The day after the night before......

OK, so I went on my walk around the hotel, hadn't really appreciated how big the flipping place was - LOL! First of all I went out to look at the car park (parking lot!), not that I have a particular interest in car parks, but I just wante to see where cars were from - all Nevada. I also wanted to check that those people who were in the disabled parking places should've been - old habits die very hard! All present and correct (minor flipping miracle!). I took a picture of a sign for them as well (I can hear the 'sad person' comments from here!), and I also took a picture of the front (or side - I had no idea where I was!) of the hotel, and a picture of the big Stars and Stripes at the entrance, and then I wheeled, and wheeled, and then wheeled some more around the hotel, peeking round corners 'just in case' (no sensible person, let alone an Osmond, would've been up at that time, dontchathink?!). Anyway, I was checking out the dropped kerbs (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it!). I only had to go on the road once (and I was aware that I was, technically, facing the wrong way, should a speeding car come towards me - but none did, so there!). I rapidly noticed that I was getting a little bit tired, so decided to find the next entrance - only trouble was, they were all fire exits, no proper entrance. Soooo, I'm rapidly dehydrating and couldn't find the entrance, until - eventually, there it was! Thank the Lord. My hair was slightly damp and I needed a drink - fast. Soooo, I headed towards somewhere (as I've said before, I tended to just head somewhere and hope for the best! LOL!), and ended up near the Showroom - I think I was headed for either the Gift Shop, Coffee place (which is near the entrance) or Liquor Store, or I might've been trying to find where Jay's Film Festival was going to be held - I don't know!

ANYWAY, I'm minding my own business, passing the Showroom entrance when....... 'Gerry!' is whispered loudly! LOL! I turn my head pretty sharpishly to my left and, who should be standing there, talking to a couple of ladies, but - Merrill! LOL! I smiled and said hello, but then waited for him to finish his conversation with the ladies, and then said that I hadn't expected him to be up that early (see earlier comment!), we hugged, and chatted for about five minutes, posed for a picture (or two!) and then Ms Security Guard came along as if to say 'get away from him' (she didn't), he apologised for his hair being all squiffy (looked alright to me!), and I told him I'd been out for a walk - without a hat. He LAUGHED this time (told me off in Wales!), and it was just lovely. I then said that I needed to go and get a drink so we said our goodbyes, but when I came back a few minutes later, he was still there, so we had another little chat, and then he DID go into the showroom, escorted by Ms Security Guard. Met several people who were a little bit miffed that they'd missed him - get up earlier, I say! LOL! I also announced that I was a Merrill fan again - HA! Got called transparent (in a good way) and I don't care!

Decided to go upstairs to the Film Festival as mine was the first timing, there were already a couple of people there. It was actually a nice time to be quiet and think things through (oooo, deep stuff!). After a while, the door we were expecting to be opened, wasn't, the one behind was, and some people refused to let those who were there first in first, some people were kind to me and let me in before them, and I got a seat in the front row, next to Trissa. When I'd settled (moved several chairs as is my wont!), a lady came up to me and asked me if she could put two chairs in front of me. Now, I'm normally a front row is sacrosanct person and was a tiny bit miffed, but reluctantly agreed. It turned out that she was Terri Shoemaker, and that the other chair was for Kandilyn - whoops! I wasn't rude, just a bit concerned that I wouldn't be able to see, but it was fine in the end.

Kandilyn was fantastic, there was a bit of a technical hitch, but she carried on talking about herself and how she'd met Jay, and she was a lot of fun. I was a bit underwhelmed when I saw we were looking at the OFT videos, which I have, but the stories behind certain aspects of them were excellent, the story about the children appearing on stage singing All I Want for Christmas was so sweet! And the story of Jimmy and the pyrotechnics was scary (even more so when I realised during the concerts that he was now next to Merrill, whose hair is a lot, shall we say, finer - bless him! LOL!). I loved it, Jay didn't come, unfortunately, as he was busy doing interviews. We were told at the end that we had to leave pretty sharpish as the next lot had to come in, but you know, some people will take any chance to speak to an Osmond, and they did - I don't think they did it for long, though, so it was OK.

Afterwards spent a bit of time chatting to people in the corridor and then went for lunch (goodness knows where, Courtyard Cafe, French Buffet - haven't a clue! LOL!).

Later on that day were the two other shows - I loved the second one the best, it had more country in it, songs like One Way Rider, Heartache Tonight, but the highlight for me was Merrill doing Impossible Dream - wow, wow, wow! The applause when he does the long note, and at the end went on and on - and I cried! I love him doing that song. To be honest, I do think that the second show had more Merrill solo in it, so I'm probably a bit biased. We'd spent quite a while earlier waiting for Osmonds to come out, they didn't, and had heard that Donny had 'popped' a vocal chord - ouch. Merrill appeared at one point, but didn't stop, saying that he had 'something to do.' Marie came out at one point and I completely missed her - didn't even see her amongst the people she was with - how observant is that, I ask you?! Donny had actually strained his vocal chords, but it still meant he couldn't do as much, but he was still the real pro and did really well, considering. This time my seat was the other side, second row in from the back - couldn't see much again. One thing bothered me about this one again - the amount of talking amongst the crowd whilst everything was happening - I wanted to yell shut up! Soooo rude! I mean, you expect a 'wow, that was great!' (or not), but constant talking - shut up! LOL!

All too soon the second show was over and we were told to get out so that they could prepare for the third one. My shoe had fallen off during the show, so I had to stay behind to put it back on, delayed a couple of the staff cleaning, but I'd rather I was comfortable walking back than anything else. They were OK about it. So, we went out, and queued up again! Saw lots of Osmonds going in whilst we were waiting, and I was not impressed, again, by one Osmond relative, who rather rudely asked me to move, I very nearly said 'say please and I will!' but didn't - hmmm, rather sad, as I'm always told this person is elegant and refined (that gives you a clue as to the gender!). Just goes to show that the Osmond family is made up, like ours are, of people who are nice and not so nice - my goodness, they're normal people - eeeeek!

Anyway, show three next time!