Wandering Aimlessly

My. Feet. Hurt. Word of advice: don't do three concerts in one weekend. I ushered Nelly tonight. Let me tell you. NOT a fun experience. First of all, everyone had attitudes. I told these two girls they couldn't stand in my portal like four times. So then they moved to the wheelchair row (which was empty, but they were NOT in wheelchairs, nor were they with someone in a wheelchair, so they shouldn't have been there). They refused to listen to me when I told them to leave from there, so I gave up for a while. Then Security told them to move. Where did they move to? My PORTAL. I told them three more times they couldn't stand there, and they gave me this look like I was dirt and why should they listen to me, and finally security told them to move AGAIN, and they finally went and stood in the wheelchair row in front of someone else's portal. Grrrr. At least they weren't my problem anymore.

Then the floor was general admission. Like, people purchased floor tickets, but they got wrist bands and there were no seats on the floor. It was one big pit. A lot of people were unhappy with that and wanted to be relocated. A bunch more people were begging me to let them down onto the floor. If I could have matched all the people who were unhappy with their tickets up, a HECK of a lot of people would have been thanking me. Too bad it didn't work out that way. I was trying to relocate floor people as often as I could, because heck, I wouldn't have wanted to be down there. No way, no how. I was SO glad I was in A and not ushering the floor tonight. 1,500 screaming high schoolers shoving each other towards the stage = NOT my idea of a good time. Lol.

Then there were a bunch of people smoking. I kept having to tell people that they had to go outside. Then I smelled something that was not cigarette smoke. I looked at the security guy, he gave me this big, dramatic nod and went to get the guy. When he came back, he gave me this big thumb's up. There was another guy who was dancing on the stairs, and I kept telling him he had to get out of the aisle, and he wouldn't listen. Then another security guard came and shined his flashlight in the guy's eyes and got him to move. He had to do the flashlight bit about five times, though. Ugh.

But what made the entire thing worthwhile was the fact that my portal was the happening place to be. Lol. I had, at one point, six security guards, and no less than four of them were young and buff and good-looking. Mr. Hott Security Guard even hung out for a good portion of the night. There was this skinny, drunk blond girl who was hitting on him and his friend, and as soon as she left, he turned to me and did the greatest impression of her. I was laughing so hard. Good to know that good-looking guys don't automatically fall for blond bimbos. So the security guards and medical staff that were hanging out with me made the night fun. They all were doing various impressions of our drunk blond throughout the night, every time she came through. And then they started mock-moshing when everyone started jumping to one of the songs. Funny stuff.

Let me just say, I haven't appreciated people who sing at their concerts nearly enough. I just kind of took it for granted that, if you have a song, you sing it. Nope, Nelly and the St. Lunatics felt it necessary to scream their songs, as if the microphone wasn't enough. Yes, the microphone which was hooked up to the sound system which was so loud my clothes were vibrating on my body. Literally. It was funny because the songs (as heard on the radio) were playing as their backup track, singing and everything. I admit, Nelly doesn't really sing to begin with, but he does have a touch of a melody in his raps, no? There was nothin'. The screaming over the songs... like, I couldn't even tell it was Number One until they started screamin "Champaign...is...number one!"

One little surprise that I was just about delighted at was the inclusion of Girlfriend. Okay, so it was only the first part that Nelly actually does, but a few words of *NSYNC singing made it in there. Lol. He was looking for girls to show him around Champaign (which I wasn't understanding, because he pulled them out of the floor area where they had prime, front-row seats, got them on stage for all of five minutes, then sent them back out into the crowd, effectively losing them any sort of good positioning on the floor. Ah well). But that was cool. I heard those first few chords and turned to the girl I was ushering with (who also is an *NSYNC fan, although didn't make it to the concert) and we both grinned.

So, all in all, it wasn't awful. I put up with a lot of crap, but I also got to not only see a concert for free (even though I never would have purchased tickets for it anyway), but I got paid to be there. I was amused by my portal pals, and I got to hear a clip of Girlfriend. I also got some good observations done for my class, which I am about to type up now. Go me. The one thing I did not do today was study for my cognitive exam tomorrow, but I have a three-hour break during which to cram. Eeep!