Casino Rama in Orillia, ON, Canada 5-19-05

[PinkCoatGirl]

Okay! I get to tell my (really rather long) story. My other Eagles experiences sort of tie in to this, so I'll just put in quickly that I had seen the Eagles twice before this show, in Scranton, Pennsylvania and here in Toronto, Ontario, just under two weeks later. At Scranton's show, well, we had the little exchange which you see in my signature... And I do believe we got on Joe's Helmet Cam, LOL. At Toronto, which I decided to go to at the very last minute because I found a 10th row seat (!!!), well, that got interesting. I am very, very loud at concerts, and on "You Belong To The City" (my favorite Glenn song), I let loose this...*shriek*. I did this in PA too, but in Toronto, Glenn actually looked over his shoulder and grinned at me and sorta shook his head. Oops. This was right at the end of the piano intro, right before the sax comes in.

Later in the show, the people behind me were giving me grief about standing up and dancing, so I did what a lot of people were doing and went out into the aisle, as I was only the 3rd seat in. This was right before the band intros, and during the band intros, Glenn randomly decided, and announced to the crowd, that he wanted a martini. *shrugs* LOL...not a clue. So I yelled, "I'll buy you one!!!", to which my whole section started laughing and yelling, and Glenn looked over at me again and laughed. I got on Helmet Cam for sure this time because I was messing with Joe, haha, and he sorta pointed me out to the others (why I don't know, I hope it wasn't "hey, look at the freak!"). Right after that song, though, security came up and told me to return to my seat. I'm not, unfortunately, known for keeping my mouth shut, so I was trying to argue them down and point out all the other people who were dancing in the aisles around the arena, but to no avail. I got kicked back to my seat, but I looked up and all 4 Eagles were looking right at me, talking amongst themselves, and glaring at security. They all shook their heads, and Tim and Glenn shot sympathetic looks at me, with a little "I'm sorry" shrug from Glenn. (There's more to this story but that's for another time. ) So the man's seen me quite clearly. (He also caught my "I love you Glenn!" at the end, mouthed "Thank you" and blew me a kiss. *sighs...*)

A little while later, Casino Rama rolls around, and I dragged my roomie up there so that I wouldn't have to go alone, because...Casino Rama is known for being an easy place to meet whatever band plays there. So I figured hey, what the heck, it's not close to me and I don't work all weekend after it, I'm gonna try and cruise the bars and find them. I've also heard rumors that you can go down to the front of the stage near the end of the show, no matter where you are in the audience. I was in 3rd row!!!!!!!!, so I figured I'd probably be safe anyway but double-checked with security before the show began. 2 different guards said it would be fine, as long as I waited until closer to the end. So I figured, okay, I'm good.

Now as I've mentioned, I'm *not quiet*, right? Right near the beginning of the show, all I did was cheer...but it's a loud high-pitched noise, lol, and Glenn looked over (probably thinking, Lady, please, don't make me go deaf!), looked *right at me*, and gave me the HUGEST, most *adorable* grin I've ever seen! I sorta did a little in-seat bow, haha, which was returned by a nod. So already, I'm completely on cloud 9.

When we get to "You Belong To The City", I was distracted by something or other...I think the dude behind me kicked my bag over (I had a bag with The Allnighter album on vinyl in it...just in case...) and I turned around to say it was alright. It gets to the little lull between piano intro and sax, and I was sort of just anticipating the song, I wasn't really in full 'oh my God I'm seeing my favorite song' mode. Then I look back up at the stage, and Glenn's looking me *directly in the eye*. He cocked his head to the side a bit and raised an eyebrow. I shrieked, he laughed, and the song began with him smiling away at me. Me?

Ever so smooth I am...my jaw was hanging open so much it was probably resting in my lap.

Later on, I notice people starting to go to the stage during "Heartache Tonight". During this song, I also happened to have my phone on, not recording the show or taking pictures, I don't have a camera, but because it's my friend's favorite Eagles song and she wanted to hear it, so I had called her. Probably not smart but I had the phone low near my waist so security wouldn't see anyway, and it really wasn't recording anything. I start to run to the stage and some security lady grabs me, pulls me back and says I'm not allowed to go. "Why?", I ask. "Because you're in the side row, not center. Only center is allowed." "You have got to be kidding me, those 2 guys over there said it was fine!" "No, it's not fine, you go back to your seat!" I can't believe, at this point, that this is happening *again*. Some other lady ran right past me from further over than I was in my section, during this, and I about lost it, so they said "Well, alright, you can stand by the side of the stage." In this dark little spot behind all the backing musicians. Awesome. :P So I went to stand there, still holding my open phone. Security grabs me again and tells me they're taking my phone away for taking pictures. I inform them what I'm doing, then tell my friend I have to go and shut my phone and walk away into my little spot. By this point, Glenn's noticed (okay, so it was a BIT of a commotion...) and he's just watching me, smiling. I just shrugged and smiled and kept dancing.

