Kareneh

Well Crap!! I just hit some wrong key and my whole post, complete with quotes has vanished into thin air. OY! Nevermind the quotes, I guess....

About moving to Denmark......It's not definite until John signs on the dotted line and he has to pick all the details apart first. While this is happening, I usually sit poised to call the movers and the airlines. But the situation is...... they have decided that this place is too much of a money pit, for the time being. They are closing Baku and he's been offered another position, at the head office.

Ironically, we're in an 8,000 square foot house right now and more than likely going to be downsizing A LOT! I'm expecting 1,000 square feet in the next one, but y'all are more than welcome to come share the single bathroom with us. :thbighug-1:

I think I'll like it. I was there for a week in 2006 and thought it was a lovely place and hoped that someday we'd get the opportunity to live there. I half expected we'd be going to Perth, Australia, so Denmark was a bit of a surprise. I really am looking forward to clean running water and good health care.

But dang it! My Russian was coming along nicely! I have to take the dog home to sit out a 3 month waiting period since no critters from Azerbaijan are allowed into Denmark without the rabies antibodies blood test, so calurker, I'll be calling later in March. I figure I'll hang around Halifax for a few weeks while John gets himself settled in the job. And besides, in Halifax I have a car.....in Copenhagen, I think it's going to be a bike.

Ooooh.....can't think about that right now. Those people are scary bad healthy over there!! :o They probably don't even carry my BP meds at the pharmacy.

Gosh....places I really want to visit....Petra, for sure. And Paris, well all over Europe for starters. Australia and New Zealand. Singapore. Moscow. I'm pretty much game to go anywhere. Right now a road trip throughout any region of the US with some concert stops along the way is the best vacation I can imagine.

For Scarlett

Okay.....if you do Paris at the beginning of May? I might just make that one 'cause it looks like we're moving to Denmark in a few weeks and Copenhagen ain't all that far away.

luckiest1, a belated Happy Birthday!!! Lobster dinner sounds like a great way to celebrate.

Scarlett and ldyj, thanks for the new Boston videos. And those screencaps up there? Yummy!!

Thanks, Scarlett, for bringing up this topic! This is fun stuff to read. I was without internet for a day and a half due to some problem with phone lines, so this was nice to come back to.

I miss being in Houston and being able to get together with the eHP! Have a brew or a glass of wine for me this weekend, someone?

My first real connection with the fandom ended up being at the AI Tour stop in St. Louis, and the preparty that was at the Hard Rock Cafe. It was my first time to be able to squee over Clay in a group that understood what I was feeling.

........One in particular really intrigued me - LECHEROUS BROADS FOR CLAY AIKEN.

.......ldyj - I was there at the Hard Rock too! I should look for you in my photos!

chacha, I just looked at my photos from that Hard Rock party (the wildest Clay party I have ever been to). I think it's the only time I've worn my purple LBFCA tee shirt to a concert. It took a bit of cajoling by some friends but we all agreed that it would be okay since we were all doing it together. I am so glad I did it, though, those pix of us all decked out in full regalia are hilarious. Firmly in the past, but still hilarious. St. Louis wasn't my first outing with fans. I ventured to the Cleveland Jingle Ball Concert in December of 2003. That was the first time I met any of my internet Clay friends. The full event with all the gory marvelous details is HERE. Jannet (Chardonnay), Lila (guitargirl) and I wrote that tome as soon as we got back from the trip. We were so anxious to get all the feelings down before they began to fade....I remember how sick I was with the flu but I stayed glued to my desk chair until it was all done. Those were the days! So much wonderful innocence and excitement. We, three, are still close friends on and off the boards. And I have been honored and blessed to make many more good friends since that first adventure to Cleveland. I've lost more luggage, too. But I have learned to haul much less crap with me.

I first found the message boards the day after the finale when I was gripped with the realization that Clay wasn't going to on my TV every Tuesday night anymore. I went to the internet for information, starting with the American Idol site, which led me to Bolt and then on to TWOP and FORT and so it went. I never posted anywhere until I found the LBFCA, and even then it took me a long time to step up to the plate. But then the floodgate opened and I began to write a lot. Nowadays, I don't write near as much but I am always around.....hanging out in the background. I'm among the first in line for tickets and blogs.....

And dang it! Not much in this fandom can shock me anymore.....except the fact that Scarlett ditched her Paul McCartney tickets to come to Council Bluffs and Kansas City with me. That still blows my mind.

