As you can see, not exactly a sell out. I guess, since it was free, not a bad turnout in the monsoon. In this picture, the rain had stopped, but just 15 minutes earlier, we were in the rain forest. The rain was warn, really warm, like someone was peeing on you. Not that I would know, just saying, it was warm. There was no lightning, so I was fine standing in it. Since we haven't had any measurable rain in Des Moines since 2003, it felt great. I wish it could have waited a few days so the festival could have been more successful, but mother nature and I aren't on speaking terms, so I was without influence. So as we are listening to Tim Cooper and friends on the stage, standing in a warm piss bath and totally enjoying myself, being outside, I see a huge crowd. Ok, maybe is was 15 to 20 people, but look at the picture above. This is a crowd about to double the population of our area. I figured the band at the other stage just got done and the people were heading over to watch the Sidewalk Prophets play, which was who I was waiting for. Then I saw a guy I recognized from TV and I knew he was a campaign manager for a political candidate, I just couldn't remember who. I figured it out fast. Michele was signing autographs and when the crowd parted, I saw her coming right towards us. Do I get star struck? A little. When my brother Brian and I went to watch our favorite football team, the Washington Redskins, play the Chicago Bears a few years back, we stayed in the team hotel. When their bus pulled up, we both were like little school girls and chased the guys, some that were younger than me, around the hotel lobby. I got a whole book of autographs, but at the total expense of my dignity. I might have been blushing when I chased Clinton Portis to the elevator and blocked the door, just so I could get him to sign my book. Now he and his friends could have shoved me out of the elevator and left, and had every right too, but he signed it. So when Michele came across the field, I had a bit of a desire to run up and have my picture taken with her, mainly so I could post it on this blog, but I was more concerned that her security people would see my bald head approaching and assume I meant harm, and the picture on the front page of the Des Moines Register would be of some thug in a I love Jesus shirt, bending my arm behind my back while I cried like a baby. My decision? Hang back and see if she comes to me. Not so much. She scooted to my west and headed for the stage. If you have ever seen a candidate work the crowd, you know she isn't going right to the stage. Plenty of time for photos, autographs and talking to people who want to say they SPOKE to a presidential candidate. The other half of this long as story, is my boys are frog/bug freaks. They would spend 98% of their time catching frogs and bugs if we would let them. The other 2% would be beating the crap out of each other, but that percentage is negotiable. While I was listening to the music, my boys had located the creek, I think they have a part of their brain that just makes the ability to stay out of a creek, impossible. While they were in the creek, they located a small frog. They caught said frog and proceeded to run all the way across the festival grounds to show me, since I haven't ever seen one, today. Once they arrived, about the same time Michele arrived, Marcy decided that Max should show Mrs. Bachman the frog, since these things are only native to Christian music festivals in the greater Des Moines area, she might leave our state without seeing one. Max isn't shy. If you have ever met him, you are his best buddy and he will share everything. An example of this, Marcy was at our local grocery store one day when a lady she didn't know said, "Hi Max, how is your summer going?" Max shared his summer up until that point and moved on. Marcy stood their a bit dumbfounded, but asked the lady if she was one of Max's teachers, which she all ready knew she wasn't, but seemed like a good ice breaker. The lady said, "No, I teach 5th grade math." Well Max is my kid, so advanced math is not in his future for my soon to be 1st grader. So Marcy asks, "How do you know Max." Her response, "Everyone knows Max." Future politician? I hope not, I have skeletons in my closet. So Max heads over to meet Mrs. Bachman and show her his frog. (That sounds horrible) She, of course, is very sweet to him, looks at his frog and talks him up a bit. She could have freaked out and shoved the frog out of her face, but that looks bad on the Internet the next day. Here are the shots we took.
What we don't have, is a picture of the frog that Max and Makiah went back to the creek after their photo shoot and found, a much larger one. Max brought it over to us and Mom encouraged Max to take it over to show Michele, again. He did. This time, he held the frog up and the cameras went off. Look for that shot on the Internet, it just may show up. That was the end of The presidential candidate and the frog, but I will now make jokes about another incident that occurred.
As Marcy was leaving the area, a lady stopped her. I assumed she was getting Max's name so they could caption the picture, we have had this happen before with a photo of Makiah that was published from a local Des Moines Menace soccer game. When Marcy came back, she showed me the sheet the lady had given her to fill out, in support of Michele Bachman and to participate in the Iowa Straw poll coming up. We can put that away, Marcy is even less political than me, but I found the pen the lady gave her interesting. I assumed it would be a "Michele Bachman for President" official campaign pen, but no. It appears that they either purchased pens from Courtyard by Marriott, or they stole them. Now I don't want to get a big Watergate thing going here, but that seemed odd to me. I'm sure it was probably this ladies personal pen, which WE stole, but it seems like a candidate pen, might be an inexpensive idea. Even if you don't fill out the sheet, you might pass that pen to someone when they need to write down your favorite recipe for grandma's chicken noodle soup and they say, "OH, you support Michele Bachman for president?" Why no, we stole that. Just saying.
With the evening political visit over, we settled back into our night of music, and the band I came to see, Sidewalk Prophets. I had been looking forward to this since I heard they were going to be there. I'm a huge Christian music fan, and these festivals get you up close and personal to these inspirational bands. The lyrics in Christian music are safe for kids, so I don't have to worry about what my kids hear. Now we still listen to other stuff, my kids love Boom-Boom-Pow by the Black Eyed Peas, and there are words in there that I don't want my kids singing, but lets be honest, their mom says that shit all the time. See, she has me saying it. Anyway, I had never seen SP before, so I was excited. Our friends Michelle (not Bachman, we are just frog buddies) and Andy showed up to listen with us. After a half hour sound check, they started up. They were worth the wait. I loved their music and their raw approach to the set. They looked almost uncomfortable with the attention, but not in a bad way, in an unworthy way. They won the Dove award for Best New Artist back in 2010, and they deserve it. The first song you heard, if you haven't got fed up with my music and turned it off, is by the SP. I hope you enjoy it. Marcy and the kids missed SP because they were in the car. It seems my love of music festivals is not shared by my offspring, once the sun goes down and they can no longer play in the creek. Oh well, I don't mind going back to the "kids go to sitters while mom and I rock it out in the rain" format that we have followed for the past several years. Some day, I hope to hit the mosh pit with my boys, but I'm guessing the Red Hot Chili Peppers will be long retired before that happens. And my walker will get in the way.
1 comment:
:)
Vickie
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