2 Concerts, 3 Days

I know everyone has hardly been able to hide the anticipation for finding out how my concerts were. Garth Brooks was AMAZING. I had so much fun!! The Sprint Center was packed. We didn't have the greatest seats in the world, but we were in the same building as Garth Brooks and that is all that matters. His concert would definitely have to be on the best times in my life. Any of you that have been to a Garth Brooks show knows he puts on a great show. He did have a pretty simple set up, but he is undoubtable one of the best entertainers I know. He started off with The Fever. Trisha Yearwood opened for him, but we missed most of that because I had practice and the boys had a test, so we got inside just as she went on stage. (I went with 2 other ga athletic trainrs Matt & Shane and one of the equipment managers Borts.) She sounded great though. He sang for about 45 minutes to an hour, then left the stage. He came back for encore #1 and opened with Ain't Goin' Down 'Til the Sun Comes Up. Of course we also go to hear the 3rd verse to Friends in Low Places, always a Garth must. It was his ultimate hits concert, so if it is a hit, he sang it. Of course Garth & Trisha sang In Another's Eyes and Garth played the guitar while Trisha sang Walkaway Joe. Then for the 2nd encore Garth came out with just his guitar. He played and sang all kinds of different songs starting way back in the good ol' days to present day. I am not sure which part of the show I liked better. He sang Merle Haggard, Simon & Garfunkel, Bob Seiger, James Taylor, Don McLean, George Strait--one of my favorites, Amarillo by Morning, and his fiddle player came out for this one...it was incredible, a little Billy Joel's Piano Man thrown in and then he closed with American Pie. His first concert ever was at the Kansas City Opry and that night he closed with American Pie, so he only thought it was fitting to close with it again that night. I was on cloud nine the whole night and not really sure if I have actually come off of it yet. I've posted a slideshow below. They do no justice for the show though. Thursday none of us had our true voices. We sang so loud the entire time that we all became hoarse. Definitely worth every bit of it! I was finally getting over my cold, but singing all that time didn't help, so I am on round 2 which is much worse than round 1 of the cold.

Friday night Matt & I went to see Jack Ingram & Dierks Bentley at the Hearnes Center. The nice thing about working for the athletic department is that if they don't sell out of shows, we can get comp tickets. Our seats were in about the same place relative to the stage at the Garth concert, only TONS closer. Of course the crowd wasn't near as big or fun, but we had a good time. It was a good concert and any time I can hear live Texas Country music...you know I am there! I think I would have enjoyed it more if I would have seen this concert first then the Garth Brooks concert, because the two just don't compare. Garth definitely has the upper hand and in my opinion always will.

I guess I should throw in a volleyball update as well. We are down to our last 4 games of the regular season. Saturday we played in Lubbock and swept Tech 30-28, 30-26, 30-26. This definitely wasn't one of greatest matches, but a win is a win and that is all that matters. We host Iowa State on Wednesday, go to A&M on Saturday, go to OU next Wednesday and finish up with Colorado at home next Saturday. We are all alone in 6th place right now in conference and have a good shot of making the NCAA tournament. I had a great time of hanging out with my parents and enjoyed seeing Pam & Robert as well. Robert is getting so big and turning into a little man. Dad, Mom & I ate lunch at Abuelos and it was wonderful. We sat in the bar area so we could watch the Mizzou football game and I am very proud of the fact that they are now ranked #5 in the nation with a 9-1 record. Hopefully we get to avenge that loss to Oklahoma in December, but must first beat K-State & Kansas. After Abuelos we stopped by Chicken Express for some sweet tea & by Rosa's to get sopapillas and chips and salsa. Apparently sopapillas aren't popular up here and several of the girls had them for the first time when I took them to the arena. I know, it's amazing I shared with them, but only a few bites. I can't wait until December when I get to come home and see everyone. Emily & Kyle are supposed to start painting their house the Sunday after Thanksgiving so the parents are coming up to help, so I will get to see them then. My Thanksgiving will be spent with my "Missouri" family, the Hairstons' & Shaufflers'. They have requested that I bring my Aunt Pat's corn so at least I will have a little touch of home at Thanksgiving.

