On Sunday, I spent a whole day out enjoying myself, and it only cost me $4.93. And I'm totally okay with that. I had more fun that Sunday than I ever have by paying $25, $20, or even $15.
In Yeezus culture, people are easily spending hundreds of dollars on clothes that could be made at home. More and more "relationship goals" posts center around "My S.O. bought me this and this and this and this and this." 12-year-olds are walking around with iPhones, and someone who considers one million dollars a "small loan" is now the President. Well, I just spent $2.75 for an entire outing with my sister, and I loved every second of it.
This story starts with me getting two free tickets to go see LONESTAR at Batavia Downs. Already, another person and I were going to see a concert, and it cost me $0. All I had to do was send an email with my name, address, and Batavia Downs Casino player card ID. I sent the email, got the confirmation, and BAM, two free tickets. Then the 4th actually rolls around. The morning started out with me asking my dad if he still wanted to go with me to see the concert. Upon looking at his weather app, he decided that it looked too much like rain and that he didn't want to go. I then went to my sister and basically said: "So dad isn't going, are you going to?" Obviously, she said yes, so then we started getting ready. We only live about half an hour from the concert venue, so by 2:00 pm, we were done getting ready and just kind of lounging around until we decided that we actually wanted to leave.
By the time 2:15 rolled around, the two of us were in my dad's truck, headed down the street to Dollar Tree where we were about the spend the first $2.18 of the night. We weren't originally going to spend this money, but my dad was so intent on the possibility of rain, I told him that we would pick up two rain ponchos just in case. We got into the store, said a quick hello to my coworkers, grabbed two ponchos, cashed out, and got back in the truck all in less than five minutes. $2.18 spent, and 30 minutes to drive, it was destination LONESTAR. The windows were down, the hair was flying, and the conversation (because there is no radio in my dad's truck) was flowing.
We get to the casino right around 3:00 pm, right when the doors are supposed to open. Already, the lobby and gaming floor are FULL of people, the line winding through the entire gaming floor itself. This is where we hit a snag. My sister won't be 18 until December, so, due to legal reasons, she is not allowed to enter the gaming floor. I send her back out to the truck to get her ID in case she needed it, (she didn't), and I go wait in line. It's almost 3:35, and my section of the line still hadn't made its way up to the lobby, and my sister yet. I was worried the concert either wasn't going to start on time or that it WAS going to start on time and we'd miss some of it. Luckily, the line started moving quickly, and Olivia and I were out to our general admission spot by 4:00.
Some of you may be thinking, "What's so great about general admission?" Well, We were actually a lot closer than I thought we would be. We could see the performers clearly, but we weren't too close that we thought we'd go deaf. The show started out with a performance by the cover band Barnstorm who played roughly 7 songs. They were followed by Rob Bilson & the Rugged Hearts, who were then followed by Jillian Cardarelli. Guys. Let me tell you about Jillian Cardarelli. She was FANTASTIC. If you like country music, keep your eye out for her, because she's going to be HUGE one day. Olivia and I thought she was so good in fact, that when she went over to her booth after her set, we rushed over there and asked her if she would be willing to sign our tickets. Not only did she do that, she even let us take a picture with her, and gave us a free download code for one of the songs she performed. You might be thinking "What's the big deal about a picture and a signature?" Again, she's gonna be HUGE someday, and when she is, you'll only be able to get that stuff from her by paying hundreds of dollars for a VIP ticket. I got it for free.
LONESTAR, LONESTAR, LONESTAR. It's here. The time we were waiting for. The pep girl came back out on stage and Olivia, myself, and the whole crowd knew. LONESTAR would be on that stage in any second. They came out, and immediately Olivia and I started screaming. Here was a band we had listened to throughout our whole childhood, right here in front of us, live, and in the flesh. For one whole hour, we were singing, laughing, screaming, and crying. She knows I cried during "I'm Already There," but she may not know that I cried during "Front Porch Looking In." Though I died my hair brown back in December, for the first 19 years of my life, I was blonde. And if you can't tell from the photograph above, Olivia has red hair. I'm also roughly three years older than Olivia, so when we were growing up, we used to joke that "Front Porch Looking In" was about us because the lyrics go "There's a carrot top / who can barely walk / with a sippy cup of milk. / A little blue eyed blonde / with shoes on wrong/cause she likes to dress herself. / And the most beautiful girl / holding both of them." I don't know what it was, whether it was hearing that song live, or being there with my carrot top little sister, but that moment just felt so special to me.
Suffice to say, the concert was phenomenal. However, by the time it ended, Olivia and I were pretty hungry, but had no money to spend. Right before we were about to leave the concert lawn, she remembered that she had a Mark's Pizza coupon for a free order of fried dough and a free order of breadsticks. We make our way around the corner to Mark's, and Olivia orders the fried dough and breadsticks while I use the bathroom. When I get done, she's just sitting at a table waiting for the food. I take her place and she uses the bathroom. After we get our food, we're sitting eating it and Olivia looks at me and says "How much do you think a 2-liter costs?" I wasn't sure, so I told her to go look. The menu priced it at $2.50, so she went out to the truck and grabbed $3 in change. She bought a 2-liter of Mello Yello, and that's how we spent our remaining $2.75.
After we were done eating, I dropped Olivia off at her house in Batavia (another story for a different time), and drove home to Alden. The moral of this story is, I didn't have any less fun because I only spent $5, and I wouldn't have been happier if I spent more money. I had a really great day full of music, and laughter, and food with my sister. Also, not a single drop of rain fell until I started to drive home. It was gorgeous out for the entire concert. Anyways, I didn't have to break the bank to have a great day. And that's okay. While money lets you have fun, money and fun are not synonymous. I'm just glad Olivia had a good time.
