We ordered our tickets and after waiting a little over a week, we figured they were taking quite some time getting here. We checked our order again and apparently you print them out yourself, to which we had now idea about when we purchased. So, we printed our tickets and now it was official!! I was going to see David for the first time since Summer 2009!! Hard to believe that the now 25 year old David was only 18 years old when I saw him last.
And let the adventure BEGIN.!
Today is the day! I woke up around 11 and did some work on the computer and eventually got ready to! We left around 3:00PM and headed to the gas station, since we forgot to get gas last time we were out. Then we realized we completely forgot about money for the tolls on the highway! So we went to Publix to get a money exchange and my mom bought some chocolate chip cookies for the ride lol. While I was waiting in the car for my mom in Publix, I turned on the radio and 7 Years started playing! I thought that was cool! David's is, of course, so much better. Then, we left Publix and we were BEGIN.ning our 2 hour drive!
Every day including the day itself didn't feel like it was actually going to happen, or that it was happening. Until we got into the car, that is. It was finally starting to hit me that I was finally going to see him again. Earlier that day before we left, I checked to see what the weather was going to be like and we were supposedly going to be getting a storm. I figured we would get just some light rain like usual, but it was raining so much it was almost impossible to see the car in front of us on the highway! It was both scary and cool lol.
We didn't have our GPS set up so we were going by directions on paper. So, of course, we got lost. Or thought we did anyway. We kept driving around and around the area, only to find out we drove by the convention center two times! Getting lost made us get to see this beautiful Ferris Wheel up close, though!
And this awesome ocean painting on a building!
Finally, after pulling into the wrong section trying to get to parking, we finally got to the parking lot! The convention center was beautiful! They also had a sign!
We made our way out of the car and headed in! After walking up what felt like a lot more stairs than there actually was. The place was HUGE. I didn't expect it to be as giant as it was. So, we finally made our way in and went to the bathroom with the tiniest stalls ever (didn't help that the doors opened IN either). Then we had no idea where we were going. We knew we needed to find Hall NA1 so we walked a little ways and lo and behold! There it was!
We walked a ways and there was a massive line! I definitely didn't expect there to be so many people going in. Luckily, we didn't have to wait too long until the line started moving! They had some cool TOFW banners around the area, though.
After about 10 or 15 minutes, we were finally at the end of the line. A woman was there to take our tickets and give us wristbands. My mom and I didn't realize that the convention center where David would be would practically be in a warehouse. Very strange setting for somewhere where a performance was going to be. The way to get in was to go down and escalator, but unless you were right up to it you couldn't even see it there in the first place! My mom and I joked that people were falling off a cliff in to warehouse area LOL. When we were in line a woman asked us if it was our first time there and she said she was here because of the book store lol. We had no idea what she was talking about since there was no area for merchandise or anything like that, until we went down the escalators. When you first walk in, there was basically a mini store right in front of you and off to the right there was the stage.Next, time to search for a seat! There was a ton of empty seats up towards the front of the stage so my mom and I thought we had it made. That is, until we saw that they were ALL reserved. Every single one of them. So, we made our way back a bit and after searching and deciding where we wanted to sit, we found a place behind the camera man! When we walked in they also gave us a pamphlet and, of course, I looked for David's page! So cool!
We waited for what must have been around half and hour or so until the screen started counting down from 5:00 minutes to the show starting!The countdown ended and they started showing a video of some woman who was telling you all the steps of how to handle tonight, I guess. It was funny. Also, apparently men were allowed at the event (there wasn't many of them, maybe 5 tops, but they could go if they wanted), but they said that they turned all the mens rooms into womens, except for a single stall in one bathroom. That was a little odd, but it was mostly all women there, anyway. Hence the name lol. After the video ended a woman came onto the stage and said a prayer with everyone before the event officially started.
Then suddenly music started playing and it didn't really hit me that it was Glorious! Then came out DAVID!!! He was wearing a nice white sweater with gray stripes on it:
His voice sounded INCREDIBLE. Here I thought I more or less remembered what his voice sounded like in person, then was nothing compared to now. It was so smooth and beautiful. Sometimes during fan recordings of Glorious he seems a little shakey at the BEGIN.ning, but not at all live. I wasn't expecting him to walk out right as the event started, so that definitely had my heart racing and made me cry lol.
