Aug 5, 2014
Organised. Dusty. Wild. Memorable. FUN.
Big Valley Jamboree was awesome!!
And to have gone with such good friends - John and Lisa - made it even better! The 4 of us had never been to a multi-day music festival before. Never mind camping at one...between chemo to boot...Although canser wasn't in the picture when we booked our tickets. The whole idea of coming was born after a few drinks last fall when we were out at John and Lisa's permanent trailer site on our inaugural trailer trip (we had just bought it a week previously). Back when I was just a typical mom who's biggest worry was getting the kids to bed at a decent hour. We were quite happy...ok, lets be honest, drunk, and were listening to country music when next thing we were all in agreement that BVJ 2014 was in our future. Within weeks of that conversation we put our money where our mouth was and got weekend passes and 2 camping spots.
And here we are. Kinda feels like a lifetime since then.
I was a little nervous leading up to Big Valley cause my symptoms from my last chemo kept popping up randomly and were causing a bit of havoc so I was worried they would get worse as time went on. BVJ tickets are non-refundable, non-transferable so we figured we'd go and if I felt too bad, we could always leave. So I was also feeling the pressure cause I didn't want to have to leave because of me.
Thankfully, it's felt like the very best thing!
Seriously, what a blast!!
And such entertainment...and I'm not talking about the stage artists!! We camped in 'General' (I can hear anyone who's been to Big Valley groan...) 'Genreal' for all you who've never been is like camping in a frat house. On BSD. (Bermuda Shorts Day - last day of classes at U of C where people start drinking at like 7AM) It was.....interesting ha. We saw a guy walking around in a diaper. Like a REAL one (diaper). Lots of been pong. At 9AM. Mini DJ dance areas all over (thankfully none of our neighbours!!) And everyone in their 20's (which was basically everyone in General) owned a beer bong. I think the dress code was "clothing optional". And the motto was "drink till you drop. Then get up and drink some more". Lots of wobbly walkers. At noon lol.
That could explain the "brilliant" idea for these youngins to go mud sliding in a slew that smelt like...well it was a very unpleasant smell. At $7 a shower I bet they had to spend a pretty penny getting that smell off them (or maybe they were too drunk to care..) And Phil confronted a chick who tried to steal beer from our cooler...Me and Mr non-confrontational were helping the girls camped in front of us fix their tent at like 11 pm cause some idiots decided to rip it and throw some pegs away...Phil turned to see a girl walking out of our site with 2 of our beers - he didn't realise it was a girl (it was almost pitch black) so he started walking towards her while shouting "Hey F#%ker." She turned around with a deer in the headlights terrified look as he took the two beers right out of her hands saying "I don't f@#king think so. Those are our beers from our cooler". We cracked up about that the rest of the weekend. And maybe word spread cause we had no other cooler incidents lol. It was an experience to observe all this pretty much sober since I wasn't really drinking.
The weather was gorgeous. Hot and humid during the day and at night would cool right down. We only got a bit of rain overnight on Friday (and quite the thunder but we weren't partying at 3AM so it didn't bother us ha)
And of course there was the music. I was in heaven. I love country music. I love listening to it. I love singing it from the top of my lungs. I love two stepping to it. And I esp love going to live performances. So to have 4 days of country artists - I was a very, very ecstatic girl! Listening to music you love, live, is so therapeutic. I had so many moments of swaying to music with my heart swelled with happiness, grinning like a fool.
Lonestar kicked off the Kick Off party Thurs night. They even covered a bunch of rock songs - including Kiss!! Clay Walker put on a good show and got the crowd on their feet a few times. Dean Brody was one of my favourites from the weekend,. He's Canadian, funny, talented and the crowd loved him. I think he could've held his own as a headliner to be honest (he opened for Hunter Hays- I'm not a fan of him live...)
Chad Brownlee is another up and coming Canadian country artist. I like a few of his songs. He played Saturday afternoon. It was a really hot day so I wore my white "She's a Fighter" breast canser shirt. Before he started his set I was thinking (not for the first time) about if coming to BVJ was a mistake, given that I'm between chemo treatments and have basically zero immune system. A few songs into his performance, I got a sign that I took to mean "all is well with your decision to come". He introduced a new song of his called The Fighters. The 3rd verse is about a 9 year old friend of his who passed away from Leukaemia. He then dedicated it to Anthony (the boy in the song) and all the fighters and survivors out there. I had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes (a few may have slipped out) as he sang his song about The fighters in life:
"Here's to the Fighters. The Survivors. The knock-down, get up, keep on swinging, all nighters. Here's to the all in, again and again, giving all they've got until the end. The ones who rise above a little bit higher. Here's to the Fighters".
