I Heard Dominique Young Unique Was Really Awesome OR Why You Need a Cell Phone to Coordinate Your Social Life

I bought my ticket for Dominique Young Unique in a fit of gung-ho, event-attending initiative. And, even though it was a Friday night concert and I could have easily convinced myself that I had more important things to do (and by do I mean drink), I was actually quite excited to go to this show. As way of explanation, just know that her hit single is called “Show My Ass,” and either solidarity with that sentiment or general admiration for her badass-ness convinced me that this was a chick I needed to see live.

So, Friday rolls around and I’m in that situation where you have loosely-made plans with a great number of people and concrete plans with no one. A night welcomed for its great potential but simultaneously feared for its inherent ability to provide you with disappointingly little to do.  And then, the unthinkable happened…

I was sitting in a dorm room, drinking NOT beer with a few of my very much over the age of 21 friends and my phone started beeping at me, letting me know it was about to run out of battery. I run back to my room and plug it in to its charger and the whole screen goes black. Frantic, I pull out the battery, I shove the phone in rice, I plug it in again, I hold down the power button for three minutes, I search for a reset button, I search for a “click here if your phone is broken” button. Nothing. My phone is dead. My life is crumbling (pardon the melodrama).

I return to my friends and tell them the bad news. I ask if any of them were planning on going to DYU. No dice. I ask if they know anyone who’s planning on going. Tough luck. I ask if they have the number of a few people I had hoped to meet at the concert. Try again. I was spinning in a social vacuum. I couldn’t contact anyone or make any plans. Distraught, feeling ripped from my moorings and set adrift in a technological wasteland, and far too upset at this point to consider attending the concert by myself, I contented myself with other activities for the evening. BUT a part of me knew that I was missing a great concert experience and were it not for an unhealthy dependence on small, plastic devices and this odd thing called text messaging, I could be at the stage now, showing my ass.

Discussion the following day confirmed my fears. Dominique Young Unique put on a great show. In a manner unique (haha, get it?) to anorexic-looking pop stars that you know you should hate but end up loving, she pranced around stage, invited students up to dance, and showed everyone a good time. I wish I could have gone. I wish even more that my phone were currently working. And most of all, I wish that I knew how to attend the events I want to attend without satellite connections and a confirmed group of friends in tow.