Thursday, March 31, 2011

All Night To Get There

After the show in Oklahoma City we dropped of Deb at her hotel and headed to New Orleans. Of course this had to be the weekend we loose an hour thanks to day light savings time. We headed off an hour later than we really wanted to but we were headed out. It felt like it took forever to get to Louisiana especially at night. We finally made it to Louisiana around! It took us all day to drive from the top of Louisiana to New Orleans. We made it in to New Orleans around 4pm. We had about an hour to unload change and get ready for the show and be at the venue no later than 6:30 by the time we got to the hotel. By this time we were all running on adrenaline. We made it to the venue with minutes to spare. Jen, Adiana and I had to run to the box office to get out meet & greets and find where we had to go so we didn't miss those. Adina barely made hers and we made ours by 10 minutes.

When it was our turn for our meet and greet it turned out Jen and I were first in line of our group. As soon as we walked in Jay and Joe Don's mouth dropped. I also noticed Jay was wearing the same shirt that he wore almost a year to the day that he sang STAND to me. Of course I loved it! They were shocked we were there. Once we got settled in line Gary noticed us and pointed to Watty. Jen told Gary "Yes we brought the dog and you are his favorite!" Gary busted out laughing. Watty wanted to go say hi so bad that we had to keep telling him we have to wait our turn, we were only 8 people away by now. We brought gifts to the guys(golf stuff) so Jen handed them to the guys and I said I to Gary. Then as I was saying hi to Joe Don and getting a hug from him Jay steps in front of me and says "So KAREN I hear you are a Chris girl now." He said this because a friend of mine tweeted Jay and said my heart now belonged to Chris Young and that I was no longer a Jay girl. After he said that I told him "NO! I am always your girl." Jen was where she could see my face and she said it turned beat red when he asked me that! She told me later she knew I was flipping out inside and she sure was right. While this was going on Gary and Joe Don were loving all over Watty and he was eating it up. Joe Don let Watty give him kisses on the face and he talked to Watty and was saying how he missed his puppies(he has mastiffs). It was time for our picture and I told Jay I wanted him behind me and he said sure! I didn't tell Joe Don or Gary how to stand or where I wanted them but I didn't care I just wanted Jay behind me. I love how my meet and greet turned out. As I waited for Jen the guys handed Watty's leash to John(their stylist) so he got some love in too. Before we left we gave John a gift too. He got lint rollers to defuzz the guys after Watty's visit and Hershey bars(Hershey is sponsoring the tour). He loved it and of course I accidentally ran over John's foot as we left :(.

After our meet and greet Watty was dragging us to our seats. He heard Luke Bryan on stage and wanted to go watch. Once we got into the pit where our seats were Watty settled down and slept through the entire show.


Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Take Me There

Time for our favorite guys to come out and they came out with a bang! It was time for me to hold my "I Love Bass Players!" sign. I had to show my love for Jay. Gary was the first to read it and he gave me this look like what about me. I cracked up and shrugged my shoulders. When Jay spotted it he gave me a huge smile and a wink...I was in heaven! Chank the bands fiddler saw me and waved at me while playing. Since I was at the stage I got a lot of attention from the guys and I loved it of course. At one point I caught the eye of Joe Don and asked him for a guitar pick from across the stage. He acknowledge me and in the next song he came over and gave me a pick. My first Joe Don pick...it only took me 8 shows to get one lol.


During the song Take Me There Gary stopped right in front of me and grabbed my hand. He sang almost the whole chorus to ME!! I was singing back and looking at him. He stole part of my heart then. My friend Alicia was jealous of me but she forgave me for taking Gary for that moment. She is a Gary girl hehe.

At one point Jay and Joe Don stopped beside us and we got Watty to put his paws on the stage again. As soon as we put his paws up there Jay looked down and jumped because he wasn't expecting a dog to be there. While Watty was up there Chank(the fiddler) was walking past saying "Watty, Watty, Watty, Watty" of course Watty was getting all excited! He was waging his tail like crazy and kangaroo hoping trying to get on stage! Silly boy.

