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One of the top five nights in my lifetime happened in May 2004, right around my birthday. No, it wasn't the night I got married. No, I didn't have a brat born that night. May 13, 2004 was the night I had front row tickets to see Hootie and the Blowfish at Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.

I got the tickets on ebay after downloading a program that throws in bids at the very last millisecond so you can be sure to win the auction. I'm not sure what happens if somebody you're auctioning against has the same software, but it worked for me.

It was a great night. I wore my favorite black tshirt and blue jeans. We got there about 3 hours early after renting a Mercury Grand Marquis so we could ride there in style. We did some gambling and then took our seats the minute they opened the doors to the theater. The seats were so close that I could rest my elbows on the stage. If I wanted to, I could've reached over and untied the guitar player's shoes! It was awesome. They guys kept looking over at us because Diana didn't look amused. She's not a big Hootie fan. So she just kinda sat there and watched...unenthusiastically. They had to have noticed..she was only 15 feet away from them. But I enjoyed it enough for both of us. After the concert, I was glowing for days.

The audience was a classier bunch, too. They weren't the typical drunken teenagers and 20-somethings that you normally run into at concerts. It was a classier crowd. There was one incident, however.

It's a concert, so standing up and dancing is encouraged. The band members even stated several times to "let loose and have a good time." So this 60 year old couple near the front got up and were schucking and jiving with each other. It was cute and charming. Nothing disturbing. Nothing distracting. But the casino Nazi came over and told them they had to sit down. Poor couple. The guitarist stepped off the stage onto the table and tried to get the Nazi's attention, but she couldn't hear him over the beautiful melodies. He was ticked off. How ya gonna tell people to sit down at a concert??

Anyway, it was a great night. Definitely in my top five, right under losing my v-card and getting married. It's probably somewhere in between those two.

I wanted to go see them on New Year's Eve in Vegas, but it's just not gonna happen. There's always next year I hope.