I saw The Get Up Kids play on Friday, ran into a couple of people (a couple actually, Jason and Aubrey) that I've had the pleasure of chatting with at a few shows. The show was great, photos turned out great, but that was the only great part of the whole evening.

The first mistake was mine. My check arrived late, so I had to cash it, get gas and track down a VHS tape all well before the show began at seven. The mistake in all of this was I was wearing sandals and had planned on changing shoes when I stopped back by home to set the VCR and got the ticket but I forgot to. Sandals at a packed rock show isn't good.

My thought process on the show was this: If it starts at 7, doors likely open at 6. If doors open at 6, I want to be there at 5.

This was easier said than done, especially since the venue for the show was changed, and the venue it was changed to is hard to find. I finally parked a few blocks away and at about 5:45, and headed for the venue.

I don't know why, but a block from my car, I checked for the ticket and didn't find it. I checked again. And again. Not wanting to risk it, I headed back to my car to check for it.

A whole lot begins to go wrong here as you'll find out later.

I opened the door and looked frantically for the ticket. I tore everything in my car apart trying to find it. I knew I had it because I was looking at it while driving and hoped it hadn't blown out the window.

I looked for a good twenty minutes and then I looked out my front window. There in the grass was what I thought was one of those green things with electricity or something underneath, until I saw it move.

I decided to check it, and lo and behold it was my ticket thirty feet away from my car. Had the wind been blowing (again, that'll come into play later) I would have lost it. So I lock my car (this too will be mentioned later) and dash to the venue, thinking the doors are already open.

Fortunately, they weren't. Unfortunately, I was about 90th in line. I saw the couple mentioned above near the front of the line, and thought about joining them, but didn't since we hadn't spoke since a show in October.

So the show goes on and was a lot of fun, mainly due to the fact that the band played a lot more old stuff than they did new stuff. The only thing I disliked was all of the kids who insisted on moshing and of course the fact that I had on sandals. Your feet really hate you when they get stomped all night. I'll probably go into more detail on concertomine, but this is more about the events of the evening/night.

I get to my car after buying pins and stickers and passing on the $35 hooded sweatshirt, reach into my pocket and find no keys. In my other pocket? A wallet, but no keys. I check my back pockets though I never keep keys there and no keys. My first thought was I lost them at the show. It was 12:10 in the morning and the wind was blowing quite hard (I later found out at 40 miles an hour with gusts of 60 making windchill on a 46 degree night just 26 degrees.) and I was really cold, wearing only jeans and a short sleeved shirt.

I checked the passenger side rear window. It was down about a half inch. Apparently when I accidently rolled down the back windows instead of the front, I had forgot to roll them up all the way. It was too small to reach my hand in, so I had to improvise.

At first, I tried to use a twig to pull up on the button. Then, a long ruler shaped piece of wood that was inches too short and a bit too long. Frustrated, I walked a half block to the end of the street, and down all four sides of the next block, looking for anything I could find that may work. Due to the wind storm, I found a number of long strong twigs in front of Salt Lake's ritziest hotel, doing them a favor in the process by working on some of their cleanup.

I'm sure I looked ridiculous carrying what looked like a bouquet of about 20 sticks, but you have to do what you have to do, right?

I tried one and it almost worked. It was curved, long, strong, but unfortunately it broke. I abandoned the other 19 and as a desperate act, maybe because I was freezing to the point of teeth chattering (in April) and not thinking right, I decided to try my arm.

I had to pull the window out of one of the clips to make my arm fit (think of it as making the window bend) but couldn't get my elbow to fit. I was so close (within about a sharp pencil tip) each and every time I tried it (about seven) but knew that without getting my elbow in, I'd never make it.

With my arm now aching, freezing and having lost one of my stickers due to the wind, I took a break and tried to call home again. No answer. I tried calling my sister. No answer. Giving it one last shot, I reached my arm in the window, got my elbow inside, and easily pulled up on the button.

Which when I opened the door, triggered the alarm.

I hopped into the car and like a true criminal, hid. I laid down on the floor while the horn and lights went off for three minutes. When they finished, I began looking for my keys. It was now 1:30 or so. I had been trying to get into my car for seventy minutes. And remember, there was no guarantee they were in there. I could just imagine them sitting on the floor at the venue.

Again I tore up the car, looking everywhere from the glovebox to under the seat. I couldn't find them and I had the feeling they were at the venue. Knowing my dad would be just down the street four blocks in a couple of hours, I set my phone to go off at 4:00, and laid down across the front seats with a thin piece of fleece used as a seat cover and a window shade cover. I was still chattering, still absolutely freezing, (short sleeves and sandals, remember?) and in a bit of pain from reaching in the window and from awkwardly laying down while hiding earlier.

I closed my eyes and tried to sleep. I had done this once before on an awkwardly cold June night around graduation when the battery died, but this was different, because little did I know my keys were just inches from me.

In a lot of ways it was good I couldn't sleep. Fifteen minutes of this resulted in me sitting up and putting my hand on the floor near the ashtray and catching a glimpse of my keys. I tossed off my tempoary blankets, started the car, turned off the car when the alarm went off, unlocked the door and headed home. The time: 1:45.

I can't believe all that happened. It was crazy. It was one of those stories I only hear from others. But I made it home all right, tired sore and cold, but fine.

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