Fantasy Springs and Vegas

[PastelGravel]

Sorry in advance if this is too long

Memories are already fleeing my brain but I'll try to remember what I can. Fantasy Springs was great. We met Jimmy Paxson (drummer) and Al Ortiz (bass) the night before while they were playing pool in the bar upstairs. They were so nice. Up until that point I was still worried about the next day happening. They said they wouldn't be there if it wasn't going to happen. So that was a great relief. I should preface this with a story. My husband was in Hawaii the night Stevie met Sharon for the first time at the restaurant Sharon was singing at. That's what started off his love of Stevie's music (at 9 years old). He wrote a card to hopefully give to Stevie and was carrying it around before we went into the show. As luck would have it Sharon walks by! We stopped her and had a chat and he told her the story. She was one of the nicest people I have ever met. He asked her if she'd be kind enough to give Stevie his card and she said of course she would! Wow. And off she went to do the show. I won't elaborate on the details of the show as everyone has done a good job of reviewing it. She was definitley toned down, but I was so happy she was there. She did her best and it was nice.

We tried to get down to the stage during Edge but (as other people have said) were stopped by the security. We did manage to stay down there until the end so that was cool. We also saw Stevie leave in her limo with Waddy (who waved out the window) and I think I saw her hand come out for a second too. We saw Jimmy again that night having a drink and he was as kind as before. Got to tell him we'd see him in Vegas the next day and he said he'd look for us.

Next day off we went to Vegas. Got to Caesers and were ushered to our seats (3rd row!!!). Great viewpoint, I don't think i can ever go back to regular seats again after this experience. It was an amazing concert from start to finish. As everyone else has said, she was ON the whole time. We got so many looks and gestures directed at us and Sharon recognized us and waved a few times and waved. I had some really nice interactions with Lori. Stevie looked like she was having a ball. And the band rocked.

I loved how there was no fancy lighting and Stevie said "We're going to do this old school" or something to that effect. She made a joke about how they like the darkness anyway and then said that didn't come out right and we all yelled "We know what you're saying". Funny. I also noticed a cute moment right before she did her Stand Back twirl where she walked over to Carlos and said "Here I go...1..2...3" and started spinning. It was sweet.

The Edge walk was great from my perspective. I was in my own bubble but I did see commotion behind where security looked like they were really "showing their muscle" as others had said. My husband got to hold her hand for a long while as he tried to tell her his story but she couldn't hear (she really tried) and he got a really sweet Thank You. He was so happy, a realization of a dream since he was 9 years old She almost walked by me but I yelled out and she put her hand out and I got to say Thank You to her and shake her hand. Thank you is all that would come out of my mouth and she said Thank you back and smiled. I moved her hand over to my husband and he got another handshake. Too cool. Edgeof27 (I'm sorry I don't remember your name) got me in closer for Love Is, but security made us go sit down again. There was a tense moment where they didn't believe me when I went back to my seat that it was mine but a really nice security guard (there was one) told him to back off.

And that was it. Happened so fast.

Later we were walking around the casino and there was our seat mate (the lovely lady from Hawaii that got to give Stevie her lai) and another lovely lady (who I don't remember her name either...my brain was not firing on all cylinders) and we chatted for a bit. Suddenly out came Jimmy and Al. We chatted for a while and got some photos. Truly genuine, sweet guys. And there was Sharon again. She told my husband that she hadn't given Stevie the card yet but was going to next week when she goes to Stevie's house! Amazing. One of the ladies we were there with said it best; Sharon is transparantly genuine.

And off she went.

That's about it. A truly fantastic experience I'll never forget. Sorry for the length