Review Happiness

Our trip did not start out good. The car we were suppose to take broke down right before we left, so we ended up taking my friend's beat-down car and we ended up getting a late start to M&M's apartment. Plus, Moonbeam accidentally gave us some wrong directions with the wrong exit. Oh well.

Even worse, on the way, the cops pulled us over! Tig-Tig was speeding, and we got pulled over. Eek! He wanted my ID along with hers for some odd reason and checked what was in our cooler. *still can't believe he wanted my I.D. even if I was just a backseat passenger.

We finally got to M&M's apartment about 6:30 p.m. Crap! Moonbeam quickly served us dinner and we ate while on the drive to Iowa City in her car. We sped over to the show and were about 15 minutes late! We came in during Melanie! I'll blame the opening act. It's his entire fault. He never showed up, so Al had to start earlier than planned. Grrrr.

I feel so horrible for all of us being that late, but I'll stick with blaming the opening comedian and bad luck earlier in the morning. I'm such a bad Al fan.

The venue is very nice though. I loved it. It's a gorgeous theater like you would expect any play to be at, except we got Al. I loved the theater.

I guess Al must've felt bad for me. Him and Steve definitely noticed when three girls (Tig, Daph, and I) got to our front row seats right in front of Steve. Tig, Daph, and I were front row on the right side. That's all the front row for the right side had was three seats. Though, once we were there, it was all gooood.

Steve got a new bass, so now he has red lights along it and he can see what he's doing much better.

Al sang to me during WBUL. He came down those steps and was maybe a foot in front of me and singing right to me, "You're so hot, you're gonna melt the elastic in my underwear." I somehow managed not to lose my composure (accordion to Tig and Daph, I did anyway,) and without missing a beat, singing those lines right along with me, staring into those brown eyes.

Moonbeam had to remind me which line he sang to me or else AIH got in the way.

Al had a lot of fun with the ladies during OMM and WBUL. I do mean a lot of fun. Many of the women just didn't stare at him, glaring, they enjoyed it and laughed! Tig shook her head, but loved it that I got sang to. Daph could do nothing but laugh during WBUL. She wanted to sing, but all she could do was laugh.

I did a lot of waving to Steve again during the night. He kept waving back and smiling, posing. People found it interesting with the interaction between Steve and I. I loved it.

Al sang to me so many times that night again. Katie is right, I'm an Al magnet. I can't remember half of what he sang to me. I know he did during Pentiums and SLN. *happy sigh* Every time he came really close to me, singing right to me, I couldn't get my camera up and take a picture. Heck no, I'm not breaking eye contact to focus my camera!

I remember Tig laughing hard at the band aid/tape on Al's cheek for Trash Day. Tig and Daph both loved the Avril Lavigne interview and the Eminem one.

I noticed Al flubbed a line during MFN. He forgot the Hillbillies at the very end and just dragged out Beverly.

Tig laughed so hard at Free Delivery and EBay and Ode to a Superhero. She loved those. She use to deliver for a pizza place, has been eBay crazy lately, and loved the Spiderman joke. She commented she was going to kill me later.

Unlike Akron, he "forgot" the verse during SLN again. I started screaming the lyrics when he did that. The cheerleaders were horrible during SLN. One kinda had it down, but the other would watch her and "attempt" to follow along. I gave up paying any attention to them and just focused on Al. Al had a lot of fun throwing his water on the people in the center section.

Steve threw up his bass at the end of SLN when Al collapses. He almost dropped it, catching it.

During the show, a little four year old kid in front row, center, obviously couldn't sit still, so he danced through out the entire show. It was cute.

Lights almost blinded us during Pentiums and CP.

I scared people again with doing the Yoda Chant. Oh boy. People were watching me doing it right along with Al and the band.

At the end of the Yoda Chant while he and the band were waving goodbye; Al pointed right at me at the end.

Oh yes, Tig said that her favorite song was OMM and couldn't believe WBUL. Daph says her favorites are Pentiums and WBUL. She absolutely adored those.

After that, a guy came up to me and went, "You have to be the biggest fan I've ever known! You know all the words, even the incoherent ones." I just beamed at him and smiled. "I only own half of his albums." I smiled again and went, "Yeah, I own all of the albums and much more." He figured that much.

We got some merchandise after the show. Tig and Daph forgot their stuff in the car, so I got their merchandise for them, knowing I'll be paid back immediately. Plus, I got Ali's bucket hat and myself one. It was very hard to decide what I wanted. I was going to get another tour shirt so it would have the Iowa City show on the back, but I didn't have enough money. They had all of the merchandise that was available. That's never happened to me before. I also bought my dad a father's day present. Ssshhh. Dad doesn't know. He's been insisting I get the stuff for myself, but he's been wanting a CP shirt. He doesn't know I got it and he won't get it till June. Muahaha.

