PermaSwooned

I'm not sure where things stand now. I know the CV dinner is running into problems. As of today, the FCA list hasn't reached 20, so I'd like to add myself and artquest.. If there are changes, maybe this info could be updated. Starting to get excited here!!

I just realized that my roomie nicegurrrrl is not on the list. My fault....I was still heavily medicated when I signed up. Please add her to the list. Thanks.

Well, my attendance at this whole weekend is literally on one wing and a prayer, but I'd love to come back here again. The food and company were great, so count me in!!

Hello strangers!! merrieeee made a comment about a Clay picture I just posted at CV, and it made me realize I've been completely remiss in posting any of them over here. Life is a bit crazy at the moment. My DH is starting to get prepared for a 3rd deployment in Iraq. He has to leave ON Christmas Day. They sure know how to rub salt in the wound. Clay sort of dipped down just as I was taking this picture, so he was nearly out of the frame, but his expression was so gorgeous, I just had to "rescue" it. I'll try to do better about bringing pictures over here. Hope everyone is doing well!!

FINALLY one of my pictures made it into the contest. I was starting to get a complex. I loved that picture from Houston and I've been asked for permission to use it for various projects more than all but one of the pictures I've taken. I swear I nearly dropped the camera when he looked at me like that. 2nd row Center.....fans self Not for stubble-haters I guess, but I had to give it some love. I'm sure it's destined for defeat, but thanks for including it.

These pictures make me realize how truly lucky I am as a fan. That's because I was there when both these pictures were taken. He looked so absolutely gorgeous in that suit when he appeared on Leno. And the stubble was just killer. If you had used the picture where he sort of ran his finger OVER the stubble, I would have been a goner. Plus, he was SO CUTE in the interview discussing how he was forever defeated by twisty ties and how he "Thought I was gonna DAAAAAH" when he got sick in Europe. Thanks to my fabulous friend artquest we got a special backstage tour and to nibble in the green room (no Clay, alas) before the show. BUT........ I was also in Las Vegas for the Billboard Awards. This picture was taken on the Red Carpet, before some of the tackiness of the show itself that he later said he hated was revealed. He looked AMAZING in that trendy black not-a-tux that he was wearing....I mean AMAZING!!! He looked so happy being photographed with Kelly and his Mom. He was thrilled to be sitting next to Beyonce and have his picture taken with her. Ryan S. used Clay to open the show and he was SO CUTE!!! He was the first to leap to his feet to applaud when Sting gave his truly wonderful 5 words to live by speech (Music Is It's Own Reward)!! Lordy, we were so excited that night....we may have enjoyed it more than Clay did by the time the night was over, but he looked just luminescent in that black ensemble. ...fans self... So, tough as it is, I have to give #1 some love.

My life is not my own these days. I sure miss you guys!! I have to give #2 some love. I was there at that AMA's and thought he looked just amazing. His hair was not quite as ...um..."vibrant" as it appears in this version of the picture. Lots of friends there with me that day, and it was so much fun.

I'm definitely still in. Wow!! Look at all the names on the list!! How great to see old friends and meet new ones!! Thank you so much for persevering, Lori. Hey, I'm Irish, so it sounds good to me!!

Is it night? Day? I have no idea. I am welded to my work computer and will never be able to break free. I have enough work for about a year (only it all needs to be done immediately). So today my boss strolls in and asks me if I have much to work on right now because he wants to put another couple of giant projects on my plate!!! HELP!!!! Someone get me out of here!!! This past weekend the CH decided to revisit the Pala cellcert. It was fun to follow-along in the thread, although my connection to their stream seems to be broken. They lifted their ban on image files for the evening, so I went to my files to post a couple of pictures. I had great seats at Pala and took 4 SD cards worth of pictures. So how many had I edited? About 8. I am deeply ashamed. So I edited this one in FCA's honor, because he's so darn CUTE!!!! My motto is....when things are slow....post a picture. It only took me 2 years to edit 9 pictures from that show. Maybe I should try to speed it up a little.

justclay12 HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!! I'm so glad I got to meet you in NY and share food and floor space!!! Have fun with your new toy. Here's a flower for your birthday!! And on that note, I'm off to bed. It's been an exhausting week!!!

