Oh What a Night

I did something last night that I haven't done in YEARS. I laid awake until 3 a.m. listening to old cd's. I found myself in the possession of a new compact cd player with awesome sound. So after I finished my book on cd that I was "reading" I popped in some music. One cd led to another and the next thing I knew it was near dawn. When you are listening to music with headphones on, it's different than when you have it playing through the house.

Let me back up a bit. My new cd player also has FM radio and I was picking up stations I didn't know existed. I suddenly found myself transported back to what I grew up on....80'a rock. When music had a beat and you could understand the words and dance to it and...I digress.

What I was hearing led me to some of my own stuff. Foreigner, Journey, Aerosmith, and yes you guessed it, Cheap Trick.

I put in two lesser known Cheap Trick "albums" and immediately had a flood of emotions. Mostly laughter, but I did shed a few tears over memories...after all they do light the corners of my mind.

No other voice stirs me up like Robin Zander. I don't say that to be sappy, Have you ever really listened to his range?

So there I am listening to old and new Cheap Trick and suddenly I was taken back to days with Lisa, Laurie, Gail and some that shall remain nameless for various reasons.

There I was with Lisa at the old Madison Theatre standing at the stage not five feet from the band as they performed. That was the sweaty towel night!

And there I was meeting Laurie for the first time at Trickfest. What an awesome weekend. We could have pitched in and gotten Robin a new hat, but the suit made up for it! Gail, Lisa and I took forever deciding what to wear and how to fix our hair only to realize later on we were really the only ones who cared.

And there was our third guest and the handcuffs. I wont go there. ;-)

There was the trip to Rockford...there was the concert at the Steamboat Festival where the band was spotted on the gambling boat. There was the concert in Duquoin where Lisa, Gail and I went backstage and met them personally.

As I listened to their music in the middle of the night the memories were so thick I could see colors. Colors of Tom Petersson's outfit, of Robin's son hanging out, of Gail trying to look like Stevie Nicks, of meeting Laurie in the bathroom, of seeing Tom in a downtown Peoria bar as Lisa and I sat eating dinner before the show.

Those were fun times. I guess we all grew up and stopped having fun times because we no longer keep in contact. It would be fun to all gt together again an go down memory lane to share a laugh or two.

Staying up till three a.m. was fun, but it has definitely been a more than one cup of coffee day.