My Name is Kris and I Blah-g

I have been a big fan of American Idol for the past 5 years or so. I started watching in earnest around season 2. I saw bits and pieces during Season 1. We turned it into a family event each January when the season started. In fact when December rolled around Mike would always start a countdown. It was pretty much a guarantee where you could find the Fluck family on Tuesday and Wednesday nights from January through May. So, when Mike passed away I decided to keep the tradition going and this time we added two new viewers to the bunch – my sister and my mom. Each night we’d gather in my room and watch. This year our favorite was our “hometown boy” David Archuleta. It was a lot of fun to watch this show with them and offering up our critiques after each performance. To top off the season we got tickets to the American Idol show here in Utah.As with my American Idol tradition, I stopped by one of my daily online haunts rickey.org. Rickey is a fellow blogger but much much more popular than my lil’ ol blog and someone who has created quite a name for himself in the American Idol community. This year Rickey was a solid David Archuleta fan (although to his credit, he found ways to praise most of the contestants equally – but it was pretty obvious that David Archuleta was his favorite). As in year’s past Rickey has mobilized the Idol fans to become reporters at each of the stops on the tour. When he asked for volunteers I threw my name into the ring thinking that since the concert I was going to was David’s hometown, there’d be a lot of us vying for the position. I figured I could be “another voice”. When Rickey gave out the assignments, I quickly discovered that the lone voice for the Utah performance (day 1) would be ME. Oh boy. Long gone are days of me chasing celebrities. I gave that up years ago. Chalk it up to negative experiences such as my encounter with Kevin Costner, a pizza delivery gone bad to Clint Black and the fact that hey, I’m probably a little too old to be acting so silly – especially since this time around I am twice the age of the celebrity. I feel, for lack of a better term, like a dork. BUT… I have a lot of time vested in this year’s show. And to be honest, there is a little bit of pride in our guy David who is practically a neighbor. His family lives not too far away from here. He’s a fellow member of the LDS church and I’m um….well, old enough to be his uh..SISTER! So I am rooting for him to have success. He’s a great role model and not too shabby of a singer.The concert is in a week. I have watched some of the other “Archey Reporters” and I am starting to feel inadequate. I don’t have front row seats. For that matter, I won’t be sitting close to the stage at all. Since Mom is in a wheelchair, I arranged for some handicap seating. The arena only seats the handiapped folks around the perimeter of the lower bowl (which I find strangely biased against folks in wheelchairs). The other reporters have also managed to send in reports live from the show from their cell phones. My cellphone is a 2 year old Samsung that I don’t think is capable of holding a charge long enough to get through one of David’s songs. Since I am due for a phone upgrade, I have ordered the latest and greatest from Sprint – the Samsung Instinct. This phone isn’t easy to get and hopefully it will be here in time for the show. I don’t plan on calling in during the show – sorry, guys. But I do think that I can get some video if I sneak it. So, if you have a request for which performance I will try to get it. In addition to the new phone, I have gotten myself a ticket for the Shout Out. This is scary because I may have to act like a fool in front of a video camera to send a message to David. I could use some help here, too. What in the heck am I supposed to say???? David, I’m old enough to be your mother! I am a total lunatic! I think I may have to enlist the help of my daughter and much younger nieces on this one. I haven’t decided if I will go to the big picnic that is planned at Murray Park. It’s another 20 bucks to go and it’s also in the middle of the work day. I am having a hard time justifying that one and there’s also the dork factor. If I just had a fellow dork to attend with me, then I may reconsider. Finally, there is camping out by the tour busses and a possible meet and greet. I don’t see this as being possible unless I am given some sort of insider info and passes to get backstage. So, I will report on the show as I see it. I’ll do my best given my limited access. If there is something in particular that you’d like for me to report back on, just shoot me an email. I’ll see what I can do.