**Note: The pictures you see were taken by me with my cell phone at this concert. They are mine. Don’t copy them and use them without asking me first, or like Liam Neeson, I will look for you, I will find you.**

I’m going to be real with you all….I have tried to write this particular post several times now, and I just can’t seem to say what I have inside me. I took my girls to their first ever REAL concert last weekend to see our fave, Pink, and I left there less than thrilled. I wasn’t exactly sure why, but I didn’t leave feeling like I had just experienced one of the best moments of my life. She was wonderful, please don’t get me wrong! I don’t think she could ever have a bad show. She interacted with the crowd and was entertaining. I just don’t know why I left feeling like something was missing.

I have thought about the night over and over, and I realized a few things. It was a myriad of things for me that just left me feeling less than. Abbie was clearly disturbed that we were in the “KFC Yum Center when they clearly serve Tyson Chicken Tenders…So it SHOULD BE the Tyson Chicken Tender Center,” or at least in her opinion, anyway. It was my first concert without Mark. That was something that I didn’t think about until we were sitting there singing the songs that made us think of him. When I Get There could have been written about him, without a doubt. The three of us cried together as we sang along with the amazing voice that filled the room. It was the first real “first” that he wasn’t part of for the girls. He wasn’t there to people watch with me, and he wasn’t there to buy the girls anything and everything they wanted, just to put a smile on their faces. He wasn’t there to take me in his arms and slow dance with me there at our seats, even if it did embarrass the girls.

I watched as my girls kept their eyes on Pink and her dancers with total awe. They were watching one of their heroes perform LIVE in front of them, even if they were three sections up and behind the hanging screen with a blocked view of the catwalk. Watching Callie hold her hand over her mouth, tears rolling down her cheeks, while Pink was asking What About Us was worth the life savings I spent to take us. Watching her heart soak up all that was happening around her was worth every penny. Seeing Abbie get excited over a same sex couple getting engaged during her performance brought joy to this momma’s heart. And when her performers came out on rolling neon flamingos, it made me SUPER FREAKING HAPPY! I pointed at them and immediately my girls said, in unison, NO! Ummmmm, yes. This momma shall have one, even if I have to make it myself. I can improvise. Hobby Lobby is calling my name….

What I realized as I watched everything and everyone around me was this: it wasn’t about me. It wasn’t about what I was expecting or whether I was happy when I left. It’s as how my girls felt when THEY left. And they loved it. We had a lot of firsts that night. Not only was it their first real concert, it was our first concert with the man in my life now. It was our first time out together since his stroke, where we almost lost him, too. It was the first time that my girls got to experience the world where, even for just a few hours, there was ZERO judgment, ZERO hate, ZERO negativity. It was only love.

So here is what I am going to say about my favorite female artist: I used to think the best thing about her was obviously her hair, and her attitude, the sassy, IDGAF attitude that she has. But really, the best thing about her show was something I didn’t think about. The best thing was the pure love and joy that she brings, that you can feel. You can feel it in the performances and you can feel it in the atmosphere, and you can see it on the faces of every person around you. Alicia Hart practices what she preaches, my friends. She truly wants everyone to be able to love and to be loved. And shouldn’t that be what we all want?

Love you most,

Lacy