This crazy little thing called LIFE

So tonight was amazing. Incredible and wonderful and everything that I could have asked and wished for it to be and than some.

I had a rough day, trying to make decisions about what's going to happen within the next month...moving back to the mainland, trying to find jobs, etc. I had wanted to go to the Kokua Festival (Jack Johnson's Kokua Hawaii foundation benefit concert to raise money for environmental causes) here in Waikiki from the get-go but was unable to obtain tickets for financial reasons. I knew that when those tickets went on sale, I was quietly weeping to myself on the couch knowing I was too poor to afford seeing that concert.

This morning I had vowed to try to avoid Waikiki at all costs, just because I didn't want to be tempted to try to break into the Shell to see the performance. But, emotion got the best of me and I decided that it would be better to camp out in the park outside the concert and listen to the music, than to completely avoid going at all.

3:00pm Grady and I trudge down Waikiki in the glaring hot Hawaiian sunlight to Kapiolani Park. Damn it, if I'm living in Hawaii I want to at least LISTEN to the Kokua Festival...it's only once a year in Oahu! We got there around 4:00 and listened to the first three performers. We set up camp right behind a cop car, in the midst of hippies tight-rope walking and bbqing and getting stoned. I couldn't see anything, but if I listened really close I could hear them.

Sunset came and went and Ziggy Marley played. Around 8:00 the first Jack Johnson songs came on. I was all excited to just hear the distant screams of the audience and croons of Mr. Johnson. It was from a distance, I wish I could have been closer, but it was worth it just to be as close as I was. As people in the park started to trickle out, it was just Grady and I under a bright industrial light that ran along the security fence, swaying back and forth to Jack's rhythmic melodies. From the corner of my eye, I see a guy approaching. This guy walks up to us, "Want two tickets?"

"No thank you, don't have the money," was my sad response. I was assuming he'd continue his scalping effort at a different location. He just smiled and dropped the two tickets in our laps. My only response was a muttered, "...are you serious?" He just turned back and smiled and walked away.

I quickly started scanning the tickets, are these fake? They've got to be fake, no way this is real...There's the date, there's the time, there's the seat number... OH MY GOD!!! WE JUST GOT TICKETS!! Grady and I sprinted to the entrance...they scanned it...we were IN!!

I ran to the side of the ropes, it was standing room only. But WHO CARES!!?? I was in Kokua Festival! I never dreamed I'd be there...this close to Jack Johnson. I was right under the big screen, the sound was better, I could see him...a little inch big guy on the stage. I was shaking with excitement and kept saying, "CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED!?!" Grady just was shaking his head and laughing.

There was a lady standing next to us who was listening to one of his songs and she looked at us and asked, "I don't even know the name of this song, it's my favorite song, do you know what it's called?"

"Oh, it's called 'Home', I love this song too!" I kept singing, just brushing off her question.

At the end of the song, Grady taps me on the shoulder. The lady was gone, but he's holding an envelope with two more tickets in it, "Want to go to the front?" he asks.

The lady who was standing next to us gave us her orchestra seat tickets and walked away, we couldn't find her to thank her or anything. ORCHESTRA SEATS. I MEAN LIKE, 2ND ROW ORCHESTRA SEATS!!

This seems like a crazy joke, but it was so real. We walked right up to the VIP area, they walked us to our seats. Now I'm crying. By sheer luck, generosity of strangers and by someone that was looking out for us tonight, we made it from outside in a park behind a cop car to 2nd row of the Jack Johnson Kokua Festival. So surreal. We were able to watch Ziggy Marley, Taj Mahal, Jack and others for two hours for FREE. I couldn't afford the $40 presale, non-the-less the $80 tickets, God forbid I would have bought those orchestra seats that were going for over $500 this morning. I got them for free by some insane karmic blessing. It was ridiculous.

I don't have any pictures to show you, my phone was dead and I had no camera. How was I expecting to be able to see that??!! But I will never EVER forget the kindness those people showed me tonight. I will forever hold that memory SO dear to me. What an amazing thing happened tonight...wow.

...on my list of things I want to do before I die, there was see a Kokua Festival. Check :)

What you put out into the Universe, will come back to you.

~A very happy Bree