Radiohead, and all that jazz....

Ok, so a little less than two months ago we went to go see Radiohead. I mentioned before about how I was nervous and anxious about the situation. I was so excited to see them (it's been since 2003), but worried about all the "what ifs". So anyway, a few days before we ask Michele's brother to come by and take Angus out, and he says he can't. So we think that he'll just have to pee and poop on the floor while we're gone for 12 hours. Then we get an ad on our mailbox about a boy down the street will pet sit. So I call him come over and meet Angus. That didn't go too well as Angus apparently didn't care for the fellow. Of course, he doesn't care for anyone except me and Michele...and a select few others. I think it's about someone coming into his territory or something. Doesn't matter. The boy came, and I showed him where his leash was, etc. And so that got taken care of, thank goodness.
So we wake up on Friday, and leave for Charlotte around 1:00. We get there to the venue early as hell...they weren't letting people in yet. We decided to go to Chick-fil-a. We find the closest one via my phone. We eat and then return to the venue. People are in their cars drinking and whatnot. There's tailgaiting, hackey sacks, frisbees. Of course we're not into that whole socializing thing, so we just sit in the car and drink. Around 6:00 we decide to try to go into the actual venue. They've already let people in, so we have no problem. I wait in line to pee in a port-a-potty and wonder why I have to drink at a concert like this. Anyway, we buy a poster (and Michele returns it to the car) and head to the pit. It wasn't that crowded when we got there. It filled up of course, but it still wasn't bad. We left a few times to pee or get beers, but once it got tight we stayed put. The Liars came on and the Radiohead. They were perfect, everything I imagined that they'd be. I love seeing them live because I truly believe they're the best live performers in the world. They give me chills and take me places where other bands cannot. So we were amazed by the show, and then we had to wait in the car for a couple of hours before we could leave. The traffic was horrendous. It couldn't ever be worse, could it? It certainly could.
On Sunday morning we got up to leave for the show in Bristow. All day I was a bag of nerves. But look at the situation. We left a little later than we should have, then for some reason I started going the wrong way. Michele was looking at coupons, so she neglected to see I was going the wrong way until about 20 minutes into the trip. So we turned around and got on the right road. Graduation just happened to be getting out as we were going by the UNC campus. It was raining, and the traffic was horrible. Finally we passed that area, and I thought we'd be ok. The traffic up to the DC area was awful...starting before Richmond. My blood pressure was high, I am certain. We finally got to the hotel around the time I had wanted to LEAVE our hotel to go to the venue. So of course we were rushed. We were hungry, and there just wasn't time to eat. The rain just would not stop and it was COLD! So we finally got to the venue and the parking lot didn't look too full. However, all the people were lined up at the gates, and of course the gates did not open for another hour. So we stood there freezing, wet, and pissed. And hungry. For no other band would I do what I did. After we finally got in, we raced to the pit area where, again, we had to wait. It was rickdiculous. Finally they started letting people in. People were pushing each other. It was a rough crowd. Despite the fact that there were a lot of people in the pit, at no time was I ever warm, or even comfortable. My shoes were wet, my jacket was thin. It was awful. RH's show was great save for the little midget bitch who got in front of me right before they went on. I kept knocking her with my camera lens (which was a beast) and coughing in an attempt to get her to move. She told me to stop hitting her with it, and my reply was "If you hadn't cut right in front of me, you wouldn't be feeling the lens in your back, so you should probably move if you want it stop". She finally did. The crowd was super tight, and after a while, I just couldn't take it. We went to the back, and then finally I told Michele I just wanted to leave. I couldn't believe I was saying that, but I was exhausted and hungry and wet. It had been such a rough day. Water was pouring into the pit. Our feet were soaked. I had wet pants up to the knees. I just wanted to curl up in our hotel bed with coozles and sleep for a looooooooooong time. HAH! We went to the car and saw that others, too had the same idea. I figured our wait couldn't be too bad, since the concert was still going on. Well I was wrong. Later we found out that a road had been flooded out. Apparently some people couldnt even get into the venue. So I guess we were lucky in that sense. However, we didn't get home until about 5 hours later. This trip should have taken at most, 45 minutes. I wanted to die. I wanted to kill someone. The police were doing such a fantastic job standing around. They couldn't even be bothered to direct traffic. We ended up in one line - everyone. It was a nightmare. I lost it. It was awful. I could never ever go back there. On the way to the hotel, we thought we would stop somewhere to get food, but at 3:00 in the morning nothing is open. We found a 7-eleven and got some food there. Yogurt, cheese, banana...juice. It was probably better than getting garbage from Taco Bell. Then we couldn't find our hotel. It was insane. We were just delirious I guess. All I could think about was Angus wondering where we were. I felt bad for him being all alone. We finally got to the hotel. We took showers, ate, and called it a night. I didn't want to talk about it much on the way home. And even now writing about it on this blog makes me irritated. I love Radiohead, but jesus christo, I was tested that night.
Thank goodness we had a pleasant experience the first night. Save the traffic, the second date would have been fine too. I would have overlooked all the other bad things that happened. But the traffic...it killed me