the diamond wink
[09 June, 2005 typed at 11:40 a.m.]

it's tuesday june 7th and i wake up in the morning and all i wanna do is sleep, i stay in bed for about 3 or 4 hours, until about 2:30, maybe 3ish....
tonight is the concert i've been waiting seven years for, but in no way do i feel like i should be there.

something in the back of my mind is telling me i dont deserve to go, that i wont be happy knowing that im not there on my own merit, that i should be working my fingers to the bone to get there [which i didnt]
and before you know it, im lying in bed, now thinking that im not going, im not getting up and getting dressed and getting ready to go to this concert, tears start welling up in my eyes and i wanna shoot myself, over this expeirence that i've waited what seems a lifetime for!

i get up, shave, brush my teeth, gel my hair, put my jeans and my "aussie aussie aussie - oi oi oi" shirt on, spray myself with some 'alfred sung'...grab the ipod, as danielle heads downstairs and starts the car,

the day before, i grabbed her copy of "jagged little pill" which i know she hadn't listened to in a good couple of years, and i put it into the cd player and listened to her talk about how she forgot about the songs that were on the album.....
it surprises me that she could forget songs, because the nature that i have of being the kind of fan that i am and how the songs had a particular impact on me and helped me to write, to look at her racking her brain to see if she knew what the titles of the songs were was weird for me because i could name the tracklisting of the album backwards or in which the singles were released (yes im that obsessed, havent you guessed that yet? look at the freakin' template)

i hadnt listened to 'jagged' in a good couple of months, so it was good for me to hear it to, i had the window down, my elbow on the door and my hand on my forhead, singing "not the doctor" at the top of my lungs!

anyways, back to tuesday - i jump in the car, and we head of to the humming bird centre....
danielle drives there (yes all by herself, on the highway and downtown!!!!! trust me, that's a big feet for her)
then we (she) pays $25 for parking (ripped off!!!)
we get out of the car, and try to see what we can get for the two extra tickets we got (danielle bought 2, then we found better seats, so we got those two and ended up with four tickets, but only two people going) so we get surrounded by scalpers telling us we wont get as much as we want for them (ticket price was: $82.50 plus tax)
we let all the scalpers know that we're gonna go for dinner and that we'll get back to their offer's of $20 a ticket (which they'll later pawn off for about $100 a pop.)

we walk across the road to shopsy's, we order and chat about 'what if alanis came over here for dinner'....such a loser i am!
we're done dinner and we had back across the road the the humming bird, to (once again) get rid of these tickets.....but it's hot outside, so we sit inside the air conditioned ticketbox for a bit, and end up talking to another couple....she's a fan her boyfriend - not so much.

they have tickets in row x (danielle's and mine are in row e) we talk for a bit and decide we should really try and get rid of these tickets...we stand outside (like idiots for about 20mins)
and out the corner of my eye i spot a girl walking a dog, i turn to danielle with the biggest 'OH MY GOD' stare, she inquires "what????"
and im all "thats's boogs, that's alanis morissette's dog!" (danielle looks at me like im insane) as i stared to walk up to the girl (which i late find out is alanis' personal tour assistant -leah)
i look at the dog and i look back at her and i say "excuse me, is that alanis' dog, is that boogs???"
she looks at me (thinking im fucked up for knowing that it's alanis' dog, and by this time i've noticed her 'alanis morissette: diamond wink tour" vip laminate around her neck)
she answers "...yeaah, it is"
so i ask if i can get a picture with the dog, to which she replies "no, sorry she (alanis) doesn't allow it"

and she continues to walk away, i turn to danielle with the biggest grin on my face!

so it's like 30 mins and hour down the track and we're still trying to get rid of these tickets.....one scalper offers danielle $10 for both....
(what the fuck is with scalpers!!!)
we both decline, because danielle is holding out for a bigger number, finally after much haggling, we get a good offer (not great, but good) and we take it, so we can go sit inside again.

going back into the ticketbox waiting area, i sit next to the couple we met earlier and start chatting away about alanis and how funny it would be if she performed "too hot" (one of her oldschool songs from her first ever album, back when she was all dance and early 90's perm and big hair)
because when she performed in toronto 3 years earlier she performed a rock version of it!

