Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Salute To The Troops

March 10 Olivia, Jen and I went to the Houston rodeo. That day was Salute to the Troops day and Rascal Flatts was performing that night. If you are keeping count you are right this was our 3rd time seeing them within a week. We are crazy lol. We arrived at the rodeo early enough to walk around the livestock show before the rodeo. One of the cows had just had a calf about 2 hrs before we had gotten there. Calf was adorable. Before the guys performed the army did an exercise and lowered the flag from the roof of Reliant Stadium. It was pretty neat watching them do what they are trained to do.

I had won a Meet & Greet with the guys from the fan club and that was scheduled for 7:30 so Jen and I waited close to where the meet & greet was to be held. Since we did this we pretty much missed the entire rodeo except for the last 30 minutes. My chair decided it wanted to try and die on me so Jen was helping me get enough power to move so I could get to the meet & greet. I was super stoked to get to see them but nervous too because a lot of the girls were tweeting Jay that I wanted a kiss from him during my meet and greet. I have wanted the guys to meet Watty since they sing his theme song but I wasn't able to tell them about his theme and their relation with Watty. We were pushed through the Meet and Greet fast. Once it was my turn I had told Jen I wanted to hug the guys, so Jen told Gary that I wanted to hug him but she had to help me. Gary told her not to worry and that they would come to me to hug me. The girls in the fan club who adore Gary say he gives the best hugs....they are so right! It felt like all my cares left me at that moment. Joe Don and Jay hugged me too but I think I was in shock when Jay hugged me because I don't remember him hugging me. I was in shock because when I got to Jay he said thanks for the tweets! HE KNEW WHO I WAS!!!! Jen helped me get situated for my picture with the guys. As I was turning around I ran over Joe Don's foot. He was so cute, he said "Don't worry its just the boot." Watty licked Gary to death and Gary stated that Watty is such a ferocious dog while laughing. I cant believe my dog loves a different Flatt than I do! After my picture was taken Jen came to get me and Joe Don and Gary grabbed her and said we need a picture with both of y'all. First words out of Jen's mouth was "Is her picture going to be deleted?" A few people have gotten their pictures deleted if they didn't go by the meet and greet rules of 1 picture per person. Joe Don made it clear that it would not happen and not to worry. To tell the truth I was a little worried they would be.

After the meet and greet we headed in to our seats. Once we got to our seats we looked over at the stage and saw Jim Riley, the drummer of Rascal Flatts, playing skip it with Gary's mic stand. We even tweeted him about that. We laughed and joked about him breaking it. Show was awesome! I can't wait till their new tour starts.


Audio on the video is choppy but I also have it on my facebook page if you wanna hear it not choppy, :).

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Road Trip from Hell...But Worth It pt 3

March 6- After only a few hours sleep Jen and I got up and packed and headed out to New Orleans. We decided to stop there because that was the halfway point and my friend V's birthday was March 7 so I wanted to surprise her. This was the only day we actually got out when we wanted too and actually we left an hour earlier than we planed. The drive back was pretty smooth. We were both exhausted but made it to New Orleans around 6:30. We stayed at the hotel we stayed at when I visited V back in November. We got lost trying to find it but we finally got there and met up with V and my "nephew" for dinner. She was so surprised that I was there. After we had dinner together Jen and I checked in the hotel. We were gonna call it an early night but then we got to giggling and couldn't stop laughing. I had never laughed as hard as I did that night.

March 7- We headed towards home around noon and we were going to take it easy getting back to Houston. We had an easy ride back and around 5 we decided to stop and eat dinner. We found a Wendy's that had WIFI because we wanted to be involved with Jay's tweet session he was having that day. We decided it was a perfect time to stop stretch our legs and get something to eat.

This was sure a trip from HELL but with all the friends and fun times we had it was worth it. I would do it again in a heart beat and am planning on another road trip with Jen in the future. She is my "partner in crime" after all.

