#45: He Owns Us...

[FromClaygary]

http://news.lalate.com/

I think that lalate likes them some Clay Aiken...or at least the hits*g* They have named him their humanitarian of the year . Scroll down.

Hey, very cool! Any positive mention is a good one.

[rohdy]

Good thoughts & prayers would be appreciated. My mom got a call from her oncologist this morning that her breast cancer markers have made a pretty significant jump and he's scheduled her for a PET scan the first week of December.

Thanks to all for the good thoughts & prayers about my mom's situation. We saw the oncologist this morning and while the PET scan did show a small mass in her chest, the good news is that he reiterated that it is SMALL, it is NOT in her lungs (which we were concerned about because she originally did have spots in the lungs that were not expected to disappear with the chemo, but blessedly did), and it is the ONLY spot that showed up. He is going to continue monitoring her closely, starting her on a new medication, and blood work each month for the next 3 months. He told us not to worry & enjoy the holidays - this is only a minor detour. I plan to take that advice.

Clay content? He's beautiful, he sings like no one else & I can't wait to see Sir Robin again in 17 days!!!

Annabear...that is such good news!! Now sit back and enjoy the holidays and Clay Aiken.

Not necessarily in that order!!

[cha cha trusty]

Sorry to post-ho, but here's something I really loved and hope you will too. Read the explanation at the side of the video before you watch it....

It's wonderful!! Thanks for sharing this.

That is so cool!! I'm gonna play it a few more times!!

Thanks!!

-------------------

Add me to the OH-fish-ul "I HATE WINTER" Club. It was freezing that last part of last week, but today it was 63º!! It was so warm I even opened a window!

[Scarlett]

Glad to hear the news, annabear! Will continue to send lots of hugs and good thoughts to you and your mom!!!

Also sending warm hugs to aikim and everyone living in the winter zones! We had some snow last week (only the 2nd time I saw it on the ground here in 15 years) but now I know better than to tease after driving through a whiteout a year ago.

Changing my siggy, for you guys... (I miss the JNT so much this year, but am glad that I saw as much of it as I could when it was still around)

[playbiller]

Quick someone call Scarlett - there is a two pack of refurbished Roombas on sale at woot for $150

[Scarlett]

Quick someone call Scarlett - there is a two pack of refurbished Roombas on sale at woot for $150

Thanks play! I tried this but because of taxes and such it came to $167 -- is it still a good buy at that price? Before the Linens 'n Things closeout, it was at $160 over there with free shipping. What do you think?

ETA: Got it! Thanks a bunch. Now if I would only pick up enough things off of the floor to make it useful!

Clay content -- I still miss the JNT so much! Wah!!! :cry4:

[playbiller]

That was one Roomba - this is two. You can give one as a gift.

[claytonic]

Well... erm... I was gonna ask what a Roomba was but decided not to be so fast about revealing my ignorance.

So I Googled it and was immediately taken to YouTube.

http://au.youtube.com/watch?v=HqhIMFQNGCg

Looks like you got a good deal, Scarlett, and I want one of those but does it come with an something that first picks stuff off the floor and puts them where they are supposed to be?

[aikim]

Good Morning Everyone,

19 Days until The Closing Night of Spamalot!

41 Days until Golfing For Inclusion!

Everyone have a great day!

Kim

[merrieeee]

eeeeeeeeeeeee It's only 41 days till I see Clay eeeeeeeeeeeeeee

[aikim]

eeeeeeeeeeeee It's only 41 days till I see Clay eeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Kim

[cindilu2]

Morning FCA !

annabear, I'm very glad to read the news about your mom. I hope you do indeed have the best holiday season ever with her!

I miss Clay this Christmas too - I hope, hope, hope he does a JNT09. I dunno though - maybe it's a good thing he took a year off from them - maybe it will make the critics think twice next time. *pause* Uhhh. *smacks self upside head* Nevermind.

Does anybody have the name of (or link to) the site that folks were using this past summer to make photo collages? Pretty please?!!

[ldyjocelyn]

vanislandgirl at the OFC won the "sit with Sean" auction, and her story is really cute. I'll post this in three parts, as it is really long...

