So this is how the most amazing day of my life went.

Got up at 5:00 am to start getting ready, that SUCKED, I am not a morning person and on 2 hours of sleep….you get the picture. Got the kids dropped off at the parents house and headed out to L.A. with the hubby. We got to the parking structure at around 10:40am, where we proceeded to stand in a Loooong line until 12 noon. I met some really great David fans, Cathy and Rena, they’ve been to a gazillion shows! I was shaking with nervousness, they thought I was funny. At noon we piled on a bus that took all 150ish of us to the Nokia theatre (where David won!), as we drove up we could see the red carpet and all the media getting set up. And then I stopped breathing, there was David’s STAGE with big DAVID COOK written all over the back drop! We got off the bus and proceeded to stand in line after line being stopped by security every ten seconds. Finally it appeared we were in THE line to go stand on the red carpet! We got in there and realized we were going to be standing right up against the stage! I literally had one person in front of me (Rena from the earlier line), I was positioned directly in front of where Neal would be standing, and only about 5-7 feet from David! My heart was beginning to palpitate.

Fast forward about 30 minutes. All of a sudden some screams, I look to my right and I see the top of a familiar head popping over the wall…I almost pass out. I keep my eyes glued to that wall, there’s his arm, there’s his ear, his hair….holy crap, I’m really doing this! Now comes the band, Andy, Kyle, Neal, and then lastly Dave. The stairs were on my side of the stage so I had a great view; it was just hard to snap many pictures when I was in such a state of shock! They take their places and he immediately starts chatting with the crowd, bending down to look at what some girls wrote on their hands. I was turning into jello, I was completely numb, my sore feet forgotten….was David Cook really standing RIGHT FREAKIN’ in front of me?! I tried to take it all in, his outfit was amazing on him, all navy blue, pinstripe pants, pinstripe shirt, vest, tie, necklace with an angel’s wing on it, his old grungy boots that are black (but practically brown from wear), Lindsey’s bracelet, Adam’s bracelet, a red bracelet that I didn’t know, his right wrist was bare…his eye tattoo clear to see. And oh my god, his hands are HUGE! He’s sporting some guyliner today, which isn’t my favorite look for him, but still, he is even more gorgeous than I imagined. Finally the AMA people tell him to cue us to applaud (like we needed it!) and they started playing Declaration. Everyone is singing and screaming at the top of our lungs even though they told us not to. They sound amazing live, honestly, I was amazed at how ‘together’ they are! After Declaration the AMA people are saying something to him in his ear monitor, he responds and we have no idea what he is talking about. He then starts talking to some girl holding a weird sign of David with grapefruits for eyes, he says “You wanna give me a grapefruit?” They cued him to start Light On and they began, but thirty seconds in, they stopped him because he forgot to cue our applause. We realize we have to wait a second for the next song and him and the boys start strumming some random tunes, they began a Tool song then went into Wheezer. When we applauded, David was like, “You guys don’t understand, we only know like the first 10-15 seconds of a bunch of songs!” They told him something and he looks over his shoulder to the large sign on the wall and says, “You mean you don’t want to promote the Indian bingo and casino?” He killed a little more time; Kyle does a mini drum solo. Someone shouted “Where’s the party tonight?” He says “Uhhh, it’s here at the American Music Awards! That’s what I was supposed to say right? Ha, ha!” He starts throwing picks and we go crazy! They tell him they can play a song to kill time so they talk and decide on Life on the Moon, they get about 10 seconds in and they cut him off cause the offending sign finally changed. He goes, “Haha, that was MEAN!” One more false start for Light On, then he cued us, we went crazy and Light On was amazing! I still can’t believe how surreal this whole thing is. Towards the end of Light On, he asked if we know it and lets us sing a verse, he looked so thrilled that we were singing HIS song!

