KAndre

Y'all know I'm just gonna check here for any "twats" (dear lord)...

I have a Twitter account. Have never tweeted (and probably never will). 2 more people said they were "following" me in the last couple of weeks. Man, I am apparently just too old for this...

Wishing everyone a almost late happy new year!

And congrats, merrieee!

Merry Christmas!

KAndre eyes ncgran4clay knowingly as she puffs away...

Suuure you didn't do that part...we have a reputation to maintain, don't we?

I was only mildly excited for CA - honestly, now I've got my good sheets on the bed, lots of cheap wine and candles ready and waiting!

Wow, you're good J and I didn't remember that either - I think I only went to the 2010 Gala - but this year's ALAWH frankly was WAY better.

waves at ldyj overhead....

Oh, I am back in full over-the-top Fandom mode - simply because of my man (ooh, possessiveness feels so good!) This weekend was sa-weet!

This deserves a total recap!

This year has been a lots of lows for me and only a couple of highs....turning 50 has really bothered the hell out of me. I mean, not dealing well with it at all. Being laid off was one of the high points. Son in Afghanistan...not good. Some idiot backing into my car...no good. Beijing, Shanghai, Bangkok....great. Surgeries (once I could stop the paid meds)...great.

My Clay fandom has mellowed into comfortable. He wasn't doing anything I had to run off and see (the last Gala I went to was OK, but not enough to inspire me to jump on the tickets as soon as they rolled out). In me 'n Clay's marriage (hell yeah, we're married - it's been 10 frickin' years. It's not my fault he's a polygamist/polyamory kind of guy.), we had settled into the peck in the morning and poking each other every other night. It was good. After I got laid off (does a couple of high kicks), I told my peeps, oh what the hell, I head off to the Gala. I got time, and four live songs from Clay (even if I'm indifferent to the songs themselves) is worth it. Looked for cheap fares to Raleigh, and horror of horrors, the best fare was on US Air. U. S. Air. At five frickin' fifteen. In the MORNING. I mutter under my breath at my completely inconsiderate husband. (You don't want to know what I called him when the evil Continental/United dropped their freakin' reasonably houred fares the next week.) I have my (totally elective but involving parts I'm not telling y'all except to let you know that sitting, standing, walking, and laying down was not fun, in any shape, form or fashion) surgery on Monday. Tuesday, I had promised my sweetest brother-in-law I would tape his band for him. So I did. In retrospect, I really shouldn't have. Really. Wednesday and Thursday, I spend recovering from Tuesday. I called SuperShuttle to pick my piitful ass up at 3:30 am. Yeah, it says "3:30 am". I pretend I'm striding manfully to the van, and crawl in. Make it to the plane (and no, there was NO sprinting through the airport at this time). Have an uneventful flight to Charlotte except I notice a little person across the aisle from me, and another boards. My brain make note. I am also greeted by a former co-worker whose name I couldn't remember (because I am really bad at that, but I did look him up on my cell so I could actually refer to him by name) who expressed that they missed me. I said "Good" and laughed. He laughed as well, because he knows me. Uneventful flight, we land in Charlotte, I meander my way to my connection, and have another uneventful flight to Raleigh. Make my slow way from Terminal B to Terminal C to wait on Perusing One's plane. Fall asleep in the surprisingly comfortable chairs. Wake up in time for PO to get off her flight. Have to repeatedly ask PO to slow the hell down. She arches one eyebrow in surprise as toddlers and elderly are passing her as normal, but slows down. After about two hours and maybe 1500 feet, we clamber aboard the Hertz bus and go to pick up the car. PO is a little grumbly because the eHP has a tried-and true responsibility list: If Solo isn't there, it's my job to drive (you'll see why later). Merrieeee never gets to drive but is responsible for all social activities, gossip, and letting us know what to do.

I realize how familiar Raleigh is by now. We go to the same hotel as always, recognize the landmarks, try a different local restaurant (Winston's Grill rocks, people - the service, food, and bathroom was excellent!). We had no social activities since merrieeee wasn't there. I take more pain pills and we eventually go to sleep.

