I've got several friends now who are mostly reading over here, so I am trying to remember to post things at DW, too. Here are the posts I made about my epic Adam Adventures in Atlanta this week:
The first night was absolutely beyond amazing. I will try to go in some semblance of order, but I'm not sure how successful I'll be :)
And oh, look here's me starting with the end already. Forget saving the best for last.
This, right here, looking gorgeous, is Adam Lambert. And the side of my head. Moments after I got to look him in the eye and thank him from the bottom of my heart for never apologizing. I was referring to the AMAs, of course, but also to the way he never apologizes for anything he is, or anything he loves or believes or feels. It's something I've wished I could say to him since last November, and I never thought I'd get the chance. I'm so glad I was wrong.
I've been feeling torn about trying to go to the buses. I don't like pushy crowds, and I've had a tendency to get unreasonably nervous around celebrities in the past, and I wasn't sure it was for me. But then I remembered that this summer has been all about doing things I don't usually do and saying yes to things I usually say no to. And it's been about finding ways to facilitate that. So yesterday I sent a DM to
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bentrumors, one of the women on my twitter feed, who I knew was going to the concert, and who had always seemed lovely, and had been to many shows and gone to the buses lots. I asked her if she'd be willing to be my bus guide. And she was awesome enough to say yes :D
The trouble was that I managed to eat nothing at all Tuesday except a small fast-food grilled chicken sandwich. At noon. Stupid me.
dauntdraws had eaten both a later and larger lunch, but she was hungry, too. So as we were leaving the show, we decided to skip the bus thing and just go find some food. But then, as we were walking to the car, we passed a side street with a small crowd and the band bus right there. I asked if daunt minded if we went to check it out, and because she is made of ten billion kinds of awesome, she said she didn't mind at all. As we approached, I saw someone who I thought might be
bentrumors (it's not always easy to recognize people from their tiny twitter avatars). I figured the worst that could happen is that she would look at me like I was a little bit nuts, so I went up and asked her. She was!
True to her word, she totally talked me through what the procedure would probably be, and she loaned me her Allison Iraheta CD as a writing surface so Adam could sign my ticket (as I had brought nothing else for him to sign, not thinking I would do that thing), and she kept talking with me so I wouldn't pass out from hunger or nerves. Daunt, mindful that there were people there much more eager to get within touching distance of Adam than she was, went to the back of the crowd and entertained herself with her iPhone. Have I mentioned that she is ten billion kinds of awesome yet? Because she SO IS.
We saw Tommy and Monte for a few brief seconds as they came out to get on the band bus, and saw Neil carrying pizza and glaring at the people screaming at him (fans know he doesn't like to be called out to, so some of them make a point to do it in the most obnoxious way possible), and saw Cam looking all willowy and gorgeous, and we waited for Adam. And waited. And were fascinated by the security guard who wanted to see all the pictures people had brought to get signed, and who was getting people's emails so he could email them the pictures and video he and another guard had taken in the venue.
Finally, after about an hour, security beefed up and Adam's bodyguard gave us a lecture about not rushing at Adam or he'd turn him around and take him right back in. There were no barriers. We were between the band bus and the loading dock of the building which had the Adam/dancers bus parked inside, so we made a square: building, crowd, bus, crowd. I'd managed to get a spot with the bus at my back and no one in front of me, so I had very few people actually around me, which was perfect as far as I was concerned.
Adam came out and started with our side of the crowd. He was traveling down the row, being lovely about signing stuff as far back in the crowd as he and they could reach, and as he got closer I was just staring at his gorgeous face and the way his arms were so toned and scattered with glitter and freckles, and I had a moment of worrying that I would just gape dumbly at him, but then I reminded myself that I wanted to say thank you, so I ran over the words in my head, and then he was there, reaching for my ticket/cd and I felt almost totally calm.
bentrumors had told me to look him in the eye and smile, and I'm so glad she did, because it's easier to remember words you've just heard than the stuff you know sometimes. It wasn't hard at all to look at him and smile, and I said, "Thank you
so much for never apologizing."
His face lit up when he realized I wasn't just thanking him for signing my ticket, and he looked me right in the eye and said, "You're welcome, honey." (or possibly some other endearment. I honestly started to haze out a bit then. His eyes are so blue and so gorgeous, and there was that whole no food for almost 12 hours thing, and his fingers were almost brushing mine where we both held on to the CD case, and yeah.)
And then he moved on to the next person, and I got (or possibly snatched?) my camera back from
bentrumors and took a few more pictures of him walking down the line, and then Sasha came out to watch, and I moved to where I could get her picture, and I watched her for a while, and wow, she is infinitely hotter in person, too, and then Adam and Sasha and the body guards disappeared back up to the bus, and the cops moved us so the buses could leave without running any of us over.
