Amanda 1's Visit, Part 3

Ok, first some explanation. I was actually in the process of writing this blog last Sunday when I decided to get a drink. I sat the laptop on my floor, went to the kitchen, poured myself some Crystal Light, came back to the couch, picked up my laptop and cracked the LCD. My laptop was being fixed for the whole week which is the reason for the delay in the finishing the rest of this story.

Also to note, I got my parka (not in black nor gun metal gray) and boots today as well, so bring it Minnesota winter!

Back to Amanda 1's final day of her visit. It was state fair day. We ate a lot of junk again. We split a fried onion. I had a couple of bites of her fried Snickesr. I conclude that the fried Milky Way is my favorite fried candy bar. The peanuts in the snickers seemed to interrupt the melted gooey deliciousness...haven't had the Three Musketeer yet though. I had a Reuben sandwich, another Dole Whip Float (because I LOVE them) and this:

Bacon on a stick. This was actually recommended by one of my PhD colleagues, but he did add "but I'm Canadian, and we really like bacon." It wasn't that good. It was more like ham on a stick and was really fatty which made it difficult to eat.

Much to Amanda's dismay, there were no animals giving birth in the Miracle of Life center, but we did see a dog being operated on which may have been worse. They had this little room set up with an operating table and the vets and the whole thing. Then they had video screens set up so you could see what the vets were actually doing to the dog, and there was a person with a microphone narrating. Horrifying!!

After eating and walking around all day, we decided it was the time to head to the Train/Maroon 5 concert which was the whole point of Amanda's visit..well, I guess part of the point was to see me, but most of the point. My dad had gotten us tickets and theoretically backstage passes of some sort. I never really know what to expect until I pick up my tickets at Will Call. In the envelope with the tickets were our VIP stickers, and a note that said "Please meet right after Train's set at West Plaza Backstage Enterance. Some from Train will meet you and bring you to the backstage area." Yes, "enterance."

Concert starts. Matt Nathanson opened and was great. He was funny, and the music was really good. I was impressed. If you haven't heard of him (I bet you'll recognize one, maybe two, of his songs), definitely check him out. He was followed by Maroon 5 and then Train. We were seated on the whole other side of the stage from the West Plaza Backstage "Enterance" so we left our seats and headed over there before the encore just so we could beat the crowd. Luckily we got to see a whole security incident because of being on that side of the stage early. This was my first backstage experience that wasn't held in some little random room, but actually outside back by all the trailers and stuff. It was weird. Going back with us was a family who seemed to know the one guitar player, a girl who knew like all the roadies and everyone and her friends, and two somewhat skanky looking girls. We get back there and are just hanging out by trunks full of clothes and stuff. The guitar player comes and escorts the two skanky girls into his trailer. He reappears about five minutes later and asks if anyone knows where his corkscrew is...CREEPY. Finally the lead singer of Train emerges from a trailer. The roadie who escorted us back there says something about not having much time and needing to get him out of there, so we snap a quick picture, and he leaves. Now Amanda and I are just standing there. Everyone else seems to leave or go into a trailer. The drummer is the one we got tickets through, so we're kinda waiting for him, but no one else seems to be coming. I finally ask if he'll be around, the roadie guy says probably not and we leave. IT WAS WEIRD!!!