All My Loving

As I was working out in the yard this morning, I was listening to my iPod shuffle, and reveling in the randomness and awesomeness that is my shuffle's playlist...I went from Seven Nations (Celtic rock) to Adam Lambert singing Aerosmith to Sutton Foster singing Astonishing from Little Women(fantastic song!) to Paul McCartney singing Live and Let Die.....

...when I realized....I am seeing Sir Paul McCartney - tonight! As a (very) early birthday present, Sean is taking me to see Sir Paul at Citi Field, where I will unleash my inner 13 year old Beatlemania loving fangirl self. Now, there are many things in the world that I like and enjoy. There are things that I love...And then there are The Beatles.

My love affair with The Beatles began in 7th grade when my best friends Mariko and Lauren made me listen to some of their music. I had heard songs before, but never really paid attention the the musicality and genius that spanned The Beatles career. We formed a little cover band, jamming out in Mariko's basement. I played piano, Lauren played guitar/bass and Mariko played her big brother Kenji's drums. We were pretty damn good for a couple 7th grade girls. It didn't stop there.

We watched Help! and A Hard Days Night non-stop. The entire Anthology was always checked out of the library by one of the three of us. We watched the scene in Help! where Paul is shrunk down and for a split second you see his bum before he wraps a gum wrapper around - we watched it in slow motion. Over, and over, and over.

There's a part in Help! where they are on a beach in the Caribbean and play a game called "Beep Beeps" where they bend forward and run around as quickly as possible going "beep beep beep beep beep beep" which we did anywhere we went...And of course, the scene in A Hard Days Night when they find the exit to the studio they feel trapped in, burst out the door yelling "WE'RE OUT!" and they run around a field tackling each other and acting like hooligans to Can't Buy Me Love. Every Tuesday afternoon at 1:55 pm (because Tuesday was the day we all stayed after for Jazz Band) we busted out the back door of the school and ran out to the football field for a good 5 minutes of shenanigans.

So yes, I am a Beatle-nut. I got teary when I watched the intro to The Beatles Rock Band edition that comes out in September. I remember the morning my dad woke me up to tell me "another Beatle went to Heaven" when George passed away. I remember when Linda McCartney died of breast cancer and I cried all day. My mom took me to the Strawberry Fields section of Central Park on our first visit to the city. We didn't know it was at the most northern end of the park and that it would take a while to find it, but she knew what it would mean to me, so we went. When many girls plastered their bedroom walls with Backstreet Boys and Spice Girls, I had the Beatles. Album covers, drawings, anything Beatles.

In 2002, Paul toured America, and he played in Boston 2 days before my 19th birthday. The minute tickets went on sale, I bought two for my mom and I. I don't even remember how I paid for them, maybe graduation money. But we were in the top row of the Fleet Center, directly to the right of the stage, and the second Paul came out and you could see his silhouette behind a big white screen, I lost. I bawled, like a little kid. I was so happy.

So , I am emotionally preparing myself for tonight. I warned Sean that in 7 years, he's never seen this true side of me. I think he can handle it.

So my friends, in 3 hours, I will be in absolute Beatle-bliss. I leave you with this video from his 2002 tour...