In 1989 I was standing in my best friend’s mother’s living room. We were going to go do something and he was getting ready. I don’t even recall what it was now and I just spent a bit of time trying to remember it. What does stand out is that MTV (that was a basic cable channel that only played music videos all day long, kids!) was on and I heard a new song that just blew my mind. The band was Indigo Girls and the song was Closer to Fine.

I’ve been to hundreds of concerts in my life, but I have never taken the opportunity to see Indigo Girls. On Saturday I finally took that opportunity. I was very excited and planned to leave early so as to take in some of the Orange County Fair, where the concert was being held. Then life happened. I was invited to have coffee with a friend at the same time as the Arsenal match was being played. I chose friendship over sports, and I stand by that choice. I was resigned to just reading about the match since preseason games are not available for DVR, then my daughter told me that it would be replayed on the team website at the time I planned to leave for the show. No worries, I knew that Mrs. MoM probably didn’t want to traipse around the fair for hours anyhow. I watched. We won. Good day so far!

Traffic was a bit heavier than I expected on a Sat afternoon, plus we needed wanted to eat before the fair to save money and to have something closer to real food! By the time I hit the exit for the fair, I was greeted with a super duper long line of traffic. I knew that the show was starting soon. I also knew that the two acts that co-headlined the tour alternated nights to open. What I didn’t know was who opened the last show. I had a 50/50 chance that I would miss a bit of Melissa Ethridge, but get the entire show from Indigo Girls.

I’m sure you can write the rest of the story…

Yup, Indigo Girls opened the show. After driving in over a mile of traffic then having to walk about 1/2 mile to get to the arena we wound up being 40 minutes late to a 90 minute set. I wanted to be mad at someone, but this was pretty much on me. The choices I made yielded the results I gathered. On checking the set list I learned that I had missed two songs that I really wanted to hear them play live, but the major stuff was held for the end. I relaxed and things got “closer to fine”. (Not at all sorry for the word play!)

Sometimes we get late to a show. Sometimes things don’t happen the way we had it all worked out in our minds (yeah, “sometimes”!) But in the end, things are what they are. Sit down and…

–Rise Up!!

After a 36 year wait I finally saw one of my favorite bands!