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manderly car washer

manderly

Posted
Posted

Oops, I guess I should have stopped in here before posting in the main thread.

Hello, everyone! I've been registered here since February, but today is the first time I've posted. I want go into a lot of detail, but I've been a Clay fan since Nov. 2003. I watched some of AI2, and wanted Clay to win, but when he didn't I sort of put him out of my mind. I know.....crazy, right? :huh: I was in a record store around Thanksgiving 2003, and decided to pick up MOaM on a whim. I played that thing to death! Then in Feb. 2004, I decided to go online to see if I could find anything on that Aiken dude. HA HA! And the rest is history...... I've been hooked ever since.

I'm not a prolific poster, and post mostly at The Clackhouse, and a few smaller boards. I stay pretty busy, so I may lurk more than post. This looks like a great board.

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jmh123 Chairman

jmh123

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"Heyhowareya" to Manderly!!!!

jmh, am I now an unofficial North Carolinian? (BTW, I love the way Clay says "heyhowareya!")

You are indeed!! You have no idea how many foreign countries, like Japan and New York, where I've greeted people with "heyhowareya" and gotten a blank stare or a "excuse me?"

ETA: eep - forgot to say "heyhowareya" to Manderly!!

Edited by jmh123
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lyndolphin car washer

lyndolphin

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Welcome lyndophin! We sat together in Cary this year and I fetched you one of those frozen strawberry-lemonade thingies. :RedGuy:

Thanks, jmh123! You were such fun company -- and you just about saved my life *g* with that frozen thingy in the 104 degree inferno-- me with my busted knee stuck in my chair-- Most, if not all, of us in that section (in front to the far left looking at the stage) were seemingly oblivious to the presence of "the creep" and his mother-- :scream:

BTW: Anybody know (or have experience with it): is knee replacement surgery all that it's cracked up to be?-- I'm starting to look into it-- I'm getting very annoyed with the limitations of end-stage arthritis of the knee joint. It gets in the way of easy travel to see Clay in concert. :Thud:

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Cotton Executive Producer

Cotton

Posted
Posted

Hello,

I guess I should have run in here before I posted on main, too.

I'm Cotton. I'm always Cotton on whatever board. Except CB which claimed the name was taken way back 3 or 4 years ago when I joined. I think I ended up being All Cotton (It didn't like 100%!) there. I'm mostly at CV. Rarely, I'll post at OFC.

lyndolphin! Did you make it to the Ashville concert on time?! I glad I was fully dressed when that belman busted into our room dragging your luggage cart only to find there were two people already in the room! :confused-smiley-014: Leettle teensy mixup at the front desk. [/understatement]

You didn't have much time to get to your new room and over to the Biltmore. Hope you didn't miss anything! I never managed to see you to ask.

I think this might be my 2nd post?

:)

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ialreadyam body guard

ialreadyam

Posted
Posted

Welcome lyndophin! We sat together in Cary this year and I fetched you one of those frozen strawberry-lemonade thingies. :RedGuy:

Thanks, jmh123! You were such fun company -- and you just about saved my life *g* with that frozen thingy in the 104 degree inferno-- me with my busted knee stuck in my chair-- Most, if not all, of us in that section (in front to the far left looking at the stage) were seemingly oblivious to the presence of "the creep" and his mother-- :scream:

BTW: Anybody know (or have experience with it): is knee replacement surgery all that it's cracked up to be?-- I'm starting to look into it-- I'm getting very annoyed with the limitations of end-stage arthritis of the knee joint. It gets in the way of easy travel to see Clay in concert. :Thud:

Hi and welcome from another newbie. Yes, I can! I had this surgery done in February. PM me with any questions. I'd be glad to help you.

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lyndolphin car washer

lyndolphin

Posted
Posted (edited)
lyndolphin! Did you make it to the Ashville concert on time?! I glad I was fully dressed when that belman busted into our room dragging your luggage cart only to find there were two people already in the room! :confused-smiley-014: Leettle teensy mixup at the front desk. [/understatement]

You didn't have much time to get to your new room and over to the Biltmore. Hope you didn't miss anything! I never managed to see you to ask.

Hi cotton! How surreal was that? Oops! here is your new room-- Only not! So sorry about the room invasion. *g* After much juggling around, the front desk found an empty room-- a bit of an upgrade and a free continental breakfast to apologize for the hasstle-- I hope they offered you some comp for the trouble. :F_05BL17blowkiss:

I had the trip from hell getting from Cary to Asheville (one-hour traffic jam just outside of Cary and then stuck behind cars crawling along the mountain roads)-- Then once in Ashville trying to deal with bitch- in-a-box's re-calculating, recalculating cries when trying to find the Crown Plaza with an iffy street address. The odyssey involved stopping at an out-of-the-way road house asking if they knew where the CP was-- nopey-nope-- but one of the servers thought it might be up by Sam's Club-- only Sam's Club wasn't listed in b-in-a-b's directory. Thus the extreme lateness.

