I kissed James Taylor last night

My adopted sister and I were on a mission to see James last night. I've seen him 8 times in the last 10 years, and 6 times with her.  Venues- Shoreline, The Greek, Orpheum, Arco Arena, Tahoe, Wente Vineyards, Red Rocks Colorado, and Concord Pavillion. We are TOTAL groupies. We were celebrating her 30th birthday. We cruised down to walnut creek to have a slow dinner and be close to the venue as the concert started at 7. 

We had a relaxing slow dinner talking about technology, prioritizing our families, and ignoring our phones more. Great chat, food, and company. We were so into our moment we lost track of time and my parking space was going to expire in 5 minutes. We left the street, needing to pump (breastfeeding mamas here!), at 6pm. We had 9 miles to travel. It was bumper to bumper. 

Bumper to bumper. 

We are ALWAYS the early ones, and the LAST ones to leave. Literally, the last ones. In Denver we may or may not have been creepily stalking the backstage area to see if he would come out. Our little rental car was easy to find as it was the only one left in the parking lot. DORKS!

So... We had to resign to the fact that we were going to be late. We found a CVS that thankfully had a plug- in for us. We took care of business and crept our way to the venue. We parked at 720. Show started at 7. Top speed of travel was 30mph to get there. CRUD!!! We grabbed our stuff and started walking.

And walking.

Have you been to Concord Pavillion? It is a sweet venue, but the walk from the parking lot was almost a mile. No joke. The last 200 yards was a sizeable hill that my quads can remember today.

 This is us... Late faces...Tired walkers... Wanting to be in our seats 20 minutes ago!

 Got to our seats about 740 after the walk and potty pit stop.

Sighs of relief. We have arrived!

He was playing some new songs mixed in with the old this tour. Guess you can't play the same songs for 40 years when you sell out every show? I remember the first time I saw him I was pulling out paper and writing down the songs. I dug out my JT scrapbook today and found my lists-- did it another show too!! He played 24 songs that first show. Wow. Jac has certain songs that are ranked higher for her and I have my songs. We both heard some top contenders. 

It is such a heightened sense of awareness to be in such a massive venue with so many devoted fans who are generally peaceful, diverse, and calm people. Before we knew it it was intermission, which he jokes that they just go behind stage for 20 minutes and watch the clock tick. He's a goof.

I glanced down at the stage and saw he was starting to sign things. This is nothing new for him, as he is quite an entertainer, and sweet to the fans. He has signed 4 items of mine in my "few" times of seeing him. I told Jac we needed to get down there. We had decent seats but we were very far from the stage. Not one security person gave us an odd look as we booked it up to the stage, displaying odd agility skills darting between this fan and that fan. All of the sudden we were very close to the stage. We gracefully climbed over folded chairs, laughing it off as others gave us second glances. "It's okay, I've been smushed against his stage before" was my response. This is what it's like being a hard core fan. You do weird things. In public. Without regret.

 We were close.

 And got closer.

 And then..... This happened. SERIOUSLY!!!!!!!!

 Blurry pics happened as I was alternating between utter shock and taking pictures and also wanting to take in the time and moment. He was sitting down on the stage with his legs hanging off. Jac was literally up against his right leg and I was in between his legs in a totally normal not weird way, ha!!!!

 Jac's hand! Keep in mind there are 50 people behind/on/around us mushing us together like noodles you don't rinse and they stick together. That was us. Noodle smush. Against the stage. And James.
I told Jac to go up first since it was her birthday and get a signature. This crowd was about 60:40 female: male. It wasn't as crazy of crowds as I'd been in before. I wasn't sure if she was going to get a signature, let alone all that happened. I have waived my ticket a few feet away from him in the past, in crowds 100% women and I didn't stand a chance. Something was in our favor last night.

This is about 90% of what happened. I was enjoying every minute not trying to stress about documenting it all and just being there!

Jac was very calm and quiet. This girl has a gift in question asking and she was the quietest I have ever seen her. So here goes Chels! More like the nervous blabbering idiot..

Chels "I have a son who has had 3 heart surgeries and we sing...... (WHAT IS THE NAME OF THE SONG??? Why are you forgetting this you sing it every night!) You Can Close Your Eyes every night." [Talk about a wordy sentence!]

Jac "You have a 3 year old fan"

James "How is he doing?'

Chels "He's doing great"

Something happened here and there is no other way of describing it but he leaned down and I kissed his cheek and he kissed mine. TOTALLY HAPPENED!! IN SHOCK!!

Chels "Thank you for still touring. You must have sung these songs hundreds of times"

James "I think I've sang Carolina over 500 times"

Chels "You could probably sing in your sleep?" [really wise words coming out of my mouth]

James .".. something about dreaming about songs.."

and then...

Jac  "Can I sit on the stage with you?" 

James" Sure, can you get up here?"
She hopped up!

 Um... Then I needed to be up on stage too sitting next to him too. I was holding my phone and my purse was buried underneath the people noodle ness that was happening. I leaned on the stage with my left arm and tried with all my might but my body wasn't really moving. So James just lifted me up and a sweet fan hoisted me the last little push. And there we were. Taking selfies with James. Who lifted me up onto stage next to him. After kissing my cheek. WHAT!

 He is a busy man. He had 3-4 shirts on his lap, cds being waved in front of him, signing tickets, phone cases, you name it. We just hung out and enjoyed the surreal times with him. He was cool with it. I even passed him a few tickets of people further out in the noodle mess since I had the hookup. HA! I think he needs us as his entourage at all shows.

 SHOCK!

 GOING TO CRY! TRYING to keep it together.... nerves!!! Excitement! SITTING NEXT TO JAMES!

 See the people swarm?

Here is Jac getting up from sitting next to James. 

Then we just returned to our seats. And pinched ourselves the rest of the show. 

Do you have a bucket list? This was ON IT! It was so so so amazing, can't even describe it. I was a little overcome with nerves afterwards and actually had to sit down. 

We enjoyed the rest of the show in a giddy state. His brother even came onstage during How Sweet It Is, because as James said "If you have a brother, you might as well use him!" He was just as dorky as James, gyrating around the stage and sharing his musical talent as well. 

James had 3-4 encore songs, and then he was done for the night. It was THE BEST! We are still on a high as you can tell from my long post. I'm pretty sure I'll remember this but I wanted to document it in detail. 

Last night was AWESOME beyond words! Thanks husbands for supporting our crazy obsession with a 66 year old man who tugs on our heartstrings so. I know I can speak for Jac when I say that his songs speak to our souls. It's as real as that. 

James Quotes

The secret of life is enjoying the passage of time

Certain things in life are more important than the usual crap that everyone strives for

We all have to face pain, and pain makes us grow

I don't think anyone really says anything new

I am myself for a living. I don't animate a character

If you think my music is sentimental and self-absorbed I agree with you

From memory... songs last night... country road, steamroller, mexico, handy man, how sweet it is, sweet baby james, your smiling face, fire and rain, shower the people, up on the roof, Carolina in my mind, you've got a friend, ... more new ones.

Yes we have both thought of what we should have said or did. Truth is it was amazing and perfect and soul feeding. If you think I'm crazy, turn on a James song and listen to it quietly by yourself. You will agree he's quite awesome.  And if not, I will recommend another song:).