My Other Paul Shows
Saturday, June 1, 2019. I’m pretty sure that I’ve never been more excited to go to an arena in my life, even the one where I met Paul. I went to school at the University of Kentucky, and I basically lived at Rupp Arena during basketball season for almost my entire time there. A year before I graduated, I was badly injured at a concert (not Paul) in Cincinnati, Ohio. And, that made me super not want to basically leave my dorm room, so so I stopped going to the games, preferring instead to watch them safely in my dorm room.
So, this was a homecoming for me. Not just for seeing Paul for the first time in 2 years, but also to Rupp Arena. I missed it so much.
Before I transferred to UK, I started my collegiate experience at this smaller school called Berea College in Berea, KY. So, I decided to make this a walk down memory lane. I booked a hotel room to stay in overnight in Berea, rather in Lexington. It’s not a huge distance between the two places, besides the rooms in Lexington were very outside of my budget.
I arrived on campus at Berea in the early afternoon on June 1. I went by my old dorms, the theater, all my old hangouts. Almost everything was the same as it was when I was in school there; just a few upgrades from what I could tell. I stopped to eat at Boone Tavern (where I used to work as a server) and was sure to have a bit of their renowned spoon bread. I checked into my hotel, cleaned up a bit, dropped my stuff, then I made my way to Lexington.
I wanted to tour around campus at UK to see what was different, what I recognized and what I didn’t. lol After all, I hadn’t set foot on campus since I graduated in August 2000. There was bound to be some kind of change, right?
Every single thing was different. No Wildcat Lodge. In its place was a huge high rise dorm called Blazer Hall. The building I knew as Blazer Hall for many years was now some kind of administration building. The student center was entirely brand new. There were several new buildings over the entire campus, most of which replaced older ones that I would have instantly recognized.
I parked at the student center but I didn’t go inside. Instead, I walked towards central campus, and sat near what we used to call “The Quad”. There were still places I recognized there, thank Goodness. But, still, I felt like I was trapped in a bad episode of The Twilight Zone. I didn’t expect everything to be different. Oh well.
I wandered around central and north campus. It was pretty up in the That was where I spent the majority of my time when I was in school, and I was trying to orient myself and reconcile my memory with what currently existed.
I thought about leaving my car parked there and taking my old short cut/walking trail to Rupp. But the trail was blocked, and mostly erased. I was actually pretty sad about that because I’d taken that short cut from my Blazer Hall to Rupp Arena dozens of times in all kinds of weather when I was in school. Ugh. So, that meant I had to drive.
I’d never driven to Rupp before; had never parked in the parking lot. But, I pulled right in there, handed them my $20 bill, and found a slot. Then it was time for the true madness to begin.
Honestly, I had nosebleeds seats up in the rafters, but I was happy to be there. The video above explains it all. I cried through most of the experience #1 because it was Paul and #2 because I was home at Rupp.
After the show, I made my way back to the hotel in Berea.
It was amazing to watch her fulfilling her dream. I wish I would have recorded it, to be honest. I thought it was beautiful. But, then, as predicted, the Sgt. Pepper family was also up on stage. Honestly, I just can’t even explain how much I cried over them! Especially when that beautiful little boy got to play Macca’s Hofner. Oh man! Yeah, I bawled like a baby. I admit it.
Found it, too.
I had to include them. Just had to. Too amazing not to be included. Besides, we knew that they would be picked. The costumes were too awesome.
I have to say that this was a pretty amazing and awesome show. In my top 3, if I have to rank all of the shows I’ve been to. But, what made it better for me was to be able to share it with Mom and Aunt Cindy. I’ll never forget how excited they were and their absolute amazement from the moment Paul hit the stage until well after….
It took forever and 300 years to get out of the parking lot, but when we finally did we found a Waffle House. It’s noteworthy that when the 3 of us saw Ringo at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville last year, we found a Waffle House after the show, too. We pulled in, and while we sat eating, Becka and her dad came in to eat. I recognized her, but the first thing that caught my eye was where Paul signed her upper chest. (Man, that will be a killer tattoo!) I got up and went over to congratulate her. I mean, those were two big accomplishments in one night. It had to be both amazing and overwhelming, and I was proud of her. I just had to tell her so.
Afterwards, we didn’t end up taking the back roads home mostly because my phone was dead, Mom’s phone was dead and my Aunt’s phone just had enough battery to power on. So, her map on her phone took us I-85, I-285,I-75 to US 411. We briefly said hello as we drove past Atlanta…. Once we got off the interstate, Mom took over driving and I crawled into the back seat. We got home at a little after 3am and, well, I’d been awake since 5:20am the previous day so I was exhausted. I went into work on Friday a bit late. All in all, it was an incredible show (as always!!!) and I am so grateful I got to share it with two amazing ladies.