So I won this contest to go check out the soundcheck for Mike Doughty's show tonight. Turns out I'm the only one who won, and no one could go with me. I'm sitting in a corner, invisible in the open, and listening to them tune up and play tremendous brunettes (Mike & Scrap) and ponder as to whether they had called to tell me about it. They were running late. I stayed quiet.
After they were done I ran up and against all the commonsense in my body, I introduced myself. They didn't have any time, so I thanked them and asked Mike if he would do me a favor and if he had a sharpie could he sign something for my sister, because she couldn't leave work early to come with me. He said he had a pen, and I said, let's see if it'll work. When I pulled the trinket that I wanted him to sign out of my bag, and handed it to him, he told me to hold on, he'd get a sharpie.
The fact that he recognized in this object, which meant the world to me when my sister gave it to me, the importance, and treated with the reverence one would treat a photograph, meant more to me then meeting him.
He was awesome. He was nice, and surprisingly human.
The concert was hands down the best I've ever seen.
Most importantly, Kate cried when she saw the signed keytag. And later, after the show, when I went up to introduce her, he remembered what he had signed for her.
I know I'm not telling this right. I'm too tired to find the words to express emotional gifts and too slow to find the words for gratitude and the increase in personal depth one can achieve through another's understanding.
I'm not where I need to be yet.
Kate's 20 months closer then she's ever been in her life.
Mike Doughty was an angel with a homeless voice.
And as sad as I feel, I hope that in 7 years time, I'll be right where I need to be.