Ya know, in the 70's and even into the 80's, that would be a pretty typical greeting when I would get to the office and start my day job...but now, if you are caught saying such things, you get written up and have to attend a sexual harassment lecture. Sigh. DISCLAIMER: I hereby declare that I, in no way, meant any type of offensive comment to a Mr. Stephen Ray Perry by stating such. It was meant only as a nice way of saying hello. No sexual harassment training is necessary in this case. Thankyouverymuch.
Ah, the good ole days. (I was never offended by that kind of thing, personally). Pinch me on the butt, however, and watch the "fit hit the shan" and stand back as the heads roll.
I have mentioned before that I am one of those "Highly Sensitive People," (and I believe YOU are as well, my fine-feathered singer-man), so maybe if I take some time to rant about the concert last night, you'll feel my pain...or at least, be able to relate....(please keep in mind, today I don't feel well, so I'm a bit on the grumpy side). Sorry, I'm human, what can I say??
Well, Pete took me to see Styx in concert last night, at the loathed Stage AE venue. I'm tellin' ya, that place really sucks, worse and worse every time we go there. Last night was the last straw, we won't be going back to that damned place anymore.
Remember when "customer service" was a way of life, not just a "motto" in a training booklet? I think the whole concept of "customer service" has somehow become extinct. I sometimes get rather peeved, and I will say things loud enough for a manager to hear, such as, "Ok, fine, if you don't believe me, and you're not SURE about something being on sale, my friend, how about asking your SUPERVISOR, because the customer is always RIGHT, and if you disagree with that, you may just be out of a JOB." I don't know how many people I've gotten fired by doing that, but I really don't care either. Damned snot-nosed 20-something's. They just don't give a damn. They are the most worthless group of people on the planet, if you ask me. (God I'm getting old). I sound like my damned grammaw.
Concerts are the same way. Used to be, they'd go out of their way to make the people happy by making sure they had plenty of places to sit, especially if you're handicapped, but not at this place. You pay good money for a ticket, and they make you stand the entire time...I don't know about you, but my mother, who is 62 years old, is NOT ABLE to stand for 3 hours at a time. How many people over 55 can?? My guess is, not very many. Hell, I used to wear rubber soled shoes and walk on concrete floors at the Museum 8-10 hours every day, for six YEARS....but I was only in my early 30's. It was no problem.
Well, we get to Stage AE, pay $10 to park, and discover that there is a Ribs and Wings Festival going on. Now, unfortunately, Pete and I had just eaten on the way, so we weren't really hungry. It was 6:30 p.m., and so we decided just to go into the venue and hopefully get a chair to sit in. We managed to get into the handicapped section, which was nice. However, Pete asked the kid who worked there, "Who is the opening band, and when will they start?" The kid said, "There is no opening band. Styx starts at 9:00." NINE O'CLOCK P.M.?!
Pete says, "You mean we have to sit here for 2 and a half HOURS before they start?!" So I interjected, "Well, let's go to the ribs fest for a little while and then come back..." the kid says, "Sorry, no re-entry. Once you leave, you can't get back in." Pete and I both said, in unison, "So what the HELL are we supposed to DO for 2 and a half HOURS before this concert starts?" The kid shrugs his shoulders and points to a huge screen near the stage. "They'll be playing the game for you." (The Steelers were playing the Panthers last night...) so of course, Pete and I don't give a crap about that, but everybody ELSE around us had their black and gold jerseys on, and were glued to the t.v. screen.
So, we're both sitting there disgusted, and a few minutes later Pete says to me, "We saw some guy in the parking lot scalping tickets for this thing, do you want to go walk around the ribs fest awhile, and come back later if we can get cheap tickets?" I said, "Hey, whatever, I'm sick, I'll just sit here and BREATHE on these bastards all night, and cough in their FACES....I really just want to go home and lay in bed, I have seen Styx 3 times, I can totally live without 'em."
We told the kid nearby to SAVE OUR SEATS, and WE'LL BE BACK....and we left. About an hour later, we go back, we buy scalped tickets cheap, and walk right back in again...(instead of $15 we paid $25 for each ticket). Compared to $350 apiece for Journey, that was chicken feed. (Yeah those boys of Journey are greedy bastards). Spend it wisely my friend, spend it wisely. (I know you get a few bucks outta that, which is fine with me. Get yourself a nice new hat or somethin').
