Experience & Innocence
I know what you’re thinking, that’s not how either of those words should be spelled. But I do so as a measure of respect to one of my favorite bands. In a bit of deja vu, I saw U2 for the third time tonight but this time at Madison Square Garden. And like the previous two occasions, I enjoyed every minute of my night. But it almost didn’t happen.
The story begins in June 1st. It was a slow Friday afternoon at work. Half the room was at a meeting with the rest of us holding down the fort. I happened to be on my 2p.m. break and come across Royal Caribbean’s social media page. It was a contest, with the prize being a VIP experience to a concert at MSG. I just had to guess the song from the visual puzzle. I knew it almost immediately, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” but my brain was faster to get it than I could type it. By the time I answered, I was the fourth one to get it and the rule was that only the first three answers would win. I submitted my answer knowing that I’d wouldn’t be picked. Or so I thought…
The day of June 5th is one for the lowlights reel. I was on the phone with a particular donor who we’ll call, S. I could sense the entitlement on my side of the phone. All she heard was me being negative, when I was trying to be realistic. This sounded like one that would jump at the chance to give me the nth degree should anything go wrong. I came out and said it “Better that I tell you this now then take my head off for it later”. Problem is, everyone else in the office heard me say that and I had to turn it around quick and I was able to salvage the donation. But not before the damage was done and the inevitable write up that followed my tears in the conference room after the conversation ended. I felt so low that I spent the rest of the day walking on eggshells. At 3p.m.that same day, my friend Kiki emailed me to say that I was one of the winners of the contest and won tickets to the U2 concert on 6/25. My day brightened up considerably but I had one detail to sort out first. The next day, I was able to put in my PTO request and it was approved. I emailed Kiki back with my mailing address. At the end of a terrible, no good, very bad week, a FedEx envelope arrived with the ticket and I smiled. I had to explain to my mother that Kiki and I call each other by our nicknames as no one by the name Ozzie Perez lives at my address.
But before the concert, I had a special assignment to complete. One of our major donors of housewares had a big donation for us. It just needed to be packed up prior to it being picked up on Wednesday. So there I was at 41 Madison Avenue helping pack the boxes. It myself, my colleague and a volunteer to pack up 68 boxes of dishware but we got the job done with an hour to spare. It was such a nice summer day to spend in Madison Square Park and that’s what I did before having an early dinner and a beer at the foodie heaven known as Eataly. I would make my way uptown to MSG and at 6:30p.m., the doors to the arena opened. I would make up to section 308 and saw the swanky set up in our lounge for the night. The day got that much better when I saw my friend Kiki arrive.
Around 8:30p.m., the lights went out and the 1-2 punch of “It’s a Beautiful World” from Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds and “Rain” from the Blade Runner 2049 soundtrack marked the band’s arrival. The opening salvo of Love Is All We Have Left, The Blackout and Lights of Home come from their 2017 album “Songs of Experience”. I didn’t get going until the next four songs with “I Will Follow” , “Beautiful Day” , “All Because of You” and “The Ocean”. Once I was locked in, I couldn’t stop singing along the rest of the night. The rest of the set was a mix of songs from the recent album and classics from their previous works, culminating in an emotional rendition of “Pride (In the Name of Love)” . The emotions ramped up again in the encore with “One” , “Love is Bigger than Anything In It’s Way” and 13 (There is A Light), with the stage fading to black at the end of the song.
A riveting 2 1/2 hours came to an end around 11pm. I was exhausted and elated. I couldn’t thank Kiki and her colleagues enough for the moment tonight. It was a long days journey into night and it was nice to have a change in the routine. Tonight will live in my memories as it brought down the curtain on an already eventful first half of 2018.
But this year is half over. There’s still a lot to come between now and NYE. And I’m only getting started, excited as to what will be!
