Manishow #3

I really meant to write this last week some time when everything was still fresh in my mind but time just got away from me, so I will have to try my best to remember.

I had known for quite some time (since late November) that Barry was coming to Foxwoods on March 28th, and my best friend and I had talked about going together, but by the time we decided we definitely wanted to go, all of the tickets had sold out! I did not realize at the time the Grand Theater was only a 4,000 seat venue.

So I kept watching for tickets to become available in the intervening months but two together in the cheaper sections never did. All I ever saw was $250 seats way down front, and only singles. I couldn't justify spending that kind of money on what I knew would barely be a 90 minute show.

I toyed with the idea of heading down to the casino and hoping for tickets to be released at the box office on the day of the show, but on the day of the show, it started to snow! I couldn't justify driving all the way down there in the snow, on the CHANCE of getting a ticket.

I got my eyes examined that morning and ran a few errands while Paul was working, and we met at my mechanic's at 10:15 so I could drop off my car for an oil change. We came home, had some food and took a nap.

When I woke up, it was 1:30, and I decided to try the website one more time to see if anything became available. There was an obstructed view seat available  for $119 and I was encouraged, but there was no way I was going to spend that much money not to be able to see. And then I saw a few more open up. They were way down front. One was in the third or fourth row on the aisle, the farthest seat you could get (in that row) from the stage. But in front of that, closer to the middle, in the second row, were two other seats. I clicked on one of them and started the purchasing process. I knew it was going to cost me an arm and a leg but at that point it did not matter. I had just gotten a raise, Paul was making all kinds of overtime, and our bills were all caught up. I simply could not stand the thought of him being that close, an hour and a half away, and me not being able to see him.

While I was buying my ticket I asked Paul what he would think if I spent $250 on a ticket to see Barry Manilow. He was silent for a long time and then he said, what do you want me to say? I said, I want you to say if it will make me happy I should do it! And so he said, You can't take it with you. This was the blessing I was looking for, and I came running into the living room to get my debit card since I did not have the CVV number on the back memorized.

As I finished buying the ticket, the phone rang and it was my mechanic, George. My car was ready. So I quickly got dressed and we went down to pick it up, and I said goodbye to Paul and headed down to the casino in the snow.

It took me nearly two hours to get there so it was nearly 4:00 by the time I parked and all I could think about was getting to the box office to pick up my ticket. I didn't even stop to pee before finding the box office, presenting my license and debit card at will call, and being handed my ticket. In the second row.

I felt so happy to be holding that ticket, I can't even explain it. But after finally using the rest room I still had nearly 4 hours to kill before show time, more really because I wasn't interested in the opening act. I knew Mohegan Sun was only about half an hour's ride and I seriously considered taking a ride over there to gamble, but thought I would just try one or two machines at Foxwoods to see how I liked them.

Well, those four hours went by very fast, due to the fact that I found a Willy Wonka slot machine I absolutely fell in love with, and apparently it was in love with me right back a little bit, because as the show got closer, I really started to win.

Now my hands are getting tired so I won't go into all the details of the show right now, but suffice to say it was amazing, he was amazing, I was physically closer to him than I've ever been before and we may even have made eye contact, and I cannot wait until the next one in June. You would think I would have it out of my system a little bit, having just seen him last week, but as soon as the show ended I felt the exact same way as I did when the last show ended at Mohegan in May of 2013, I could not wait to see him again. And that's the way I feel right now. I cannot wait to see him again.

June 16th 2015

The moment my last Mani-show ended, I couldn't wait to see him again. I've literally spent almost a year and a half wondering, "What if he doesn't come back? What if he stops touring? What if I can't see him again?"

Well tonight all those worries were put to rest. I came home from work, opened up Facebook, and clicked on his face to see what's new.  And his cover photo was the latest album, as it has been for a while now, but this time it said Boston, June 16 behind his head.

