So apparently, one road trip, one Idol concert, and one
sweating-and-standing-in-in-extreme-heat episode is not enough for
yours truly, so I decided to take my measly $600 "gift" from El
Presidente and do it all over again.
Originally, since my mommy
is in Alaska, I was going to force my partner Dan to chauffeur my
daughter Meg and I to Evansville, Indiana (4 hours away), where he
could sulk and be antisocial while Meg and I met the Idols again.
Thankfully, my dear friend Mandy saved us all from that particular fate
when she volunteered to come along. Yay- girl's trip!!
Now,
those who know me well know that I hate to drive. I am very bad at it.
I tend to get road ragey and hit various stationary objects. Now I was
literally thrust into the driver's seat. I seriously had doubts about
whether or not we would make it to Evansville.
Nevertheless, I
took my Aveo by the steering wheel and off we went, listening to my
"Girl's Night Mix" cd and Archie's "Crush" single on repeat, much to
Megan's chagrin.
The trip to Evansville was fairly uneventful. We arrived at the Baymont Inn no worse for wear.
This
morning, we set out for Roberts Stadium to meet our Idols. I was much
wiser this time- I had strategized for this meeting like a general
prepares for battle. I armed myself with bottled water, suntan lotion,
spearmint gum (for minty breath), and a card for each Idol. I had hit
up the Cardologist a couple of weeks ago for some humorous cards in
which I put pictures from the St. Louis concert, so they could have
them for a scrapbook or sell them to the Enquirer or whatever.
We
were among the first to arrive at the stadium. In all my planning I had
forgotten chairs, so Mandy sportingly ran down to Walmart to get some.
It was sprinkling on and off, but for the most part it stayed gray and
humid. Thankfully I had decided to wear my hair in it's natural, curly
beastlike state.
I was sweating like crazy so I changed my clothes in the parking lot. Great planning, General Michele.
We
met up with some awesome fellow Idolators- some girls throwing a
birthday party for Chikezie and handing out beads; a couple of ladies
sitting next to us, one named Michele (awesome name!); and a girl named
Carrie who was there by herself since her friends (foolishly) didn't
want to go.
We hung out for about 2 and a half hours. It went very quickly though! And then came the buses!
First
out was David Archuleta. He looked almost ethereal in a turquoise
shirt. He is perfection. Sorry, I will stop now. Unfortunately, he
started at the end of the line, and we were closer to the beginning.
Next was David Cook, sporting a Kansas City Chiefs hat. He also started at the end. I started getting impatient and whiny.
Then
there was... Kristy Lee Cook! KLC is always nice and polite to us fans,
but I am sure it's hard to be there when most of us are drooling over
the men. She started at our end and was my first autograph and picture
of the day!
Then came... Castro! A bunch of his fans were
there as usual- some of them were actually toting his head on a stick.
Not his actual head, sorry. I should clarify that. I like Jason- he's
not my favorite, but I do like him a lot. He always looks good. His
hair is awesome, and he has the bluest eyes and the whitest teeth. He
was wearing a white shirt and denim cutoffs- and no shoes! He looked
really, really good. He is always very nice and down to earth too. He
signed me an autograph and took pictures with all of us.
Then...
Michael Johns!!! He looked hot. Woo! And he started at our side! As he
was walking up, he saw Megan and said to her "Aww!" about her Puppy
Johns sign and then "Nice to see you again!" He recognized her from St.
Louis! Meg and I about DIED!
Then... calamity! Archie and
Michael Johns got to us at the same time. Actually, Archie got there
first. He is so awesome. First I said, "This little girl is SO jealous
of you! You have to win her over!" as I pointed to Meg. He said
"Really? Why?" And I said "Oh, she thinks I love you more than her,
which is ridiculous." And I think he like laughed and nodded. It's hard
to remember! I told him she had just started piano lessons and he
seemed really interested in that. Then my mouth took over. I showed him
my framed picture of the 2 of us from St. Louis. He signed it. I said,
"I have this sitting on my desk at work." and he said "Really? Where
from?" and I thought he meant where do I work, so I said "A newspaper."
and he said "This was at a newspaper?" and I said "No, I work at a
newspaper; this picture is from my desk there." and he said "Where was
it taken?" and I said "OH! St. Louis! I thought you meant where did I
work?"
