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Hey guys! Ok, so I’m finally going to do my Nashville review. First off, we got to Nashville on Tuesday. The Idols had off on the Wednesday and were in town. We did not see any of them out and about, except Ace, who was out eating with his brother. We did meet him later on in the evening. He is such a cute guy! The next day, which was Thursday, the concert day, we got up early and got ready. We got to the arena about 1:45. I had met Elphie right when we arrived at the arena. She caught me attempting to parallel park. That did not work well. So after we all met up, we headed to the back where we knew the busses were going to go into. Yes, just our luck, they do go underground. A little after 2, the busses arrived at the arena. The crew bus was first, then the girls bus, and then the guys bus. Paris was the only one that came up to the front of the bus, when they were pulling in backwards to go and park underground. However, we did swear to ourselves that, that was Katharine sitting in the back of the bus, so we just screamed her name at the window for the heck of it, as we said to ourselves ’I hope she doesn’t remember this later on.’ It was so hot out there. I think they said it was like 104 degrees. About 15 minutes after the busses were settled, Bucky had come out down the ramp, and was yelling at the fans up above. I had yelled down to him to tell Katharine hello for me, and he told me he would if he saw her..’hehe’..I’m so bad. After that happened, we could not stand the heat anymore, so we left. We heard later on though, that Ace made his way up the ramp, and signed some autographs for the fans. To kill some time before the show, we had gone out to eat. We ate at this little BBQ type place across the street. It was more like a bar, if anything. I had one drink there, cause I knew what was to come later on in the evening, and I wanted to be able to talk. Ha, it doesn’t work, by the way. ;) So while we are sitting there, wasting time, we get word that these baskets/hampers for the girls, will have to come inside with us. Elphie was really not liking this, as this place we were out, smelled like smoke. She did not want it to overtake the giant baskets/hampers. I think they came out of there, pretty well. Those suckers were so heavy, and filled with so much stuff for the girls. I’d be surprised if the girls did not love The Kat Pack, after that project. Anyway, after sitting there for almost two hours, we realized that the sky was becoming real black. So in fear of the baskets/hampers getting wet, along with the fear of thinking we might not be able to take them in, we grabbed them and took off for the arena, across the street. Now, there is already a huge line forming outside, and the weather is getting much worse. We fight our way, to get to the front as fast as possible, so that these baskets/hampers do not get ruined. During that process, this radio tent, flew up, and almost came into the line, surely to kill us all. Thank goodness the awning on the arena, caught hold of it first. Otherwise, we would have been hit by it. So, it starts to drizzle, and at that point, we all took off. Right when we got under the shelter, the rain just poured, and I mean poured, down. We had made it, just in time. Our next goal once inside, was to make sure these baskets/hampers can come in with us, so that we could give them to the girls. The guard tried to mess around with Elphie, telling her he would have to take them, but in the end, he was just joking with her. So, getting the baskets/hampers inside, was a complete success!
Our seats inside, were so awesome. They were right next to the stage. 3 rows up from the floor, even with the 7th row on the floor. We were sitting around a lot of Mandisa’s friends. The baskets/hampers had seats of their own. They had to change seats about 3 different times, before we found a place where they would be able to stay for good. The whole show, was pretty entertaining. I think out of all of them, Lisa impressed me the most. The girl can sing, so good. She is so great live. Of course, Pickler entertained the crowd. She was a trip. As for Katharine, she was just..amazing. Before she had even came out, when the lights went dark, both me and Elphie had screamed “We love you Katharine!” She then emerged from the platform in a black dress, and sang Black Horse and a Cherry Tree. Let me just tell you, if you had not known that her foot was broken, you would of never known. She kind of made a really hip walk out of walking with the boot. It was hard to tell that she was even injured. I was impressed. Of course, she had a lot of fun singing the song. After she finished singing that, she stopped to talk for a bit. She, of course, talked about how she was out of the tour for three weeks due to being sick, and then told of how she then broke her foot the first week of the tour, and lifted up her dress to show the boot. She shared a story about how she has some ties to Nashville, cause she was supposed to go and see her first country concert, which was Faith Hill, but her and her boyfriend, who was her friend at the time, ended up ditching it to go to the American Idol auditions instead. She then finished that up, and started Somewhere Over the Rainbow. Which was just simply, amazing. Right before she started, some girls had screamed “We love you Katharine!”..and she said..”I love you too!”..it was really cute. So, she did her thing on that song. That end note..just..wow. She got a good almost full standing ovation for that one. The applause for her, for her set, was pretty good, but could have been better. Can’t complain though. ;) She came back out, later on, for the finale number, Livin’ In America. She came out with the same shirt she had on in Richmond, and some cute jeans, and she was barefoot. She did not have the boot on. She was moving around fairly good. There were a few times where Mandisa and Paris helped her move around a bit. Her and Tay did their usual “getting down” moves. There were a few moves in Ace’s direction. She was basically just having a real good time up there. She did sing one note, and twirled her finger around when she did it, it was cute. She laughed a lot on the stage..just moving here and there and everywhere. She was the last one off the stage..as she was leaving she kept singing..”the band..” over and over again. All in all, the concert was good, and Katharine was just amazing. I think once the show ended, it finally hit us, as to what was about to happen.
