Part II: Me and Wynton

As you can see from the series of pictures included throughout the next two blog entries, I'm VERY excited about meeting Wynton!

Here is the story in full...

When Mom and I saw that Wynton Marsalis would be performing here the evening before my birthday, she suggested that we get tickets.  My hesitation is never that I don't want to go, but that I never know how I am going to feel. I took the plunge, as I did with the Itzhak Perlman concert, and bought tickets anyways.  I knew I'd get there somehow for the event.

One of the reasons my blogs have been so few and far between as of late is that I've been going from one medication change to another--either for Lyme for ANS issues. Plus, if I get the chance to squeeze in fun stuff there isn't usually energy left to blog about it!

Before my birthday I started a new medication (that I had tried many years ago) to help with sleep, ANS agitation, anxiety, etc. Long story short, I ended up spending almost two weeks with plummeting blood pressure at night (meaning up sick and no sleep) and feeling extra miserable during the day. 

Three days before my birthday I emailed Dr. ANS to let him know what was going on and he adjusted another medication that also lowers blood pressure (my beta-blocker). I made this medication change on Wednesday. 

The concert was on Thursday. At this point I had my doubts about making it to the concert at all, much less actually being able to enjoy it. 

But Dr. ANS is a master puzzle solver.  By Thursday I felt significantly better--a fast turn-around for me!

I dressed for the concert in brand-new clothes, my first fall non-sweatsuit clothes that I have worn in a long time. I even wore a pair of heels I hadn't worn in years. I was actually dressed to go out!

And so began my evening...

The day before the concert, my mom went to the auditorium to drop off my 'big bird chair' as I like to call it. It's a reclining zero-gravity chair. 

Lisa, the audiences services manager, met Mom there to set the chair up so that it would be there when we arrived the next night.  They had even built a platform for my chair--which made my view spectacular! Also the seats in front of me were blocked off so my view wouldn't be obstructed. Lisa, to say the least, spoils me.

My first interaction with Lisa occurred when I found out that Perlman would be performing.  I wanted desperately to go to the concert. My best friend, Carrie, who is a theatre manager encouraged me to call. Honestly, I was afraid to call and afraid of the response I would get upon my request for the type of accommodations I needed.

But then I met Lisa.  Lisa's encouragment, enthusiasm, acceptance and helpfulness have been overwhelming. 

When Mom dropped off the chair, Lisa told my mom she had a secret and my mom could NOT tell me. Now, secret-keeping is not my mom's specialty. Lisa told my mom what she had arranged to happen after the concert.

Both she and my dad (who is a very good secret keeper) kept me in the dark! I asked my Dad if he wanted me to call him after the concert and he said, "Yes, definitely." I said, "Are you sure? It might be past your bedtime." "No, no," he persisted, "call anytime. Call whenever you get done." I still did not suspect anything!  When I called him that night after the concert, he had been waiting up for my call. I do wish he could have seen the event too.  He takes great joy in my triumphs.

I spent the entire night completely clueless as to what was to come.

The concert was remarkable. I marveled that I had been able to feel well throughout the entire concert, free of neck pain and brain fog. Live jazz is spectacular, and oh how I've missed it.

In high school, when I played in jazz band and Wynton was breaking out onto the jazz scene as the hot new young talent, he visited our high school to give a master class. He had recently been on the cover of Time magazine and I got his autograph. Later Mom and I went to see him perform (at the same auditorium we were at this night--I have many happy memories of this place!) also with the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra. I look back now and remember that I had a math test to study for that school night. We left at intermission so that I could go home and study! Oh good grief! If only I knew then what I do now?!

Lisa always welcomes us to a concert, checking to make sure that we have everything we need, then checks back at intermission or after the show. 

When she arrived after the show to ask how we enjoyed the performance, I said "It was great, but I really have to pee!" and went to use the 'secret potty' in the tech room. She said, "Go ahead, I'll be here waiting for you when you get back."

I assumed the staff were waiting to help us carry the chair and such out to the car. Oh, how wrong I was!

Lisa said, "Come this way." We headed down a bunch of stairs (going down is no problem for me--it's the going up part that doesn't go very well!) to the entrance back stage. 

While waiting there, Lisa had a host of folks who had attended the concert sing Happy Birthday to me. Usually, I don't get embarrassed by that sort of attention, but I was so surprised and overwhelmed!  

One woman said, "How old are you going to be?" I said, "33" (not so happily). She said, "Oh 33 is my favorite number! This is going to be a great year!"

I admit that until I was more than halfway down the steps to the front of the auditorium, I had NO idea what Lisa had up her sleeve. I suspected nothing. And Mom had done an amazing job of keeping the secret. 

As we went down the stairs, I started to realize maybe I was going to meet Wynton! I thought, however, that it would be a quick happy birthday, nice to meet you, shake my hand, sign my program and that would be that.

After a short wait outside the backstage room, we (me, Mom, and our neighbor Barbara) were escorted to the backstage area.  Lisa had a chair set up for me to sit in and wait and got a fresh program to have autographed. 

We waited for quite a while, as Wynton 'warmed down' on the piano in the practice room next door. The photographers were there and a few members of the 'Jazz Train' who would go up to the reception afterwards. I felt like a princess.

. . . Part III to arrive in your inbox next! :)