My Mraz concert experience :)

Wow, so it's been kind of a looooong time since I've written here! Forgive me if I ramble, but I intend on including every detail! (No matter how ridiculous!) First I'd just like to say that I'm unbelievably grateful that I made it through the entire show. I didn't have to leave early, or move back to lawn seats due to noise. And I was relatively pain free for most of the show! Thank heavens for pain killers! Let me explain. I found out I needed sinus surgery and they wanted to do it as soon as possible because of the amount of pain it's causing me. But recovery time would have meant I would miss Mraz, so I told them hell no, give me pain killers I'm NOT missing this! So it's scheduled for October 5th. Once we found this out, my mother wrote a letter to all the contacts on Mraz's website to try and see if he would give me a shout-out, or if we could say a quick hello. It included the story of how I wouldn't go to the ER after coughing up blood until I pre-ordered LIAFLW so it would be signed. It's a pretty cute letter, and I love my mom for trying hard to surprise me. Obviously we never heard back. Lol. But I give her an A for effort! Days before the show we had discussed what we would do if I couldn't make it through the show. We would try lawn seats, and if that didn't work my mom and I would go out to the parking lot to listen while my brother and cousin stayed inside. I almost had to go in for surgery and miss it completely because the pain got so bad I couldn't move. But thankfully I caught a break on concert day and made it!! And it was worth all the hell I've been putting up with all month! Especially considering I saved all of my money for the past year for these tickets. The tour dates were announced the day of my last surgery, so when they went on sale I went to the Wal-Mart ticketmaster store all doped up on pain meds, in my pajama's, on a motor scooter cart to get the damn tickets! So I knew there was no waaaay I was missing it! So we were all getting ready and I asked my brother if he wanted to borrow my fedora, expecting a big fat "Are you crazy?" But he said yes and thank you and wore it all night! I was the proudest big sister EVER! So we were cranking my big stack of Mraz CD's in the car and my brother, mom and I were totally rocking out and getting all giddy discussing what we would love him to play the most. We picked up my cousin, and her and I started gushing over the last time we saw him (3 YEARS AGO!) and I was so excited and happy I was literally holding back tears the entire time. Silly, I know. So we're at the venue and I'm literally bouncing in line. I look to my cousin and say "We're in the same town as JASON MRAZ!" So of course she laughs at me and calls me crazy. They start letting people in and my heart is racing! And then, WE'RE IN! Again, I'm almost in tears. But those start to subside when we get to the merch booth and serious decision making has to happen! ;) The whole time we're walking around, I'm humming, smiling like a fool, (probably appear a tad bit loony but I couldn't possibly care!) And I was hunting for one of my nurses who went, and the Chaplain from the hospital who was at the last Mraz concert I went to! Never did find them. We get to our seats and I am bouncing. AGAIN. And I'm just going on and on about how excited I am and I'm counting down the minutes and I'm even annoyed at myself just by typing this. Lol. Almost crying, again. And I hear a voice. "What's up Chicago!!!!" And I think to myself "That sounds like, Jason! Couldn't be. The big band never introduces the opening act." And before I know it he's on the stage. I'm still trying to figure out who it is. It takes the reaction of the crowd for me to get it. "HOLY CRAP IT'S JASON! HE'S RIGHT THERE! IT'S ACTUALLY HIM!" And I get kooky looks from my cousin and mom as if to say "DUH!" So he's introducing Christina Perri, in khaki shorts, fedora, and knee high tube socks, and he just starts doing the robot and before I know it, he's gone. Christina Perri comes out, thanks Jason and compliments his socks. She was pretty damn good! So she's gone, and I'm about ready to cry again because HOLY COW JASON MRAZ COMES OUT IN JUST 1 HOUR! They're setting up his stage, and time is surprisingly flying by. Before I know it, the lights are off, the crowd goes crazy, and I just lose my mind. Silently. I didn't scream, or cry, or anything. I just stood there quietly clapping like a stupid seal, with a smile that made my face ache. He comes out and says "LET'S MAKE SOME ILLI-NOISE!!!" I hear the horns, I look to my mom, and then he plays Everything Is Sound. The second my mom and I heard that song, we said, at the same time, "I hope he opens with this!" So we hug, and we're both almost brought to tears, but we're to excited and busy singing to actually cry. And from then on, I was gone. He played Won't You Be My Neighbor, which made me giggle. Before playing "This Is What Our Love Looks Like" he says "This one's for, Tina!" and I turn to my cousin and inform her "That's just code for, Dahlia". So I get another crazy looks. He played Plane and I was in a trance. That song is SO powerful and he puts EVERYTHING into it! During "You Did It" I was an absolute spaz. I was bouncing in my chair to the point where I have bruises on my legs, clapping, and singing EVERY word! My family didn't watch the show, they were watching me. They were impressed I knew all the words, but they're still giving me a hard time for the bouncing. Oh well! He started playing the guitar a little bit, and I look to my mom and say "If this is A Beautiful Mess, you better give me every tissue you have stashed in your purse" and right after that, he starts it. I immediately start sobbing, all until he messes up the words and then I get confused, he gets confused, and asks to go backwards, and thanks us for our forgiveness. Such a cool dude. I'm Yours came on and was of course deafening. He comes back out for All Dialed In and Distance, which was OUTSTANDING! And then, I Won't Give Up. I'm surprised I held it together for that one. And then it was over. I was singing the whole way out, despite my mom, brother and cousin mocking me for the loon I was during the show. It was the best night of my life. I still can't believe I was lucky enough to go, and make it through the entire show. I hope he doesn't stay away for another 3 years. But I almost feel that's what made this so special. So there it is. My incredibly long and detailed Mraz concert experience :)

