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St. Louis, MO -- Nov. 27, 2007


ldyjocelyn

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CP is the one who has been reporting for CV and Alice has been interviewing her. The stage was FULL of instruments and people. Durham is out being walked and isn't barking. That's a first! Jerome does not like walking the dog he told her. He took Durham over to a girl who is handicapped and she's patting the dog. A lot of handicapped folks there tonight. They had good seats. Just heard a bark. The buses are running tonight, they weren't last night.
Security is making people get onto the sidewalk. The wind is picking up and it's getting coollllld! About 3/4 of a block long line now, but it's 3 or 4 people deep.
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LDYJ just called..... let me see if I Can get the gist of what she said.

eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

eeeee

that about covers it.

As you know she was unspoilered...she loved it...the new song, Welcome to my world or whatever it is... Floored that he started the concert with Emmuel, loved the jazzy medley, and she also seems to want to marry Don't Save it all for Xmas day.

Clay did not come out for the busses..kinda snuck by.

Don't know what's going on there..if he doesn't intend to do the bus line I hope he just says so because it's winter and it's too cold for my friends to be standing out in the cold. I don't think he HAS to do them..just let people know so they will leave after the concert.

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My friend and I just got back to the room a little while ago. We thought the show was glorious. I would consider my friend Judy a NJU. This is her 3rd show, all Christmas tours, she's not on any message boards. She has enjoyed each of the shows saying that each was unique. She said that during this show she felt that Clay had grown so polished and professional and that he looked so comfortable.

The show came accross to me as elegant, and that was signaled as much by the girls gowns as anything else. I sort of feel like this is the Christmas show as Clay has always intended it to be. Beautiful music, sung by beautiful voices accompanied by a great orchestra.

I agree with who ever said it last night, that it appears that they rehearsed this show more than those past.

As far as the fan stories go, we both enjoyed them. I think they worked them into the show very well.

I bought the red scarf. It says Love, Clay on it, and I'm sure he knitted it for me himself. I will say that standing out in that cold handshake line that never happened, I have already got more use out of the scarf than any of the t shirts I have bought. I was a little dissapointed by the bus line, but the concert is what I paid for and it was more than worth the price to me.

I'm gonna catch up a little bit, then I'm going to bed.

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I bought the red scarf. It says Love, Clay on it, and I'm sure he knitted it for me himself. I will say that standing out in that cold handshake line that never happened, I have already got more use out of the scarf than any of the t shirts I have bought. I was a little dissapointed by the bus line, but the concert is what I paid for and it was more than worth the price to me.

I'm sure he did knit it himself, while he was reading over all those xmas memories heee. Glad you enjoyed. Sorry about the line..but yeah, if there's not going to be one I hope they say something. Send out a dog walker. Anything!

Yay thanks Ansa..no more fighting 98% full warnings heee.

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Oh, please, please, please post a picture of the scarf ! I want to see what I'll be spending my non-existant money on. Hee! I know I won't be able to resisit.....

luckiest, I'm so sorry I couldn't post a picture of the scarf. I have my camera with me and could have taken a picture, but being the novice picture taker that I am, I didn't have a way to download it on to my laptop. I see that someone has posted it now. I will tell you this, it is sooooo soft. I felt like a toddler with it, I wanted to lay down with it all contented while sucking my widdle thumb.

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Hee. I'm sure he did knit that scarf just for you atinal! :lol:

Here are some other pics of scarf, hat, and poster:

foxkimme-1.jpg

foxmommedad2.jpg

Also, Jemocks highly amusing recap:

Ok, whew. It’s been a carnival ride the past couple of days, but in a good way. First of all, let me tell you guys something.

1. Clay Aiken is a very nice guy.

2. Clay Aiken is very handsome.

3. Clay Aiken can sing real good.

I wasn’t going to submit a story OR attend a concert, but then Clay blogged and I caved. Sue me.

I got notification that my story would be read on Monday, after I had left home for St. Louis. I didn’t even tell my travel buddies lyricAKP and farouche until we all arrived in St. Louis, because I had to be at the venue by 4:45 on Tuesday, and they’re kinda nosy and would have been all up in my koolaid about where I was going all dressed in black and whatnot. But I threatened them with some really bad fanfic if they told anybody, so they behaved.

