So my best friend called me and said, "Dude, your birthday's coming and Steely Dan's on the Rocks the night before. We're there!"

I always liked Steely Dan, but never saw them in my 35 plus years of concert attending and I said to myself, "Why not, Steely Dan?" I knew a lot of their songs and they were the one 70's band I dug that I never ever saw live. And what better place could I enjoy them than at Red Rocks?

So I replied, "Sure, it's sold out but maybe we'll get lucky."

At Red Rocks, they screen people at the base before before they let you up the mountain. You can't get near the amphitheater entrance without a ticket. But DG and I knew a back way in to the amphitheater from the road. After all, Red Rocks is part of a park and there are lots of dirt roads that are quite passable. We ended parking about 100 feet from the entrance with a cooler of sandwiches and cold beers and some cash money in our pockets. Face value on the tickets was $90 for the show and we agreed that we would each pay no more than $30 each to get in. We figured that someone would have an extra ticket or two, maybe a little disappointed that their friend couldn't make it and we could take that extra ticket off their hands so it wouldn't be a total loss. Typically, by the time a person is eager to get in they are amenable to price negotiation. DG and I had to be willing to walk away if we could not find a willing seller. With our mission protocols understood, it was time to enjoy a nice Summer night and see what happens. And if I was not meant to see Steely Dan then I would head on home or something, I live about 30 minutes away so it was no big deal. DG and I had a beer and a sandwich and watched the crowd start to amble towards the entrance.

I saw a group of people about 10 feet away tailgating and they were wishing a fellow Happy Birthday and popping the corks off of some champagne bottles. Well, since it was going to be my birthday in about 5 hours I walked over and wished my Cancer Bro a Happy Birthday too. Some nice folks they were, we chatted for a few minutes and then I climbed a few rocks to get some privacy and answer the call of nature.

With the call of Nature now answered, I scrambled back down the rocks towards my friend, DG, who was talking to the "Birthday Boy" aka BB and everyone was smiling. When I got down there, DG handed me a ticket, 23rd row. Now I was smiling. DG explained that after I split for my...err...watering of the cactus, he went over to wish BB a Happy Birthday too. And DG mentioned to these folks that we were looking for tickets. Well, imagine DG's surprise when BB whipped out a pair of tickets and gave them to DG for nothing. BB had 6 tickets that were comped to him and had a pair he wasn't using. BB said to take them and not worry about money, that my seeing Steely Dan was meant to be and to have a great Birthday memory.