"What?" I thought.  "What does this mean?"" Can it possibly be a tour date??" For a second I couldn't wrap my mind around why it was talking about June. This is October. It's not another record he's talking about. I navigated down to see the comments and others were saying the same thing. A tour announcement? As part of your cover photo? With nothing being said other than a date? I scrolled down lower and noticed it said the same thing only Brooklyn, June 17th. I didn't put it together at first that it's his birthday, that took me a minute. Playing his birthday in his home town? A few short hours' drive from here? Am I going to see him twice?

I navigated away from Barry's page to make my own post about this development. Several minutes later I went back to make sure it was still there. Now it said San Jose, April 18th! These MUST be concert dates!  I scrolled down to see all of the times his cover photo has changed today and saw one I hadn't noticed before. Chicago in February. So apparently on his latest  QVC  appearance when he mentioned how he missed the audiences and the band and the lights, he actually was dropping us a major hint that something would be announced soon. I wonder how many Fanilows are going to bed tonight with a huge smile on their face, knowing they'll get to see him again? I know I sure will! .

Barry Love

I love Barry Manilow so much that I get a charge out of hearing him breathe in or hearing his mouth open when he sings.

Corrections and Confusion

Corrections:

1.       Obviously he sings his own backup vocals on quite a lot of his studio songs. I have found quite a few examples of this, too many to remember and list right here.

2.       He does sing through other letters than just Ms and Ns.  He sings through his Ls and his Gs and practically any vowel, especially considering he sings the word you quite a lot.

Confusion:

Why do I love him so much? Why do I think he’s sooo cute/handsome? He is not a traditionally good looking man. And yet I find him so beautiful and pleasant to look at in so many of his iterations! I love “Baby Barry” from the late seventies. And I also adore his Parker Stevenson look from 1984. But then by the time 1998 rolls around, and he’s twenty years more mature than Baby Barry, I swoon over that 1998 version of him as well. And even at the age of 59, when he taped the “Ultimate Manilow” TV special, he still looked damn cute! And definintely did not look almost 60 and yet also had not been ruined by plastic surgery at all. And the next thing I am confused about,  why do so many other women feel exactly the same way I do?  I watch his audiences, especially on talk show appearances, and they go absolutely BANANAS for him! Why?

Anyway, it’s been 8 months now of listening to almost nothing but Barry at home, at work and in the car. The few times I put the radio on instead of a Manilow CD, I find myself scanning through all the radio stations looking for (but never finding) something from him. It turns out, the one time of year it’s possible to hear a Manilow tune on the radio, is now. Christmastime. So far I’ve heard him do Santa Claus is Coming to Town and Home for the Holidays. The Santa one, I’m not even sure why I stopped the radio from scanning when I heard a snippet. There were no vocals on the part I caught. But something must have captured my attention because I started listening to it. And when the vocals did eventually kick in, it still took me a few lines of the song to realize who was singing. But onceI finally did realize it, I was in indescribable joy.

I heard Home for the Holidays on the radio the day after listening to it for the first time on YouTube, so I recognized it and knew to stop on it, but I still got very VERY excited to be able to actually hear him on the radio!

Last Night's Dreams

Last night's dreams did not contain any Barry but they were fairly interesting and I want to jot down what I can still remember, while I can still remember it.

The first thing I remember was having a telephone conversation with our internal Help Desk support person, Natalia. I cannot remember what the phone conversation was about but it was fairly long. I became concerned that others might notice how long we were talking on the phone for, and then realized that as long as they could only hear her end of the conversation it was fine. And I remember reminding myself that I had seen her on the phone providing support to others plenty of times and that it was fine. I suspect this may have been sparked by the fact that Natalia has a blog that I sometimes read here at work. Or because of the fact that she helped me get my phone to work recently.

