Watch and Listen

Today's jonas watch is sponsored by Dramatic Adventure Theatre. www.dramaticadventure.com



For sponsorship information go to www.livealifeworthcelebrating.com

June 22, 2009

Tonight we are going to the concert in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Then, I am driving ten hours to Aurora, Colorado to get a passport for Hannah so we can continue into Vancouver in a week. I am leading a book discussion and we have two concerts to go to in Vancouver.

I want to share a few things that happened in the last few days. I will write about the concert tomorrow night, after the passport and some sleep.

A few stories to share with you:

Irving, Texas, June 21, 2009

We stayed at a Comfort Inn in a business park for two nights. The staff is very friendly to the hotel dwellers because:

1-they are friendly and
2-many of the people are repeat customers or extended stay customers.

At breakfast, Jimmie, the front desk guy, shared about an event he was going to in the evening with his girlfriend, Brittany. His church has a group called Spokesperson's (like Toastmaster's) and tonight was a ballroom dancing event. He was wearing a tuxedo for the first time. One of the hotel customers was a ballroom dancer by profession and spent an evening teaching Jimmie some steps.

Brittany arrived, as we were packing the car to leave. Jimmie in his tux, waiting for his front desk replacement to arrive. Brittany in her beautiful burgundy, long gown. They were adorable. Excited about the event and looking so beautiful in their formal attire, I took their picture with my camera and asked them to e-mail me so I can send it to them.

What an honor to observe this moment in time. The present moment was beautiful and...who knows where this will lead.

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As we were driving from Dallas to Tulsa, a 14-year-old teen told her father, a sports writer for the newspaper Tulsa World, about us. She told him about a mother and daughter who are traveling to 45 venues to see as many concerts as possible. The daughter, Justine was one of the teens around the world who was waiting to see Hannah's video clips of the concert. The video clips th

Eric wrote to us on Facebook yesterday. at she worked on in the car on the way back to the hotel and stayed up until 5 am to finish editing and uploading. He had the assignment to write a story about the Jonas Brothers concert in Tulsa. Justine and Ashley, a friend, are going to the concert with Eric tonight.

We arranged to meet at the Woodland Hills Mall in Tulsa. And through this arranged meeting, I had the opportunity to watch and listen to my daughter share her thoughts and feelings.

I thought about how this is preparing her for life. Formulating experiences into thought. Meeting people from different states. Sharing the story from her perspective. Meeting people from different cultures- Eric is full blooded Native American.

We met the whole family. Eric's beautiful wife, his daughter, his son and their precious baby. A snapshot in my mind. I watched as Hannah shook hands with everyone and interacted with the family. I watched as I saw two families connect halfway across the country over a meeting over the Jonas Brothers.

**********

I was thinking about a story I read in a magazine. Denise Jonas was getting her haircut and Nick Jonas was, I think, six years old. He was singing and entertaining everyone in the shop. One of the customers told Denise that Nick should have an agent. This led to Broadway shows and commercials and writing and performing music in the world.

*********

Who knows where each of these interactions are leading us? I can imagine Hannah as a reporter, a film director, an actress...But, at the core of all of that is a young woman with a heart who is passionate, caring, determined and hard-working.

I am grateful to be along on this journey. I am watching and listening and singing and dancing.

Enjoy the adventure! Andrea

The wrong passport

Today's jonas watch is sponsored by Dramatic Adventure Theatre. www.dramaticadventure.com

AND

The Peace Sister's in Baltimore www.thepeacesisters.org

For sponsorship information go to www.livealifeworthcelebrating.com

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Friday, June 19, 2009

I am exhausted today. Yes, I am the type of person who sees the silver lining, the cup half-full, a cock-eyed optimist. But, today, I am ready to climb under the covers and yell, "NO!" at the top of my lungs. If I drank alcohol, this might be a "pull-up-to-the-edge-of-the-bar-and-order-a-stiff-whiskey," kind of a day.

Let me back up a minute to fill you in on some details.

Last summer, Hannah and I drove 10,000 miles and attended 15 Jonas Brothers concerts. The journey began because I saw that Hannah was happy again. Our first Jonas Brothers concert was a free concert in Philadelphia on July 29, 2007. It was the 2nd anniversary of the death of her father from cancer. After two years of withdrawing from life, I could see that this made her happy again. 8 concerts later, we decided to go on a summer tour in 2008.

When we arrived home in September, I could see that the road trip had helped me let go of my home. By January 2009, Hannah and I were ready to sell our 11 room home on 3 acres. And somewhere in the clearing and the selling of furniture, we decided to travel this summer.

Last year I called it, "The Year I Toured with the Jonas Brothers." This year it is "Jonas Watch." We are watching them, as we travel to 45 different concerts. We will be in the town for every concert and go to as many of them, as possible.

I have so much to share with you!

For now, let me tell you about the passport. During the last month, we cleared our entire home. We sold furniture, made at least two trips a week to the Salvation Army, at least one recycling run to the dump per week with a carload of paper, and packed everything else into a 10 by 10 storage unit.

So today, our fourth day on the road, I woke up early to organize the blog, update my website, start a fan page and a long list of phone calls and e-mails to people in Baltimore. I checked our next few stops and looked at the passports.

Long pause. Mouth open. Eyes wide. Breathing stopped.

In one hand is my passport. All is well.

In my other hand is Hannah's passport with bold, red letters CANCELLED.

We brought the wrong passport. We are crossing the border to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada on June 29. No one else has a key to the storage unit at home. And even if they did, where would I tell them to begin to look for it? For all I know, it was recycled with the trash.

Weaving into some of the concert cities are book talks with authors from a book I co-authored called, "Conscious Choices: An Evolutionary Woman's Guide to Life." Vancouver is where one of the authors lives and we have great plans for our time there!

After a trip to a local passport center in Dallas, a phone call to the US Government and a series of pushing buttons on the automated reservation line, Hannah and I have an appt in Aurora, CO on June 23 10:30am. This requires leaving the Jonas concert in Tulsa, OK about 15 minutes early and driving through the night to arrive in Denver by 10:15 am to check in.

I think it is time for a good nap. I can see I already need it!!