Friday, March 19, 2010

Road Trip from HELL.....But Worth It pt 2

March 5- Jen and I woke up and got ready for the 4 hour drive we had in front of us to head to Columbus, Georgia. We had another Rascal Flatts concert to get to that night. This time we were meeting 7 girls from the fan club. All of us were either from Florida, New York, Colorado, or Texas. Once we got on the road we realized we were actually an hour behind schedule because Columbus was an hour ahead of Huntsville. Of course we ran into a lot of traffic so that slowed us down again. We finally reached our hotel around 6:30. Jen ran and checked us in and we were finally off to the concert! Once we got there we walked in and got our VIP tickets. All the girls were waiting for us by the door. Had a big group hug and we were off to find our seats. We loved them because they were right with the girls. This time there was no problem getting me on the floor. No weird looks we walked straight to our seats. Our seats were the best seats I had ever had for anything! We were row 4 seats 1 & 2 on Joe Don's side. We chatted with the girls till it was time for Darius to start. Watty sat between Jen and Jennifer during Darius' set. Darius got pranked again this night. During one song(forget which one) the mascot for Columbus hockey team ran out and danced with Darius and his band. While Darius was signing Family Tradition 6 goats walked on stage. That was hilarious! Darius is a great sport. I love him and will miss him on tour with the guys. Between Darius' set and Rascal Flatts set we fed Watty. After we fed him Kathy and Dani were standing beside me with water bottles in their hands and Watty was staring straight at Kathy. Dani told her that Watty wanted water and she was right! It was so funny how Watty just sat there and stared at Kathy's water bottle. The girls were surprised at how we gave him water. He drank it straight out of his water bottle. While we were waiting for the guys show to start Jennifer told me that the guys were staying at our hotel. Jen found that out too and the were just a few floors above our room. I was in shock! I didn't think this night could get any better and then it DID!When the guys came out I drove my chair to the front row. That is where I sat the whole show! Jen, Jennifer, and Becca joined me too. We were surprised that the security guards didn't say anything. Before the show Jen tweeted Jay, who we both adore, and told him where we were sitting. When they started singing Stand, which is one of my anthems, Jay walked over and sang the whole song to ME! He looked straight at me smile and winked. This song means so much more to me now that Jay sang it directly to me. Every time I hear the song I just see him telling me to stay strong through all my trials. The girls made a sign for Jen and I. The sign said: Jay- I think your gorgeous, We know ya wanna kiss us! Jennifer held the sign above my head and Jay read it and laughed. Loved the attention it brought me. He even threw me a pick he used. The pick fell on the floor beside me but Becca and Jennifer found it and gave it to me. I was a very happy girl. Jennifer loves Gary and she got loving from him too. Becca LOVES Joe Don and she made a sign for him. That got her a pick from him. She was so stoked. In the middle of the set Gary goes back to rest and Jay and Joe Don take over the show. Jay always does a skit. This time he did part of his "little things" skit and Hanna Montana skit. Also during this time Joe Don and Jay get to show off their vocals. Would love to hear a lot more of those two. During the song Take Me There Watty barked and darted toward the stage. We guess Gary hit a note Watty didn't like. It was quiet funny because it happened so fast but we also got control back as soon as it happened. That was Watty's only mishap at the two concerts. Jen and I brought Jay his favorite candy which are Snowcaps. During Take Me There Jay came and searched me out and sang to me again! It was so funny because he was actually looking for me and when he spotted me he turned in my direction and just smiled his dimply smile and stared at me! Jen handed Jay the Snowcaps while he was singing to me. He grabbed them from Jen and actually played the bass while the box was in his hand. It was so cool! There was another Jay girl around us but he didn't give her any attention. I was shocked! I was sad when the show was over but was so happy I was able to go to those two shows and meet my new family. Jennifer, Dani, Kathy, Deb, Lissa, Becca, Alicia, Jen and I are Flatt sisters to the end. Once the show was over we headed to where the buses were and "bus stalked" in hopes of seeing the guys and saying hi. While we waited we did see Jim Riley, the Flatts drummer, walk by and he yelled hello to us. Jen spotted Gary walking into one of the buses so we all yelled hello to him. He waved back and said hello. After a while the security guard that was out there, who made sure we didn't pass a certain area, got another security guard to bring a jeep over so they could sit in it because it was freezing outside. That was so not fair because we were out in the cold waiting on the guys. Yeah we are crazy. Around 1am they said we had to leave so we headed back to the hotel and sat and talked out in the lobby of the hotel. We were joking around till about 3:30 and decided the guys had used a side entrance to come in.

