You Win Some & Dodge a Bullet on Others

We made it to September & Labor Day Weekend.  Kate & I had tented our way through the dogs days of summer & found a reward in some live concerts that didn't break the bank.  

After finishing up at Poway one Saturday, I overheard on 91X that they were giving away tickets to see Smashing Pumpkins at the arena on SDSU campus.  All you had to do was go to the Mattress Firm location in Point Loma between 3-5pm to enter to win.  It was on our way home from the market.

"Kate.  Is there a Kate here?" the DJ asked during a commercial break.  There was about 8-10 of us standing around the 91X tent.  We'd all entered our names & email addresses on their I-Pad.

"Yes!  I'm Kate!" she called out.

And, just like that we had ourselves two $85 bench seats to see the Smashing Pumpkins Labor Day weekend show at Viejas Arena for "Free Ninety-Nine."    

We took public transit to the show with our friend, Johnny, & right after Kate & I grabbed a tall draft beer we ran into Bryan, the market manager of SDSU.  "Enjoy the show," was all he said.

The next day, we packed the Escape for La Jolla & an overnighter at our friend, Jax's place in Del Mar.  She lived about a mile walk from the race track & Ice Cube was headlining the final "After the Final Race" concert series of the season. 

"We'll leave in ten minutes," we kept saying.  There were about ten of us at her house getting primed up to take the twenty minute stroll down the hill & under the 5 freeway to the fairgrounds.  Everyone was in good spirits by the time the front gate came into view in the distance.

Then came the shots...

More than a hundred people ducked & scattered at once.  I was up ahead of Kate, so we were separated when I went with one of our market vendor friends, Alexandria, into the closest building.  There we sat huddled under the windows.

"What should we do?" she asked me.

"I don't know," I said.  I texted Kate, but there were so many people, my text wouldn't go through.  I had only seen or heard about shootings on the news, but this was real.

Alexandria & I sat there in that room with about 15-20 others & waited.  The room was well lit & it seemed like we were in there for about an hour.  It wasn't that long in real time before a police man came in & told us everything was under control.

"We've secured the premises & the gun man has been apprehended," he told us.  "Everyone needs to leave the venue immediately."

"What about the concert?" someone asked.

"Sorry, folks but we're not letting anyone else in tonight per safety protocol," he said.

So, Alexandria & I went back outside & walked back up the hill to Jax's place.  A few of my friends were already back there, smoking cigarettes on the balcony & they let us in.

"Damn, what the hell was that all about?" my friend Tom asked.

"I don't know, but I'm glad nobody was next to the ticket booth," I said.

"Yeah, good thing we didn't actually leave after the 'ten minute warning,'" he said.

It was true.  It was a scary situation to be thrown into, & even though we didn't get to see Ice Cube, we spent the rest of the night listening to his music at Jax's place.  We were all grateful that nobody got hurt.