So, here I still am, many more friendships later. This whole "Clay Thing" came along when I really needed a big diversion in my life. I needed a place to find fun and happiness when it felt like everything else was falling in on me. The strength I got from just having a place to go to be nothing but happy and funny helped me hold my life together when I thought I had made a total mess of it. Turns out I hadn't.....I just had to sort out the pieces and put together a new one. I didn't have to get overly invested, I just needed some place to go and something to look forward to......and if it isn't a concert....well, sometimes an email from a friend is enough.

Oh, I've written a couple of blogs since I've been back here. Sally Rand McNally I'm trying to do better. This semester I am only taking one class and so far it hasn't been too bad time wise. I've had my nose buried in a couple of non-school books though, and am about to begin the Twilight Series. We've started to watch Prison Break in the evenings....still on Season One (will they EVER get out of there?). I am almost finished with my Knoxville pictures and I think those are the only ones I have left (can't swear to that though).

Hope to read more first get together stories! Please write some more, okay?

OMG! This was some freakin' long...sorry! :o

EEEeee!!! My buddy Karen Eh? is awake the same time as me! Whee!!!

Yep! ***waves to 00lsee***Dinner's over, the dog is bathed and time to settle down for the night with a movie. It's 8:30 PM here in Baku. Don't forget me! I'm going to be over here for 6 months this time with just one break (Austria for a week in May).

It's going to be a long haul and the Folgers Singles are running low.

New dead horse to beat? Lessee...ooooo, I know! Future eye-fucks - does that make Clay a total "---" tease (use your own scatalogical term)? He knows he ain't gonna follow through - he's wrong, wrong, WRONG! Therefore he owes me a great deal of pity making out (and more) since he has led me on since To Love Somebody...see, he completely LIED with his body language! Ooh! I am filled with self-righteous wrath! And everyone who disagrees with me is trying to crush my individuality!

Heeee, KAndre - you KNOW this is gonna happen, plus minute inspection of song lyrics!

Gosh, maybe we should start with This is the Night and play everything backwards. Lord knows what really hot insider information we might find, especially with our hindsight at full bore.

And speaking of hindsight.....it is sometimes a lovely thing.

Well this crazy person got up at 3:00 am so she could watch the Super Bowl live and her crazy husband got up with her and stayed home from the office until noon so they could sleep off some of their insanity.

Hmmm........I prefer to be called "Collect"....."Hurry up and get your butt online, Clay's got a tour starting this summer and the tickets go on sale in the morning!" Other than that I am kind of indifferent to who calls who what....when....where....or how.....

Secretly, I am voluptuous.

Nobody I know well cares one way or the other what Clay related things I do anymore. The shock value of multiple 3 day trips with people I've met "on the internet" has long ago worn off. I honestly think I brighten the days of several people and give them something to talk about around the water cooler. It's nice to feel useful and bring laughter, and sunshine, into the dull gray world of others.

Let's see, I am sure there are some fatal equine assault issues that I haven't resolved yet. Did anyone ever figure out for absolutely, positively sure if that Mezghan/Boobgate photo was a fake or not?

But in reality it's Clay-matron, which means "OldbroadwiththehotsforClay"

Seeeeee...

I've always said that if I ever got a photo with Clay and he asked which pose I'd like, I'd say "The missionary position". That was before I knew what I know.....but now, I'd ask him the same thing anyway, because he'd probably laugh twice as hard.

Which is why I always carry a dog eared copy of the Kama Sutra in my purse.....

I was doing a little dangerous living and thinking, since Clay approved the design and sale of thong underwear so we could all become more intimately familiar with his name, would it be much of a stretch (not unlike getting into that thong) to imagine he could market bras embellished with strategically placed hand prints?

A sleep shirt?

Anything?

No, I want a bra.....

Hey, Couchie! Thanks, I've kind of missed posting.....not sure why I haven't been. I've been around, just reading. I think it's a habit and I fall out of it every once in a while. Then I find it hard to get started again.

But if we are discussing Clay sandwiches, I'm opening up my lunch box.

Excellent recaps! Thanks for bringing it over, merrieeee. I'm glad that they aren't letting mean spirited people take any of the shine away from their experience. After five years in this fandom, I know I shouldn't find it mind boggling that people could be so bad mannered and childish that they would send nasty PM's to these people, but I am nevertheless mind boggled.

Ooh! Some fan fic might be a good lubricant for a dry spell. I haven't read a whole lot it....sort of saving it for a rainy day....but a drought will do nicely instead, I think.

Just to give everyone a heads up. I will be at the GFI and if Clay whisks me away into a back room and we have a little one on one time.....I will not be telling anyone! You know what goes on in the locker room.........

Well, dang! I was going to offer you my belly button camera. It's a great little thing. It has a 12X zoom, and on me, you can't even notice it!

