Back then I was into Hanson, Backstreet Boys and NSync, if there was a concert out of the city, but in-state, and even some concerts that were out of state but close to my home state of Ohio, I went to all of them, and my parents reluctantly drove me and my screaming friends there. I’m sure if I wanted to back then, if I wanted to see a concert in Las Vegas, or something crazy and insane, they’d help me look for Las Vegas hotels and just say they were going with me to supervise.

That was when I was a teenager, I’m a grown woman now, and I’m not into that stuff anymore right?

Wrong!

Watching American Idol is a tradition with me and my mom now. I only really get into all of the seasons and going to the concerts when I find someone that completely blows me away. In American Idol Season 2, it was Clay Aiken. As if he didn’t fulfill my fondness of nerdy looking guys, he had a great voice and was very talented. When the American Idols went on tour that season, I went to four concerts that Summer…Columbus, Cleveland & Cincinnati Ohio and Richmond Virginia. I got backstage to finally meet him in Virginia and I was on Cloud 9, feeling like a teenager again.

So when my mom and I checked out American Idol this season, it was probably no surprise that I emotionally attached myself to David Cook, my mom was a David Archuleta fan. I think this was the first time we disagreed with who should win on the show. Luckily my fancies proved successful when David Cook won the show. Now it was time for me to go touring.

Last Sunday I went to the Columbus, Ohio show. My third row seats had me smiling for days when I got them off of Ticketmaster at the last minute. I overcame my fears of being by myself and went to the concert solo. This would be practice for the out of the city trip to Cincinnati, Ohio that I experienced last night. Regardless of the fact that I got home at 2AM this morning and I’ve woke up happy and chipper after 8 hours of sleep or less attests to the fact that I am still giddy like a school girl.

My Cincinnati trip started early. I got up at 7AM, which by the way is a new record because I usually wake up an 7:30AM and drag through my morning with a Sugar Free Red Bull to get up and make it to work, hoping I don’t give myself a concussion by nodding my head off to sleep and busting it on my desk. This morning, I was unusually happy and willing to get up…a rare moment, but explainable as I was happy to be on vacation and I would be spending it going on a fun journey.

I departed the house at 8:30AM after strategically applying makeup for once in my life and swigged down a Sugar Free Rockstar Energy Drink (they were on sale at the store!) and was on my way to Cincinnati.

I hate Ohio highways! People either drive too slowly or too fast, I drive in between and it was hell to pass people as I was trying to be a NASCAR driver that day since I was a little late and off schedule and should have left the house earlier than I did. I wanted to check out the Newport Aquarium across the river in Kentucky before venturing off to the US Bank Arena where the concert was going to be that night. Not to mention, I got word off a few message boards that the Idols come out to meet the fans before the concert and fans were lining up and waiting as early as 10AM.

The Newport Aquarium was amazing, not only was the view of the Ohio River outside of the Aquarium breathtaking, inside the aquarium I got to check out hermit crabs so big that they could probably eat my domesticated hermit crabs at home, I pet starfish, horseshoe crabs and even sharks! I got to feed the Lorikeets honey nectar…before they pee’d and/or pooped on my head.

Afterwards, I took my bird pooped head over to the US Bank Arena at around 1:00PM. I got lost looking for the parking garage, in the process I ended up going back over the bridge back into Kentucky and had to turn back around. Once I was finally pointed in the right direction by a cop that was directing traffic for the Cincinnati Reds game I drove by a crowd of girls waiting across the street from tour busses, I was finally in the right place.

Once I parked and walked back to find the crowd, they were gone! I immediately thought that maybe they took everyone inside to meet the Idols before the show and I was too late so I just sat by the river and figured out what to do next.

God must have been trying to find a way to make me get up and find the crowd I had seen earlier because luckily some girl walked past me and told another girl that everyone had gone upstairs to see them come out. I managed to run up the ten million stairs up to the “balcony like” patio that ran all around the arena. I puffed my inhaler before I dropped over from lack of oxygen of trying to carry my out of shape self up the stairs and fell into line around the barricades that were setup around the one of many entrances the US Bank Arena has.

