July 14,
Meet and Greet fever is escalating….people are getting the “Call” and eeeeeeeing all over the place. Kudo’s to the fan who reminded the caller she should check to be sure the person being called was not driving down the road – this could be dangerous. Clay fans could be crashing into fences all over the place. Just thudding away out there…

Here’s my Clay story………

While I watched AI and rooted for Clay from the minute I saw him, I pouted and complained a bit when he “lost” – but proceeded to get on with my life. My DIL, who was very pregnant in August of 2003 purchased a couple of tickets to the AI concert for my birthday and we went to the Arco Arena and I watched with amazement the swelling of enthusiasm every time Clay came out or he was mentioned. Well, actually, I stomped and hollered myself….a little bit, well a LOT. It was great fun and I realized how much I had missed hearing this guy sing on my TV every week.

Fast forward to October and the release of MOAM. I bought it the first day and didn’t listen to it immediately as I was going on a book sale/camping excursion to the Coast (I lived in California at that time) and I wanted to play it when I was away from civilization. Strange, I know….but, I’m like that. If I have been eagerly anticipating something, I tend to savor the actual moment. The first place I stayed was in Sonoma County, in the wine country – as it was after Labor Day the place was deserted and I had the whole, beautiful, campground to myself. It was a beautiful fall evening and I started a fire, poured a glass of wine got out my boom box, freshly loaded with a brand new set of batteries and let it rip. My first reaction was mixed…a kinda, what the heck was that combined with an immediate liking for some songs. I played it repeatedly, full blast. Who’s to complain? The birds? The squirrels?

I played it in the car on the way to the next book sale down in Santa Rosa….and all the way home. The rest is history. I still love MOAM and it’s in my car player and I hear it in rotation all the time. Upon returning home, I found the message boards while searching for information….who knew?? I have been an internet freak since it arrived on the scene, but message boards were never of interest to me.

Now, back to meet and greets. I insisted, from day one that I would not be interested in a meet and greet, nor would I be one of those weird people hanging around for a sighting when Clay come out of the venue to get on the bus. It also did not occur to me that I would want to be traveling all over the country following this guy around like some aged Dead Head. I was very adamant about this!! No way, I was an Adult!!!

But here we go, my friends and family “enabled” me to attend a coughcough bunch(lot) coughcough of concerts last year….in Grand Prairie I met up with a group of gals who were headed out to the buses and stood at the back of the cyclone fenced yard behind the venue for hours waiting for Clay to come out. Most of the fans congregated at the gate to the enclosed area, but my group, as well as some others, had gone out the wrong door and walked around from the other side and stopped where we could see the buses clearly and the back entrance to the venue. We didn’t go all the way around to the gate as there were hoards of people there and we could see the activity at the buses. I do not believe those at the gate could see much because of the buses blocking their view. The dozen or so of us that came that way stayed to watch the action, we talked to the guard, we watched Nick bring Raleigh out for a walk. Finally, out comes Clay….and I believe it was because we were such a small group, we thought he was just going to get on the bus but all of a sudden he heads directly our way. I believe someone moaned, “OMG, he’s coming over”…what, you think that was me? He came along the cyclone fence and touched our hands through gaps and thanked us for coming…it was all a blur. I also touched his hand briefly in Raleigh and was there in El Cajon at the buses after the last concert.

So now I am carrying my cell phone around 24/7 and hanging up on anyone I am talking to if I get a call waiting beep. Why? I guess I really do want that meet and greet, after all.

It’s amazing how much fun I am having !!!!