(not exactly the expected topic for today but a nice break from the cray-cray anyway)…

Today’s post is brought to you by Hoodie Allen singing his hit “All About It” featuring the impossibly incredible Ed Sheeran. It’s the song that inspired my purchase of the album “People Keep Talking”, which is not my typical type of jam and yet I love it so much!

When Hoodie comes up in the shuffle when the kids are in the car, they always say “It’s Hoodie Alien” cuz the first time they saw his name on the display they misread it. He’s been Hoodie Alien 👽 ever since. 😜

There’s this thing I do when I fall hard for a new artist. I hunt them down and find out where they are playing and I go there. I’ve had some epic trips that have sprung from this approach and it works great because of the travel bug I get from time to time. I’ve been to tons of local shows of course, but my more memorable concerts have been in red rocks in CO, Kansas City, and as far as Belfast in Northern Ireland (which was actually in Bangor but I stayed in Belfast and traveled there by train the day of the concert).

Anyway, when I started to be “All About It” with Mr. Alien, I researched if and where he was touring. As it turned out, he had a date in omaha and so I did that thing I do and buy tix on the spot. It was a Monday show in Benson if I recall correctly and while Monday’s would not be my first choice, it didn’t matter.

My mom was wanting me to drive with her to Broomfield Colorado the weekend before, but we would for sure be home in plenty of time for the show. My mom typically gets restless visiting my brother and his family and I knew she would be ready to roll first thing that Monday morning, giving me plenty of time once I arrived back in Omaha.

As it t turns out, she became more antsy than usual and ended up wanting to leave on Sunday. Fine by me! We packed up the car mid morning on Sunday and the plan was to hit the gas station and the Starbucks on our way to the interstate, which we did. We got gas and rolled into the adjacent plaza and I ran in to get my latte. By the time I came out, I could tell something was horribly wrong.

“The car is acting really strange, idling really rough”, she said. I was taking the first turn behind the drivers seat and so I hopped in and started to pull out.

By the time I rounded the first turn out of one parking lot and Into a larger one, it was shaking really hard and then the check engine light came on. I pulled into an empty parking spot and turned off the car. The car was practically brand new and we were looking at each other like “what the hell”.

My brothers house was less than half a mile away so we called him to come get us and let him know what was going on. We then made calls to my moms insurance company and triple A. Since it was Sunday most auto repair places were closed but there was one that was open not too far down the road. We had the car towed.

Long story short, my mom accidentally put diesel gas in the fuel tank and they had to drain the whole thing and flush it out. Luckily we did not run it long enough to ruin the engine. Needless to say all of that took like a day to figure out and the only place that would do that flush was the Jeep dealership which wasn’t going to be open until Monday morning.

I ended up not getting home until really late on Monday and missed the hoodie alien show. Better luck next time!

Except there’s never been a next time.. I fell out of love with Hoodie and let go of ever seeing him play. Probably I was always more in love with Ed anyway, (who I did see in concert of course!).

Now every time I hear that song, I think of that not-so-epic adventure. True story. Ha.

That’s whole bit is a brief departure from all the wedding nonsense that is taking over my life right now (1 week to go! 😱💍🎉)!

I now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.

😘😘

~Miss SugarCookie