Kind of a rant? I don't know. This probably doesn't make much sense. 

It wasn't even six months after I first saw Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace for the first time with my mother that I was first introduced to the music of "Weird Al" Yankovic. I was positively obsessed with Star Wars, and my mother-- ever the enabler-- was using anything at her disposal to keep me planted deep within that beautiful Star Wars fan mindset. As much as she complained about me being loud and obnoxious in my talking about Star Wars, I think she really did enjoy talking to me about it and playing with her Star Wars figurines with me. So she was definitely willing to do just about anything to keep me from growing bored of Star Wars (as if that was a possibility at that point).

One day in September of 1999, I was sitting in my mom and dad's bedroom doing my homework and listening to something on nickelodeon. My mom hollered back from the living room for me to switch the channel to VH1. I didn't want to, I was watching *something*. I wish I could remember what on earth I thought was so much more important than Weird Al at that point. It'd be fun to tease myself about. 

Mom insisted and I relented. 

What she had me switch to was a music video special that mom insisted would have something to do with Star Wars. In between the music videos there were little segments talking to this strange man with curly hair and a hawaiian shirt. I still remember one of the band members "puking" in one of these segments between the music videos.

By the time the Star Wars tie-in played (The Saga Begins music video), I was absolutely enamored of "Weird Al" Yankovic. 

By the end of the Behind the Music special that aired directly afterward, I was obsessed. It was one of the few times in my life I've been able to obsess over more than one thing at a time. 

A few weeks later my mom got me my first CDs and a CD player all my own for my 11th birthday. I got Weird Al's Running With Scissors album and a Backstreet Boys album. I wore that album out, but I still have my original copy. It still plays, sort of. I think about half of Albuquerque will still play right. 

I worked hard at earning money to buy other Weird Al CDs at Cheapo (a local CD place) over the next few months, and in April my parents bought me and my dad tickets to go see Weird Al at the Minnesota State Fair. We were way up in the grandstand, but I didn't care. I was just stoked for the fact that I would actually be seeing my new favorite singer in person live on stage. He looked like an ant that time, but I was positively thrilled. Positively thrilled. It was another time that I left a venue after having seen something and nothing anyone did could shut me up. 

It wouldn't be until I was thirteen or fourteen that I would see Al in concert again, but that time I got to bring a friend and we were sitting in the fourth row. I actually could see Al that time. It was fantastic. Between those concerts my obsession had lapsed, though I was still insanely obsessed with Star Wars. And after that concert my obsession lapsed again, but only until I was about 16.

My mom called me one morning to tell me to stick the "weird al" tape in the VCR in the living room and record the video that would be at #1 on the VH1 top 20 countdown. I had no idea there was new Weird Al coming out. I sat and watched eagerly and that was when White and Nerdy turned me back into an instant Weird Al fan. It was like I was 11 years old again, dancing around my bedroom. I watched and rewatched that video about sixteen times that day and my mom brought me home the new CD that night. I wore it out watching the videos on the b side. 

I went to another concert at some point around then. I think it was in 2007. We were way up in the grandstand again, but on the other side. 

The friends I went with and I drove around the cities for hours afterward singing Weird Al karaoke.

I wouldn't think about Weird Al again until 2009, when I was living in Santa Barbara, California for the summer. He was releasing a few songs on an internet-only EP called Internet Leaks. 

I had enjoyed the first three songs on the EP, but the night before the fourth song was going to be released I hit rock bottom. I will not really put out details, but I tried twice to commit suicide that night. I failed both times. After the second fail, I tried to distract myself with the internet. I ended up watching the video for CNR, the newest (at the time) Weird Al song, the fourth song on Internet Leaks.

That song saved my life. 

For the next few months, I stayed alive for Weird Al. Eventually things started looking up, I moved home, and I started to have a life again. I didn't get obsessed when his next album dropped, but a few months later when my Mom died I listened to every song he'd put out religiously. His music was a large part of how I stayed marginally sane through the loss of her. 

