Bruce Springsteen makes my stomach hurt

When my friend told me Bruce Springsteen would be touring with the E Street Band, I got a familiar hollow feeling in the pit of my stomach.

Every time I have seen Springsteen in concert lately, I decide afterward that it will be my last. Concerts are costly and they are loud. Not the kind of loud, though, that would help semi-deaf people like me to hear. The kind of loud that makes all the notes sound the same, so it takes me a while to determine the song. Sitting at home with my iPod is a better way to enjoy the music.

But when I hear about another concert, I remember what it feels like to be with 25,000 people shouting the refrain to "Badlands" or "Born to run." I can close my eyes and for a moment or two the wheelchair, FA and everything else disappears. I swear Springsteen knows about life in a wheelchair.

So I decided to buy tickets, and the hollow feeling disappeared, to be replaced by a dull feeling. I started to worry if I would be able to buy tickets, maybe they'd sell out. Even though all I have to do to get tickets is call the accessible seating office. They call me back and ask where and when.

I got my tickets this morning and the dull feeling in my stomach has been replaced by an empty feeling. I now have to find people to go with. I got four tickets. It doesn't matter that I know plenty of Springsteen fans, both related and non.

When I find people to go, I am sure I will find something new to worry about. I just need to remember the full feeling that the concert will give: It will be too loud, to expensive, but I will belong.


Spend your life waiting
for a moment that just don't come
Well, don't waste your time waiting