A Surprise
Sep. 13th, 2010 12:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pyrosgfThe first time I saw Adam on Idol I knew the world had changed. A beautiful, fierce, 'theatrical' man had made it onto the show and that set an enormous ball rolling.
However, I never dreamed how much MY world would change because of him. I had lost my job in January just before Idol started and followed the whole season. Due to money constraints I didn't think I would be able to see the Idols Live Tour and up until then I'd never been to a concert at a proper venue, always bars or local GA venues.
Late one night about two weeks before the tour was supposed to make its way into North Carolina on a whim I pulled up ticketzoom.com and searched for tickets for the show. I found a second row ticket and immediately became enamored with the idea of going. I fretted over it until for some reason my step dad (I moved back home b/c I had a feeling I was going to lose my job.) got up and I talked to him about it.
I'd been helping out with bills and groceries with my unemployment, I've always helped my mom when I could, and my step dad knew I was never one to be frivolous. And let me tell you the price of that ticket gave a new meaning to frivolous to me. Up until that point the most I'd ever paid for a ticket for a show was about $40. I fretted over it and told him the prices, the logistics of it etc... since I don't drive and he'd have to take me. His response was 'you never do anything for yourself, buy the ticket and we'll work it out.'
$176 later I was going to my first big concert. The Idols Live Tour was a huge production. I being the crazy person I am had to make a sign for the event and spent the next two weeks getting together ideas and supplies. 17.5 hours later I had a monster-sized poster to commemorate the event that I was going to get the Idols to sign. As luck would have it, I got everyone's autograph in Greensboro, but Adam. I was a tad disappointed, but seeing him up close like that was something that I wouldn't have changed for the world. I was sure I had just seen a supernova streaking through the night.
Fast-forward to November and the album release. I pre-ordered Adam's album and received it the Saturday before the AMAs. Now by this point his album had been streamed and such everywhere, but I waited. I have this thing about breaking open a brand new CD, putting on some headphones, and the mere joy of stuffing it into my CD player for the first time is a whole event for me. I'll be honest I was really confused after the first listen. I loved some of the tracks and didn't care for several of the others. I've warmed up to most of them now except Loaded Smile and it still makes me feel like I've been sucker-punched and I still only like Soaked live.
But then, then I was immediately pulled in by Aftermath. I quickly discovered I seemed to be one of the few, but Aftermath made me feel things I hadn't felt in a long time. Aftermath was and still is my favorite song on the album; it takes me back to the time just after my grandmother died. I was 15 and had just watched for the previous nine months as she disintegrated in front of me. I felt like a zombie, like nothing was real, everything was muted. Then during the months after finally came out of it with the support of my family. I always said the day my grandma told me she was dying in my head I saw my world on fire, walls crashing around me, Aftermath projected that image again, but with me walking out of the ashes. 'You are not alone in the aftermath.' I will eventually have that tattooed. It was healing.
By that point Adam had changed my life, and through livejournal and twitter with his amazing fans I would be changed again. Adam says it doesn't mean anything unless you're connected. I didn't realize how true that was until I met some of these people. I've always been a loner, a hermit, and I came from the WWE fandom where I'd been for over 10 years and had never made more than a couple acquaintances. With Adam's fans I felt like I had gained a family. People who called me when life got them down and they needed a friend, people I could call when everything seemed to be going wrong, through Adam and through his fans I finally felt like I'd found somewhere I belonged.
Through the months a lot of tweets and phone calls were spent flailing over whatever TV appearance Adam had made or whatever concert he'd done until they started announcing dates for the GlamNation tour. I was holding my breath that they would have a show in North Carolina and when the Charlotte date was announced, fate would grab me by her pretty little hand and thrust me into a chain of events I would never have imagined.
My unemployment ran out just before the July 2nd Charlotte date, everything seemed to be going wrong, our car wouldn't make it to Charlotte and I couldn't afford a rental. I however had a ticket. A ticket that was both a blessing and the burning ember in my pocket I wanted to get rid of. By this point I had developed quite the case of social anxiety, being out of work and having few local friends led me to spending the majority of my days behind my computer.
I'd bought a VIP ticket for The Fillmore and everyday for a couple weeks prior to the show I contemplated selling it. I didn't, and not for the reasons you might expect. I'd seen Adam last year, and now I wanted to see Tommy. No I don't stan Tommy over Adam, but I had to know if that boy was as pretty in person as he was on TV/youtube vids/ and in pics.
Thank the gods I didn't sell that ticket.
Got to the venue at two, and met Maggie whom I’d met through twitter because of Cassidy Haley. She hugged me and gave me her number in case I needed anything and so began the long wait until the show. I shook like a leaf the entire day but once the band started coming out to sign at the buses I started talking to other fans and what do you know I was actually social.
