Happiness Begins

Happiness Begins Tour, Madison Square Garden, August 29th & 30th, 2019. I was so nervous. It had been a while since I saw any Jonas individually, and of course longer since I’ve seen them all together. I was banking so hard on the fact that when together they would remember me just like when they were apart, but this was about to be a whole new animal. The only time they had remembered me as a trio before the breakup was when I went to Florida to retake my meet & greet picture and wore the same dress. So much had happened since then. I’ve made so much progress with Joe and Nick through all of our meet & greet experiences. How odd that Kevin will be the odd one out not knowing who I am.

Meet & greet outfits are important to me, and this number I had been holding onto before there was even a Jonas Brothers reunion. Extra is my middle name, especially when it comes to these occasions, and I’m glad I saved this stunner for this epic event. Before my meet & greet, I had a backstage tour full of 2008 memorabilia from the Burning Up Tour. N-O-S-T-A-L-G-I-A. I have always wanted Joe’s “Burning Up” t-shirt that he wore on tour nightly, I never understood why they didn’t sell it as merch! P.S. you guys totally still can, I promise everyone will buy it. It was so tiny 😭 It must’ve shrunk over all these years and it was so small to hug BUT IT FELT SO GOOD. Seriously something I never thought would happen, my fondest memory of that shirt being 6th row at Jones Beach while the stage levitated during “Hello Beautiful” (can we please get that back on the setlist?) I got to hold their guitars, the classic JB crest logo print guitar reminiscent of the Louis Vuitton logo that we all love so much. Note to readers: being a lefty, I purposely always hold guitars upside down because that is how it would be comfortable to me (although I do know how to minorly play as a righty). Finally, the iconic S.O.S. sign. It was beautiful, missing lights after all these years and all. I felt like I was on a Broadway stage taking pictures with all those lights.

And now, the main event that I’ve waited 6 years for. I had 3 meet & greets for this tour, and night one was the only one I had planned anything to say, the rest was just winging it. I wanted to ask for a group hug picture, and my lead in was by telling them my late ferret Bandit kept the spirit of the Jonas Brothers alive while they were gone because I got him the year they split, and he died the year they got back together and then they did a photoshoot with ferrets just days after he passed WHAT ARE THE ODDS?! I got mixed reactions. Joe was intrigued, Nick was perplexed. “A ferret?” Nick asked. “Aren’t they illegal?” Joe gleamed. Then I had to get into my story of how I had to go to their home state of Jersey to take my illegal immigrant over the border and I now must’ve added weird ferret girl to my rolodex in their eyes. We leaned in for a tight-knit “group hug” picture in Bandit’s honor, and then I told them we’d do this again in 24 hours before I was on my way down to the show.

I did my best not to spoil too much of this show for myself by cheating on Instagram. I wanted to feel every single thing. THE EMOTIONS. I am overwhelmed just recounting it. The visuals took us on a “Rollercoaster” of a timeline, making the boys into men over their careers and everything that came with that such as the real J sisters, Kevin’s daughters, Alena and Valentina. The 90 minute set was enigmatic from start to finish, and the setlist was absolutely perfect, except it was missing one thing that I would take up with them the next night at my meet & greet.

Remember when I said I only had something planned to say the first night? Well my impromptu question the second night was even better. As soon as I walked in, they asked me if I enjoyed the show last night. I addressed the three of them and said, “It was amazing, but I have a question.” “What?” Joe asked, seeming genuinely concerned. I continued, “Is Don’t Throw It Away going to get any love on this tour?” And then Joe started singing. The whole chorus. Of my favorite song. I’m pretty sure I died. I just kept looking at each of them, nodding and approving of what Joe was graciously doing for me. I replied with so much praise and thanks, of course that was better than what I could have ever imagined, thinking they simply would’ve said “Maybe!” as it had only been performed at one other show on the tour so far. I was literally stunned, I think that might just be my favorite thing that has happened during a meet & greet, probably other than actually getting to sing with Joe and DNCE to “ToothBrush” during a meet & greet. I’ve had a lot of great experiences, but being serenaded by my all time celebrity husband will always be the most special one to me. I was sad that everything I had waited for was over for now, but I was so grateful there was a second leg of the tour in a few months and even more to look forward to. Let’s see if it can top everything that’s already happened.