Lollapalooza: Post-Op

CAGE THE ELEPHANT FUCKING RULES!!  Just an unbelievable set in a pouring rainstorm (the first of the day).  It took me back 20 years to the first time I heard and saw Guns N Roses. Raw, rock n roll energy and swerve.  Loved them.

As the Girl and I stood soaking wet in a giant mud molasses vat formerly known as Grant Park for over an hour waiting to get a Deadmou5e autograph (which at the very end we couldn't get because we didn't buy his CD at the FYE tent and get the wristband that allows you to get his autograph: Fuck You Deadmou5e whoever you are and Fuck you FYE. You know what, I'd have bought the goddamn thing at the autograph booth for double the price.  Way to ruin the spirit of the day and lose out on a sale opportunity.), I informed the Girl of how today was pretty much like every day I spent in US military service: endlessly standing in lines either soaking wet, sweating your ass off, or freezing your ass off with a bunch of people you don't really know for reasons not wholly clear to you.

I really like Chicago. I've been there half a dozen times and I've never had a bad time. The people and the food have been great.  But I think the real reason I love Chicago - Public Transportation.  I am so jealous.
Thanks Big 3 for making sure the citizens of Metro Detroit have to drive their automobiles everywhere and pay to park. It's awesome.

The Girl is more anti-drug than Nancy Reagan.  The young gentlemen in front of us at the Deadmou5e show sparked the largest spliff I've ever seen to which I said to the Girl, being the great parent I am, "you may get a bit of a contact high from that marihuana cigarette do you want to move?" Notice I didn't say let's move or we need to move, I left the choice up to her. Her reply was a deeply sarcastic "Great." Which was followed immediately by "You know if you want to ruin your life doing that stuff fine, but don't ruin other people's.  I'm not moving, though. Why should I give up my spot?"  That's my Girl.

Later on, during the Deadmou5e performance (2nd rainstorm), which was like a giant, outdoor Rave, the Girl got to be in her first threesome as the couple next to her was engaged in a very heavy makeout session and kept "invading her personal space".  The Girl commented that they were "basically having sex" which I thought to myself "that's right, that's exactly what having sex is like, you keeping thinking that for the next couple of years."

Speaking of Deadmou5e, to the young woman behind me who kept falling bodily into me and using my shoulders to steady yourself, don't worry about it, it wasn't a problem at all, glad I could be there to help.  Which reminds me, I can no longer tell how old people half my age really are anymore.  I would swear to you I saw thousands of teenagers drinking Bud Light which may in some instances have been true but still just another reminder that I'm aging quickly.  In fact, on the train ride in I regaled a lass with a tales of Lollapaloozas from yesteryear.  She thought me quaint I'm sure.

Learned a couple things about my brother and I, we're both claustrophobic (he freaked during the Cage the Elephant show) and the Irish, punk rock sounds of Flogging Molly give us goose-bumps.

All great times exact a price and in this instance not only did I possibly ruin my most comfortable and favorite pair of running shoes but my sunglasses were twisted into pretzel possibly beyond repair. Note to all crowd surfers:  Surf from the stage to the back not the other way.  We don't see you coming from behind us! Now a pair of sunglasses may seem like a small price but then you don't understand how cool I look in these sunglasses.  They were built with me in mind.  I'll never find a pair like them (because they're like 15 years old) and I don't even know if I have the strength to try and replace them. You ruined them. Damn you! Damn you all to Hell!

Would I do it again? Yeah, I probably would.  And definitely, if CAGE THE ELEPHANT is playing! But I think the Girl would prefer to do it again with people her own age and I think that would probably be for the best.  I had a lot of fun with her.  She's a pretty amazing person. A lot of the times that I'm with her I find myself thinking of the line from True Romance "You're so cool. You're so cool."