Anyhoo. I got to the Fox box office at the allotted time, and met up with two other ladies, HeyButterfly from the OFC and another nice lady from St. Louis (I don’t know her screen name). In a short while, Jamie came around to get us. She is the cutest thing I have ever seen, and has the southernest accent I’ve ever heard, which is saying something, what with me sounding like Gomer Pyle and all. She checked our email printouts and ID’s, and looked at mine and said “Hay! Yew’re tha go-go bewts!” Ha!

That’s when she asked us if we knew anybody would could read a story that Clay wanted to use. Neither of the St. Louis gals could think of anybody, so I offered up one of my roommates, knowing both of them well enough that they would do pretty much anything Clay asked them to do. And they both could read, near as I could tell.

So I called lyric and said “Can one of you come down here and read a story for tonight.” And she said “Shyeah, right.” And Jamie was standing right there, so I said “Seriously, Clay needs a reader for a story tonight. One of you needs to come down here and do it.” And lyric said, "This better not be a prank, I swear to God, and give us a second to figure this out.” So I told Jamie that I thought one of them could do it, but they had to freak out real quick and call me back.

At this point, Jamie took us back stage where she gave us basic information on the stage setup and the set list and when our stories would be read. Mine was first. So I had to rehearse mine first. Jesse was at the piano, the microphone was on the stage, and Jamie handed me the Black Binder of Holiday Spirit and said “hold the book on your left and stand real close to the microphone, and when Jesse starts playing, start reading.” Ho-kay. It was at this point I decided I had made a tactical error in that I had apparently forgotten that I’m a freakin idiot and should never be allowed to speak in public.

However, it was also at this point that my legs loco-moted my body out on the stage under their own volition. And it was also at this point that I looked out into the house and saw an utterly beautiful Clay Aiken sitting there in a seat about five rows from the stage. Looking at me. Ack.

Jesse started playing, and I started reading. No sound was coming out, though, because the microphone was turned off. At this point, Clay jumped up and loped up to the stage waving his arms and saying something like “the sound’s not working, hang on!” so I shut my mouth. He said something to somebody and then turned back to me and said “Hey Joy!” And I said “Hey!” That part worked out pretty well, I think.

At that point, he started talking to me about a few other things and gave me some direction on how to stand and to move the book to the other side and hold it up higher, etc. And he said “I normally tell people not to act when they’re reading, but I want you to act some. I know you can do it.” So blame the ham factor on him, he told me to do it and I always do what he says. He was quite the little cheerleader. So then I started reading like this:

“WhenIwasinelementaryschoolmytwosistersandIhad all *ragged gasp for air* gottenstylishblahblahblah”

And he stopped me again and told me I probably needed to breath, and I definitely needed to slow down. And I said “you want me to slow down?” And he said yeah, slow it down some. And I said “but I already sound like Minnie Pearl.” And he said, “don’t worry, you’re doing fine, you’re going to do a great job” and other nice things like that. He’s a nice guy. I’m not sure if I mentioned that earlier.

So I got finished and the other two ladies went while we waited for farouche to get her ass up to the venue. After the second reader rehearsed, Clay hollered up at me “Joy! Is your friend here yet?!?” And I told him she was on the way. And then HeyButterfly went, and when she finished, Clay hollered up at me again “Joy! Is your friend here yet?!?!” And I told him she was here and was waiting for somebody to get her at the box office. So Jamie called Jerome and he went to go get farouche.

I’ll let her tell her story from this point. She sure has some most excellent Clay Aiken mojo, that’s for sure.

Fast forward to the show. I went out there and read my story.

Fast forward to after the show. Jamie met us at a predetermined location and took us backstage, and we only waited a couple of minutes for Clay to come out. When he did, he was happy and laughing and mind-blowingly gorgeous, and he saw us and said “Hey guys!” and started thanking us profusely for sharing our stories. He was so sweet, I’m not kidding y’all. He told us we all did a good job and shared a few private words with each of us. Then we had our pictures taken with him and I put my arm around his back, which was a little bit damp--his back, not my arm--and I blacked out for a second while I contemplated that issue. Then he gave us signed printouts of our stories, making a presentation of each one with very sweet and appreciative words and told us we would have to buy our own frames. Then he gave us each a hug. It was a good hug, too. He squeezed me. That part was real nice, but I think he squeezed my brains out somehow because I suddenly got stupider if you can even imagine.