From the left Katie, Danielle, Rose, Debbie, and me. Danielle, Debbie, and Rose I would end up seeing again.
The show was amazing, even though I was really dehydrated, and actually very nearly fainted a couple of times during the show. After the show the band signed again, I got to meet and hug Tommy, and then stumbled very drunkenly even though I’d had no alcohol back to the car.
Now remember what I said about fate throwing an interesting chain of events in motion? Yeah, I’m still not even sure I believe it. I’d known about the Raleigh show but had resigned myself to the fact I wouldn’t be able to go. My unemployment had ran out, our car was on the fritz, and there was no way I could count on the friend that had ran down to Charlotte with me to go to Raleigh, it was just too far. Man though, after ending up standing second row in a general admission setting, so close I could see Adam’s toe nail polish, I wanted to go so bad I couldn’t stand it.
In comes twitter. I was talking about how much I wished I could go to the show and got a DM from a friend I’d met in Charlotte with the offer to buy me a ticket to the Raleigh show if I could find a way there. Okay yeah surely there was no way in hell that would work out. Again talking about it on twitter, not being able to find away there, another DM. A lady who was at the Charlotte show that I hadn’t met who lived about an hour from me was offering a ride and a hotel for the night if we stayed if I could meet her in her town. Holy cow. Needless to say by this point I felt like the luckiest person ever. I am forever surprised by the generosity of others in this fandom.
I was set and I thought that was it until August 24th, the Tuesday before the show I saw a tweet come across my feed about a radio station having a contest for tickets and m&g passes for Adam’s Raleigh appearance on Saturday. The contest would start Wednesday morning. Of course the one day I had plans and had to be away from my computer. That night I was on the phone with my friend Kirsten in Canada until 4:30 in the morning, slept and got back up at 7:30am and left the house for what should have been nearly an all morning activity. We got to the place and discovered that we weren’t going to be able to move the stuff we were supposed to, so we went by the bank, got breakfast from Bojanges and got home at about 10am. Needless to say I was really kinda sleeping sitting up by this point, but in the back of my mind I knew they were having this contest on Facebook so I logged on to check and see if anything had happened yet and it hadn’t. The DJ announced the first question for the contest would be asked at 11:10am. It was 11am by this time so I figured I would stay up and try once just to say I had, then I’d go to bed because there was no way I’d win. I never win anything.
11:10am rolls around, I refresh their Facebook page and up pops ‘what is Adam’s brother’s name?’ Heh, I was thinking it might be something hard, anyway I typed in the answer hit send and refreshed to see it looked like my answer was first. Yeah that surely was a mistake, refresh, nope still the same and then the DJ replies to the thread with ‘congrats Staci’ and I almost peed myself. They sent me a message on Facebook with their number so I could call and get the information. They wanted me to pick up tickets in New Bern by 5pm on Friday. I was like yeah umm I have a ticket, do I need to pick up m&g passes there? They were at will call thank everything that was holy and then came my meltdown. Many tweets, lots of private flail with my friend Scorp on IM, lots of tears and omg I never thought I would be one to cry over something like that.
Too little sleep I guess and I was very emotional because I was finally going to get the chance to thank Adam for the friends I’d made and tell him because of him I knew how it felt to save a life. Yeah three hours of flailing, crying, and freaking out later and I finally lay down and slept. Albeit it was only for a couple hours, but it made the world of difference. That evening I called the lady who was giving me a ride to Raleigh to offer her the other m&g pass since I couldn’t afford to help her with gas or anything. She declined because she couldn’t go without her daughter and her daughter wouldn’t go without her mom. So by this point I knew the friend who’d bought me the ticket was going so I called her, forgetting she was in California and she was still at work. That’s okay though, we talked long enough to let her know that I wanted her to come to the m&g with me and made plans to meet up on Saturday.
August 28th 2010, best day ever! I posted my detailed recap, but I’ll include a few things here. I love Adam fans. Raleigh was a seated venue, but I still spent most of the day at the venue hanging out with my friends from Charlotte, Rose, Morgan, Danielle, and Debbie were all there. We had a blast catching up, took pictures and generally made memories.
The last pic was taken inside the venue before the m&g. I was so nervous. My friend that went to the m&g was awesome and took pics during the m&g for me, and as a thank you to me for taking her had bought me a pit seat second row on Tommy’s side.
Then this happened:
After the m&g I gave my other ticket to Maggie and she went up to the very back of the balcony and found a girl who was there alone and gave my original ticket to her, it was a 6 row ticket on the left side first section after the pit.
The show itself was amazing, and I’ll also say that because of Adam I met someone who’s become a very special part of my life.