Light On ends and they tell him he has to do it again; we’re like “Cool!” I know I already got more than I bargained for! He cues us to applaud and they start it again. I grab my book of graphics cause I know the end is near. He throws a few picks, I missed one by a few inches. The AMA people tell him it was good and he starts to sign autographs, EVERYONE has a CD jacket to have signed. A little girl asked for a pick so he takes her purse and throws a couple in there. He’s so sweet to everyone, signing everything that gets thrown in his face and trying to make conversation amidst the screaming. He makes his way over to me and I hand him my CD booklet, he signs it and hands it back to me, I give him my book and say “It’s a book of graphics” but I don’t know if he hears me. The book contains about a third of the work I’ve made over the past 5 months, it includes fic covers and signatures. He opens it and glances at the first page which is a cover letter, I am bummed I didn’t put a picture on top, that would’ve gotten his attention more. He tucks my book under his arm and continues to sign autographs. He wanders over to the other side of the stage and someone wants a picture with him, but he is still on the stage, so he drops down and lies on his belly to get in the picture. I REALLY wish I could’ve gotten my pic with him! The AMA people come out and are telling him to wrap it up, that they need to clear the red carpet. He keeps signing; you can tell he really wants to get to everyone before he goes. The AMA guy literally grabs him by the waist and starts to drag him backwards. On his way off the stage, I shout and hold out my hand and he grabs it! My left hand to his left hand…Oh my god his hands are amazing, that is a feeling I will not soon forget! His fingers were huge and very rough and warm…it really is a miracle I managed to stay upright after that. I saw Kyle walking off the stage and I shouted to him for an autograph, but he either didn’t hear me, or didn’t want to stop. And then they were gone.

The AMA people funnel us to our next location, the bleachers on the red carpet. We are sitting right behind the people from EXTRA, and they keep cuing us to applaud. They put that in before certain performances, like the applause before David’s performance, actually came well AFTER the actual performance! My hubby and I got on camera a few times, my mother in law said she could see me in the audience for David, and I’ve seen some footage from the red carpet where I can see both of us. Kinda cool. So then the craziness ensued, the celebs started arriving and people wouldn’t sit in their seats, so we were up and down for the next 2 hours or so trying to see who everyone was freaking out about. I am STILL sore two days later! After the first half an hour or so David came down the red carpet, the bleachers went crazy! He stopped to take his media photos and kept getting distracted by us. A few other people came in behind him, Christina Aguilera was one of them I think, we kept going nuts for David, and we started chanting, “DAVID, DAVID, DAVID!” He looked up at us and grinned a sheepish grin, did his little clapping bow he does, then put his finger to his cheek and said, “Aww, shucks guys!” He genuinely looked a little surprised and embarrassed that we were still shouting for him with so many other big stars around him. At the far end of the carpet, he stopped to chat with Archie and Jeff. He definitely didn’t look as confident on the red carpet as he looked on stage, NOT his element!

Some other people we saw were, Sarah McLaughlin, Pink, Queen Latifa, Jordan Sparks, The Jonas Brothers, Stephen Tyler, Nickelback, Rascal Flatts, Daughtry, Ne-yo, Nikii Six with Kat Von’D, Kanye West, Sarah Chalk, Rheanna, Alicia Keys, there were so many that I can’t remember them all! It was a really fun and unique experience! When the last celeb went down, we thought we were getting ready to get shuttled back to our car. They lined us up and they started handing out something. We were a bit confused as to what it could be. All of a sudden we realized we were going to go in to see the show! This was the best day ever and it just kept getting better! When we were standing in the security line to get in, I looked over and right next to me is Ron Jeremy.

We got to our section and they let us in but said we couldn’t sit until a commercial break. New Kids were performing, (the 11 year old in me was freaking out!) Our seats were super far back, but we were only one level up from the floor section, T if anyone knows the Nokia. I couldn’t believe that I was in the same building that David won Idol! I could just imagine what it would’ve been like to be there that day. We got to our seats and the show was incredible! Most of the performances were amazing! The stage looked awesome for each one of them! I don’t think you get the full effect on TV. My favorites were Coldplay (mostly for the awesome stage effects, the glow in the dark confetti especially), Sarah McLaughlin and Pink, Annie Lennox, Kanye West (also for the awesome stage!), and Alica Keys with Queen Latifa. Of course when David presented, it was awesome, he was sooooo far away though, kind of weird after seeing him so close.

This whole thing was just an amazing, exhilarating experience; I was still flying high when I finally got home at 11:00 that night! SO much better than I EVER expected it could be!