Dec 13 & 14: Orchestra Pit with Sean Winner

Posted with permission

PART ONE

alrighty. i know what you’re thinking.. “what’s this? why’s vanislangirl writing a red report? she’s not in NYC, she’s way over on Vancouver Island!”

well. SURPRISE! i just arrived back home on Vancouver Island [to a foot of snow, i might add] after spending a dream-weekend in NEW YORK CITY! that’s right.

i know many of you just wanna get to the recap, but first i need to explain why and how this all came to be. this is super long, but trust me, it’s worth it. there won’t be another recap out there like it

as some of you know, i’m in my senior year of high school. i’m a huge band geek. i’ve played piano for ten years, clarinet for seven, and tenor saxophone for four. i’m planning on going to university in september 2009 to get a degree in music, and hopefully one day will be able to get my ‘dream job’: being a musician in the orchestra of a broadway show in new york city.

since i’m a fan of Clay’s, i’ve known about the broadway cares charity since last spring. i knew that the charity was auctioning off some spamalot-related items [dinner with Clay and the cast, Clay’s top hat, ect] on eBay to help raise money. i also knew that they were auctioning off the chance to accompany Sean to work for an evening; sit with him in the orchestra pit during the show.

obviously, i knew that would be perfect for me. i’d be able to sit in the pit, see how everything works, watch the musicians, meet the musicians, ask them questions and ask their advice about the career and how to get into it.

and, most obviously, i knew there was NO WAY i’d be able to afford to even think about bidding. the auction was already up to $410 US, and living in Canada with the dollar so bad right now, plus only being a 17 year old teenager who has to pay for university and all that fun stuff next September, that’s a LOT of money! i kept checking the auction for a couple days, and finally got the courage to show my mom just over two weeks ago, on Sunday, November 30th [obviously a verra verra important day in the claynation ] my mom and i talked for a bit about how awesome of an experience it would be for me, and that’s when she recommended that i go around to family members, friends, and teachers asking for pledges so i could try to win the auction. not only would it be an fantastic educational experience for me, all the money would go to the BC charity! it was a win-win situation.

i was still thinking about it the next morning, and was unsure…December is a horrible time to ask people for money with Christmas right around the corner, and with the economy so bad right now and the dollar so low, money is tight for everyone. i decided to test it out with my biology teacher and see if he’d pledge anything. if he didn’t, i would just forget the whole idea. if he did, i would go onto the next teacher.

with some encouraging words from a girl i sit beside in biology, i approached my biology teacher, explained what i was trying to do, and he pledged $5, so i went on to the next teacher, and the next and the next and the next. i then started asking my friends and family members that instead of getting me a Christmas present this year, to pledge any money they WOULD have spent on a present for me to my total bid for the BC auction.

i collected pledges Monday and Tuesday – only two days, and by Wednesday morning when the auction only had an hour left, i had collected a grand total of $1375 [Canadian] !!! i couldn’t believe it!

i spent the hour before the auction closed on the phone with my dear friend amoreDio, pretty much freaking out and losing my mind cause i was so nervous! someone else had set their max bid at $1000US, so i had to bid $1010US, which only left me with about $90 remaining to bid if someone tried to outbid me!!! amoreDio tried to distract me, but it was pretty much usless…i’m sure that i managed to take a good 5 years off my mouse’s life by clicking “refresh” so many times. heh. it got down to the final minute, and amore and i were counting down the seconds to each other over the phone. finally, the clock changed and showed the precious time. the time i had been waiting for since Sunday night when i first showed my mom the auction. 11:05AM.

the auction was closed.

i won.

