night. of. my. life......an evening with Pearl Jam.

i've finally managed to get all my pictures uploaded so i can post about one of the greatest nights of my life.....

the Pearl Jam concert.

it was, in a word, awesome.

i don't even know where to begin.....

i was so excited.

i was almost nervous about going because i didn't know what to expect and i was anticipating something so amazing i didn't want to be disappointed.

i was not.

 it was awesome!

i was also nervous about leaving my beautiful boy for so long, but knew he was going to be in the best hands possible.

my dad's.

i knew he would be safe with papa.

my dad drove connor and i up to chicago to meet my brother and his wife at the hotel they booked for the night.

(i'll briefly mention the awful traffic jam we got stuck in.....only traveling 5 miles in 1 hour....talk about anxiety) 

but finally we arrived at the hotel......and it was quite fancy!

 i think connor felt perfectly fine staying here and lounging with my dad...

  quick suppository before mommy had to leave...

then my brother pulled out the tickets.

 i need to say again how extremely grateful i am to my brother for taking me with him.

i really thought i might never get a chance to go to a Pearl Jam concert, and he made this dream come true for me, and at the perfect place---Wrigley Field!

i love my brother.

i was reaaalllly excited at this moment.

the shirt my brother is wearing was a Christmas present from me.

he actually got several comments on it throughout the night:)

 and i told him he doesn't need to give me another gift as long as i live, this concert is enough.

it was time to leave for the concert.......

(i'm beyond excited at this point)

but....

i was sad and nervous and anxious about leaving my sweet boy.

one last kiss and suction from mommy before we leave...

<3

we rode the subway/El to Wrigley Field, which i found to be quite fun.

except i realized something whilst riding the train......people in Chicago aren't really receptive to smiles. 

(at least people on the El)

i would smile when i made eye contact with someone, and received several not so friendly looks back.

maybe i just looked goofy from the euphoria of my excitement and creeped them out.

anyway,

finally we arrived at the concert venue.

some kind folks took our picture, after we took theirs.

did i mention i was really excited??

we worked our way through the crowd....

and entered into the stadium.

it was an awesome sight.

we had pretty great seats, right on the field.

really close to the stage.

took a minute to take it all in.......

we found our seats.

 the seat next to ours had an inspiring message on it.

my anticipation is now growing by the second.
the two things i kept repeating over and over to my brother all night were, "I'm SO excited!!" and "I hope Connor is ok..."



they were supposed to start the concert at 7:30......but 7:30 came.
and went.
we were keeping a weary eye on the clouds.....there was a chance of severe storms for basically the time period of the concert:(

it was HOT.
and HUMID.
but i really didn't even notice, i was just too excited to be there.

finally, at 8:30......
Eddie took the stage.

wahooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

to hear his voice, live, was amazing.
he could've just talked into the microphone the whole night and i would've been happy:)

and then he started singing.

 they opened with 'Release'.

there aren't enough adjectives to describe how awesome it is to hear Pearl Jam live.
in person.
60 yards away.
pure awesomeness.

they played about 7 songs i think before the weather started getting sketchy....

Eddie announced to everyone that there was reports of severe weather headed right at us, and that if we would just hang on and 'ride it out together', he promised to play way past curfew, until they kicked us out.

sadly, he didn't mean 'ride it out together' in the literal sense.
i was all ready to go hang out with the band, wait for the storms to pass.
sing along, maybe?
;)




so they started putting tarps over everything and evacuated the field.

so forest and i got kicked out of our seats and herded back to the stadium area to wait it out with thousands of other PJ fans.

i think it's pretty safe to say we were the most sober of the bunch:)

there were definitely some.....interesting people to observe.

and then we sat.
and waited for the rain to come.
and it came.
and stayed for a while.
luckily, i brought handy dandy ponchos for us....
so we stayed dry.

this was our view for about 3 hours while we waited for several storm cells to pass through.

now during this 3 hour waiting period, as you might guess, i started to slightly panic about the fact that i was sitting here.
waiting.
and my beautiful boy was not with me.
!!!!!
BUT,
he did fine with Papa at the hotel.
and i only called about 20 times during those 3 hours.
so i think i managed it well.
:)


finally, at about midnight, they gave the green light to go ahead with the concert.
(note: the clock says about 15 til 12:00)

by the time everyone got back in their seats, it was a new day!
luckily, this rain delay allowed for the line to buy merchandise to be cleared out completely.
so when they unlatched the gates and let us out of the stands, i ran to the tent to buy t-shirts while forest went to our seats.

i managed to be like 5th in line and got the shirts we both wanted.
woohoo!
although the shirt says July 19th.....it really should say July 19/20.
:)

and the bag was a bonus, free!

when they came back out to play after the delay, Eddie mentioned how someone told him he needed some wardrobe changes after seeing a Beyonce concert....

so he put on a Cubs jersey and sang 'All the Way'.

 then famous Cubs player Ernie Banks came out and joined him.

 that's when Eddie said they were going to 'play until 2'.


after that, they came out and played with such energy, it was amazing.

when they played 'Do the Evolution' and 'Corduroy', it was awesome.
indescribable. 

he even came out with his accordion and played a rendition of 'Bugs'.

 awesome.

my dad told me before the concert that if they played 'Wish List' (his favorite PJ song) to call him so he could listen...
so i did:)


they played 3 of their songs from their new album.
'Future Days' is going to be another favorite of mine, i can tell already.
 can't wait for it to come out in October.

with 2:00 fast approaching, i was getting worried they weren't going to play the song i really wanted to hear....
'Black'
but it was the 2nd to last song they played.
and my camera had just enough battery power left to record it.
Pearl Jam "Black".......LIVE......pure awesomeness. - YouTube

and it really did complete my night.
i had to keep reminding myself the whole time i was there, that i was really there! 
it didn't even seem real.
it really was a dream come true for me.
and it was better than i ever could have imagined it to be.

the only problem now is that i want to go again and again and again!
i'm so so grateful that my brother took me with him.
he has no idea how much it meant to me.

it was a crazy, exciting, long, exhilarating, adrenaline-filled, AWESOME night.
seriously the night of my life.
i will never forget how i felt and how much fun i had.
here is the set list so i don't forget:

"Release"
"Nothingman"
"Present Tense"
"Hold On"
"Low Light"
"Come Back"
"Elderly Woman Behind The Counter In A Small Town"
"All The Way"
"All Night'"
"Do The Evolution"
"Setting Forth"
"Corduroy"
"Faithful"
"Mind Your Manners"
"Lightning Bolt"
"State Of Love And Trust"
"Wishlist"
"Evenflow"
 "Leatherman"
 "Present Tense"
 "Eruption" 
"Bugs"
 "Why Go"
 "Unthought Known"
 "Rearviewmirror"
"Future Days" w/Brendan O'Brien
"Mother"
"Chloe Dancer"
"Crown Of Thorns"
"Porch"
"Wasted Reprise"
"Life Wasted"
"Black"
"Rocking In The Free World"

  pure awesomeness.