UPDATE: May 13, 2012

BIG, Exciting weekend!!! WOOHOO!!  Of course, as y'all can tell by the recent additions to my gallery, I saw not just one, but TWO of Casey James shows!  One on May 10th, 2012 at Toby Keith's I Love This Bar & Grill in St. Louis Park MN.  And the other on May 12th, 2012 at Joes Bar on Weed St. in Chicago, IL.  

It was an 8 ½ hour drive to St. Louis Park MN.  The extra ½ an hour is because my GPS was being stupid.  It's a miracle I made it through Chicago.   Basically, Adam had it set up to avoid tolls, and I don't know WHAT it was trying to do, but it definitely didn't make any sense.  It kept telling me to go east instead of west and made me go on the toll road twice anyway.  SO I called Adam, who told me just to stay on 94 until I got through Chicago, we then reset the GPS and I haven't had problems since. The whole fiasco made the trip ½ an hour longer, though.

I Loved the show at Toby Keith's the best!   I was right in front of the stage, and got a ton of pics!  They are all on my FB.  Feel free to have a looksee if you'd like.   [link]Casey's live shows are THE BEST!  The energy is outstanding!  And he is SO Considerate of his band members.  They played a 14 minute long version of one of his popular covers, "Pork Salad Annie," where each band member got time to do their own little solo's!  It was AMAZING!!!  (They did it at Joes, too.)  

So, after the show, at the meet and greet, I gave Casey the book that I wrote all the stories for his songs into.  The music was so loud though, and I was shaking so bad, that I couldn't properly explain what the book was.  Cyndee (one of the Casey Girls from Twitter who I met while up in MN) went to grab his manager and asked him to hold on to the book because a fan hand wrote it and wrote a story for each of his songs.  So, after the Meet and Greet, I saw that his manager was holding on to the book as he walked Casey back to the room designated for the Musicians.   I got my picture taken with Casey and he signed the picture that I bought of him.

Despite the fact that I was nervous and shaking like crazy, I enjoyed meeting some of the "Casey Girls," in person!  They are all SO Awesome!  I also got to have my picture taken with each of his band members.

On my way home on Friday, I got stuck in rush hour traffic in Chicago for 2 HOURS!  Talk about NERVE WRACKING!!!

At the show in Chicago, ~AdonciasDreams went with me, because I refuse to drive into Chicago by myself.  Without her, even WITH the GPS, I would have gotten lost!   

I LOVED Casey's performance, I just wish I knew why he doesn't play his song, "Tough Love" live...I wasn't too keen about the girl who opened for him.  As ~AdonciasDreams explained, she kept trying to hit notes in a higher octave than she can reach, so it sounded like she was screaming… and OMGs did she hurt our ears…  not to mention that either the place was too small for that kind of music she was playing or the volume of the guitars and drums were TOO HIGH because I really couldn't make out hardly any of the words of the songs she sang, unless I Happened to know the song.  She was singing covers.  

Cyndee was told that Joes Bar is mostly for the 21-23 age crowd.  There were crazy, drunk girls everywhere!  I felt so sorry for Casey!  I was at the end of the line for the meet and greet and I was watching some of these crazy, drunk girls get their picture with him…  I swear it was like putting fresh meet in front of a pack of lionesses.    They were all over him.  I watched a few girls get in front of and stand in front of him like…  I don't know what they were expecting from him, but that's when I learned that he has two smiles.  His real smile and his "fake smile."  

When I finally got up to talk to him, I asked him for one of his "famous hugs."  Tracy Scott (@CrazyCEJFan) from twitter is always telling me about how good his hugs are and how, when he hugs you, he means it, and that they were tight hugs.  Well, I didn't get one of his "famous hugs."  I got a hug, but he seemed a little hesitant.  I can understand, he obviously didn't remember me from the MN show (Wasn't expecting him too.)  and he was probably tired.  Poor Guy.  PLUS All that stuff with the crazy, drunk girls.  After the hug, I received a dirty look from the girl behind the Merchandise table.    I ignored it, of course, and had my picture taken with him again.  He signed the photo collage I made from some of the photo's I took at the MN show.  Then I told him, "Don't forget about my book."  I Think that's when he recognized me.  He looked like he might have said more, but we were being rushed to move on.

I do suspect that he may have at least started to read it…  though I don't have any proof.  It was something he said before he sang "crying on a suitcase."  He described the song as being about a guy going after a girl to make things right.  Now, granted, that IS what the song is about… but the way the song ends, it gives no implications that everything turns out in the end.  Which is why I wrote the story for it to begin with… because the song doesn't explain if the guy makes it in time or not.  So, I'm probably reading too much into it…  but…  just the way he described the song, makes me think he MIGHT have read the first story at least…  Maybe? Maybe not.  I'm probably reading too much into it.  He's a busy person and I'm sure he doesn't have time for some petty writings from a crazy fan.  I've pretty much resigned myself to the idea that he won't read it, to keep from being disappointed.  It's out of my hands now, anyway.

Besides, I had a couple of the Casey Girls that I met for the first time in Chicago, talk to me about the book.  It's amazing and I truly appreciate all of their support.  It is good to know that what I wrote is being enjoyed b y Casey's fans, at least.

Pictures from the Chicago show can be found here:  [link]

SO, I'm totally addicted to this man!  I'm still riding on my "Casey High," as the "Casey girls" call it!  I want to totally relive the past week! It was AMAZING!!  I'm going to see him again in Indianapolis on June 2nd.  I'll be bringing the kids with.  I originally promised Rhiahannaen that if she behaved I'd take her to see Casey James, since she loves him and sings along to every one of his songs on the CD.  THEN, when I got home from MN, Raphael asked me, "Did you really go see Casey James?"  SO I showed him the pictures and he went nuts.  It's so cute, he calls Casey, "CJ."  And when I mentioned going to see him again, he jumped at the chance to go.  

Of course, if I take 2 kids, I have to take all 3.  After talking to Kylie's father about taking the other 2 to see Casey James, he said he just wouldn't take her that weekend.  And, when I mentioned to Kylie where we were going, she went crazy too.  *LOL*  SOOO…  ~AdonciasDreams will be going with me on June 2nd to see Casey!  I'm not taking all 3 kids by myself.  I'm not that insane! :0

BUT, back to the land of reality tomorrow morning with going back to work.  Also, since I'm done with my writing project for Casey, I need to figure out what I'm going to write next.  I still owe *FullAnime a Mitsuki/Takuto fanfic…  and I've had a ton of requests to work on CCS-3 , but also Adam wants me to work on a storyboard for my own original story with the purpose of publication.  OMGs!  I'm SO Not sure if I can do that…  

So…  over the next week or so I'm going to be trying to figure this out…

Well I should be off.
  
TTFN Y'all!

Ja  matane, (c-ya)




Wolf-chan