Monday, May 15
I woke up the morning after Seattle to the sound of Heather leaving early to catch a morning flight back to Denver. I was still lit up from the show and eager to get home to my three-year old daughter. I was feeling the strain on my body, my heart, my soul that morning as I waited patiently after getting moved to a later flight than I had planned.
When I finally got back to Denver, I was most pleased to see the clocks read 11:11pm in the terminal at my arrival gate.
Day 5
May 16
I was up early the next day to go pick up Julie from her dad's house. I was thrilled to see her, and she appeared to feel the same, shouting, "Mommy, Mommy!" and running around the room wildly when I came in. Her father remarked to me, "You look exhausted."
A sarcastic, "Thanks" was my only reply.
Upon return home, Julie and I stopped in the leasing office to take care of some business. I nearly got in a fight with the apartment manager about some details of my lease renewal. As I was about to burst into tears of overwhelmedness, my friend Daena, who works in the office, walked in the front door carrying a bouquet of irises. Just as I was about to disintegrate, in walked the purple irises carried by a friend, and it was medicine for me to help her cut the stems and sort them into a vase.
It may not have been the kindest thing for me to hear at the time, but Julie's dad had been right... I was exhausted.
Day 6
Wednesday, May 17
Julie had day care, and I had a mid-day meeting at my place of work, regarding a labor of love project, a soul's calling kind of thing. For the past eight months or so, I've been blessed to have been granted time to work on a project to explore bringing yoga and relaxation training to the medical patients with whom I work.
I was still feeling completely shellacked, sitting in the hospital library and working through the project, but I managed to get some work done for a couple of hours before returning home to nap prior to picking up my girl from her day care.
Day 7
May 18
In the wee hours of Day 7, I dreamed of waiting for the band at the backstage entrance. In my dream, I was urgently communicating with one of the bodyguards in an effort to get a message from Elsha to the band.
Elsha is a young woman that I was blessed to meet in 2009 through her friendship with Ted, my daughter's father. Elsha rises to the challenge of living with muscular dystrophy, devoting her talents to be there for people less fortunate than her, running in marathons, and she loves U2 as much as any of us. She's an inspiration to us. She knows the band, and they know her.
In 2005, before I had met her, I heard Bono dedicate "Miracle Drug" to her from the Vertigo Tour stage in Denver. In 2009, I had travelled with Ted to see U2360 in Las Vegas, and I met Elsha and her mother there. In 2011, we heard Bono dedicate "All I Want is You" to Miss Elsha and her mother from the Denver stadium stage. Two days after the Denver show, Ted and I had traveled to Salt Lake City to see the band one more time. We waited with Elsha and her parents outside the Rice-Eccles stadium for the band to enter on the afternoon of the show. I had been feeling shy that year, but managed to quietly get an autograph from both Edge and Bono that day, as well as witness a beautiful exchange between Bono and Elsha and Shana, her mom. Here's a link to the YouTube video of that exchange (where I managed to shyly assert that yes I think it might be a little cold in Salt Lake that night, and Bono's gaze turned to me for a brief moment)... the exchange between Bono and Elsha starts at 6:40 where my sunglasses atop my head are featured in the right lower corner.
https://youtu.be/zddeg4n7ELk?t=6m35s
In 2017, we were very sad that Elsha could not make it to any of these special shows. It was heartbreaking, and we missed her and her folks. My dream of connecting Elsha with the band was vivid, and it felt very real, and in the dream, I seemed to have had some success in getting some kind of message to the band for Elsha. So I reached out to her on Facebook the next morning in a private IM, to let her know about my dream, and find out if she would like to try to video chat with them through my phone in Chicago.
She said yes, and so I had a new mission. In the meantime, there were two more weeks to work at my job and keep on working my recovery. That night, I attended an MA meeting in my neighborhood, and worked on getting a little bit grounded. It was snowing that night, and this increased the disorientation factor for me. Just two days prior, my daughter and I had been swimming outside at the apartment complex pool.
Day 8
May 19
Julie Grace and I goofed around all day. I was serendipitously anticipating a visit from my friend Cate and her daughter on the weekend. They were travelling today and I would catch up with them on Sunday for a show that they were flying in to see at Red Rocks. Cate's daughter was a huge fan of the "Oh Hellos" who would be on the bill at the legendary outdoor ampitheatre.
Cate was the friend who had made it possible for me to be in St. Louis for PopMart no less than 20 years prior, when I had a 21st birthday dance onstage with U2. I had met her daughter only once before, in the year 2001, when I had visited Cate in Raleigh, North Carolina, for my first stop of 15 on the Elevation Tour. At the time, the now high school graduate hadn't been even two years old. Thereafter, the only time I had seen Cate was in 2009, when I had travelled from my home in Denver to see U2 when they played Virginia, where I had grown up.
Day 9
May 20
I worked through a long Saturday shift, and anticipated a show at Red Rocks tomorrow, May 21st.
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