Cashing in my Christmas Present

This past weekend I was finally able to cash in my Christmas present from Matt.  For years or maybe months I had been dropping hits to Matt about how if he ever had the chance to take me to see Reba McEntire that he better figure out a way to take, even if it meant pawning his golf clubs.  I kid, I kid.  I didn't even know she was going to be in the area, so I was truly surprised when he gave me concert tickets for Christmas.

The weekend started off great!  Thanks to Priceline.com I was able to snag us a really swanky room at the Hyatt Riverfront in Jacksonville.  Since the concert was on a Friday night, we thought it only made since to make it an overnight trip.  Honestly, I kind of felt like we were robbing the hotel, knowing how much I had actually paid for the room.

We decided that before the concert we would go eat the Cheesecake Factory.  Neither of us had ever eaten there before and after someone gave us a book about what foods to eat and not to eat, and the Cheesecake Factory had "bad" food on everyone of the lists detailed in the book, we decided to splurge on our calorie counts.  We were successful in eating SO much that we were miserable.  We didn't even get dessert.

It was at supper that things started to take a turn.  I took my camera out to take a picture and uh oh...I noticed I didn't have my SD card.  How could I take photos without my card?   Matt just rolled his eyes and laughed.  He knows that, because it is true, I am notorious for forgetting to put my SD card back into my camera.  He graciously agreed to stop at CVS so I could buy one.  Let me go on record as saying that CVS in Jacksonville is VERY proud of their SD cards.  I small 2GB card ran me $29.99.  That hurt me a little because unfortunately that wasn't the first time I had to buy a card on the fly.

Off the the concert we go, with camera.  Because how could I go to a concert to see Reba, the queen of country music, and not take my camera to document what I had so long waited for?  Literally, the only thing I had in my bag was my camera.  We get to the door, they scan our tickets, so we can't leave and go to another door because our tickets wouldn't scan again, and THEN they tell me, I am sorry mam we don't allow THOSE kinds of cameras.

"Um, excuse me", I said.  Obviously they didn't know that I had just spent $30 bucks on a new SD card for said camera.  I didn't know what to do.  Like I stated above, we couldn't leave because they had already scanned our tickets.  Seriously...I still can't believe it.  I was being discriminated against because of my snazzy camera.  Appropriate?  I think not.  Matt was not amused.  After coming to grips with the fact that I wasn't going to be documenting this magical night in country music, I started to move on.

Thank you to the very nice cab driver who volunteered to take my camera back to the hotel for me and leave it at the front desk.  Risky?  Absolutely, but she looked nice and I had her number.  Off into the concert we went!

And the above story should explain why I have no pictures of this event.

Still slightly disappointed but mostly excited, we found our seats.  At this point LeeAnn Womack was already singing.  She was really good.  I would have been fine with JUST Reba, because I love her, but Matt was definitely excited to see hear Ms. Womack.  To give credit, she did a great job.  I had forgotten how many good songs see had other than "I Hope You Dance."

The Main Event was TO DIE FOR.  I could go on and on about how good Reba was.  Her show wasn't over the top, there were no fireworks, hovering from the ceiling, or confetti cannons.  It was just good singing and showmanship at its best.  She looked great!  She sounded great!  And she definitely met all of my expectations and more.  I will say she faked me out, her show came to a close and she had forgot to sing "Fancy" I was devastated.  Then Matt consoled me and told me to wait a second, he thought she was coming back for an encore.  Of course she was...an encore!  Then as the lights rose and the video began to play, a taxi cab delivered Reba in a sparkling red dress to the stage to close out the show with the one song I wanted to hear more than anything else.


There was even one endearing moment during her show in which she forgot the words to "The Greatest Man I Ever Knew".  Also, in the middle of her show Melissa Peterman came out and did a little comedy routine with her.  Melissa was Reba's co-star on her TV show appropriately titled "Reba".  So funny and such a nice surprise to see Barbara Jean being her funny self.

For me, the concert could have ended there.  George Strait closed the show, and not to take anything away from George because he is a great musician, but he really doesn't put on a show.  He stands there on the corner of the stage with his guitar and sings.  He sings good, but when it is pushing on 11 o'clock at night, he is better for putting you to sleep than for making you want to dance and sing along.  So we left the concert feeling like we had gotten what we went for.