Reunited with U2

This has been a week of sickness in the Quarnberg house! First it started with Brooklyn last Saturday, she came down with a bad cold, with a fever, bad cough, aches, etc... but she was a trooper and handled it much better than her parents have! She didn't complain much at all, even though it took until Wednesday before she started to feel good again. Of course, Tuesday and Wednesday ended up being the days when Brit, Carson and I all got it and we've all been sick ever since... It's always scary when you have sick kids, but so far Carson and Brooklyn have complained a lot less than Brit and I, apparently they're tougher than we are! Needless to say, it hasn't been a fun week. The one bright spot of being sick though is that it gives you a chance to do some more "relaxed" activities, like listen to music...

I'm a HUGE music fan! My Ipod is packed with everything from Our Lady Peace to classical music, I love really all types of music, but one band more than any has always seemed to be tied to different moments in my life, that band is U2!

U2 is coming out with a new album, No Line on the Horizon! It's going to be in stores on March 3rd nationwide! I've already listened to it 8+ times (don't ask me how I have it please...) and it's an extremely unique album. It seems to be a collection from Achtung Baby, Zooropa, Pop, All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Each song on NLOTH has a unique feel and flow and it's really growing on me, it's been fun breaking in a new U2 album. It's also been fun to run through the memories I've made with U2 since I've become a fan.

Probably the "best day" of my high school life involved the 1997 U2 Popmart Tour! It was senior year and my friends and I all wanted to go out with a bang, and when we heard that U2 was coming to Salt Lake City we knew that Popmart would be that bang! So, I stood in line and got a wrist band which did nothing but guarantee me a spot in line to buy the tickets a week later. That wrist band for that week become my life! I guarded it like it was a new born baby! I wore long sleeve shirts so that I wouldn't catch it on something and I tried to avoid any activities that would potentially put my wrist band in "harms way". (I know, I was a little psychotic back then, but it gets even worse...) 1 day before I was supposed to go wait in line to buy the tickets I got in an accident on the set of a play I was in, in high school (yes, I was a drama geek, maybe I'm admitting too much with this post?), anyways, basically I was running off of the set, but didn't realize that the set had been moved since I'd last been on it so I didn't realize that the door out of the auditorium wasn't where it was "supposed" to be. The end result was me crashing my skull into a solid brick wall and knocking myself unconscious... As I started to wake up the only thing on my mind was my wrist band! The first words out of my mouth were "is my wrist band okay?" LOL, I know, it wasn't my brightest moment ever! Luckily though, the wrist band was okay, I got me and my friends all tickets to the show, and we went and partied with U2 at the old Rice Stadium! Our seats were terrible, but we were in the building, which is really all that mattered! It was an amazing way to end my high school days!

Then, after my mission U2 started their Elevation Tour and my friends Bug, Mark and Heidi, my sister Amy and I all got tickets to the Denver, Salt Lake and Las Vegas shows and literally followed U2 around for a while. It was a riot! A few days before we were supposed to head to Denver though fate threw me a curveball again and I ended up in a pretty serious car accident where I injured my neck. The doctors told me that I should under no circumstances be at a U2 concert anytime soon... but hey, I'd already paid for the tickets, so really what choice did I have? LOL. I went... all drugged up on muscle relaxants and pain killers, but still ended up at the show, with my friends and had an amazing time. Because of my injury I had to give my General Admission ticket to Mark, so he, Bug and Amy were all down on the floor while Heidi and I used the seats her and Mark had bought. They were nose bleeds, but Heidi and I had a great time together, and really, just that fact that all of us were under the same roof enjoying a great concert was enough to make it one of the best days ever.

For the SLC and Vegas shows we had General Admission tickets which meant that if we waited in line all day we had a great shot at getting up close and personal with U2, so of course, that's what we did. For the SLC show I packed a bag of gummy worms and granola bars and tried to live off of this all day while we waited outside of the Delta Center. Then, right before the show I popped 3 caffiene pills... not a great idea! The rush of caffeine was too much for my empty stomach and 2 songs into the concert and felt the entire building start spinning and could feel myself crashing to the floor. I pulled myself out of the crowd, climbed up the stairs out of the arena and collapsed in the hallway of the Delta Center. The Delta Center staff took me to a health clinic room in the arena where me, and at least 5 other individuals all suffering from a similar fate watched the majority of the show on a TV with orange juice and crackers that were given to us by the medical staff... yeah, the SLC show wasn't my favorite memory... But in Vegas, I was smarter, ate better and got up close with U2 during the concert. I didn't have any "fainting" problems at this show, but Heidi did so Bug had to help her out of the crowd. Concerts are rough on your body! Depsite this though, we all had a great time. What my friends and I didn't know though was that the Las Vegas show would be our last concert together!!!

Since then, we've all gotten married, had kids and have split up to a certain extent. We still keep in touch but haven't made a road trip together since our Vegas U2 trip. We did though have a reunion of sorts during the most recent U2 Vertigo tour! I took Britney to it, it was her first U2 experience. We bought nose bleed seats at the Delta Center and took it pretty easy during the concert. Some of my other traveling U2 buddies (Bug and Amy) were there as well. We had a great time, but it was just a little too mellow for me (no car accidents, heads cracking brick walls or fainting, so it was a little too boring! LOL). I'm used to crazy circumstances when it comes to U2 concerts...

Right now I'm telling myself that I'm going to try to get General Admission tickets and go with Amy and whoever else we can find to the upcoming No Line on the Horizon tour (which hasn't been announced yet). It should be great!

I hope this didn't bore everyone to death! I like to view this blog as a journal of sorts and today I have U2 memories on the mind... They will always be linked to some of the best times of my life, times that I miss, but also really enjoy looking back on! Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't trade the life I have now to go traveling around with U2 again, but it's great to look back at those memories and enjoy the feelings they deliver.