As Jen was putting me to bed we placed my bipap machine on me and it decided to not wanna work right. By this time it was 4 in the morning and we were both exhausted. We called Apria and they had a respiratory therapist call us back. She said it would be about an hour and a half before she could come. At that time I broke down and was hoping I would be able to sleep in my chair till she got there. Luckily I could but didn't like it. When she got there we figured out it was the electrical outlet that was the problem. So that night I slept probably 2 hours and Jen maybe an hour.

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Road Trip from HELL....but so worth it

March 3 Jen and I headed out to Huntsville, Alabama to see Rascal Flatts. Our plan was to leave the house by 9am. We walked out the door around 9:30 which was okay. As we were headed out we stopped to get donuts and Snowcaps. You will understand why the Snowcaps later. When we went to plug in Jen's ipod her FM transmitter wasn't working so we had to get another. While she was getting another transmitter I realized we left a MAJOR piece of equipment at home, my battery charger for my chair! So off we go heading back home, get the charger and head out finally! By this time it was noon. We were 4 hrs behind schedule. It took forever to get out of Houston because of traffic. Once we got going we were happy campers. As soon as we crossed in to Louisiana we stopped at the State line and took a picture. We had to tweet and tell Chank we were in his home state on the way to see him and Rascal Flatts.
After we stopped for a few minutes to take the pictures and tweet we headed back on the road. We were good until we came up to the bridge in Lake Charles. We were in stopped traffic for at least an hour. We didn't see anything but did see life flight come in and we had to do some detour that took about an hour and a half out of our schedule. If you are counting we were now like 6 hrs behind schedule. Jen and I literally ate in the car as we were driving. It was great getting to sit shot gun next to Jen on our trip. As we were driving to Huntsville, Alabama we were listening to the Flatts and joking around. We had some excitement when some animals decided to jump in front of us. Luckily we saw them way before anything happened. We were both so happy to get to the hotel that I slept only 2 hrs and Jen just laid there. A 12 hour drive ended up being a 20 hour drive because of all of the traffic we encountered!

March 4- After 2 hours of sleep we got up and started to get ready for the concert that night. Our hotel was in Decatur which is about 20 minutes away from Huntsville. We left early to go get our VIP tickets & find out where our seats were. I was worried they were not going to allow me to sit with the fan club on the floor. We got the tickets and found out we were on Jay's side(who Jen and I adore) row 4 seats 8 & 9. Perfect seats! They at first said no I couldn't sit on the floor. Jen talked with the manager of ticket sales and made a compromise to put me at the end of the row which worked out fine. When it was time to head in we headed to where we were told and a security guard advised us we needed to be on the other side of the building. He said he would take us because we had to walk where the buses were being held. Jen and I looked at each other in shock but knew not to mess with the buses. After we walked through the buses the security guard helped find our seats and OMG the seats were next to the catwalk! Best seats in the house!! Well the security guards boss said no wheelchairs can be on the floor!!! He worked his magic some how and got me on the floor and by a catwalk. He is my hero along with Jen for that week. So instead of being 4th row we were more like row 16 but we were still Jay's side so we were happy. Jen had a meet & greet with the guys so she headed there while our seats were getting all straightened out. When Jen came back from her meet & greet she told me all about it. She even told the guys she was with her sister and service dog. The guys looked at her crazy but hey Gary gave us some loving during the show. Ok now on to pictures....Darius Rucker was the opening act and the guys pranked him all weekend. SO funny!
JC PENNY 18-wheeler with the guys picture

Gary spotted us and he gave this crazy look then he mouthed "Dog!?!?"