At about 5am on Friday May 12, I awoke in my bottom bunk to the sound of rain outside my room in Vancouver. My crystals were arranged on the ledge, and I peaked out through the curtain to see a grey cold morning. I knew the GA line would be checking in at 0600, and I was grateful that I would not need to be there.
Instead, I spent the morning writing the first short entry of this blog, watching a periscope feed of what was happening down at the venue in real time, and I dialed into a recovery support group meeting by phone at 7am. There was no chair to lead the meeting, and I hastily stepped in to serve as chair, feeling blessed to have this opportunity to stay grounded in my recovery on this long anticipated day. I wondered if my neighbors on the other side of these thin walls had known before that there was such a group as "Marijuana Anonymous". If they hadn't been aware of the existence of MA, now they were being made aware by my reading of the meeting script, and that felt like it had to be a good thing! Especially here in Vancouver, which seemed to reek of marijuana perhaps even more than Colorado.
Following the meeting I went on a desperate search for coffee and was led out into the grey city streets where the light was trying to break through the clouds. I was wearing my bright blue leggings, silver shoes, and my disco silver shiny coat and walking under the umbrella that the kind pizza merchant had gifted me the preceding night. I found my way into the cornershop grocery store to which the hostel manager had directed me, and I grabbed a coffee and sat down with yesterday's edition of the Vancouver Sun which had a photo of Bono on the cover.
It felt almost hard to believe that I would be at the tour opener tonight.
I finished a second cup of coffee and a banana, and retreated back to my private room for meditation and nap.
When I woke to my alarm set for 11:11am, I busily started getting my concert attire on. I had put together a "PopMartian" themed costume for the shows. I had the bright blue leggings, a blue velvet skirt, the shiny silver light up shoes, and my U2opia plate, of course. I also had a blue t-shirt that said POPTART across the front, underneath the shiny silver jacket, and my friend Billy's bejeweled U2 fly shades as accessories. I was feeling the silver jacket was a bit too much for the grey morning, and I opted instead for my black motorcycle jacket. Didn't want to look like I was THAT desperate for attention, now, did I? No, I would be conservative and just have my license plate and light up shoes to be the little things to give me away...
As I walked out into the streets, the sun was breaking through the clouds, and I quickly found my way over to the venue sound check entrance (after returning the umbrella to the pizza shop) and I met a few fans who were possessively standing around where we thought the band might enter within the next few hours. Luckily my friend Margaret was there already (we had been IM'ing about the timing of our visit to the back entrance) and she graciously allowed me some space on the poncho upon which she sat with her back to a silver rail.
More fans and familiar faces began to show up, as the minutes and hours ticked by, and the energy rose steadily as the afternoon ticked on. I met a fan called Woody, who carried items to have signed (as I did) and Bridget Rebecca came along too, and sweetly posed for a picture with me there as we waited.
There was high excitement, and Brigitte kindly made plans with me to get a photo of me and Bono for me, as we waited and I fumbled with items I wanted signed, items I wanted to give them, my phone for pictures, and all these things went flying as the adrenaline coursed through my veins... like a drug, actually....
Brigitte helped me get it together, and I took some deep breaths. A text came in from the Canadian fan named David, from whom I would buy a GA ticket, to get in to the floor tonight, and soon he was there with us, and we decided to abandon the soundcheck entrance and go get in the GA line at about 4pm.
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