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| August 30, 2003 San Jose |
| I'm beginning to think that I'm a magnet for random concert/celebrity experiences. I don't know what it is, but the strangest (usually good) things end up happening to me. Call it luck, call it experience, call it knowing how to be in the right place at the right time, I have no clue. Tonight I went to the AI2 concert in San Jose. I spent about 2 hours this afternoon circling downtown looking for any sign of the Idols with absolutely no luck. Finally around 2:45 I decided to just hang out at the arena for a little while because I had nothing else to do and time to kill. As I was parking my car, I spotted a tour bus pulling into the backstage area. Ok, one mystery solved, now I knew where the buses were. (I'm thinking they stayed in San Francisco for the past two nights �- I hate when that happens) Unfortunately for me, the SJ Arena is a freakin fortress with virtually no way to catch a glimpse of anyone significant once they're inside the gates. I didn't recognize any familiar faces (or hairstyles lol) in the 2 buses that pulled in, but I hung around at the gates for a little while with a few other fans. Eventually I spotted Rickey Smith behind the gates playing catch with a football. When the other fans noticed him and yelled, he waved and signaled that he'd be over in a minute. Cool, at least I get to meet SOMEONE, although I never really cared about Rickey one way or another. A few minutes later he came over and signed autographs. Nice guy. He even asked to borrow my pen. lol Seems to be a trend! I should have told him, "Be careful, that's Kevin Richardson�s favorite pen too!" lol After Rickey left, I waited a little longer and then decided to leave for my next destination. I was supposed to be going to the concert by myself, but then an online acquaintance via Ryan Seacrest (Bina) arranged for me to meet up with her and a HUGE group of Clay Aiken fans for dinner. It was a comfort to find out that quite a few people have a tendency to be psycho fans like me. Granted, my psycho fandom is over BSB and these ladies (and a few gentlemen) are ga-ga for Clay, but still, being a crazy fan is universal. lol After a fun-filled dinner, we began our short walk to the arena. On the way we encountered a guy trying to sell tickets � FRONT ROW TICKETS. Thought #1: It's AI, not BSB. My section 116 seat is good enough. Thought #2: I'm spoiled and I wanna be as close as possible and it's FRONT ROW. There was another girl in our group by herself (Maggie), so the two of us bought this guy's pair of front row tickets for $35 each plus our original seats. (trade + $, IMO worth it to be in the front) We were kind of weary whether the tickets were legit, but each of us had an extra ticket just in case so we could still get in. Luckily the front row tickets WERE legit �- front freakin row... unbelievable. We ended up sitting slightly off to the side, right near the edge of the stage and right in front of the speakers. My ears are still ringing, but it was GREAT. During Rickey's solo song in the first half, he came over to our side, crouched down on the speakers in front of us, and proceeded to sing a few lines directly to ME. I didn't know what to do, I was in shock, so I just stood there smiling and lookingat him. That's never happened to me before. Pretty cool but WEIRD. Maybe he recognized me from earlier at the back of the arena? *shrug* The performers all sounded good (even Carmen, who I CAN'T STAND) and the show was very entertaining. Clay was outstanding, of course, and I really liked his first single off his album, Invisible. He was totally cute all jumping up and down and getting into it. I love when performers do that. Ruben was sick (they told us that about every 10 minutes), but he still pulled off a good performance. A few cracks in his voice, which is unusual because he's normally so smooth, but it was totally understandable because he was obviously under the weather. Because we were in the front towards the side, we could see some of the behind-the-scenes stuff going on. The dancers kept coming to the pit area and video taping the performances. During one song Rickey even came out to watch Clay. Kinda cool. At one point in the first part of the show, I noticed a big security-looking guy standing in the pit right in front of me. (came to find out later that it was the head of AI security, Ron) I was watching whoever was singing, but I kind of glanced at Ron out of the corner of my eye and gave him a half smile. A minute or so later he came right up to the railing and slyly handed me something. It was ameet & greet pass! WTF????? Turns out some of the Idols do a semi-m&g AFTER their shows (in addition to the regular ones before) and for some reason, Ron just randomly picked me out and gave me a pass. *shrug* Okie dokie! Bina had gotten one earlier through her friend (looong story), so this way we could go together. Maggie didn't have one though, so when I saw Ron again later during the second part of the show, I asked him if I could have another one for the person I was with. He backed up, looked at me skeptically, and said, "Then I expect TWO hugs." lol I was like, "OK! No problem!" and he later slipped me another pass for Maggie. Coolness, now we could all go! From going to the concert by myself and sitting in section 116 to sitting in the front row and scoring m&g passes... BIZARRE! *shaking my head* I don't know how these things happen. After the show they had all of the people with passes sit in section 106 to wait to be escorted backstage. Ron saw the three of us and said, "You all have passes?" and then he looked at me and said, "Oh yeah, that's right, front row!" lol I thanked him again and he told me not to forget my end of the deal. They took us to a back room with tables and chairs set up... not a normal m&g situation. Bina said that Clay and Ruben never go to these after-the-show things, and she was right, but it was still cool to meet some of the other people. I got to talk to and take pictures with Trenyce, Kimberly Locke, Rickey Smith, and Charles Grigsby. They were all very sweet and patient with everyone. I told Rickey that I saw him singing to me, and he was like, "Yeah, I WAS singing to you huh!" He told me that he was having fun on stage tonight and I told him that I had fun watching. When we took ourpicture together, he pressed his cheek to mine, NOT ME, I swear, it was him. Rickey loves me. lol BTW, I did uphold my end of the deal with Ron, although I almost didn't get the chance. At the end of the m&g Ron rushed the Idols off to their buses, so I was like, "Oh well, he doesn�t get his hugs!" But then as we were leaving, we ran into him again and he held out his arms like, "Ok, time to pay up!" lol I gave him TWO hugs and thanked him again before we went our separate ways. After the m&g Bina, Maggie, and I walked back towards our cars. We met up with some of Bina's other Clay friends, who are all caravanning to Anaheim to see the final AI concert tomorrow night. From there we parted ways � the others to hit the road to try to follow the AI buses to Anaheim and me to my comfy bed. Fun night, fun show, fun friends. Lots of random, unexpected changes to the original (boring) game plan, but very very cool randomness at that. |
| *Pictures coming soon* Other American Idol Encounters Ryan Seacrest June 2003 Ryan Seacrest/American Juniors August 2003 Ryan Seacrest/Simon Cowell September 2003 Back to OS Home |