"earplugs" at the Journey concert incident

i had a request from Highdesertdiva to tell the story about the night I made Charles wear Tampons in his ears at the Journey concert. (the title of my upcoming hypothetical book)

i am a HUGE Journey fan (hello, 1983 called). i will always be a Journey fan, I dont care what anyone says. They rock my white bread world, and I am OK with that. An even BIGGER Journey fan is charles. Between us we own just about every Journey CD ever produced.

Faithfully....

In March of 1999 my husband and I moved to Charlotte, NC. While working at Maersk-Sealand a few months later, my cubicle neighbor had her radio on. I heard a commerical for the upcoming Budweiser Summer Concert Series at the (then named) Blockbuster Pavillion. The opening act was Foreigner(I wanna know what love iiiiissssssss....i want you to show meeeeeeeeee), followed by JOURNEY! I called ticketmaster and got the closest tickets I could get, which was in the main pavillion about 9 rows back. I had never been to the Pavillion so I had no idea where section 2 was or where R put us. It was as close as i could get for the tickets remaining. i wasnt going to argue, whine or moan. i had 2 tickets to journey, thats all that really mattered.

the night of the concert rolled around. We got to the pavillion and found our seats. We were on the mainfloor, but over to the left side about 10 rows back...right next to a giant speaker. THE giant speaker with about 900 decibels pounding into our ears.

IT WAS SO LOUD! Foreigner opened. Cold as Ice, Juke Box Hero, Double Vision, I wanna know where love is...they were all so loud and I felt so old. I never had a problem at concerts before, why was I turning into a cranky old fart now? I knew I was already starting to get a headache and I REALLY wanted to enjoy Journey. I needed some sort of earplugs and I needed them BAD. i couldnt wait for Foreigner to get off the stage to get some auditory relief. I felt kind of mad that the ticketmaster guy didnt warn me where we would be sitting and that I may want to think about some sort of stuffing to go into the ears to save our hearing. Of course how do they know where the seats are...after all THEY HAVE A MAP IN FRONT OF THEM. Jerk.

FINALLY the main event. Journey. They came out swinging with "Separate Ways". Then followed it with "Lights"(When the Lights, go down in the Cit-tay). I was miserable. Charles was being a trooper, but I could tell he was hating having to listen to the concert with his hands over his ears. They went into a song from their new album, a song I hadn't heard so I made a retreat to the ladies room and tried to find somewhere to find earplugs. No one sold them, the toilet paper in the bathroom was like transparent tissue paper, there was no way that would absorb all the sound. What I needed was a cotton Ball or something foamy. I then remembered I had a tampon in my jacket pocket. i always carry an extra with me(ever since that Don Henly/Sting concert incident...another story) and I hatched a plan. I knew I wouldnt be needing the tampon that night, aunt flow had departed a week previous. So i stowed away into a stall and broke into the sanitary plug. I pulled it out of its protective cardboard cocoon and unfurled it. I pulled off two chunks, rolled then to fit into my ear canal and voila! They were PERFECT! I pulled off a few more chunks and put them into my jacket pocket, tossed the rest of the battered tampon and went back to the seat. They were up on stage talking and playing bits and pieces from their new album. I put my hand in my pocket and pulled out a few bits of cotton and handed them to Charles.

He took them and put them in his ears asking if they were giving out earplugs in one of the tents.

"Uh, yeah, thats where I got them" I lied.

The rest of the concert was fantastic. Open Arms, wheel in the sky, Faithfully, If you love a woman, Anyway you want it, Don't Stop Believing, Only the Young, Be Good to Yourself, Lovin' Touchin' squeezin, who's cryin now.... It was the greatest concert(almost as good as Styx and REO speedwagon with the wanna be harley hoggers and lesbians and a 9 month pregnant me threatening to give birth any moment...again another story)

The cotton batting in our ears was just perfect and we were able to enjoy the rest of the summer concert, singing along at the top of our lungs with the world greatest band.

On our way out charles again asked me where i had gotten the cotton plugs.

'The Bathroom", i said.

"Oh, they didnt have any in ours" he replied.

"Well, no , they dont sell those in your bathrooms" I said with a smile on my face walking faster now.

He stopped, a dawn of realization spreading across his face, watching my smirk.

"You mean i put a TAMPON in my ears?" he asked incredulously. He muttered to himself and shook his head disbelievingly the whole drive home. 'A tampon....cant believe it.. tampon in my ears...gross...tampon..."

I dont know why he was so upset, it isnt like it was a USED tampon.

sheesh. Show a little ingenuity with a tampon and never live it down for the rest of my life.

(The cover idea for the book is have actual full sized tampons sticking out of his ears, complete with the strings. HAH!)

So that is the night i made charles wear a tampon in his ears at the Journey concert.