If you’ve made it through this whole thing, bless you, and may all your dreams come true, because in the past year mine have.
However, I never dreamed how much MY world would change because of him. I had lost my job in January just before Idol started and followed the whole season. Due to money constraints I didn't think I would be able to see the Idols Live Tour and up until then I'd never been to a concert at a proper venue, always bars or local GA venues.
Late one night about two weeks before the tour was supposed to make its way into North Carolina on a whim I pulled up ticketzoom.com and searched for tickets for the show. I found a second row ticket and immediately became enamored with the idea of going. I fretted over it until for some reason my step dad (I moved back home b/c I had a feeling I was going to lose my job.) got up and I talked to him about it.
I'd been helping out with bills and groceries with my unemployment, I've always helped my mom when I could, and my step dad knew I was never one to be frivolous. And let me tell you the price of that ticket gave a new meaning to frivolous to me. Up until that point the most I'd ever paid for a ticket for a show was about $40. I fretted over it and told him the prices, the logistics of it etc... since I don't drive and he'd have to take me. His response was 'you never do anything for yourself, buy the ticket and we'll work it out.'
$176 later I was going to my first big concert. The Idols Live Tour was a huge production. I being the crazy person I am had to make a sign for the event and spent the next two weeks getting together ideas and supplies. 17.5 hours later I had a monster-sized poster to commemorate the event that I was going to get the Idols to sign. As luck would have it, I got everyone's autograph in Greensboro, but Adam. I was a tad disappointed, but seeing him up close like that was something that I wouldn't have changed for the world. I was sure I had just seen a supernova streaking through the night.
Fast-forward to November and the album release. I pre-ordered Adam's album and received it the Saturday before the AMAs. Now by this point his album had been streamed and such everywhere, but I waited. I have this thing about breaking open a brand new CD, putting on some headphones, and the mere joy of stuffing it into my CD player for the first time is a whole event for me. I'll be honest I was really confused after the first listen. I loved some of the tracks and didn't care for several of the others. I've warmed up to most of them now except Loaded Smile and it still makes me feel like I've been sucker-punched and I still only like Soaked live.
But then, then I was immediately pulled in by Aftermath. I quickly discovered I seemed to be one of the few, but Aftermath made me feel things I hadn't felt in a long time. Aftermath was and still is my favorite song on the album; it takes me back to the time just after my grandmother died. I was 15 and had just watched for the previous nine months as she disintegrated in front of me. I felt like a zombie, like nothing was real, everything was muted. Then during the months after finally came out of it with the support of my family. I always said the day my grandma told me she was dying in my head I saw my world on fire, walls crashing around me, Aftermath projected that image again, but with me walking out of the ashes. 'You are not alone in the aftermath.' I will eventually have that tattooed. It was healing.
By that point Adam had changed my life, and through livejournal and twitter with his amazing fans I would be changed again. Adam says it doesn't mean anything unless you're connected. I didn't realize how true that was until I met some of these people. I've always been a loner, a hermit, and I came from the WWE fandom where I'd been for over 10 years and had never made more than a couple acquaintances. With Adam's fans I felt like I had gained a family. People who called me when life got them down and they needed a friend, people I could call when everything seemed to be going wrong, through Adam and through his fans I finally felt like I'd found somewhere I belonged.
Through the months a lot of tweets and phone calls were spent flailing over whatever TV appearance Adam had made or whatever concert he'd done until they started announcing dates for the GlamNation tour. I was holding my breath that they would have a show in North Carolina and when the Charlotte date was announced, fate would grab me by her pretty little hand and thrust me into a chain of events I would never have imagined.
My unemployment ran out just before the July 2nd Charlotte date, everything seemed to be going wrong, our car wouldn't make it to Charlotte and I couldn't afford a rental. I however had a ticket. A ticket that was both a blessing and the burning ember in my pocket I wanted to get rid of. By this point I had developed quite the case of social anxiety, being out of work and having few local friends led me to spending the majority of my days behind my computer.
I'd bought a VIP ticket for The Fillmore and everyday for a couple weeks prior to the show I contemplated selling it. I didn't, and not for the reasons you might expect. I'd seen Adam last year, and now I wanted to see Tommy. No I don't stan Tommy over Adam, but I had to know if that boy was as pretty in person as he was on TV/youtube vids/ and in pics.
Thank the gods I didn't sell that ticket.
Got to the venue at two, and met Maggie whom I’d met through twitter because of Cassidy Haley. She hugged me and gave me her number in case I needed anything and so began the long wait until the show. I shook like a leaf the entire day but once the band started coming out to sign at the buses I started talking to other fans and what do you know I was actually social.
From the left Katie, Danielle, Rose, Debbie, and me. Danielle, Debbie, and Rose I would end up seeing again.