OH. MY. GOD.

amore and i were screaming in each others ear over the phone…i’m pretty sure both of us were crying. i then screamed something totally incoherrant like “OMIIGODD W-W-WAIAATT!! MY MOOMM! I HA-A-AAAAVE TO CALLL MY MOMMM!” and threw the phone that i was talking to amore on across the room, wrenched my cellphone outta my pocket, and called my mom to tell her something like “OMG. I DID IT MOM! I DID IT!” and hung up. i found my phone that still had amore on the other end freaking out and her and i screamed to each other a little more, and then hung up cause i had an important call to make. i had to call the broadway cares people to tell them that I WON!

the broadway cares people were SUPER nice…i told the guy i talked to my whole story about how i want to be a broadway musician and how i collected the pledges and everything, and he thought that was awesome! he said that i had to to talk to another lady to pay my final bid to, and then he would take my name and number and pass it onto the stage manager of spamalot, who would then call me to arrange all the details.

i was already dialing amore’s number on my other phone while saying goodbye to the BC people to scream “OMG. THE STAGE MANAGER OF SPAMALOT IS GOING TO CALL ME. THEY ARE PHONING MY HOUSE DEB! MY HOUSEEE!”

the next few days and weekend were spent planning a last minute trip to NYC. the only weekend that worked for my mom and i was, obviously, the 13th and 14th, and that was only a week and a half away! booking flight, hotels, figuring out who was going to come [it ended up being myself, my mom, my brother, and one of my good friends from school, Tom], and working out all the details with the Spamalot people and Sean.

meanwhile, my mom was busy telling everyone in sight about how proud of me she was, explaining what i had done, ect. and get this: she told a co-worker, who told their good friend – the EDITOR of our local newspaper – who decided that my whole story would make a GREAT article for the paper! OMG! a reporter came to my school Monday, and sat me down and asked me a bunch of questions, took a photo of me, and told me it would be in Thursday’s paper! sure enough, Thursday, there’s this massive half-page article all about me and how being a musician on broadway is my dream, ect. thought it was pretty cool myself, minus the HIDEOUS photo they took of me, hahaha.

finally, after not even two weeks of even thinking i could TRY to win the auction, and nine days after placing the winning bid, i was on a plane from Vancouver to JFK with my mom, brother, and my friend Tom! we arrived at our hotel [the milford plaza] in NYC at around midnight on Friday, December 12th.

i’m gonna skip over all the sight-seeing stuff we did around NYC and just stick with the clay-parts, cause otherwise this would be about 10 times longer and y’all would get board real fast, lol.

the next day, Saturday, December 13th, first thing we did was go buy tickets for shows that day! Tom and i got SEVENTH ROW seats to the matinee of Equus [which was absolutely unbelievably amazing by the way…WAY better than i thought it would be. Daniel Radcliffe is a fantastic stage actor] and SIXTH ROW seats for that nights performance of SPAMALOT! woohoo!

after Equus, i walked around the corner to the ally to see if Clay had done SD that afternoon, and i ran into jax5230 and JessMcVargas. they were two of the four fans who knew i was coming and that i had won the auction – i had decided to not post about it/tell anyone until after i had sat in the pit. i talked to them for a couple minutes and found out that Clay hadn’t done SD that afternoon.

fastword past dinner at juniors, and it was about half an hour til the evening show. i dragged Tom [who for the record, doesn’t NOT like clay, but isn’t a claymate, you know what i mean? haha. he’s one of my friends from school] out to the ally to see if there were any fans i knew there…i started talking to this lady, and after finding out it was nycityclayfan completely blew my cover and told her i was vanislandgirl. you should have seen her face! hahaha. she promised not to tell anyone or post til i posted my recap, so thank you very much to her cause i haven’t seen my name anywhere yet!

i’m not going to go into detail about the show…other people have already posted way better show-recaps for that night than i ever could, and i was pretty much in a complete daze cause it was the first time i had seen spamalot [or clay] since February 1st! all i’ll say is that it is UNBELIEVABLE how much he’s changed the role since the beginning of February! i loved it! he appears so much more comfortable now and looks like he’s having a TON of fun on stage. was THRILLED Tom Deckman was back. i was worried he wouldn’t be back when i went to see the show cause he was auditioning. him and Rick were hilarious, of course. was really worried i’d be missing Hannah, but the new LotL was really good! LOVED the new king as well!

after the show, we went out to do the stage door, which ended up not happening stood with jax and jess while we waited and talked to them a little more. it was awesome to finally meet them in person! they’re so much fun, hahaha. they got a MAJOR kick out of my ‘accent’ – which i really don’t think i have, but they insisted i do. they gutted themselves laughing at the way i said “sorry.” apparently, you’re supposed to say it as if the O was an A, like “sa-ree” not “sore-ee” as they put it hahaha.

see next post for part two!

