White Christmas

The year: 2003

It was the fall of my junior year of college. My friend, Carrie Blurton had invited me to go to Dallas to a Gavin DeGraw concert with her and her friend, Jen. I readily agreed and we drove up to Dallas, spent a little time shopping around, and then headed to the Gypsy Tea Room (genius name). Upon arriving, we saw people lining the sidewalks to get in. I don't remember the details but, long story short, we didn't get tickets. It was sold out. Probably because Gavin DeGraw was playing before Maroon 5. Regardless, it was sold out.

We sat on the sidewalk in disillusionment. What were we to do? Here we were, thinking we looked so cute in our 2003 Urban Outfitter attire and our distressed jeans sitting on the sidewalk outside the Gypsy Tea Room. Suddenly a lightbulb switched on. I had a brilliant idea. "C'mon, Carrie!" I said. We walked a couple of blocks until we found the tour bus, hidden away in an obscure alley. This was our shot.

"Blurton, this is what we've been working towards our whole college carreers." I said. "White Christmas on three."

You know the version of White Christmas that they play in Home Alone? With the deep bass voice doing the, "Ba Doo Dee Doo... Bum, Bum.... Bum-da-Bum. Ba Doo Dee Doo...Bum, Bum...Bum-da-Bum." And then the alto comes in, "I'm dreaming of a white Christmas...." while the bass keeps on trucking? Well, Carrie and I had always loved singing that and we obnoxiously annoyed our friends with that song wherever we were. So, on cue I began with the bass line and Carrie came in and filled in the alto. We were belting it out at the tour bus, staring hopefully at the tinted window. Jen stood back, deeply ashamed to be seen with two such embarssing women. Yet, we persisted.

Just as we were getting into the 2nd verse, the tour bus door swung open. Who could it be but Gavin DeGraw? Obviously impressed with our unseasonal version of "White Christmas" (it was early October). He was nice as could be and we, with our charming smiles and bouncy curls (Blurton), won his heart. He gave us three VIP passes to backstage and the after-party. Yes, we were good!

When we arrived at the afterparty, there were gifts (gasp!) for all the invitees and we saw Maroon 5 (they were kinda rude) and hung out with our pal, Gavin DeGraw (he was nice). We tried to act like we belonged there although we were probably painfully out of place snapping pictures of our gifts with the disposable cameras we had brought with us. Silly-looking or not, we had a good time. Then we all walked to Cafe Brazil and had breakfast at 3 a.m. with Gavin DeGraw and a few friends. It was such a bizarre night but we had a really fantastic time. And as we pulled back onto I-35 to head to Waco, the sun slowly rising in the distance, we replayed the night and thought that was probably one of the coolest adventures we'd had yet. And now, everytime I hear a Gavin DeGraw song on the radio, I think back to our little Dallas adventure and smile.
THE END.