So @kenzdawinz and I met Josh Johnston… (but it looks like he met us)
AND
WE
MET
PATTI.
ANN.
FREAKING.
LUPONE.
Long ass story time with pics and video:
Months ago, I had an extra front row ticket and I knew Kenzie had general admission. So I asked if she’d like to join me and maybe grab a bite before/after.
Fast forward to Sunday, day of the concert, I flew into West Palm Beach on a 6am flight and strolled around the beach for a couple hours. Poor Kenzie drove 4/5 hours and her hotel would not let her check in without someone over 21 being on the reservation. So she toughed it out and went and got lunch, I took the train down to meet up with her at the venue. Miss ma’am had to get ready in her car and still looked STUNNING!
I got there when the doors opened and walked down to my seat, saw Joseph Thalken in a t-shirt (I’m for the girls but DAMN). Kenzie arrived and we chatted excitedly about everything leading up to the show and our love for Patti.
The music started and during her first song, she stopped in front of us and stared directly into our souls. Kenz and I grabbed at each other with looks of pure joy and shock leading to this moment:
WE BROKE PATTI 😭😭😭
We cried and laughed, shared a hankie, LOVED every second spent in her presence. At intermission I went to grab a couple rose pedals that LuPone had thrown and shared them with Kenzie and the folks next to us who had been kind. One lady next to us went up and asked for a couple of white roses and gave one to us.
The concert ended and we stood there for a moment to soak it in and let people start to clear out— still reeling over the incredible performance. The lady who had given us a white rose helped us get red roses too, but then promptly took one back. Little bummed but whatever. We took a minute to get yet another rose after she left to make her way to the stage door.
Stopped at the merch table on our way out and the ladies under charged us for our purchases (sorry, Pats). We turned to leave and Kenzie looks behind me and goes “Is that…”
IT WAS JOSHUA LUKE JOHNSTON.
I went “yup” and turned around to ask him if we could grab a photo. Man was a little confused but so excited that we wanted a picture with him. He asked our names and Kenz said “we follow your career too!”. He was so joyful and kind. As we thanked him and turned to leave again, I said “Tell your mom we love her!” He said he would. 🥹
THEN!!!!!
We were giddy as hell, giggling and jumping as we headed towards the exit. The very sweet security lady, Niecy, stopped and asked if we had a good time (clearly happy to see such joy from strangers). We talked with her a second and turned to leave yet again. I took one more glance at the stage for the memories AND PATTI WAS STANDING ON THE STAGE WITH JOSEPH THALKEN talking with a couple of people who had been sitting behind us.
I looked at Kenzie and said “that’s Patti fucking LuPone, we have to say hello”. My dear sweet friend got really nervous and said “idk if we should be doing that” but I was already halfway to the stage with a “when will we ever have this chance again? Least we can do is try, worst she can say is no!”
We waited patiently for the others to leave and I put my big girl panties on and made eye contact. I reached out to shake her hand, she held it and did the same for Kenzie. We complimented her on her performance and Joseph on his. She called us “lovely girls” (!!!!) and I asked if we could take a picture.
Miss ma’am said “Yeah! But I want to take yours too!” AND TOOK THE MOST BEAUTIFUL PICTURE OF @kenzdawinz AND ME FROM HER POINT OF VIEW 😭🥹
She then had Mr. Thalken take a photo of her and us. We thanked them for their time and proceeded to lose our absolute minds and we ran out of the venue.
Niecy (pic below) was excited for us and we stopped to get a pic with our new home girl because she said “I wasn’t supposed to let you do that, but I couldn’t bring myself to stop you” and she was SO REAL for that.
We were floored. We MET PATTI LUPONE and she called us LOVELY!! And JOSH!!!! WHAT A GENTLEMAN!!
We sat outside for a minute, called a couple people and hugged and continued to lose our shit. Finally gathered ourselves enough to figure out dinner and after attempted to see if I could check in for Kenzie at her hotel. No dice. After sending her mom a pic of me with my ID and my hotel info, she drove us back up to West Palm Beach and we had a sleepover at mine.
It was such a beautiful girlhood experience and I’m SO happy to now be bonded for life with this lovely girl 💕
Howdy! I’ll be seeing Candide in November for my birthday and I want to paint my denim jacket to wear for the trip! Struggling to decide which idea I want to go with, help me pick? I’ll most likely also bring it to wear on the cruise in April :)
