Magical Cat's Corner

I Met Loreena!

Last week my best bud Leslie and I took a road trip to Michigan to attend two Loreena McKennitt concerts. The concerts were absolutely awesome! Loreena sounds so good live... it was better than I expected. The first show was in Ann Arbor, which was a pleasant college town. Lots of coffee shops and bookstores were around the theatre. We were in the 4th row... excellent seats. The weather was perfect, so after the show we waited by the bus. We talked to some of the musicians who played with Loreena, and then she came out. She was very nice and gracious when we told her how great the show was. She signed our CD's, shook our hands, and gave us hugs. I was really excited because her music has truly helped me get through tough times (besides the fact that I just love it), like dealing with metastatic disease and the death of my beloved pet.

We stayed at the Vitosha Guest Haus in Ann Arbor, which was a very cool old place with a very kooky lady running it. She was quite eccentric. The bathroom had a clawfoot tub, so I HAD to take a bath in it. Then we were off to IKEA for heavy duty shopping. After that, we drove about an hour and 45 minutes to Kalamazoo, a place I will never visit again if I can help it.

Kalamazoo was dirty, dark (not in a good way), and deserted. The theatre where Loreena played was very ornate, and we were in the FRONT ROW (!!!), but we couldn't find any coffee in the downtown, and the whole area just wasn't happening. The show was excellent, of course, and Loreena talked a lot more than the night before. She also changed two of the songs from the previous night's lineup, so we didn't have to hear two identical concerts (not that I would have minded). After the show we drove and drove and drove looking for somewhere to eat. The town was practically shut down... stuff was too far from the exits to see, and when you finally got to it, it was closed. We finally found an IHOP. Turns out there was a Perkins less than 1/4 mile away from our hotel, but what can you do.

The next day we were eating breakfast at the hotel and a guy walked in who looked kind of familiar... turns out he was sitting right next to me in the front row the night before. He drove from Ohio and was by himself. It was pretty funny that he happened to be in the same hotel.

I'm so glad we went to both shows... I was afraid that if I sold the tickets to one of them that the other would end up cancelled and I wouldn't see her at all. It was totally worth it!