I've made a memory.......

So my date with Jon was better than I could have expected. What would have made it even better would have been being right by the stage and having a drop of his sweat accidentally land on me. Perhaps the next time he makes his way toward me again. I'm hoarse from screaming. My back hurts from sitting on the grandstand seats. My bladder will likely be in trauma for a few days after having successfully avoided the porta-potties all night. But, I can't wipe the smile off my face. If I die today, I die a happy girl. I can cross one of the things off my "1000 things to do before I die" list...and, if Jon decides that Atlantic Canada seemed like a good place to rock, you're damn straight I will be at the next one!

Le sigh.

I love him.

So to give you all a run down - here we go:

Mark & Rhonda met us here at about 10am and we started our roadtrip in the Element. Rhonda can't wipe the smile off of her face. :)
Likewise, I have a stupid grin on my own face as I smile coyly for the self-portrait...thoughts of my Bon Bon running through my head. My super-sized sunglasses hide the hideousness of my pink eye (truth be told, it looked a lot better, and as I type, it's pretty much gone. I guess my Bon Bon had the right 'bad medicine' to take all my ails away!)
Even Christopher has a look of delight on his face, doesn't he?
We're almost there!! Land is in sight!
We landed upon Moncton at about noontime, so decided the best thing to do was to hit a restaurant to fuel up for the day ahead. Sadly, Lonestar is no more, *sniff*, so we went to Montana's instead. I was going to try the fajitas there, but I just couldn't bring myself to do so...it would feel like I was cheating or something. I ended up having a penne dish with veggies, grilled chicken & goat cheese. It was pretty good. Rhonda had the same. We're a lot alike in many ways - not just our mutual obsession with Jon :)

Mark likes to perform for the camera - just like Chris. They're like two peas in a pod. Brothers from another mudder, or some such thing. Mark had a steak & shrimp dish.
There wasn't any question what Chris would have...ribs, ribs, and more ribs. The biggest debate he had was the number of ribs he needed. Surprisingly, he went with the smaller dish?!
At Montanas, the tables are covered with Kraft paper. The children waiting for their food are given a little cup of crayons to help them stay occupied. Of course Chris asked the waitress where his crayons were - and she obliged. Then, we busied ourselves with a little crafty drawring ;) First, Mark draws Bon Bon, singing "Living on a Prayer":
Chris draws a great rendition of the Element:
And I had to include a little doodling about my love affair with Jon.
The drawings made a story about our day...a road trip in the orange Element, driving down the Lost Highway to hear Bon Bon sing "Living on a Prayer", and my (and Rhonda's) love for Jon is everlasting. :).

After lunch, we headed over to Mark's sister's house. She lives about 6kms away from the concert sight, and her boyfriend Mike graciously offered to chauffeur us to and from the concert site! Thank you, thank you Mike --we love you! We spent a few hours at Mike & Leanne's, chillin', and ended up at the site at about 5pm or so. My own photos stop here, because there weren't any cameras allowed on site. The security folks padded everyone down and checked all bags...I contemplated sneaking my camera in, even finding the perfect spot for it inside an emergency poncho bag...but chickened out at the last minute. I'm a wuss.

The rain held off all night - but the humidity was high, and the sun greeted us just as we arrived. Rhonda & I made our way to the Merchandise tent and stood in line, (sweat pooling in places I didn't know had sweat glands) for what seemed like an eternity - for an over-priced t-shirt. Many thanks to Tanya for helping me with my own t-shirt purchase. How awesome it was to run into she and Erin in a spot with 33,000 other people!

After the merchandise mosh pit we 'dined' on probably the most disgusting Greco pizza I've had (but hey, we had to eat), and then we made it up to our seats. We'd splurged for "VIP" tickets, which gave us a spot on the grandstands. The view of the screen was great, but the performers were itty bitty. We missed 'watching' State of Shock, as the entire time they were on stage, Rhonda and I were on our t-shirt buying quest. Bachman-Cummings were up next, and they did a great job...but I have to admit feeling a little antsy for the real reason we were there.

Then, without further ado, my lovely, my Bon Bon, my Jon, made his way to the stage to greet the thousands of fans on Magnetic Hill. I "borrowed" the first image from another fan who'd been at the concert, courtesy of Flickr. Jon was just coming out on stage. The rest are courtesy of my friend Denise --thank you Denise!! I'm so happy to have a few pics as momentos:

It was at this point that the silly grin never left my face... I screamed like a teenager... I'm pretty sure Jon heard me and nodded in my direction. I was thrilled when Jon took us all aboard his "time machine" to the year 1982 and the familiar keyboarding of "Runaway" started. I melted when he sang "(You Want to) Make a Memory"...I laughed when he forgot the lyrics to "TCOB" (a tribute and thanks to Bachman and Cummings)...I screamed and danced on the grandstand to the likes of "You Give Love a Bad Name", "Livin' on a Prayer", "Bad Medicine", "Summertime", "We Got it Goin' On".....and for an encore, he rejoined us for a hauntingly beautiful version of Cohen's "Hallelujah"...I had tears in my eyes.

It was fantastic. Amazing. Beautiful. Awesome. Incredible. Time of my life.