It's late Saturday morning, PO heads off to go get merrieeee because the idea of riding in a car if I don't have to doesn't seem like fun. My phone rings and it's merrieeee wondering who was coming to get her as her flight was a little early. Since transportation and accommodation isn't in her realm of responsibilities, when she leaves Houston, she doesn't actually know where she's going, or who's picking her up or where she's staying. I let her know PO was on her way, and she told me she couldn't get a dial tone for PO. Know that she was on her cell, I thought that was odd, but she insisted. But by then, she was in the car with PO and on their way back to the hotel. When they arrive, PO and I ask her what do we do now, as we didn't actually read any of our correspondence from NIP. That's merrieeee's job. Unhappily, there is gonna be black mark on merrieeee's evil review because she didn't actually read any of the stuff either. But at least she brought it and all three of us looked at it for the first time around 12:30p. We saw the lunch thing and asked each other, "were we invited to lunch? We didn't have lunch last time; surely Clay would personally call us up individually if we were invited to lunch - besides we would have dinner tonight" so we went off to some bar and grill. We came back and started getting dressed for dinner (which mainly involved me taking off my shirt, pulling my bra straps down and putting my dress over my head. No, I didn't actually take my pants off. I did put on heels, though. I still looked good.) Merrieeee actually starts reading the stuff for the Gala and says, "They didn't mention dinner." I'm like, "Whaddaya mean they didn't mention dinner? It's the Gala, there's always dinner." We are now suspicious that they don't plan on feeding us. As we leave the hotel, we notice another little person down the hall and then in the parking lot, a light bulb goes off - there's a van for Micro Championship Wrestling. One mystery solved. PO's new GPS wanted to send us to the "Barefoot" Auditorium for some reason, but we eventually arrived at the Fletcher, which we remembered from the Tried and True taping. Again, nothing new in Clay land. PO randomly circles the parking lot but eventually we head for the Gala, wondering how the hell they're gonna feed us in there, and we come across ldyj, who apparently does read her correspondence and managed to make lunch. Right now, I'm annoyed at Clay - he knows it's alway's dinner, then sex. That's how we've doing it for years now. We wander through the auction items and I bid on (and eventually win) an astrology reading which I'm gonna have to track down. 6:30p we head into the auditorium, which is really a nice space. Good acoustics. Jerome comes and tells us to behave, specifically mentioning Scarlett by name. The curtain goes up, there's a couple of guys on guitars and a drummer to the right and Ben, his keyboards and Apple laptop to the right. Linda comes out and the Gala starts.

The NIP has matured well. It's professionally done, and I am proud of what they's managed to accomplish especially since the early efforts to kill it off. But y'all know me. I was bored out of my skull waiting for Clay. And then, there he was! Qiana came out too (looks like she lost a little weight) I'm not sure why people were calling the suit gray because it looked beige to me, more business casual than anything (Honey, if you gonna put "black tie optional" on the freaking invitation, you have to dress up. Seriously). He then sang my Xmas song, "All is Well" and sang it well; a couple of minor bobbles in the middle, but freakishly good as always. Ya know what? One day, my dream will come true - the fandom will realize that the bad note in wherever-the-hell-it-was was a goddam anomaly and you don't have to applaud one freakin' note before the goddam end. It would be nice to actually hear him hit it! Oh well. I relaxed in anticipation of a good night - he's hitting songs I like and this is gonna be good. They did some NIP stuff. He rolled my favorite classic Xmas song, "O Holy Night" and his voice was even more on track. More NIP stuff. What? I recognize those opening bars...my Lord, he's singing As Long As We're Here live! And I'm here! Christ on a cracker, this alone was worth that $250! Couchie's gonna DIE! And it was gooooooood. More NIP stuff. A Thousand Days. Clay talking classic Clay smack about Cindy Lauper and Ripa. More NIP stuff...wait a minute...this guy is actually interesting! And fucking funny! And really, really hot even lacking legs (serious upper body strength trips my trigger, if ya know what I mean) - even though I was there for my hubby Clay (who was clearly poking me with interest), I suddenly remembered other men can be entertaining as well. Clay kicked "Mary Did You Know" and the curtain came down and they announced an intermission and we said to each other, "intermission? Srsly? Whoa!" Clay has brought my spirits up but not enough for me to actually leave me seat during the intermission. So they came back and did the auction (they had a new auctioneer - he didn't play with Clay and the audience as much as the old one). But Clay did obscene things with the giant poster, and tried on his baseball jersey and got way more money for his dinners then I expected and teased the hell out of us with the two tickets for his "event" - apparently wicked/asshole/evil Clay will be in evidence. I'm all excited!

Linda comes back out and tell us she didn't wear high heels because Clay likes to be taller then she is - so he went back to "do something to his hair". She goes away and Clay rolls out in that damn blue shirt and tie from 2004 (those are NOT the same jeans though) and the opening notes of Invisible rock out - and I mean rock out! You could feel the adrenaline in the room and out of nowhere blinky lights appear (even in the rich people seats!) The he said, "I'm gonna do my favorite song from that tour" and I got I Survived You, which worked up ALL my tingly parts...he was kicking ass! I know the boy loves Qiana - and she is a good singer, but frankly I love Clay's version of Grown Up Christmas Wish and I Can't Make You Love Me better. He was clearly losing his voice by then. He then mentioned Jacob of all people and did that rendition of Emmanuel. Beautifully. He did his version of Unchained Melody that I can't stand and made me love him (but still not it) more. He did DSIAFCD and I noticed he didn't do the mike drop but then he did his new song that I didn't like the clip of (made me think retro 60's Dean Martinish pop) and made me like the fucker live. Damn him. Then he went totally Classic Clay with a song he didn't know the words to (missed the entrance a couple of times, blamed Ben, giggled with Qiana) and sang Hallelujah (and I have never liked that song) and the SOB made me like his version too! Bastard. Then being Clay, he said "Fuck it" and redid the last of Don't Save It All with the mike drop and yes, we in the balcony could hear him, clean, clear and breaktaking.