The First Time I met Jason Mraz (cuz you know there will be more!)

We were supposed to mulch with him that morning but because of the rain and the cold air he cancelled. Luckily the radio station set up this sound check party.

We arrive to the venue and Jason is on stage doing sound check. We sit in the front row and he starts playing and talking. Looks at us and says sorry about the tree planting. He's like 'it cleared up about an hour later' a guy says 'that's Indiana for ya'. He said ‘oh really?’ And I said 'yeah just wait and it will change' and Jason says ' Oh I didn't get that memo' :-) lol So there were several times like that where we talked back and forth during the sound check. He played Be Honest, All Dialed In and Bella Luna! I'm really glad he played All Dialed In because he didn't play it at the show. So then he walks off stage.

The radio station informed us we were going in groups of 6 and that we couldn't use our own cameras. Claudia and I hung towards the back and were the last two in our group of 6. We were the 3rd group. Up until that point Jason had been shaking hands with everyone so I get up there and shane his hand (and in my head I’m thinking no way is he getting away with just a hug!) He says "Hi, I'm Jason" (duh) I said "Hi, I'm Jen, is it ok if I give you a hug?" He said "Of Course! So I hugged him and then looked him squarely in the eyes (swooon!) and very calmly and quietly handed him my 3 page letter and said 'I need you to take this. I don't want you to sign it, I just want you to have it' and he said, "sure no problem." And then he said "Rad! I love what you did with your shirt! (my blend shirt, I cut the collar off and tied it in the back) I said Thanks! I was trying to make it a little more girly" He laughed and said "maybe I should do that with mine" LOL

So then he saw Claudia and she gave him a hug and then he saw her shirt and said "OH! MrazWomen! Awesome!" I said yeah we're together, I mean in the same group. He looked at me and said ‘Have we met before?’ I said ‘no, but I'll I have meet n greet in San Jose’ He said "oh sweet, awesome" So then Claudia stands to his right and I was thinking " I am soooo standing next to him!” Luckily, Merritt (his violinist) was to his left and she said "Do you want to stand here?" I said "Oh! thanks!"



Then (I remember this very vividly!) I put my arm around the small of his back and he did the same to me, I put my head on his should and moved in close for our picture!!!!!!!!! After the picture I looked at him and said "Oh thanks for playing All Dialed In! It was awesome!" He said, "Yeah I don't know if it will make the set list, but...." I said "no it was great we still got to hear it!" I looked at Merritt, and said" Yeah it was awesome! Thank you!" Then we said bye and that was it..... Of course we ran into Michael Bram (his drummer) right after that and I got our pic with him too! Amazing Amazing experience.......then came the end of the show.....



So I had been wondering all night if he read my letter then at the end of the show, he was waving Hi to everyone and I'm waving my arms like I'm trying to flag down a rescue truck or something and he sees me! He points right at me and stops moving, tilts his head to the side and gives me a warm (aww so sweet) smile, blows a kiss and puts his hand on his heart....... I'm really hoping that means he read it but I'm totally asking him in San Jose!!!!! LOVE!!!!



I was really amazed I was so calm and talking clearly and not going ' OMG I LOVE YOU!' LOL It really was like talking to an old friend! I can’t wait to do it again in San Jose!!

