My First Clay Concert Experience...

Okay, I hope that this is going to make sense because I'm still in a bit of a fog, lol. First off, I just want to say how great it was to meet a few of you guys! I wish I could have met more, but the venue filled up fast and then the show started....and well the rest is history. ;)

All right, on to the concert. I have watched a whole lot of Clack from the Timeless Tour concerts, so I pretty much knew what to expect and when to expect it. What I DIDN'T expect was to have my jaw literally drop to the floor when Clay came out from stage left (I happened to be sitting on the side he walked out of...eeee!!!!). OMG. I just have to say that he and Ruben really compliment each other well with their singing! The whole intro with FWW/TITN was hilarious. So much funnier in person! I loved the opening banter; it was little different...they didn't talk about their "similarities" very much, but I didn't care at all, hehe. Finally it was time to start the 60s with 'the King'. Clay singing Suspicious Minds...WOW. I actually got video of it!!!!! And I got video of him singing Still the One. Also Stool Banter (which was so funny...I'll get to that in a minute) and the beginning of the 90s.

All right, now onto the 70s -- oh yeah, I got Clack of the before/after (sort of anyway) banter of that and got some of the 70s too. :) Clay kissed Casey! At least I think he did. From the angle I was at, it looked like he did, but I couldn't really tell for sure. But it was so cute!!

I don't think I've ever laughed so much in my life.. Just saying...

Next! Ummm...what was next...oh yes, the stool banter. Oh my goodness, I was laughing so hard when I watched this! I pretty much got most of it on video (though all the videos are kind of grainy...oh well it was a digital camera). Anyway, Clay sat down on the stool as usual and Ruben started to lean on him, saying his feet hurt from standing for so long, etc. Clay as always just ignored him and tried to go on with how they are like variety acts. But then Ruben did something he's never done before... HE SAT ON CLAY'S LAP! I'm not joking! OMG it was soooo funny! Seeing Clay's face (and hearing him for that matter) was just too funny. I'm sure others have better details than I do with this banter, but after the whole stool thing (oh and Clay messed up the stool joke, hehe), they decided to get the audience involved! They asked for a theme song. Theme was "It's About Damn Time" (hahaha) and the music was Reggae. Oh my gosh. Ruben was HILARIOUS when he sang it! Clay was kind of cracking up too. Just great though. Clay's MTAF was out of this world!

Onto the 80s! And yes I'm sure I'm missing huge chunks of the concert.... So, it was the usual banter about what "macho" things were in the 80s vs. care bears, My Buddy (which included Ruben singing the song, taking Clay's hand and swinging it...so cute!) and then he expanded on the Care Bears! I could not stop laughing. So then they finally went into the music of the 80s. I loved all of it (especially 'Alone'...wow!!!)!!! And of course, Footloose. EVERYONE stood up when they started singing it!! Great job to both of them! Once they were finished, I didn't think there was going to be an encore, but then Clay mentioned a man who was sitting in my section. He had been dancing (seriously I saw him and he could really move!) non-stop throughout Footloose. Clay asked him how old he was -- 73! Clay and Ruben were so impressed that they wanted to see him do it again...so what did they do? ENCORE!!!!

I can't remember exactly *when* 'The Revival' took place in the concert, so I'll just put it here. Now this lasted for 12 minutes. How do I know? I got all of it on video! :) Unfortunately at this moment, I'm still in a fog so I can't remember all the details, lol. But it was great as always!

I absolutely loved Clay's intro to Ruben. You can tell that they're really great friends. :) I hope they will always stay that way. Ruben's EID was GORGEOUS. That man can SING!!

Then it was time for the 90s...oh boy. Clay said Ruben did a great job on the song, but Clay was nowhere to be seen...hmmm....Ruben asked where he was and Clay said he was coming; had to zip up the zipper on his pants, lol. Then he came out in GOLD hammer pants! OMG I was laughing so hard! It was pure genius! Ruben had to stop for a moment and turn around, hehe. So after Clay kept telling Ruben he really did know about the 90s, he decided to prove it by starting the medley. LOVED IT!