We go into the next song, and I'm dancing away, with more people behind me now. I had the plastic bag looped over my arm, and it was uncomfortable so I reached to adjust it. Security, apparently now my nemesis, decides that I'm trying to cause a nuisance with it and *grabbed my arm to pull me out.* I shook them off and said I was staying, which they let me do. I turned back and Glenn was doing a guitar solo, *laughing his cute little butt off* at me, then shook his head and said, not too loud but loud enough as I'm standing right next to the stage, "You have NO LUCK with security do you???" I yelled back, "No, I don't!!!" and shrugged, and he mouthed "Poor thing!!" before going back to the mic.

That? Made up for *everything*.

There is more, but that will be a Part 2 because this post is long enough....


~*She'll always be...the girl from yesterday...*~


My friend and I: "Nice coat Glenn!"
Joe Walsh, at next pause between songs: "Hey, nice coat, Glenn."
Glenn: "Thanks, thanks...yah, I picked this up at the..Liberace garage sale, glad you like it..."

[PinkCoatGirl]

How great that he was noticing you and giving you attention! What a thrill!

Gah...I kept going over it to make sure I wasn't leaving anything out, haha, so part 2 missed ya! Oh God, it really was such a thrill...haha, now you see why I said I wanted "Who's Been Sleeping In My Bed" and "I Hear You Knockin'"? Most of that crap with security...was taking place right around those songs, and although I still paid attention through most of them, I did miss a little bit, haha! And as well, that's when the absolute coolest part of the show experience began, was right there at the end. It was absolutely incredible.

I didn't really leave anything out of the story, but there *is* more to the first bit, with the security in Toronto and the Eagles seeing all of that...it's mostly Don-related, but I can definitely share...LOL, I volunteer the story at the drop of a hat because it's every bit as cool, so I definitely would not mind.

Glenn is absolutely wonderful to fans, as far as I can tell from my own experience and from reading yours...I really want to write to him now. I wish I'd done it then, as he might've known who I was...he likely wouldn't now but I will still probably write him. LOL, I should take a picture of me in the jacket I bought that looks like the one we teased him about, and be like, "See? I really didn't mean that in a bad way!"


~*She'll always be...the girl from yesterday...*~

My friend and I: "Nice coat Glenn!"
Joe Walsh, at next pause between songs: "Hey, nice coat, Glenn."
Glenn: "Thanks, thanks...yah, I picked this up at the..Liberace garage sale, glad you like it..."

[PinkCoatGirl]

The show ended with him smiling right at me while taking his bow at the end of "Desperado" (awesome...he bent down and then turned his head towards me...right then, I was thankful for my side-of-stageness!) and then walking off the stage.

The mission begins. I went outside and found my roommate, and we both went outside and looked around, to try and find the lay of the land. We'd never been there before, so we wanted to see how far we were from the hotel, because that's where the bar was that I assumed they'd be at. We went back to the bar we'd gone to earlier, though, for a few minutes, and were talking about it when the bartender says "Well, you know he's doing a meet-and-greet right? It's supposed to be VIP only, but you can tell them I sent you and they should let you in if it's still going on."

I've never chugged a drink so fast in my life (a Tequila Sunrise, by the way...yes that's cheesey, but I happen to love the drink anyway).

We went for the VIP counter, where the guy proceeded to look down my shirt and not answer any of my questions. He just kept saying there was no meet-and-greet, meanwhile, another lady who worked there was saying that there *was* but she was pretty sure it was over by then. I was completely confused and was just sort of standing there as my roomie tried to ask the guy about it too, and the lady made a phonecall. I didn't really pay attention to this, and started up again trying to ask the guy where it might be if it was still going on.

My roomie heard this, I didn't...and to this day I wish he'd told me sooner...but he thought I'd heard it and just gave up on it: The lady turned to us and said "Glenn's waiting for you out back, by the parking lot. Hurry, though." AAH! I so wish I had known this!!! So my roomie grabs my arm and sets off for the parking lot, meanwhile I'm asking him why we're not just trying the hotel bar, LOL... I slowed us up a lot because I had to go to the bathroom, and was looking for one when I should have been beating it as fast as my little legs could carry me to the parking lot!

We eventually made it to the parking lot, but there was nothing and no-one there. We went back inside, and the need to go to the bathroom was really all I could think about by this point (probably on account of chugging a Tequila Sunrise? ). We happened to be closest to the hotel anyhow, so we figured we'd kill 2 birds with one stone: I'd go to the bathroom, we'd check out that bar, if there's no-one there, we leave.

