A Request from Some Old Fans in Austin

This is an e-mail I sent out last night, because I am just a super dork.

Dear Caedmon's Call,

The first time my husband, Daryl, ever saw me, he was somewhere in the back at the College Station 40 Acres concert. My good friend, Elizabeth, and I had scored 2nd row seats for that night, a concert that we had already seen at one or two other venues. Liz and I had driven from Nacogdoches that afternoon with another friend, Ruth, and would be crashing at Ruth's boyfriend's apartment after the show. After four hours of continuous 40 Acres, Bus Driver, MCYS, and a little Guild Two in the car, we were totally pumped and excited about what we knew would be an awesome concert and one of the biggest of the tour. That night, seated somewhere behind the second row my future husband noticed a couple of girls near the front making fools of themselves. Elizabeth and I were having one of the best times of our lives.

After the concert Elizabeth and I met up Ruth and her boyfriend, Josh. After a detour to get our 40 Acres CD cover signed, we headed back to Josh's where all of us girls shared the floor and a very uncomfortable futon. The next morning, we briefly met Josh's roommate, Daryl. Ah, here is where the plot thickens. We found out that Daryl had been at the concert too. My part of that first magical conversation went something like this, "Oh wow, didn't you think it was an awesome concert?! Wasn't it so much fun?! Hey, did you notice the two totally excited girls in the front jumping up and down the whole time??? That was us!! So coooool, huh? Cool, right? Hmm? Well, anyway, we had a great time. Yeah, so nice to meet you. See you later." He was not impressed.

Fast forward a few weeks to Guild II weekend. Josh (Ruth's boyfriend, are you keeping up with all the players here?) and I were both Guild members, and we all started making plans to be in Taylor Texas that weekend. Elizabeth and Ruth were going to be our guests. BUT, "Hey Josh, how about we invite your roommate? He likes Caedmon's too right?" So we invited Daryl to come along, and he decided to take us up on it. He had to buy his own Guild membership though since our guest passes were spoken for. Well, you guys know what an awesome night that was. One of my favorite Caedmon's moment's of all time was when Aaron Tate sang Potiphar's Door... and of course there was derek saying Pokemon for the first time. Somewhere during that evening I think I convinced Daryl that I was not quite as big of a dork as he had thought the first time we met. The magic had begun. (Now he knows I'm an even bigger dork than he'd ever imagined.)

We had planned to camp out that night, but when we got back to our tents we realized that us ladies hadn't put the tarp over the top of ours and the dew had come down and soaked our sleeping bags. Ruth was coming down with some kind of crud by that time, and toughing it out didn't seem like a good option. So in the middle of the freezing night we broke camp and caravaned to Daryl's parent's in Austin. Beds were divvied up, and I ended up sleeping on the couch in the living room. The next morning I woke up to Daryl's dog licking my hand and a note from his parents that began, "Hello whoever you are..." Daryl got up early to make it to church, and the rest of us packed up and headed home to Houston for Christmas break.

A few days later, Elizabeth and I brought in the new millennium with a few thousand youth and Caedmon's Call at the Astro Arena in Houston. By the way, if any of you remember, Elizabeth and I are the ones that gave you guys the mini trash can that night. Other than thinking it was a totally cool gift to give y'all, we had grand visions of you guys inviting us on stage to play the mini trashcan during Thankful that night. Sigh. That was not to be. That was another great night with great Caedmon's memories, and I was thinking about Daryl the whole time.

A couple of days later I called his parent's house, "to get his address, so I could mail him pictures from Guild Weekend." Smooth, huh? He wasn't home, but his mom took the message. According to Daryl, her words to him about my call were, "I hope you know that means she's interested in you." At some point after that we connected over the phone, and so began two years of long distance dating. (Remember, he was in College Station/Austin and I was in Nacogdoches/Houston) We found ways of meeting up all over the state, often at events like Caedmon's and Bebo concerts.

Daryl and I first met that weekend of your 1999 College Station 40 Acres concert and were married in July of 2002. We now have a two year old daughter and are expecting our second child this August. Life has moved on, and our days of hopping from city to city for concerts are over. Where did all that energy and fanaticism go? Daryl knew that times had changed when we went to one of your concerts here in Austin while I was pregnant with our first child. He looked over at me, and I was sitting down. I was never one to sit at a Caedmon's concert.

This has turned out to be a very long trip down memory lane, and I thank you if you're still reading. Caedmon's Call will always have a special place in my heart and marriage. You guys gave me and many of my friends some of our best memories from college, but there has been one thing missing for me these past several years in my Caedmon's memory bank. I made it to a couple of your Long Line of Leavers concerts my last year of college. 40 Acres will probably always be my favorite album of yours, but my favorite Caedmon's song of all time is Valley's Fill First. You guys never sang that one at the LLoL concerts that I saw. I commiserated with other fans on the Guild message board, and several of them replied that they had seen you perform it and it was simply fabulous. You guys are coming next month to Daryl's and my home church, Grace Covenant Church, here in Austin. We are so excited! When I first found out y'all were coming, I jokingly said to Daryl that I was going to e-mail you and request Valleys. He laughed, but not too hard because, like I said, he knows now how big of a dork I am. After I said it, the idea started to grow on me. At church on Sunday, our praise band sang Hope to Carry On, and I felt a familiar spark of excitement. I simply had to write this e-mail. If nothing else, I'm glad to have taken the time to tell you guys how much you have meant to me and Daryl and about the roll you played in God's plan for our marriage. But if you have the inclination and any room in your play list, you would absolutely thrill an old hard core fan if you would sing Valleys Fill first when you come to Grace next month.

Looking forward to Overdressed,

Diana Tripp