On October 5^th, I woke up pretty nervous. I am finally going to see Rick after 8 years! I got ready to go, kissed the kids, hubby and I was off. I made my way to Ally's house which is only 15 minutes away. We put our stuff in the car, including Ally's Cockatoo, Jemini and we were on our way to Rick Vegas! First stop--gas station. WHOOPS! I locked the door! Uh oh!!! We were locked out! Had to wait for roadside assistance. Yikes. We were off again. It was so wonderful to meet Kate when we got there. She let us stay at her house while in Vegas and let me just add that she has a lovely home. Thanks Kate!! We were very impressed with her "Rick Room". Anyway...on to the GOOD stuff!!! HEE HEE!!

We walked into the EFX theatre and down, down, down we went to table 106, baby!! Yippee! I sat RIGHT up against the stage..omg! My heart almost exploded when he came out with Rhythm of the Beat. Wow, nice song. : ) He looked so wonderful and happy. Does this man ever age? He is so damn beautiful and his voice was awesome. I looked up at him on the flying disc and proceeded to blow him kisses. I was pretty sure he saw me. : ) Well I'd like to at least think he did. I wanted him to know how much he means to me. The whole show was fabulous. He is an amazing performer. Way to go, Rick! During the fan bit, I reached out to him with my cell phone. (I had my mom on the phone, who is a big fan too) He says, "I didnt make a request!" or something like that. Ally and I both say, "But its my MOM!!". So, to my surprise and delight, he took the phone. I was so excited for me and for HER!! He says, "Hi Mom!" He tells her to say hi and holds the microphone up to the phone and you can hear my mom say loud and clear, "Hi Rick!". When I got the phone back with "Rick Sweat"..whew!..my mom says, "Oh my

Gosh!!!" It was great.

After the show, Ally, Kate and I walked to the security desk. It was time to meet Rick. At this point I had calmed down quite a bit. I dont know why. Maybe its because I had seen Rick and now I was ready to meet him and not lose it. Kate was able to come back with us which I am so greatful for. Not only did she get her hug, but she was able to video my whole experience. She did a great job. I have watched it again and again. I waited my turn for a few minutes. There were lots of people in there that night. Finally, Rick's assistant says, "Do you want to be next?" I think I shrugged! I look up and see Rick walk toward me. OMG!!! He reaches out to me and gives me a very nice hug. (wow) I said, "Ive been waiting for this since I was seven." Rick says, "Awwwe"..I love when he says that. : ) We take a pic and then Kate, who is filming this, says, "I missed the hug (HEE HEE! She didnt really!) and he suddenly pulls me into him. (I am dying here!) Such a big hug, that I practically disappeared in it. It was like it wasnt real...like a blur almost. I was so excited to finally meet this guy. I basically grew up with his music. Then he let go and I said, "Can you do that again?" He hugs me again..making an adorable face. I got some of my stuff signed and showed him my "Modeling pic" from this website. He laughed at that. I asked him to say hi to my kids, which he did and said they had cool names. He went on to sign something else and looked back and said, "you have 3 kids?" lol I gave him my silly gift of a red teddy bear..he had karma beads. Goofy, I know. Oh well. He was very sweet about it. We got a group shot that turned out great! Ally showed Rick Jeminis feather and he remembered her bird immediately. He says, "My baby!" He then sticks the feather in his hair and we all gather for the picture. I left that night feeling thrilled..I was on a cloud.

The next night, Ally was debating whether or not to buy the guitar. She seemed like she REALLY wanted to. I was laughing at her..saying, "you are rationalizing the whole thing!!" She was. She finally decided to DO IT! Ally, you go girl! After the first show for that night, we rushed back to security again. Ally was going to get another hug and her guitar personalized. It was a dream for her.  Thanks to her, Kate and I got to go back again. Whoo hoo! I couldnt believe it! Ally was very cute and nervous about it since this was HER moment. Kate and I hung back a bit and we both filmed with our cameras. It was nice this time we were the only fans backstage. Ally got her dream to be the "Guitar Girl". Rick signed it as Ally requested, with the first line from the song, "Alyson"..very appropriate. "Talk about life imitating art" He commented on her fuscia "Marni" ribbon. Then through my video camera, I see Rick look directly at me. : ) He walks over to give me a hug. Ohhhh another hug! I had to put my camera down. I like to see this part of my video. I said to him, "My hug pic from yesterday turned out kind of grainy"which it did.  I said, "Can we redo that hug picture?" "and it was a REALLY big hug!" lol Rick takes me into his arms and we take this awesome picture that I totally will always cherish. Thanks Rick!! Kate then got her kiss on the cheek. Wow! J We all got another group picture. Rick puts his arms around Ally and Kate. I am really tiny and didnt really know where to put myself, so I back up into Rick. He put his chin on my head! He is now ready to go do the next show. I said, "See ya at the show!" He said, "You all are going to the next show?" I said, "yup! And we'll be up front and screaming!" We said our goodbyes..L But it was wonderful. Rick is so giving to his fans it's amazing.

Off to see EFX AGAIN! Ally and I were at 106 and Kate was at 108 for this. Here he comes on his saucer looking and sounding yummy again. This may be my favorite part of the show. During the show, I decided to make some funny signs. Afterall, I am up front and he can see me rather well. So..my first sign said, "THUD!" He saw it and smiled. My second sign said, "OOH Baby!" He sees this while playing his guitar and says, "Ooh baby!" LOL!! Very cool. After the 3D movie, Ally and I and this sweet little girl put on these bug- eyed glasses on springs right as he says to take off the 3D glasses. (Ally had bought these-great idea) When Rick walked up and noticed, he laughed so hard that he was cracking up during his next line! It was priceless! The little girl at our table was adorable. She's 7 years old and Rick really played up to her a lot. You can tell she had a great time and she kept the bug-eyed glasses on. Every time Rick looked at her, I think it was tough for him not to laugh! She was so cute. My last sign that I held up was at the end of the show. It said, "Rock San Antonio"..which was the next night. He saw me, pointed and said, "Yes!!!" When Rick smashed the roses at the end of the show, the stems were thrown to our table. J

So, all in all, it was an all around perfect weekend! It was great to meet Kate and spend time with her. She is so sweet. Ally and I had a nice ride home, listening to some hard rock and commenting how nobody better crash into us..it would wreck the guitar! I am probably leaving out details, but this is from my point of view. (We did meet Tony Curtis and Latoya Jackson too) I loved seeing EFX, hugging Rick and spending time with friends that really "get it".  

Thanks Ally and Kate for a great weekend! And thanks to Rick for making my childhood dream come true. You still rock, look awesome, and are as sweet as can be.

(That's me, below!  hee hee)