Continued......

PART TWO

fast forward to the next day – Sunday, December 14th – which was honestly, literally, the best day of my life.

the plan was to sit in the orchestra pit with Sean during the matinee show. i was waiting outside the stage door at the designated time [about ten minutes before the show started], and Sean and one of the stage managers – Ken – came out to meet me. they brought me inside the stage door. yes. you read that right. INSIDE THE STAGE DOOR. [heeee]

the backstage area was just insane…i didn’t realize it would be so small! there’s all these little staircases everywhere, and the rooms that i saw were really tiny!

Sean showed me around a little bit. he knew that i’m really into music and band and that my goal is to be a Broadway musician after i graduate and get my degree in music, so he took me around and introduced me to everyone in the orchestra and the conductor, Todd, before the show. they were all SUPER nice! everyone kept asking me if i was alright and if there was anything i needed. i insisted that no, i was perfectly happy to just stand beside Sean and watch everything going on around me...just BEING there was way more than i could ever ask for.

it was then time to go to the orchestra pit, as the show was about to start. as we were walking there, Sean explained to me a little bit about what would be happening. i’d sit beside him during the show, at intermission i’d get a photo with the orchestra, and after the show he’d give me a little mini tour and we’d go say hi to Clay.

EXCUSE ME?! SAY WHAT?!

i was extremely proud of myself that i was able to keep my cool on when he said that, but inside i was slightly freaking out. my mom and friends from back home and one of the 4 fans that knew i had won had all INSISTED that i’d meet Clay, but i very clearly informed them that no, i wouldn’t, as that was not part of the auction prize. i wasn’t even letting my mind go to towards the area of thinking about the mere possibility of meeting Clay, as i didn’t want to get my hopes up or go in with any expectations.

of course, Sean told me this BEFORE the show, therefore i knew it was coming during the whole experience sitting in the pit. i wanted to be able to absorb and pay attention to everything that happen in the pit, so i did [what i think was] a very good job at putting the whole ‘meeting Clay for the first time’ thing at the back of my mind and tried my hardest to focus on what was happening in the present.

we then got into the pit, and again, i was shocked at how small of space all 18 musicians had to fit in! Sean explained a little to me about the pit and the different musicians, and gave me a headset to wear during the songs so i wouldn’t have my ear drums blasted out of my head he even had a little TV so we could watch what was happening on stage! [very helpful for the musicians so they can make sure they are in perfect time with the actors].

throughout the show, in between songs, Sean would explain [whispering, of course – there’s loads of mics everywhere in the pit!] what was happening and various little things about the pit and about the career. i was able to ask him a bunch of questions i had about the career and lifestyle as well. i won’t recap every single thing we talked about cause again, it would make this 10 times longer [and this is already way too long, haha.] i honestly couldn’t have asked for a better career-education oppourtunity. i wasn’t just reading about it or watching a show about it, i was sitting there, in the middle of it, watching it and hearing it and meeting people who were doing exactly what i wanted to do!

during intermission, we went back to the ‘musicians locker room.’ hahaha. i got a big group photo with Sean and most of the orchestra [i think only a couple people were missing] which turned out amazingly!

for the rest of intermission, i just stood with Sean and we talked with the other musicians. Todd came over to me and talked for a couple minutes which was really cool. they offered that if i wanted, i could sit with the reed players for the second half [as i am a reed player myself] but i was happy sitting beside Sean. the auction was to sit with him and i really enjoyed being able to talk to him, and from where i was sitting i could see pretty much everything else going on in the pit!

the second half of the show started, and flew by. one little note i’d love to make about the show: i was able to hear everything that was going on onstage, and Clay sang the COOLEST “amen” EVER! he did this whole little jazzy-scale thing. it was AWESOME! the audience was cheering and laughing SO loudly! the musicians in the pit were laughing too, hahaha.

before i knew it, the orchestra was playing the exit music and the audience was leaving the theatre. we walked back out into the ‘musican locker room’ [for the record, it’s not actually called that by the way…that’s just what i’m calling it…i have no idea what the room actually is, haha.] and the guy who had taken the photo of me with the orchestra handed me two 8x10 copies of the photo! it turned out SO nice!

