He's just so cute!

"What if this is just a dream? What if I wake up and we're really not going to his concert?"

We braved the bitter cold, wind chill below zero temps, but it was soooo worth it. Jesse was able to contain her excitement better than all of the young, hip college girls that we were sitting amongst. The majority of the crowd were Kent State University young women who were more than willing to voice their opinions of the "just so cute" Ryan Cabrera. I think I heard that phrase more than a few times even though he had the grunge look going on. It was such an intimate setting that he was interacting with the audience on a personal level. At one point, he was asked, "Will you marry me?" in which he responded, "You can stop stalking me now" in a joking manner of course. The request came from one of about 4 males in the whole audience. I think the guy was making fun of the fact that his girlfriend forced him to be in attendance. He also received a request to remove his funky knit hat. You know, the ones with the brim on them. You can only wear those kind if you're actually hip, which he is. He eventually did remove the hat, revealing very long, totally out of control locks. Screaming ensued.

The performance itself was very entertaining. He sang all of his hits that made it to the radio along with other crowd favorites. Jesse kept a tally of everything, even writing down (from memory) the number of each song as it appears on each of his two cd's. I had to help her out with "Call Me Al" by Paul Simon.

He did a totally awesome guitar jam (acousitc, which is quite impressive) in the middle of one of his songs. At one point he was talking about how people try to act so cool when really we are all just dorks inside this shell. "You can't tell me that you didn't cry when Zack and Kelly broke up (from Saved By the Bell, I'm 10 years older than the rest of the crowd but I'm a big enough dork to know what he was talking about because I used to watch the show as a young adult). And you know that when you're flipping through the channels and run across Full House that you pause for just a little bit longer than you should. I loved that show. Uncle Jesse was my inspiration. I used to watch it and think 'that's going to be me someday'. Uncle Jesse, this one's for you (laughing)".

I wish I had a picture of Ryan from the concert, but my daughter wouldn't let me break the rules. They announced a few times that anyone using flash photography or video would be escorted out of the building. Well, of course there were flashes here and there throughout the concert and a few people were sternly told to "put that away". On the last song I was planning on getting one quick snapshot of him, but my dear darling child said in no uncertain terms, "No you won't!" I guess I should be setting an example for her, but really the picture would have been for her anyways. Honestly. I wasn't thinking of my internet friends at all. ;)

So, here you have an ugly close-up of me. I should have asked one of the screaming girls to take it for me so my face didn't look like it was swallowing up the camera. Oh well. By the way, don't let the expression on Jesse's face fool you. She was just as excited as I was.