Clay clearly ordered some of that testosterone stuff that the weird looking doctor who says he's not Photoshopped (which is a lie) sells, and did me up again the side of the theater, again the wall, on the table, bent over a chair, slapped my ass and asked "Who's your daddy?" That was good.

It was totally worth ıt just for As Long As We're Here, but for some serious old school Invısıble and I Survıved You, I underpaıd. Lord love me, the man ıs good. Endıng wıth the mıke drop for the last bars of DSIAFCD, my man was large and ın charge.

I got our song, couchie...As Long As We're Here. Im estatic!

All is well, o holy night, a thousand different days, mary did you know. This rocks.

And one really greatspeech by an honoree.

They still interrupt all is well on the last note which is annoying.

I look good according to all accounts. Clay ain't too shabby, but I think I was promised black tie and dinner. Theres a breach of promise in here somewhere. I'll do a real recap tomorrow. Waiting on the second half...

Hey y'all (aikim, feel better!)

I've finally settled down for a bit (I've been doing Asia and I don't think Bangkok is anything at all like Hangover 2) and since I had surgery yesterday (elective, but keeping my fingers crossed that it really works) and oddly enough my doctors seem to think I need to stay home for a while (and no, I didn't mention me going to Raleigh this weekend because that's like, days away). I'm all excited but can't actually bounce around.

Hey y'all...sorry to have been so quiet but there have been a a few titchy changes in moi life...I got caught up in the last round of financial industry RIFs (although my official end is the end of December - I still get paid, I just don't have to show up to work. I can live with that. I'm trying navel gazing for a bit.) I am not stressed nor unhappy (frankly I need the change and am optimistic enough not to be particularly worried).

So I may be wandering by the gala this year. Because Clay is just lucky like that.

He is also lucky I love him enough to purchase those darts with suckers on the end that I can throw at the TV whenever the dopey Donald's mug appears because he is forcing me to watch the freakin' CA. As long as he doesn't appear on "Dance Moms" (my flambéd puppy - dear Lord, I have to admit that's my horrible car-accident moment as I have to keep putting the phone down from calling CPS on all those people), I'm good.

A little late on "The Help" discussion - the reason I couldn't bring myself to read it or see the movie is the fact that the author's brother's maid (real name Ablene Cooper) sued her because she feels she used her life without permission (Ablene vs. Abilene, dead son, etc etc etc) and she felt her privacy and dignity were taken. It feels exploitive and a judge just tossed the case out just because of the statue of limitation - which really feels like this woman got hit both ways.

As for the dialect, it's a very fine line and to be honest, in an interview in a British paper, the author crossed it for me - it doesn't even seem to occur to her that other speech is just as much a dialect (as the reporter quoted her "accent".

But then again, this is the type of "inspriation" chick-lit that doesn't do it for me anyway.

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My office is moving 4 blocks away Friday. I'm tired, my knee and back hurts and I'm looking for my offer letter which I swear makes no mention of this much manual labor. And my boss is working on my last nerve - he must touch every piece of paper before I box it up and I swear they are going to dedicate an entire episode of Hoarders to this man (contact lens whose expiration date was 2004 - a business card from a pager repair company - a couple of dead sea scrolls...humph!), only he doesn't have time to do that at the end of the day, so instead of me having finished packing yesterday, I stayed past 7 tonight and will be in the office by 7 tomorrow...

Yay for chat - and thank everyone for the birthday wishes.

Vegas was a blast - but .... ahem....

If for some reason we have to go to New Orleans, I will personally have to avoid the Palace Cafe (which is really sad because they had great food and wonderful service) which is what probably encouraged my sisters and I to act stone crazy. Yeah, that's the ticket....

Yeah, I'm with Aikim and Couchie (Jane just annoyed the hell out of me, she seemed so very desperate and teenager-ish, "What? You're honest with me about seeing other people even though I answered your freakin' phone on our third date and I lie to you about how cool I am with that and lie even more about how I'm seeing other people and anyway, 2 whole dates is really enough for a total committment?" Feh!)

But I loved criminal Clay. And a cool criminal Clay! Who talked his wife into being a criminal too! And apparently is keeping all the money from the scheme! Although I was sad he couldn't go to the prom with his criminal Russian wife since they were probably both in jail. But I can hope he gets out on a technicality and comes up with a whole new criminal scheme. He might still be on the cover of "Non-Threatening Boys All Grown Up" but he's the poster child of "The Worst Bad Boys For You: The Ones That Only Look Non-Threatening"...

