes when you do things you dont think you can.. it turns out to be a pretty great thing. this was one of those times…
so a few weeks ago i found out that yellowcard and mae are supposed to be in town, but they are sold out. fuckers. i need to go to this show. i have to go. i love mae. love em. so i check out craigslist.com, if you never have you should. i found a guy sellin tickets, before i email him telling him we have to get these tickets, i decided to call and make sure the metro is accessible. cuz if not that would just suck. so i call. it is. fuck yea!
we get the tickets. ivy and i are beyond excited about this show. i call again to make sure the place is accessible cuz well, with situations like this, you never know. again, i am told it is. rock on. i called two more times prior to the night of the show. both times i was told it is accessible. so that is now minimum of four times being told, yes it is.
fast forward. its fifteen minutes before we have to leave to catch the bus to get to the show. we are finishing up getting ready. i suggest we should call one more time. find out if we need to go anywhere special or be there at a certain time. so, ivy calls. they put her through to security. she lets them know about the chair and asks where and what time. he says 5:30 and then asks about the chair. is it heavy? can it be lifted? can she be lifted? we were like wtf. they told us it was wheelchair accessible. he says no, we carry the chairs up.
anger. frustration. pissed off. livid. i was livid. we had no idea what we were going to do. i had to go to that concert. we decide well go. well figure things out when we get there and if worst comes to worst we get our money back and hit up a few bars.
the bus ride. the whole time im thinking ‘i am not being carried up god knows how many flights of stairs. fuck that shit.’ im not into the whole trusting a stranger not to drop me. ivy on the other hand thought differently. she assured me it would be cool, the guys could do it, they are strong, itll be ok.
the show. as we walk up im still having my doubts. i see a couple security people. im thinking no way. then out walks eddie, he was/is buff. he starts asking shit about the chair, how heavy is it, all that crap again. im like you arent carrying the chair up the stairs. mainly because if its dropped, im shit out of luck. its a 23,000 chair. not something you want to be messing with.
we go inside and are by the stairs for the backstage area. theres about.. oh id say at least 6 nice looking security guys around. all trying to figure out what to do. so we explain what needs to be done. im freakin out in my head at this point after i see the 10 steps we need to go up.
were ready to go. i have two big security guards carrying me up a flight of stairs. plus two spotters [a guy in front and a guy in back just in case - safety precautions]. we make it up the first flight. im thinking ‘yay! we are almost done!’. i was wrong. dead wrong, we turn the corner, there is a fucking huge steep flight of stairs, plus more stairs after that, about 6 or 7 more.
were mid way through the steep flight, and i know im slipping i can feel it. i am freakin out, my heart is pounding, my breathing was funny, im telling them im slipping, theyre tellin me im not. we get to the last 6/7 stairs. 3 more to go. we stop. im slipping. now the spotters have to help. they pull the chair over that im going to be sitting in for the concert. they get me up the last 3 stairs and into the chair. i made it. and i was ok. they grab the chair im in now and carry it to the balcony. why they didnt just use the chair the first time was beyond all of us.
they were sweet. the one guy got me a pillow for behind my back. and we were set to see the show. we got to see the soundcheck shit since we were there early. it was neat. the first band, blackout pact, they sucked. they had two hotties in the group though. then mae came out :) i love mae. they are all so very hot [the lead singer, dave elkins, reminds me of a certain someone - who coincidently was the one who got me into mae, who also was the one i was thinking about the whole time]. and they are awesome musicians to top it off. then yellowcard played. they were awesome. the whole thing was incredible, i had never been to a concert like this before. i usually go to ben folds. you dont see crowd surfing and mosh pits at ben folds. it was fun to watch.
after the show. the security guys come back. this time they are going to leave me in the chair and hold onto that instead. so now there is a security guy on each side, one in the front [plus ivy was there, too] and then the muscle man, eddie behind me. he kept reassuring me that he would not let me fall cuz he wasnt about to fall himself. he was nice, he calmed me down a little. the guys on the side of the chair were walking fast, i thought someone was going to lose their footing. i was freaking out. at one point they had leaned me back so far i thought that it was the end. we got down to the last flight of stairs and took a little rest. i couldnt hold my head up. i was nervous, when im nervous i get weak. eddie held my head up for me :) it was sweet. so they got me down the last flight of stairs and put me back into my wheelchair.
it was nuts. those of you reading this that dont know me very well, this was a hard thing to let someone else do. im not a trusting person in situations like that. normally i would opt to not go to the show and then id regret it. i had to see mae though. so this time i did it, i put the trust into them not to drop me and they came through. they are a great group of guys. we must have apologized 50 million times and each time they said not to worry, it wasnt our fault and its not a big deal. i had a great time. and hopefully, now that i went to this and everything turned out alright, ill be able to try other things i didnt think i could do before.