luckiest1

I waded into the discussions elsewhere and got the gist of the speculation, hand-wringing, etc. I reread the blog. I'm still in the same place.....terrified for myself that he won't sing anymore, happy for him whatever it is because it sounds like he really has had an epiphany about what he wants and needs in his life. I'm going to try not to worry about it and if that means stepping away from the boards for a while, I'll just catch up here.

ldyj, what video are you referring to?

Wow, I finally managed to get into the OFC on my iPhone and read the blog. I'm happy because he sounds like he's made some big life and career decisions and he sounds happy. But I'm scared because I have literally broken the bank to do Joseph and Gala this year and I doubt I can do any more. Also a bit scared that singing might not be part of his plans. Not sure how well I could survive without his voice. But I want him to be happy.

Ha ha ha, that's cute.

Oh wow. Who knew? Seems like every second post I read lately calls him that. Thanks guys! ETA: Ha ha, that's not the emoticon I chose!

I look forward to Clay's appearance on Arsenio's show. And it's probably just me, but it grates on my last nerve every time I read Arsenio shortened to "Arse". Ok, I understand why some people don't like the man, but Clay considers him a friend. I feel like calling him derogatory names is disrespecting Clay. However, I know I'm definitely in the minority on this one....

I'm not a late night show kind of person....I only watch them if someone I like is a guest. I have no ill will towards Arsenio (unlike a lot of people) so I wish him all the best. And when Clay is on, I will watch. That tweet of his legs & feet really cracked me up! Couchie, congratulations on getting to the point where you can cook meals again! Enjoy! Ausdon, belated happy birthday! Nice to see you back.

Apparently I missed all the commotion last night with the tweets, which is odd because Clay's usually come to my phone. However, I was out with my new car! Yeah, we drove that little green bean all over the city, and stopped at an all you can eat sushi place for dinner. Fun!

I love that Permaswooned recap! I chatted with her briefly in Maine on the 21st. I like when I can put a face to a board name. God knows I have enough trouble with recognizing people......I have no idea why, but lately I cannot hit enter and get a new line on this board. It drives me crazy. Forgive the lack of white space in this post. I am not up to much this weekend. I was planning to hit the beach yesterday (about a 45 minute drive to the lake) but the weather was kind of iffy so I ended up at the local outdoor pool instead for the final open swim of the season. The water was much warmer than that icy ocean in Maine! Today I might head downtown to our annual Fall Fest in the park, but again the weather is kind of iffy. If not, I'll probably get into the kitchen a cook a few things that I can take for lunches this week. I still don't have my new car....the dealer was hopeful that it would arrive by this weekend, but it's still on a truck somewhere between Montreal and here. So I have that to look forward to this week. I need to lay low this month and try to reserve a few dollars for my Gala trip in October. I don't think we're going to be able to afford the flights, so we're probably going to drive again (3 of us splitting the gas this time).

Does Clay even realize that fans have access to see the picture on his private facebook page? I doubt he does it for us. I'm loving all the recaps and there are no words for the beauty of the CED video.

Yes, we saw both shows on the 21st. You can see me on the right hand side a couple of times in that video, because I was standing up on a ledge to see over the heads. I don't know how people get out there so fast....unless they skip the ending (which I wouldn't do). Seems to be the same people at the front every time. I wish they'd let others have a chance. I tried both times to exit quickly, but both times I was 3 or 4 deep and because I'm short, I couldn't see Clay. I did hold my stuff up over heads and get it signed though. One time I felt Clay take it out of my hands, and then put it back again. Hee! So I have a signed poster and a signed program. I'm thinking of getting them framed to match my Spamalot stuff.

