There'll be no topping number nine!

We picked Mia up at about three on Friday and then we were on our way to Omaha to see Goldfinger. We took the Lecompton exit, one we normally take to Topeka... which is exactly what we did. No one was paying attention and Rodney took the wrong exit and so 40 minutes later we were back in Lawrence heading toward Kansas City. Three hours later we're in Omaha and we find the Ranch Bowl. It turns out that the doors weren't even open until eight, so we were early despite the trip to Topeka.

After waiting through the line and the opening bands, which took extra long because Showoff didn't play so the other two openers had time to kill, Goldfinger took the stage. I was positioned next to a speaker on the left side of the stage because I wanted to a)not get the shit kicked out of me like I did on Wednesday, and b)I wanted to take pictures of the band. And take pictures I did. The show was amazing - and the crowd wasn't so bad either. This show was definitely better than the one in Lawrence. Anyway, Rodney and I took a bunch of pictures, and they pretty much all turned out well. I leave for England on Wednesday, so I won't have time to scan the pictures from the show until I get back. That sucks.

After the show we hung around outside waiting for the band. Charlie came out first and signed autographs, which is strange because he's usually the elusive one - I don't think I have his autograph. Anyway, he does his thing and then gets on the bus with three or four girls in tow. Then Darrin comes out and signs autographs, and then Kelly comes out. We talked to Kelly briefly and he remembered us from the Lawrence show. I think it was around this time that a few more girls went on the bus and a bunch of guys banged on the door. One yelled "Hey that's my girlfriend in there!" to which some guy replied "There are a lot of guys girlfriends in there." Charlie came out of the bus the and said "You got a problem?" I didn't hear the conversation, but Charlie stepped back into the bus and said "Not a very healty relationship if you're not even going to listen to your boyfriend..." The girl got off the bus at that point. Then John came out of the Ranch Bowl and got mobbed. Rodney said "Hey John, check this out" and stuck his leg up. John initially went to sign it, but then he realized that Rodney was showing him his tattoo and John said something like "Wow! That's awesome!" and I showed him mine and he said "Woah, you have one too! I gotta get those on tape!" After he made his way through the autograph seekers, he gets on the bus. We talked to Kelly a little more and then waited for John to come back out, all the time saying "John won't forget us, he just won't!" And he didn't. He came out with one of those digital video cameras with the little screen that pops out from the side. He tried to tape us outside but it was dark. He then said the words that I will never forget for the rest of my life - "It's too dark out here, you're going to have to come on the bus." We had to, there was no other choice. So on we went. As we boarded, some guy yells that he has lots of tattoos, and John cooly replies "Not Goldfinger tattoos." or something like that. We get on the bus and there's Charlie sitting on one of the couches with three girls. Donut Dan's sitting on the other side and Darrin's in the back. I think there were some people sitting at the table too, but anyway - we were told to stand up on the bench and put our legs up on the table. The table where Goldfinger eats their breakfast and dinner! Darrin comes from the back and asks "What've we got here?" and grabs my knee and looks around at my tattoo. Charlie tells us how glad he is that we didn't get "Goldfinger" tattooed. He said "What if you don't like our next album?" Rodney went mute, so I said something like "Yeah, we thought about getting that but then we thought what if you guys, heaven forbid, did something we didn't like." All the while John's video taping and taking pictures of our tattoos. When he's done I ask if he'd sign them. I said "Could you sign them... 'cause we're weird like that." Everyone laughed and Charlie searched around and gave John a sharpie. He signed right above them "JWF", his initials. We took a picture of them after we got off the bus, which will be up when I get back from England. It was a dream come true.

After that we were all really tired, hungry, and it was really late. We went to Perkins and ate and then decided to find a hotel and go home in the morning. It turns out that the state track meet was in town that weekend so we ended up driving an hour towards home before we found a place to sleep. The Hamburg Motel, in Hamburg, IA. Mia and Rodney got the bed and Ben and I slept on the floor. It wasn't comfortable, but it was better than being in that damned car. We left at ten the next morning and got home around noon.

I must say, that was the best night of my entire life. I'm a groupie, and damn proud of it. We were on GOLDFINGER'S BUS!!!

Oh yeah, Rodney asked Darrin who he thought would win the Stanley Cup. What'd he reply? "The Avalanche!"

G-O-L-D-F-I-N-G-E-R spells relief.

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