Column: Bad day gone good

Ever have one of those days where nothing seems to go right?

This appeared to be the case for me last Friday. Boy, did I end up wrong, but it didn't start well.

I had made plans to go to a concert in Missoula, but it seemed that everything that could go wrong did. Because our truck isn't working, we decided to rent a car so Melissa would be able to travel around for work or an emergency. One of us would have to stay in town to get pictures. This seemed simple enough. It wasn't. We showed up at the airport, and it just so happened and the car rental place in Butte was closed until evening. I was a little confused why it would be closed in the middle of the day, but I guess that are just not enough flights at the airport to justify it.

After an hour on the phone, we were able to change the reservation and I was on my way to Missoula. I was starting to get hungry and was looking forward to getting to my hotel, ordering a pizza, and relaxing prior to the concert. I pulled over in Clinton to put the hotel into Google Maps and my IPhone said I didn't have a SIM card. This happens every once in a while and drives me crazy. I like to put in on voice mode and listen to direction, but this was not happening. I should have probably just printed out directions to study them, or put them into the phone when I left Butte, but didn't. I didn't think my phone would refuse to connect to the Internet. I knew the concert venue was on Higgins, and my hotel was within walking distance on East Main.

I figured this couldn't be that hard to find. I had been on both streets before. A few wrong turns and an hour later I was cursing like a sailor. I was mad. I kept trying to find somewhere that had free Wi-Fi, and finally found a bookstore and figured out how to get to the hotel.

The hotel was in downtown and had quite a few parking spots reserved for guests, but idiots were taking up two or three spaces and I had nowhere to park. Finding a parking spot outside the hotel at 6 on a Friday night wasn't easy either.

When I gave the hotel clerk my credit card, she said the hotels.com had reserved my room for November 10. What? How does that happen? She said they only had one room left and it was $40 more than the original room I had already paid for. The one that was reserved for April 14, not in November.

Because of my promising navigation skills, there wasn't enough time to eat, so ten-year-old Shayla and I started to walk to what she likes to call her "first real rock concert".

I was tired, hungry, and frustrated. Nothing had gone as planned. We were waiting to cross the street when I took a quick glance behind me. Right behind me was Jeff Ament, the bass player from my favorite band Pearl Jam. I was at a loss for words.

They have been my favorite band since 1992 and their music means the world to me. Pearl Jam has lifted my spirits when I needed it, and listening to them never gets old. I seriously have my XM Radio on Channel 22 to listen to Pearl Jam Radio all the time. I was standing next to one of my idols. Turns out he is also one of Shayla's idols. On the way to her first "real rock concert" she got to meet a rock star. Jeff spent several minutes chatting with us and it was an unreal experience. I told him thanks for everything, he was nice enough to take a picture, and we went our separate ways.

All the crap that happened last Friday led me to be on the street corner, walking to the same concert as Jeff. I wouldn't have changed it for the world.