Well, I'm pretty sure this isn't it, but it vaguely fits the description, and he was so CUTE!!! LOVED that show in Ft. Myers. The last show added to the tour, and IMHO the most fun. Help!!!! Someone throw me a life preserver....I am DROWNING at work! I'm having too many days where I have to drop everything I'm working on to fix someone else's emergency. AAAACCCCCKKKKK!!! So frustrating!! My world has gone crazy!! When I dragged home from work on Tuesday night I had a message telling me how to pre-register for my hospital procedure the next morning. WTH?? WHAT hospital procedure? Naturally, no one was available to answer me until after I was supposed to have checked in Wednesday morning. They were quite nonchalant about it. Not only was I scheduled for 2 procedures that should have taken several days of preparation so I didn't bleed to death, I was supposed to have had a DIFFERENT procedure the week before. At a hospital that is not normally associated with my insurance, with a doctor I never heard of!!! Did my insurance sign off on this??? Who knows??? One would think they might want to.....oh maybe CALL me to set up these appointments or at least let me know about them ahead of time??? I'm still trying to get some answers. I need a mental health break.

Ooooooooo.....IRELAND!!! So beautiful! I'd love to go back some day with my DH. He's never been. cha cha trusty, your pictures are beautiful!! And you got some sun!! I was there in October and saw a fair amount of fog and rain. And cold. It was very cold. But, so beautiful. I'll definitely check out your pictures. I, on the other hand will need to live to be at least 100 years old to finish editing all the pictures I've taken. I'll just keep sneaking them in here: Hmmm....I think I'm supposed to be working. Shhhhhhhh.

I just stopped at home briefly to find my hooded jacket and socks. I'm going to the Greek Theatre tonight to see Prairie Home Companion ***waves at ldyj It should be a great show...the guests tonight are Martin Sheen (who loves to do the skits and has been there the last 3 years), k.d. lang & Sheryl Crow. I sure wish it was Clay, though. That was such a wonderful night. I'm leaving in a minute to take the Metro to meet my DH for the final leg of the drive. He'd never make it here and back in time. I have been so buried at work the last few weeks it's just not funny. I thought that today would be my first day "out from under", but noooooooooooooo. It looks like they are going to majorly revise the NIH protocol that we JUST started on Wednesday, which will mean major work for me. Plus, I checked on a study that seemed to be "stuck" in the approval pipeline. They told me that we may have to submit it to a different review board, which means I would have to start ALL OVER. Weeks and weeks of work down the drain. They had to hide all the sharp objects from me!!! So, I came home and edited another pic of Clay before looking for my shoes and socks. That made me feel much better. He's very purdy, and purdy is a very good thing. OK. I'm going to go have fun with my DH and try to forget about work until Monday!!

Ah.....Red Bank, 2006. Clay couldn't even have the spotlights on when he was talking to the audience, but he was amazing. I mean, just amazing. And FUNNEEEEEE!!! And yummy....we can't ever forget that....very yummy: No, I have not finished cleaning out my bathroom cabinets. What would YOU choose to spend your time on???

Oh Karen, thanks for the pictures!! The lighting at Red Bank was verra, verra nice. Wish I'd been a bit closer in 2006, and that venue didn't work for me in 2007. Want to go for 2009 Clay? I ate the best pizza I've ever had in my entire life in Red Bank. Yum. We're doing some home clean-up and repairs today and I just can't do it for long. I'm sneaking in to work on a picture now and then. You all are going to be seeing "new" Las Vegas pictures for a long, long time. Hope you can live with it. He was fighting some major "wonky eye" that night. I think that singing with his "new" not-quite-healed jaw may have been stressing him out just a little. He still looked pretty darn gorgeous to me!!

I posted this on another board, but what the hey, I'll post it here too. I was listening to my local NPR station when the ruling came through on Tuesday morning. For the next 3 days the local hosts broadcasts opinions from many legal experts, including those that argued against Prop 8 before the Court. By the end of 3 days, the vast majority of opinions supporting same-sex marriage agreed with what Clay just said. The change is going to have to come through a new ballot measure to allow equality in this area to let the citizens of California make the decision. Most of these experts were also not comfortable with letting the court overrule the voice of the people, nor in letting the Court "define" equality. I have high hopes. One of the problems that I saw during the campaign was that the anti-Prop 8 forces placed TV ads that were WAY to subtle for the average viewer. For weeks & weeks we saw a lovely bride encountering obstacles at her wedding as she tried to get to her groom....the doorknob broke, her high heel broke, her veil was snatched off by bush brambles. The voice over then asked how you would feel if you weren't able to marry the person you loved. It was sponsored by "Let California Ring"....there wasn't even a mention of Proposition 8. We have the TV on in the waiting room for our patients and several times I heard people asking what that was supposed to be about. The ad was certainly big on the Bravo channel, but frequent ads don't help if no one can figure out what they were about. By the time they wised up and reacted to all the ads of concerned parents stating with great authority that their children would be taught all about gay marriage and homosexuality in the 2nd grade, it was really too late. The very early polls months in advance showed that Prop 8 would be defeated, but by the time the election rolled around those cute kid/worried parents ads had really taken their toll. Hopefully, next time around they will be smarter. Signatures on ballot initiative petitions are already making the rounds. Even the Governator said this week that he expected same-sex marriage to again become legal in California. It's just a question of when. I LOVE that Clay didn't shy away from this question. And I LOVE that he's so smart, well-spoken and well-informed. Love him. Period.