so im chatting away, not even noticed that danielle is at the ticket window [you see, while i was chatting happily to this couple, danielle had been waved over to the ticket window by the box office manager barry....
he asked her what tickets she had and when and how she perchased them (by this time, she's thinkgin she's in trouble because she was scalping) but barry re-assures her that she's not in any trouble, find her information on his computer...and says "danielle, right? here's where you're sitting" (he points to row e on the computer screen) danielle proudly says "yupp, that we we are"
barry looks at her and is all "so that's where you're sitting, and this is where im going to move you to" (and proceeds to point to about ten rows infront of where we were supposed to be sitting.....which is six rows from the stage, dead center!
"are you excited?????" barry says, danielle tell him that she is, but more excited for me, because im the fan!!! barry tells her, not to tell me just yet...so she walks over like nothing happened) her and her precious little face getting the good seats!

i've noticed her at the ticket counter and im wondering what the hell she's doing, she ends up telling me what's happened and i get butterflies in my stomach....
just after seven, the doors open, i rush to the merch table, and look at all the prettiness - the tourbook, the seven different shirts (ladies and men), two hats and the 'feast on scraps' dvd!
so i grabbed a tourbook, and a shirt, then danielle and i proceeded to our newly allocated seats (soooo damn close) and enjoyed the show!
jason mraz was awesome as support....alanis came out
performed "your house" acapella, with a coffee table, some insence, a lamp and some photo's, once she finished the cutian rose and the band began playing "you learn".

about half way through "hands clean" boogs walked out from the corner of the stage, the 'awwww's' and 'oooooh's' of the crowed making him look at us, he jumped up on a chair and stared at alanis through the entire song (what a little cutie) during the same song the vaccant seats next to me finally got filled as some girl with orange wristbands sat next to me and asked quitely "how long has she been on for?"
i replied "about an hour, but the dog has only been on for about five minutes", she laughed.

"wake up" ended, alanis said goodnight and some people left, meanwhile danielle is giving the girl who sat next to me dirty looks....i tell her to stop it - "they're not dirty looks, i just think i know who she is" she says - i personally have no idea who this girl is!
the crow is appluading and cheering, the band followed by alanis comes back out and performs "you oughta know" and once that is finished she says
"this is for the 16 year-old days" the band starts playing and it's an acoustic version of "too hot"!!!!!
the audience loves it, im clapping and singing along as is the girl next to me, alanis finishes, says goodnight again and leaves the stage with a standing ovation.....
danielle gets another glimpse of the girl beside me and tells me "it's esthero!!!"
and im all "who????"
someone famous is sitting next to me and i have no clue who it is!

alanis come back out for one more song, she sings 'everything' and leaves the stage, the house lights come on and everybody leaves....danielle finally questions this girl and yes, yes it was esthero!

we head back out to the dorrs and to the merch table where i talk tot the aussie behind the table, grab a toque (beanie) and two more shirts - we walk outside and to the car, drive the wrong way home, and notice that people are waiting out the back near three big tour buses....
jason mraz is talking to some people,
so we decide to park the car again, and do the groupie thing and hang near the tour buses, we stand about a foot away from jason, who is lighting a cigarette....
and alanis' band walks out - first blair (drummer)
then jason (guitars)
then cedric (bass)
david (guitars) and finally zac (keyboard)

i ask them all for pictures and have a good ol' chat with blair first....and a nice chat with cedric, jason and dave (all are great fuckin' guys, polite and people who stop to talk and give a shit, even though they wont remember my name, they still asked, which is nice!)
took the pictures.....
waited for alanis to come out, which she did (though through a side exit and thus by-passing all of us, which means i didnt get to see her)
danielle tells me that the pic with dave didnt turn out good because he's eyes were closed, so i run back up to him and say "sorry to be a bitch, but the last photo was crap (lol) can i get another one" he says yes....we take the pic, which kinda doesnt turn out any better....and he shakes my hand and say "here, this is for you!" as he hands me an alanis morissette (and his own) guitar pic!!!!!

end of story!
i didnt meet alanis, but fuck it was a great night, she was beautiful, the music was briliant and the guys are awesome.....

and here are the pics (for those that got down this far in the post)
me at shopsy's
me out front of the humming bird
me and blair sinta (alanis' drummer)
me and jason orme (alanis' guitarist)
me and cedric lemoyne (alanis' bassist)
me and david levita (alanis' guitarist) with his eyes closed
me and zac rae (alanis' keyboardist)
dave and i (again) still with his eyes kinda closed

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