The end of the show didn't have too much banter in it; I think the two of them were kind of tired (I wonder why? ;)). Of course Ruben somehow turned back into the Preacher for a moment, hehe. Oh and just before they sang TOML, Clay caught some people about to leave....he stopped them LOL!

One of the best parts of the show? Ethel came up to the stage and asked Ruben to sign her 'Lackofrythmitis' (or however that's spelled) shirt! After some back and forth talking, Ruben finally did. :) Clay didn't, saying he was scared of her (you could tell he was completely joking since he had a smile on his face the whole time). At any rate, I'm VERY happy for Ethel!!

Once the concert was over, I looked over to my boyfriend and I asked him how he liked it. He smiled a little and said he liked it! He said he was glad I brought him with me. :) And he's now LOOKING FORWARD to coming to Cleveland with me! WOW!

All right all, this is probably the best that I'm going to be able to do here! I'll probably add comments or whatnot later when I remember more, lol. I really did have the time of my life though!

~Lisa

Tried and True - A review (iTunes bonus track version)

I cannot believe that it has been another month since I have posted here! I guess I just got wrapped up in the Clay fog that seems to have enveloped my mind over the past couple of months or so. Anyway, Clay's new album Tried and True has FINALLY been released! I can't believe I purchased as many copies as I did! I purchased the iTunes version since it includes a bonus song that isn't on any of the other versions, the deluxe version which has two bonus songs plus a DVD of the behind the scenes of making Tried and True (mainly why Clay decided to do this album), the regular CD, and I think one or two others.

I posted this review over at Clay's Offical Fan Club and I thought I'd bring it over here. :)
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I posted the other night that I LOVED the CD, but I didn't get into specifics...I was in a bit of blur after listening to it...a fog, perhaps? ;-) So I figured that after listening to it again and again and again... well you know what I mean. ;-) I thought I'd attempt to give my review on it. :-)

Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You - Love this song. I have always loved this song, but Clay made it sound new to me. I love the big orchestral music; that just makes the song if you ask me. Not to mention Clay just sounds terrific singing it. I can hear the swagger in his voice.
What Kind Of Fool Am I - Where to begin? First of all, I didn't think a song could make me cry. But this one succeeded in doing so! I have to admit that I had never heard this song before hearing Clay sing it. But now I'm in love with it. The soft, tender sound in Clay's voice is beautiful. I think that may be what made me tear up. I can hear the emotion in his voice, if you know what I mean. This has truly grown on me since I first heard it on Monday night! Also, David Sanborn is incredible. Loved that part as well.
It's Only Make Believe - This is another song that I had never heard before Monday night. But I love it! I like the 'bouncy' feel it has. Not sure if that really makes sense. Again, the orchestra just makes the song.
Misty - Oh my goodness. Misty made me...well, misty. Again, a song I had never heard (I think my age is starting to show here, lol) before. I love Clay's soft voice in the song. I don't know how he does it with such control. He's so talented like that. I adore the piano in this song. It gives it a jazzy/bluesy (spelling?) kind of feel, if you know what I mean. And the lyrics themselves are just wonderful.
Mack The Knife - I think we have all heard this one before! It was either when it first came out or in 2003 when Clay sang it out of the ballpark. I love Paula for choosing this song for him. I can just hear his love for the song as he sings it. And that note at the end. WOW. I still don't know how he can hold it for so long! Love it.
It's Impossible - This is just a beautiful song. I love hearing Clay's upper register in this song. Another one that makes me tear up when I hear it. I just close my eyes and go into another world. I'm not sure if that makes any sense... Again, the orchestra is beautiful. I love the violins in the background.
Unchained Melody - One word: WOW. I have adored this song since I saw the movie "Ghost" which is when I first heard it. So naturally every time I hear it now, I always tear up because I think of the movie (and Patrick Swayze). There is a bit of a difference with Clay's take on this classic, however. And that is when he gets to the "OMG note". I now know what everyone means when they said they were in a fog after hearing him sing that note. My gosh, I almost fell out of my chair! My favorite version by a clear mile.
Suspicious Minds - I've always liked this song. I remember watching a lot of Clack from the JBT and I loved the part of the concert when he would sing this song. He did it with such ease. I love that he basically kept the melody of the song, but also made it his own. And with this CD, he's outdone himself with the song. I love this version even more.
Crying - Oh my. This song is gorgeous beyond words. Linda Eder is just fantastic. I have heard her sing before and have always loved her voice. When she and Clay sing together, it's magical. I so wish I could have been at the taping to see it live. I'm sure it's even more amazing in person. Let's just say that this song had me crying!
There's A Kind Of Hush - I LOVE this song! I didn't know that I would, but I am so glad I proved myself wrong. Clay sounds so upbeat and happy when he is singing it. There is one point in the song when he sings "People just like us...[a beat of silence]...are falling in love..." I adore they way he sings "...are falling in love".
Moon River - To be honest, I didn't think I'd like this song as much as I do. I have heard it a few times and it's definitely a beautiful song. Insert Clay into this song. Okay, I'm hooked! He has this control that I've never heard anyone have in their voice before. The softness in his voice is just so moving.
You Don't Have To Say You Love Me - After hearing this just once, my jaw was on the floor. This is just...wow. I honestly don't have enough words to describe the song! Clay's voice is magical. It really is. I love the emotion he poured into this song. I think that's what did it for me. I get chills every time I listen to it. It's playing right now actually and I'm barely able to type as I listen to it because my mind is in the song! And I have to wipe my eyes every now and then...

