Mat Kearney!

Last week was a crazy week! My Mom and Aunt left on Thursday and we never ended up getting tattoos. Instead we did pedicures. My Mom has had one pedicure in her life and my Aunt...NONE! First of all, what?! Pedicure's are like my best friend. Secondly, they acted like had been living in a cave their entire lives and then one day, they finally see sunlight. It was an eye-opening experience for them!

Thursday night, I went to House of Blues first for dinner, then the show with one of my old co-workers and one of my best friends. Now, I've only ever seen with my own eyes about four ridiculously hot guys in my life...and our server was one of them. How do people get THAT good looking?! And it wasn't the beer goggles talking. I had only taken like two sips from my margarita at this point. Speaking of those margaritas...they were good. No...they were phenomenal. If you're ever feeling a little bit bummed, you need to get yourself a seat at Phil's table at HOB and order that margarita. It's a quick pick-me-up. It's been too long and my memory is lacking, so forgive me, I do not know the name of that specific drink, but I assure you Phil does. In addition, it comes in a MASON JAR (and you get to keep the jar)! I tell ya what, you can drink water out of a mason jar, and it'll be fun. When I turn into a responsible adult and live on my own, I'm not buying glassware...I'm buying mason jars. 

So we got a skip the line pass with our dinner and walked right in to the concert part of HOB. HOB is one of my most favorite venues I've ever been to. It's the perfect size and it's very easy to get close to the stage. The only downside is the drinks are super expensive. You'd do your wallet a favor by showing up buzzed. And typically they do bag and pocket checks at the entrance, but I guess because the majority of people attending this concert were 16 years old (and their 50 year old parents), they deemed it unnecessary. If we were smart, we would have thought about that prior and brought some mini drinks in our purses. 

As the show started, I felt almost invincible. If I really wanted to, I bet I could have shoved my way to the front of the stage. It was all teenagers. They see a chubby girl with a large beer in her hand, they're not gonna mess with me. Especially for the opening acts. Mat Kearney was only opening. Owl City is who all those teeny boppers wanted to see. 

Mat played 9 amazing songs. If you don't know his music, I strongly encourage listening. He has a new album coming out in August, but his older stuff is fantastic. I discovered Mat about 2 years ago, about the same time I discovered Pandora (late bloomer, I know). I was really into Josh Radin, and his genre of music, so I kind of stumbled on Mat, but immediately fell in love. He came to Orlando about a year ago with another of my favorites, Ingrid Michaelson, but I missed it, mostly because I had no friends...haha! So I was crazy happy when I found out he was coming back. Here's his set list...

Fire and Rain

Nothing to Lose

Undeniable

Breathe In, Breathe Out

Closer to Love

Here We Go

Runaway Car**
All I need

Hey Mama

**get ready for excitement! Mid song, Mat hopped down off the stage and walked through the crowd. We had perfect spots and he walked right in front of us! Of course, I wasn't about to miss my chance to touch him, so I wrapped my entire left arm around his body and squeezed. I felt like a teenager. I could not stop smiling.

After the show, we walked around the side of the building by the fence to see if any of the acts were still there. I was mostly looking for Mat to tell him I was in love with him, etc. I found a security guard and asked him if Mat was still around, to which he told me, "no, he went back to the hotel." Aww well. So my friend and I left. BUT guess who stayed behind?! My coworker friend! And guess who showed up about 15 minutes after we went home? Yep! Mat Kearney! Guess who took his picture with him?! Yep! My friend! Guess who was jealous?! This gal! Guess who cried a little upset tear on her drive home?! Yep! This gal! Good news is Mat is coming back to Orlando for Red, Hot & Boom. So I'm going to try and get my second chance. Lesson learned from this: Do not trust the dummy security guards at House of Blues!