Happily Hannah: Thank You for the Music

When I was in Kauai last month, my family stopped in at this little cafe near Port Allen to grab some lunch. It was nearly empty, with only one other family in there finishing lunch. When we walked in, I heard the faint sound of "Mamma Mia" playing against the noise of fans and quiet chatter. It made me smile and I thought it was rather serendipitous to be stopping into eat somewhere that was playing my favorite music. As we sat in a booth looking over the menu, "Waterloo"came on, followed by "Super Trouper". I was in complete awe that this little hole in the wall cafe was playing ABBA! The waitress noticed that I was singing along and mentioned that she was a longtime ABBA fan and had felt a little down, so she decided to play ABBA because she knew it would instantly put her in a better mood. Oh, how right she was. The food was fantastic, service friendly, and my day, made. Thank you Grinds Cafe! The rest of the day, I played ABBA in the car, much to my family's liking;)

So, I am obsessed with ABBA. There is video of me dancing in my neighbors yard to "Take a Chance on Me" when I am about 6 years old. My dance moves were about as amazing then as they are now, ha. Mamma Mia is my second favorite movie (after Cheaper by the Dozen, of course) and I enjoy the weirdness of Muriel's Wedding. There's just something about the catchy beat and slightly corny lyrics of all ABBA songs that I just adore. Back in April, I was looking up what shows would be at Red Rocks in the summer. As I scrolled through the list, I saw that in late July, an ABBA tribute band would be performing. I clicked a few links and listened to some videos and was blown away by how similar the tribute sounded to the real deal. A call to my mom later, I was figuring out how to buy tickets. They sadly were not on sale yet, but I was still determined to go. The semester ended, summer was in full swing, and the tickets were bought! We had a big group of ladies to go with us- the ultimate girls night out.

We grabbed sandwiches and picniced in the parking lot of Red Rocks (classy right?) and made our way into the breathtaking amphitheater. As we waited for the show to begin, we took some pictures (duh) and were so excited we could hardly handle it. The audience was quite the mix of a handful of young people, but mainly middle-aged and seniors. We were certainly the anomaly- while we were singing "The Winner Takes It All", an older lady in front of me turned around and asked how the heck we even knew who ABBA was. The show began with a number of lesser-known songs, but really picked up about 20 minutes into. Everyone was singing and dancing and I had never felt so alive. Lucky for us, this concert is an annual show at Red Rocks so this is a new tradition that I have a feeling will continue for many years to come. It was the best show of my whole life, and will be hard to beat.