Bon Jovi Concert Memories 2010-2014

 July 9, 2010- The Meadowlands, NJ

Mike and I don’t really like the new stadium. The rows seem narrower, for one thing. It is pretty scary climbing up the stairs too. We were all the way up in the last row of this venue.

   The staff made us throw our umbrellas away which we were pretty upset about. We only had brought them to use outside of the stadium if necessary. We had taken a train and lite rail there so we couldn’t put them in our car like the lady told us to do.

   We were sitting next to a nice couple from Upstate NY; I think that the town was Newburg. The husband said that this show was his wife’s birthday gift to him. They asked us what other music that we are into. I was kind of embarrassed when I mentioned Duran Duran. Mike said Def Leppard.

   A drunk guy was a couple of seats away from us. I felt very uncomfortable when he came over to talk to me when my brother was in the bathroom. He asked me where I was from and touched me on my arm. I was relieved when Mike returned.

   Kid Rock was the opening act; he was on stage longer than other such performers that I have seen. We didn’t really care for him. He came back out to sing “Old Time Rock and Roll” with Bon Jovi later. Richie Sambora sang “Lay Your Hands on Me” which we weren’t happy about.

   Late in the show, during “Livin” on a Prayer”, it looked as if Jon injured himself. He said something like he thinks that he might have pulled him calf muscle. He wasn’t moving around that well but kept performing, naturally. When I talked with Mike about this the next day, he told me that he hadn’t even been aware of this.

   Mike had gotten Nathan’s fries for $5.00 and a soda for $4.75. I didn’t buy the tour book this time because it was $30.00; the most that I have ever spent on one for them is $25.00, I think.

   I was beating myself up for not just putting my purse on my seat. It was feeling a little uncomfortable with the strap across my body which was unusual; at other shows, it has been fine.

   Dad had picked us up from the train station. The show ran longer than we had thought that it would. He told us that he had been waiting there for two hours.

My Semi - Fascination with Tennis Guy

I know that I've been going on and on about this event lately and I should've taken a break from posting about it but I can't seem to get it off of my mind. This will be the last chapter of it for now, I promise. Well, here are 2 totally crappy photos of the one guy that I was hoping to get good close up shots of after the matches. I did great with everyone else besides Melzer. It's kind of funny, I suppose. Not really. I didn't take the camera off of full zoom nor did I quickly check the shot to see how it came out. I wasn't thinking that clearly then, maybe because part of me was too excited about seeing him - how embarrassing. Worse yet, I actually was walking very quickly to get to him when he was standing with a group of people to try to get another photo. I felt as if I was stalking him. Sorry, Mr Melzer.

My brother actually got me his autograph after his first round match. He also got his opponent, Tursonov. That was nice of him. I am not really into getting autographs myself because I'm shy and wouldn't feel right about doing so but I am glad that my brother did this for me. Last year he got me Davydenko and this year also Ferrer. I forget which girls that he got for himself. He did get Tommy Robredo and I am a bit jealous about that.

I had not remembered that after the Melzer/Petzschner doubles match that I actually ran to the other side of the court to the gate where they were coming out to try to get pictures of both of them. Further shame. This is so unlike me. I wasn't able to catch them in time. I saw Petzschner already pass by me before I could use my brother's camera and then Melzer was walking pretty fast and I don't think that I got him either - I have to wait and look at my brother's photos. I was wishing that I had been sitting on the bleachers on that side of the court. I only missed 3 games of that match. I had to sacrafice the 3rd set of the Fish/Knowles doubles match for it.

When I saw the schedule for Day 6 at the Open I was feeling torn and confused and disappointed. I was hoping that the Melzer v. Ferrero match would be at Grandstand first then I would watch that and afterwards try to get into Armstrong for some of Wozniacki and then Mr. Fish. I had to make the decision to stick with Fish or bail out on him and head over the Mr. Melzer. This was a tough one. I was kind of semi- obsessing about this during the match. I was praying that Fish would finish off Clement in 3 or 4 sets then I wouldn't miss any of Melzer but unfortunately it was a 5 setter. I wanted so badly to see a happy Fish so I stayed there and luckily he won.

We needed to use the bathrooms before heading over to Grandstand. We went up top and used those. I first looked down to check out Melzer and the scoreboard. It was 4- 3, I think. That's what Mark said. Between waiting in line for the bathrooms and then a line to get into the grandstand, we only got to see 2 games of the first set. It seemed like a more competitive set than the remaining 2. I should just be glad that I got to see any of this match. If the girl's match before it hadn't been so long and also the Monfils match had a couple of tie break sets, I think, then I might not have gotten to see any of it at all. My dummy side didn't let me take that many pictures that night, saying don't you have enough of this guy already. But this was different, it was a third round match and nightime. It was nice seeing a happy Melzer. I like Ferrero too but I was rooting more for Melzer.

Okay, so I think I've covered just about everything - maybe I've said too much. I just started rooting for Melzer like during the French Open this year. I saw about 15 sets between 5 matches of him and 14 of Fish. So this was like the Melzer/Fish Open 2010 for me.