Well, so we go back to that same kid, and say, "We're back...now where are our seats?" He gets this look on his face, "Ohhh I forgot..." to which I said in a slightly seething rage, (making SURE I breathed really good on him), "We TOLD you to save our SEATS, that we would be BACK, so now young man, YOU WILL FIND US some SEATS." (Aunt Becky don't play). That's the motto I taught my best friend Laurie's 3 kids..."Aunt Becky don't play." Those kids knew what that meant..."If I tell ya something once, you will do what I say the first time, or you don't get no place, nowhere, no how." (To this day, they still recite that rule back to me verbatim)!! hehehehehe I'm a believer in tough love.
So the kid runs over to this table in the VIP seating area, and grabs 2 chairs for us. He says, "You may have to move if somebody comes to claim these seats though." I said, "I don't think so sweetie. We'll be staying right HERE, and YOU can deal with those people if they come. That's YOUR job. YOU are the one who screwed up, not us." (Ya know, I realize that I sound like a bitch while writing all this down, but really, I elaborate a bit...I'm honestly NOT that bad). I just don't take shit from people.
So we sit, we relax a bit, the game is still playing, and of course, a few minutes later, people show up to claim the seats. The kid comes over to us, tells us we have to move, and I said to the people, "Well, this guy gave away OUR seats, so when we complained, he gave us YOURS. I don't think these people who work here have a clue." This happened 3 more times. I finally said to the kid AND to his supervisor, "We will NEVER come back to this place again, you people need to provide more chairs for handicapped people, this is ridiculous." So, they let us stay in the VIP section, and we watched the show MOSTLY without any interruptions...
Except for the umpteen thousand people walking back and forth in front of us, buying more beer, going to the bathroom, or just talking amongst themselves while the show is going on. I swear to GOD, Pittsburgh people suck, they think they are in a BAR listening to a BAR BAND, and they just talk OVER the people on stage who are performing, which really pisses me off. I came to HEAR THE BAND PLAY, not to hear YOUR stupid conversations!! I'd like to be able to SEE them, and HEAR them, at the same damned TIME, if you don't mind. Call me crazy, but isn't that what we PAID FOR?! If you want to talk on your cell phone, get off your FAT ASS and walk over to a quiet corner, and TALK YOUR FRIGGIN HEAD OFF. Just don't do it by ME.
I realize my husband works for Apple, and helped create the damned iPhone, and yeah yeah yeah, I know cell phones are a way of life, but those damned things have absolutely RUINED social etiquette. Nobody realizes how RUDE that is, to sit and talk to somebody else on a phone while you're sitting there quietly trying to hear a concert. It's so damned annoying, it makes me want to beat some ass. (And I am normally NOT a violent person).
You should hear me drive sometimes, I tend to get a bit peeved sometimes, and yell, "DROP TROU AND LINE 'EM UP FOLKS! IT'S ASS WHOOPIN' TIME ON THE OLE HIGHWAY!" (Remnants of my DC road rage....which, thankfully, is mostly gone now). Mostly. I mean, really, if you COUNT how many asses you want to BEAT while you're on the roads, doesn't it usually add up to nearly a dozen people EVERY TIME YOU GET INTO YOUR CAR?! Seriously.
Side note: Last night this 31 year old punk-ass was walking down the street when a speeding car drove past him. He yelled at the car to SLOW THE HELL DOWN, (probably to impress his buddy), to which the driver of the car pulled over, got out of the car, walked up to the guy and shot him right through the heart. He died an hour later.
This is Pittsburgh. If you TELL people to shut the fuck up, they'll pop a cap in yo' ass. DC is the same.
Then this lesbian couple comes up to us a little while later, (mind you the concert is in full swing, so they are arriving LATE), and they say, "Hi, we see that you're in our seats, but we'll just scoot in behind you because we're late, no problem, (even when we offered to move), it's okay, we'll just sit behind you guys." So, they got in behind us and we watched the show for, oh, I'd say about a half hour. Pete likes to take video clips, so in the middle of a song while he's filming it, one of the chicks leans up and TALKS right into the MICROPHONE, "Um, when you're videotaping, we can't see the stage, could we maybe have our seats back?" So, the song is ruined that he was trying to video tape, and we have to get up AGAIN to move AGAIN...I swear it was Musical Chairs all night long, which is totally ridiculous.
