Last night, the group Shinedown was at SPAC with Jellyroll opening. Brie was bummed that she couldn't go because her boyfriend had to work, and they had wanted to go together. As she was bemoaning the fact that she hadn't seen any concerts this year, I had to remind her of two things: 1) he took her to Hawaii for a week; and 2) she was going with me to see Chris Botti (hey, I needed someone to drive me to Troy!). As you can imagine, the second one didn't make her happy!
However, I am very happy. In case you didn't hear the screams of joy last month: I have secured second row seats to see jazz trumpeter extraordinaire Chris Botti in concert in October! Yes I have seen him before but I need to see him again! The first time I saw him, Kitty and I were at SPAC to see her favorite group Earth, Wind & Fire. Chris was the opening act. After his set, he was doing a free meet and greet and I hustled Kitty over so I could have him sign my CD. All was going well and I knew once he met me, he would realize we were meant to be. When it was my turn, he asked my name and chatted as he signed the CD. I was already trying out the name "Rita Botti" in my head. Then he got to Kitty and said, "How are you this evening?" to which she replied, "I'm here to see Earth, Wind & Fire". That was the dart that burst my dream balloon!
But now I have the chance to try it again! When I saw Maria Schneider at the Troy Music Hall, she did an impromptu meet and greet afterwards and signed my program. I'm pretty sure Chris will do the same. I can't wait!
As Brie and I were getting ready to leave for work this morning, I said to her, "Do you think Sting will be with Chris Botti when he does my favorite song?" "I really don't know mom." And then inspiration hit: if Sting couldn't make the concert to sing, maybe Chris Botti would invite me onstage to sing "It's Probably Me" with him! I could contact him via social and suggest it to him!
There was a slight look of alarm on Brie's face as we started walking down the hall. "Um...I don't know about that. You don't sing on stage." "But I sing solos at church and I'm part of the worship team so it's like the same thing! I'll show you." And I burst into an impromptu chorus from the song.
For some reason, Brie began walking faster. "Why are you walking so fast?" Then we got to the stairs and she fairly flew down all 30 of them. "Wait! How does it sound?" I asked, trying to catch up to her. I'll admit it: I don't quite know all the words and made some up, but I needed her to get the gist of how it would sound. And I may not have had the perfect key either, but still: "Picture it with the trumpet!"
She didn't even hold the downstairs door for me! I followed her to the parking lot and called, "What did you think??" I think I'm glad I didn't hear her answer!
Thankfully I have time to practice. You know: so I can be prepared just in case. Stranger things have happened. To paraphrase from the song: "If there's one girl, just one girl, Chris Botti should give a whirl, it's hard to say it, but I have to say it, it's probably me." I believe this could happen! And admit it: Rita Botti has a really nice ring to it!
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