As some of you know, I just celebrated my 21st birthday on Saturday!

I was hoping that my chronic illnesses would subside for just one night, but I think I was asking for too much. Nonetheless, the Music and Miracles concert was 100% worth it and I really hope I wasn't the only spoonie in the audience!

I had been wanting to go to this concert for months! So I was incredibly excited that it just happened to fall on my birthday and my husband bought the tickets for me for Christmas.

The concert also had me a little nervous. As my symptoms have progressed, I was afraid of whether or not I'd be able to walk to the stadium, let alone my seat. Plus, my last concert experience was kind of horrible. I'll talk about that some other time though!

Last year, I saw Kenny Chesney and Old Dominon, as well as a ton of other artists. Their shows were awesome and I knew I wouldn't be disappointed at this Superfest. So of course, I didn't want to miss the chance to see them as well as Miranda Lambert and Sam Hunt.

I've always been a fan of Miranda Lambert, but I've never really followed her as I have other artists. Honestly, I think it was just because she wasn't all over the media like everyone else is. But after last nights concert, I will be making an effort to know what's going on with her.

For those of you that don't know what I'm talking about, last night was the Music and Miracles Superfest. It was also the first night of the Spread the Love Tour.

After Old Dominion and Sam Hunt performed, Miranda Lambert made her way to the stage. Then she said something I will never forget, "You're out here spending your time, money, and hard earned energy." Honestly, I'm not 100% sure she meant to say it like that, but I'm glad that she did.

As a spoonie, I don't have a lot of energy. I have a limited number of spoons each day and I feel like I'm getting less and less of them. I was so scared that I would have to miss this concert or worse, I would get there but not make it to my seat.

My husband and I left 2.5 hours early, and the stadium was only 20 minutes away. Traffic was crawling and we weren't moving at all. The closer we got, the more the realization set in. There was no parking. The only close spots we saw were $35 and $50, but my husband didn't bring cash.

Ready to leave, I had him go straight and see where it took us. We actually ended up finding a parking garage. There were no signs for payments and none of the event staff or police officers were there either. We could clearly see the stadium straight ahead and decided to take the risk. We knew they wouldn't tow us with all of the traffic and we figured a ticket would be worth it.

At 4:30 pm, we started walking towards the stadium. With our tickets in hand, I made my way there and got in line. Once we made our way to the staff, she told us we needed to go to the box office. I couldn't help but think something was wrong. We asked how we could get there and it meant walking all the way to the other side of the stadium. Although I didn't feel good, I was determined to figure out what was wrong. We pushed through everyone, asked a lot of people for directions, and eventually found the box office.


Once we got to the front, we found out that they relocated our seats. Luckily for us, that actually meant we got closer seats and I would no longer need to struggle my way up and down the stairs. Our original seats were under the black tarps in the left photo and the right photo is a view from our new seats (without zoom).



From that point on, I did my best to enjoy the concert. Each act was amazing, but it was difficult to continuously see who was singing. When the crowd got excited they would stand up, but of course that wasn't doable for me. I pushed myself to stand for a couple of songs, but half way through Kenny Chesney's performance I knew I needed to leave.

It's hard to accept that I haven't quite gotten use to my new symptoms, especially when others take notice. Except for the occasional rash and my legs not working, they are otherwise invisible. Last night I struggled to make it out of the concert. With each step my left leg was buckling underneath me and I could feel the pain in my joints. I was walking as fast as I could, but it was still slow. Groups of people were walking around me annoyed and someone even stopped to ask me if I was ok. She was pretty drunk and thought my feet just hurt, but I just told her I have a lot of medical issues and that I'd be ok. She said good luck and went on her way. All I wanted to do was cry.

The only thing that made me feel better was getting that comment from Miranda Lambert. I know that it wasn't directed at me and she probably didn't even mean to say it in that order, but I will never forget it. I've mentioned it in my other spoonie posts, and I meant it. We really hate how our illnesses affect those around us, but we try and spend our energy on the things and people that we love. Being a spoonie is hard and sometimes something as simple as "thank you for using your energy to spend time with me," is all that we need to brighten up our day. And that's exactly what Miranda Lambert did.

I will spend the next few days recovering from my big outing, but I'm glad that I went. I was a concert that I will never forget. I've attached some photos for you guys. I only posted a few, but I actually ended up taking over 80 photos and videos!