SWEAR TO GOD the best concert ever!

So, this was a typical "Being Tracy" night.

I worked all day from home Friday.  No real plans for the night.  

Around 4 or 5pm when I was done with my work for the day, I started getting ready to go in to Smith and Wollensky to finish my day, and watch the cruise-liners go out for the weekend and the sunset, and have a drink with whatever friends and neighbors may also be there. 

It was a beautiful day, but I was feeling a bit like Ground Hog's Day

...like am I really going to do this again!?  No one had invited me.  I wasn't "meeting" anyone.  I was just going to show up.

My daughter, Caroline, had confirmed that she would be working at Smith, so that was one meeting that I had confirmed, and now that almost made me excited, because I had not seen much of her lately, because she is going to nursing school.  Although, I knew she would be busy working, it is nice just to be there when she is.

Just as I was preparing to call myself a car, I received a text on facebook messenger from a woman whom I'd only met a few months ago at a friend's birthday brunch in Miami that was quite fun.  I had noticed that recently she had been following and "liking" my posts, although I wasn't sure I had really remembered meeting her.  However, when I add a new person to my phone or on facebook, I always add a picture of us together, and a note to them of how we met, so I knew where I had met her.

Anyway, she invited me to see Frankie Valli!

Said she had tickets!  So, without even thinking much about it, I accepted!!

Changed my high heel boots into flat boots and walked out the door with her address, Uber said it would be a 1 hour trip to Sunny Isles, so 

I thought I better get going, as with the Friday traffic, you never know!

She text me while I was in the car, and said that she had gone to the market, 

and was getting us sushi and she asked what I like to drink, and what I wanted.  

I thought this was so thoughtful, and kind.

The uber finally pulled up to a house.  Wow, this was my first surprise.  I live on the beach (South Beach, Miami), where everyone lives in high rise buildings.  I had not been imagining that she lives in a house!  There was a gate around the house, and I heard her yelling from behind the gate, what appeared to be the back-yard.  There was another house back there!  

I guessed this was where she was living.

I walked in to find two big cats, eating their cat-food on the floor, and Sheri, who later told me that she was named after a Frankie Valli song!

She had a big round plastic container of sushi in front of her that had turned upside down, so it was all mixed together.  She apologized, but assured me that I would like it.

She started eating it with her chopsticks, and I just used my fingers, as I am not a big chopstick aficionado.  Surprisingly, she was right!! It was very good, and spicy, as I like it, even without the wasabi sauce that I couldn't really find on the plastic platter, because it was all mixed together.

After I had been sitting there for awhile, she started telling me about Frankie Valley, and this great concert, but I suddenly realized that she did not have tickets for this event yet!!  After we ate some sushi, and she ordered the taxi to pick us up in an hour, she handed me 2 -$200 gift cards, and asked ME to order the tickets from Ticketmaster, while she had to get ready to go!

Ok, I never order tickets.

I had no idea how to do this, nor exactly where the event was, nor how to get a real person on the phone to order and pay with gift cards, nor how to order on my phone, so that we are sitting in the "good" seats right by the stage!!!  Sheri said that she didn't mind paying big bucks, but she wanted to

have seats right  in front of the stage.  I assured her that I could handle the job, and pointed out that the taxi she ordered would be there shortly, so she should get ready to go!

She went upstairs to one of the two bedrooms she has up there to put on makeup and change.

I fiddled with my phone and her phone trying to order us tickets with no luck.  Then I went upstairs, so she could try to do it while she was changing, and also telling me to call information and get the Hard Rock Casino's number...call them.  Now call information for Ticketmaster...call them.  Now for Stub Hub...call them..Call Stub Hub...Call Ticket Master.  Call Information for 1-800 numbers...now call 411...now call Stub Hub...Ticket Master...over and over...

She had a purse full of cash, and said that if I called and ordered and 

put the tickets on my credit card or paid the difference of the gift cards, she would reimburse me.  

It wasn't looking good.  

Sheri said maybe we should just go to Smith and Wollensky after all, 

as I had told her that I had been planning.  

Finally, I told her:  "look, I am not going to worry about this.  We will just go to the show, and see if we can get tickets there, as it appeared to be too close to show-time to order tickets anywhere.  Sheri was very worried that if we did this that we would just be sitting in "GM," as she called it.  "GENERAL ADMISSION," she said was way far away from the stage!!

She did NOT want this to happen.

Sheri said she goes to concerts regularly, and likes to get good seats next to the stage...she wasn't sure there would be anyone there scalping tix, so we could be assured of this.

I told her I am not going to worry about this.  We are just going to leave it to God, and the Universe to find us tickets, and Sheri agreed...she said she had never had such trouble getting tickets before.  There must be a reason.

She told me that the taxi must be out front waiting for us.  

Sheri told me to go downstairs and get all 6 of the light beers she bought, 

so we could drink it on our way to Hard Rock, and give the extra to the driver.

The driver was very nice, and the trip wasn't as long as we'd expected.  Sheri doesn't support Uber or Lyft because they don't have insurance, and she supports this particular Taxi driver, because she says their job is now much harder with Uber and Lyft.

We arrived at 7:55pm to the Hard Rock Casino, and 

darted in to find tickets for the show starting in 5 minutes!!!

The driver had told her it would be $60, grateful, she paid him $100, 

and then he said he'd be available if she needed a ride home too!

Once we ambled around the huge casino and found the place to order tickets, followed closely by another pair of older women, who heard us talking, and asked us..."Do you need tickets???"

We said, "YES!"

One of the ladies said: I have VIP tickets.

I asked how much she wanted for them?

And she handed me a ticket and said, "Just pray for my husband."

Nothing more.

Then I went to get popcorn and beers for us, and Sheri got the full story.

These ladies were big gamblers, they were gifted with the tickets after spending something like $6,000 the night before in the casino.

By the time I got in to the show, Sheri had also located even better seats closer to the stage,

and closer to these women.

The night was entirely a blessing.

Free tickets right up front.

and

A new friend.

After the show, and hugging the woman good-bye who gave us these great tickets to the best concert I've ever attended!!  

I don't know if it was 

because I knew all the words to most of his songs, but it was so fun!!

Knowing I had an hour trip home, I told Sheri that I wasn't sure how long I was going to stay.

 Sheri loves the slot machines, she told me, which I have never really experienced.

Now if she had said she wanted to play black-jack...well then MAYBEEEE, but...

I told her to go do whatever she likes, because I may not stay.

We walked thru the bars, which looked fun, and then Sheri disappeared to look for a 

nightclub in the Hard Rock.  

I waited for her for at least 20-30 minutes, and then finally figured she had found something else.

After being assured there wasn't a night Club there, 

I called a car to take me back to my neighborhood bar, much later for me than usual to visit

the hidden FOXHOLE for my first vodka of the night, before bed, after realizing the people and the ambiance of this place is totally different with bottomless bartenders, no bar stools...or just 3, which I scored one of, at midnight, before walking home happily and gratefully to sleep!