I hope he doesn’t have this contest again, because my new favorite Christmas memory definitely involves Clay Aiken, which breaks the rule. But I think I can deal with it. Heh.

For those interested, I’ll post my story as soon as I can. I can’t post it right yet, though.

I’m really glad I did it. I have no idea why he picked my story, but I understand his vision for the concert and recognize that it was important to him to have these stories shared. He looked so happy, you guys. *sniff*.

Oh, one more thing. He knows my real name, he knows my screen name, he knows my writing, and knows what I look like, but he didn’t mention our engagement at all. I’m not sure what’s up with that.

Now, where's that ldyjocelyn?

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Posted by hosaa at CV:

My friend (she asked to remain anonymous) sent me a transcript of story # 2 from Wichita (read by author) and St. Louis (read by farouche):

A week before Christmas in 2003, my son was in a terrible car wreck. The police woke me up at 1 a.m. and rushed me to the emergency room. I held my son's hand and saw his life flash before my eyes. Then he died.

A few family and friends gathered at my house and sat in shock, looking at one another without saying a word, not believing what had happened. I sat looking at the Christmas gifts under the tree, some of which would never be opened by my son. After most of the friends left for their homes, the anger hit me. I rushed over, grabbed the Christmas tree and dragged it outside and threw it as hard as I could. Some neighbors were outside about to get in their cars to go to work, and they just stood looking at me, probably thinking I had lost my mind.

By the next Christmas, I had thrown away all the ornaments, lights, tinsel, and wrapping paper. I tried to avoid Christmas, which I found impossible to do. I heard Christmas carols on the car radio, all sorts of Christmas inserts arrived daily in my newspaper, the grocery store played "O Come All Ye Faithful" as I tried to buy groceries, and "A Wonderful Life" was on the TV about 47 times. When someone said "Merry Christmas" to me I would mumble "Same to you" and retreat as soon as I could. I was bemoaning the fact that it was impossible to escape from Christmas when one of my son's friends told me that my son would have wanted me to celebrate it. I thought about it a lot over the next few days and then went to the closet where I always kept the Christmas decorations, forgetting what I had done to rid myself of all associations to the holiday. All that was left in the closet was a Nativity scene that a dear, elderly neighbor had given to my son when he was 6 years old. And one plastic icicle. So I pulled the small Mary, Joseph, and Jesus out and put it up in the living room. I hung the plastic icicle from the chain on the ceiling fan. That would be the extent of my Christmas celebration this year.

As Christmas drew closer, I visited with family members and watched them with their families, opening presents, talking, and laughing over old memories. I planted a fake smile on my face and braved the joy and laughter. I had to turn off my emotions at the door of everywhere I went. It was better to feel nothing than to ruin everyone else's happy holidays. I bought presents for those closest to me and wrapped them in blue paper with stars on it, which looked more like a gift from the Dallas Cowboys than a real Christmas present.

After all the gatherings that I had attended, I suddenly found myself alone on Christmas day. Just me and the Nativity scene.

I sat looking around at the quiet room and felt numb. And alone. And sad. And then my gaze fell on the Nativity scene, and I realized that I had never looked closely at it in the 20 years that I had put it up every Christmas along with the many other decorations. It usually had its place beside the deer with the red bow around its neck. What I saw that Christmas day was a mother and a child. It touched me. I started to see Mary as a gentle mother standing over the crib full of straw where she was watching over her son. And I began to wonder.

I touched her blue robes and her sweet smile and thought, "Did you have a difficult delivery of this baby? Did you tell him stories and sing "Itsy Bitsy Spider" to him? Did you watch in amazement at how fast he grew into a young man? Did he fill your life with love and joy before he left way too soon? Then I found myself pouring out my heart to her as I told her everything about myself. I shared my pain with her and took the pain of losing her son as part of my own. And I cried for her.

I thought of all the other people that were in the same position as I was. Millions of people who had loved and lost someone, whether it was a son, a mother, a father, or a good friend, and were trying to survive the Christmas holidays just like me. Sadly, I realized that I was not alone at all. And I cried for them too.

All of a sudden I was enveloped in a blanket of Love that wrapped around me, held me close, and would not let me go, and I was surrounded by a sense of Peace that I had never known before. At that moment, I knew that everything would be okay. I would survive this unbelievable test of my faith because of a mother's love. The kind of love so strong it helped Mary survive beyond her own loss, with help from her son, the lamb of God, the baby boy born in a manger.

