Like many people, I sat in the virtual line on T+++++master's website for several hours to get a chance to buy presale tickets to a Taylor Swift concert. Like most of those people, I got kicked out when my place in line arrived and did not get tickets. I was very sad. I figured I still had a chance, though. I heard about a lot of people who bought up tickets for shows they may or may not be able to attend. Some bought tickets for multiple shows and decided later which one they were going to attend. Like many American things, there was a huge gap between the haves and the have-nots.
My chance arrived one evening while my son was messaging a friend, one of the "haves". They had two tickets they didn't need and they offered to sell them to us. I was asked what I would pay and like a shrewd buyer, I said I'd be happy to pay face value. Alas, I am a teacher in a poor state and I would not be participating in paying thousands of dollars to go to a concert. The friend agreed and for a brief few minutes Violet and I celebrated our luck. We were going to see Taylor Swift!
Until Blue came back down the stairs with an angry look on his face. He told us the friend changed their mind and would be offering the tickets to the highest bidder online. As fast as our luck arrived, it slammed the door as it left. We were not going to see Taylor Swift.
This was it for me. I put it out of my mind and figured that eventually I'd see a video of the concert and I'd be ok. We were bummed, but we would recover.
A few weeks later, a friend asked to meet. They handed me a card with a big smile on their face. When I opened the card, there were two images of Taylor Swift tickets inside. My heart may have stopped. This was either a very kind gift or the cruelest joke. It took a bit of explaining and reassuring me that it was real but within a few minutes the tickets were transferred into my Apple wallet. It was unreal. You probably know I'm not a hugger, but when I tell you I hugged this friend, you know it was a real, heartfelt hug. There was one condition with the gift: I had to take Violet. Done and done. I immediately texted the photo of the tickets to the family chat and Violet went berserk. What a turn of events. We were going to see Taylor Swift!
For weeks, Violet planned her outfit. She researched what people were doing for these concerts and she planned which era she was dressing as. On one of our recent trips to Charleston, she took me on a search for glitter to wear, but we didn't get any. I'm no fan of glitter and it didn't seem like a big deal.
When Violet's outfit was planned and the accessories secured, I was told I needed to get myself together as well. It was the end of the semester and I really didn't have mental space to plan an outfit so I opted for something along the lines of "Style" and "Cardigan" where a white t-shirt and Levis are mentioned. I realize this crosses eras and I'm not even sure if that's allowed, but I have no shortage of white t-shirts and Levis so I was all set.
Our tickets were for night 3 in Atlanta. After the last concert I saw in Atlanta, I decided I was too old to try to drive home after a show so we made reservations at a hotel in the Buckhead area. We got up on Sunday morning and drove to Atlanta with no traffic. We arrived at the hotel and it was instantly obvious that this concert situation as affecting everything. There were other people around the hotel who were clearly Swifties. Everyone asked us if we were here for the concert. The nice lady at the desk let us check in early and told us to have fun. I was already seeing sparkles and glitter and when we saw an Ulta around the block, we stopped in for some glitter for Violet before heading to the Marta.
I did little research on the Marta. I've taken the trains in New York and Barcelona and figured out the water taxis in Venice so I figured I'd be ok. This was actually much easier because everyone was going to the same place and they were all wearing glitter and sparkles. The train dumped us out near the entrance of the venue and we were there in plenty of time.
Neither of us are into small talk or striking up conversations with strangers. But this crowd somehow felt friendly. There was a definite positive vibe going around the space outside of the venue. Violet approached a group to initiate a bracelet trade and I borrowed a Sharpie from a neighbor to add some "13"s to our hands. We even got into a longer friendly situation with the people behind us in line. Those poor ladies had to pee but were unwilling to go to a port-o-potty. It was fun to see if their will could outlast their bladders.
After two hours in the sun with very pleasant temperatures, the lines moved through the gates. We scanned our tickets, grabbed our light-up bracelets and started climbing to our seats.
This was the view that greeted us.
There was only one row of seats behind us. We were just about as far back as you could be and we were absolutely thrilled. We were either now or would soon be in the same building as Taylor Alison Swift.
