yellow diamonds in the light

Monday July 15th was a day I had been looking forward to for a long time.  It always seemed so far away though! It was a day that I would brag about to everyone...because um I had to right? IT WAS THE DAY OF THE RIHANNA CONCERT.  And letttt me tell you.  Rihanna lived up to every high expectation and hope I had. It also helped that we were literally like 10 feet from her.  So here's how it went. Also when I say "we" I'm referring to LBFF Lindsay and I.

Here's our flawless day (but really, things just kept working out for us).

Monday
12:30- get out of a horrendously long class and get lunch at Costa and go home to pack!

2:00- Go to Euston train station and hope onto our train.  We were booked with separate seats but I magically had a seat open next to me.  We napped and listened to Rihanna (obviously)

4:50-Got to Manchester! And we were a bit rushed because we had floor seats and wanted to get there ASAP to get in the front.  So we caught a cab, which was conveniently located just outside the doors.

5:15- Get to the Stay Inn Hotel.  Had to sneakily get Lindsey in because I booked it as a single room becauseeee we are cheap and didn't want to pay extra.  And there was free wifi there so of course we were excited. And we got all ready in our best Rihanna looks and headed out to the Manchester Event Center.  As we were walking we didn't really see any crowds. You know how when you go to concerts and parking is crazy and there's people walking from all corners of who knows where to the arena? There was nothing like that.  So we were thinking either we got completely messed up and the concert wasn't even happening or people here don't really get to concerts early.  Luckily it was the later.

5:40-Get to the event center and munch on some McDonalds (which was necessary since we were going to be standing for the next 5 hours) and line up.  We made friends! With two random guys...I was slightly shocked at the amount of men at this concert...specifically this little number:

more on him later

6:00- Doors opened! But kind of.  We could get into the arena, but not on the floor.  We had to wait in other lines throughout the arena that let onto the floor.  So we run around trying to find the shortest line and they decided to form a line somewhere righttt when we got there so we were towards the front. Then those doors opened and we rushed down stairs and onto the floor (I was in wedges mind you so this was a difficult task).  We were about 4 "rows" back.  They weren't rows really because it was just a bunch of people.  And heaven bless the Manchester Arena people for making everyone sit down.  It was a nice little break and Lindsey got to hear "the saga" of my life.  Well that's what I entitled it. 

7:30- Some DUMB DJ's called GTA? Maybe? See I don't even remember...Anyways they opened for her. Like what the heck? I was told David Guetta was opening.  But remember when I said everything worked out for us? Their switchboard lost power! HAH! I was happy.  Bad? Probably.  But I wanted Rihanna! Not some drunk DJs (really they consumed so much alcohol in the short time they were up there).

9:00-BAD GAL RIRI! You guysss! ok ok ok. So the lights went down. The opening chords of "Mother Mary" come on.  The curtain drops and Rihanna is RIGHT THERE! 10 feet away from us! I screamed at the top of my lungs. I cried.  I was so happy. She is stunning.  STUNNING.

this is slightly zoomed in, but see! so close!

She opened with Mother Mary and did fabulous.  I would tell you the whole set but no once really cares.  She had 6 different outfits too.  I don't even know what my favorite performance was because they were all amaze.  I loved loved "What Now" because it's a slow jam and so good. BUT "We Found Love" is seriously my favorite party jam ever so obviously I went insane.  Like looking back now, I can't believe I was RIGHT THERE and Rihanna was RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.  What? Unfreakingreal. She closed with "Where Have You Been" but came back for the encore and sung "Stay" and "Diamonds." She is amazing live. 

the red dress was my favorite outfit by far

Overall it was probably the best night of my life. Really.  It was SO FUN.  Just partying with Rihanna...no big deal.  After we were walking to our hotel and saw a billboard for gatorade and started craving it real bad so we went to a store and bought some.  I chugged mine in less than 30 seconds.  Oops. We sat in our hotel that night and ate an entire roll of Digestives(sounds sick right? But they are actually amazing cookies) and watched all of our videos and looked at our pictures and attempted tweeting at Rihanna so she'd have breakfast with us.  It didn't work out...