Yay for the end of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" but I'm old enough to remember when I went "Yay!" when it was passed - since there was a complete ban on the services of gays and even a rumor of you being gay got you a dishonorable discharge (if not killed) if you got in. It was a lurch in the right direction but this is a happy jog.

People still stressing about Clay's career? Considering he's #9 on Forbes' list of current top earning American Idols at $1.5 million last year, 8 years after finishing 2nd on a reality show? They can't be helped then.

I take off a week before my birthday so people in my office can't do stuff to me. The wretches did it today anyway. Bah humbug!

See, this is why you all are my people - all I get from people around here is "It's just another number" or "you're only as old as you feel" or worst of all, "Damn, I didn't know you were that old"...

Like ldyj, 20, 30 and 40 didn't bother me - but I'm realizing 20 was 30 frickin' years ago...

The clock runs out on the 27th of this month - and I will be in Vegas for anyone who wants to cheer me up!

Hugs to Mr. Fear, and aikim.

Yay for Clay! And am filled with total and complete envy for merrieeee...

Sorry I've been quiet but lots of things have been goin' on...

My best friend from high school kidney's finally gave up the ghost, and she's had the stint for dialysis put in yesterday...

My child is getting ready to ship off to Afghanistan...

And I am realizing I don't actually WANT to turn 50...

Tee hee!

Hey all - my life has been a titch busy, but what can I say? Cat poop (dear lord, I swear I'm ordering the citikiti) and covers - that'll pull me in every time!

I'd rather "One More Try" than "Careless Whisper". Or "Pour Some Sugar on Me". Or a live version of "As Long As We're Here". 'Cause I'm easy like that.

I have to admit, for me, a little Jacob goes a very long way, and he's shot past "gospelly" into "hysterical". He has a good voice, but I haven't seen a performance of his that wasn't turned to "11" from beginning to end...

I'll have to work up to Drop Dead Diva, saw one episode and didn't like it, but have watched a lot of not to my taste stuff for my boyfriend. I am such an enabler...

Oddly enought, I think I would like a duet of Clay and Steven Tyler (whose "rock voice" I think has held up amazingly well and frankly he sounds better than anyone on AI this year...) doing "Dream On"...and Steven seems to be uncontrollable enough to not notice that Clay has been "banned".

Looks around in interest...

Yay!

I have to admit - I don't actually understand the point of Twitter. I don't think everyone (including Clay) is that interesting, 24/7...people just post whatever floats off the top of their brain and other people read it? Is someone getting paid? If you pay me, I'll twit about stuff! If you pay me, I won't twit about stuff! Okay, it's clear I just wanna get paid. But then, I don't understand Facebook either. It told me the other day that merrieeee was my friend and that my son was my child. I think I sort of knew that already. So I agreed with it. And it went away.

Excuuuuuuuse me, I know perfectly well what a basketball is!

It's one of those giant orange things people have draped all over downtown in celebrating of some pagan festival called either "The Final Fantasy Four" or "Mad as a March Hare Hatter Madness" or some such thingie. I think they are sacrificing some sweet 16 year old in Houston on March 31. I just keep reminding myself I just look sweet 16!

I have sort of an item of a way of entertaining us during this quiet period. Really random Clay mentions! I was admiring my totally chosen by skill triumph in the bracket doohickey and so I tried my google-fu on the combo, "Clay Aiken basketball"...and came up with this:

Fredette has gotten the rockstar treatment all season long. So what actual rockstar does Jimmer resemble?

"Clay Aiken," said sophomore Stephen Rogers as the entire locker room erupted in laughter. "He's soft-spoken, but if you get him on the stage and it's a different story."

It just tickled me that some 19 or 20 something NCAA basketball player knew enough about Clay Aiken to comment on his on and off stage persona and it was no big whoop.

What combo can y'all come up with?

Paul just called - he just got off duty. Very minor in Honolulu, well under what was feared. He's worried about his friends back in Japan and waiting to hear from them...

Just waiting to hear from Paul in Honolulu...

OK, I'm alive...but my living room computer is dead.

Dammit.

I think I forgot to tell y'all, but everything was a go for my nasal surgery Wednesday...and I'm home and feeling a titch sorry for myself.

Because my big computer won't work!

So what have y'all been doing with my boyfriend while I've been away?

Quick comments for tonight's concert:

Clay was in absolute gorgeous voice.

He is amazingly funny.

The eHP rules (or as 00lsee would put it, "Aaaaargh!")

Apparently if you leave your car in the Macy's Garage after a certain period of time, they lock your car up. And the eHP has to drive you home, which is probably a good thing after 3 bellinis and something called a XXX rated pink martini.

C'est la vie!