But.
I planned to be in the front row. And guess what? I was.
Martina typically hides a couple sets of tickets on the day of each performance in the cities she visits. Not everybody knows this, or follows her on Twitter, but some of us die-hard fans do, and a handful of us all hung around the rainy, soggy city yesterday afternoon, anxiously waiting for her tweet with the first clue to where the first set of tickets were hidden. She finally tweeted this message:
2:13 PM Mar 14th via web
Manchester NH! First clue for front row tickets coming in 10 minutes!
We knew this because we saw her and some others returning to the Arena, having just hidden the tickets.
Well, wasn't that the longest 10 minutes of our lives. Finally, the clue:
1st Clue for tickets to Manchester concert: This is a "Rad" place to find lodging for the night...
So we zoomed off to the nearby Radisson Hotel, ran inside and began our hunt. We noticed two other couples there, looking for the same white envelope that we were. Eventually, our persistence paid off, and my friend Jackie found them between the seat cushions in the lounge/sitting area of the lobby.
After we finished jumping up and down with joy, we had one of the security officers there take our picture and tweeted it back to Martina with the code on the envelope:
@martinamcbride Code 4125. See you tonight!! http://twitpic.com/18lw2c
And then we waited. And we waited, and waited and waited. Meanwhile, the unlucky fans also looking for the tickets with us tweeted Martina: NHgall @martinamcbride OMG,I was on my knees few feet away from girl who found them. Trying to surprise a local army wife who's hubby's in Iraq / MelissaV1998 @martinamcbride is there another set??? we were so close....
Sorry, NHgall and Melissa.
Eventually, I managed to convince my two sidekicks that there was not going to be a second set of tickets, although Martina usually informs her fans either way. We would just have to take turns with the two tickets. Finally, Martina tweeted back:
@martinamcbride Code 4125. See you tonight!! http://twitpic.com/18lw2c /via @KerriStanley congrats! Have a great time!!
Haha. As if we wouldn't have a great time. We headed back to Jackie's to change, pick up Suz, and and headed off to meet friends at Margarita's for dinner and drinks before heading over to the show. While she was in her dressing room she tweeted this message: COLD and rainy in Manchester, NH. We are gonna heat up the place tonight!
Cold and rainy. It was practically a monsoon. But we didn't care because we had Front. Row. Seats.
Needless to say, we had a phenomenal time. Despite the fact that there were only 2 tickets, we managed to outsmart security and all three of us enjoyed most of the concert from the front row. If we could have gotten our friends up there with us, it would have been great, but the risk was too great. Still, from the 16th row, they enjoyed the show and Suz did manage to shake Martina's hand, a unsuccessful feat by Jackie and me.
So, highlights? Here they are:
After shaking our hands, Trace shook Zach's hand and gave him his Stetson. Zach was nice enough to let us take turns taking pictures in it.
This is Mark, Martina's guy. He had to go off and get Martina after he let me pose with him for a picture.
And finally, Martina's last tweet for Manchester:
OK. Manchester,NH was amazing. Again,very happy people.Lots of singing along.Lots of excitement. Dancing. I'm in my dressing room smiling.
A smily, shiny night. That's what it was. Even with the monsoon flooding the city.
Addendum: 3/25/10. Listen to Martina's live chat w/fans. Yours truly is Kerri Lynne. :) Click on the title of this post to listen!
Too cool!
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