Part II: The Hard Rock M & G

Alright, time for Part II! This one's gonna be a long one.....have a seat.

On Sunday, I woke up very nervous and excited. I knew this was the day I would meet Adam Lambert. I felt that, knowing me, this could go either really really well...or very very badly (I'm prone to embarrassing myself).

This time unfortunately, I didn't have my FLGlambs to help me with my make up (I have the make up skills of a 4 year old), so I asked my dear friend Cristy to glam me up. She was a little afraid of going overboard; she kept saying "more Claudia? are you sure?" to which I would reply "Yes! Make me look like a drag queen! The bigger and sparklier, the better!" Fortunately, she didn't listen to me. When I was done, I was neither a queen nor a prince, but a sparkly princess. Just right. After hair and makeup were done I jumped in my car (no Dukes of Hazzard style this time) and drove an hour to the Hard Rock, I was still on time, but cutting it a little close.

Once I got there, I was surprised that I was more excited than nervous. Ever since I bought the M&G pass, I'd been a nervous wreck. I didn't know what I was going to wear or say or do. For once, I finally felt at ease (somewhat). I looked around the line to see if I saw any of my friends from Melbourne and quickly found my buds Katie and Donna. While Neil was checking our names off the list, I was checking him out. He's pretty cute I said at one point. Very serious though. After our check-in, they gave us our lanyards and we stood around for a bit. I was hoping to find a bathroom around there so I wouldn't have an accident later on (I had never done one of these M&G's before, so I had no idea how my body would react...lets just say, I wanted to play it safe). No bathroom in sight. Ugh.

After a little while we were paraded down a hall where Neil gave us the low-down. No kissing (boo), no groping (boo), one picture per person (boo), 2 items signed. Then they stood us in line in front of a large black curtain. All of a sudden I felt like I was there to see the Wizard of Oz (oddly enough, I actually tweeted that on my way to the concert). Although some would argue that I should've asked for Brains, what I really needed was some Courage (liquid courage)! Especially since every time the curtain parted for someone to go inside, I would get a little peek at the Wizard himself. Eeek!

Donna and I were towards the middle of the line. They were letting in two people at a time, so I asked her if she'd take a picture of me with Adam with my phone. Although I had a real camera with me, I didn't want them to say no, I figured the phone would be a little less inconspicuous. Our nervous Nelly selves stood there deciding who would go first and how we would take the picture. I got my props ready because I knew my hands would be shaking in about a minute and I wouldn't be able to do it later. Then, the black curtains parted. It was our turn to go inside. They asked us to put our purses on the table, so I got my phone and folder out and prepared myself. There were two people ahead of me, so I had to wait (and freak out) while they talked. I shuffled, I paced, I played with my phone, I took pictures. It felt like an eternity. And then...they said NEXT!

As I approached Adam I had a million things going through my head. For once, I couldn't believe I was finally doing it. I was also trying hard not to lose my shit and flail out. Composure Claudia! You don't want him thinking you're a nut now! He had his hands open and he greeted me with a smile. He said "I love your sparkles!". That threw me for a loop because it wasn't part of how I figured the conversation would go in my head. I looked him in the eyes and said "Thank you! Hi, I'm Claudia" and I shook his hand (I think). Then I said "Can I have a hug?" and he said "Sure!" and he hugged me. I was so in lala land that I can't even remember it. I forgot to smell him...lol. After the hug, he looked right at me waiting for me to say something. I was a little shocked so nothing came out of my mouth right away (other than drool...jk) and so he asked me something. Since I was off in space, I didn't understand what he said. It sounded like the Charlie Brown teacher to me "whah whah whah". Oh crap Claudia, come back down to Earth. So I said "huh?" or "what?" and he repeated himself slowly (I felt like a turd at this point) "Are you looking forward to tonight?" I said "Oh yeah! It's going to be great! I was there on Friday too!". After that he said "whah whah whah", OK not really, but I zoned out again, so I don't know what he said. I'm sure it was something to the effect of "oh that's great" or some other nice Adam-ish thing. At this point I realized I need to pony up and get with the program so as he started signing my pictures I started talking:

Me: "I wasn't sure what I was going to say to you today so I asked my 5 year old son for ideas"
For those of you that have heard my stories about my son, you know something crazy is coming.
Him: "Oh yeah?, What did he say?"
Me: "He said to tell you that you sing really nice"
Him: "Aww, that's sweet" (I think, it sounded more like whah whah whah).
Me: "and he said that he wants you to sing at his birthday party"
Him: (he probably laughed)
Me: "and I'm not lying...he said to ask you if you shave under your arms" (OK. Stop laughing. My son really DID say that.)

