We were at the John Mayer concert the other night. We narrowly missed the 4:48 pm GO Train at Appleby Station after weaving through traffic to get to the station, running across the parking lot, waiting patiently behind 6 girls who had to individually get their tickets and then dashing to the platform, all the while having to pee, only to see the doors firmly shut in our face.
Slumped shoulders and all, we wondered if we should wait an hour for the next one (seriously, what's up with transit running hourly at rush hour? This jaunt reminded me of why I can't work downtown anymore). A kind lady told us about another Burlington station that had a different train in between and that her and her husband would show us where to go if they could hop in with us. Our car was full with Michael's work samples so we decided to drive to Oakville and grab the next train. Still having to pee, we made it in time and arrived at Exhibition Station promptly at 6:00 pm.
The concert was amazing. We had fifth row seats and could see everything. Being a people watcher that I am, I had the chance to gawk at people around us. The guy beside us was on his phone the entire concert checking Twitter updates. He clearly ignored his wife and she looked uncomfortable and sad. I wonder why some people even bother staying married.
John Mayer's performance was truly outstanding. I've always thought him to be mellow and prefer that artists sing their songs as we know them on the album rather than some strange twisted version in concert that we can't recognize. His performances were anything but mellow. He rocked the hell out of those songs and arranged his lineup based on fans' Twitter requests that day. He called Toronto the "L.A." of Canada and said if we are like L.A., we are all soul-less people who alienate and then give back, alienate and then give back. As I looked around at everyone on their phones lost in their own introvert world at a live performance, I thought to myself, just how right he was.
The ride home was a complete nightmare. The GO was packed already from Union's Blue Jays fans and we had to cram ourselves in and stand the entire ride. While standing, I observed a few things. There was a strange guy sitting next to me drawing what appeared to be some sort of cartoon cat creature and beside it had something scrawled about "To the cute girl on the bus."
He had a smile on his face that I found creepy.
On the other side of us was a group of girls I would say no older than 16. They were heading home to Oakville as well and had their Marc Jacobs and Coach purses clutched closely to them.
One girl, obviously the leader of the group, was a beautiful tall blonde girl with perfectly manicured nails and toes and long, straight blond hair; you know the kind of hair that girls with wavy coarse hair like me used to dream about and spent hours ironing to get.
The girls chatted. I listened.
"How can he even stand going out with her for TWO years?" the leader asked the rest of the group. "I could barely stand to listen to that awful laugh for one night."
The other girls proceeded to imitate the laugh, much to the leader's delight. The leader then remarked, "Well at least she has a cute nose. It's small." The others nodded in agreement.
Haughtily, the leader continued her conversation about someone who she said was too stupid to even waste her time texting back. This person was clearly an imbecile and not worth her very limited time.
Another girl of the group chimes in. "Did you see Ashley's hair? She dyed it brown". The leader responds "Well she's doing a terrible job with it. She really should spend the money and get it done, not buy boxed hair dye. Too bad she can't afford it." An erruption of laughter followed.
The leader then went on to remind her friends or should we call them followers, of the time that she was in Bora Bora. Excuse me? What teenagers can afford to go to Bora Bora in Tahiti? That's a ten thousand dollar trip!
I closed my eyes and tried to drown out my surroundings and as I did noticed the leader checking me out from head to toe. I'm sure she noticed my half-assed peeling nail polish and had a chuckle on my behalf. Who the hell do these teenagers think they are these days?
As we arrived to Oakville, the leader tossed back her hair and dramatically exclaimed " OH THANK GOD! I can't take another minute on this dreadful transportation." I looked at Michael and said, "We are not having a girl and we are never moving to this snotty city." The girls hopped in their Infiniti SUV (seriously) and drove away.
As we were exiting the train, the strange guy passed his picture to a slightly overweight and shy looking girl and said, "This is for you." She looked taken aback, kind of perturbed and kind of flattered. I looked at Michael and smiled. The guy was harmless and wanting to make someone's day. He walked away and smiled.
Sometimes the good people make up for the ugly ones.
No matter how pretty they are.
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