I saw your post over at the OFC Scarlett. If he answers you, steer him away from the Atlanta show. Gregory was absent for that show, right? And I would imagine he would want one with Gregory in it. I loved the JNT05 too. Thanks, Clay, for coming back to talk to us again. Love you.

OK....I read one more bash Clay/praise Adam post elsewhere before I went across the street to pick up lunch, and I have to admit, I felt like my last nerve had just been pinged. I have deep thoughts about it that I'll share later. I'm feeling very guilty that I'm the one that called liney23 and gave her the "gay" news last fall and spoiled 2/3 of one of her days in Hawaii. I'm so glad she forgave me and that we still are having wonderful regular dinners together. We live very different lives, but seem to share a brain on all the important stuff. I don't think I want to be caught in her place during the next big earthquake though, because I would probably end up as a human pincushion when her entire crystal collection flew off the shelves and impaled me. In other news, I was listening to NPR today and got some very shocking and sad news. I hope you are sitting down. Archie is going to marry Veronica. No, not David Archuleta, the Archie of Archie Comics fame. I am CRUSHED!! And, I'm not alone. They had myriad interviews with people in India and Kenya, where evidently Archie, Veronia, Jughead et al are cultural icons. I am in tune with these global citizens, who all but one believe that Archie is making a HUGE mistake because everyone knows that Veronica still carries the torch for Reggie plus is SO high maintenance that he will never be able to keep her in the style she feels she so deserves. They all (except one man who felt Veronica was hot) felt that his destiny lay with the sweet and lovable Betty, who has put up with a lot of crap for about a zillion years. What about Betty???? Why is Archie going for the flashy but shallow Veronica??? Is he blind??? Is he stupid??? Is he blind AND stupid???? Evidently, this will be a worldwide controversy. The offending comic issue comes out in August. Sorry to bring this bad news to my fellow Betty fans. Back to Clay. I think that Clay Aiken is a great singer, performer, entertainer and raconteur. One thing I've always liked about him is that he has a very quick wit and tends to be snarky. However, I've had a lot of opportunities over six years to observe that he is a kind, thoughtful, caring man with a big heart at his very core. I believe, after 6 years, that Clay Aiken has integrity, whether he makes flip, snarky comments on his own message board or not. We'll see what Adam's fans have to say about him after they've "known" him for 6 years. I edited this picture yesterday, and I really like it because he LOOKS like the man of integrity I believe him to be. See what I mean? Sigh. I just had a meeting that will require immediate follow-up, and I have a gigantic protocol & consent revision I wanted to finish by the end of the day. Now I find that another study that I spent 2 days this week on submitting an amendment and amended consent for is being suspended for safety reasons, and I need to process that. We were only doing lung function testing for a study of an inhaled insulin medication. No patients had even been seen for that study yet. However, it appears that asthma patients and some COPD patients were having temporary decreases in lung function after taking this medication. Just a heads up, in case any diabetics here were thinking about enrolling in such a study. It's going to be another long day. Carry on.

OMG, I have a day off, and I'm at HOME!! Not that I didn't enjoy my weekend with Clay and friends or my wonderful visit last weekend with my DD, but work has been crushing, and I feel like I haven't had time to breathe in weeks. couchie and Clay are both better persons (and far more patient) than I could ever hope to be. You.have.a.connection!! I'd be happy to room with either one on any future adventures....couchie, you can PM me here, and Clay can PM me at the OFC. Loved Clay's blogs, love all the Q&A's, will never in my lifetime understand why everything he says and does has to be zeroed in on and plastered all over the media in as negative a light as possible. I'll also never know what it is some "fans" are really expecting from him. They appear to LIVE to be judgmental and disappointed, and I can't imagine spending time on someone they so thoroughly disapprove of. So, following all these tales of Adam/Clay fan wars is not how I choose to spend my weekend. Instead I will think back on 2 weeks ago when I had a fantastic time with my DH, many friends and CLAY in Las Vegas. I am so swamped, but I have edited some pictures from that event. They are not as clear as the pro/screencap/cotton pictures since they were mostly from the jumbotron, but he was v.v. purdy, and I have it on good authority you can't have too many pictures of Clay. So I'll post a few as I get time. Maybe with themes. So, for those of you needing a break from the angst....I give you Gorgeous Clay #1: Hope that helped!! And Clay?? To me, you are a beautiful man, inside and out!! OK. Maybe I should actually unpack my suitcase from last weekend. Latah!!