THEN, not even ten minutes later, these two chicks get up and decide to LEAVE THE PLACE. GRRRRRR!!!! I really really really HATE it when people want to make up something to bitch about, and then act like it didn't matter and they just leave. We OFFERED to move when they arrived late! So what exactly was the friggin' POINT of THAT whole thing?! Just asking Pete to hold his phone a little lower so they could see the stage would have sufficed. Unbelievable.
Pittsburgh people suck shit through a straw. They really do. Nine out of 10 of 'em are just assholes. Maybe it's like that everywhere, I don't know, but I'm fed up with the whole lot of 'em. (And you wonder why I prefer being ALONE most of the time). I am what they call, "Anti-social," and damned proud of it. All I wanted at the end of the day, after working in the Museum, was to be left ALONE. I didn't want people near me, in my face, talking at me, calling me on the phone, NOTHING. Just blissful quiet solitude. That's really what got me through those 6 years. I became a hermit after work. Of course, a 45 minute ride home on the train, every day, with 10 people around me ALL on their cell phones, was torture. "I'll be home in 15 minutes...what's for dinner? Oh, I don't know...how about KFC?"
WHO THE FUGG CARES WHAT YOU'RE GONNA EAT FOR DINNER?! AAUUGGHHH!!!!
But I digress.
I sat there at this concert last night, watching these 4 men, in their mid 40's I would guess, all sitting around a VIP table, smoking and drinking these huge beers, getting up every 5 minutes to pee, and buy more beer, and I thought to myself, "I am SO GLAD I found a man in the middle of this shithole who doesn't DO that stuff." (Pete has more female friends than male, and I have more male friends than female), so he doesn't go hang out with the boys like that, and I don't go hang out with the girls, (unless you count taking the 2 mom's out for lunch). Neither one of us smoke, and we're both diabetic, so we really can't drink much at all either, which is a DAMNED SHAME because I'd make one HELL of an awesome alcoholic if I put my mind to it. As annoying as diabetes is, just the thought that there was ONE MAN in this whole stupid town who isn't like all those other blue collar, redneck, sports-nut partier types, made me very glad. I gave Pete's hand a squeeze and a big smile. Loves me dat man.
Before the encore came on, Pete and I were so disgusted by all the smokers blowing their nastiness in our direction (it's an outdoor pavilion so of course, the whole world is their ashtray don'tchaknow), we finally just said, "Screw this," and left.
So, what we SAW of Styx was pretty good, when we weren't interrupted so much.
Here is a snippet of a video for you...
And as we walked around to the rib fest, the Heinz Stadium field area was open, so I had Pete take some pictures....(yes, this is me, wearing YOU on my chest...God Bless You Sir...I love having you on my bosom!!) ROWR. *wink* And, yes, I still felt rather crappy, but I tried not to show it....
I'd like to block out the black screen and make it say, "STEVE PERRY KICKS THE STEELERS ASSES!" Boy, if I did that for real, I'd be lynched. Pittsburgh people are fanatics about their sports teams. I'd be tarred, feathered, and THEN lynched.
So, anyway, that was my concert experience at Styx last night. What a thrill. Shoulda stayed home in bed. Damned bunch of socially inept heathens.
Well, I hope I made you chuckle at my CURMUDGEON-like charm. I'm really NOT as mean as I sound...I mean, just LOOK AT THAT FACE!!! What a mild-mannered, mousy chick I am!!! Come on, you love me....admit it....I'm really more fierce on the computer keyboard than anywhere else. I can slice a person clean through with my words if I want to, and watch 'em bleed. But, face to face?? Nah. I'm too damned NICE for my own good, actually. I tend to THINK a lot of these foul things, but I don't necessarily DO them. Usually I am submissively sitting back and letting Pete do all the talking. But, hey, it's fun to be a badass sometimes, even if it's just on a computer screen.
Okay, well, I am still not feeling well, so I'm going to lay down. Enjoy your 3 day weekend....aw hell, who am I kiddin'?! You're RETIRED....so EVERY day is a 3 day weekend....sheesh....sometimes I forget....but anyway, enjoy the weekend and I'll write again soon.
Love you with a red hot fiery passion unbridled,
Rebecca
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