Where in the world are the Swindells?: Bad medicine is What I Need

Living in New Jersey finally has its perks. It's no secret that I've been a Bon Jovi fan for over 25 years now. And, one of the first questions I asked our realtor was, "Where is his house." It turns out it's just down the street from us. Unfortunately, he now resides in NYC for the majority of the year, but from time to time, the gates at the street are closed, so you have to wonder if he's in residence. It turns out his wife used to run a martial arts studio here in Atlantic Highlands, and his keyboard artist lives here in town. So, the Bon Jovi fever is alive here in Atlantic Highlands and all of NJ being that he is a native.

The best part about being here is that you don't have to be a closet BJ fan. Months ago, my friend Karen told me that we'd have to get tickets to see him when he came to NYC. Those tickets went fast, and the only ones left were over $300 a piece-not exactly in my price range. But then, we got wind of a free concert in Central Park. The key was to find out how I might get my hands on those tickets. The answer was a general lottery. It was a concert in celebration of the All-Star game at Yankee stadium, and they were handing out a set number of tickets at each of the 5 boroughs of NYC. Unfortunately, I didn't find this out in time to get mine. Plan B was to enter my email into another lottery. BINGO, I won 2 tickets! I couldn't believe it. Now I just had to find a babysitter. Not an easy task! After 3 no's, we finally got a yes from our "old" neighbors from Dallas, Dan and Richie. They live in Hoboken, which is just across the Hudson River from Manhattan. Perfect! It was all set, but then Lise' woke up with a cold and saying her tummy hurt. It all seemed to be working against us, but thankfully she improved in the day. We headed up to Hoboken, hung out at their apartment to let the girls warm up to them, fed them dinner and hopped on the train into the city.

We literally arrived at Central Park 5 minutes before the band was playing. People had been there in line since 2 am, and there were 60,000 people there, and because were walked in right before, we were at the back. It was great though. The weather couldn't have been prettier, and we were able to weasel our way toward the center of the crowd. We didn't need to be front, it's actually where all the 'youngins' were-you know the ones who weren't alive when there were still actual music videos on MTV. The show was great.

Go ahead, click on the pics, you'll see Mr. Jon Bon Jovi

They played for 2 straight hours and only quit b/c there were strict rules with the city to shut down at 10pm. I can't tell you the last time B and I went out to a concert. It was amazing to be in the park. I kept reminding myself where we were. Afterwards, we walked around the city a little, but we soon realized that the kids would be up by 7am, so we couldn't paint the town red.