Him: "nah, I'm not really into that".

I can't believe he answered the question! The problem is, I didn't really want to know the answer to the question.

I was attempting a joke-clearly failed.

Now I felt like a double turd because I thought oh great, now he probably thinks I really wanted to know that and used my son as a guise. After that odd exchange, I didn't really want to open my mouth anymore and get myself into even more trouble. It's a good thing Neil interrupted by asking us to pose for the picture. I tried to regain my composure and put on a smile. If I looked frightened and worried, it's because I was. I have a sad, deer in the headlights look and my hair is a mess. I wish someone would have told me. I felt like I was looking at my 7th grade yearbook picture all over again. Why oh why couldn't I have come out looking like this? Fortunately he looks super cute. Then again, that man doesn't take a bad picture.

Normally, what happens after the picture is taken is that Neil looks at it to see if our eyes were closed (or our hair standing up) and tells us it's OK and then you're done, but I didn't give him a chance to do that because I wanted a prop picture too, so not one second after the picture was taken, I turned to Adam and said "OK now can we take a picture with this moustache on?" I don't know what he said (the whah whahs were coming back), but I think it was something to the effect of "Moustache? Um, oh! OK!". He put it on, I put my mouth on (but the stickies weren't working, so I had to hold it up myself) and this is the result.

That picture alone, makes up for all my dorky blabbering. I love it and I love Adam for indulging me. I figured it was worth a try; what's the worst that could happen? he would say no? (If I had a dollar for every time that thought process has gotten me in trouble).

After the picture, he took the stache off and gave it back to me. I thanked him and started to walk away when I remembered I also had a card for him. "OH! I have this for you too, should I put it on the table over there so you can get it later?" I asked because I didn't want for him to have to hold it for the rest of the M&G. He said "No, that's OK, you can give it to me...Thank you!" and so I did and then I zoned out again. I don't remember what happened after that. I'm guessing he said bye and I did too. I wish I would've asked for another hug. I guess the whole experience was just emotional overload and I needed it to be over because the internal flail was about to erupt and rise to the surface. Retaining one's composure is hard work!

I went back to the table and gathered my belongings which were all over the place (apparently I had left them like that). I dropped some things and as I picked them up, I tried to get my act together. I stuck around a bit so I could get a picture of Adam with my phone. The pictures kept coming out blurry though so I kept trying. About 3 more people went up after me and I was still there on the side, taking phone pictures of him, the security guy was like, "OK if you've gotten the pictures you need, you can step outside now" and I said "yes, I'm done" and I left....and the moment I stepped out of Oz...the oxygen returned to my brain.

Am such a dork.

The whole thing felt so rushed and disconnected. I felt like I was so worried about not forgetting to say/do what I wanted to that I wasn't really in the moment. I was on autopilot. Unfortunately I think Adam was a little on autopilot-answer-question mode too (he answered the crazy question instead of laughing at it). I hope I can get another M&G for the next tour. I need to redeem myself.

After the M&G, I hung out for a little while with some friends that I met in Melbourne and then it was getting close to show time, so we parted ways. I went solo to this concert so I was hoping to sit next to someone friendly (who am I kidding this is an Adam show...everyone is friendly!). I hit the jackpot because my seats were right between these two fabulous ladies. We chatted before the show and during the intermission. I was an amateur fan compared to them; they had gone to at least 7 concerts each...and here I was at only my 2nd. The pre-show ambience wasn't as good as the Melbourne one was (everyone was sitting down here), but things finally picked up when some dude on the floor started dancing to Single Ladies (seems like that song always does the trick). That brought everyone to their feet. Then, it was show time. Even though I had promised myself not to bring a camera and enjoy the show, I did it anyway. I didn't take any pictures though because the security guard told me that I had to put it away because professional cameras were not allowed. Thanks to him, I actually enjoyed the concert. I was not worried about my camera and trying to get a picture. I just enjoyed Adam and his beautiful voice. The visual feast had begun and boy was I hungry. I won't review the concert because there are so many other better reviews out there (and hello, this has turned into a novel), but I will say that when he's on stage, he just seems larger than life. He sings like nobody's business and I love his theatrical performances of each song. He makes the greatest faces while singing and they make for some pretty cool pictures. The diversity in the crowd is another thing that always catches my eye. In the first row there was a little girl about 7 years old and in the third row, there was an old guy with glowsticks that was probably over 70. Where else do you see that? WHERE ELSE? Nowhere else but at the Glam Nation!

If you've read all the way through this kudos to you! Thanks!

I love you Adam, thanks for putting up with my dorkiness.