Sunday, July 27, 2008

The Foo Fighters

Friday afternoon Ted and I took Alex to our niece Holly's apartment near Cleveland so they could go to the Foo Fighters concert at the Q (Quicken Loans Arena, formerly known as the Gund Arena). This was going to be his second concert...his first concert was Rush last August.


Holly and a friend of hers were going to go, and got tickets a long time ago. Her friend's cousin suddenly decided to get married Friday night, so Holly asked Alex if he wanted to go. Of course he wanted to go...why wouldn't he??

We took him to Holly's place, then we went home. They went to the concert, then he spent the night at her apartment, then she brought him home Saturday. She was planning on coming "home" for the weekend anyway.

Of course nothing with me is simple, and this excursion was no different. Ted took the day off because he had some things to do around here, then we left around 2:20 pm. I asked if he knew how to get to Holly's place and he said that he did, and he had put it in the Garmin before, when he helped her move. (I hadn't gone along that time.)

I had a feeling that it would be in everybody's best interest if I took her address along. Alex had her phone number in his cell phone. I pulled up her email that gave us her new address and printed it out. We were backing out and Ted said, "She should still have it."

This is where I should let you know that our Garmin GPS is a "HER." She doesn't have a name yet, but I'm sure that someday she will. I had to set it on the British accent because that's what Ted likes to hear. The Garmin is referred to as "she" most of the time. I'm beginning to wonder if I should be jealous or not.

Anyway, I checked and said, "Well, no she doesn't have it. It's not in here."

What I really wanted to say was, "HA! The address isn't here. Any ideas now, Big Boy?" but in the interest of keeping peace, I didn't.

I let them sweat it out for about 20 seconds, then said that I had printed out the address. I punched it into Garmin and it gave us an ETA of 3:55. Perfect. Holly had said we should get there around 4:00.

Things went smoothly....until we hit the Akron area. That's when traffic picked up. The closer we got to Cleveland, the heavier the traffic got. I do not like to drive in traffic, or even ride in it for that matter. Give me my little town and I'm happy. Ted said, several times I might add, that when they moved Holly there, it was a Sunday afternoon, not a Friday afternoon! Traffic was NOT an issue on a Sunday.

We finally made it there, whew. The apartment complex where she lives is very nice. It's gated and has security personnel walking around the grounds all the time. The most important thing is that Holly feels safe there. She has a very nice apartment too, with a garage! It's only about 15 minutes or so from her job, so it's very convenient, and because Holly likes clothes, it's fortunate that her complex is only a block from an extremely nice mall (that she occasionally frequents!).

As Ted and I were leaving, we saw one of the security guards in the lobby of her building and we spoke to him. That made us feel even better, but it's still a little difficult to leave your 17 year old son in "the big city" overnight.

Alex called me after they got back to Holly's car after the concert and said it was great. He had the best time! He said that someone spilled some of their beer on his shoes, and on Holly's back, and that he got to "help" someone go crowd surfing. He said they got really close to the stage too. Apparently now many concerts have general admission tickets, and where you STAND (yes, that's stand, not sit) is determined by how early you get to the venue. They were near the front and eventually even worked themselves up to the very front.

When Alex got home Saturday afternoon he looked WHIPPED. I almost felt bad for him, especially since he had to go to work at 4:00, but he wanted to go knowing full well that he'd have to go to work. Last night after he got home from work, he said he was really REALLY tired, but it was all worth it to see the Foo Fighters.

Then he told me that they're going to see Poison in mid August. I told him we'd see...after all, I'm still in charge around here. I think.

4 comments:

edbteach said...

I'm glad that he had a good time. I still remember getting to go to my first few concerts.

I, too, am struggling with the growing up. My daughter is heading to middle school this year (she's been at my school the last five years) and I am going to have to let go - a little!

Elizabeth

Paulie said...

My bet is that he goes. . . Ü

HereWeGoAJen said...

That sounds like fun! I prefer the concerts with the seats, but I think that is a sign of how old I am getting. :)

Terre said...

I love the roadtrip details and the gps info. We have a Magellan gps and everyone in the family calls "her" Maggie. Sometimes it is scarey hearing one of us talking TO her. I have to giggle though about the horror of the "traffic", living all the cities we've lived in it is just another part of life...have to say though if Cleveland traffic boggled your mind I'd like to see you sitting in the passenger seat with Ted driving in England on the opposite side of the road. I really freaked out the first time Rus drove our American car there because I was on the center line as the passenger. In England we had to remember to keep our USA cars driving steering wheel to the curb. Glad your son is able to do things he loves he will remember your part in letting him do these fondly. Ter