Sean then took me up a few flights of stairs, turned a corner, and BOOM. i was standing on stage! it was SO cool! he showed me a little bit about how things worked [there’s tracks on the floor for the castle to move around] and explained that because there was hardly any space to store pieces of the sets, lots of it had to be hung from the ceiling and hung on the walls. then, Jerome walked in and Sean introduced me to him, and he explained that Clay was just changing out of his costume and that he wanted to meet me down in the orchestra pit! Sean and i hung out on stage for a few more minutes while we waited, talking, and i met Jenny Hill who like everyone else, was SUPER nice!

Jerome then poked his head around the corner and said it was time, so Sean followed him, followed by me, down the stairs back to the pit. it’s sort of like a little mini-maze backstage, so there were lots of stairs and corners and hallways to walk through. up ahead of Jerome, i could see the back of someone’s head…i had a pretty good idea of who it was, but before i could tell for they’d always turn the next corner!

we finally got to the hallway, and Sean was standing in between myself and the person we’d be following down the hall. Jerome had somehow ended up behind me…no idea when/how that happened, hahaha. someone asked me if i had my camera out – again, can’t remember who it was. heh. either Sean or Jerome. i franticly dug around in my purse and managed to pull out my camera and turn it on.

i then heard this voice say “is she here?” i knew exactly who was speaking before they finished the word ‘is.’ most definitely CLAY! Sean stepped to the side, so he was beside me, and the person in front of him turned around – Clay.

he still had all his stage make-up on, and his hair was sorta flattened down from wearing the wig. he had on a dark blue shirt with stripes in it [i THINK they were white, i can’t remember 100% though] and he was wearing jeans. can’t remember the shoes, but honestly, it was my first time meeting him. forgive me for not looking at his feet the whole time hahaha.

Sean then introduced me to Clay, and Clay shook my hand and said ‘nice to meet you.’ we chatted for a couple minutes while Jerome took a photo of Sean, Clay, and i in the orchestra pit. at one point, Clay asked where i was from [i’m suspecting that i had spoken enough at that point for him to pick up on the Canadian accent, hahaha.] i said Vancouver Island and right away he said “ohh!” in recognition, and asked if i was from Victoria [where the Foster family is from, if any of you didn’t know.] i said no, that i was about an hour north from there. by then, we were back in the hallway and Clay had to leave. we said our goodbyes and he shook my hand again, and he turned walked down the hallway in the opposite direction Sean and i had to go.

sighhh.

[all that happened in about three minutes, hahaha]

i pretty much floated back up the stairs following Sean, and back onto the stage. Ken [the stage manager] went out the SD and got my mom and brother and brought them backstage to meet up with Sean and i. we stood on the edge of the stage talking to Sean for a few minutes, and then it was time to go.

we followed Sean out the stage door, and i saw about 100 or so faces all staring at me go from “OMG IS IT HIM?!” to “sigh, nope” to “who is THAT girl?” in about a second and a half, hahaha. i then spotted one of my BEST clay-friends, amoreDio, who i hadn’t seen in almost a year and bolted over to her without even thinking, completely ditching my mom, brother, and most importantly, Sean! LOL. WHOOPS. i blame the clay fog, hahaha. i looked back, saw Sean standing there, and went “OMG!” and ran back over to him and apologized, haha. we said our goodbyes, and my mom took a photo of him and i. i told him that i wasn’t planning on going to the show that night, but after sitting in the pit i just HAD to see it one last time and had decided to get SRO tickets for the evening show. he then left, and after waiting for SD for a bit [which didn’t happen, as you all already know] we went over to junior’s for a bite to eat before the evening show.

it barely took any persuading at all for me to convince amoreDio to come with me, so about 15 minutes before the show started we bought our SRO tickets from the box office. before the show started, i quickly walked down to the front row and saw Sean just entering the pit. he saw me right away and came over to the edge of the pit to say hi, and i handed him on of the two copies of the group photo of me and the orchetra that had been taken that afternoon and asked him if he’d be able to get all the orchestra to sign it [it had a white border around the edge.] he said it would be no problem, and to come get it from him at intermission.

the show was phenomenal, of course. i was the farthest away i had ever been [it was my fourth and final time seeing the show..5 if you include sitting in the pit. i saw it twice in January and twice this past weekend.] but it didn’t matter at all. i was SO happy, still on cloud 9 from my experience in the pit that afternoon, and enjoyed every second of the show.

at intermission, i went back down to the front row to grab my photo from Sean. he got all but one of the musicians to sign it! it looks awesome! i’m so happy with it!

