An Overnighter and Bon Jovi

Mickey is a hard man to buy for.  Birthdays, Father's Day, Christmas..... you name it.

I had NO idea what to buy him for Christmas last year. I'd ask him, "Babe, give me a list of what you would like."

"Ok" was his reply.

Yet, no list was given

Sigh.

One day his sister texted me to tell me that BON JOVI was going to be performing in Calgary on April 2nd and that tickets were going on sale at Ticketmaster at 10am that day. BAM!!

I jumped on that computer and bought some sweet ass tickets!!

Fast forward to April 2nd.

We skipped off bright and early, giggling and waving goodbye to our three little McG girls.  They stood at the door looking forlorn and sad, with just a single tear rolling down each of their cheeks.  We did not notice their sadness as we were just soooooo happy for a teeny tiny break....

Ok, so it didn't go quite like that.

Mickey's sister came over, we gathered our bags, kissed our McG girls on their cheeks.  Stella was a bit  sad, but Jaime (her aide) was there and took her downstairs to play.  We closed the door, walked calmly to our car and off we went.

The drive to Calgary was uneventful.  But I must say that I truly do not like the fact that we have to drive so damn far!!!

We spent the afternoon shopping. Ahhhh, retail therapy! How I love thee.  Believe it or not, Mickey is a fabulous shopping partner.  Sure, he spent a fair amount of time on his phone whilist I tried on clothes, but he did his fair share of shopping too.  He is a bit of a meterosexual.  I am pretty sure he would disagree, but it's the truth yo.

At the mall.

After, spending a wee  bit of money, we went back to the hotel and put our feet up for a lil bit.

Then of we went to enjoy our VIP Bon Jovi tickets.

Ahhh VIP.....what a farce.  You think I would have learnt from our VIP Rihanna ticket fiasco, but no....

Riahnna ticket fiasco you ask?  Well, in 2011 Mickey bought me VIP Meet and Greet tickets to see Rihanna in concert.  The concert was FANTABULOUS!  We were in the second row! I could literally, almost, if I had really long arms, touch Rihanna.  That part was awesome.  The fiasco part was the "meet and greet" and I use that term VERY loosely.

My arms just needed to be a little bit longer.....and I could have touched Rihanna...not that I would have, but that is how close we were.

My idea of a meet and greet was one where I would hang out  with Rihanna have a drink and a chat, get a picture and an autograph and walk away feeling super stoked about meeting one of my favourite artists.

Apparently Rihanna and her peeps had a totally different idea as to what "meet and greet" meant.  To them it went a lil something like this.

Wait around for about an hour BEFORE the show to see if Rihanna would be ready in time to meet with us before going on to sing.

Seems hair and makeup and whatever else miss diva was doing did NOT allow for a pre show meet and greet.

Fine, ok, no biggie.  I'll enjoy my beverage with her after the show. (Oh Anna, silly, silly woman)

Fast forward to after the show; we are all wrangled up and taken back stage to a room.

We are given beverages, and by beverages I mean water.  We are given some cheap ass "goodie" bag of crap.  Such as a water bottle with the Rihanna tour logo on it, a tour poster...and I am pretty sure that was it.

We wait for another hour.  By this time it is midnight, my feet hurt, I am tired and really just want to go home.  I have begun to realise that Rihanna will NOT be joining us for a drink.

Then, we are told to get into a line. Our line is then ushered into the hallway.

More waiting.

Slowly we get closer and closer to a divider.  We see shadows behind it and then a bright light flashing. The line keeps moving, the shadows keep moving and the bright lights keep flashing.

Finally it is our turn.

We walked on the other side of the divider and there stood Rihanna. Lookin all.....perfect! Meanwhile after hours of waiting, then a concert, then more waiting, I looked greasy, with makeup not looking fresh at all....pretty much like shit.  So we walk up to Rihanna, stand beside her, look at the camera and smile.  The flash goes off, and we are then whisked away down a hallway....and that is that.

W-T-F.

Sooooooo, one would think I would learn and would have bought tickets, just tickets and no VIP.

But here's the thing, I honestly thought that the only way I could get really good seats was to buy VIP tickets. Seriously, I assumed that for some silly reason.

And that long drawn out VIP ticket explanation brings me to April 2nd.

Bon Jovi, VIP tickets.

What did we get with THESE VIP tickets?

A buffet dinner, all the wine and beer you can drink, until of course, you leave the VIP room to go and watch the concert.  Oh and a grab bag with a leather photo album and a book of pictures showing the making of their newest album "Because We Can".

No, no meeting the band.  Just......just the food.....beer and........and wine.

But hey, I made sure I got my money's worth!! Oh yeah! I made sure!!

Enjoying our VIP pre show buffet with random strangers we sat beside. They were lovely and LOTS of fun!

Three glasses of wine in......

The concert was fun and Bon Jovi started the concert singing one of my favourite songs...."You Give Love a Bad Name"  Oh yeah baby!!

It is a good thing this was my last glass of wine..... 

BON JOVI.....and some security guard. I wonder how many pictures people took with him in it?

As much as I enjoyed myself that night, I woke up feeling tired, but NOT hung over! (yay me!) I woke up at 7am and I then MADE myself go back to sleep for another hour.

After a lovely breakfast, we visited one more mall (hey, Medicine Hat has one dinky little mall so when in Calgary I always try and make the most of my time), and then drove back to "The Hat".

Our McG girls were so very happy to see us and their Aunty looked to still be in one piece so all went well for her too.

In the future I will NOT be buying a VIP ticket package....unless I know for certain that I will be able to have a drink with the band or something awesome like that.   But, it was a wonderful break and so nice to just hang out with Mickey like we used to.