Soak up the Fun, Part @

On Friday, June 28, Pat Benetar and Loverboy came into Omaha to put on a free concert before a fireworks show for the Bank of the West Celebrates America concert.

Per tradition, I took the day off work, met my old roommate at the park in the morning (after she got off working the night shift), set out some blankets and preceded to hang out in the park by myself all day. 

This year, I kicked it up a notch.  In the (intended) pilot of Firefly, the character Kaylee sits at the gate of the ship and takes on passengers.  It's a pretty common cosplay, and I had half of the getup already, so I had a hard time figuring out a reason not to. 



lawnchair: garage sale 5+ years ago
shirt: previously in dresser
kimono/jacket: $6 at Goodwill
pants: $4 at Goodwill, maternity section
flip-flops: hand-me-down from an aunt 5+ years ago
umbrella: $10 and 2 full days of searching for nothing else

Since Kaylee is a mechanic on the show, I'll be wearing the shirt and pants while tinkering with my bikes in the garage to not only channel my inner wrencher and but also get some legit grease stains on the outfit.

I made sure to keep my feet sunscreened up, but forgot to continuously reapply to the chest.  I should have done better with my hair, as it looked as crazy as Shepherd Book's when I took it out at home.  The umbrella wasn't as cooperative with the lawnchair as I would have liked it to have been.  I think next year I might just duct tape it in place!  Also, I think I'm going to invest in a wagon and/or a cooler with wheels.  I have an insulated backpack and the two blankets I brought fold up into an easy-carry option.  (I took the one with a strap and clipped it into the harness of the other one.)  But packing it all to carry the mile-ish walk back to my car after the concert could be easier.  Also, it could provide a nice weight for the blankets and/or a footrest for this park lounger.

Musically, the first two acts were okay.  But the headliner was worth paying for!  Those two can still rock it after 30+ years together.  Ohmigosh, the finale of their set was awesome.  I'm not sure if the looks she was giving him were legit or staged, but they totally stole the show for me.  He just kept riffing and she would roll her eyes, throw up her hands, etc.  Great show, really great show by those two.





Also a tradition (although somewhat less intentional) is there being a smattering of my social groups in attendance.  It was my former housemates, the husband of one, the sister (and her non-boyfriend) of another, my sister, an autistic friend of mine, a friend of mine who drove up from Lincoln, his best friend and his 3 little girls (6, 5, and 2).  Good gracious, was it a  hoot! 

My fatherly friend was the cause for much entertainment.  First of all, he didn't know who Pat Benatar was.  Seriously.  I was tempted to tell him we couldn't be friends, but the last time I made that joke with someone (for not liking the Princess Bride), it turned out to be a little too fortutious for my liking, so I refrained myself and promised that he would recognize at least a couple of her songs, even if he didn't know they were hers.  He said his musical knowledge has a gap that spans from the Big Band era to the Boy Band era.  That's where most of my musical knowledge is, thanks to disc jockey dad.

He took his youngest ot the other side of the park to get some water shortly after arriving.  Later, he took his middle daughter to help him fill up some water bottles.  The little one started crying, so I took her into my arms and had the following conversation with her:

Sweetie, do you remember where you went with Daddy earlier?  And there was water in a big truck?

{she nodded through tears and wails}
That's where Daddy and [sister] went.

{she stopped wailing}

Do you remember how you and Daddy came back?

{she nodded}

Then my sister turns around, waves a lip gloss applicator in front of the little girl's face and says cheesily, "You wanna make my face look pretty?"

As the little girl put lip gloss everywhere on my sister's face except her lips ("no, no, sweetie, it doesn't go on my eyes"), my sister explained how she hates the sound of kids crying.  My pointing out that the little girl had already stopped crying seemed lost on my sister.

 

We stood to watch the fireworks, and I couldn't help but thinking as they played Katy Perry's "Firework," that that song will be to Independence Day celebrations what Beyonce's "Single Ladie's" is to wedding receptions.  Heaven help us all.



Top left: the Memorial
Top right: blankets around 11:00 a.m.
Bottom right: obligatory poor quality concert photo
Bottom left: little girl making my sister's face pretty
Regret: no picture of my sister's "pretty" face