30 hours of madness

10:30pm Tuesday. Wake up. Shower. Gather things. Call brother 14 times until he decides to check his phone and calls me back. Says the ARMY is making him work Wed and he and his wife can't make the show. Disappointed, I drive to Billy, Nate and Matt's house in Hays.2am Wednesday. Give Billy a near heartattack when I tell him my brother isn't going. He calls Nate and asks him to go too. Nate declines. Drinking commences. Listen to music. Nate comes home and annouces he changed his mind. Much rejoicing occures from Billy and Matt. Watch Boondock Saints. Squee to self over slashiness and laugh ass off during movie. Vow to buy it asap.5am Wednesday. Finds self the only person awake. Watches Slipknot's Disasterpieces DVD while Nate sleeps on other couch. Nate wakes up during the last song and declares me to be obsessed. He is happy to take the blame for my newest obsession.8:45am Wed. Gauger arrives and everyone is ready to roll.9am Wed. Billy, Nate and I go to Wal-Mart to change oil. Note to self. They are slow and incompetant fuckers there. I recommend Billy buys car ramps so he can change oil himself next time. 9:30am Wed. Gauger and Matt head out. We tell them we'll catch up. HA! 10am Wed. Finally, leave Wal-Mart. Go to McD's for road trip food. Stalled by lady at drive up window who thinks she knows me. Escape is delayed but finally successful. 10:10am Wed. Wichita bound! I drive Billy's car. It's fun as hell. 2004 Civic 5 speed. weeee! Nate naps in back seat. Billy and I jam to Apocalyptica and have fun with the digicam. 12:05pm Wed. I made last toilet stop at Sonic before reaching Kansas Coliseum. 12:20pm Wed. We made it! Where are Gauger and Matt though? We make ourselves at home in front of the building. Gauger and Matt show up from their Kwik Shop raid. We play with video camera. Billy broke out the hacky sack and the boys played. I watched and took pics.1pm Wed. Barb arrives to get her ticket at box office. She says she'll be back about 5pm. 2pm Wed. Alexis finally arrives! Only 2 hours later than she planned, she got lost leaving her home town. 2-5pm Wed. Amuse selves while waiting for doors to open.5:30pm Wed. Get groped by very aggressive security guard. Nearly have boobs ripped off in their search for drugs. 6pm Wed. Doors open! Make made dash up stair case to T-shirt booth. Buy two T-shirts and launch self down stairs to floor seating. Scurry around looking for a good spot. Security makes us sit on the concrete floor like a bunch of pre-schoolers. Legs cramp, then fall asleep. Back seizes up. 7pm Wed. Godsmack comes out! They played their hit songs. Sully and drummer have a drum off session on two kits. They put on a good show. 8:30pm Wed. METALLICA!!!! hits the stage. At my first good look at Kirk, I lose my mind and scream like a girly girl. They play for at least 2 hours. I manage to get on the rail, as close as one could get to the stage. Pyros at the beginning of One nearly do me in. A crowd surfer gives me a concussion and a nice goose egg on my forehead when the security guy trying to grab him, drops him on my head and slams my forehead into the steel pipe of the rail. Once I know I'm not bleeding, I carry on. Everytime security guard jumps on step in front of me, I hit the deck expecting another body to land on me. At one point, Alexis is pulled from the crowd by security and is escorted by Gio, head of Metallica's security, to the side where she can be looked after. She was dehydrated and nearly passed out. I was told I could meet up with her after the show. I have a "moment" with Rob Trujillo when James asks crowd who has Kill 'Em All. After crowd reacts and quiets down, Rob stands in front of me and points his finger at me, mouths the words, "You have it?" and I throw him the horns, nod my head and say "Hell yeah!" He breaks into an approving grin, pats his chest and nods, mouths "Me too". Approx. 11pm. 2nd to the last song. The Wait from Garage Days. I finally say "Screw it!" and anchor myself to the rail and headbang my fool brains out as fast as I can. I think I was channeling Perttu. Nate and Billy said they both saw me headbanging and thought I had lost my mind. Last song. Seek And Destroy. I can no longer sing. Even whispering is agony. Despite earplugs, my ears felt like they were bleeding. 12:30am Thursday. Awake for 26 hours now. Since Alexis is coming back home with me, I have to drive her car because she has no idea where she is and is no condition to drive. Unfortunatly, neither am I because everything is blurry and spinning thanks to the blow to the head. Nate is a God-send and drives Alexis and I as we convoy to Hutchinson so we can stay at our friend Austin's house. Only none of us know where he lives. First things first though. We need water. Precious, cold, lovely water. We descend upon Kwik Shop like a bunch of staggering, three-legged, one-eyed, side show circus freaks and take as much ice water as we can manage. I decide that I also deserve a Mt Dew. I take a drink and realize that it doesn't even taste good. I inahle 44 oz's of ice water.1:45am Thursday. We pull into 27/7 McD's and call Austin. After some hilarious moments of staggering side show freakshow in the parking lot and a garbled adventure in food buying, we finally see Austin and continue to his house. 2am Thursday. Alexis promptly passes out on a bed. Nate breaks out the video camera and the aftermath of the concert is caught on tape. It consists of drunkeness, stories of Austin's drunken adventures with Brandon, who should never be allowed out of his room btw, and general chaos. I continue to drink water.2:30am Thursday. I finally have another toilet break. 14 hours since the last one.4:30am Thursday. I call recliner and kick Gauger out of it. I realize that I have been awake for 30 hours at that point and call it quits. After borrowing a blanket from Austin, I controt myself into the seat of the recliner and am asleep before I can get comfortable.Summary: Show kicked ass! I wish my brother and his wife could have gone but am glad that Billy and Nate came in their place. A great time was had. We all made it home safely. This was my 3rd Metallica concert but the first time I got to see them up close. It was Matt's second Metallica concert. This was Gauger and Billy's first Metallica concert. This was Nate's very first concert EVER. What a show to start off with. When I asked him later, if the show inspired him (he started playing bass guitar about a year ago) his reply was, "Like nothing else ever before it." *GRIN*