am i dreaming?

Not to sound ultra-sappy, but this past weekend was basically perfect.
In August I found out J. Cole was going on his first world tour...and that he was coming to a city near me October 22nd- obviously the only reasonable thing to do was disregard ticket prices and purchase immediately. I didn't care if any of my friends were going or that the closet concert was two hours away, I finally had the chance to see him live. He went on tour earlier this summer with Rihanna on her "Loud" tour, but by the time I found he was her opener and tried to order tickets, the price was around $250...a little unreasonable. I ended up ordering tickets for one of my best friend's, Wanny, and myself and we decided that she would drive up here Friday night, party with us, and then we would drive to her city the following day and leave for the concert from there because it would cut down time spent in the car. The night she came up here, she, my roommate Lauren, and I subsequently finished a bottle of tequila (with the help of some of our close guy friends and about 35 limes the size of golf balls...) and didn't even make it out to the party we were supposed to be going to- so college of us. I woke up on my futon, found a band-aid wrapped around my finger and realized it was from cutting while slicing mini-limes the night before (damn you ping-pong), and Wanny sleeping soundly next to me. After going through all the texts and phone calls from the night before, we finally got up, recapped the evening's events with Lauren, showered and pulled ourselves together, and began our drive back to Wanny's in Lawrence. Halfway there I turned to Wanny and said, "Wanny, I have a very serious question to ask you..." she took her eyes off the road and glanced at me, seriously, "Okay, what is it?" "When we get to Lawrence...can we get Pollo Tipico?" She looked at me again, huge smile, and burst out laughing. "Of COURSE! Oh my god you are too much..." Pollo Tipico is one of my favorite restaurants and any opportunity I get to eat there, I take immediately. It's a Dominican restaurant that serves traditional Dominican food, but my order always stays the same- chicken, rise, beans, mofongo, fried plantains, these little chicken-filled empanada things that I'm obsessed with, and this delicious red soda that tastes like a summer day (there's no other way to describe it). We go in and Wanny does all the ordering because; a) they only speak Spanish, b) my Spanish is sub-par and c) I'm the only white person in the tiny little restaurant so I'm already intimidated- it's just easier for loud, little, Dominican Wanny give our order. We drove back to Wanny's, devoured the food (she'd been missing it while away at school as well), took quick naps and then began getting ready for the show. After deciding on concert-acceptable outfits with the help of her mother and her adorable littler sister Maia (Wanny in a dark jeans, flats, grey lace tank top, black blazer- Me in black jeans, black shirt, motorcycle boots, black sequin jacket) we had her mom take some quick pictures of us and we ran out the door. We got to the venue about an hour early, perfect timing because we were very close to the front of the line, and because the show was sold out I was afraid we wouldn't get good seats. I'm not sure what I was expecting about the crowd that would be in attendance, but it was not what I was expecting. The crowd was mixed- Spanish, White, Black, Asian, people ages between 18 and 35, men and women. The girls around us were totally obnoxious. Boston accents as thick as their cheap bronzer and foundation that was caked on-their eyes bloodshot and their "classy" outfits reeked of alcohol (on that note- Wanny and I decided to stay completely sober; if you love an artist and are already excited, why mess yourself up for a performance and a moment you want to remember?) When someone near us said they bought their ticket for $40 (like us) the girls scoffed and asked why anybody would ever pay that much for him...um, excuse me, you and your three-sizes too small skirt can leave now, real fans only please. Needless to say, Wanny and I decided that once we got inside we needed to get away from these girls as soon as possible. Oh, one more thing about these girls- when the line finally started moving and men separated from women to be searched, we saw the girls purses being searched and the woman searching one of them pulled out a hair straightener from her purse....questionable and weird. Anyways, we got inside and went right to this little balcony that overlooked the floor where people were congregating right in  front of the stage. The venue was small enough that our balcony felt close enough and we actually had space to breeeeaaatheeee. There were VIP round table seats behind us that were a little higher up and next to the bar- a lot of the openers had bought these tables for the night. The DJ that opened and kept us busy was a little annoying, he played good music but kept interrupting the song to do yet another shout-out...twelve shout-outs a song is a little ridiculous. Finally, the openers came on: Serge, Moufy, Aziz, and another whose name never got said: Serge yelled into the mic, Moufy's energy was insane, Aziz pulled it all back together, and the other guy sounded like Drake but didn't have as much swagger. When the lights finally dimmed and J. Cole's DJ came out (who was amazing and a real professional) people started going nuts. After six or seven songs, Cole finally walked onto the stage around 10:00pm. Damn...both good looking and insanely talented. He began with the song "Cole World" and moved onto "Before I'm Gone". After the first two songs he stopped and talked to us for about 5 minutes, about who he is, where he went to college, why school is important, and how crazy it is that he sold out the venue and that he has the #1 selling album in the country...wow, what an accomplishment. He went on to play "Daddy's Little Girl", "Lost Ones", "Lights Please", "You Got It", "In the Morning", "Rise and Shine", "Can't Get Enough", "Work Out", "Mr. Nice Watch", "All I Want is You", "A Star is Born", "Blow Up", and "Who Dat", before saying goodnight...or so we thought. After leaving the stage and us chanting his name for a few minutes, he came back and performed, "I Get Up" which transitioned into "Nobody's Perfect". He ended with "Farewell" and literally said farewell to everyone in the audience who held their snap-backs and fitted's up as well as random others ("Babygirl in the white tee, farewell...young brotha with the Fayettenam shirt farewell..."), it took about 10 min. for him to finish. It was such an intense and emotional performance, everyone was completely engaged and you could feel the positive energy radiating through the room. After standing there in shock of how good it was for a few minutes, Wanny and I began the trek back up the stairs and to the car. On the way out I noticed that they were giving out special edition posters of J. Cole and, of course, I needed to have one. I tapped the guy giving them out on the shoulder and asked politely if I could have one and he said yes, as long as they could film me holding the poster and giving a review of the show. I said my piece to the camera, shaking from the energy and excitement, and told them how absolutely unbelievable he was, that he is my favorite artist- hope they use that footage somewhere and I hope I don't look beat. Needless to say, after making the drive home that night and re-watching the videos I took on my iPhone in bed, Wanny and I slept like babies...most likely dreaming of J. Cole serenading us in a private show. A girl can dream, right?

coleworld.dreamville.