As many people know--or maybe it's just fanatical Long Islanders who drop everything for Billy Joel--Billy Joel performed the "Last Play(s) at Shea" last week. Though I'm a huge fan, I wasn't even aware of his performances until after the tickets were sold out (not like that was particularly hard since the sales only lasted an hour). However, after I found out about the shows, I immediately called my brother--the biggest fan I've ever met.
Shocker...he knew about the show...and had purchased 6 tickets, the maximum allowed per person. He told me two were for he and his wife, two were for my parents as my dad's birthday present, and two were up in the air but likely for some combination of myself, my sister, her husband, and my brother's sister-in-law. Well my offer was quickly made to purchase one of the tickets, not even knowing the price at which he bought them (impulsivity isn't always the best route to go). So a few minutes later I was "in possession" of a ticket to my fourth Billy Joel concert for Wednesday, July 16 at Shea Stadium. Well when I came home to celebrate my birthday, I was surprised with the ticket as a gift (which meant some money that could be saved in my bank account for a little bit longer...phew!).
Anyway, it ended up being my brother and his wife, my parents, my sister and I at the show a week and a half ago and it was INCREDIBLE. Billy Joel had such an amazing performance and was even humble enough to invite Tony Bennett, John Mayer, John Mellencamp, and Don Henley onto the stage to perform with him at various times throughout the night. It was awesome to see multiple generations present at the show and even better when everyone knew all the words to his songs. Seeing as my brother is such a big fan, I have grown up listening to Billy Joel--singing his songs in my brother's car when I was little, talking to friends about him in school, learning the historical context of "We Didn't Start the Fire"--only my favorite Joel song ever!, and seeing four of his shows with my family (yes, this was possibly better than his Millenium concert at MSG). I've also heard about how my brother and dad got to meet him and chat with him for a few minutes while I was in Spain last summer.
I guess the coolest part of the whole thing isn't the fact that as musically-illiterate as I am, I still know a little something about one of Long Island's biggest icons, but that my family--the people who mean so much to me--has this little bit of excitement and commonality that we can share together time and time again. Being with my family all together last week and seeing everyone with smiles on their faces, forgetting about the burdens of everyday life for those 4 hours, can only put a smile on my face and remind me of how fortunate I am to be a part of my family and to have these people in my life to share memories like that with.
Anyway, take some time to enjoy the little things in life, become a Billy Joel fan (hehe), spend time with the people who mean the most to you--and remind them of how special they really are, and most importantly (and I have to continually remind myself of this) don't take things like this for granted!