Then we went outside to wait. Steve came out for a smoke, while he did that, Daph and I ran back to the car to search for my cd divider that I got from Wal-Mart last year. We didn't find it though. Turned out it was in my folder in Tig and Daph's car. Oops. Oh well. I've just been stalking for Al to sign it.

Steve came out again soon after that. The crowd suddenly swarmed him, but we waited around him. We finally got out way in and talked to him, having him sign our stuff, and had a nice group picture with him. It was really cool. Steve had to bend down again for us. I told him that I was the one who kept waving to him during the show and at KC. I had my new bucket hat on my head now, so he bent down, kinda tipped my hat up so he could see my face and went, "Oh, I remember you!" with a smile. Neee. It was amusing with the way he did it.

He talked a while with Megan's parents (Megan couldn't attend the show) about the titles of his own songs and such. Really cool. He signed Megan's dad WAY LP and joked to sign it where his hand ended up being after a four hour photo shoot that day.

After an hour or so, someone came out and said we could go inside and see Al! Hurrah! Ding-Ding! Daph shoved me into the entrance and followed the people upstairs. Turned out to be the wrong level and Tig yelled at the people to go back down, after a few more times yelling it, they listened and we found out way to where it was. We got lined up and Skip yelled the rules.

1) 1 autograph
2) No life stories.
3) No posed pictures.

The guy behind us in the line was very nice to talk to. I asked him how long he's been a fan and he went, "20 years." Daph joked that he's been a fan longer than I've been alive. Very true! Then we found out I've been to more shows. He found it odd that he's been a fan longer than I've been alive and I've been to more shows. He was very nice to talk to. Wish I knew his name.

I scared a lot of the people in line around me when I mentioned this was my 8th show and that I've met him 4 times before, and baked him some cookies and stuff. Psycho fan girl on the loose.

The guy in front of us wanted Al to sign his arm and told Al he was getting it tattooed. I commented he was trying to be the next Elvis. Al said to him, "I don't encourage this type of stuff."

My turn!

I came up to Al, actually composed and not really that nervous. "Hi, Al!" I said while shaking his hand.

Al smiled at me, "Hi, CindyBob!" He remembers me again! Hurrah! *happy sigh*

Accordion to Daph, when everyone heard Al call me by name, they all went silent and had the oddest look on their face. All because Al knew who I was. Hehe.

I gave Al a bag of cookies I made for him. His eyes lit up and he rubbed them against his face! LOL! He said thank you.

I then gave him a stuffed bunny I got for Nina. He smiled and went, "Oh, thanks, she'll like that."

I had him sign my drumstick and told him that I got it from Bermuda 2 years ago at the OC fair. While I was talking to him I said, "Oh, these two are my friends!" while pointing to them. He waved at them and said, "Hi, friends!"

I asked for my mandatory hug. He stood up and hugged me (Woo-hoo!) while the crowd behind us went, "Awww!" The picture Tig took while we were hugging didn't turn out. Oh well. I got my hug.

Daph got her ticket stub autographed that Steve also signed. Tig went up next and had him sign her new tour shirt. I commented that he should personalize it and Tig asked if he could put her name there. She spelled it for him and he went, "Pretty name." Tig said thank you and asked if he could say it. He said it right and Tig was so happy. "You rock! Thank you! So many people say my name wrong."

We went out and suddenly Jim came out quickly. He almost disappeared but Daph yelled, "Jim! Jim! Jim!" He came back out again and signed out stuff. Yay. I told him also that I got the drumstick from Bermuda two years ago at OC. He said it looked to be in bad condition. I got it that way, Jim. One of my friends commented that I had almost all of their signatures except for Bermuda, the drummer, while I was getting the drumstick signed. He said that Jon already was on the bus, but would try to get him out and told us just to wait a few minutes. Though, right after Jim went in, an evil security guard kicked us off the property! How rude! He was very rude about it. Darn you! Grrrr!

I did find the nice guy that was behind us in the autograph line, leaving, saying bye to us. I ran up to him and told him about the star fund though.

We got back to the apartment about 1:30 am or so, but I didn't fall asleep until 3 am or so. I woke back up at 6am, so much for getting a lot of sleep. We got some quick breakfast and left M&M at 8am and got home about 1pm.

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