My bathroom mission is again interrupted by glancing into the bar on my way by and noticing *the entire backing band sitting at the bar.* Once I stopped standing behind a pillar and staring, my roomie threw me in the general direction of the bathroom, I did what I had to, then came back and we went to the bar. I bought my martini (because heck, I was hoping for a martini with The Man himself as I technically owe him one, lol, but either way, I was having one ), bought my roomie a drink (that was my bargain...he got a free bus ticket and free drinks all night to come with me to try and scope the place out ), and we went and sat down at one of the tables. I didn't want to bug the band because I didn't know if it'd tick them off, my roomie seemed to think security was keeping an eye on us (it turned out, they completely weren't, they were keeping an eye on another girl in the same bar). So we sat there awhile, and eventually it dawned on me that the keyboardist, Will Hollis, was looking directly at me the whole time. Now, I'd been standing right beside him, so I knew he recognized me but as he was just...looking at me...I didn't go up to him.

I realized about a week later, I had met him years before, through a mutual friend. Gah...I'm dumb!

Eventually my roomie bummed a cigarette off of one of the roadies, LOL, and this created the conversation because we were all the "outsiders". Casino Rama is populated largely by little old ladies, and here we are...the young-ish roadie with spiky hair and tattooed forearms, my roomie being a young-ish big black guy with dreadlocks, and me, a little blondish 22-year-old chick in a tight shirt. So we talked with him for awhile, and then I went off for a second because my cellphone rang.

While I was away, my roomie popped the question: Would the roadie possibly get Glenn to sign my Allnighter LP? Unfortunately, no: He'd left earlier. (When we were supposed to meet him in the parking lot. Grrr!) He said that Glenn knew who I was, absolutely, and not only would he absolutely have done it, he would've come out and met me.

I came back, and we finished up our conversation...it was quite late by this point, I guess about 1:30, and they were headed to bed. He shook both our hands and to me, said "Next time, I promise you...just find me." Which I didn't understand until later when my roommate told me what he'd asked him.

Now all I need to do is find that roadie...! Well, and, next time, remember the fact that I *do* know the keyboardist, he is not just staring at me like I'm an alien. LOL! So yes...that is my story of Casino Rama.

Oh yah, and all the money I spent on drinks for my roomie and I throughout the course of all this (which constituted more drinks than I care to admit)?

I won it all back. My roomie went to the bathroom, I sat down at a slot machine 'cause I was bored, and played 25cents...one shot...won every single cent of my money back. That was the only time I'd played any of the games the whole time there.

So I'd say, all in all, it was one heck of a lucky night!!


~*She'll always be...the girl from yesterday...*~

My friend and I: "Nice coat Glenn!"
Joe Walsh, at next pause between songs: "Hey, nice coat, Glenn."
Glenn: "Thanks, thanks...yah, I picked this up at the..Liberace garage sale, glad you like it..."

[sodascouts]

Oh man... so close, and yet so far! But the fact that he would've come out for you is so cool in itself. Thank you so much for sharing all of this! It was a great read!


~

[sodascouts]

Also, you might as well write Glenn, you have nothing to lose! I didn't get a reply, but my pessimism and feeling of unworthiness more than prepared me for that. lol


~

[DonFan]

Great story, PinkCoatGirl!

Did you say you had more to the story that is Don-related?

Share, please!!

[tengo ritmo]

Fantastic story, Bree!

---

-Irene

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.

[Z]

Welcome, Bree! It sounds like you are going to fit right in here with the rest of us calm, quiet, demure ladies!

-------------

Cause I'm livin' on things that excite me,
Be they pastries or lobsters or love;
I'm just tryin' to get by being quiet and shy,
In a world full of pushin' and shove.

[PinkCoatGirl]

Ahahaha...quiet, demure...oh yes, that is me.

Awww Nancy...you may still get a reply! I did once, and only once, get a personal reply from a (very famous) singer...it took 6 months for the letter to even get to him. I wouldn't give up yet!

There certainly is more to the story! I'm going to check if it's still raining...if it's not, I need to haul my butt to the grocery store for now, but if it is, I'll come back and add the Don-related bits to it.



~*She'll always be...the girl from yesterday...*~


My friend and I: "Nice coat Glenn!"
Joe Walsh, at next pause between songs: "Hey, nice coat, Glenn."
Glenn: "Thanks, thanks...yah, I picked this up at the..Liberace garage sale, glad you like it..."

[sodascouts]

I doubt it, but hey, it's better to think the worst and be pleasantly surprised then hope for the best and be crushingly disappointed. Great life philosphy, eh?

There certainly is more to the story!

We wait with bated breath!


~