He finished singing Glorious and introduced himself and said "Hello! I'm David... Archuleta. I'll be singing tonight. Which... I guess is what I just did so I think you got that part." LOL. Then he introduced one of the speakers Mary Cook and she took the stage and spoke for a little while with David standing behind her. Then eventually left the stage with Mary Cook and they showed a video of a woman who was on a road trip with her family and their bike fell off the back of their car, so she went to get it and got hit by another car. So, yeah, that was a sad video.After that, Mary Cook came on and talked for about 40 minutes or so. I thought it would be quite boring prior to the event, but it was actually entertaining and certainly didn't feel like it was as long as it was. She talked about her faith, circumstances you can and can’t change (which David did something funny with later on, you'll see) and lots of other subjects. All in all, it was enjoyable.
Mary Cook finished her speech and now it was time for David again!! This time he started off with 'Angel.' Which is always a hard song, especially now. He sang so beautifully and just wrapping my head around the fact that I was seeing David, live, in front of me was a trip. His energy and aura were so incredible. I can't even explain it. The whole time he was performing, people behind me obviously didn't know him as well as a fan does and were saying how good he is, his voice is amazing, etc, etc. Someone also asked the person next to him how long ago he was on Idol and they said 5 years lol. Close enough.
Once Angel finished, David started talking about the power of music and how it's incredible how it can affect people so much. Oh, and and side note; his voice is so deep in person O_O lol. Anyway, he then started talking about singing Angel when he was 9 years old for his family and his grandpa was there and he was talking about how he was ruff around the edges and said "He would always say: what are all these ugly kids doing here?" "Lovingly. He said it with a smile on his face" LOL. He then went onto say that whenever he sang this song with his grandpa there it would make him cry. Then he talked about that for a little while longer. After that he started getting out his phone and said "I wrote something down. That is what I love about technology, I can write something down that I forget 30 seconds later." LOL.
Next song was Beautiful! I figured he would, but I'm so happy he ended up singing it! Before he started he started talking about his sisters and women not realizing how beautiful they are. While he was talking, a giant gnat flew in his face LOL. So for like half a minute he swatting them away and got all distracted from what he was saying. It was so funny LOL. Then he said while waving his finger in the air "He's like, I'll be back for youuuuuuu. So, if there's a gnat flying up my nose or into my mouth, don't mind. It's just, some things happen. There's circumstances that we can't change!" OMG LOL. The entire place was dying laughing at that. The gnat game back for revenge quite a few times, too lol. Then he went onto talking about people asking his type of girl and saying it's not about how they look, it's if they radiate light. I always love the way he explains that. He's just extremely sweet <3. At one point during the speech he said something about girls having a shining light and started singing 'This Little Light of Mine' lol. Then his speech finished he sang Beautiful gorgeously <3.
And, break time. I went up to go to the bathroom which turned out to be a bad idea lol. I could barely even walk so many people were crowding and then I looked at the bathroom which had a massive line, so I went back to my seat and decided to just go later. The break was about 20-25 minutes long and then a countdown started again.
The countdown ended and they showed a trailer video for David's Called to Serve DVD which had him announcing his mission at the BEGIN.ning. Ugh.
Now, more talking! He was all "Now before I do this final song, surprise! I've got another story for you!" LOL. Time to bring out the phone. I can't remember exactly what this speech was about, but I think he was talking about challenges and how everyone has them. I also remember that he used The Lord of the Rings quotes again LOL. He said something like "I'm going to refer once again to my beloved Lord of the Rings" lol. Then he continued to talk about that and more things that I can't remember for a few minutes and now it was time for the next performance!True Colors was the next song and wow, it was beautiful. His voice just soars. I don't remember if it was during this song or not, but my mom said something about how he's just so different looking from other people. He really is, that boy literally glows.
The song finished and he was gone for what I thought would be the final time...