Aww. :wub:

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Hey YSRN and everyone else!! I've been home since about 1:30 this afternoon. Part of the time since then has been me doing a few chores that HAD to be done today; part of the time was getting my clack uploaded to the respective vaults (more about that later); and part of it was simply being part of the Aiken fog.

This is going to be a real rough recap, mainly because I'm tired, and I've got to leave for a rehearsal in a few minutes.

Anyway....I had a seat in the second row mezzanine, almost dead center. Now, my camera is a digital still camera that also takes pretty good (IMO) video, especially the sound. However, this means no zooming during the show, and even with the zoom all the way, I still pretty much have Clay as a stick figure in the middle of the screen, Q&A framing each side, and the orchestra filling in the blanks. I guess I would say that my clack shows the thought put into the staging. Let's see, what else about the cameras? Well, they didn't search at all -- but I heard several ushers telling people "no pictures" before the show, so that made me leary about pulling out the camera from the beginning. But after the lights went down, and I did spend most of the first half enjoying the show, I pulled out the camera, turned off the view screen, and taped all of Clay's parts (heh) from WOTW onward. The clack is in the vault now, and the alerts should be by the end of the evening. I hope.

As for the show? Let's get the (little) negative out of the way first -- it sounded to me that Clay hasn't quite gotten "up to speed' with his touring voice quite yet. There were little cracks that I noticed scattered throughout the show. I really think by Kalamazoo, though -- he'll be in great voice.

The whole show was put together so well, IMO. It was very nice to have start off with OCOCE, and then work into the first medley. The "jazzy" medley was a lot of fun, and he was very animated during it. I didn't honestly notice if he screwed up the lyrics to MDYK or not -- actually, it surprised me that it was so early in the show. The new song, WTOW, had me gasping. He had some amazing vocals during it. The other song that really surprised me was the IBHFC medley -- I really don't like any of those songs in that medley, and yet, I was touched by his sweetness and light during it. MGUCL? The most mature performance I've ever heard from him yet. DSIAFCD was a blast, as usual. I could kind of tell that he was looking antsy on that box, but he covered it well. And the thing he was doing with the microphone was a strange little turn on for me. *g* AIW is simply thrilling, as usual.

Q&A looked stunning, IMO. Angela's song was nice and she was excellent, but Quiana's song blew me out of the water. I think maybe it was partially because of the story leading up to it. Yes, the reader ended with the comment that her mother had just lost her battle with breast cancer this year, and she teared up quite a lot when she said "she's my Christmas Carol, and I love you Mom." (Carol was her Mom's name.)

The other stories were cool as well, and I thought the USO story made for a nice lead in to the IBHFC medley.

Yep, I was out at the busline, and if the rumor is true that Clay's mad at Jerome for not lining us up for a bus line last night, I'm going to be mad at Jerome too. For 5 minutes, and then I'll be over it. *g* Seriously, last night was my perfect time for it -- there wasn't that many people there, honestly, maybe 100 tops. And my other show is Merrillville -- where if they do end up with bus lines, it will be 2000 people! BTW, my feet are FINALLY thawed.

Gotta run. More later. Gotta tell you about the NJU I sat next to. *g*

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ok whats the deal with these stories...do y'all think I can post it on FCA main...its beautiful...how can I ask her if she is anonymous.

anyone know her???

Why wouldn't it be acceptable to post it on main, if it is acceptable to post it in this thread? This thread is no more private than main. ::confused::

Oh, and YSRN, thanks for the pics of the scarf/hat combo! That is the first picture I've seen of the hat. I might need it for my clack keeper, but not sure if I'd ever wear it (I don't generally do hats). The scarf, however, is a must!

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ok whats the deal with these stories...do y'all think I can post it on FCA main...its beautiful...how can I ask her if she is anonymous.

anyone know her???

Why wouldn't it be acceptable to post it on main, if it is acceptable to post it in this thread? This thread is no more private than main. ::confused::

Oh, and YSRN, thanks for the pics of the scarf/hat combo! That is the first picture I've seen of the hat. I might need it for my clack keeper, but not sure if I'd ever wear it (I don't generally do hats). The scarf, however, is a must!

Heee...I meant the FCA website...not the FCA main thread...sorry.

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