Another Saturday night, another date night! This time, I splurged on some tickets to see Mariah Carey. Who needs to pay rent anyways? I decided to take Andrea, the girl with whom I’d stay up on the phone during junior high and high school listening to Mariah: “Ok, press play now!”

The night started out a little  rocky since Mariah didn’t come on until 9 p.m. even though the ticket said 7:30 p.m. To make matters worse, the Chicago Theatre forbids any cell phone or camera usage in the theatre. Even when nothing is going on! To make matters even worse, all we had to entertain us was an opening act “discovered” by Nick Cannon. I really wanted to give these guys a chance, but it just seemed like a lot of melodramatic lip synching.

But once Mariah got on stage, it was awesome! No lip synching, and her voice was perfect! Literally, it sounded just  like on the CD. She didn’t miss a single note or octave. The set also had a cool old-school vibe, with the stage set-up, live band and back-up singers. The dancing was a little corny at times, but no one sees Mariah for dancing.

I’ve never seen someone in concert that I’ve literally grown up with. It’s crazy to sit there and listen to all these songs that span from your childhood to adolesence to adulthood. I remember one of my first cassettes being Mariah’s  Unplugged album (and yes I still have it –  in the blue penguin!) and I remember buying Glitter on VHS (yes I still have that – and it was on sale!) and I remember listening to someone scream her head off to “We Belong Together” in the car. Thankfully, Mariah performed songs that spanned her entire career, from “Make it Happen” to “My All” to, yes, “We Belong Together.”

All in all, I’m perfectly at ease with continuing to have Mariah as my idol!