It was ridiculously hot that day. The sun was beating down on everyone and I was sweating my life away. Oddly enough, the only thing I was worried about was possibly getting to take a photo with David Cook all sweaty and sticky. Ugh!

I started conversation with a girl named Kristen and her nephew Christopher because I had brought nothing for the Idols to autograph. I had left my Columbus Ohio concert photos that I had took days prior for the Idols to sign, in my car. In my hurry to find the crowd and the stress of finding a place to park, I had left my concert photos in the car and there was no time to run back and get them, the stairs had already drained most of my energy and the sun was draining the rest of it.

Finally at around 2PM David Archuleta came out. He first off walked right towards our side of the line; I surprisingly started getting nervous and shaking about how to ask for an autograph/photo. I didn’t want to look like a stupid, screaming fan girl. Well it turns out he was in a hurry anyways because he had to go do some press conference thing and could only sign autographs. He was in such a hurry he walked right past me for an autograph.

I just had to make sure my favorite Idol, David Cook, doesn’t do the same thing. I wasn’t going to let it happen. Turns out by the time Archuleta got half way through the line he started taking photos with people again and I was a little mad about that because the people around me had asked for pictures first. I know it sounds like an immature thing to say but it’s like making promises and not going through with it. The girl next to me asked Archuleta for a photo with her nephew as he was signing her nephew’s shirt and he goes,

“You can take a picture of me signing it” Uuuuummmm, ok then he turns around and starts taking photos with people after telling us he couldn’t. Well…whatever.

Jeff Archuleta (David’s Dad) came out sometime after mini-Archuleta had left and started talking to fans. I couldn’t help but think why he was out talking to the fans but I quickly put my negative thoughts and theories aside and concentrated on which Idol would come by next.

Then Chickezie came out, he was the total opposite from Archuleta, he took his time, getting through each and every person making sure they had autographs and photo opps. He even put his arm around me for the photo opp, even though I was probably all sweaty and sticky I still appreciate the fact he did it.

Jason Castro and Kristy Lee came out together (or I should say Kristy Lee came out piggy back on Jason) and I got a photo with him as well, his eyes were so gorgeous up close and I was thinking about how much I wanted to touch his hair, but I didn’t want to look or sound like a physco.

The girl next to me that I had befriended named Kristen had a poster board sign sitting against the railing, well when Jason was out signing autographs in front of us, the poster board had fell and I didn’t see it and accidently kicked it…right into Jason’s ankle. Kristen looks at me and jokingly says,

“You broke his ankle” Kristen says. Jason herd her, looks up at me and goes “Ooooowwwwww” in a sarcastic, pretending to be hurt voice, all jokingly. It was so funny, but it wouldn’t have been if I had really hurt him. I did get a good laugh out of it though and it did make him look at me with those beautiful eyes of his. (Excuse me while I go swoon and melt all over my keyboard!)

Kristy had enough time to take a photo with me. I leaned back against the railing for my photo with Kristy and the railing moved and I almost fell backwards onto Kristy. That would have been embarresing. I hope once she’s popular in Country music it will probably be even more exciting for me to look back at her photo and autograph. She was great either way.

Michael Johns was looking like he was going to have enough time to get through everyone the same way up until he got to our end of the line then he was told to hurry up and he could only do quick autographs. So I had to settle for having a photo of him signing my program. At this point I’m probably getting Idol spoiled and was really looking forward to a photo opp, but it’s ok. It’s none of the Idol’s faults at all that they had press duties.

Then I met Brooke White. She was very personable to everyone from what I could hear when she was interacting with the fans in line before me. She got to me and I had my page open in my tour program and ready to sign. She looks at it and goes,

“Oh I see you’ve been to a show already!” At this point I was really confused, and thinking Brooke was a mind reader because she knew I went to the Columbus, Ohio show last Sunday. It took my airheaded self to figure out what she was talking about,

“You already got a program already!” she says.