Two years later I would find myself driving to Roseville, Minnesota, on the off chance that I could manage to buy a copy of his new children's book and get it signed by him on June 23rd, 2013.

My best friend came with me for moral support, but she ditched me when it was my turn at the front. When I was standing two feet away from him, I couldn't believe it was real. I couldn't believe he was real. I was so shocked I couldn't speak. 

He signed my book and we took a picture, and it was the best day of my life.

Until August 3rd, 2013, when I went to a Weird Al concert in Prior Lake, MN, and he sang a line from Wanna B Ur Lovr to me. 

Until October 12th, 2013, when that same friend and I went down to Joliet, Illinois to see a Weird Al concert. We sat in the second row and my other best friend sat in the front row. Afterward we waited by the bus and got to meet Al. I actually managed to squeak words out that time. I got a hug. I gave him art. He was very sweet. He's always very sweet. I've never seen him not be sweet with his fans.

And then for a year and a half, that was the best day of my life.

Until May 13th and May 14th of 2015, when I went to see the second and third concerts in the Mandatory World Tour 2015 down in Las Vegas, NV. I went with dear friends and we all geeked straight out both nights (they went the night before, too). The thirteenth we were in I think the fourteenth row. The fourteenth we were in the front row. 

Al sang to me from the stage during WBUL on the 14th. He hip-thrusted at me in the fat suit for his song Fat. He gave me SO much attention at that concert. I walked away with the Smells Like Nirvana solo cup.

And then afterward I went to my first of three (THREE HOLY CRAP) VIP meet n greets with the man on this tour. 

I was able to sort of speak, but I don't remember much of anything from that meet n greet. I remember Al liked my costume. He also answered his phone while I was standing there and I just kinda went rigid and got really nervous. I got a hug. We took a picture. 

July 2nd, I got to meet him again after a concert in Council Bluffs, IA. I don't have much to say about that concert except that I gave him art, I got a CD signed, and I got a picture with him. My overall concert experience that night was tainted with some lousy crap I don't want to get into, but I do remember being able to speak to Al that time. 

Plus it was the first time that Star Wars (the 501st legion) was really involved in one of the VIP things I had a ticket for. I was so geeking out over the fact that Darth Vader was back there.

A few days later, I damn near crashed my rental car on my way back from my parents' place up in Michigan. My friends started tweeting at me and texting me and telling me to check instagram. I immediately thought that my art might've made it to his instagram, but I knew there was no way. I stopped at a mcdonalds about halfway home to leech their wifi and check why everyone was freaking out on me. 

I screamed. 

I just... flat... screamed. 

I scared the shit out of the workers at that mcdonalds.

I painted that. I gave that to him. I still can't believe it's there. 

I still cry about it sometimes. 

It was more than two months before I got to go to my final Weird Al concert of the tour, the most recent one I've been to. 

I had been nervous about going (for reasons I won't discuss publicly), but I went down to Laughlin, NV for the concert on September 18th anyway. I made some friends. I had a buttload of fun. I was in the third row, he sang to me during WBUL (and I could swear he winked at me!), and I just had a ridiculous amount of fun. When it came time for the meet n greet after, I was nervous but I wasn't about to let that stop me. I approached the table with all the grace I could muster, but I melted when his face lit up and he said "hey! You're back! Good to see you!" and reached out to hug me without my having to ask. I was shaking so hard through the rest of that meet n greet. So hard. I thought I was going to pass out, but I managed to give him a folder filled with drawings I'd done (I do a daily challenge where I draw him and I gave him the best of the best) and I managed to get a really good picture with him. And I managed to say words to him that I'd wanted to vocalize since I first met him in 2013. 

Al Yankovic is an amazing human being and I fully support anything he does. His music has been the soundtrack to my life for over 16 years now, and I look forward to whatever he does next. I count myself incredibly lucky to be a fan of someone who obviously cares so much about his fans. 

Sorry this is like ridiculously long and picture filled but I just really... I love him so much. His music has saved my life multiple times and meeting him even once was a dream come true so to be able to say it's happened five times is just nuts and I'm just really emotional about this funny man okay?