Hey, I didn't get a nice dinner with Clay last night but I did get to see Celine Dion a couple of weeks ago. Remember those tickets I gave the munchkin for Christmas....2007? The concert finally came, we mercifully had no flight delays, and Carolyn was thrilled. It was a very good concert and I'm not exactly a fan.

She actually got to touch Celine (who said, "Thank you for coming.") as she crossed the arena floor from the stage at the end of the show. As soon as it was over she said, "Oh, I want to go again!."

The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree, does it?

I've been sort of MIA between hither and yon for the past while.....back in Baku (where I really and truly do live) again. I expect to stay for a while. I am sick of planes......and didn't I go and leave my 80 gig IPOD on one on the way over here. I will have to replace it on the sly when I next go back to North America which probably isn't going to be until June or July. The last time I flew I left the textbook for my class on the plane and I didn't get that back either. From now on I am attaching all my stuff to me with Velcro before I board. Getting through security might be interesting. But I think they know me by now. *Sigh*

I would love it be going to the golfing thing this weekend. It's a waste of words to tell those of you who are going to have a great time because I am sure you will.....but anyway.....have a great time!

I'll be sitting over here all alone working on my pictures from Knoxville (I think those are the only ones I have left......but as you can see I like to take things slow and easy....heck......in all honestly I'm lazy). John went off to Kazakhstan about 18 hours after I got home. Surprise...surprise.....Did he have a sniff about the golf tournament and me maybe changing my flight? No....not possible.

Tidbits, I have to agree, aren't going to get me anything. Since I'm hanging around these messages boards most every day, when something happens that I can go to, I can buy, watch or listen to.....well I'm going to find out about it in plenty of time. The rest of it doesn't matter in the long run. I believe you gotta take your fun where you find it and that applies to this, the same as it does to anything else. Why begrudge others their moment, or three hours, or time in the back room? I think this was a lovely thing for Clay to do for these contributors, and it was gracious of his family to attend the dinner as well. I doubt he shared anything super private or confidential with a group of fans, and asking them to keep the conversation of the boards was probably a way to keep things nice and easy..... also, maybe some deference to Jaymes, Faye and Jerome who may not have wanted to worry about their words being carried to the boards where they're going to be subject to scrutiny and interpretation. An that's all I have to say about that....

Oh, and the blogging thing. I love to get them but I get it. I have no room to complain. I've got several half written drafts at Sally's ( including one I started tonight) and no matter how much I want to write one when I sit down to do so, I find I get bored and go do something else......which kinda tells me something, doesn't it?

WOW! All this and self-discovery, too!

I think she adores him......maybe just little. That would be my aunt in that picture. We're sitting here, delayed at La Guardia, but cracking up over that look! Thanks, it made our day!

Will likely make a few more days when we get home and show it to the rest of the family.

BWAH!

My aunt says her dog looks at her the same way when she's eating pork chops.

Things are just fine in Baku, jmh123. Thanks for asking! I've been here but busy with school work and just being lazy in the down time. Tomorrow is packing day. I'm heading back to Canada on Saturday and then it's NEW YORK CITY on the 11th....just like luckiest1. I have tickets for the Friday night show and the show on Saturday afternoon. We aren't sure what we are going to do on Saturday night, though I'm guessing that the prospect of not seeing Clay in a while will help make that decision easier when the time gets closer. I thought on Thursday night we'd go see the Christmas tree and the windows on 5th. Friday, I think I'll do some Christmas shopping and that's about it for plans from me. I'm really looking forward to these few days in New York. I can't believe it's almost here!

cagney, I'm so very sorry for your loss. Such sad news.

I took the test and it seems I am an ISTP, too. I guess Clay and I have more in common than just knowing what the capitol of Azerbaijan is.

Most beautiful and enticing banner up there, cindilu2. Very very nice!

It will be great to have some TV show clack to warm up a chilly November day. Can't wait.

That is a great banner up there!! Thanks, Cindilu2! It just makes me smile every time I look at it.

You guys in Houston have fun on the 5th. I'll be just getting home then. Have a margarita or two for me, okay?

Scarlett, enjoy the quilt show! I would so be with you if I was in Houston, still. I have great intentions of finding my crafty ways when I get back to Baku. I have yarn in my suitcase for an afghan and a dress pattern. I haven't made either since I met a certain red head.

I can't see the new pix, getting an error message on the site. Is it just me?

Congrats to the Phillies!!!

Thanks for posting them Desertflower!

:7252:

Happy Birthday Cindilu2!!

As for Scarlett's intermission report---woefully lacking in detail. For example:

The girl serving drinks reached under his tabard between his legs

I'm sorry, but that's just not acceptable. Exactly what was she reaching between his legs FOR?

exactly..