But we still had another two hours of waiting. Y'all probably know how impatient I am, but the time moved pretty quickly. We had a snack and the people watching was as good as it gets.
I was prepared for people to be decked out but I was not prepared for the level of decked out I saw. There was so much glitter. So many rhinestones. So many sequins. It wasn't just overwhelming, it was otherworldly. I instantly regretted my vanilla choice of clothing. Ok, regret is a strong word. We'll say I second guessed it. Anyway, after two hours Gayle came on as the first opener and I liked their sound. Muna was the second opener and while it was fun to watch, it wasn't my thing. All during the openers we could still see the lawn outside and there were still so many glittery people out there and so many empty seats inside. When Muna left the stage, all that changed.
We got to see Ms. Swift enter the stage in her little mop cart surrounded by her dancers. That was cool. The lights dimmed, the music started and I slowly began to be over-stimulated by the big-ness of it all. It was theater, it was live music, it was dance and it was also a stunning show of light and video. Every sound effect, every visual effect was perfectly cued. It was like watching a very precise machine.
A song would end, the lights would dim and Taylor would disappear from the center of the stage only to reappear in a different location in a completely different costume a few seconds later. I still do not understand the speed of the costume changes.
And oh my goodness the performances were great. Taylor sounded great. Just when the show was epically big in sound and visual effects, she would balance it by grabbing an acoustic guitar and singing alone on a stage in front of 60,000 people. It was really impressive.
The stage itself was huge and not only that, it was a video screen. This was perfect for those of us up high in the stadium. The people on the floor didn't get to see the stage effects, just as we couldn't see what was happening on the traditional stage set. It was an even trade. Oh, and those light-up bracelets - those were very cool. Some smart tech person somewhere knew exactly where each bracelet was and each bracelet became a part of the light show. Our wrists became rainbows, stars and fireflies at various points in the show. The patterns on the stage were reflected in the crowds.
We got "I Bet You Think About Me" and "How You Get The Girl" as our surprise songs and they were great. We also got all the great songs from each album. It was a wonderful show.
She gave us three hours of music. Honestly, it was exhausting. We sang every word and danced so hard that the building shook under us. No joke. Everyone was your friend and there weren't even any of the bad concert people there. No one spilled beer on us, no one danced on us with body odor and no one was vomiting nearby. But after the experiences of the whole day and three hours of singing and dancing, this 51 year old and 13 year old were pooped.
Getting 60,000 people out of a building and onto the nearby sidewalks was a mess. We expected this and while we were both near our limit for being around people, we had just enough endurance to make it out. We knew the train station right outside would be packed so we had the good sense to do a bit of walking to a station farther away. This allowed the crowds on the sidewalks to thin out considerably and we still had some sparkly people to follow as we walked. The station we walked to was basically empty and the next train was only about 3 minutes away. When it arrived, though, it looked like a cartoon clown car. The door opened near us and there was not really room for one person to get on. But we pushed our way in and we stood just inside the door, all up in other people's space for a few stops. Soon we were on a much less crowded train back to our hotel.
(We did have ants mysteriously in our room when we got back and had to change rooms at 1:00 am but that was handled very quickly by the dude at the desk and we turned our light out at 1:30.)
The next day was a school day. One of us was cutting school that day and the other had MFA critiques in the afternoon. After a brisk run, we got ready and walked to the Flying Biscuit for breakfast before checking out and driving back home. Traffic on I-85 was nasty but we left early enough that I could still get a 45 minute nap before I had to leave for school. The nap wasn't enough and we both went to bed early that night for a more full recovery.
It would be easy to read this and think it was about seeing Taylor Swift. Don't get me wrong, she's great and the show was wonderful, but what this was really about was Violet and I having an adventure together. This is definitely an adventure that we'll both remember for many years and I'm so grateful to have been able to spend this time with Violet. I know I'm not as cool as her but I'm thankful that she wants to do things with me. Maybe we'll even be able to talk Blue into going to a concert with us soon.
I am so grateful to my friend for their act of kindness that made this adventure possible.
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