Well that was my attempt at a review of each song! I know I didn't get into each little aspect of the songs, but I wanted to give the general idea of how I felt while listening to them. :-) I hope you liked it!

Oh, and here's a little taste of what the album sounds like...



Lisa

Mother's Day and This Week

First off, I'd like to wish every Mother out there a very Happy Mother's Day! I hope you all had a great time with family and friends. :) I would have spent today with my Mom, but she and my Dad were in Chicago for a Bar Mitzvah this weekend, so I didn't get to see her. Luckily we have cell phones and text messaging! Plus my Mom and I will get to spend time together on Saturday the 15th when we go see Legally Blonde in Cincinnati. That's going to be my actual gift to her. :) She's wanted to see it almost as much as I have!

It is hard to believe that this is the 2nd to last week of preschool! Our annual 'picnic' (it's actually inside, so it's not really a picnic) is on Wednesday from 6-8. Not exactly looking forward to having to work a 10 hour day, but it's worth it in the end when I see the children who will be going off to Kindergarten in the fall. I had them in my room 3 years ago! That will be hard for me. Kids grow up too quickly!

Not much else to write about this week. Oh yes, I almost forgot... The promo for Clay's new CD Tried & True made its debut on YouTube this weekend! I was unable to attend the actual concert, but I am really looking forward to seeing it on PBS in August. Didn't see the video? Here, I'll just put it on here. I think I figured out to do that...



Hopefully that worked! Anyway that's about all for this week! I will hopefully be back next week to give you an update as to how LB was! I'm pretty sure one of the words I'm going to use is "awesome," LOL. :)

~Lisa

May has been...

Well, it's been rather weird so far. There have been some great things that have happened within the past few days and some devastating things that have happened.

The good news is that my Dad, who has been jobless for a little over a year now has a job! It is only a 6 month contracting job in Huntsville, AL so he and my Mom won't have to move, but it may possibly turn into a full-time job. So congratulations to my Dad! He goes down next week.