And here was my letter:

Jason,

First, I wanted to tell you that I am so grateful to finally meet you! I have been waiting to meet you for years! I actually bought meet and greet passes for the San Jose show (so I’ll see you again in a couple of weeks!), but being able to spend a little bit of time with you doing something we are both passionate about really makes me happy.  I knew that I wouldn’t have a lot of time to talk to you and I have so much I want to say. So I thought I would just write it all down and let you read it when you have time. So, thank you for taking the time to read this and… here it goes…

I could sit here and say ‘Oh I’m your biggest fan, or you are so awesome’, and it would be true but the one thing I really want to say, out of everything else I could say, is THANK YOU! You and your music have always been a source of inspiration and healing for me. I always find myself turning to your music when I’m sad, confused or hurt and I always have a sense of clarity after I do. This was especially true 2.5 years ago when my Mom suddenly passed away from a massive stroke. She was only 56 years old. My Mom and I were very close. She always supported me, was there for me, and was the best grandma to my kids a Mom could ever ask for. After she passed, I was lost, hurt and angry. I just felt so cheated, like I just didn’t have enough time with her. I didn’t know how I was going to move on. One day, while driving home from work, I was so tired of listening to the daily shit on the radio that I just grabbed a CD from my case, without really looking and threw it in the player. ‘Sunshine Song’ started playing. I burst into tears! I cried and cried, but not because I was sad, because I was relieved. In that moment I knew that her light would always be there to shine on me when I needed it. I felt like a veil had been lifted from my heart and there was a light I hadn’t felt in a long time. A couple days later, I was looking through some old FF5000 blogs and found a blog that completely changed my outlook on life. You wrote about being grateful for the little things and that we truly have the power to make up how we see the world. We can make up that something sucks or make up that this it’s awesome. We have the power to shape our life. It is all perfect, even the heavy shit that happens to us, it was and is all perfect.  I saw the world in a whole new light after that. The things that used to annoy me, I found gratitude in and shortly after that I bought my first piece of Energy Muse jewelry, my Gratitude bracelet. It is there to remind me on a daily basis of all the things I am grateful for. I love it. So thank you for being there to shine a light when I needed it most.

Now, I’m not an only child. My sister was also very affected by the loss of our Mom. Because my Dad left when we were very young, my sister, my Mom and I had always been very close. To add to the pain of losing our Mom, about 8 months after she passed, my sister’s husband left her. My sister, Shannon, was a mess! She slipped into a deep depression and couldn’t stand staying in Indianapolis, in her house, any longer. So she decided she needed a new start in a place where she had fond memories of my Mom, in Boston. I was devastated. My sister and I are best friends and we’ve never lived more than an hour apart. I was really scared for her and for myself, so I decided that I would make her a gift. Through your music and Tricia’s affirmations I was able to come to terms with my Mom’s passing and knew that they could also help Shannon. I gave her what I called the ‘Hope, Love, and Gratitude Journey’ gift. I put about 40 of your songs (old, new, unreleased) on an mp3 player, made up about 30 note cards with affirmations and included a blank journal tablet. My instructions to her were to wonder this new city, take in the sites, visit places of inspiration and write down her hopes and dreams. Then she had to post them on her mirror to see every day. She had to do all this while listening to YOUR music. The next instruction was to sit in a place of solitude while listening to some of your deeper songs (When we die, Song for a Friend etc) and write down all the things that made her angry, sad, or hurt. She then had to burn those pages! Rid herself of that pain. The final instruction was to listen to some of your most inspirational songs and write down everything she is grateful for and tape it up on her wall so that she never forgets.  She now tells me repeatedly that this gift, your music, and Tricia’s words are what saved her. She had a renewed sense of hope; that she wasn’t ready to give up! She now has a great place on the water, a job she loves, and new man in her life. I cannot thank you enough for the inspiration to give her that gift. She, herself, has even passed on that gift to friends in need.

If fact, last week in Mansfield, MA my sister and I went to your show on the anniversary of her move.  We were the ones with the ‘Jason, Thank You for being our Ray of Sunshine’ sign. Of course, we cried during that song. In fact, so many of your songs trigger so many different memories and emotions when I hear them. They always seem to show up just when I need them. Like, ‘1000 Things’ for example. I’m sure that wasn’t written for a child. But whenever I hear it I am immediately taken back to when my beautiful children were born. Seeing their beautiful eyes for the first time was like nothing I had ever seen before! Or, one of the most profound times was on February 15, 2011, the 1 year anniversary of my Mom’s passing. I obviously was very sad that day and kind of lost and turned to YouTube for some distraction and I hear ‘When We Die’ for the first time. It was exactly what I needed at exactly the right time. And of course, hearing ‘Geek in the Pink’ always takes me back to the first time I ever heard your music. That song is what got me ‘hooked’  ;-) It’s such a fun song. I continually share your music with others, and they are always so pleasantly surprised and become huge fans themselves. I love seeing how you and your music have not only impacted me, but others as well. I want you to know that you mean so much to so many people and that at least for my sister and I, we are eternally grateful for you, your words, and your music.

In LoVE and Gratitude Always,