So, here we are, just sitting here, waiting to go on backstage. Just sitting there waiting, of course, made us nervous. We had tried to plan what we were going to say to Katharine as soon as we got to her. We wanted to have it planned out and ready. So, we had decided we would put down both baskets/hampers, then hand her the scrapbook, then hand her the letters, and then go..guess who? So, that was our whole idea. We kept saying it over and over again, as to not forget it. Finally, we made our way up to the top floor, where the after party was. We stepped into an elevator, it brought us to like the 3rd floor, we got out, and had to walk down this long hall, until we finally reached the room all of the way at the end. We stepped into the room, and Katharine was immediately to our left., Lisa and Paris were directly in front of us, and I think Bucky was off to the right. Katharine’s line already had a good amount of people in it. So, out of fear of having them take her away quickly, we jumped in her line right away. So we are sitting there, in her line, going over and over to each other, what we are going to say. So we are moving closer, and when we are like 3rd from her, she spots these baskets/hampers that we have with us. She has the most confused look on her face. She has no idea what is about to happen. So finally, it is our turn. She finishes up with the people in front of us, she then turns to us and goes..”Hey!!”..and does the double handed wave. Let me just tell you folks first. The girl, is so gorgeous, its unreal. So we walk up to her..drop the baskets down..Elphie tells her..’whatever you do, do not carry these yourself’..so then..at the same time mind you..over each others voice..fumbling words galore..me and Elphie attempt to explain to her..what these baskets/hampers are for. Let me just say, her head was basically spinning, we had her so confused. After we finished, she kind of just looked at us and was like..”so wait, this is alllll for me?” and had the biggest smile/shock on her face. I had to be like..’no!..these are for all five of you girls!” By like the 3rd time of explaining it to her, she finally got it. She really appreciated it though. She said that she had the greatest fans, and that it was so sweet of us to do that. I believe right there, is when she kind of half hugged Elphie and said something about how she hears about and from all of her fans, but she never gets to see all of them. So it was at that point, that I took out the scrapbook, and handed it to her. We told her that might help her a bit with that. She smiled real big, she opened it up, flipped through it a bit, then set it down and said she would have to look at it fully a bit later on. It was at that point, that I had finally decided to tell her who I was. So basically, just out of the blue, I went..”I’m Laurie!” She kind of just stopped, she turned to me, and then went ‘ohh, your laurie!!” and then grabbed my hand to shake it, then pulled me in for a good hug, and said “its nice to meet you!” Mind you, her hair smelt, really good..lol. I replied, “its finally nice to meet you too!” I think she kind of mumbled..’yea, I know’..but you know..was such a blur. So then Elphie took out the letters for her..and explained those to her. I had asked her if Kellie had given her the other ones from when she was gone from the tour, and she told me that she had, but that she was not able to read them yet, she was too busy. We told her we completely understand. She then signed a few things for Elphie. They did exchange some words, but I was too busy getting my own stuff ready, that I was not paying attention to what was being said. Elphie will have to explain that part for you guys. So after she finishes with Elphie, we have the most embarrassing part of the night. She turns to me, to begin to sign my stuff, and all of my stuff, falls to the floor. Not only was that embarrassing, but Katharine herself, with a broken foot mind you, decides to bend down and pick it all up for me, and does anyone have any idea, what was down there? A freaken Carrie Underwood CD in Katharine’s CD ca