tp gal, MWR & Seal

Some days are better than others. Everyday life is a wonderful thing but there are some days that are just a little more exiting than others. Yesterday was one of those days. Thanks to MWR who had an online chat experience about photography with the singer Seal he was given two tickets to the Seattle Show and backstage passes. Lucky me, I got to be the +1.

It was the grand opening of the venue and there were all sorts of folks on hand who were quite high up in the food chain. As our seats were in the 7th Row Center they didn't really suck too badly. The CEO and COO of Washington Mutual Bank were in the seats in front of us, the president of the Seattle Seahawks was in front of MWR, but when he stepped out Warren Moon (yes, the NFL Football hall of famer) came and sat with his lovely wife. Other sightings included Matt Hasselback and a bunch of other footballers. I did comment to MWR that's it was a little unfortunate that we weren't bigger football fans.

The show was great. The Paul Allen band opened (they have a different name like "Scourge" or "Ailment" something not very rock n' roll) and they were great. Mr. Allen was not present - they claimed he had a cold but I bet he was home stacking his millions. Chris Terrill (also a Seahawk) came on stage and sang a few songs. He was fun.

The Seal concert itself was great. He's got a lot of energy and seemed to be having fun. Once the show was over we flashed our backstage passes and started following the football crowd (picture large, fit men with thin young booby women on their arms) to where we thought the 'back stage' was. I was aced out of an elevator from a mildly high level executive at Washington Mutual and then snootily directed to a different area of the building by an event person. We made our way down a non descript hall following signs to Seals dressing room where we found him in the hall with Shaun Alexander and Warren Moon. Both Mr. Alexander and Mr. Moon were star struck which was cool to see. Another couple was there was well and it turned out they too had met Seal through the photography thing. We chatted as we waited for the football posee to visit.

Seal was so nice and was really eager to talk cameras with MWR and the other guy. The football executives were clearly ready to "party in the back room" with Seal, but he was doing all the talking to MWR. We stood there until well after midnight. When it was time for us to go, Seal kissed me on both cheeks (remembered my name -he remembered everyone's name he met- wow) I wished him good luck with the new baby and we left.

It was all very very exciting. There was a lot of standing around, but it wasn't like standing on line at the metro waiting for the 111 bus to suburbia. We talked to one of Shaun Alexanders friends - clearly a football player himself. (Who was he? No clue -- I'm so awful!! - mystery solved Leonard Weaver) His wife was very nice and we had a genuine interaction. In fact, most of the Shawn Posee were down to earth and I was talking with one gal and expressed that I was a little embarrassed to be start struck and that I really make an effort to leave celebrities alone. She said that because of her relationship with 'these guys' that she gets to meet all sorts of people and there are times when she gets to excited she wants to do the autograph thing. (No autographs for me...I would loathe to have to do it and thus will not ask for them.)

MWR and I babbled the whole way back to his place and I had crazy dreams all night (like I do when I'm overly excited about something) and woke up this morning at 11! It's back to my normal life today (blogging with the cat sleeping at my feet) but I know it was real - I have photos!