As you read yesterday, I had the opportunity of a lifetime to make Emily a very happy nearly 13 year old. Darren and I established between ourselves that this experience, as well as a chic new outfit, would be Emily's birthday present this year. Her birthday is December 26. It's an important birthday. This was an appropriate gift.  We also decided not to tell her until the last minute.

So I picked her up early from school. She said, "Why are you here?"  I said, "I thought you were probably sick and tired of hearing all of your friends talking about the concert. I know you really wanted to go, and you know I tried, but just couldn't come up with the tickets. I figured you still deserved the fun, so I'm going to go buy you a Miley Cyrus outfit, and you and I are going to go down and hang out with the crowd before the concert. How does that sound?"  She was very excited about that!

So off we went to Fashion Bug, where we found a cute shirt on sale WOOT! She had leggings and a little black mini skirt, she she was good to go.  We drove to the venue, and she was just really excited to be there. She had an autograph book, and I had the camera.

As we were walking to the concert, I turned to her and said, "Happy birthday, Emily. You're going to the concert."  She didn't get it for a minute. She said, "Thank you!" and kept jabbering about the concert and the big pink bus. I looked at her and said, "Emily. YOU ARE GOING TO THE CONCERT!"  As it dawned on her, her eyes popped open, her jaw dropped, and she had tears in her eyes.  "Are you serious?  HOW!" So I told her we were meeting her friend.

We stood in line to win prizes (Em won a poster), we listened to a really good concert (Jonas Brothers, Hannah Montana, Miley Cyrus...yes, same person but DEFINITELY a different persona). We loved jamming out to "SOS" with the Jonas Brothers. Emily was singing, "Nobody's Perfect" at the top of her lungs. It was primo "GNO" for the Gallup Girls! It was most certainly "The Best of Both Worlds" for us.  There were so many costume changes, we were dizzy!  It was just a wonderful time. I'm so glad we did this.

After the concert, we called Darren and decided to meet at 12th and Grand so he could pick us up. The Kansas City police deserve kudos for how they handled the mangled traffic pattern, and the closed road in front of the Sprint Center. Yes, there was a little bit of confusion. Yes, it took a while to get from one place to another. But that's typical! For us, we kept having to tell Darren we'd meet him at a different place, because where we wanted to meet him was closed, or the streets were changed to one way, or something. It was kind of comical. You just go with the flow.

At least, that's what you SHOULD do. Instead, Emily and I witnessed an act so ugly, we're just kind of scratching our heads.

We were standing on the corner of 12th and Grand. There were 4 officers putting up barricades, explaining the process to the people who were stopped, and directing traffic. It was going very well, so after a while, 3 of the officers left. At that point, this man in a van ran through the barricades, barely missing the police officer. The officer yelled, "What do you think you're doing?" The man started yelling, "I'm going to get my family! They're down there, and I'm tired of chasing all around town to find her." The officer said that he couldn't get there, the street was closed, filled with pedestrians, and they would make sure the pedestrians were escorted up to where we were, and he could find his wife then. The man started yelling and cussing, and the officer went over to the window, and leaned in to talk to the man. The man punched the cop, and grabbed the torch baton. The officer reached in to restrain him, and the man started screaming about police abuse. At this point, I moved Emily into the bus closure in case the guy went even more ballistic and drew a gun. At this point, the other cops came up, and they dragged the man out of the window and restrained him, as his wife came screaming hysterically up the street. They handcuffed him, and by the time we left, he was calm, sitting handcuffed on the sidewalk, and they had a wheel stop bar on his truck.

Unbelievable. In front of a bunch of family who had just came out of the concert in a great mood, having fun, and this guy had to make a fool out of himself.

But, despite the entertainment, it was a great evening. As we approach teen-hood, I don't know how many more opportunities I will have to be "cool," so I'm so grateful I had last night!