Yeah, I'm an idiot. And I sure felt like one. We were
like 2 people who were fluent in the language of Fluster. It was
ridiculous. I am cringing just writing about it!!!
THEN- to
further things, Michael Johns walked up during all this and proceeded
to skip us! As I was getting my picture taken (again) with Archie, I
yelled "Michael Johns, you get back here!!!" Like I was his mother or
something. Sheesh.
He yells back (jokingly) "Hey! You skipped
me!" but he came back over. He talked to Meg about how he remembered
her from St. Louis. "In the parking garage. I hopped up on the cement
block for her." Incredible!
So I said to him, "Can I have my
picture with you? I did my hair and everything!" and he says, "You did?
In this humidity?" He is a riot.
Not too long after that, Cook
got to us. I made him read my sign, which said "Gimme Cookie!" and had
a picture of Cookie Monster on it. I asked him to sign my pics of him
from St. Louis, one of which I had tried to photoshop and make it look
like a comic. He said "What happened to this one- did you spill
something on it?" and I said "You know? I was trying to be all artsy
and it obviously didn't work." He laughed. In his pictures with Meg and
me, he is making some crazy faces. If I had known he was doing that, I
would have made one back at him instead of smiling like a mindless
idiot.
I got really excited because I saw Carly, and she was the
one I missed in St. Louis. She apparently had some friends there who
gave her a birthday party, since her birthday is tomorrow (well, now
today.) She spent a lot of time with them, and by the time she got to
us, I asked her for a picture and she said "I'm not doing pictures. I
have to go do press. I am the only one doing press today." I was kind
of stung by that. She was a little, well, grouchy. But what made me mad
was then she went down to her friends again for about 20 more minutes.
Whatever. When she walked back by, Mandy said to her "Thanks for taking
time (to sign us autographs) Carly" and Carly just ignored her! And I
know she heard her.
Addendum: I don't mean to imply that Carly is not a nice person. I
think she was frustrated because her friends were there and she
couldn't spend time with them because she had to go do press. I mean,
she could have been nicer, but she was probably just in a bad mood.
It's understandable. She's seemed nice in every other instance.
Soapbox time! I think it's absolute BS that
the Idols have to take time away from the fans to do press. We are the
ones spending the money, buying the tickets and souveniers, buying the
cds, calling in votes which gets AI their big advertising revenue...
take time from someone else, but not the fans!!!
Then there
was... Chikezie. I cannot say enough about how Awesome Chikezie is. He
is such a sweetheart. He takes time for everyone- he gave everyone who
handed him something a hug. He actually had to stop after me to go do
press (I thought Carly was the only one doing press?) but HE came BACK
after press and picked right back up with Carrie where he had left off.
HE is truly awesome!
Last but not least was Brooke. She
sounded like she was a little under the weather, but other than that
she was her wonderful self. She talks to everyone and is very personal
and grounded.
Ramiele and Syesha were no shows. I gave their cards to Brooke to take to them.
Concert Time!
Our seats were INCREDIBLE. I guess it pays to buy from a scalper, no matter how much I hate the idea.
The
show was pretty much the same as St. Louis- everyone sounded awesome.
There was a special tribute for 9/11 of one of the band guys playing
his trumpet. It was beautiful.
Michael Johns really went beserk during Please Don't Stop the Music. It was awesome! They did the Mavid! WOOHOO!
My
memory card filled up during Syesha's performance, so I had to hurry up
and delete off all the blurry pics. Mandy let me borrow her memory card
for the final few numbers. I will post what I have probably tomorrow.
We made it back to Springfield in 3 and a half hours, and that included
a severe thunderstorm, complete with what we thought was hail, AND
massive fog. Yeah. I rock!
All in all, all the time, effort,
money, driving, and sweating was worth it. I don't know when I will
ever see an Idol with this much talent. And there will never be another
Archie for me- not ever. I"ll close with what I wrote in his card.
"I
am not a religious person, but hearing your voice is the closest I've
come to being moved on a spiritual level. This season for me wasn't
about who won, it was about the way I feel when I hear you sing. Thank
you for that."
17 a song from Tamyra Gray's Debut Album great cd you can listen too it in my audio