And I hugged
bentrumors and found Daunt, and we headed for the car again. And went and got pizza and came home and flailed and grinned and stuffed our faces.
( I'll cut this now, because I'm going back to the beginning and it's only going to get longer *g* )And now we're back to where we started, walking out of the theater. Where the fourth stranger of the night told me I was beautiful. He also refused to believe I was as old as 32 (he was asking about my tattoo and that's how old I was when I got it) which is pretty awesome, considering I'm six years older than that. It was all very flattering.
I didn't think anything could be better than the first night, but the Tabernacle show was completely epic. The two show experiences are now merged in my head, making one absolutely amazing whirlwind.
Wednesday's show was general admission, so
dauntdraws came home from work early so we could go and queue. We got ourselves all glammed up, grabbed some taco bell and headed downtown, getting there about 3:30. I was totally relaxed about it, knowing that we'd have a fabulous time no matter what, but that was actually a totally perfect time to get there. Most of the people in line already had been there all day, and we were some o the first of the second wave. We got a spot just on the corner, under a tree, with little corners of concrete to sit on even.
bentrumors arrived about fifteen minutes later and joined us. By four, people were starting to line up in earnest, so we were just in time. We had a great time in line chatting and telling stories and getting to know each other, and managed to avoid the women who were going around literally throwing craft glitter on people. I don't mind some sparkle, but I want body glitter, please, if I'm having it. Craft glitter is sharp!
About six o'clock they compressed the line so we filled the sidewalk instead of being single file, which moved us up to parallel with the buses in the parking lot. About five minutes later a girl called out, "Tommy's here," to her friend.
bentrumors and I left daunt in the queue and went over. She'd been wanting a picture with Tommy her whole touring summer and never got one, and I was not going to pass up the opportunity! There were only about ten girls over there, which was nice because he wasn't getting mobbed. I have absolutely no idea what happened to me, but my brain went into this weird autopilot thing, and I walked right up to him and held out my hand to shake and said, "Hi, Tommy," and introduced myself, and then asked if he'd mind taking a picture with me. I failed completely to register what it felt like to shake his hand (and I LOVE his hands so much), or what he said other than that it was agreeing to the picture, and I forgot I had my sunglasses on my head, and my handbag over my shoulder... Seriously, utter brain death. I did get two good pictures out of it, though.
And then proceeded to make a TOTAL FOOL out of myself trying to figure out how to take pictures of
bentrumors with her iPhone. idek what I was babbling. I managed to get it to work in the end, though. And then other people wanted pictures, and we left. It was very surreal. By the time we got the 50 yards back to the queue, I was shaking and sweating and flailing. And then I had to call
amazonziti and leave her an insane voice mail, which she possibly couldn't even hear because I was whispering because I didn't want the other people in the queue to know how much I was freaking out.
Tommy is gorgeous in pictures, but the boy is EXQUISITELY beautiful in person. And SO. TINY. like, perfectly so.
Finally they let us into the venue and everyone rushed for where they wanted to sit. Daunt and I got seats all the way around the side so that we were literally right over the stage. The stairs that led backstage were right under our feet. That afforded us a strange and fascinating view. We could see the whole audience, and what was going on with all the crew. It was amazing. Absolutely amazing. The show was the best they have given. And I am not the only one who thinks so. After the show @SashaMallory tweeted: Best show ever... period.
( So much epic happened (gif heavy) )We went down to the buses afterwards, but there was a HUGE crowd, and I was actively hungry, and kind of wrung out, and so we used the time to say goodbye to
bentrumors (so sad to see her go! she's awesome, and one of the things I'm happiest about is that I've made a new friend on this trip!) and then daunt and I went to eat. At the Vortex. She failed to warn me there are HUGER THAN LIFESIZE pictures of Suicide Girls (or Suicide-Girls-esque models at any rate) above the tables. I totally had a moment before I could walk over and sit down. We had great food and then I went over and squeed with
hannab2 and her husband and friends for a bit and heard about what I missed at the buses, which was basically all the band and dancers posing for pictures with LP. I would have liked to have seen that, but I'm not sad that I missed it, because I had such a great experience the first night and in the afternoon, and the crowds were huge, and I was feeling woozy anyway.
And now, I need to shower and pack, because I go back home this afternoon/evening. I am sad to be going. I really do love Atlanta, and
dauntdraws is so awesome and so much fun. But I am so looking forward to sleeping for a really long time.
THANK YOU GLAM NATION FOR THE EPIC.
