Now, I have been a fan of Bon Jovi's music for over 20 years (since high school) and only got to see him for the FIRST time in the Summer of 2003 at the now-demolished Veteran's Stadium in Philadelphia. It was a multi-band concert with Sheryl Crow & the Counting Crows (2 other fave bands of mine!) with Bon Jovi as the headliner. It was an awesome concert and was the fulfillment of a dream of mine for a long, long time. Even Chris was impressed esp since he wasn't too thrilled with having to go with me in the first place. (He's more of an alternative band kind of guy - you know, XM Radio and all that.)

So, back in early November 2005, I got an email from the Borgata Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City announcing that the hotel was sponsoring a concert at the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall with Bon Jovi! At first, I was like "Cool!" and then I was more like "Chris will never go again." So, I noted the date the tickets were to go on sale and waited. Well, the ticket sale day came, I was home alone, it was 10AM & I had a credit card sitting on my desk next to the computer. The rest, as they say, is history. I bought 2 tickets, called Chris at work and hoped that he wouldn't be too mad about it. He wasn't. Thank God.

This past Saturday was the concert and all I can say is "Oh, what a night!". The man and the band can still perform! I was blown away. First of all, Boardwalk Hall is HUGE! At first, I was thinking that the place was way too big and the sound was going to be crappy and the band was going to be the size of ants considering where our seats were. Wrong, wrong, wrong! Jon Bon Jovi sang the opening song RIGHT IN FRONT OF OUR SEATS! We were almost all the way in the back. He did the opening song and a couple of other songs right in the seats and then greeted people, shook hands, kissed fans, etc while he made his way back to the stage. Very cool. They also had a huge "fanavision" screen behind the stage so we could see them for the whole show. Again, I had the time of my life. I didn't even care that it rained all day, that my hair looked like crap, that I didn't eat one, single healthy food the whole day, that I felt like my lungs were collapsing as I walked through the casinos from all the smoke, and that Chris complained about the crowds, the traffic, the wait at all the restaurants and his $21 windshield wiper not working. Nothing was going to bring me down. As the song goes, "when the world gets in my face, I say 'have a nice day'!"

And, you know, the thing that struck me the most, the thing that made me feel old and made me realize just how far the world has come in 20 years...............during the first song, when Jon was in the middle of the crowd, I looked at the crowd around him (and me) and all I could see was everybody's picture cell phone pointed toward him taking his effin' picture! Back in the day, we all would have had our lighters up in the air!! Geez, we wouldn't have been allowed to even bring a camera into the arena!

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In other news, I met with my personal trainer last Tuesday. It was great to see her again and she did measurements. My BMI went up since August, but I knew that it would since I had stopped all my weight training stuff. I went from a BMI of 25% up to 28%. I should get that back down in a couple of weeks as long as I do the program she setup for me at least 3x a week. I also need to get a new mat and an exercise ball to help with my abs. I really need to focus on the abs. All the other measurements stayed about the same, give or take a 1/4 inch here and there, so that was a good sign. Needless to say, I couldn't move my fat, out-of-shape arms for about 4 days after I worked out on Tuesday.

Food intake has had its ups-and-downs in the past week or so. I know what I need to do, but sometimes I just don't do it. But, that applies to alot of things in my life right now -- job, relationships, food, exercise. I'm working on it. Reluctantly.

Thanks to all the great comments on my de-clutter project!! I am loving it and yes, it still looks like the pictures! I've been trying to sell the books and other assorted objects on eBay and Half.com (as noted by the links on my sidebar). I still have to go through some boxes of books. I think I might just publish a list of what I have on this blog somewhere and if someone sees something that they want, they can have it for the cost of mailing it to them. Any thoughts on this idea?

I'm down 4 lbs since January 1st. At this rate, I could be almost at goal by the end of the year. That's a good sign.

Bring on February. Maybe I can beat my own record!