Making A Memory

I re-lived my younger years and cherished new memories at the Bon Jovi concert last night. OMG, it was more incredible than I had expected! I shouldn't have been surprised, considering the last two times I saw them (during the Slippery When Wet and Keep the Faith tours in '87 and '93) were life-changing, at least at that age. But 'tho I was speechless when AT gave us the tickets in December, my adrenaline didn't really start surging again until we embarked on the hour-long journey to the South Bay, and I slipped in a Bon Jovi hits CD that I had burned only 10 minutes prior.

My excitement continued to mount as we dined at 71 Saint Peter, where I savored halibut next to a window view of "obvious" Bon Jovi fans en route to the HP Pavilion. Women in tight jeans, even tighter tops, and stiletto heels. Men in tight jeans, old concert t-shirts, leather jackets with tassels, and leather boots. I may have looked out of place in my REI ensemble, but I gave a knowing nod to this familiar crowd.

Daughtry kicked ass as the opening band. And then Jon, Richie, David, and Tico took over. And we the audience, as a single 18,000-celled organism, paid homage by belting out every song with them for the next 2 hours. Contact highs kept us grinning; swaying BIC lighters were replaced by glowing cell phones during the ballads; and the decibels we hit during the old favorites -- Living on a Prayer, You Give Love A Bad Name, Wanted Dead or Alive -- were literally heart pounding.

Amazing.