The song struck such a chord in me that we waited for almost an hour to meet him and get my She's A Fighter shirt signed by him! What a nice guy. He stood for as long as his fans and took pics and signed whatever people had. I think I was grinning from ear to ear as you can see in the pic Phil took lol. That was one of the highlights of the trip for me. The other was seeing Zac Brown Band live. WOW! They are one of my favourite bands, and seeing them live just made my appreciation for them grow. They put on a great show. People were out of their seats and on their feet singing, swaying and just loving every song. For their encore they covered Enter Sandman by Metallica - didn't see that coming but the crowd loved it! I grinned through the whole set - a goofy, ear to ear, pure joy kind of grin. Just this performance made my whole weekend - all the rest was gravy (like Miranda Lambert and Kip Moore)!
I was a very happy girl.
John and Lisa enjoyed it as well and are already talking about next year lol. It was a great weekend.
On the long drive home I was reflecting on the weekend and thinking about if we came back next year. I got a bit sad. And then I started to cry.
Next year if we do come back, I'll very likely be boobless.
It wasn't that that upset me so much as the fact that this was one of the last big events where I am whole (or feel whole...). I have all my parts that I was born with. Ya I'm bald, but I'm good with my bald head - proud even - and anyways that is just a superficial change, not something permanent.
It was like a reality check. Chemo is coming to the end - whether it's 6 or 8 treatments, there's only a few left. Soon I will go in for surgery. When I wake up I will be missing parts of me I've had my whole life. How will that feel? How will I feel?
I guess on the heels of so much joy it was a bittersweet moment. Suddenly it felt like nothing would ever be the same again.One of my last hurrahs. I don't mean that to sound as dramatic as it does. But I'm fast approaching another unknown - I have no idea what I'll look like after, or how I'll feel. That both scares me and saddens me.
It didn't put a damper on the weekend though - it just made me enjoy every second we were there.
That's one thing I've learnt well so far on this journey - when I have those happy moments, I savour them. I consciously enjoy the moment and lock that feeling into my memory.
And for those sad moments, "this too shall pass".
Big Valley Jamboree was awesome!!
I was a little nervous leading up to Big Valley cause my symptoms from my last chemo kept popping up randomly and were causing a bit of havoc so I was worried they would get worse as time went on. BVJ tickets are non-refundable, non-transferable so we figured we'd go and if I felt too bad, we could always leave. So I was also feeling the pressure cause I didn't want to have to leave because of me.
Thankfully, it's felt like the very best thing!
Seriously, what a blast!!
And of course there was the music. I was in heaven. I love country music. I love listening to it. I love singing it from the top of my lungs. I love two stepping to it. And I esp love going to live performances. So to have 4 days of country artists - I was a very, very ecstatic girl! Listening to music you love, live, is so therapeutic. I had so many moments of swaying to music with my heart swelled with happiness, grinning like a fool.
Lonestar kicked off the Kick Off party Thurs night. They even covered a bunch of rock songs - including Kiss!! Clay Walker put on a good show and got the crowd on their feet a few times. Dean Brody was one of my favourites from the weekend,. He's Canadian, funny, talented and the crowd loved him. I think he could've held his own as a headliner to be honest (he opened for Hunter Hays- I'm not a fan of him live...)
Chad Brownlee is another up and coming Canadian country artist. I like a few of his songs. He played Saturday afternoon. It was a really hot day so I wore my white "She's a Fighter" breast canser shirt. Before he started his set I was thinking (not for the first time) about if coming to BVJ was a mistake, given that I'm between chemo treatments and have basically zero immune system. A few songs into his performance, I got a sign that I took to mean "all is well with your decision to come". He introduced a new song of his called The Fighters. The 3rd verse is about a 9 year old friend of his who passed away from Leukaemia. He then dedicated it to Anthony (the boy in the song) and all the fighters and survivors out there. I had a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes (a few may have slipped out) as he sang his song about The fighters in life:"Here's to the Fighters. The Survivors. The knock-down, get up, keep on swinging, all nighters. Here's to the all in, again and again, giving all they've got until the end. The ones who rise above a little bit higher. Here's to the Fighters".
John and Lisa enjoyed it as well and are already talking about next year lol. It was a great weekend.
On the long drive home I was reflecting on the weekend and thinking about if we came back next year. I got a bit sad. And then I started to cry.
Next year if we do come back, I'll very likely be boobless.
It wasn't that that upset me so much as the fact that this was one of the last big events where I am whole (or feel whole...). I have all my parts that I was born with. Ya I'm bald, but I'm good with my bald head - proud even - and anyways that is just a superficial change, not something permanent.
I guess on the heels of so much joy it was a bittersweet moment. Suddenly it felt like nothing would ever be the same again.One of my last hurrahs. I don't mean that to sound as dramatic as it does. But I'm fast approaching another unknown - I have no idea what I'll look like after, or how I'll feel. That both scares me and saddens me.
That's one thing I've learnt well so far on this journey - when I have those happy moments, I savour them. I consciously enjoy the moment and lock that feeling into my memory.
And for those sad moments, "this too shall pass".
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