Clay did this thing at the end of the sing-along…don’t know if he’s done it before this weekend cause i haven’t seen it posted anywhere [he did it at both of the shows i was in the audience for this weekend]. he scooped up a bunch of confetti from the stage into his hand, and right when the orchestra played the final note, held his hand [in the shape of a fist] up to his face and blew the confetti out…sort of life a mini-confetti canon, LOL.

after the show, we went to try to do the stage door one last time but, again, as you already know, he didn’t do SD that evening. Tom Deckman came out though, which was a really nice surprise! Sean came out of the stage door too, and came over to where i was standing to say one last goodbye. i thanked him yet again for the whole afternoon, and he was on his way.

i met up with my family, and after a couple last photos at the stage door and in front of the shubert, we were on our way to do some last minute sight-seeing before our flight home at 7am then next morning.

Continued......

PART THREE

wow. finally done. hahahha. sorry that was so long! and thanks for sticking with me til the end and reading it all!

overall, it was an absolutely, amazingly, FANTASTIC experience – the best experience of my life, in fact. i will NEVER forget it, and am honored that i had this unbelievable chance to sit in a real, Broadway orchestra pit. everyone, especially Sean, was incredibly nice and so welcoming, and i had the best afternoon ever hanging out with all the musicians. it was a PERFECT educational experience for me – one that i would not have been able to get anywhere else, and i was able to get loads of career advise that i never dreamed i’d be able to get. i’m so thankful that Sean allowed me to tag along for the afternoon, and that i was able to see what life in the pit is really like. and, of course, getting to finally meet Clay after being a fan for almost six years was pretty much icing on an already perfect cake. i know that meeting him was not part of the auction prize, and i appreciate more than i can explain in words him taking a few minutes out of his own time to chat with me and take a photo with me.

this weekend was more than i could ever ask for. more than i could have ever dreamed of.

thank you SO much to Sean, the orchestra, all the backstage Spamalot people, Clay, Jerome, Ken, and the people at Broadway Cares for allowing this all to happen!

ETA: this recap can travel!

[FromClaygary]

WOW, I'm thrilled for VanIslandGirl! I met her and her Mom in Raleigh...I think summer 2006? and she's a nice girl. And how completely appropriate that a music student got to experience that. GREAT idea to do a fundraiser to get the money for the auction....good for Mom for suggesting it!

Thanks for bringing that over ldyj....great read!

[luckiest1]

Morning, all.

That was a great read, thanks ldyj. What a great memory for that girl.

ETA: great news, annabear! :thbighug-1:

[claylove]

Add me to the list of those having trouble finding the Christmas spirit without a JNT... been saying this for two weeks but it just does not seem like Christmas without Clay. I can't decide if past JNT clack makes it better or worse. I know this is horrible to say (since its not even Christmas yet) but in many ways I am ready for it to all be over with. LOL!

BUT-- I am looking forward to a few extra days off work around the holidays so no complaints there!

Just LOVED reading vanislandgirl's recap. What a great experience for her!

[Gibby]

Looks like you got a good deal, Scarlett, and I want one of those but does it come with an something that first picks stuff off the floor and puts them where they are supposed to be?

BWAH! It would need to have that feature for me, too, since my two teenaged daughters are always leaving stuff on the floor.

I, too, am missing the JNT. I've been listening to Clay Christmas music, and watching JNT clack, too. It doesn't beat going to a concert, but it's sure fun!

Thanks so much for bringing over vanislandgirl's recap, ldyj. What a great experience she had! And how cool that she got to meet Clay, even though it was't a part of the auction. Clay's so generous!