US Open 2010 Part 2

These are some of the other players that I saw at this event. Top - Bottom - Russia's Youzhny, Spain's Tommy Robredo, Sweden's Robin Soderling and also from Spain, Juan Carlos Ferrero.

I did some match hopping for certain players but stayed at whole matches for others. Last year I did not do the former. There are too many players that I like now so it's impossible to see their whole matches or even any of them. I had to sacrafice a few so I could see all of Melzer and Fish.

Food is pretty expensive at the Billie Jean King Tennis Center. My brother and I wound up splitting the burgers (8.50) and chicken sandwiches(9.75). We alternated nights. He also got the waffle fries(4.50). The Snapple Peach ice tea was 4.75 a bottle. We got one a piece each day.

A few of our dinners were eaten during matches. I packed a lunch of a peanut butter sandwich and Nutrigrain bar. We had grapes and water for a snack before we got on the line.

Our am routine was up at 4:30 to catch the 5:59 train. It was half hour late one day. We got into the city by 6:45. My brother had a donut and milk at Zaros then we walked to Times Square from Penn Station 2 mornings and the other days just took the subway - 1 - to get to the 7 that goes right to the tennis center in Queens. After the hour and 15 minutes in line before the gates opened we'd buy the daily schedule, go to the bathroom and look around at the courts to see some of the players practice. Then we would go our seperate ways, except for on Saturday when we both spent all day at Armstrong to see 3 matches - Soderling, Wozniacki and Fish.

PM- we would get home between 9:30 and 10:40, that was the last night. We had to recharge our camera batteries, shower, put the tickets and money in my purse, make up a list of matches of interest on 2 index cards so we'd know where each other would be. We don't have cell phones.I had the tennis on tv but we were too busy to focus on this. We would get only between 4 and a half and 5 hours of sleep each night. Very long days but well worth it despite getting very sick.

I forgot to mention the nice girl from Trinidad yesterday. I feel bad that I didn't ask her name. She was on line with us for 3 of the days. She took our picture.

My memory card ran out of space on Friday morning. I had no idea that I had taken so many pictures. I sat there and deleted photos of the grounds and stuff that I had taken pictures of for my blog to make room. The Robredo match ended during the start of a 2nd set tiebreak because Benneteau had a wrist injury. This was disappointing. I wouldn't have been able to take more pictures during it because I could only fit 22 more on that card. Luckily the Olympus store there had the right card. I had to pay $5.00 more for it here than at Walmart.

Some other players that I saw were Italy's Seppi(2 sets), David Ferrer, Marcos Baghdatis(only 1 set), Davydenko(1 set and 2 games), Stakhovsky and Querry(1 set) and parts of a few women's matches mostly because they were on the court that my guys were going to be next. Mark was mostly at his girls matches but he did watch some Melzer with me and saw John Isner. I would've liked to have seen him too but I was at Youzhny. I sacraficed some Ferrer and Lopez for him too.

I did quiet a few stupid things there but I'm trying not to dwell on it. At a few of the matches I could've moved to better and closer seats but I did not. I am not sure why. My view would've been better and I would've gotten better pictures. I also deleted a few photos that I shouldn't have and didn't take enough at a few matches like the Melzer v. Ferrero 3rd round one. By Saturday night I was feeling so tired and a bit sick so maybe that's why I wasn't thinking clearly then.

We bought some souveniers - 4.00 for 5 postcards, an 8.00 pin and the 17.00 book. Mark wanted the magnet but they were out of that so he got the pin. We didn't think until later that we probably could've ordered that from the US open site. They gave out pens, cookies and yougurt there. No beanie baby like last year. I was hoping to add this to my collection.

I hope that we are able to go to this event next year. I just finished going through my photos yesterday. Many of them didn't come out that great. I can't believe that I took so darn many at the Melzer/Petzschner doubles match. I swore that I wouldn't go so bonkers with the camera like I did last year but I was even worse this year. Mark regrets not taking more photos.

My 2 Tennis Guys/2010 US Open

My brother and I were at the US Open for the first 6 days this year. Last year was the first time that we ever went and it was for 4 days. I haven't been following the tennis for that long - 2006 US Open. I was depressed that my mom was in the hospital and wanted to watch The Price Is Right but tennis was on which at first I was mad about and was thinking so boring but the 2 guys were kind of cute - Haas and Ginepri - so I kept it on. If they hadn't been cute, would I have changed the station? I was so stupid that I didn't think that there would be any more tennis until late spring of the next year so I missed out on the Australian Open and other events.

Anyhow, getting back to the present, my brother and I didn't add the 6th day until a week before this event. Last year it was only a few days before it that I printed out the tickets on my computer because it wasn't until then that I had overcome my fear of going there. I wish that I had been able to in 2007 and 2008. This time I ordered the tickets the very day that they went on sale.

