i'm not at all embarrassed by my love for celine dion

jennifer and i had been planning on attending the celine dion concert since january or february, so when the concert happened to fall on my last week of work, i knew i would just have to suck it up and go.

tuesday night after work, i made the trek to providence, which is near where jennifer lives now. we spent the evening eating hawaiian pizza, sipping beer and watching womens' gymnastics. i feel old just having typed that.

the next day, we took jennifer's regular commute from rhode island to boston, and i worked out of her office for the day. but after work, the magic happened. all day we had been hearing and reading news and facebook updates from people in boston who had seen the celine concert the night before. we started to get more and more excited about the show.

the concert started at 8 and we got there a little late, around 8:30. there was an opening act, some comedian-slash-singer type thing. we sat at a bar in the boston garden -- or whatever they are calling it now. it was the fleet center and then the bank of america center when i lived there -- and waiting for the french canadian to take the stage.

our seats were pretty incredible, but because celine performed on a center stage in the middle of the arena there were few bad seats in the whole house, probably even in the upper levels.

as the show started to gear up, jennifer thought she spied celine by the side of the stage, but i told her i was certain she would make a grand entrance, perhaps rising up out of the middle of that stage. that is exactly how she came in -- singing her car commercial song, "i drove all night." the crowd - most of all jennifer and i - went crazy.



the fever pitch in the arena went on like that all night. jennifer and i belted out the songs as middle aged women, families and gay men sat in awe around us, not really singing at the tops of their voices like us. what?

the show was everything i could have asked for. her voice was flawless and she sang all her best and most popular songs, including one of my favorites of all time "all by myself" and my new favorite off her latest album, a cover of heart's "alone."


celine singing "alone"

there were six costume changes, a short tribute to freddy mercury, back up dancers, a video duet with andrea bocelli and two encores.





all night, everyone was waiting for her to sing THAT SONG from THAT MOVIE, about the boat, that made lots of money and basically marked the height of celine's career.

for her second encore, celine rose out of the middle of a stage in a black ball gown, as arrays of candles rose around her. the lights dimmed as those infamous opening notes of "my heart will go on" echoed through the arena.



amazing.