Seeing Paul...My Dream Comes True....Part One

I want to get all this down before I forget it. Yesterday was a most amazing day spent with the Kid and it never would have happened without her. That's for sure.

We left to get to Sun Life Stadium early. Really early. We were on the road by 2:00 knowing that the concert was scheduled to start at 8:00 with parking opening at 5:00. We got there at about 2:30 and were promptly sent away by the stadium staff. They told us to go and find something else to do for 2 1/2 hours. NOT!!!!

We had noticed that there was a Wal-Mart across the street from the stadium so we decided to go over there and dump off the car. There were threatening signs all over the parking lot saying that any stadium cars would be towed. Kerry said that we should park in the busy part of the lot, go into the store, buy something and them hike over to the stadium. I thought it was a great plan so that's what we did.

We had to slip into the stadium though a break in the fence and just started scoping out the place. There were some people there milling around all wearing VIP necklaces. I wanted to see Paul up close, arriving to the show. It's a dream of mine that has alluded me up to this point. Kerry decided that we were going to make that dream come true so that I wouldn't be "that guy from The Alchemist" always dreaming and never doing.

We came upon some people waiting at an area that looked really good for a Paul entry point. We hung around for a while talking to the people one of who was also named Claudia. She was from Brazil and seemed kind of young to be hanging around waiting for Paul but she seemed to be determined to see him and we thought that maybe she knew what she was doing.

As we were waiting we saw a cop who was just standing around. Kerry told me that she was not afraid to go up to people and talk to them so I sent her over to talk to the cop. I heard her say that it was her mom's dream to see Paul and was this the place that he was going to arrive. I walked up and pleaded with him for any info that he would give us. He smiled and told us that he was sure that Paul was NOT going to arrive at this spot. He said he thought that the spot to check out was between gates A and B. We thanked him and I told him that I hoped something really great would happen to him for helping us. Kerry told the other people what the cop had said but they said not to believe him and they were going to say where they were. Kerry and I looked at each other and decided that we liked the cop and we believed him so we took off to scope out gates A and B.

When we got there we met up with Kelley from the Macca-L list and some other people. One of the women named Joanne said that her friends had seen Paul enter at that very spot the day before so we were feeling pretty good about where we were. We noticed cop cars parked around and lots of event staff hanging around as well. These were signs that we were in the right spot.

Then this really cute young guy came out with a video camera. I sent Kerry on over to see if she could pump him for info. She did an excellent job. She said that he was Paul's video guy and he was 100 percent sure that Paul was coming in this way. I was ready. I actually offered Kerry to the guy for the weekend for an invite to the after party but I was only kidding ( I think). He video taped all of the fans that were standing there with special interest in me and Kerry. I wouldn't be surprised if I see her in the video that will be released.

All of a sudden we saw flashing lights and black SUVs coming our way. The cop car that had been parked blocking the area moved out of the way and the cars started down the street right in front of us. The window on our side rolled down and there was Paul hanging out of the window, waving and pointing. He looked right at me and pointed at me. They slowed the car down to a slow roll so I got to see him for about a full minute. He looked great wearing a blue stripped shirt. I finally had my wish come true. I got to see Paul up close and personal in a non concert setting and Kerry got a great picture of the whole thing. When it was over I grabbed her, hugged her and started crying. She said to me "you see Mom? You're not that guy anymore". That guy was the guy from the book The Alchemist who owned the crystal shop, had big dreams that never came true because he never did anything to make them come true. She was right. I was no longer that guy and it was all because of her.

We were actually closer that this picture indicates. My dream come true!

Part 2 next time.......