Stuff I missed...

Despite titling my last post correctly I forgot to mention our little foray to the Dave Matthews/Allman Brothers show at Piedmont Park.

The wife got tickets way back in August when it was a conservancy show selling 20K tickets. It turned into the largest outdoor show at Piedmont Park ever at well over 50K souls attending.

It is no secret that I am not a crowd person. I don't like them, never have. There is just too much random stupidity that goes on when massive amounts of people get together. These things I'd rather eschew.

Our plans were somewhat simple. We were to meet my sister in law (Stacy) at her place and go from there, then meet Rachel's law school friends in the park. Best laid plans.

My idea was to drive down to my office and park for free, then walk the 8 or so blocks to the park, simple enough. NOOOOOO

Stacy and her boyfriend ( a law school friend as well, Jerry) insisted we take the train. They convinced us that it would be much simpler, take less time, provide less frustration, etc. We discuss our options amidst a cocktail or 2 and they just wouldn't back down.

Fine, we take the train downtown, get out of the station, and have already lost Stacy and Jerry. They had to go potty.

While waiting, we ran into a group of people from our neighborhood, they were headed to TAP, a bar up the street, to have a few beers before the show. I immediately wanted to abandon Jerry and Stacy...not to be.

We proceeded to walk up the street with Stacy and Jerry behind us and Stacy spotted a cab. She said "hey a cab" and flagged it down. Keep in mind we are about 6 blocks from the entrance to the park. I say to my wife, "theres no way in hell I'm getting in that cab, its ridiculous". Luckily she agreed.

We tried to convince Stacy to let the cab go, but she hopped right in. We stood our ground but poor Jerry had no choice but to hop in or lose his date. They pulled away and were not to be found for the rest of the night.

Another block up the street and what do you know? There's TAP! score!!

We find our neighborhood friends on the opposite side of the bar chatting it up and drinking beers. We joined in the fray and put down a few beers, somehow a jager bomb (or 3) was handed in my direction.


Finally we decided to head towards the concert, it seems no one in the group was terribly interested in catching all of the Allman Brothers. We wandered through the park, and I started to break off to where I knew the stage would be. The rest of the group had other plans and were headed off through the back side of the park. I could not convince them to come my way, so we caught up.

Rachel had to stop and hit the can before we went in and the rest of the group kept right on walking. Oh well. I waited dutifully by the restroom and we regrouped to go inside.

The place was absolute chaos, people were everywhere, and I just plowed through, picking my spots and heading back to the front of the park. (where we would have ended up if we had gone my way to begin with)

We both agreed that beer was in order and we began the ordeal of waiting in line. Rach tried several times to get a location of any of our friends, but how exactly to you find a group of 5-10 people amongst 50,000??

Undaunted, we waited in line for beer and proceeded to make a bonehead move. We bought alot of beer.

See, you would think normally that this is a good thing, but it was truly a misplaced idea. We wanted to hook up with our friends, it didn't really matter which set of friends at this point. We figured to be heroes bearing beer or something.

We decided that 12 was a good number and the beer dude proceeds to place 12 beers on a cardboard tray and open them. hmmm 78 bucks thankyouverymuch

Of course, by this time Rach needed to pee again so I took a seat under a tree with my platter of beer to drink, wait, listen to the Allmans last set, drink, and wait some more.

Two beers (tall boys baby) and one hour later, Rachel returns from the porta-potty and we began to make our way towards the stage.

Quickly I evaluated my error in judgment as I stumbled around with an opened platter of tallboys hoisted in my best waiter pose, through throngs and throngs of people.

We made fairly good headway until the inevitable. I caught my foot on someone's blanket and, despite my greatest effort, busted my ass.

I picked myself up with some help and rescued as many of the now half empty beers as I could.

Once I decided I was OK, I joined the nearby spectators in a good laugh, and proceeded to hand out beer to whoever wanted it.

We stood and watched the show with our newfound friends for a few songs, then tromped onward to the front of the stage.

We never did find any of our real friends, despite the effort, but I really didn't care at that point, I was barely coherent.

I vaguely remember the sweet aroma of pot and tromping through the bushes looking for a place to pee. Then we found a nice place on the hill looking towards the show and sat for the first time.

I remember being fairly pleased with the setting and music, but also I remember the need to GTFO. I was done with the crowd, and Rach was less than pleased when I wanted to go before the show was over.

Eventually we made it back to Stacy's apartment. It was a good thing too since Rach kept her keys. We brought Taco bell for them and went inside.

Somehow during the show, Stacy led Jerry to a restricted area in which he fell on his face scaling a fence. His nose was was a little bloody and he twisted his knee. I would characterize his attitude as grim...at best. The tacos did little to brighten his mood.

Things are a good bit foggy for me at this point as I went into drunken food coma. I believe my wife seriously considered divorce at some point trying to get me up and to the car.

When we got home, she left me passed out in the car, and I slept in the garage like the dog I am.

Good times, good times.



I'll post the first 2 days result of my challenge tonight.

Cheers!