Josh Groban

Our Josh Groban concert was the 27th of August. So, according to our normal behavior, we rushed home from the pool to get ready to go on the 26th of August. Jason had mentioned that we had the concert on Saturday, but when he said that I thought, for some reason, the concert was on the 26th and told him we needed to hurry and get going because it was actually that night. I reminded my babysitter via text to be here at 1700 (5) and she did not seem surprised so I took that as a good sign. We got in our concert best, gave instructions to the babysitter and took off for the concert. All signs pointed to it being the wrong day. There was no traffic, parking garage was empty, and even as we were walking to the arena, there were no people lined up at the door. The funny thing was Jason and I did not think anything of it. We thought "This is great, the traffic is pretty good. And, oh look, a front row parking spot. That's lucky." When we got to the door we thought maybe we were using the wrong entrance since no one was lined up. Jason tried the doors and they were locked. Then we both stopped, looked at each other and said, "There's no way there is no line, perfect parking and no traffic on the night of Josh Groban's concert." So I dug around for the ticket and sadly looked on as we read 27th of August. (In our defense, the 26th of August was posted on the ticket for some reason. We had looked at the wrong one before) Jason laughed because this was extremely common behavior for us. We had missed an hour of a concert before, and often times misread movie times ect. But, I was so stoked for the concert and all gussied up (which was not easy for me to do since I had been feeling depressed lately). I even had the perfect hair. I felt very discouraged and I kept trying to will it to suddenly be the 27th. Worst yet we had spent $120 on gas and babysitter that we would have to spend AGAIN the next day for the actual concert. Jason kept a positive attitude and kept me smiling. We looked for a bathroom and decided to take advantage of our babysitter by going to dinner. As we drove back down the 5 we joked around about the situation. Jason said, "Yes, we get dressed up and drive two hours just to go to the bathroom in the Seattle Children's Center. Who wouldn't? Their bathrooms are so nice. Then we go to drabby Pizza Hut for dinner." ha ha

Back at home, we joked with the babysitter. She was more than willing to come back to earn more money the next night.

On the 27th we got ready again. We decided with yesterday being our trial run that we should probably leave a little earlier. We put on the same clothes and I tried to do my hair the same, but it never does turn out exactly the same. We grabbed fast food on the way for dinner. The trip up this time was more disappointing. The day before when we drove up we were happy, singing to loud music with the windows down. But it was cooler this day so we drove most of the way with the windows up. (We love having the opportunity to drive with the windows down since Emma doesn't like the wind in her face we don't get to do it often.)

As predicted we ran into horrible traffic on the way. As we were doing stop and go we looked to our left to see someone we knew from church pulled over on the side of the road. My sister, Liz, also knew her and had told me that she was going to the concert. We called our friends who had their number to make sure everything was ok and hoping that she wouldn't miss the concert. Through that we agreed that we would take her home after the concert. Her phone was dying though so we did not know if we would even be able to get ahold of her after the concert.

We put those thoughts away as the crowd roared and from where we were sitting a man coming out on stage could have been Josh Groban. He wore a suit jacket and had shaggy hair. I knew there was usually an opening act to concerts so I grabbed the binoculars and was thankful that it wasn't Josh yet, because I had missed the entrance. It was an amazing piano player called Elewminate. He didn't say a word, but his music spoke volumes and not only that it was funny. I never knew you could turn piano playing comedic. He did a very good job. He played hits of today from different genres but with his own personal touch and made them magnificent. Then would throw in funny things like the theme to Charlie Brown or soap opera music in the middle of a powerful, emotional song.

When he was done it seemed like an hour before Josh Groban came out. I kept the binoculars ready for when the lights would dim. Finally he ran in through the audience and went to a center stage piano which was amongst all the people. From there it was just great music, laughter, and good times! He was extremely enjoyable. He was everything I thought he would be. His voice was spectacular in real life just like on his CDs. I kept thinking through out the concert that I couldn't believe I was there. It was Jason's first concert and what a great one to be your first! Josh interacted with the audience wonderfully. I really felt like he was looking or talking right at me sometimes.

Afterwards we did get a call from Anna, the stranded girl. She was on the opposite side of the arena so we walked to her. We were afraid we wouldn't have anything to talk about on the 2 hours back home, but she ended up being very nice, talkative, and we had a lot in common. I hope to become friends with her because she was very enjoyable. We stopped at Denny's for a late night snack on the way home which is a tradition for us when ever we are coming home late at night from something. It was an expensive last couple evenings, but it was worth it and relaxing and fun!