I rushed into the last 10 minutes of the CH pre-concert dinner in my lovely travel clothes-- grabbed a few tidbits from the buffet-- said a few hellos-- and rushed to get checked in-- and then the oops! room scene. Luckily for me, the concert started late because of the loooong line, so I arrived at my seat just minutes before Here You Come Again... started.

ETA (since I can't yet figure out how to do two quotes in one unedited post):

BTW: Anybody know (or have experience with it): is knee replacement surgery all that it's cracked up to be?-- I'm starting to look into it-- I'm getting very annoyed with the limitations of end-stage arthritis of the knee joint. It gets in the way of easy travel to see Clay in concert. :Thud:

Hi and welcome from another newbie. Yes, I can! I had this surgery done in February. PM me with any questions. I'd be glad to help you.

Thanks, ialreadyam--Will do. :F_05BL17blowkiss:

I'm just beginning to think about it so I'm not yet sure what questions to ask-- but I'm working on it. I had two biggie surgeries in the Winter/Spring so I haven't wanted to even think about another hospital adventure-- but now the knee problem is driving me nuts-- so I might be getting ready -- especially with all those upcoming Clay concerts in challenging travel circumstances-- hmmmm, let's see Winter in the "heartland"? Hobbling through snow, sleet, freezing cold to see/hear OMC? Could happen. After all, I hobbled through the fires of hell (100-ish degrees in Cary and Asheville) to see himself. I think he (or his tour team) just might enjoy climate challenges.

Edited by lyndolphin
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Bookwhore personal manager

Bookwhore

Posted
Posted

:F_05BL17blowkiss: Welcome to all the new newbies! I even recognize some of your names. Stargazer, I remember you as Claypots from somewhere...just can't remember where.

Y'all come out and post on the main board, too! This is a nice fun place with lots of good discussion. And pictures. Lots of nice pictures. :Thud:

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Stargazer body guard

Stargazer

Posted
Posted
:F_05BL17blowkiss: Welcome to all the new newbies! I even recognize some of your names. Stargazer, I remember you as Claypots from somewhere...just can't remember where.

Y'all come out and post on the main board, too! This is a nice fun place with lots of good discussion. And pictures. Lots of nice pictures. :Thud:

I'm a member at many boards, so I'm sure you saw me somewhere! :F_05BL17blowkiss:

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gbmifan personal manager

gbmifan

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Posted

Hi, I have been a lurker for sometime. Shy about posting. Have been a fan since the beginning but did not get into following up on things till Spring 2004 because of taken care of my mother after a stroke in fall of 2003. She did well and has gone to three concerts with me since, but this year at age 86 slowly taken it toll. She settled for a t-shirt instead. I am married with three boys ages 28,25,and 22. All live outside of the home. I work part-time as a RN in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. I also love physical activity. I just rode by bike for 310 miles over 5 days. I only get to one concert a tour I started going Chritmas 2004. Husband doesn't understand but is a good sport. I regret to this day not going to Clio in 2004. Wanted to but nobody would go with me, so I stayed home. Never again. I took a concert virgin with me to Sterling Heigths and she is hooked and we will go to Kalamazoo in Dec. I am a member also at OFC, but never post because I get fustrated and refuse to respond. I Enjoy all of your comments and wit. I may not post much but will always be here.

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Couch Tomato Baby Sitter

Couch Tomato

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Hi, I have been a lurker for sometime. Shy about posting. Have been a fan since the beginning but did not get into following up on things till Spring 2004 because of taken care of my mother after a stroke in fall of 2003. She did well and has gone to three concerts with me since, but this year at age 86 slowly taken it toll. She settled for a t-shirt instead. I am married with three boys ages 28,25,and 22. All live outside of the home. I work part-time as a RN in a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit. I also love physical activity. I just rode by bike for 310 miles over 5 days. I only get to one concert a tour I started going Chritmas 2004. Husband doesn't understand but is a good sport. I regret to this day not going to Clio in 2004. Wanted to but nobody would go with me, so I stayed home. Never again. I took a concert virgin with me to Sterling Heigths and she is hooked and we will go to Kalamazoo in Dec. I am a member also at OFC, but never post because I get fustrated and refuse to respond. I Enjoy all of your comments and wit. I may not post much but will always be here.

