Ana Marie got busy finishing
up the guest book she’d started assembling Monday night at my apartment—we had
gotten everyone’s input by then (even if we had to call and email a few people
and write it in ourselves) and went to work. After a while, it became apparent
that my assistance wasn’t required for this task, and since I was starving, I
went in search of food. A quick trip to the hotel restaurant to discover it
wasn’t open for lunch meant I had to hop in the car and find someplace to eat.
Great...Of course I can’t stand hamburgers, so that pretty much wiped out the
most immediate solutions that I drove past...McDonald’s—no, Wendy’s—no, Carl’s
Jr.—no...I remembered that there had been several Denny’s on Sunset, so I
headed that way. This time my tuna melt only cost six dollars—much better!
Back to the hotel to work out
the game plan for the rest of the afternoon. I got on the phone to Rose, with
whom Cheryl would be sitting, to find out what time she expected to meet us and
where that might be—our hotel or at the venue. Rose had taken the afternoon off
work and would meet us at the hotel—approximately at the same time Ana Marie and
I would be returning from the airport run to get Cheryl. Ana Marie had finished
the guest book, and was determined to get it to the guys that night—if I didn’t
get a pass with my fan club seat or Cheryl and Rose didn’t passes with theirs,
then ever reliable Cat would once again be our delivery girl. We also realized
that the attendees would want to see a final copy. That meant finding a Kinkos
and getting color copies done. We asked at the front desk where the closest one
was, and were told to head towards Sunset and Vine. Great...Alas, we didn’t
have time to head that way as it was time to leave for the airport to get
Cheryl and take care of Ana Marie airline ticket for Thursday.
Managing to find our way back
to the airport involved a few unexpected detours—the street was closed in our
direction for about a block for no apparent reason. We assumed filming. Dealing
with the ticket counter was taking slightly longer than expected, so I left Ana
Marie to her own devices and headed over to the other terminal to meet Cheryl’s
flight. Alas, when I checked the arrival board, I discovered her flight was 30
minutes late! Yikes! We were supposed to meet Rose back at the hotel at
4:00! Out came the cell phone and a quick call to Rose...she was in traffic
and delayed also. I told her Ana Marie
and I would need to go to Kinkos, so what we needed to do was to meet at the
hotel, get changed, and she and Cheryl would head to the venue in one car while
Ana Marie and I found Kinkos and meet them at Will Call.
I went back to the counter,
found Ana Marie, and once Cheryl had safely arrived, we dashed back to the
hotel for our presto quicko chango and back out the door. Rose arrived almost
at the same time as we did, which worked great. Quick hellos and good-byes, and
Ana Marie and I were on the way to Kinkos. We had some entertainment there as a
several people became extraordinarily concerned about a cat locked in a car in
the parking lot. One woman got on the phone to the police, while the fellow who
owned the car stood in line to pay for his copies was shouting at her. Copies
done, Ana Marie headed over to the counter to pay for them while I assembled
the guest book into one cohesive item.
Off again to the Greek
Theater, a little later than we had planned. Ana Marie was concerned that Cat
would be worried about us and since Cat didn’t have a cell phone (and it would
have worked even if she did—no one could get a signal up there!) so we
made haste. When the line for parking looked to be taking forever, I told Ana
Marie to hop out and find Cat while I parked the car. I joined them not too
long afterwards, and, of course, the hot topic of conversation was the Herbie
Herbert interview. I asked Cat if she knew what the plan was. Since she
moderates the message boards on the official Journey site, I knew that this
interview could mean trouble, and not just for her, but for the band. What, if
any, legal implications could come up as a result? Cat said she didn’t know,
but the band and Rindell were aware of it, but wouldn’t have time to look at it
until their day off Thursday.
Rose and Cheryl arrived soon
afterwards and the conversation continued. None of us had received passes with
our tickets, so Ana Marie handed over the guest book to Cat to deliver on our
behalf. While we were chatting, a woman walked up to us and handed us a CD she
was giving away and said “If you like Journey, you might want to check these
guys out.” When we looked at the CD, we all burst out laughing. It was Vision
180 – we know these guys! Well, at least a little bit. Darla had
introduced Ana Marie and me to Jason the year before when we were all in LA
together. The woman told us Jason was across the parking lot and caught his
attention for us. We waved and smiled and his face lit up as he recognized us.
A quick chat with Jason revealed that they had been signed with a record label
in Europe and were going to be playing at the Gods festival! Way to go guys!
In for the show, where we
once again found Miles and Michael and the gang from the Journey Forum. It
occurred to me that the show on Friday night in San Bernardino was also one of
the “Roadie for a Day” shows, so I asked Cat who had won. It turns out it was Mark!
Yes, the very same Mark we had met in Sacramento. When I saw him after John
Waite’s set, I rushed over to give him a big hug of congratulations. How
fantastic—someone I knew had won the prize!
By this point I had become
determined to pick up one of the Journey baseball jerseys...I’d wanted one from
the previous tour and wasn’t able to get it, so I had no intention of being
denied this time. Rose and I marched off to the merchandise booth and I plunked
down my Visa and walked away with a very spiffy jersey.
When we reconvened with the
rest of the group, Cheryl and Ana Marie were talking with two women we hadn’t seen
before. It turned out that they were at their very first Journey concert with
Steve Augeri (both had seen the band back in the Day with Steve Perry). We who
had been to many shows by this point went into autopilot—singing Steve’s
praises and assuring our new friends that they would love the show. We
made them promise to find us after the show and tell us what they thought—good
or bad.
Somehow, we wound up
socializing during the entire Peter Frampton set—great, standing all that time
again when I should have been sitting! My poor legs! Ahh well...ever the road
warrior. We all went in and grabbed our seats for Journey’s set. Well what
a bummer for me...I had a third row seat, terrific, but so far off to the side
I couldn’t see half the stage!!! An obstructed view seat that I’d paid seventy
five dollars for!!! Not going to blame the fan club for that though...the
Greek Theatre should never sell those seats. In my opinion, those seats
should just be ripped out entirely...absolutely useless to sit there.
to be continued...
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