Haas and a couple of my other guys were out injured but I had plenty of other guys to see, including the 2 pictured above. The top one is American Mardy Fish and the bottom photo is of Austria's Jurgen Melzer. I was at 2 full 5 set matches for both of them plus one set of Fish's 2nd round match, 2 sets of Melzer's third round match and nearly all 3 of his doubles match and a total of 3 sets for 2 of Fish's doubles. I wish that I could have been at all of Melzer's third round but it was going on at the same time as Fish and I made the decision to stick with that until the end.

The weather was very, very hot the first 4 days and still kind of hot on the 5th. Last year we didn't apply sunscreen much and got burned. In fact, the first day I totally forgot the sunscreen and got a painful burn. This year I did a better job of sunscreen application, although I still did get a bit burned.

I met some really nice people at this event like Bob and Jim who let me hang out with them at the one Fish match and afterwards. There was Igor at the Youzhny match. That day there was a 30 minute rain delay. We were lucky that this is all the rain that occured during our time there. Brian and Kathy from Canada and a few others also were nice. I'm usually very shy and not good at socializing but I seemed to do okay at this event.

Our day was very long - up at 4:30, catch the 5:59 train and get there by 8:00. I have the whole schedule of am and pm routines in my journal. I might include this in a part 2 of this topic. Right now I am feeling very tired because I am still feeling sick. My brother and I both got sick from these long, hot days at the US Open. This is the sickest that I've been in a very long time. It started 11 days ago. Even though we are suffering this illness because of that, I still can say that I had a good time being at this event and hope that my financial situation will allow me to go again next year. I'm not too positive about this though.

I've really missed being here and reading everyone's posts. I will try to slowly catch up on this. I have alot of stuff to do that I had to put off for the past 2 weeks like laundry and sorting through the many photos that I took at this event and need to send them to the Walgreens site for printing out. I took too many at some matches and not enought at others. Many of them didn't turn out that great.

Vacation Time/Thank You

My brother and I are kind of going on a vacation for 5 days next week. We will be taking a train into NYC then the subway to Queens to go to the US Open. We went there last year for the first time for 4 days. I have only been into the tennis for a few years. I wanted to go there in 2007 and 2008 but didn't because of my anxiety problem. I finally got a little brave last year but still was suffering from the anxiety while at this event so I was doing all sorts of stupid things and having trouble fully enjoying myself. Hopefully this year I will do better. I have been meaning to write about our adventures but haven't gotten around to it yet.

We will be taking the 6:30 train and spending the whole day there. We didn't get home until between 8 and 9 pm last year so it probably will be the same this time. I will be way too tired and won't have the time to come here. I will have alot of reading to catch up on the following week. I just want to thank everyone for reading my posts and leaving comments. Starting this blog and making connections has helped me to feel a little more confident and less scared to "socialize". Maybe I will be able to do this out there in the real world and not feel so anxious around people. I want to enjoy myself and not have fear and self-doubt ruin things for me again.

Bon Jovi and US Open tickets

I had not intended on going to any concerts this year because I've mostly been saving for US Open tickets but this past Wednesday my brother informed me that he had been at the TicketMaster site looking into the ticket prices for both events. I was suprised that Mark changed his mind about not fitting Bon Jovi tickets into his budget. He seemed pretty excited about wanting to go which got me feeling the same way so I went to the site and ordered them for us.

It's my fault that he is into Bon Jovi now. He seems even more into them than I am. We have been to 2 concerts together. One was the Bounce tour- was that 2003? We were at Giants Stadium for that. It was the Prudential Center in Newark in 2007 for the Lost Highway tour. Crappy seats for both and likewise for the upcoming show in July. The tickets went on sale a few weeks ago so we are just glad that we were able to still get some.

This is only the second event that I've ordered tickets online for. Last time it was for the US Open in 2009. We did that like only a few days before so I had to print them out which was kind of frustating because our printer gives us problems often. This year I plan on ordering them early and having them sent by mail. We get the grounds pass and will be going for 5 days instead of 4 this time.

I always worry that tickets will get lost in the mail or sent to the wrong place. Until I have the tickets in my hand I will be anxious about this. I have always said my address twice to the person on the phone but I still worry that he or she misunderstood me. The tickets always get here, thank goodness. I worry too much about many things anyhow, I can't help it.

I heard You Give Love a Bad Name on the radio today and was feeling both anxious and excited about the concert. There are 4 shows in May but 3 of them are sold out and the 4th one had even crappier seats left. The opening act will be Kid Rock. I know a few songs by him. I am definitely not driving to the Meadowlands- it's too stressful. Luckily now they have a bus link from the Secaucus train station that will take you there so we'll be going to Linden station for the train. They only started doing this recently. They should've had that for many years- we would've went to more events there. I have driven there about 6 times and am glad that I don't have to again.

We aren't sure when the tennis tickets go on sale, maybe next month. If you are a member of the USTA you can order them now. The weather during the US Open had been nearly perfect the past 3 years. I have this bad feeling that this time it won't be and am praying that I'm wrong. Watch, it'll rain sometime during the first week but be perfect for the 2nd. I haven't gotten rained on for any outdoor concerts yet, I hope that this fortune continues for this one. It'll be interesting seeing the new Giants Stadium.