Interestingly enough, the reason that we live in Ohio is because my Dad had gotten laid off from his previous job in Nashville, TN. The company basically went bankrupt. This past weekend I learned about the awful flooding in Nashville. My parents sent me a few pictures of the neighborhood in Brentwood, TN where we lived. I could not believe my eyes when I saw the pictures. There were two people in a canoe in the middle of the street and a dog was swimming in the street. Unbelievable. From what I understand, everyone in that subdivision is okay and the water is slowly receding. The scary part about all of this? While living in Nasvhville, I worked at the JCC which just happens to be right next to Bellevue. I was thinking about staying in Nashville when my parents said they were moving up to Ohio for my Dad's job, but unfortunately I didn't have enough money yet (I had only been working for a year) to live on my own. But I did look at some apartments just for the heck of it and one of the apartments I looked at is in Bellevue. So had I stayed in Nashville, I don't know what I'd be doing right now. I only hope that my former co-workers are okay.

There are a couple of good things going on this month as well. I am seeing Legally Blonde: The Musical with my Mom in Cincinnati on the 15th so that is something to look forward to. I also booked the hotel in Hammond, IN for when we (my boyfriend and I) go up in August to see Clay Aiken & Ruben Studdard in concert. Now all I have to do is buy the tickets that go on sale the 21st. I'll believe that date when I see it on Ticketmaster. I'm hoping that is sometime soon! The date has been changed four times now.

The 2009-2010 school year is coming to an end. The last day of preschool at the DJCC is May 21st. It's just hard to believe that the kids in my room, many of whom are now 3 years old will be leaving our room this summer and will be moving up to the next room. While I am sad to see them go, I am just amazed at how much they have all grown in the past nine months! I will be working there over the summer since I am a full-time employee and am both excited and nervous about the kids that will be coming over to our room. It will definitely be a big change, that's for sure. But I'm looking forward to it. :-)

I guess that's all for now. I will try to update again next week.

-Lisa

Three Years!

Wow, I cannot believe it has been three years since I posted anything on here. I pretty much forgot about the fact that I even had a blogger account! So what, you may ask, have I been doing for the past three years? I'm not going to go into every single little detail, but in a nutshell, I've been working at the DJCC preschool -- this is my 5th year there. Pretty cool! I have been working in the 2 year old room for 4 of those years. I started to not like it so much last year because of the lead teacher in my room. She became really difficult to deal with and basically acted as though she was everyone's boss. Well in October of 2008 she revealed a little secret to me...she was pregnant! I was very happy for her, as she and her husband had been trying to have a child. I asked her if she was going to come back after she had the baby and she said she wasn't sure.

Fast forward to May 2009. Gina went on maternity leave about 3 weeks before her due date. She said she was thinking about coming back in the fall, but wasn't sure. I was pretty sure she wasn't going to come back. And I don't blame her; she wanted to spend time with her baby! So we bid her farewell on May 15th (or a date close to that) and then it was just Miranda (co-teacher) and myself. Audrey had one of the girls who works at the preschool in the summers and winters work in our room. Miranda and I had always gotten along great and I was excited for the upcoming school year. We had yet to find a new lead teacher, but I was just happy Miranda was going to be there... errrr ... maybe not. She told me that she was going to be taking some classes up at OSU in Columbus so she was going to be leaving. Well that's just great; now it was just me! By early August, Audrey FINALLY found a lead teacher for our room. She is the best! I don't think I have ever gotten along so well with anyone before. We work really well together. As for a 3rd teacher, well we had a girl there who stayed all the way until December. Then she quit. Apparently her husband and kids weren't too happy that she was working again. So now we sort of have a rotating 3rd person in our room. It has, for the most part, worked out pretty well though!

Okay so that was work. I am now no longer single! I have a boyfriend whom I met on JDate.com. We've been together for 2 1/2 years. Our anniversary is September 29th. :) So I'm pretty happy! The only thing is, he lives 45 minutes away. He passed the Bar in 2008, but because of what happened with the economy, hasn't been able to find a job as a lawyer anywhere. It isn't really his passion anyway; higher education is. So he's going to grad school for a year and is hopefully going to get a job as a graduate assistant or maybe even something else. So the future is looking bright so far!

