Such is life

My deepest sympathy goes out to all the Metallica fans who were in the Globen concert arena in Stockholm, Sweden, last Sunday. Imagine being able to get your hands on a very valuable ticket to a sold-out-in-30-minutes concert with Metallica. Imagine the anticipation, the excitement, the thrill. (I know what I'm talking about here as I was able to get a hold of 2 tickets to their concert in Copenhagen.) Now, imagine this: You go to the concert arena, ready to rock on and I'd say almost ready to burst. Then you get the following message: "Sorry, folks, the concert has been cancelled because James Hetfield is sick." Yeah, he's sick alright, putting all these fans through the greatest misery of their lives! (I guess it's only fair to mention that he actually had to go to the hospital because of some stomach issues.)

I know exactly how this slap in the face feels. While visiting Salt Lake City sometime in the early 90s, I was going to a Bon Jovi concert with a friend of mine. (I realize you can't compare Bon Jovi to Metallica, but nonetheless, I was quite a fan back then.) As we approached the venue, we found it really strange that there were no cars in the parking lot. After a few minutes of confusion, the Radio DJ announced that the scheduled Bon Jovi concert had indeed been cancelled because Jon Bon Jovi had lost his voice. I guess all the other concert attendees had managed to catch on to this important newsflash, but somehow we had missed it. Disappointed doesn't even come close to describing how I felt.

It's like craving pistachio ice cream. You go to the store, manage to find some green ice cream, go home and dish it all up in a huge bowl. Then you sit down to enjoy it, expect it to taste like pistachio, only to discover that it's not pistachio at all, but MINT!!!

Or it's like searching high and low for what seems like an eternity for your favorite cd such as "The Joshua Tree", and when you finally find the case, it's empty!!!

Or it's like finding the perfect shoes online, and when you finally get through the whole ordeal of adding all your information and get ready to pay, you discover a quite significant message that says "not available".

All I can say is such is life.

Oh, I just remembered one more thing. It's like going to see the Piano Man himself, Mr. Billy Joel, one of my absolute all time favorites, in concert with Elton John in Gothenburg, Sweden. Coming all the way from Oslo, you show up behaving like a bouncing ball, ready to worship your hero, only to find out that the Piano Man is sick and Elton John will be doing a solo concert.