Toward the end of the show Jay walked past us and the stopped in front of us. Jen asked if she could grab a guitar pick off his bass and he nodded yes. After she grabbed one he pointed to her and she had no clue what he wanted. At first she thought maybe he wanted to trade a guitar pick with her since she had some around her neck. He shook his head no so then we thought maybe he wanted the snowcaps I had in my hands for him and he shook his head no again. Finally he bent down and touched her camera. Jay wanted her camera! She gave it to him and he took a picture of me from the stage!!! It came out awesome!!! Thanks Jay!

Monday, March 21, 2011

All My Friends Say

After Chris came Mr Luke Bryan. Boy is he more eye candy! He is awesome performeer and boy does he talk with his eyes. At one point during the show he spotted Watty and sang to him. After that every so often he would bend down a little and sing to him. It was adorable! Luke knows how to work a crowd. This was my third time seeing him perform. His band knows how to work the crowd too. The drummer is such a flirt too. If he catches your eye he makes faces and flirts with some of the girls. Alicia and Becca were flirting with him that night.

That Makes Me

After the meet and greet with Chris we headed to our spots up at the stage. Adina made me a sign that said I Love Chris on one side and the other side said I love Bass Players! We did it that way to save from having to carry a lot of signs into the show. During Chris' set I held up I love Chris. Chris had an awesome 30-45 minute set.This night was Chris' last night on tour with Rascal Flatts so it was time for Chris to get pranked by Rascal Flatts. (If you have never been to a country concert at the end of a tour the headliner usually pranks their opening act(s).) Chris has a song called Gettin' You Home aka "the black dress" song so the guys gave Chris a gift after he sang the song. In the gift was a sparkly black dress! Then on the screen behind him they made it look like he had the dress on. The fans that were in the pits kept yelling at him to turn around so he could see the picture. Once he saw the picture he said "That dress sure makes me look skinny." His expression was priceless. He even had trouble not laughing so he could finish his set. At the end of his set he gave me his last guitar pick. That makes 2 guitar picks from that cutie!

What a Weekend!!

Last weekend I had a girls weekend with 6 amazing friends a girl could ever ask for. We all love Rascal Flatts so we were following them on their last weekend on the road till summer. The shows we had lined up were the Houston Rodeo, Oklahoma City, and New Orleans. Becca came down from New York and Deb met us in OKC from Florida. Rodeo was a blast because Becca had never been to a rodeo before. Jen, Becca and I met our friend Alicia at the rodeo and she was staying over with me so we could head out the next day for OKC. Friday we headed out to OKC with Adina, Alicia, Becca, Jen and I(and Watty of course) to our hotel. We went up a day early since its about an 8 hour drive from Houston to OKC. We were all goofing off in the van and made the 8 hours fly by. Three of the girls(Adina, Alicia, and Becca) were tweeting each other and we were all cracking up. The hotel room we had in OKC was huge!

Saturday we got up and got ready because we had to be out by check out. We went and picked up Deb from the airport and took her to her hotel. We finished up getting ready at Debs hotel since we had to get ready early at ours. When Deb checked in she heard the desk clerk talking to someone about the concert and how her friends had tickets but she wasn't able to get a ticket. Deb knew we had an extra ticket and told us about it. We went to her and asked her if she wanted the ticket and she about died when we said we had one and she could have it. Her reaction was priceless!

Once we were ready we headed to the venue. Since we are part of the Rascal Flatts Street Team we got to go in early to help distribute fliers before the show. Jen and I did a few rows on the floor and had Watty off leash but between us and worked on recall. He did amazing! Chris Young's band was doing sound check while we were working the floor and working with Watty. After we finished passing the fliers out we went to the pits and waited to get our spot right up front. Once our spot was found Adina, Becca, Watty and I had meet and greets with Chris. We decided we wanted to be at the back of the line. When we got in the room where the meet and greets were going to take place Chris walked in and looked at the 3 of us and said "Hey Girls" after he said that we busted out laughing and wondering if he was reading the tweets Adina, Becca, and Alicia were tweeting each other the day before. They had added Chris' twitter name in each tweet. Once it was my turn I went up to him and he said Hi Watty and petted Watty on the head. I was kinda shocked he remembered Watty's name from a month before. I got a hug from Chris and he loved the shirts Becca and I had on.

"The Chris Club"
Becca, Me & Jen

Adina & Me

Chris Young & Me

Watty watching Chris on stage