A Story of Excitement and Missed Opportunity

Oh My Goodness!

I know that some of you realize this because you have been reminding me but I was down to "post real soon or it will have been a month!!" time. So here I am just under the wire. Yes. I knew I had been neglecting my blog. I had been away from it and the longer I stayed away the harder it became to come back . Know what I mean? Well I.m back and I have a story to tell. It is not a knitting story so if that is why you are here you better cruise on down your bloglines because chances are you won't like this. Now if you are here as most of you are ( I think) because you know me and you still love me for the wild and crazy person that I am here we go......

In case you didn't know ---the truth is I have become a fangirl. I belong to a message board, voting sites and YES.com. all related to Elliott Yamin last years third place IDOL winner. I voted for him last year and he was and probably will be the only AI contestant that I will vote for. I started out initially to support the hometown guy. Then I fell in love with his voice and his humble ways. The infatuation has only grown. This past month has been very exciting for his fans with the release of his first album Elliott Yamin. Believe me there has been a lot to read and review online. If you haven't already go and preview his album here at AOL. You can listen to all the songs EXCEPT his remake of " A Whiter Shade of Pale" You can go here to iTunes to hear it. I think you might have to have iTunes on your computer in order to hear it. It is well worth the downloading the album for that song. I was up at 1 am creating my account so that I could download it, Here is the countdown as pictured on the Message Board Board the E-train

Many of you know that on Wednesday I "blew off" meeting up with the Knitting Gals ( sorry guys I did miss you!) to drive to Richmond to Circuit City in an effort to see ELLIOTT !! When I arrived and walked across the parking lot I heard a cheer go up from the crowd so I knew he had arrived . The line was completely circling around Circuit City. I found the end of the line and joined it. I did not have a CD to get signed as I had downloaded mine but I did have a really nice "velux" of the Richmond Times Dispatch full page picture/ article they had run a week before. My plan was to have Elliott sign that so that I could then frame it. In line I made friends with the folks around me. Someone said that he could only sign a CD so the new friends held my spot while I went into Circuit City to buy one. I walked in and the very first person I saw was Elliott's mother Claudette. She became a celebrity in her own right on the TV show. She graciously allowed me to take her picture. I was so excited it is not centered and I only got one chance but here it is.....

While in Circuit City (they were letting people in to shop) I noticed some "commotion" in the back so I wandered back there to look at some laptops....Elliott was back there doing the tv interview spots for the local news. I kept moving on back there as no one was stopping me. I got some "not so good" pictures . Then they moved him on up to the front to begin signing autographs.

I bought my CD and went back out to my place in the mile long line.

Waiting in line was fun. I was waiting with really friendly /talkative people both in front and behind me.These cute gals made their shirts. Can't you tell they are BEST friends??

The line wound around the store and it seemed to move quickly. It was actually about an hour and a half . Then we were finally at the front of the store and saw this

We all thought that this sign meant that he would only sign his CD what it meant we found out later was "only for a limited amount of time" We had put the emphasis on only in the wrong place!!

We were so excited to finally be INSIDE the store where it was warm and we could hear the music and see what was going on!! The line moved sooo fast inside the store.

We were around and almost to the front in what felt like no time. However ........it was not enough time. Exactly at 8pm Elliott and his entourage were coming down the aisle where we were standing , he was jogging actually- I didn't know what was going on but there he WAS right beside me so I did what any good fangirl would do- I reached out my hand and TOUCHED him!!! Seems that was a good move on my part because that was as close as I got. They had to leave at the specified time to catch a plane back to LA. where he was taping the ELLEN show the next morning. So close and yet not close enough.

But the story does not end there. there was yet another missed opportunity.... as I was leaving I took a picture of the empty table- see that STARBUCKS cup? I was tempted to take it just in case it had been Elliott's ( I know sooo bad ) but there were lots of people standing around and I chickened out. The other day when I was looking at THE RICHMOND TIMES DISPATCH pictures online there was one of Elliott coming into Circuit City and what was he carrying?!? You guessed it!!! Oh well. the next time I am going with my instincts.

On the way to my car I did get to watch him leave in his limo.

And while I was disappointed to not have gotten his autograph on my velux , I am confident that there will be other chances. I will just have to wait a while longer to get it framed.

Next time ......knitting content . I promise.