Perhaps she was checking if he had a hole in his tights

A whole what?

Oh, hon, that would be the whole enchilada up under there.

Geez, I think I had a blip...anyway....I FINALLY got some points tickets on Continental to take me and the youngest offspring to Houston (Jan 8th to the 13th). Hotel reservations and rental car all squared away. We're all set. Makes me very happy now that I don't have to spend $1400 on two plane tickets! Would have put this trip to see Celine up into the RBC box per person price range.

One more week here in North America to get all of my downloading done, then it's back home to Baku for a month, then back here again for 7 weeks. This was easier in the beginning.....when I go back there in January I am hunkering down until there is a tour announcement or I run out of meat, which ever comes first.

Somewhere it's like the middle of the night...so time for bed....and dreams of some good spicy Mexican food. That hot sauce sure makes your lips swell up don't it?

**Sigh**

It's over. I'm home. He talked to me. I'm toast. How many of these gala things did I miss before this one? How did I let that happen? This past weekend was the best event I have attended in these past five years, and I've been to enough of them that I've lost count of how many times that actually is. Maybe the fact that I found the exact perfect pair of shoes, just the ones I was looking for, in the very first show store I tried a few weeks ago......was a sign. I don't know. But I do know I love him just as much when I'm in a new pair of party sandals as I do in my flip flops.

I'm busy downloading clack and am so grateful to be able to enjoy these memories again and again. My seat was centered but up against the back wall of the ballroom. My pictures are victims darkness and distance but I hope to salvage a few from the lot. I'll post them when I get them in decent shape. I don't care. It was a privilege to be there. We all never looked so pretty! Clay never looked better. I didn't think to take Kleenex with me...(note to self).

And in conclusion, it is very very weird to watch a video and hear your disembodied voice talking to Clay....like who does that strange voice belong to anyway? But I am so glad to have it. Thank you clack gatherers for that! I really didn't think he believed me at all, but once I saw it on video, I think he did.....I think.

Getting to see so many people enjoying his, and each other's company, was a great thing to see again. Please let there be a tour next year!

I'll have 2 people with me for brunch on Sunday, bonnechance, who is a member here and a guest, Lila.

I think I did it. Sampling a screencap in Photoshop and getting the number. Pompeian Red. I think I like it. We are just finishing up the module on color theory and applications in this semester's design class. I must go post the link for this in the class discussion thread. They'll love it, no?

I'm Pompeian Red and apparently a fighter, formidable foe and opinionated. WOW! I've got some serious repression issues happening here. I think I'll ask Santa for a speed bag so I can work through some of this before I blow.

Thanks, Cotton, for the weather forecast. It sounds like it's a great time of year to go to North Carolina! Can't wait!

Happy Thanksgiving! I'm finally home for one!

akim, park your butt on that sofa and make them run after themselves this weekend. That's an official order from someone who worked as a dental assistant one summer in high school.

Please add me to the list for the brunch. Would there be enough room if one or two travel buds want to come with me?

Pala pictures? These are the ones I've been working on....sort of lately......without regularity. Can I do some more work on them and send you some at the beginning of the week, goldarngirl? I had to go look to see how far into them I was.

Anyway, a couple from Pala....

I can't believe I got to say something to him that I had only ever said in a dream or two..."I DO." Can I help it if he was just asking my sister who had her camera so he would know where to look? That's a minor detail I'm willing to overlook in this case. Can't wait until I get to go back to New York in December!

Well, dang it! I missed the socks! But he was wearing a predominantly light green striped sock on his left foot with the white suit tonight. I didn't catch the sock on the other foot. I can only assume my eye traveled from the left sock, upward, and got waylaid somewhere along the way.....never made it back down to the right foot. Yes, I was there tonight and how wonderful it was to be in the Schubert again! I like the changes Clay has made to his performance. My sister, who saw the show for the first time tonight, thought the whole thing was great and hilarious.....and she can see how funny Clay would be in concert.

I went out to the stage door. My sister was going to take my picture with Clay if he was obliging and he was.....except I decided that SHE should be in the picture and I would take it. OMG! He made me take two! How did he know the first one was blurry? He said he is always blurry. I said, "No, it's just my eyes." He posed for the second one and having him looking directly at me smiling and all pretty damn cute.....better than me being IN one with him by far. I hereby volunteer for stage door snapshot duty.....a job with very nice benefits.

Tom was out tonight but the guy who replaced him was pretty funny and I really do like the new king. He's hilarious. Here's one from tonight. I really suck at trying to take his picture while standing up.....me standing up that is. I didn't take but a few. It's just too much fun to watch him out there and he was so chatty tonight!