[merrieeee]

I have purposely not been watching any JNT Clack but I have been listening to him singing Xmas music on my commute, which inexplicably has gone from 35 min. to 1 hour.

He can just put me into a wonderful state of mind that I don't care that I am doing 10 miles per hour! Well I care but at least it gives me longer to listen!

I remember him saying he couldn't see a Christmas not doing a tour....err Clay remember that next year would you.

[liney23]

ldyj... thanks so much for bringing vanislandgirl's recap over. It just brought the biggest grin ever to read it this morning. What an amazing experience for her! I hope her dream comes true!!!

I watched some of last year's Xmas tour clack last night and it was great to see it again. LOVE his hair in Albany. I've been listening to him since the week before Thanksgiving, but needed to see him to finally get in the spirit.

OMG, his voice!!!

OMG, his gorgeousness!!!

Course it's only 8 days until my Xmas presents have to be ready to give and I'm like OMG!!! in a very different way...

HELP!!!

[ldyjocelyn]

You know, it's weird...because while I still love reading about Clay, and following the boards, and share the excitement when a new picture is found, or some lost interview -- my feelings of "missing" a JNT aren't really there this year. I really can't explain it, because I was one who truly thought that Clay would have a Christmas tour until the cows came home. I think I'm just happy for the way Clay is at the moment, with his life going the way it is, and his career as well. I also don't normally read a lot into his body language and his "look" in pictures, but for some reason, I get a sense of peace from him, especially from what all has happened in the past 4 months. Parker. Coming out. Returning to Spamalot.

I do find it funny that many fans, who last year were saying "ANOTHER CHRISTMAS TOUR?" are now saying "man, I miss the Christmas tour..." (BTW, I don't think that is anyone on this board.)

I think I'm just incredibly grateful at all the things Clay Aiken has given me in the past 5 (almost 6) years -- friendship, fun, drooling over him. And I will cherish all this for the rest of my life.

[Carolina Clay]

Good Morning, FCA!

Here's a little something to help with any sluggish holiday spirit: Santa and Reindeer Sing 12 Days.

I try to check the OFC birthdays daily so I can wish a "Happy Happy" to those who read my blog there. Lo and behold, I discovered a couple of extras for this board. Not sure if LonelyNoMore equals LNM44, but I'll include you, too. This seems to be a popular day, so I may miss someone after all.

to wandacleo, keldanker, and LonelyNoMore!

Last Friday night I heard Clay on the radio FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER and about lost it at a very busy intersection. The story is in my blog, along with other stuff: Carolina On My Mind.

When you click on the blog, you will hear the MCWL greeting from the previous entry. I guess it will play the whole time it's on the front page, even into January.

Love vanislandgirl's recap, which I have now seen on at least three boards. How exciting!

Have fun with Roombas, Scarlett! If you locate the one that "picks up beforehand," holler!

Have a great day, all!

Caro

[jmh123]

It isn't "our" LonelyNoMore's birthday this week.

But happy birthday to wandacleo and keldanker

And annabear, glad to hear the news about your mom. Wish there were no mass at all, but glad it isn't the lung.

[FearofH2O]

Happy Birthday wandacleo and keldanker !

:748: :fest30: :04: :laola0: :poze:

[muskifest]

since my two teenaged daughters are always leaving stuff on the floor.

...and on the tables, and on the chairs and sofas, and on the kitchen counter and on the...

I'm sure you know what I'm talking about, Gibby! But I try to remind myself that in about 8-9 months from now, my older daughter will be at college and I'll be missing her like crazy

Just got back from a great weekend combining a business trip with a pleasure trip. Spent some quality time with totally, one of my very first friends made through this amazing ClayFriendsNetwork (CFN?) and one of my closest. It was great trying to catch up (there's been a bit of...er....news...on the Clay front----oooh, I like the sound of that! since we saw each other last... ). Then I got to see another good friend after my business meeting. Now...back to reality and rain... :glare:

[FromClaygary]

HELP!!

A short while back, someone...somewhere.... posted a special offer on Spamalot tickets for the next few weeks. Would anyone have that link? I'ts not in our Spamalot thread and I can't find it anywhere.....would like to purchase a ticket for a friend who is helping us out on our visit.

TIA for any info!