Hey gbmifan -- welcome to FCA. Lucky you, all living ouside the home. heee And yep, I got over going to things by myself pretty damn quick. My first concert actually!! I had waited too long to decide to go to the AI2 tour and by the time I did tickets were spare indeed. But ended up at 3 shows. I did all of those "by myself" and had the best time ever.

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trophywife car washer

trophywife

Posted
Posted (edited)

Hi! My name's Trophywife. Nothing to do with the lyrical stylings of Kelly Clarkson but just a joke between me and a friend.

Clay had me at ''take" too. Even then I felt protective because when he first walked out my immediate reaction was, "oooh, poor baby, I hope Simon doesn't rip him to shreds!" He just seemed so vulnerable. Before Clay, Simon was my favorite. I liked Simon ripping into these delusional singers so I was a little surprised at my reaction.

But then he spoke and I was "Hmm, he seems really confident. I bet he's gonna suck...

"Take time to tell me. .. "

. . . all of the money in my bank account."

Well, I didn't think that at first, but my adoration was in full swoon. I've been lurking since TWoP's PRoC PANTS! days. I checked out CB, RHT, PRoC and posted at the CH.

In the beginning it was fun but I never did feel that I belonged, plus the growing angst of the overall fandom, the OTT reactions (some being my own) was getting me down. Needed to take a break so I did. After a while I also posted at the CV but didn't feel that was a fit either.

I still lurk at CH,CV and OFC. Sometimes CB. Also love to read the posts at Clayton's Place. I like to see all the different discussions. Look at all sides.

Clay's engagement led me here and I have been enjoying this board. I still love our guy and I want to bring the joy back.

Look forward to reading more. Thank you. :)

ETA: I'm glad to put your mind at ease Couch Tomato. :) I didn't mind her during the IT tour though.

Edited by trophywife
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xxx4clay car washer

xxx4clay

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Posted (edited)

I have taken Couch Tomato’s advice and have been looking around at the different threads here and discovered this one. Seems I skipped a step here. Quel rude of me! I’ll remedy that now with a caution - I have a bad habit of writing long ass posts guaranteed to bore the bejesus out of you so consider yourself forewarned. I figure I can get away with it here though since this isn’t the main thread. Anyway, here’s my story -

Did he have me from “Take?” Truth is - I don’t remember. Bad fan, huh? Regardless, I discovered AI while I was out of town, stuck in a hotel room in a city where I knew no one. So I was flipping through the channels and came upon the audition shows. And I watched and I was hooked. Very odd for me as I have never watched another “reality” show and still don‘t watch ‘em. But anyway, my appreciation and fascination with Clay Aiken deepened week by week. I was captivated by his voice, enjoyed his personality, thought he was cute, and at some point (“To Love Somebody?”) this deepened into full on love and lust. I watched AI2, for the most part, without benefit of the Internet perspective. I enjoyed it with family and friends. For some reason, I never expected Clay to win which is not to say I was not disappointed when he didn’t. I just saw the handwriting on the wall, so to speak. But I never felt like Clay would go away.

After the show, I googled my way to the internet fandom and finally found the Clayboard, among other places. I mostly lurked there for nearly 2 years, only rarely posting a picture or two or four. With one exception. I had a different screen name then which I thought was oh so clever and unique. Remember that Gaye Deamer (sp?) book? Oh god, I thought that was the funniest thing ever! I posted a few parody paragraphs of her over the top purple prose, cause that’s the kind of thing that’s fun for me. Anyway, this caught the attention of another fan who had the very same screen name as I did although she was not on the CB. She sent me a polite pm suggesting I might wanna change my name since she had it first and people might confuse us if I continued to use it. She thought perhaps I was an “angel winger.” :lol: Pretty funny really. But I decided she was right and I should change my screen name. I think it took me six months or so, not that it mattered since I was not really posting anywhere.

Somehow I finally came up with the screen name I have now. I won’t say exactly how that happened but let’s say that I think clack watching and alcohol were involved. I use the same name everywhere and, though some might be inclined to make fun of it (can you blame ‘em?) I have become quite fond of it. My avatar goes with me everywhere too. Hopelessly out of date though it might be and I really oughtta change it, I am very attached to it because it was made for me by a friend from one of my favorite videos I ever took.