I guess that's about it. Oh and one more thing...I am really excited for August...why? Because I am going to my first Clay Aiken concert! I've been a fan of his since he was on AI, but have never been able to get to a concert...until now! Very excited about that. All right, definitely enough of this.

Ciao!
Lisa

Life is Good

So life has been good this past week. I had a pretty good week at work, even though it was hectic as ever, but it was still good. It finally rained this week! We have been in a drought since May and I was rather excited when it started to rain. Yeah, I get excited over strange things.

Anyway, yesterday was one of the best days ever. Why, you may ask? Because of this:

Yep, I saw Wicked yesterday! We went to Columbus, since that is where the tour cast is right now. I didn't mind the hour and a half drive at all. I just wanted to see my FAVORITE show!! We had perfect seats that were not in the front, but were in the orchestra section with no obstructions. Though my mom did get a little manic since she's been wanting to see this show for quite a while. But it was all good. After the show, we went out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant in downtown Columbus, not far from the theatre. It was really nice except for the man at the table behind us...he was drunk...I mean REALLY drunk. He kept yelling, getting up, singing...let's just say he was making a fool out of himself and the people he was sitting with. When they finally left, everyone applauded (I kid you not). Best dinner ever, LOL.

Anyway, this week will be nice since it's only a four day week (4th of July...). I am not sure if my family is going to see the fireworks or not (personally I'd really like to), but it would be a good family outing.

This coming weekend Kyle is coming down! I haven't seen him since February; our schedules have both been very hectic lately, but he was finally able to get some time off work. So yay to that. =) I can't think of anything else, so I'm just going to end my entry here.

Ciao!

Lisa

It's My Birthday...

...And I'll cry if I want to...but I'm not going to. Hehe.

Okay so yeah...today's my birthday. I was dreading today more than anyone could imagine; don't ask me why. I've never been a fan of my birthday, LOL. Anyway, it went a lot better than I thought it would.

When I got to work, my co-workers and director all remembered (since all of our birthdays are posted on the wall in the teacher's room) and so they brought in snacks and stuff like that. It was really nice of them. One of my co-teachers, Gina had given me a scented candle, a journal, and what looks like a flower pot...I think. It was so sweet of her; she didn't have to do that and yet she did. :-) So that made me smile.

Then one of my kids, Zane came in. Now I know teachers aren't supposed to play favorites, but he is up there as one of them. He always has been. Anyway, when he came in he ran over to me and handed me a flower and yelled "Happy Birthday Miss Lisa!" It was beyond cute. His mom had to kind of cue him, but it was still adorable. We were also celebrating Israel's birthday today (Yom Ha'atzmaot) and one of the little girl's in my class: Naomi's birthday. Her birthday was last week but we didn't get a chance to celebrate it then so we did it today.

After lunch, Zane (who is almost 3 ... birthday is on Friday as a matter of fact), who is not yet potty-trained decided...*on his own* to go into the bathroom. We basically thought that he wanted to sit down and just try...we were wrong! He went to the bathroom! I know, this may sound gross to some of you but it was such a HUGE leap for this little boy who was once completely freaked out about going into the bathroom. We are *SO* proud of him! (Even if he did miss the toilet...which he did...but who cares! He went!) I made sure to make a HUGE deal of it to him (who was rather mad at himself for missing the toilet) and to his dad when he came to pick him up. You should have seen the smile on his dad's face...and Zane's. PRICELESS!

Ah...and then I came home and got my mail; I got a card from my parents and my aunt and uncle (along with $25...hey I'm not complaining!). Nice timing, huh? I'm going to call my parents as soon as I finish writing this and thank them. I also noticed outside my door was a little bag with a card attached. I looked at the envelope and saw my name was written on it and immediately recognized that it was my mom's handwriting (she and my dad have a key to my apartment for obvious reasons). I opened the bag and inside were gummy worms (my favorite candy, hehe) and these other gummy things...they're black licorice flavour I think...blech! I think that's more for my mom, LOL. I'll have to bring them over to her this weekend when I see them.

Well I guess that's all for now!

-Lisa