I tell her yes. I think we should give her a name because this might start to get confusing. Normally I give some initials that give a clue to the identity of the person and I want to do that here, but also want her to be really curious why I picked them. I actually think I gave her initials way back in the day, but I am now bestowing the initials GG to her. As for the crush, let’s call her SH. So, the night before the show I was out with some friends and as I am apt to do I started drinking. I then continued drinking and then drank some more. At some point in the evening we are sitting in the bar of a restaurant where you are right in the middle of all the diners and not pushed off to the side. I look over and seated at the table is SH. Yep. Right there eating dinner with a guy. I can’t tell if it is a date or not but they do seem to be getting along well and I don’t recognize him so I’m guessing he is not her manager or agent or someone from her record label. I’m not sure she even had a record label at that point. I think about going up to her and saying something, but I hold back. There was something inside me that told me not to go and also the barstools are pretty high there and I was pretty sure I was only going to be able to get down once from them. I was crushed though.
I slept in really late the next day and GG showed up around noon. I had forgotten to call her the night before to tell her I didn’t feel like going any longer after what I had seen. So, of course she shows up and is so f**king perky and ready to go. I swear she wakes up every single day like it is the last day ever and is incredibly happy and very sunshiney which is nice sometimes but after an all night bender and watching your crush and possible future date eating dinner with a guy, the perkiness can only be cured with one method. Drinking. GG doesn’t drink that much so it is always fun to see the look on her face when I start drinking cocktails at noon. I actually only had the one and it made me feel much better. She had come over so early because she wanted to go to lunch so we went but I told her that I didn’t want to go that night which was met with deaf ears. When GG makes plans, they are rock solid and never change and she expects the same. Other people may call and cancel or back out, but she never has. I remember way back in the day in high school when some guy tried to stand her up and she went to his house and told him off in front of his parents. I had been hoping she would just want to hang out and not necessarily go to the show but she had told a couple of people she would be there which meant of course she was going to be there.
It was one of those nights where you have the lowest of expectations because you don’t even want to be there. My idea that night was just to get through the night and try to have as much fun as I could. My original plan had been to show up around sound check time and get what I needed to get and then head out and eat some dinner and then come back about an hour before show time to hit the backstage bar. When you show up at sound check time the pace is slower. If there are issues with your name being on the list it is easier to get them solved and not be embarrassed when the show is about to start and you are with your friends and get denied.
The same kind of thing used to work for me when I was underage and wanted to get into clubs. There was one club that opened at 4pm to get the after work crowd and my friends and I would show up around that time and get our hand stamped without any fuss or muss or any checking of identification. We would then go home and get ready and not smudge that stamp. Around 10pm we would go back to the club which by now would have a line of people waiting to get in and guys at the door with flashlights checking every i.d and we would show the stamp on our hands and walk right by.