“Oh well I bought it from a guy that was out here selling them, but I was at the Columbus show last week and I’m going to the Cleveland, Ohio show too.” I explained.

Before this point David Cook had come out, went through a quarter of the crowd and left to do his press conferance thing. I was so worried he wasn’t going to come back out. Well he finally did, but by the time he got to our end of the line security tried to hurry him along. He apologized he could only do autographs, Kristen and I still asked for photos anyways. Again he explained he could only do autographs. After he was done he starts walking away, but then he turns around after talking to the security guards and to which I think he said, “Forget it!” and CAME BACK SO WE COULD HAVE OUR PICTURES TAKEN WITH HIM. He was still in a hurry and told everyone to have their cameras ready for a quick photo thus creating this photo,

That photo alone made the entire solo trip worth every second.

I was ridiculously happy and as if I didn’t have enough respect for the guy, the respect grew when he made the time to come back and take photos with us! I wanted to stand on the railing and lean closer to him, but I was scared maybe the railing would give in again and I would fall, this is one of those moments I wouldn’t have minded being the clumsy person that I am though. And if I wanted to make a real fantasizing statement…maybe David would catch me if I did fall. Ha-ha! I’m just kidding.

As Michael John’s sang…”Dream On!” Anyways the picture turned out great and it will probably be made into ten million copies to hang in my office at work and at home. I’m a 25 year old grown @$$ woman and here I am looking at this guy and I’m shaking like a leaf with nervousness. I honestly don’t know what came over me. I am so grateful either way that he came back to take photos because security rushed him even more when he came out after the show and could only do autographs…but that’s a whole other story.

Here’s the rest of my photos from the afternoon’s activities:

The concert was great, compared to the Columbus Ohio show, the Cincinnati show was very loud and electrifying and I was allowed to stand up without any stuck up old mean men telling me to “sit my fat@$$ down” I got to just stand up, relax and concentrate on watching the show so it was enjoyable the second time around.

After the show, I met up with Kristen again and we went back out to the spot where we had met them before the show and we lingered around the huge crowd that had gathered. The barricades were back up which meant that they were getting ready to come back out again. There were so many people around the barricades that the closest we could get was three rows deep.

Before the show Ramiele, Carly and Syesha didn’t come out but they did after the show. It was so crowded though I couldn’t get in to get an autograph. Brooke was the only one that didn’t come out after the show because I heard she didn’t feel well.

I got stuck behind a group of older women that were talking so much gabble I felt this overwhelming need to smack them and I don’t know why. I very rarely display feelings of animosity towards people, but the more and more this one particular woman talked, the more I didn’t like her. She kept asking her friend to rip out anything that was paper-like so they could get everyone’s autographs as they walked by, so this woman’s friend was ripping out pieces of a small agenda calendar and passing it to her friend, complaining that her agenda calendar was her life and blah, blah, blah. These might be just my personal feelings, but I wouldn’t give someone garbage to sign, if I don’t have anything I don’t have anything, or I compromise and have them start signing my shirt or jeans. Something classy, but if these women had a rotten hot dog wrapper they pulled out of the trashcan in their purse and that was all they had left, they would have given it to the Idols to sign. They irked me!

Ramiele was so short; I barely saw her walk by. I didn’t get to see Syesha before the show, so when she walked by I lifted my camera high in the air and blindly took a picture to see her. She was gorgeous as always. The older women I guess couldn’t see her then one of the women stated,
“She’s over there, I can see her afro!” They were annoying and ignorant, what a great combo for me to dislike them even more, they were on a roll.

While all this was going on, I didn’t bother to throw anything over the crowd to get the remaining autographs of the idols I needed to complete my “collection”. There were so many people shoving things in their face, I felt bad and didn’t want to add to the circus.