I just went and checked my Spam shirt Couchie and it is the same as you described but with only one logo on one sleeve. My DH got the same one and we have both had questions whenever we have worn them. I don't wear mine out much but tend to put it on at the end of a hard work day. It brings back such good memories and the quote is uplifting. Couchie, I bought this very shirt at our first Spam show in January when I was SITTING NEXT TO YOU!! I'm feeling pretty sure I showed it to you either there or back in the room!! At any rate, it's still available: http://www.playbillstore.com/spbrmuimnotd1.html I just wore mine at the last lunch of the medical meeting I was at in Atlanta last week when I changed into my plane-ride-home-wear. LOTS of looks...most of the comments were from fellow Python fans. I also have the matching pin stuck above my desk. Always good to remind everyone that I haven't succumbed to overwork or any of my various ailments yet!! And since I'm still alive, I'm going to Vegas!!! I didn't find out about Clay being there until a day later than everyone else. My Clay jungle-telegraph system has evidently fallen apart, and friends had already made their plans long before I even heard about it. My DH interrupted my pity-party tale about how all my friends had abandoned me to say that he would like to go. OMG!!! He's a big fan himself, but RL work stuff has kept him from seeing Clay live since the JNT05!!!! He's instructing a 6-week class right now, so that keeps him off overtime requirements, so he can go!! We've hooked up with recapper extraordinaire poshpenny, who also didn't have ride-sharers or roomies and got a 1-bedroom suite at the Grand Vacation thingy at the LV Hilton. We'll be there from Friday dinner time until Sunday brunch-ish (it IS Mother's Day after-all....I'm adopting poshie for the day). Anybody want to say HI, let me know!! And now to the important stuff: AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!! Parker is absolutely adorable!!! So glad to see them out and about and that TMZ didn't get the chance to break the pics!!!!!

Yay!! Yes, I'll be there with ncgurrl. Hope to get to meet some more people this time. couchie I can't believe we didn't get to "spa" while you were in SoCal, so I'll be flying to see you as well.

Speed post..... Love Clay Love his blog Love that he WILL be on 30 Rock Love that the GLAAD news is on the OFC Congratulations to couchie on her new job. REALLY hope that our spa day happens, but I am the fly in the ointment. I'm having an endoscopy/colonoscopy on Monday 3/30, which also wipes out Sunday 3/29 for the Prep, and don't know how I'll be feeling on Tuesday. Thursday 4/2 I have a doctor's appointment. Wednesday? Friday? I'm starting to think you all should just make plans and I'll join in if I can.

I wasn't implying that flying in First Class or buying an expensive model car was unusual for Clay. Speaking as a former flight attendant, it's pretty unusual for ANY celebrity not to fly in First Class. However, the Premium Service, or whatever it's called appears to go way beyond ordinary First Class pricewise and service-wise. And who knows, maybe his car lease was up. My point (which I guess I didn't make very well) was regarding the TIMING of these recent purchases. Flying Premium Service and buying a new car AT THIS POINT IN TIME didn't strike me as the actions of someone who had nothing coming up to generate income in the foreseeable future. Somehow an upcoming appearance on ANTM wouldn't really justify that kind of purchase, I wouldn't think. So (since my middle name is Pollyanna), I'm interpreting that to mean there is cool career news coming that Clay feels secure about, but to which we are not yet privy. It makes me happy to think that, so there. I'll be happy to loan out my rose-colored glasses to anyone else who would like to see things my way.

Loved the picture of casual Clay with the friend of a friend. I am interpreting this as very good news. Here's the view through my rose-colored glasses. Last week we got info that Clay was traveling in First Class with the pricey Premium Service option. Today we see a picture of Clay supposedly buying a new car. Our impression of Clay has always been that he's pretty frugal. So if he's using expensive travel options and buying a new car, I interpret it to mean that he has something lucrative in the works. They just don't seem like the actions of someone who is concerned about watching his money because there is nothing on the fire career-wise. KWIM??? That's my story and I'm sticking to it!! And he really does look gorgeous to me in that pic. Thanks FG for sharing it.

I can juggle my schedule during that time. PermaSwooned is the one with scheduling issues. Check with her and others and then just tell me when and I will be there. Yeah, I need to look at my work schedule, but I know Sunday and Monday are out. TMI, but I have an endoscopy/colonoscopy on Monday and I have to do the prep on Sunday, so there's no way I'd be able to leave the house. A friend at CV just had an endoscopy and she's in a lot of pain a day later, so I'm leaning toward the end of the week...like Friday maybe???? Let me see if I'd be able to swing that, because I'd really love to do it.