The next thing I remember is being in the shower with a little kid resembling the younger Jake on Two and a Half Men. It is unclear whether this boy was my child or if I was just babysitting but for whatever reason he needed a bath and it made the most sense for him to come in there with me. In the beginning he had some underwear on but eventually he was naked. I remember arguing with him that he needed to bathe and wash his hair and him being most upset over this. I want to say this was sparked by a scene I recently caught from the movie Kramer vs. Kramer when Dustin Hoffman is telling his son he needs to bathe every day and wash his hair twice a week. Eventually I got sick of arguing with him and I said "fine, you've been rinsed, get out".

Surprisingly it was the bathroom in my current house, not the house I grew up in. Oftentimes I dream about the house I grew up in, even though I have been gone from there since 1989.

The last part of the dream took place at Cam's. I had my friend Elijah over and he was spending an inordinate amount of time in the bathroom. When I went down the hall to check on him, Nick White, who we used to play cards with, was sneaking down the hall and into the back bedroom. I chased Nick down the hall and found that he was chopping up lines of cocaine for the two of them to snort! By this time, Cam's had morphed into the house I grew up in. I told Nick, well obviously I need to snort one of those and he told me that was totally understandable.

This is a little odd because it's been more than 13 years since I've touched or been interested in cocaine in any form.

Dreamed About Him Again Last Night

As usual, I can only remember scattered portions of my dream. Someone was driving me to New York City. We drove past these famous windmill/ferris wheel type things. I think this was sparked by Darren Aucoin talking last night about the two new ferris wheels they are building in Vegas, bigger even than the one in London. Someone joined us in the car, and I remarked that she did not get to go past those structures with us when we went by them. Suddenly it was my sister Laurie driving the car, and she could see the way was clear to back up all the way back to the windmill ferris wheel thingies, and so she did, so the newcomer could see them. I remarked that I wished  my camera had not broken, and that the first chance I got, I was going to buy a new one. I could see New York City out the car window and I was wondering why it was so far away, and then I realized my driver, who was no longer my sister, wanted to take me to the city via Brooklyn, so I could see the place where Barry grew up.
The next thing I remember, I was at a party, function or event of some type, not a concert (I don't think) and he was there! He was roaming around alone, talking to no one. So I grabbed the opportunity to go up to him. His back was to me and I tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned around and looked at me, I was taken aback by the bright blueness of his eyes. I couldn't believe how pretty they were in person! I told him my sad story, how my camera and my dog died on the same day last week. I told him how Chief was sitting in the driver's seat of my car and how I wanted to take a photo of him sitting there, and when I turned my camera on, it was broken. I told him that I planned to buy a new camera soon, and I hoped when I did, if I saw him again, he would pose for a picture with me. I believe he was very nice to me. That's all I can remember.

Chief Traub Citino Sterling ("Chiefy")

This is my dog, Chief.

Today is a very sad day. It may not be the worst day in my life, but it's right up there with the day my mother died, the day my father died, and the day my beloved cat Lino was put to sleep after 17 years.

Chief had a vet appointment last month and it was discovered that he had lost 10 pounds since his last visit the year before. I told the vet he had been acting hungrier than usual and drinking a bit more water than before. She asked if he had been pacing a lot, unable to get comfortable. She thought he might have cancer.

Now, when Chief shakes his head, he falls down. The first time he fell, waiting for his dinner to be served, it was funny to me because he literally fell on his face. The falling is not so funny any more.

Today I am working half a day (from ten until two) and then at 2:30, I am taking Chief to the vet to be destroyed. My heart is breaking.

We got Chief 11 years ago from my sister. They wanted a dog for their kids, but he had turned out to be a handful, chewing through her safety belts when they left him alone in the car, chewing through a second story window screen and jumping out when they left him alone in the house, and eating her vacuum hose. My sister's dog trainer told her he needed a place where someone would be home all the time, preferably with another dog and a fenced-in yard. We had all of the above at the time, so we took him for a weekend to see how he would get along with Sabrina. He stayed with us ever since.

I just don't have the words to articulate how upset I am at having to do this to my beloved pet.