Duuude. The Vinyl Cafe rocked my ass last night. The band was great (playing a mixture of jazz, blues and Christmas music); the stories were spectacular (I was crying at one point) and Stuart McLean is amazing.

After the show was over, Greg, his girlfriend and I decided to stick around see if we could get autographs. The man very graciously signed our copies of "The Vinyl Cafe: Unplugged" (which is, surprisingly, a book), and when I asked for a favour, he said "What can I do for you?" When I explained that my parents had celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary in November and that my sisters and I had bought them tickets to see his show in Orillia, and that I was hoping he could maybe say hi to them from the stage.

"Sit down over there, and we'll set somethign up when I'm done with these people." So he signed autographs for probably close to 20 more people, and then took me backstage and into his dressing room, where he wrote down my name, my parents' names, where we lived, what they did for a living, where I was going to school, what I was taking...and promised to work it into his act.

I then mentioned that my parents had been joking that I should ask him for a ride home, since he was going from North Bay to Orillia (which is about 45 minutes from home), and he looked at me over the tops of his reading lasses and said, "Well, do you want one?" And I explained that I had someone coming for me, and he asked if I was sure, adding that it would be no problem.

Greg yelled at me for a good solid twenty minutes about wasted opportunities and other such things, but for me it is enough to know that Stuart McLean offered to give me a ride home. Besides, Mike will be here later on today, and I wouldn't pass up the opportunity to have some time with him.

But what a magical night...I've made my parents promise to call me after the concert is over tonight, but they don't know why I want them to call so much...heh. I hope they're suprised.

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