I think I’ve got off track here - it happens to me a lot. I also warned you that it might become a tome but I think that’s ok since it’s here in this little obscure thread. Anyway,

Sometime, I think in early 2005, I found Clayversity. I joined, and, after a little lurking, I began posting there. I liked that board and I came to love it. I think it had a different tone and tenor then but maybe that’s just me. I have posted a good bit there. Like lots. I had fun there. I made many friends there. I spent a good bit of July and August traveling around the country chasing Clay with several of those friends. I think that most people who have been to CV know me. I thought I fit in there.

I am not going to diss CV. I just won’t. I doubt I will ever leave there completely. I have had so much fun there so many times. And as I said, I have many friends there, some of whom are here, but many of whom are not. Some of these people I consider to be not just “Clay friends” but simply “friends.” I see that same thing among the long term members here and I appreciate what it means. Anyway, instead, I’ll talk about what I want in a message board -

I participate in a message board so I can talk about Clay, gush about Clay, learn about Clay, laugh about Clay, look at pictures of Clay, download video of Clay, and, yes, smut about Clay, with other people who have the same affection for Clay that I do. I’m not much inclined to angst about Clay, worry about Clay, critique Clay, suggest to Clay what he ought or ought not to do, or plot Clay’s future for him. I do understand that others are not like me and do enjoy these things. And that’s fine with me - I don’t need to be in a place where everyone is in lock step. But when those sorts of things dominate the prevailing daily mood of the board, when people post those same things over and over and over again, when the board is rehashing 2003, 2004, 200x ad infinitum over and over, I’m not much inclined to participate. And when I can’t detect even a tinge of affection for Clay within a few posts, I am not ashamed to admit my hackles are raised.

I want a message board where all members are treated with respect and where I, on the rare occasion that I have a serious thought, am allowed to say what that thought is. I want a message board where I don’t have to tailor my words in such a way that they become meaningless pablum.

I want a message board where Clay Aiken is treated with respect always.

Is that too much to ask? I hope not. It looks a whole lot like what I see here.

I’ll just flounder along here. Stuff about me that’s not Clay stuff? I love sports of all kinds most especially WVU sports, and WVU football right at this very moment. I’m inclined to talking about it on a weekly basis and trying to cajole others into supporting WVU. I can’t help myself - it’s a part of me. Clay stuff? My favorite thing is going to concerts. I’ve loved every one I’ve been to and I can never get enough. I like to take video and I like to share it. I take some pictures too but I’m not so good at it and I’m even worse about actually processing and posting the photos. I have hundreds from the last tour that I haven’t even looked at yet. I like to share little stories and recap concerts and I like to read those same things from others. Lastly, I like, no, I love the funnee! Laughter is a wonderful thing!

I think that’s enough. Probably waaay too much. At least now I think I have properly introduced myself here.

Edited by xxx4clay
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YSRN Executive Producer

YSRN

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Posted
Did he have me from “Take?” Truth is - I don’t remember. Bad fan, huh? Regardless, I discovered AI while I was out of town, stuck in a hotel room in a city where I knew no one. So I was flipping through the channels and came upon the audition shows. And I watched and I was hooked. Very odd for me as I have never watched another “reality” show and still don‘t watch ‘em. But anyway, my appreciation and fascination with Clay Aiken deepened week by week. I was captivated by his voice, enjoyed his personality, thought he was cute, and at some point (“To Love Somebody?”) this deepened into full on love and lust. I watched AI2, for the most part, without benefit of the Internet perspective. I enjoyed it with family and friends. For some reason, I never expected Clay to win which is not to say I was not disappointed when he didn’t. I just saw the handwriting on the wall, so to speak. But I never felt like Clay would go away.

After the show, I googled my way to the internet fandom...

Me too... me too!! That's exactly how it played out for me too (well, except the hotel... lol) Welcome xxx4clay.

I think that might be part of why I STILL don't worry about him. Or it's just simply me. I'm not much of a worrier. I'm just a live in the moment and enjoy what I have kinda gal. And I too LIVE for the funny!

I think you were lookin' for this, no? --- > lmao2.gif

I've been so neglectful in here... sorry! WELCOME to all the new members!!! Be you postwhores or lurkers or anything in between... enjoy!

Also love to read the posts at Clayton's Place
grin.gif
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Bookwhore personal manager

Bookwhore

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Posted

:F_05BL17blowkiss: Hi xxx! I do hope you come to post here frequently because I think you're funnier than shstuff and you're right...laughter is a good thing.

I know what you mean about not being able to find a flicker of affection for Clay in post after post, and about feeling that all posters are equally regarded. I did not, however, have close friends that I left behind at another board, so it was easy for me to make a clean break. This board just feels so much like home to me. I hope you'll be comfortable here.

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