So many times in my life I’ve had days that I have looked forward to for weeks, if not months, ahead of time. Then the actual day comes and I’ve spent so much time anticipating it that when it is all said and done I end up disappointed. Yesterday was not one of those days. In fact, with the exception of having to spent a few hours at work and a little baby-sitting snafu, it was pretty much a perfect day.
As you know, if you’ve been reading along, we found out yesterday that this little fetus in my belly is indeed a baby girl. I have always dreamed of having one boy and one girl and as of yesterday morning that dream has become a reality. I’m still a little in shock about that because even though my intuition told me it was a girl, I was scared to believe it. Somehow I thought that if I really, truly, believed it was a girl that it would end up being a boy. But, I was totally right all along and I can’t wait to meet my little girl!
After I left the doctor’s office, I came to work and made about a million phone calls to my family, then sent text messages to the rest of my friends who were waiting for the news. It took me quite a while to get myself settled back down and ready to work. Then I realized just how much I needed to get done before I could leave. I rushed myself as quickly as I possibly could to get things finished up so I could leave on time. I still didn’t leave quite on time, but fortunately Hubby was able to get off work early so he could pick Zach up and bring him over to meet up with our last-minute replacement baby-sitter.
When I finally got away from work, I ended up in major traffic which normally would have really irritated me. Instead, I talked to one of my best friends on the phone most of the way home and she managed to keep me just distracted enough that I didn’t lose my good mood. Once I got home, it was a quick change of clothes and back out the door on our way to see Garth Brooks in concert.
The concert was everything I had imagined it to be and more. My mom came along with Hubby and I and we met up with my sister and her husband at the show.
Trisha Yearwood started things up and was fantastic. While I wouldn’t necessarily call her one of my favorites, I have always enjoyed her music and she did not disappoint. She played a pretty short set, supposedly to allow Garth some extra stage time, but she managed to get in the songs I was really hoping to hear.
After a short break to change the stage set-up, Garth Brooks came out to a roaring crowd. He sang most of his big hits, including his newest release, with the crowd singing along the entire time. It was such an amazing show. I wondered before the show if I might have missed out on something by not seeing him in his prime, but I don’t think I missed out on a thing. The best part of the show was seeing the smile on his face. You could tell he was having a great time up there on the stage and enjoying every minute of it.
At one point during the show, Garth noticed a girl in the front row taking pictures. He bent down, grabbed her camera from her, handed it to a band member, then squatted down next to her and posed for a picture. How’s that for a souvenir? He also stopped to recognize the crowd saying that even though we may not think he sees us, he does. He pointed out a sign that was being held up and said that he saw the same sign the night before in the front. He pointed out a couple towards the back that had been standing through the whole show, and then a child who had fallen asleep on his dad’s shoulder. To me, that showed just how much he appreciates his fans.
For me, this was one of the most fun and entertaining concerts I’ve ever been to. As many shows as I’ve seen, I can’t really say which was the best anymore, but I definitely left happy with one more of those little lifetime goals checked off the list.
Here’s the setlist for anyone interested, as posted at Back to Rockville:
Setlist: The Fever; Good Ride Cowboy; Two Pina Coladas; Two of a Kind, Working’ on a Full House; Rodeo; The Thunder Rolls; The Beaches of Cheyenne; The River; We Shall Be Free; Unanswered Prayers; If Tomorrow Never Comes; Summer Wind; Much Too Young (To Feel This Damn Old); More Than a Memory; Papa Loved Mama; In Another’s Eyes (with Trisha Yearwood); Walkaway Joe (Trisha Yearwood), Calling’ Baton Rouge; Friends in Low Places; The Dance.
Encore: Ain’t Going Down (Til the Sun Comes Up). Medley: She Thinks I Still Care (George Jones); Mama Tried (Merle Haggard); Mrs. Robinson (Simon & Garfunkel), Wild World (Cat Stevens), Piano Man (Billy Joel), Turn the Page (Bob Seger), Amarillo By Morning (George Strait), 1982 (Randy Travis), Ten Feet Away (Keith Whitley), American Pie (Don McLean).
I’m thankful today that I had the opportunity to see Garth Brooks live. It is something I’ve wanted to do since I was in jr. high school and it took me this long to actually do it. But, it was definitely worth the wait.
I first heard this song played live in 1998 in Knoxville, TN. We road tripped from Maryville to Knoxville – my ex-husband, his best friend, my best friend, and myself. To this day, that trip, and especially the night of the concert, remains one of the best memories I have during that time in my life. Everything about it was just perfect.
