Aftershock

Friday, October 6, 2023

Was today awkward? You could say that.

My day began with an text exchange with the boyfriend(?) about the ripped photos. Yes, he was upstairs and I was downstairs, but I had no desire to actually talk to him. I told him that he ripped my heart out and seeing photos of us together was just too much. I then spent the morning getting ready for Aftershock. Oh yeah, did I mention we’re supposed to spend the day at the Aftershock festival today? Oh, and I have to drive his son there with us as well. This should be a whole lot of fun. Can you detect the sarcasm?

Between the shower and putting on make-up, I found myself sitting on the floor of our bathroom, silently crying. He tried to touch my shoulder and it took everything in me to not lash out. I did jerk away, though. Needless to say, the car ride was uncomfortable and felt like it took hours, not 45 minutes.

He lead us to a restaurant to eat lunch before heading into the park. We wound up eating at a table outside. Now, if you’re unaware, the weather in the Sacramento Valley during October, can either be hoodies or surface of the sun. Today, was surface of the sun. Between the heat and my emotions, I didn’t really eat much, just drank a ton of water.

Oh, and did I mention our completely incompetent waitress? Yeah. Messing up orders, taking forever, and the pièce de résistance, screwing up the check. She took our check and card, as well as the tables around us. All of the other tables had left when she came over and asked if she gave us our card back. Which she had not. After 10 minutes, she finally came back… except is was the wrong check. Right card. Wrong check. She mixed up the tickets and so one table got our small tab, and we got their large one. It took her, a manager, and 20 minutes to fix things.

We were a 15 minute walk from the park, and being in black, high emotions, not a lot of food, and in almost 100º temps, I was already close to the breaking point before we finally got to the security lines. We got it relatively quickly, then headed straight to the merch booth. I was on a mission to see if Sleep Token had their merch there yet, even though they don’t play until tomorrow. They had a few things. So we spent the next hour going through that line. While we were shaded under a tent, I was still melting by the time we reached the front. After merch, we headed straight to concessions for water.

The boyfriend(?) bought us all water, and him a cocktail. I downed about half of the bottle when I started to feel not right. My heart rate was approaching 120, I was feeling faint and dizzy, and like I was going to pass out. His son left us to do his own thing while I sat on the ground, under a tree, trying not to die. Pretty sure it was heat stroke. After about 15 minutes, and another bottle of cold water, I started to feel human.

I got up and decided to stroll the vendor booths until Bad Omens was set to take stage. The boyfriend(?) followed. Honestly, he could’ve gone off with his son, and I wouldn’t have cared at that point. We didn’t touch, barely talked, and I’m sure anyone close could feel the tension.

Finally, it was time for Bad Omens. They were AMAZING. I just wish they would’ve had a longer set. After their set was over, we had about an hour until Megadeath. Not standing it anymore, I turned to him and told him that, while I’m still pissed and this hasn’t even begun to be fixed, I just wanted a truce for the sake of trying to enjoy the festival.

The rest of the evening was less tense… and TOOL was (of course) a great way to end the night.