Thanks, ldyj. I posted that from my iPhone about 2 a.m. once we got back into Canada and I had 3G service again. I was going to bring it over myself this morning, but got busy writing part two! I hate to wait because if I do I forget things. Part two: Evening 8/21 plus Maine sight seeing We had made plans to meet friends for dinner at the Maine Diner, which is located in Wells. It took a good half hour to get up there because of horrific traffic, but it was worth it. To die for seafood chowder and lobster pie. Unfortunately our friends didn't make it but we enjoyed ourselves and bought some souvenirs in the gift shop. Then, a quick check in at our hotel and back to the playhouse for another show! This time the tshirts were available so Sue and I grabbed them. Our seats were centre row F which was killer. Couldn't have been better. It was such a different perspective, but much better to appreciate the play as a whole. There are not enough superlatives for the cast - they truly surpassed my expectations, which had been raised pretty high by reading recaps. Keala is brilliant. She cracks me up with her expressions. I didn't mention before that during the afternoon performance, on the line about the Pharoah being "right wing", she really played it right up to the president. It was hilarious. Differences I noticed this show: Clay knelt down in front of one of the little girls during the opening number and sang into her eyes. It was so sweet. When they threw him down in the jail cell, his right arm seemed to be positioned very awkwardly, and looked really uncomfortable to me, almost twisted backwards. And when he hits the ground he hits it hard! Anyway, he sang without moving his arm for the first few lines and eventually got it into a better position to raise his head. The rest of the play just flew by. I thought I might cry at the end, knowing it was my last one, but I was just too caught up in the excitement of the finale for anything but cheering. Next thing I knew we were trying to get out to the stage door again, but we had worse luck this time than last. The crowd was huge. I held my program over heads and my daughter held out an Ogunquit Playhouse postcard (she is a post card collector). We both got them signed. It's impressive how he manages to catch everyone in such a short amount of time. I heard him snarking on Claymatron in the front row. Sue had already got Clay's autograph in the afternoon, so this time she positioned herself down at the end, hoping to get a picture with "the Pharoah". She was quite successful. We hung around chatting with other fans and old friends until we realized that we were the last people left. Apparently, the door kept opening a crack and later we realized that Clay was probably waiting to leave. Ooops! So we trudged over to our car, the lone car up against the fence near the visitor's centre, and joked that if we sat there long enough maybe he'd walk by us. But we were good fans and drove away, but not before asking one of the employees where the nearest ice cream shop was. We were hoping to find frozen custard (something that doesn't exist in Canada) but when we arrived at Prego on Shore Drive, they were just closing. They pointed us across the street to a little ice cream parlour, which was really good. We stood out on the street (quite busy with pedestrians even at that hour) and caught up with FearOfH20 and playbiller for a while. We briefly considered taking the foot path to the beach that was prominently signed, but decided it looked pretty dark down there. So we headed to the hotel and crashed, setting our alarms for 6:30 a.m. My NJU friend Sue really enjoyed the play. She was glad that we got to see it twice, because she said she caught so many more things the second time around. She loved Clay on AI2 and she saw him in Toronto for the Jukebox Tour, but since then she has not seen much except Celebrity Apprentice. She saw Joseph twice in Toronto with Donny Osmond, so she was quite familiar with the play, but she was able to explain to us the differences in staging, props, etc. She was absolutely giddy and thrilled that she got Clay's autograph, and she said Clay, as compared to Donny, played the part in a much more emotional way. She particularly was impressed with Close Every Door and the reprise of Any Dream Will Do, as sung to Jacob. She also couldn't get over how he sang some of the parts so high! But she had a blast and said she'd love to come on another Clay adventure in future. So yesterday, we went to Amore for breakfast quite early, around 7:30 am. That is the perfect time to go because there was no one waiting in line, we just walked right in and were seated. What a gorgeous place, and a gorgeous area! Our waiter, Douen, was fantastic. The food was impressive. I was all lobstered out so I went with a waffle. We spent some time in the gift shop and bought a few things. We had a chat with the owner on our way out and told her we were Clay fans. She mentioned that Clay had been in the day before for an omelette. She said he chose his ingredients himself so she was thinking of calling it the Aiken omelette. LOL. She said they "talked food" and mentioned just how nice he was. We wondered whether maybe he might have rented a cottage in that area, because it's a bit out of the way but very ritzy. Since we were already down there, we decided to continue along Shore Rd towards York, because we were hoping to get to see the Nubble Lighthouse on our way out of Maine. We weren't really sure how to get there but we just played it by ear, and at one point we came to a fork in the road. We almost turned right but then I spied a glimpse of ocean to the left, so we went that way instead to investigate. Lo and behold, we had just stumbled upon Perkins Cove and the Marginal Way. We really weren't planning on it, but OMG so beautiful that we paid to park for an hour. There is just no way we couldn't get out and experience it. We walked the footpath as far as "Top Of The Rock", taking pictures of the amazing scenery, then doubled back because we lost my daughter and From Claygary. Lo and behold, there's Lindsay down on the rocks creating her own little tower of stones. So we traipsed on out there ourselves in our improper footwear to create our own masterpieces. Finally headed back to the car and found Sohier Park and Nubble Lighthouse. By this point we were so hot because the A/C didn't seem to want to kick in in the vehicle. I was quite determined to get my feet into the cold ocean again, so we climbed down the rocks and I did just that. Of course, rolling my pants up didn't help again, because the waves have a mind of their own. Change in the parking lot #2. We bought more souvenirs at the gift shop and finally hit the road out of town, crossing out of Maine at about noon. Our trip home was uneventful until just past Syracuse, when we started to notice police presence on every overpass, and flashing service vehicles in every U-turn area along I-90. This went on for miles and then we passed a service area that was completely secured by police tape, with people standing overlooking the highway because they were not allowed to leave. We were like WTF is going on???? Is there a fugitive on the loose? We also noticed that there was very little traffic around us on the highway. We finally turned the radio on to a news channel and were informed that Obama was travelling across I-90. We figure we just made it before they closed the highway behind us, so the people and police were all waiting for Obama to come by. Crazy! Two presidents in two days. What are the odds? We arrived at the border about 10:30 and were stuck there in line, not moving, for about and hour and half. It was ridiculous. I have no idea what was going on in our lane, but each car was held for at least 5 minutes (sometimes much more) even though we never saw anyone get pulled over. We were getting pretty silly and giddy when From Claygary advised us that the boom mikes would be hearing everything we said. That just made it worse. We had a really hard time keeping straight faces when it finally was our turn. The guy took our passports, asked us where we were from and how much we had spent, then closed the window and disappeared into his booth for 5 minutes. I have no idea what he was doing in there, but finally he gave us our documents back and sent us on our way. Finally! Freedom! Except not, because as soon as we got on the QEW we ran into a wall of taillights. They were paving the road and it was down to one lane. It was probably 12:45 by the time we hit Grimsby and retrieved our car from the parking lot. And then it was 2:45 am by the time we got home. Wow. 58 hours round trip. Would do it again in a heartbeat.

