concert

Our next date that stands out to me was on May 24, 2010. We went to the Nickelback concert at the Target Center with Rod and DeeAnn, two of Steve’s friends and clients. It was the first time we had met in person, although we had heard about each other before.

I was nervous because I was the young one of the group, and I didn’t know what they’d think of me. I was just barely getting into my teaching career and they were both well established with two grown kids. I wasn’t sure what we were going to talk about.

Steve introduced us and we greeted each other with a hug. DeeAnn was in great shape and had a smile that was so inviting. She made me feel comfortable right away. Rod was easy to talk to as well.

I enjoyed watching Steve interact with the two of them. DeeAnn was one of Steve’s hardcore clients. This woman can do lunges for days and has a heart of gold. Now Steve and Rod, aka “meathead” (Steve actually called several people meathead) would razz each other. Dee and I got a good chuckle at those two goofballs acting like teenage boys.

We were going to get some beverages before the concert when Steve realized he forgot his ID. I had to laugh. Here is this grown man who is unprepared for our date, and I end up purchasing our beverages. It wasn’t a big deal to me, but we had a good laugh about it. I went and purchased two beverages from Wally the Beer Man.

The concert started with a bang! I’d heard of Nickelback before and knew a few of their songs, but of course I did more research before I went to the concert. A girl’s gotta be educated!

We had great seats second level, but close to the stage. It was a hot one, and I thought I had prepared by wearing a tank top, shorts and heels. It was bad enough to be roasting because of the warm weather, but things got worse.

I started to sweat, and not just the “crap my face is getting shinny” kind of sweat, we’re talking beads. Beads of sweat running down my face, back, chest and even legs.

I didn’t want to sit down because what was going on was the type of sweating situation that when you stand up you feel like you peed your pants; and for a second you think, did I? Gross.

I glanced over and was happy that I wasn’t the only one who was struggling. All four of us were blazing!

To make matters worse, Nickelback’s staging consisted of firing off 20-foot torches, blazing a flame that was packing heat comparable to the sun.  Once, was cool and the response was many ooohs and ahhhs, but for crying out loud, quit with the flames! Every time they fired the flames the temperature of the Target Center seemed to increase 20 degrees. Ugh!

It became a joke. When we’d complain about the flame action, it’s as if the stage manager was secretly in on our conversation and tripped the switch just to aggravate us even more.

We ended up taking our own intermissions throughout the concert. The heat was out of control, and with all of that sweating we had to rehydrate.

When the concert was over we thanked Rod and Dee for inviting us and said our goodbyes.  Steve and I both looked like we had just finished working out, but we still had a great time together.