GARTH BROOKS

Today started out horribly, but ended greatly. To make a long story short, I foudn out that Matt & Shane had tickets to the Garth concert tomorrow, had extra tickets, but never asked me to go. Apparently they thought they had, but LUCKILY they still had an extra ticket and I'M GETTING TO SEE GARTH BROOKS TOMORROW!!!!! This may have made my year. It's a "one time" concert in Kansas City. Well it started out as one concert, but turned into 9 concerts. He sold out 9 concerts in less than 2 hours....and I'm getting to go. How AMAZING is that? Ok so if you can't tell I am a little excited about this concert. Let me give you some background information. When I was in 3rd grade (I think) Shane Brooks, a kid my parents had in school in Breckenridge, was supposed to go to Abilene and sit and line and get us tickets to see Garth Brooks. Well something happened and he didn't end up going and I was DEVESTATED. Ironically, Shane ended up going to Nashville for a while and had a short career. He produced a song that was even on CMT at one time, but was under the name Shane Stockton. He also wrote one of the songs on Garth Brooks' The Lost Sessions CD, it's titled My Baby No Esta Aqui. Now this isn't one of his most popular songs, but look on the papers inside the CD--Shane Brooks is a writer of the song. Well anyways, I am still not completely over not getting to see him as a 3rd grader. Then we move to Tulia and I am in JH and Garth comes to Amarillo. Richard & Becky had tickets and had a few extras and Kristi invites Emily to go with them, but they don't have enough tickets for me to go. Needless to say, I was CRUSHED. Emily gets home that night and says, "You should have gone, they were selling tickets at the gate." I was not a happy camper and to top it all off she tells me they were right by the stage (more in the back but that is irrelevant) and she touched Garth. I am still a little bitter about this. So that's strike number 2 of not getting to see Garth. Then I hear on the radio one morning on my way to work that Garth Brooks is going to do a one time show in Kansas City, but it's on November 14th. So I get excited, first thing I do when I get to work is check the calendar...dang it, of course it's a Wednesday and I have a home volleyball match--there's no getting out of this and it's televised. So I don't even try to get tickets, then I find out they have opened 9 shows, but all sold out in less than 2 hours. So I am thinking...3rd chance down the drain. But Shane & Matt LOVE me and are letting me tag along tomorrow night. So my day has been GREAT since. THANKFULLY, we don't have a volleyball game tomorrow night, it just happens to be our off week. I know I was griping earlier about not having a Saturday off, but having a Wednesday off worked GREAT. I can't wait to tell you about my night!

Anyways, enough about Garth. I am pretty sure I get to go to the Jack Ingram & Dierks Bentley concert on Friday. They will be at the Hearnes Center and since it isn't a sell-out crowd, athletic staff gets complimentary tickets. Should be a good time, but definitely won't hold a candle to Garth.

As for volleyball, the season is winding down. We have 5+ games left. These are 5 very important games. So for the update. Thankfully, our being swept in 3 games has come to an end, and playing 5 game matches has become a trend. We will start where we left off. We traveled to Kansas to play what is one of our biggest rivalry games. Luckily we held them off in 5 in one of the longest matches in Mizzou history. Scores were 30-32, 30-22, 33-31, 26-30, 15-12. This was a big win, and helps us with the overal Border Rivalry that we have with them. On Halloween we traveled to Nebraska to play the #2 Huskers (they dropped after losing to Texas). It was a night full of eerie happenings with Jekyl & Hyde being present. We ended up losing in 5, after a crazy night of scores being 30-19, 32-34, 30-11, 24-30, 15-10. Although it was the first time a Big XII team has beaten Nebraska on their home court since 2005 when Missouri took them to 5 as well. It was definitely an exciting night despite losing and really helped our tournament chances. Friday we hosted Baylor and won in 5 again, 30-21, 25-30, 29-31, 30-22, 15-13. Then we got 3 days off, which was AMAZING. We don't play again until Saturday at Tech, so our coaches decided a few days off would be nice. I am very excited to go to Lubbock on Saturday, as I get to eat at Rosa's :) (Abuelos or Cagles would be amazing, but I don't have that much time) and get some Chicken Express sweet tea. Oh the simple things in life really are the greatest. I wish I was going to be home Friday night for the annual post-game chili supper at my parent's house, but will be very glad to see them on Saturday. Pam & Robert are coming to see me as well, which I am super excited about because I haven't seen them since July. From the pictures I get I can tell he has grown so much. Other exciting news is that the Sunray girls advanced to state in cross country and will be running on Saturday in Round Rock. I really wish I was going to be there to cheer them on, but they know my thoughts are with them.

Well I guess that's all I have for now. Christmas is right around the corner and I can't wait to be home for a few weeks. I will be spending Thanksgiving here because we have a volleyball game on the Wednesday before and the Saturday after, but no fears, my adopted Missouri family has already offered me a place at their table---I wonder if they do it buffet style...if so, no worries Ashton & Seth...I'll go first! :)