There was this cute little girl that had a Kristy Lee Cook sign, she looked like she genuinely adored her and when Kristy Lee came by she tried so hard to get her sign autographed. By this time, I had met back up with Kristen, the girl I met before the show and helped take my photos with all the idols that came out. The little girl lifted her sign above our heads and Kristen helped the sign towards the front, right in front of Kristy. Kristy looked like she recognized the sign from the show and she autographed it, she then turned to one of the guards and grabbed a hat, already autographed and sent it back with the sign to the little girl. Kristy Lee said to the girl,

“Thank you so much!” and it was genuine and sweet. This little girl was so ecstatic! It was cute to see, and then she comes up and stands behind me and jumps up and down,

“Did you get your horse back?” she yells.

At this point I think the crowd noise was overwhelming and Kristy didn’t hear her, but it didn’t seem to bother the little girl too much because she walked away excited that she got the autograph of her favorite idol.

Michael Johns came by, and he was talking so much. I loved it! I tried very hard to get video of him signing autographs because he was talking and with his accent, it sounded so charming. Someone passed up a check for him to sign and Michael goes,

“I thought you were giving me money I was going to get excited!”

By this time everyone but David Cook had come out, the crowd had cleared out a bit; I think everyone assumed that Cook wasn’t going to come out due to a possible mob breaking out. A little girl’s parents had decided to move out of the way and the Dad could see that I was trying to take their spot. He moves out of my way and saves his spot for me and I squeeze in. I was against the railing and was wide open to meet David Cook again. Only the supposed “Dad” that let me have his spot was standing behind me, uncomfortably close and practically breathing down my neck. I was getting a little grossed out and feeling dirty. He was looking at me with this funny smile and I think I felt myself vomit in my mouth. Oh Lord! I pushed the thought of this man being too close to me and tried to tell myself,

“I want to see David Cook again; I want to see David Cook again.”

The “Dad” eventually backed off a bit; either that or I stopped paying attention once Cook got closer. This time I had my concert photos from the Columbus concert ready to sign, and then I realized that if he signed it, the marker would blend with the black background of the photo I had and I wouldn’t be able to see it. I had to turn the photo over so the blank white side was showing.

He gets closer to me and security comes up to him to let him know he needs to hurry up, in an angry voice he tells the security guards,

“I’m trying to sign things,” Or something to that effect. All I know is that he was mad that security was rushing him, which actually made me respect him even more (by now, the respect and admiration is just drowning me) because it shows that he wanted to take the time to sign autographs for the fans.

The aforementioned “cougar” ladies that were bugging me earlier started taunting, (in my opinion) David Cook as he walked past.

“Why don’t you take off your hat so we can see your beautiful self?”

It took everything in my power not to tell these women to shut the f*** up. If David Cook doesn’t want to take off his hat, he shouldn’t have to for you. He doesn’t live to make you happy and he’s doing us all a favor by coming out and signing autographs when he really doesn’t have to so don’t taunt him.

Yeah…I was a little aggravated with them.

Once he was done and getting ready to go back inside someone yelled “You Suck!” really loud and he heard it. I felt really bad that someone could be that shallow, but David took it in stride and just shrugged his shoulders in a “Well I can’t please everyone” look and continued back into the arena.

My concert and after show meeting photos:

All in all, I was at the arena until midnight, I had a long, dark, boring, tiring 2 hour drive back to Columbus Ohio but I swilled down another Sugar Free Rockstar Energy Drink (I keep extra cans in reserve) and held the urge to pee after the fact. I was by myself; I probably would have pee’d in a bag before stopping at a gas station at 1AM.

My first solo trip out of town turned out better than I had ever expected. I also came to the realization that I can be an independent woman and do things like this on my own if it’s necessary. I did however meet a great new friend in Kristen and hopefully once the tour comes back around to Ohio I can drag her with me, if not…screw it…I’m an independent woman now, at this point, I feel like I can do anything.