such a mothersucker

yes, that is me.  i am a mother who is a sucker for doing whatever i possibly can to make my kids happy.

even if that includes sitting in two hours of traffic in the hopes of getting my hands on non-guaranteed concert tickets featuring my daughter's dream boy.

nick jonas was playing a free concert for the new microsoft store's grand opening in century city - which is waaaay out on the west side of l.a. (at least for me, coming from BFE), and you had to have a wristband to attend.  of course, they were handing said wristbands out the day before the concert, set for the same day as the NKOTBSB concert i've been looking forward to for six months with my friends.  bah!

not to mention, chicks were camping out for tickets.  the first 200 were not only going to get into the show, but into a meet & greet with nick and another performer (i cannot remember her name for the life of me) afterwards.  another 800 were going to receive "priority" seating wristbands.  i figured that was quite a lot, right?  except that when the event's facebook page announced that the lineup was open at 11:30 the day before, i thought i was screwed.  i'd already gotten cousin seven and the hub to commit to taking her, only now i wasn't sure if it was going to happen at all.

but i was determined.  i really wanted to get her to that concert, and i kept an eye on that facebook page to see the updates that people were posting.  and when i saw a post at about 8:30 that morning that said "we just got here and we're number 147!" i jumped right up, threw some clothes on and strapped the bean into her carseat.

and we hit traffic almost as soon as we got on the freeway.  ugh.  under normal conditions, we could get to century city in about 45 minutes, but it was a solid two hours in all that traffic.  and as the minutes ticked away, and the official store opening time came and went, i feared that we would indeed be too late.

i did pause for a minute to admire the cool parking structure, which featured red and green lights over each spot to indicate whether or not it was open.  that's pretty neat, right?

i decided to make things easy on myself and strapped the bean in the carrier on my back.  the first thing i saw at the top of the escalator was this:

too bad i had zero time (or money) to stop in and browse.  then, after running into a pair of giggly girls happily clutching microsoft store bags like they were gold - and i suppose they were, if they were in that first 200 - we finally made it to the store.  and there were tons of people milling about.  eek.

it was madness in there.  not only because of the jonas thing, but, well - it WAS a microsoft store opening, after all.

i asked the staff at the front about the wristbands, and while they were perfectly friendly and as helpful as they could be, they didn't know a damn thing about what i was asking for.  really?  and then i was finally directed to join a line towards the back of the store as it turned out that there were still wristbands available.  YES!

and then, another roadblock - everyone in the line ahead of me was handing over a red ticket before receiving their goody bag and wristbands.  shit.  i didn't have any stinking red ticket, and we ended up having to wind our way through back up to the front to see if there were any left.  and again, the staff members were friendly and clueless.  by this point, i was seriously ready to burst into tears.  because i have a terrible pokerface, my distress didn't go unnoticed and we magically had two red tickets (one for me, one for the bean).  squeezing our way back towards the line, we emerged with our prizes at last.

so we got a little silly.

relief set in, and so did the coffee i'd guzzled on the way out.  bloomingdale's has quite a lovely potty.

we found a playground for the bean to burn off some energy.  most excellent, since she'd been cooped up for last couple of hours.

while she climbed and played, i peeked into the bags and inspected the items inside.

plus there was a frisbee, lip balm, a water bottle, and some temporary tattoos.  haha, as if.

the rest of this post is based on reports from the teen and the hub, since i wasn't there.  i made sure to charge the camera battery and armed her with the zoom lens to get great shots.  the next day, she and the bean and the hub all set off nice and early in the hopes of avoiding 4th of july weekend traffic, and somehow were able to do just that.  they got free t-shirts and blankets and found a great spot not too far from the stage.

there were games and giveaways, and contestants in "the glee project" made an appearance too.

the other girl performed first.

and then without any fanfare, pyrotechnics, or anything aside from a simple introduction from a microsoft rep, nick took the stage.

the teen is SO my daughter.  she and seven cackled and snorted over these girls, who were bawling at the very sight of their teen dream.

he played for a full hour before bidding the crowd a fond farewell and tossing them his guitar pick as he usually does.

you think the teen was excited for this show - but you still have yet to hear about the NKOTBSB concert her mother went to.

oh, you just wait.

automatic. systematic. hydromatic.

the teen, rock-ell and i were super stoked when it was finally time for the "grease" singalong at the hollywood bowl.  we'd bought the tickets weeks ago, and while i've been to the bowl before (granted, the last time was a decade ago), it was the first time for both girls.

we very wisely chose to buy the $5 shuttle tickets.  the closest pickup spot for us was in arcadia, which was just fine.  no traffic, no parking, no hassle.  we got there right on time and scored seats on the very first bus.

i'd brought a book to pass the time on the way there, and it was nice to have some uninterrupted reading time.  i actually managed to get almost all the way through before we finally pulled up to the dropoff area.  and of course, what did we do first?  we hit this, of course.

we'd packed a big ass bag full of sandwiches and snacks, so we were all set in that department.  we had blankets (and snuggies - you'll see), but knowing that the bench seats aren't super comfortable, i sprung for three of those seat cushions with a handle.  i figured we'd get our use out of them this summer, since we're coming back for "hairspray" in august (with the teen's future husband, nick jonas) and then the "sound of music" singalong in september.  we're definitely making up for lost bowl time.

the escalators that took us to the upper levels reminded us all of universal studios.

thank god for this.  sorry, smokers, but i hate that shit.

on the way up, we saw the first of many costumed singalong-ers.

it was easy to find our seats, and we were pleased with the central location we had and the fairly decent view it offered.

we even got props for the evening, in our pink plastic "fun packs."

as the sun set, the stars came out and the coolness of the evening enveloped us, which was lovely.  it didn't take long for the girls to bust out those snuggies.

we'd stopped at wolfe's market, where i finally cashed in a restaurant.com certificate i've had for ages and ages.  there were sandwiches with all the condiments, slices of meat and cheese, petit fours and cookies. i like meat.

didi conn, who played "frenchie" in the movie, came out as our "hostess" for the night.  she looked and sounded exactly as she had 25ish years ago, and she brought out others who'd been part of the movie as well as greeted everyone who'd lined up for the costume contest/parade. 

let's just say that i managed to finish my book during this time.  heh.

and then it was finally time for the movie.  these shots are awfully blurry, but you'd expect nothing less, right?

go, greased lightning!  the teen's eyes widened at a few parts of the song.  unlike the "clean" versions on tv, the song was uncut and uncensored, and she'd never really realized what they were saying before.  surprise!

during "beauty school dropout," a group of chicks who'd dressed accordingly took it upon themselves to parade up and down the aisles amidst a lot of hootin' and hollerin'.  most of it came from folks who were...not sober.  heh.  we were actually surrounded by lots and lots of wine bottles.

race at thunder road!

and the triumphant finale.

the ride back to arcadia was much easier and faster than the drive out, and we were home in no time.  we'd had such fun - and i can't wait for the next two events.  we have much better seats for "hairspray," in the hopes of getting a good view of the jonas.  woo-hoo!