Wild and Absolutely, Truly Happening.

Last summer I had a rather sudden friendship take hold with a New Yorker named Maayan--if you read this blog with any regularity, you've seen her name. She's a fellow Keane fan, also a fan of Mumford and Sons, and the awesome lady who got Richard to sign a tour book with my name on it. She's one of my fellow Swimmy's Ladies, and she's the one who called me a few times to check up on me after I landed in the Emergency Room in October. Once upon a time, I thought that online friendships were weird; these days I know better. Thanks to the World Wide Weird, a loud, music-loving actress in New York City and a loud, music-loving music nerd in California were able to meet and become friends. Never would've happened otherwise.

As our friendship progressed, we joked that we are loud enough to create a Wall of Sound over the Midwestern states. With her noise from NYC and mine from CA, people in Nebraska are starting to ask us to keep it down.

Over the last few months we've sent ideas back and forth on Facebook, through email, and on the phone about just how we should meet. I should go to New York City...except that I don't have plane ticket money. We had tentative plans to spend every last cent in our respective savings accounts to go to Coachella, but alas, it wasn't feasible. Finally, Maayan said, "Look, if Mumford and Sons come to San Francisco--and we both know they WILL--I will fly out to California and we will go to the show together.

Yesterday, it was announced that they will be doing a six-stop Railway Tour, starting in Oakland (hey, close enough to San Francisco!). I saw this first thing in the morning on waking up and immediately sent the link to Maayan on her Facebook page. I texted her, too, for good measure.

Duh, of course we had to get tickets!

Tickets went on pre-sale at 9:00 PST this morning. Because Mumford and Sons have had a recent spike in popularity after their amazing performance on the Grammy's, we knew it could be tough to get tickets, so we were both ready and waiting at our computers.

I woke up at about 7:30. Dad came in to my room a few minutes later (tonight I'm home in Stockton, but yes, I spent the extended weekend at Mom and Dad's) and asked if my cats had disrupted the internet wireless tower that, for some reason, has to be set up in the guest room. "No," I mumbled sleepily.

"I can't get online," was Dad's reply. That woke me up.

After some time, he was able to get online with his laptop. I'm not a fan of laptops but if that's the way I was able to get tickets, I wasn't going to argue. Finally, Internet came back on the desktop computer I prefer to use, and I happily logged into Facebook.

At about 8:40, Dad needed to shower. The computer is in Mom and Dad's bedroom, so I had to vacate to give him privacy. He knew that I needed to be back in there by 9:00, and Mr. Former Air Force Officer knows how to shower quickly. Still, I fretted and paced until he opened the door at 8:50 and said, "All yours!"

I raced in and immediately started a Facebook powwow with Maayan. At promptly 9:00, I refreshed the page for buying tickets and got put in a queue because of overwhelming volumes of people.

My heart was pounding, and I was breathing like I'd just gone running. Maayan had the same thing on her computer. Finally, after about 10 minutes, I got through to a page that required a password! I almost flipped out. I was muttering to myself. Dad, sitting nearby, said, "What's wrong?"

"I don't know! I'm...I don't know! I'll tell you later! What is going on?!"

I checked the official site for Mumford and Sons. Aha! A password! I quickly typed it in, fearing that by now, a quarter past, tickets would be sold out for the presale, and our hopes of going reduced to getting tickets tomorrow in the general sale, when scalpers swoop in and gather up bunches of tickets.

But good news! After filling in my credit card info, I received a confirmation that I had two tickets. I called Maayan on my cell phone.

"We've got them!!"

"Mother--- I am hating this site right now! What the hell do we do? Where's this password? I--"

"Maayan! We've GOT THEM!!"

"We've got them?"

"YES!"

"I'm still mad at this stupid site!"

"But we've got tickets!"

It finally started to sink in for both of us, especially once I got a confirmation email and forwarded it to her. Still, it took both of us a while to really start to realize that yes, we're going to a Mumford and Sons show together (only way it could be better is if we were going to see Keane, but that will have to wait) and now she just needed to get that plane ticket.

As of tonight, the plane ticket has been purchased, and plans are being made. We're both planners, so tentative itineraries for her whirlwind trip to California are being considered. And the level of excitement is rising rapidly. I foresee a lot of OMG's and LOL's and other excited exclamations being punted back and forth on Facebook for the next five or six weeks.

So a Wild and Absolutely True Adventure begins. Maayan and Megan, taking Mumford and Sons by storm on a Thursday evening in Oakland. The Wall of Sound is coming to California. It will be epic. It will be fun. And it will be LOUD.