Next up was one of the male speakers they had there. I can't remember what his name was, but he gave an interesting speech. He talked about how his granddaughter wanted to come because David was there lol. I got up during it to go to the bathroom and while I was in there, they were playing the Backstreet Boys' I Want It That Way lol. Then I went back to my seat and the guy talked for another half an hour or so. He memorized a poem that took him about 15 minutes to say which was pretty incredible. It was a nice poem. He then finished his speech and I thought it was over. Then who walks back out on the stage? David for one more song!! They had a really cool photo on the screen for him that I missed the first time, also.
We walked around for a while to see if he was anywhere in sight, but couldn't find him. Then I saw some people grouping around the stage so I figured I'd see if David was among them and then happened to turn to my left and said to my mom that I thought I saw Kari! We both ran over to see if it was actually her and lo and behold! There's David at a table signing autographs and taking pictures with fans!!!
I was trying to figure out where the line started, but it seemed like everyone was just standing anywhere they wanted. Until one of the photographers there said that the line started towards the back. It didn't seem like it was that long, until we looked over the pillar. The line went almost all the way to the exit! He only had 10 minutes left to sign since we couldn't find him at first, so there was pretty much no way that we'd get to the BEGIN.ning of the line. We walked over to end then and we were literally the last person the entire time. My mom told me she would save my place in line so I could go up front and at least get to see him, anyway. So I stood there for a little while and took a few photos!I also took a video, but someone was standing in the way the whole time. A couple of times he looked and smiled at me! After watching all those people mob around him, I started feeling bad for him. It was like a meat market lol. Everyone wanted a piece of him and were screaming at him, it was crazy. I've seen videos of M&G's, but you never realize just how insane it is until you're there. I went back over to my mom to see if she still wanted to wait in line and one of the women that worked there told people to go get ice cream instead of waiting to see David since it "wasn't worth it" lol. Psh, David's even better than ice cream, people. A few people walked away, though.
I left my mom in line and headed back over so I could get to see him one final time before he had to go. Eventually they started bringing everyone in closer to in front of the table because they were trying to clear a path so he could end up leaving through the masses. There was some girl in the group with a giant fake ferret shaking it everyone, too lol. She said to me that it was a good way to get peoples attention... O....k? lol. Then I moved over towards the side of the table and my mom started pushing me towards the very edge of all the people. David was walking away with Kari sort of holding his arm and suddenly he sort of pulled out of her reached and dodged the other people he was with who were pulling him away and ran towards me!! WHAT!? I wasn't even expecting it. He suddenly be-lined towards me with his hand outstretched and said "Hey! I'll shake your hand, though!" and shook my hand!!! He has such a firm hand shake, I wasn't expecting that, either lol. He had the biggest smile on his face while he looked at me. That boy is perfect. And I'm not that much taller than him! lol. Then he let go of my hand and walked away. I have no idea why he even came over to shake my hand, but I'm so very happy he did!!! I couldn't help it and cried after it happened, but luckily he didn't see it lol. Then he walked towards the exit and he was gone.
My mom and I made our way to back to the escalators and grabbed one of the Deseret newspapers in case he was in it and made our way upstairs. We saw a vending machine and decided to get a Crush soda before we left! We didn't know it was $3.95 for one, though! Oh well, it was worth it. Then we walked outside and saw the huge Ferris Wheel all lit up!
It was actually really nice and cool outside, too! Then we walked back to our car and I took a picture of the raccoon lot! While we were walking my mom and I were talking about how well David and Adam would get along lol. They both pretty much said the exact same things during their shows, it was weird. But we knew that, anyway. Little did I know when I saw Adam, that I'd get to meet David almost exactly a month later!We then started the long 2 hour trip home. But not before stopping at Wendy's to have the same thing as when we saw Adam in Universal last month. After that, we got home around 2:00am.
I can't believe after over 8 years of knowing David, I finally got to meet him! That day was absolutely incredible. I had no clue I would even have the opportunity, let alone actually to get to meet one of the most important people to me. Everything about that event was just perfect. Little did I know 7 years ago the last time I saw him, the next time would be actually getting to meet and shake his hand. Crazy. I wish we could have recorded it in some way so I could relive it over and over, though. Oh well. I can't wait to see him again, hopefully sooner rather than later!
And here before the event, I thought this recap would be shorter...
