Going to a Party with John Mayer, the Singer-Part 1

John Clayton Mayer ( born October 16, 1977) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer. He was born in Bridgeport Connecticut and raised in nearby Fairfield. He attended Berkley college in Boston, but disenrolled and moved to Atlanta in 1997 with Clay Cook. Together, they formed a short-lived two-man band called Lo-Fi Masters. After their split, Mayer continued to play local clubs—refining his skills and gaining a following. After his appearance at the 2001 South bySouthwest Festival, he was signed to Aware Records, and then ColumbiaRecords, which released his first EP, Inside Wants Out. His following two full-length albums—Room for Squares (2001) and Heavier Things (2003)—did well commercially, achieving multi-plantinum status. In 2003, he won the Grammy Awardfor Best Male Vocal Performance for the single "Your Body is a Wonderland".

I feel like I'm dreaming~Let me walk you through an amazing story of how a chain of synchronistic events won me and my sister a trip to see John Mayer.

I sat down at my computer last week after taking a couple days off because of a hectic schedule. I decided to go into my emails first, since it would link me to every site I'm on and save some time. I methodically worked my way down the countless emails and eventually clicked on a radio stations' E-Newsletter. The "Cities 97" was highlighting special events for the month of May. I read about each event and continued scrolling down until one caught my eye. It was a chance to win a trip to New York City to hear John Mayer's newest album, 'Born and Raised.' I have followed John's musical career from the start and knew this would be a chance of a life-time. I clicked on the register button and filled out the form which included my email address. Once that was done, I sent my sister the link, so she could register too.

Wednesday night I crawled into bed thinking about how cool it would be to win the trip to see John Mayer. I was having trouble falling asleep~I was like a giddy school girl with thoughts of John's music running through my head. This would be one of those experiences to check off my bucket list if I won. My thoughts quickly moved to the time they would be announcing a name of the winner. "Oh no," I thought, I'm allergic to morning and they'll be calling out a name at 8:10AM." "I could set my alarm clock to the music station and just go back to bed after they call the winner." "I'm not gonna win anyway, forget setting the alarm." Then off to sleep I went...

I woke to my sister screaming but thought it was just a dream. I rubbed my eyes and when I looked up, she was standing at my bedside frantically yelling about something. She was talking so fast, I was having trouble making sense of it, plus, I was half asleep. I eventually realized she wanted me to get to the living room right away. On our way upstairs, she quickly explained what was going on.

The radio station, "Cities 97" had announced a winner for the trip to New York City to see John Mayer. The person had ten minutes to call back to win but as fate would have it, they failed to call. This all happening as I lay in bed sleeping and Laura was pulling in the driveway. At 8:20AM they drew the next name. Radio DJ Brian Oake announced, "Laura Rogers from Minnetonka, you have ten minutes to call me back to win the trip to see John Mayer

Laura had dropped her kids off at school around 7:40AM that morning and arrived back home at about 8:10AM (when the first name was called). She set the alarm clock and dozed off on her favorite recliner chair. At about 8:21AM, the home phone rang. It's well known in our household that Laura doesn't usually answer the land line and let's voice mail pick up. As luck would have it, sis got up and answered the phone this time. Of all people, it was her ex-husband on the line. He said he'd just heard her name announced on "Cities 97" and she needed to call them back right away as she won something. "I don't know the number," she exclaimed hysterically. "I have it, they said it on the air. Write this down- the number is..."

By this time, Laura had filled me in on some facts. She'd already called the radio station and talked to one of the radio producers. She told him who she was and he congratulated her on winning the trip to New York City. While she uncontrollably screamed about what a big fan she was, he said, "can you keep up that enthusiasm when I have Brian Oake call you live?" Laughing, she said, "yes, I think I can make that happen." I ran to the kitchen and made sure the radio station was on 97.1. I had it on low so it wouldn't be heard when the radio DJ called live. You should have seen us staring at the phone, waiting for it to ring. We were pacing and screaming. The phone sounded~"hello,this is Laura." "Hello Laura, this is Brian Oake-You won the trip to New York City to hear John Mayer's newest album." To this, Laura replied with squeals of laughter. "Do you know who your going to invite?" "Ya, my identical twin sister." (I echoed Laura's screams in the background.) Brian and his side kick Keri, thought it was perfect that twins won this fun trip. They also found it humorous that twins from the Twin Cities, would end up being winners of a Cities 97 free trip. I know, did you get all that?

Laura's kids were ecstatic when they heard about their mom winning the trip. Her teenage son called from school and said it was already going around, because of face-book. For once, mom was seen as cool to her kids. What makes this win even more unbelievable, is the fact that Laura's ex-husband was the one and only person that called to inform her of her name being called. The kids also shared that their dad is a channel surfer. The odds he'd be listening to that station when they called her name, is incredibly remarkable.

We leave for New York City next Wednesday for a trip of a lifetime. I'll do a follow-up hub with pictures and stories of our adventures at the private party with John Mayer.