Ashley French French 1
Mr. Kozak
Personal Narrative
10/9/12
Chi-Town for some BS
Since the dawn of time or at least as far back as I can remember, I was obsessed with, and I mean obsessed with Britney Spear. When my mom told me she was going on tour I think my heart actually stopped beating.
A few days later I watched my mom rip open a package and hold up three tickets. Tickets! To see Britney Spears! I was so past excited! It would be two amazing things wrapped up in one – a trip to Chicago and Britney Spears live in concert. What could be better than that? Nothing!
“I have one more surprise for you!” Mom was smiling and I knew it could only mean that she had something else up her sleeve. “Another of your favorite singers is touring with Britney. But I’m not tell you who. You’ll just have to wait until we get there!” I could hardly stand it. How could I wait through all of May and June to find out who this mystery person was?
Fast forward two months. Mom, Melissa, and I boarded the train and we were off, heading for the trip of a lifetime. It seemed like forever, but after 6 long hours, we finally made it into the city. And then we waited and waited and waited on tracks in the middle of downtown.
“What’s the holdup?” I asked my Mom. She just shrugged and kept reading her book.
How could she be so calm? I thought, as I looked out the train window. The sun was shining and I knew it was going to be a nice day for all the sight-seeing my mom and Melissa had planned. But to be honest, I’d felt like skipping all of the tourist things and just waiting outside of the ATT Center for the concert. Don’t get me wrong, I love the Windy City, but I was too excited to think of anything else.
Finally, after waiting for an eternity on the train, we got off the train and were pushed and shoved from the platform into the train terminal. It was pretty gross in there and smelled like dirty socks.
As I finally walked out of the stuffy and dirty lobby of Chicago’s Union Station, I smelled the polluted city stink, heard the screeching horns of the taxi cabs fighting each other for passengers, and watched helplessly as a woman’s purse was snatched off her shoulder by a bicyclist flying by. Ah, the moment I’ve been waiting for, for 62 whole days, I thought as my mom elbowed me in the arm, jerking me back to reality. In front of me there was an offensive-orange colored cab, waiting to take us to our 5-star hotel.
“Come on!” I yelled as I paced back and forth in front of the big window. I needed to get out of the room. It was nice and everything, but I felt trapped. And if I couldn’t go to the concert right then, at least I wanted to be outside seeing the town.
“Hold your horses!” Melissa yelled back. She was straightening her hair. Seriously?
“Chicago will still be there when we go outside,” my mom said from the bathroom. Duh, I thought. That wasn’t my point. But of course I couldn’t say that out loud to my mom. I wasn’t taking any risks on getting my ticket snatched away from me.
Finally we headed out into the city. After we walked for a minute we were standing on the Magnificent Mile. For those of you who haven’t been to Chicago, it’s so cool. There are tons of stores and restaurants for a whole mile. And if you walk further down, you get to my favorite place!
There we were standing in front of it in Millineum Park. It was beautiful, The Bean. I can’t even believe my mom didn’t remember it. At least she remember once she saw it.
“Oh yeah! Now I remember what you were talking about Ashley!” She took a picture of it. After we posed for some shots, I begged them to keep going. I too excited to stay in one place for two long.
“Let’s go over to Sears Tower,” my mom’s friend Melissa suggested. We all agreed and started walking. We asked a local guy for directions. He gave us direction and told us that it wasn’t called the Sears Tower anymore. It was now called the Willis Tower because it had been “bought out”, whatever that meant. Thanks for the history lesson dude, I just wanted to know how to get there. Little did we know how long the walk would actually be. And even better, we had to wait in line for an hour to get to the top.
“This is awesome,” I mumbled under my breath.
“What did you say?” my mom was giving me the stink eye.
Uh oh. I need to come up with a cover. “I was saying how awesome it is to be in Chicago.” Mom wasn’t buying it, but she dropped the subject thankfully.
We finally made it to the top and walked onto the Skydeck. It was pretty amazing to look all the way down to the street from the clear plastic balcony. I was a little scared as I sat on the balcony. It felt like nothing was around me. After we took pictures, my mom made me walk around the floor and read most of the history plaques. That’s just what I wanted to do.
I dragged her and Melissa out of there and we took a boat ride down to Navy Pier. It was cool. There were a couple bands playing. We got some free dried fruit. Gross. I threw mine to the birds. We walked around and looked at Lake Michigan. It’s really weird that Lake Michigan is just a lake. It’s so big, it looks just like when I’m standing on the beach in Florida. Every lake I’ve ever been to, you could always see to the other side. Not this one. It was huge. There was even a sandy beach along the shore where people were swimming.
Thank goodness Melissa said she was hungry. We got into a cab and went to my favorite Chihcago restaurant, Ed Debevic’s. It’s like one of the 50’s diners you see on tv. All the waiters and waitress are dressed in 50’s style and they talk real rude to you, on purpose. It’s funny, as long as it’s not me that gets picked on. Usually they pick on everyone though. This day, the waitress had it out for my mom. She made her wear one of those hats. It was funny.
After that we went to back to the hotel and went to bed. Finally! I knew that when I woke up in the morning, we would spend the day relaxing and getting ready for the concert of my life.
I tried to fix my hair. It wasn’t working. Melissa played with and it finally look okay. My mom yelled at me because she said I used a gallon of hair spray and told not to stand near an open flame, otherwise my hair would light on fire. I didn’t think she was funny. We walked outside and jumped into a taxi cab. The driver wasn’t very happy to have to take us all the way there, but he did it anyway. He drove like a crazy person! I didn’t think we were going to make it to the concert alive! That’s how bad he was. He cut people off, moved back and forth between lanes, honked his horn at everyone. It was so strange and a little scary.
FINALLY! The moment I had been waiting for! We made it to the concert in one piece! We found out seats and then…we had to wait. And wait. And wait some more. Then the lights went out, people started screaming, and out came a weird techno band. I sat down. Then the lights went out again. People started screaming. I stood up. It was Jessie and the Toy Boys. Who? I sat back down. Their music was okay, but that’s not what I wanted to hear. The lights went out again and red strobe lights flashed across everyone.
“Here’s your surprise.” My mom yelled into my ear so I could over everyone screaming.
Who. Could. It. Be? Out danced NICKI MINAJ! Oh. My. Gosh! I love her. Her outfits were so amazing and unique! She was so good. She played some of my favorite songs like, Moment for Life, Save Me, and Roman’s Revenge. She did all these weird skits during her performance, it was kind of weird but that’s what made it different and fun to watch.
When Nicki Minaj was over, I thought Britney would finally come out. But no. We had to wait another 30 minutes! Finally, the best part of the concert was about to begin. The crowd started counting down. I was counting down with them in my head.
There she was! My idol! She danced onto the stage singing Hold it Against Me. I knew every single song she played that night and I danced and sang along. So did my mom and Melissa. They looked funny! My favorite song was probably Drop Dead featuring Sabi. Britney sang and danced so well, I think it was really one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to.
After the concert, on our way back to the hotel, we couldn’t find a cab. There were so many people at the concert and we had to walk for hours until we finally found a cab. My feet hurt so bad! When we finally got back to the hotel room, we talked and talked about the concert. I didn’t want to go to bed. I didn’t want it to be over! It was one of the best trips ever and the best concert ever too. And like Britney sang in her last song, “Keep on Dancing til the World Ends!”