Mission Accomplished With the Best of All

Beginning in Spring, Wifey and I set out upon a pleasant and easy mission (except for the cost):  seeing some great shows before the artists, or we, became unable to attend.  First was Hall and Oats and Tears for Fears at the AAA -- which became a forever memorable night when Mike, Loni, Wifey, and I all won wet T shirt contests.

Next was U2 at Joe Robbie, which we did in limo style, with Deb and Norm bringing gourmet apps for our trip to Miami Gardens.  The last of the shows was Sir Paul McCartney, in Miami at the AAA to kick off the final leg of what may be his final tour.  Dude is 74, for Beatles's sakes...

I bought 4 tickets, and figured a few friends would want to join, but then D1 got word of this and told us her man Joey grew UP on Beatles music in Colombia -- they wanted in.  They got priority.

So last night we reconvened at Toro Toro in the Intercontinental, a few blocks from the AAA.  Mike was a last minute addition -- he scored two tix from our law school buddy Peter, and his girl Amanda, in from LA, got the invite.  An old friend of mine, Ian, is assistant manager at the place, and we met there.  It's a headquarter site for MLB's All Star game, and the place was packed -- plus TONS of security.

Wifey and I took a seat and Ian greeted us.  He was an original bartender at Trulucks, and has moved his way up the hospitality ladder -- first at Michael's Genuine, and now this big job.  The evening started out with a tad of tensosity, to use my friend Alan's neologism.  In a chair next to the bar a black backpack sat alone, and soon 15 cops were surrounding it, trying to remain nonchalant but making me think we were about to make the news from some idiot's political message against the National Past time.  No -- false alarm -- someone came by to claim it -- it contained a huge chocolate covered pretzel that was a party favor for one of the All Star events.

So we ate a bit -- Joey and I had a few martinis, Mike his Pisco sours, and Amanda and D1 some girlie drinks, and then we left for the nice walk to the AAA.

Sir Paul came on and blew us away.  He played a full three hours -- Wifey heard her favorite song, Maybe I'm Amazed, which she has been telling me for 34 years was the song every girl wanted written about her...D1 loved "Let it Be" which was a childhood borrow from Sesame Street -- they made the song "Letter B."  The hits just came on and on and on -- we swayed together to "Hey Jude" at Joey's initiation.

He and D1 left before the final song -- "Carry That Weight/Golden Slumbers/The End," which was the perfect finale to Sir Paul's opus night.  We all left singing.

But the night was not over yet!  D2 and her man Jonathan were due in around 10, from LGA.  We're treating them to a few nights at SoHo House on the Beach, for Jonathan's birthday, and also to celebrate a new job he just took.  Well, D2 has comically bad luck when it comes to flying -- it seems miraculous when she has a routine, on time flight.  Last night was typical.

They boarded at LGA, and the crew realized the pilot wasn't there she was stuck in traffic.  By the time she joined the crew, the weather had crapped out, and they left 2.5 hours late.  So she arrived around 12:30 am, and Dadber was able to pick her up.  We greeted Jonathan at MIA -- he was Ubering to Aventura and a night with his family.  D2 came home and was smothered by dog love -- her little man Bo, Mads, and Vienna greeted her excitedly.

As I write, she's sleeping in, though has to get up soon for an eye doc appointment -- she keeps her docs Miami based, even though there are, I hear, a few decent practitioners in the Big Apple.  I encourage this -- the 305 is her home -- this NY thing just an extended great experience -- one I wished I had at her age.

So the '17 music project is over, for now.  I see that Guns N Roses is playing later this month at Marlins Park -- nah -- had enough for now.

After seeing the man from Liverpool, who, with his three buddies wrote the soundtrack of much of my life -- I'm satisfied for now.