The show was amazing, even though I was really dehydrated, and actually very nearly fainted a couple of times during the show. After the show the band signed again, I got to meet and hug Tommy, and then stumbled very drunkenly even though I’d had no alcohol back to the car.
Now remember what I said about fate throwing an interesting chain of events in motion? Yeah, I’m still not even sure I believe it. I’d known about the Raleigh show but had resigned myself to the fact I wouldn’t be able to go. My unemployment had ran out, our car was on the fritz, and there was no way I could count on the friend that had ran down to Charlotte with me to go to Raleigh, it was just too far. Man though, after ending up standing second row in a general admission setting, so close I could see Adam’s toe nail polish, I wanted to go so bad I couldn’t stand it.
In comes twitter. I was talking about how much I wished I could go to the show and got a DM from a friend I’d met in Charlotte with the offer to buy me a ticket to the Raleigh show if I could find a way there. Okay yeah surely there was no way in hell that would work out. Again talking about it on twitter, not being able to find away there, another DM. A lady who was at the Charlotte show that I hadn’t met who lived about an hour from me was offering a ride and a hotel for the night if we stayed if I could meet her in her town. Holy cow. Needless to say by this point I felt like the luckiest person ever. I am forever surprised by the generosity of others in this fandom.
I was set and I thought that was it until August 24th, the Tuesday before the show I saw a tweet come across my feed about a radio station having a contest for tickets and m&g passes for Adam’s Raleigh appearance on Saturday. The contest would start Wednesday morning. Of course the one day I had plans and had to be away from my computer. That night I was on the phone with my friend Kirsten in Canada until 4:30 in the morning, slept and got back up at 7:30am and left the house for what should have been nearly an all morning activity. We got to the place and discovered that we weren’t going to be able to move the stuff we were supposed to, so we went by the bank, got breakfast from Bojanges and got home at about 10am. Needless to say I was really kinda sleeping sitting up by this point, but in the back of my mind I knew they were having this contest on Facebook so I logged on to check and see if anything had happened yet and it hadn’t. The DJ announced the first question for the contest would be asked at 11:10am. It was 11am by this time so I figured I would stay up and try once just to say I had, then I’d go to bed because there was no way I’d win. I never win anything.
11:10am rolls around, I refresh their Facebook page and up pops ‘what is Adam’s brother’s name?’ Heh, I was thinking it might be something hard, anyway I typed in the answer hit send and refreshed to see it looked like my answer was first. Yeah that surely was a mistake, refresh, nope still the same and then the DJ replies to the thread with ‘congrats Staci’ and I almost peed myself. They sent me a message on Facebook with their number so I could call and get the information. They wanted me to pick up tickets in New Bern by 5pm on Friday. I was like yeah umm I have a ticket, do I need to pick up m&g passes there? They were at will call thank everything that was holy and then came my meltdown. Many tweets, lots of private flail with my friend Scorp on IM, lots of tears and omg I never thought I would be one to cry over something like that.
Too little sleep I guess and I was very emotional because I was finally going to get the chance to thank Adam for the friends I’d made and tell him because of him I knew how it felt to save a life. Yeah three hours of flailing, crying, and freaking out later and I finally lay down and slept. Albeit it was only for a couple hours, but it made the world of difference. That evening I called the lady who was giving me a ride to Raleigh to offer her the other m&g pass since I couldn’t afford to help her with gas or anything. She declined because she couldn’t go without her daughter and her daughter wouldn’t go without her mom. So by this point I knew the friend who’d bought me the ticket was going so I called her, forgetting she was in California and she was still at work. That’s okay though, we talked long enough to let her know that I wanted her to come to the m&g with me and made plans to meet up on Saturday.
August 28th 2010, best day ever! I posted my detailed recap, but I’ll include a few things here. I love Adam fans. Raleigh was a seated venue, but I still spent most of the day at the venue hanging out with my friends from Charlotte, Rose, Morgan, Danielle, and Debbie were all there. We had a blast catching up, took pictures and generally made memories.
The last pic was taken inside the venue before the m&g. I was so nervous. My friend that went to the m&g was awesome and took pics during the m&g for me, and as a thank you to me for taking her had bought me a pit seat second row on Tommy’s side.
Then this happened:
After the m&g I gave my other ticket to Maggie and she went up to the very back of the balcony and found a girl who was there alone and gave my original ticket to her, it was a 6 row ticket on the left side first section after the pit.
The show itself was amazing, and I’ll also say that because of Adam I met someone who’s become a very special part of my life.
If you’ve made it through this whole thing, bless you, and may all your dreams come true, because in the past year mine have.
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Date: 2010-09-13 08:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-09-13 08:50 pm (UTC)