I Could’ve Skipped the Hail

Dear That’s Life,

Well, I’ll be the first to admit when I am wrong. When I said last week, ‘What’s next, locusts?’ in regard to a bunch of things that had gone awry all at once, I had picked the wrong plague. It was not locusts that would fall from the sky – it was hail.

The Travie McCoy concert that my daughter had won tickets to was last night. We were told to arrive at the concert hall by 5:30 pm for a 6:00 pm show, allowing for time to pick up the tickets at ‘will call’ for a sold out event. We did as we were told – and so did hundreds of other people. The line snaked around the block and we stood outside for almost an hour before the line began to move.  No longer resembling spring, this was not the weather for people to literally be left outside in the cold. Yet, there we were, huddled against the buildings, until it started to hail and little balls of ice kept ‘ping’ing off of my back and my daughter’s head. Everyone on line groaned, ducked for cover and made some kind of a semi-coherent comment that we were all just wearing t-shirts 5 days ago and the weather stank. I had a different thought.  “Hey!” I said to my daughter. “I was wrong – there are no locusts, but there is hail!” We began to laugh. “Maybe next there will be frogs!” I said, and she begged me not to break into a rendition of “Frogs here, Frogs there.” I obliged.

We should have taken it as a sign that this was not going to be a smooth night. When we finally reached our seats, it was well past when this concert was supposed to start and we were informed that Travie would not be taking the stage for a while. There were THREE hours of scheduled opening acts before he would make an appearance, which was not expected until 9:30pm. He would then only be on for an hour and a quarter, with the night set to end at 10:45pm. I could not believe it. We needed to be here at 5:30pm – for this?!

We contemplated our options, as sitting and listening to ‘nobody’s for the next three hours of my life was something I would never get back but always regret. Signs all around the entrance read, “Re-Entry Not Permitted” so if we were going to leave, that was going to be it for the night. The security guard was nice, however, and when I told him I wanted to take my 12 year old for dinner and then return just for Travie, he said that was okay. We left the hall, returned to the snow, slush and hail and headed uptown.

Trying to make my Five Towns insulated daughter a little more New York savvy, I began asking her questions while we were waiting for the subway. I taught her how to read a subway map and the difference between uptown and downtown. We stayed on the east side and headed to 86^th Street where I knew of the perfect restaurant, only to arrive and find out it had shut down. We regrouped, headed back through the snow and walked to the next place I could think of, which was expensive but at that point, we were too cold and wet and gross and under time constraints. So we ate.

Dinner was over and we trekked through the inclement weather to get back to Travie. Just as promised, it was 9:30pm before he graced us with his presence.  Truth is, it was fun and he put on a good show. It was late, however, and she had school in the morning and I was turning into a pumpkin. It was time for Cinderella to go home.

Sitting on the LIRR going back to the Five Towns, we were exhausted but had made the most out of our six hours in the city. I would have liked for the events to have unfolded differently, but as she rested her sleepy head on my shoulder, my daughter thanked me for a great night, she loved our adventure and had a wonderful time with me.

Hail or no hail, I thought, even I could not have planned that better myself.

MLW