2002-04-21 - 7:33 p.m.

Ok. So I'm back. Miss me? Well, I've certainly had an . . . *eventful* weekend. I'll start at the end, then go to the beginning and then end with the middle. It's going to take more than one entry to chronicle though, so buckle in and sit tight. Sound good? Good.

The End: I'm sitting here with the hiccups. They are realy annoying me. Ben tried scaring me, which he did, but it didn't work. I held my breath, but no dice. So then I tried the drinking of water on the opposite side of the glass. Worked like a charm. That ALWAYS works for me. I don't know why I always try it third.

Sigh. Anyway, no more hiccups. Ok. So that's the end of the story . . .now, for the beginning.

The Beginning: So my mother and I went to Boston on Friday. We spent the afternoon in Harvard Square. It was overcast but still really warm. We hadn't even been there for 10 minutes when we noticed this big group of people forming down by the HMV. Traffic was stopped and all of a sudden we heard this screaming. It started sprinkling and my mother freaked that her hair was going to get messed up, so she picked up a newspaper off the sidewalk to cover her hair. She was fiddling with her hair as everyone else (including me) was trying to figure out what in high hell was going on in the street. All of a sudden this group of 6 guys all in green and brown with these black helmets and guns up in the air came running out from behind this building shouting in some foreign language. There were all these people running around away from them throughout the crowd also screaming in another language with blood, or something resembling blood, all over their shirts. Everyone is just fucking watching this shit and no one has any idea what's going on. It's pretty clear that it's not quite real, but it's still really fucked up. So I'm sitting there watching it and then all at once they just stop where they are, bow, scream "PEACE!" and then run away. Crazy Harvard kids. My mother, annoyed, says "For God sakes, they're blocking the sidewalk, and I need to get inside before the rain gets worse. Besides, I need to find an Earth Day 2002 shirt." My mother is such an elastic band of contradictions it kills me.

So after going to HMV, touching base with Fred and Jimbo, and swinging by Million Year Picnic, we went back to the Hotel (where the Ving Cards were in FULL EFFECT). We got to the Fleet Center for the McCartney Concert at 7:30 and we waited in roughly 17 lines before we finally got to our seats. The show started at a little past 8 and began with this nutty Cirque de Soliel-esque shit with all these Victorian Era dressed people sifting through the crowd, then the same with Flamenco dancers, Geisha girls, Indian dancers, etc. Blah, blah, blah, weird white balloons, blah, contortionists, blah, etc. Then Paul came out and the place EXPLODED. I'm not going to take the time to comment on EVERY single song, but I'll say that he had this great set of video screens behind him that did something different during each song. He even had the same Statue of Liberty banner from his SuperBowl performance unfurl during "Freedom" and lots of crazy explosions, smoke, and fire during "Live and Let Die".

Set List:

1. Hello Goodbye 2. Jet 3. All My Loving 4. Getting Better 5. Coming Up 6. Let Me Roll It 7. Lonely Road 8. Driving Rain 9. Your Loving Flame (10-14, acoustic) 10. Blackbird 11. Every Night 12. We Can Work It Out 13. Mother Nature's Son 14. Vanilla Sky 15. You Never Give Me Your Money/Carry That Weight 16. The Fool On The Hill 17. Here Today (first Tour that he's performed this - written in 1982 as a conversation he'd like to have with John if he could see him again) 18. Something (done in tribute to George, Paul played it on a ukulele that George had given to him years ago) 19. Eleanor Rigby 20. Here, There and Everywhere 21. Band on The Run 22. Back in The USSR 23. Maybe I'm Amazed 24. C Moon 25. My Love 26. Can't Buy Me Love 27. Freedom 28. Live and Let Die 29. Let It Be 30. Hey Jude (ENCORE #1) 31. The Long and Winding Road 32. Lady Madonna 33. I Saw Her Standing There (ENCORE #2) 34. Yesterday 35. Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (Reprise) 36. The End

The show was 3 1/2 hours long and Paul only took breaks during the encores (both of which were no more than 3 minutes long). Hey Jude, Lady Madonna, Here Today, Back in The USSR, Maybe I'm Amazed, and The End were standouts for me. We got back to the hotel around midnight and it was still so warm out that I sat UNDER the Golden Diamond but ABOVE the Underground Mall and called and annoyed Brad about all the details of the concert. Friday was DEFINITELY the high of the weekend. It could only go downhill . . .VERY VERY far downhill from here . . .and it did. Oh did it ever. . .

Stay tuned to for the next entry (later tonight) involving thrills and chills of every shape and size! A cast of characters including 1/2 of the Panic Room (gasp!), some ghosts of Durham (shudder!), All-Star (puke!), run-ins with Law Enforcement by car, van, foot, horse & bike (ouch!), the MIDDLE of the story (hooray!) and of course - brownies! Mmmmm, brownies!

It's been real,

Ooba Jooba

ps - Red Sox, I love you.

pps - Celtics, for the time being, I love you even more.

ppps - Bruins, I am slightly indifferent, but will announce I am currently fond of you.

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