The Blue, the Bad, and the Ugly

Tonight was dress rehearsal for Stadium of Fire. I volunteered to help this year, because a friend of mine is one of the directors and was desperate for people. There was an explosion of excitment when it was announced that Miley Cyrus was coming, but I couldn't care less about Miley Cyrus. However, when they said Blue Man Group would also be here, THEN I got excited. So of course I was willing to volunteer.

Unfortunately, it turns out that volunteering for Stadium of Fire is an awful experience, and if I'd known what I was getting into, I would never have done it. I'll spare the details here, though. Anyway, tonight was the culmination of awfulness, as we were in the heat; it was extremely chaotic; and we kept getting screamed at by the organizers. (Did I mention that we were volunteers and only there out of the goodness of our hearts?) Several times, I wanted to just pack up and go home and let them figure things out on their own. But I didn't. (This was the BAD, from "The Blue, the Bad, and the Ugly," in case you didn't get it. And yes, I'm going out of order.)

I knew Miley Cyrus wasn't going to be at the dress rehearsal, and I thought it was pretty unlikely that Blue Man Group would be there either. So going into it, I thought the whole dress rehearsal was just going to be awful. Don't get me wrong. The experience was awful. But, I will admit--watching the pre-show stuff was very, very cool. I started to be less upset about still being there. Then they announced Blue Man Group--and Blue Man Group actually came onto the stage!! I couldn't believe they were actually there!! And they weren't in their makeup, so we got to see the actual guys (I was sitting on the fourth row, by the way.) It was so, SO amazing. The picture isn't so great, but I promise that's Blue Man Group, in the flesh.


I got to watch from so close because I am a field usher, so I'm...on the field. The "Stadium of Fire Dancers" (a group of 1,300 girls aged 10-16) were stuck at the opposite end of the field behind the barriers we'd set up as our part of the rehearsal. (They were very vocal about this, by the way.) Shortly before Blue Man Group finished, our leader told us we had to get up and go clear off the field so we could run our part again. I went and got all my cones and headed back to my starting position. Suddenly, I heard thousands of screams behind me. I turned around and saw a stampede of 1,300 girls running toward me.

Apparently when they saw us taking our barricade down, they broke through and stormed the field. It was a terrifying moment, let me assure you. It was one of those, "I have no place to hide"' moments that you'd typically only feel if you were in a phone booth that was being held up or taking a stroll through a lions' den in the Sahara. My friend the director was one of the few who had to get them back off the field. I just hope no one ever yells at me like that in my life ever.

Anyway, that was an interesting little tangent, but seeing Blue Man Group like that was one of the coolest things ever. I was completely thrilled. (This was the BLUE part of the title. Are you figuring this out now? Just wait. It gets better...) When we were done, we were putting our stuff away, and I was standing at the entry with two of my friends, waiting for B. I looked up and saw three guys walking toward us. I started frantically tapping my friend, because I couldn't speak. I just pointed. It was Blue Man Group. RIGHT THERE. I totally geeked out, without hesitation. But my friend (not the one I'd been tapping; the other one) went right up to them and started talking. Luckily I had my wits about me just enough to think, "Hey, your friend is talking to Blue Man Group. You should join her," so I did. It was AWESOME. Don't believe me? Check this out:



In the car on the way home, we pretty much only communicated in shrieks, but the gist of the conversation was that we had just had a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and it ROCKED.

Now you're probably wondering what the UGLY part of the evening was. Well, lemme ask you this: How would YOU look if you spent several hours on a football field in the sun?