What a night!!!

Here is the recap:

We left the house at 0730. POURING RAIN.

Arrived at 0800 – Breakfast until 0900. Still Raining.

Park at the Wyndham… Still raining. 1000 walk over to the Arena, no people. Back to the car – There are the Buses!! We move the car and park next to the boys bus *laughs*.

We’re soaked, by the way! Move the party over into the Wyndham lobby. Bribe every person working at the hotel to tell us the details. We find out that the buses will be loaded at 1 pm. (by this time we’ve walked back to the Arena, gotten MORE soaked…. waited around and talked to other Fans – who it was GREAT to meet by the way!!!)

Finally – 1 pm rolls around, we are all lined up nicely but they tell us to move anyway. We move. We’re told to move down more. and more. By this time the prime spot i’ve chosen has been taken by the many rabid fans …. boy do i have stories to tell you on that!! The fans are the worst. You can see by my videos that will be posted – fans have NO shame. I’ve been pushed, shoved, smacked, wacked, and cracked in the head by fans all day today (sigh). So – the idols all come out of the hotel, but sadly the boys all head on to the bus and do not come out for autographs, except Chikezie. The girls did come out and sign David came out briefly but as soon as he did the rabid fans MOBBED him and i think he freaked out a bit. He jumped back on the bus. (we were all herded right next to the door of the bus.)

So – back to the Arena as the buses pull out. I manage a very good spot with my daughter where we get some great pic’s with Kristy Lee Cook, Jason, Carly, Michael Johns, Rami…. all except Chikezie and Cook – Archy was almost upon us when he was whisked away for press, but i did manage a short video of him! You will see him fly by us giving high fives!

I must mention this – Michael Johns was out in the hot sun for almost two hours signing autographs, along with all the girls and Jason. I give Michael a lot of credit. He was unbelievably nice to everyone and took the time to speak to each and every person who wanted or needed anything. He stayed out the longest!! What a guy!!! The girls were fabulous too!! i can’t say enough about all of them! Archy was not out for that long, and i did not get a chance to speak to him. Cook did not make an appearance.

So the concert was phenomenal!! Definetely worth the price of a ticket and the time spent. GOOOO!

I did the phone-in thing for Rickey.org – i heard from a few people that quality was good in some spots and bad in others. You have to realize one thing – the screaming is so loud and so piercing that i can’t believe any sound can be heard at all. The screaming did not stop the entire concert. *laughs* so i can understand the bad sound quality. Hopefully some of it came thru good for everyone!

After the concert we RAN out to the barricades and waited again *this time not in the rain!!!* the idols all came out and made their way thru and were as happy to sign as they were the other two times that day. *laughs* We were on our 15th hour of standing around and i was pretty crabby i must admit, but the fans behind me were unbelievable. I was being literally smashed against the guard rail and hit in the head every two seconds by the girls behind me. you can definitely see that on the Videos!!

So David Cook comes out… the crowd goes wild….. I tried taking pictures but every time someone managed to shove a picture in front of it or whack me in the head so none came out. So i videoed it instead. LOL you’ll see me getting whacked and attacked in the video. *laughs* It was so bad i whacked David. ROFL That’s when he is like “Ok Stop”. So – the letters? The letters everyone sent in and i put in a nice little book? He got it!! you’ll see in the video my daughter gives it to him, then he has it under his arm as he is walking down the line. But the best part? As he leaves *luckily after 16 hours we got to meet him and we were one of the last, as he was whisked away to leave shortly after!!* So – he leaves? And as he walks away? He starts reading the book It’s in the video! *laughs* I was very happy to see that!!!

All in all? Grade A day and i’m so glad i went!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Penny

(Pictures and videos uploading as we speak!! I will edit them in as soon as they are available!)

ENTIRE PHOTO ALBUM IS HERE!!

A few of my fave’s below!

DOWNLOADS

Video – David signing autographs! [If you watch at the end, you will see David walk away with the book containing the fan letters from this site. As he walks away he opens the book and starts looking at the letters!]

Video – Archy!

Video – Michael Johns!

Billie Jean in Chicago – courtesy of MJ’s Blog

Archie singing Apoligize – courtesy of MJ’s Blog

More David Cook signing – i had to stop taping on this one because a nutty fan whacked me in the side of the head and my camera went flying. *laughs* You’ll notice the rude chanting of the Archey fans – the Cook fans took over screaming ‘David Cook’ but that part has been cut out of the video as the camera was on the floor at that point!

Pic from the Chicago Sun Times.
Click here for the review.


Last of my videos: David Cook onstage talking to the fans.

More Pics! Here are the autographs we have collected! My favorite and the one i won’t part with is the pic with Carly and David Cook – i wouldn’t trade that for the world. My daughter is going to have the one with all the signatures. The other two only have partial sig’s – I will probably give those away soon on the site