Nico Vega and Train Concerts

It was 10 days after my last revision when I was 15.  I was barely walking, and still was in a ton of pain in my head, neck and abdomen. They had to remove the old tubing that went from my head to my abdomen, and then they put in new tubing. But instead of removing the old tubing, they just left it "free floating" ... curled up in my abdomen. YAY! Nothing could feel better than that! Right?

My hair was matted and I refused to comb it. I have super thick hair, there was blood and iodine in it, and some hair was caught in the incisions. If anyone looked at my head, it hurt! It took forever to get in a comfortable position to fall asleep. At that time (before surgery) I had a bunk bed with a futon couch underneath. But when my shunt started to fail, I was unable to climb the ladder because I was too dizzy and clumsy and so only slept on the futon couch. The only drawback was accidentally whacking my head every time I got out of bed. Anyway. Fun.

The doctors luckily try to reuse the same incision site - you can only see about 1/2 the original scar... and yes, I have purple hair.

One of the many, many abdomen incisions...

I had tickets to see Train and...a couple days after Train...Nico Vega!  My two favorite bands!  AND I was not about to sell the tickets for anything! I had these tickets forever (we had bought them before we knew my shunt was going to fail.) I was going to these concerts. No matter what.

My Grandma and I! Having lots of fun at the Train show!

So, we packed up the mini-van, got me all propped up with pillows and comfortable in the back seat (my grandma sat right next to me in case I fell over - she is always so worried) and we headed down to the Houston Rodeo! I had so much fun! I was very happy we had seats, though, instead of standing like we usually do for every other concert. I wasn't in much pain at all during the whole show.  I even wore a crown on my head that crossed my incision and I had no problem. I sang to every song like I always do. Train played their old stuff and some new stuff. 

They put on a great show as always! I got a new shirt and finally met some people that I am friends with on Twitter, they were very nice! I felt as amazing as possible - so excited to see Train for the millionth time (it never gets old), until I got back to the hotel and the "excitement" buzz started to wear off.

So I thought, "Hmmmm, maybe that crown and dancing and singing at the top of my lungs wasn't the best idea, considering its 10 days after my surgery."  But, it was totally worth it! My mom gave me Advil and a sleeping pill, and I slept with my grandma (after being propped up). I couldn't sleep with my younger brother because it would be unsafe considering he turns into a Ninja in his sleep and probably would have kicked me in the head or punched me in the stomach. Yes, you read that correctly. The most non-flexible kid has done it before!

Just a few days later, was the Nico Vega concert back in Dallas at the Prophet Bar. I had been waiting for this show forever! I wasn't going to skip it.  Even though it was only 13 days after my surgery and there was a terrible storm (typical, usual Texas storm, but a freak out storm for the rest of the US) going on. And my mom tried and tried and tried to talk me out of it (even though she really wanted me to go, and she really wanted to go), since the Train one was so rough for me, but I wasn't buying it! 

We got to the concert and guess what? The power went out at the Prophet Bar, there were flood warnings, tornado warnings, and almost every warning possible for the DFW area, and the concert got pushed back a couple hours. The weather was absolutely crazy. The opening band couldn't figure out how to bring their gear in with out drowning it.  It ended up being a very long night, but then again it was soooo worth it!

We waited as the weather alerts kept popping up and I tried not to move. I sat for as long as possible, so I could stand for the whole show. My grandma came along for the show too, and I think her and I were the oldest and youngest at the show.  (We were the coolest, by far) I was right next to the speaker, which worried my mom. The venue held maybe 150 people at the most, but maybe 40 people came, probably because of the storm. I enjoyed it SO much, it was great!! I love how the the lead singer, Aja, moved with the music, I loved how comfortable they were with the crowd, treating us like friends. After the show, I met the band, they are such incredibly nice "normal" people. Aja (the lead singer) is from Oregon! Yay! Someone else from the Northwest! I bought one of Rich's (the guitar player) tank tops that he made in his apartment, and it's my most favorite tank top. (The next year I found out from him that I was the only one to buy that tank top.) The drummer Dan was very nice too, and the bass player Jamila was very sweet too. I think I heard that was one of her first shows with them.

Dan and I at the Prophet Bar

Aja and I at the Prophet Bar

Jamila and I at the Prophet Bar

Rich and I at the Prophet Bar

Their show was so small it was incredibly cool to see them in that type of setting - I feel so 'privileged'  -  and then so cool to see them 2 years later opening for Imagine Dragons at the American Airlines Center.

By the way, the line for people that wanted to meet Nico Vega at AAC went on forever!! How was this possible? After all, they were my band to begin with! But still, I was so proud of them. :) I also saw them open for Imagine Dragons at the House of Blues in between those 2 shows (Prophet/AAC), and when I went to meet them at the HOB show I had my tank top on an Rich got so excited when he saw me wearing that 'one of a kind' top! Rich also asked me to follow him, because he didn't have any Sharpies to sign stuff with!

Fun times!!
Find your band!