Houston Meet & Greet Recap

The CB's angelcat4jc posted an awesome recap of her meet and greet experience with Clay on Friday night in Houston:

Wow!

Just got back to my sister's in Southwest Houston after we went to Birraporetti's for an after concert dessert. (Well, a better dessert would have been seeing Clay there at the restaurant, but he probably went to the hotel to sleep before flying up to Tulsa tomorrow unless he took a red-eye flight tonite)

Ok, here goes. I hope I remember details. It may be a long one, so bear with me.

We had to be outside of Will Call between 5:30-5:45pm. We waited, took pics of us under the Clay banner at Jones Hall, we waited, we sweated, we waited. Finally, around 6:10? maybe. We showed our id's to Mary when she came out and then we went through the door by Will Call to a backstage sitting area that was right off the lobby. Mary told us about how they were doing the pictures different and the set up of the M&G, just like Frisco.

I took a pic of the room, I'll have to post those later. There was a couch and 4 elegant chairs (the kind of chairs that you would see in a museum display or very formal living room). Mary told us to have a seat. I was the 3rd person in line and I sat on the right side of the couch. The other winners sat in the chairs and one sat on the left side of the couch. Mary told us to get out the item we wanted Clay to sign and that we didn't need to use our cameras. They gave us bottled water and we sat and chatted about different things and our plans of how we are going to approach/talk to Clay. We were all giggly. Nice group of fans.

After waiting, and chatting, and waiting, and chatting, and taking pics before Clay came in, and other people coming in and passing through to the lobby, and waiting (it was probably only about 10 minutes, but seemed like forever), Jerome came in and gave a short speech about don't squeeze him too tight. He didn't say anything about not touching or anything like that.

Then Jerome left and we waited, and waited, and waited. It was maybe 6:30? when Mary comes in and she sits in between me and the other fan on the couch and said, "Clay can come in now". She was going to tease him about where he was going to sit. But he didn't come in right away, so she got up and said for him to come in. Jamie was there, too as well as an armed police/security guy. What did they think we were going to do? Kidnap him? ha ha Jamie took the pictures with Clay's camera (or whoever's it was-Clay had to show her how to take the picture or something, so I am assuming it was his)

So Clay comes in, we are sitting in a semi-circle-2 chairs on each side of the couch. He says "Hi or Hey or How are ya". I'm not sure if he said, "Hi, I'm Clay". Maybe. He was wearing a green polo shirt with the fifty2thirty logo on the upper left chest. His jeans were like the ones he wore in Frisco, and he was wearing the sandals he wore in Frisco.

He starts going around the semi-circle shaking our hands and asking our names. He says to me, "Haven't I met you before?" OMG, I couldn't figure out what to say!! I think I said, "No" and he moved on to the next person. He then came to the couch and sat between me and the other fan on the couch! Just like Mary did earlier. OMG, I kept looking at his profile and his shoulders and how he is really a big guy!!

He had lots of stubble and his hair was brown with some highlights. I really didn't see any red in it. I glanced down while he was jabbering to look at his feet and toes and then looked at my feet next to his. My gosh, he DOES have long feet and long toes!!

Okay, I'll get to the conversation.

Let's see. He talked about how nice Jones Hall is and the acoustics are so much better. He found out that the ceiling can be lowered to take away the top balcony for a more intimate venue. He was fascinated by that. He asked us where we were from and if we brought any family with us. He would call on us to answer, almost like a mini-classroom. He had control of the conversation most of the time. We really didn't get to ask questions that much. Oh, he talked about the rainy weather and I think I asked him if he drove down and how long it took me to drive from Dallas (I think I said that-jeez, the mind is going!). He said he flew down.

Oh, one thing. When he talked to each individual person, he looks you straight in the eyes. Beautiful!! :thud :

I may be skipping some more of the conversation, it's hard to remember some of it.

