8 degrees from Jon Bon Jovi

Ok, those of you who think I'm a spoiled brat, read no further. This post will do nothing to change your mind. Let's just say that my trip to Kansas City was one of the best 36 hours ever... good food, good conversation, and brushes with hotness.

I met Estella in Fayetteville at 10 a.m. on Thursday after my trip to the DMV (seriously, do they ever get in a hurry?). We got to KC around 2:30 and checked into the hotel, then we had a fantastic steak salad with a cilantro lime dressing at the hotel restaurant. After changing clothes, we took a cab down to the Power and Light district to have some dinner and relax before the concert.

We ended up at a great Italian restaurant where we had tapas (small plates) and cocktails, then we walked across the street to the Sprint Center.

I was so worried that I'd forget my tickets that I was a bit obsessive about it. I checked my wallet repeatedly to make sure they were there and then decided to transfer them to my back pocket. About 30 seconds later, we heard some guy yelling "Ma'am... MA'AM." We ignored him at first, then finally turned around to have him say, "You dropped your tickets." Oh. my. goodness. How mad would I have been if I had lost the tickets? Especially when you read what happened next...

We finally got into the arena after being wanded like criminals and got to our seats. On row 23. Seriously, I've never been that close to a stage at a rock concert in my life.

Here's 'Stella and me just before the concert.



Daughtry took the stage about five minutes before eight. They were just as loud as they were on Tuesday, but I enjoyed it. They did a lot of stuff off of their album, including "Over You," "Feels Like Tonight" (the Idol Gives Back acoustic version), "It's Not Over" and, of course, "Home," but they didn't do one of my favorites, "Used To."



After a 20 minute break, Bon Jovi hit the stage just before 9 p.m.



I'm not quite sure why Richie likes to look like a pimp, but he really likes purple.



After two concerts of being miles away from the stage, it was a little concerning to be 22 people away from Jon Bon Jovi. At this point, I still can't believe how close we are.

Set list:

LOST HIGHWAY
BORN TO BE MY BABY
BAD NAME

Then Jon shed his leather jacket... wowza



RAISE YOUR HANDS
OLDER (*didn't play in OKC)
SLEEP WHEN I'M DEAD w/ Gimme Some Lovin' & Land Of 1000 Dances
BLOOD MONEY*


BLAZE OF GLORY w/ Daughtry (After the first verse, Chris joined Bon Jovi on stage.)



WHOLE LOT OF LEAVIN'



TILL WE AIN'T STRANGERS ANYMORE*
IN THESE ARMS*
SATURDAY NIGHT*
WE GOT IT GOIN' ON
IT'S MY LIFE
BAD MEDICINE w/ Shout
I'LL BE THERE FOR YOU - RICHIE VOX

Ok, I knew from Tuesday night that when Richie does "I'll Be There for You," (which I coupled skated to in the fifth grade at Skate Reation), Jon was changing and heading out into the crowd to sing a couple of songs. I looked at the seating chart before we left to figure out if it would be on our side, so I knew he probably wouldn't be far from us. When I looked over during "Bad Medicine" and saw they'd constructed the platform on our row I almost had a heart attack. OMG! I'm freaking out at this point. I tell the chick to my right that he's going to be right there and she looks at me disbelieving. Yeah, who's crazy now?



(YOU WANT TO) MAKE A MEMORY





Confession time... I love the song "Bed of Roses." I have dreams about Jon singing it to me. It has that great line, "Tonight, I won't be alone, but you know that don't mean I'm not lonely." Bad grammar aside, that's a pretty impressive lyric. So he's singing it right there, looking into the eyes of those of us near enough to see him, and during the bridge part, he leans down and we brush fingers. *Sigh.* I touched him! During "Bed of Roses!" And he looked at ET and me and smiled. I can die happy now. Look how close he was!

BED OF ROSES



WHO SAYS YOU CAN'T GO HOME



HAVE A NICE DAY



KEEP THE FAITH



LIVIN' ON A PRAYER

Man, watching them do "Prayer" with 19,000 people standing and screaming the lyrics is quite an experience.

At this point they'd been singing for 2 hours and 15 minutes. Non-stop. And Jon never stopped moving and dancing and hopping around. No wonder his abs are amazing.



For the encore, Jon and Richie changed clothes again. Richie into something else purple, and Jon into what I can only think is a woman's shirt. Oh, well. If anyone can pull it off, it's him.

ENCORE:
I LOVE THIS TOWN



One of the coolest things about a Bon Jovi concert is the entire arena screaming, "I've seen a million face, and I've ROCKED 'EM ALL!" during "Wanted."

WANTED



After the concert, we were standing in front of the "Kansas City Star" building trying to catch a cab, and people kept stealing our taxi, when two ladies arrived at one about the same time we did. One of them said, "I don't suppose you're going to the Embassy Suites are you?" We were. And then, even weirder, they were from Bentonville. The mom's going to call me so that her son can finish his degree. Isn't it a small world?

Yesterday morning we woke up about 9 a.m., ate breakfast at the hotel, then headed to the Country Club Plaza to shop. We went to Williams Sonoma for some kitchen stuff and MAC for makeup, then had lunch at the Cheesecake Factory. We had an unbelievable tuna carpaccio followed by pasta. I was so full that I had to bring my cheesecake home and eat it along the way.

We got back to Fayetteville about 8 last night, so since we were still kinda full from lunch and cheesecake, stopped at Shogun for sushi. After a trip to Barnes and Noble (can you tell we didn't want the trip to end?), I dropped off 'Stella and headed back to Siloam.

My back is killing me after standing up for three-and-a-half hours and dancing on Thursday night. There's some ibuprofen and a nap in my future.

I can't believe how much fun we had. I can't believe our seats were so close. I mostly can't believe that Jon actually sang "Bed of Roses" to me. Granted, we only connected for about three seconds, but still...

Oh, and Lola got 33 mpg. Not too shabby.