I really don't get all the angst when he mentions a schedule conflict. I have lots of schedule conflicts, none of which are related to my career. I have a personal life, as I assume Clay does also. 3 hours until I leave for Maine!!!!!

What a great interview! Best one in recent memory. I'm all packed and ready to hit the road this afternoon. I am heading to Maine with my daughter aka crimsonice, FromClaygary from CV, and a NJU friend who I usually attend skating competitions with. She loved Clay on AI2, went to the Jukebox Tour in Toronto, and she always asks me about him and how he's doing when I see her, but I was quite surprised when she expressed interest in joining us for the trek to Joseph. Turns out she saw the play twice when it was in Toronto with Donny Osmond in the lead role, and she has always wanted to see Maine. I was at a regional skating competition on the weekend with her, and she was just about squeeeing about seeing Clay from so close. When I mentioned stage door, she was in awe that she might actually get to "meet" him and get an autograph. So this should be fun. We have tickets for both shows tomorrow.

That pic is now my desktop. Just over 24 hours until I leave for Maine!

Oh, I'm glad I didn't spoiler you then! if your jaw is already on the floor, just wait.

Oooh I just watched the latest Broadchurch episode (I think it was #4 here in Canada). I have no idea what to think. Last night was a hoot! I was at my son's baseball game, but I have Clay's tweets set up to come to my phone, so it was beeping and buzzing like crazy. I managed to do what he asked (yes master!) and get him to follow me before 8 pm. I texted my daughter, who was up north visiting her dad, and got her on board as well. We both screencapped it when he followed us. Wheeeeee! 5 days until I head for Maine! Sounds like it's one hell of a party up there!

That promo video is THE BOMB!!!!! OMG I may not get any work done today for watching it on repeat. NEVAH!!! GUARDS, SEIZE HIM!!!

Congrats couchie! What a great review to start our new thread. Have fun merrieeee! One week until I leave for Maine! Today I am finally going to buy a new car. I've been test driving for a couple of weeks now. I am waiting to hear back from the dealership.....I am debating between a Mazda 2 sport model, and a Mazda 3 base model. The 2 is little and cute and bright green! But there aren't any in Ontario so they'd have to find one elsewhere in Canada and ship it (with added freight charges). The 3 is on the lot, at a discounted price as it's a 2013 and they want to sell it. It's kind of a green/blue/metallic colour. Argh I hate big decisions! ETA: Got the little green one!

The cellcert last night was extremely clear, almost like being there with your eyes shut. LOL. I really enjoyed it, and how lucky are the fans who just happened to pick last night to attend? So happy that Clay feels comfortable enough to let Parker sit in the audience. You know, I think live theatre really is good for him. He seems to be so comfortable there. And I never expected to enjoy it as much as I do!

OMG. Close Every Door. There are no words.

I can't wait to get to Maine! Today, I'm wearing the Maine shirt I bought last summer in Old Orchard Beach, and I also watched a cooking show about lobster. *g* Hey, has anyone ever driven a Hyundai Veloster? I am looking at different models because I need a new car this fall. I like the look of this one, and even on the base model, I get A/C and Bluetooth technology.

Wheeee, I'm loving all the recaps! The more detail, the better. cindilu2's is awesome. CV is having a cellcert tonight, but I'm going to miss it. Today we have Ribfest and my son Ian's baseball game on the agenda (which he insists he is playing in, against doctor's orders). My mom is still here. They will be vaulting the 'cert, however, so I can listen to it at my leisure tomorrow. Yay!

I'm here! I was out celebrating my son's 22nd birthday at a new place in town called "Beertown". Too bad I'm not much of a beer drinker, but everyone else is! I had salmon and it was the best salmon ever. Then we came back to the house to have two different cakes. OMG I'm full. I have a couple of friends at Joseph in Maine today and I got a text after the matinee with two words... "Donny Who???"