Then he started autographing. He would carry on a conversation with each person as he was signing their item. I had him sign my LTS. It was the edition from the Christian store. It has a little different cover. He recognized it and said that one has a little bit of a different cover and was sold at the Christian stores. He opened it right to the page I had marked with the flap and he said, "You knew where I always sign the book, don'tcha?" (with a little snark in his voice). While he was signing mine, I told him I was a Special Ed. teacher and he said, "Oh, really!" He sounded very interested and asked me what kind of students I had. I said I teach severely disabled students. He said, "oh, like Life Skills" (and he said something else, but I can't remember). I told him I was moving from elementary to high school this coming year. He said, "That's a big jump, what made you decide to do that?" I told him because it was closer to where I lived (I had moved in the middle of the school year). He also asked me how long I've been teaching Special Ed. (21 years). He said, "wow, that's great" (or something like that). This is all the while he was signing my book.

He wrote in my book: (oh, he asks each one of us to spell our name out, no matter if he knows how to spell it, because he said some people spell their names differently.)
Debbie, It was nice to meet you! Thank you for what you do! Clay Aiken

When he was finished with the autographing, he was getting up to get his picture taken with each one of us (individual, no group pic) He posed differently with each one of us. One of the fans said she wanted the prom pose. He started posing and then started going off on a tangent and said that the girl he went to prom with was a girl who, later on I think, took off her shirt in traffic or something like that (when he was a senior). The prom pic everyone has seen with the blonde-haired girl was after he had already graduated.

He had such a nice smile for everyone's picture. When I posed with him, I don't think I looked directly into the camera. I kinda got distracted. I don't even remember my arm around him or his arm around me, but the ONE THING I will never forget was the feel of his stubble/scruffy beard next to my cheek!:thud He just put his cheek next to mine and then Jamie took the picture. I hope it turned out ok. I haven't received mine yet. Probably tomorrow.

When all the pictures were done, I made a point to give him the gift bag of goodies I brought for him. The first thing out of his mouth was "Is there any food in here?" He was so funny. I knew I should have bought some Krispy Kremes or something! They would have been stale Krispy Kremes since I would have had to buy them on Thursday on my way down to Houston because I've heard there aren't any KK stores in Houston. I gave him a learning Spanish kids' version book, a t-shirt that says "Property of Texas" with the Texas flag on it with a yellow rose wrapped in it. He didn't open the gift, but saw the yellow rose sticking out. He then said, "Oh, Does this mean I need to sing-The stars at night are big and bright..."? Then he asked if any other performer sings that when they come here (meaning Jones Hall or Houston or Texas, not sure) Someone said, yes, they do. Then Clay said, then I don't need to do it if everyone else does it, do I? And we said, Of course you do!! Ha

Then he said thanks and they were trying to rush him out the door and it was almost like he wanted to stay longer and chat. We wanted him to stay longer, too. But he had a show to do. I think he left about 6:55. The show was supposed to start at 7:30, so he had to get going. Mary, I think, escorted us back out and as soon as we walked out the door (right near the entrance to the theatre by the Will Call), some fans came up to some of us and knew right away where we had been. (It must have been the continuous grins on our faces!

Well, Clay DID include a little of the Deep In The Heart of Texas ditty at the concert. And what a concert it was! It didnt start until about 7:50. Clay said he thought it didn't start until 8. With about a 15 minute intermission, it was over by 10pm. So about a little under two hours. Great!!

Wow, that was long. I hope I remembered everything!!

ETA: I knew I forgot something!

When he first sat down next to me, I tried to take a whiff without getting too close. Jerome was right there watching as well as the cop. I swear he must have had Burberry cologne on. I have some of that and the smell was very familiar to me. (of course, I was in Dillard's today and walked past the men's department-LOVE to go through that way just to get a whiff of the men's fragrances, and the leather men's shoes. LOL

And he REALLY puts you at ease. I was nervous and my heart was beating fast up until the time he actually comes in. Then it was so much easier to talk to him. Like I said, whatever I was going to ask him flew out the window since Clay was the one who controlled the conversation.