One less thing on my "have-to-do-before-I-die" list.

Okay, there are no coincidences in life, so needless to say, I am so grateful for having had this opportunity. Some of you know that I've been doing a long term temp gig at the Grammy Foundation, and even more, if not all of you, know that I am a big Dave Matthews fan. Well, yes. I met the man himself last Saturday (enter in infinite # of exclamation marks).

Yes, what are the chances that your temp job would allow you to meet one of your more revered musicians? The foundation invited 20 plus school kids to visit the Carson Home Depot center this past weekend to hang out with some of their roadies, their lighting technicians, and a quick Q&A with Dave himself. Guess which part I was interested in?

When he walked into the room, he was as normal as you could ever could imagine, and definitely a bit in his own world, but so incredibly funny. He talked about his beginnings, how he met his band members, and how a person's head seems to grow after you get a hair cut. Yeah.

When he was talking about the band, the Yellow Jackets, he started to make extended eye contact with all sorts of people, and I found myself looking at him, and I think as he rambled, I muttered something like, "yeah, awesome, man." Dork. Anyways, this definitely outweighs that one time I was 40 percent sure that Keanu Reeves and I made eye contact outside of the Harmony Gold when he was on a cigarette break.

The event was really for the high-schoolers and unfortunately, we were not permitted to take individual pics with him. But I did get a few shots, and I was standing close enough to feel body heat.

Jason Mraz opened for him, and although I've seen a more inspired Mraz show in the past, I thought it was cool that I got to go onstage and see his guitars:



So, here's an even better part. I had seats in the first section, about 16 rows back. As you imagine, I was pretty close. So close that I didn't even have to look at those dang monitors that some nosebleeders mistake for a live show. We ended up giving my purchased tix away to some folks in the nosebleed, to which Chris was heavily thanked by a Goth-chick who said, "Good karma, dude."

As for Dave's show, it was totally tight. They are amazing musicians and have serious game. Dave seemed to have a lot on his mind (and or heart) throughout the show, as lots of screaming during songs that typically that didn't require screaming were done. I only hope that it was somewhat therapeutic so he might lay off other more harmful devices.

Wow, I am blessed. Who's next? Bono? The Pope?