7/9/11 Costa Mesa, CA

[Yankomaniac]

That is pretty awesome! I approve of the name and the avatar.

[Kristine]

That was fun! It's nice to just go as a fan from time to time, not worrying about my camera equipment or getting "the shot". I think that was the first time I had gone out to dinner with a bunch of people beforehand. Let's do that again!! That was fun. We took up one huuuuuuge table. I recognized nearly everyone there, and met a few new people, too. My friend Andy also went to the same restaurant, but at a different table with his friends. We all made the trip over to the fairgrounds afterwards and milled around the venue for awhile. We basically all scattered- I didn't find anyone again (besides Andy) until I sat down in my seat. Speaking of seat, talk about awesome! I don't think I've ever been surrounded by that many friends for a concert. I usually know one person directly next to me and that's it. It made the concert way more fun! There were two jerks sitting next to us that clearly weren't huge fans, but got Pit seats?!? Long story short, I ended up swapping seats with Alicia, and that was the end of that. They got up and left a couple songs before Fat, anyways. Loved loved loved the new setlist!! Most people didn't know this, but I actually stayed relatively spolier-free before this. I had heard maybe a few seconds of a couple of the new songs besides Polkaface, and knew the titles, but that was it. I literally have just been so busy working for Disney and a couple photo gigs that I just haven't had time to listen to the new CD. When I finally did have more time, it was so close to the concert that I just figured I should wait to hear them then. So cool! It's like being a new fan again lol. LOVE Party in the CIA, but then again the original has a special place in my heart to start with. It's going to take me awhile to get the new lyrics down to most of these since I know the originals so well. Anyways, when the concert was "over" and we were chanting "We Want AL"... a bunch of people started waving their cellphones around!!! I was like, wait a minute guys, a little early! Seriously, a good percentage of the 8,000 people in the crowd did it. I got a couple pictures of it. Not sure if they all thought that was the next song, or if some of them just did it because others (closer to the front, of course) started it. Turned out Cellphones was cut from the setlist, which is fine... honestly, I was getting a little tired of it. But we got one special little Jawa instead!! I got a few halfway decent photos on my point and shoot. Sooooo cute!! Of course we all did the Yoda Chant, no changes there. Overall awesome concert. After, some of us had stickers and some didn't, so we got our huge group photo and headed out. A small group of us went to Norms and got big sugary desserts. I can't remember when I got home, but I think it was around 2AM. Sheesh! Totally worth it, though. Great to meet new friends and reconnect with others.

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[Magic Salad]

This concert for me was more of a 4-day extravaganza event than just a concert. We started out on Thursday, 7/7/11 with Karaoke with Kevin Cable at Westside Bar and Grill in Costa Mesa. Our group (consisting of Adrian and Anne Vazquez, Alicia, Jon Katz, Joe Jaffa, Kristine Slipson, Kevin Cable and me) sang Saga and Amish Paradise together. From Dr. Horrible, Kevin, Alicia and Adrian Vazquez sang "A Man's Gotta Do" and Kevin and I sang "My Eyes." Jon Katz sang a couple of rap-style songs including "Wild Wild West," Joe Jaffa sang a Flight of the Conchords song and Kristine Slipson sang a couple of lovely numbers as well. We celebrated Adrian and Kevin's birthdays (both July 20) with cake and chocolate cake shots for the birthday boys. Kevin sang WBUL for us, entertained us with Kermit the Frog and playing guitar. If you've never been to karaoke with Kevin, do yourself a favor and check it out. His song collection, including Al songs, is hugely extensive and he is happy to find songs that anybody might request as well. He has shows at Westside Bar and Grill on Thursday nights and Durty Nelly's on Friday and Saturday nights.

On Friday, Alicia and I went to Disneyland and made sure to stop by the Frontierland Ranch to visit with Kristine and her goats. If you get to Disneyland, be sure to do the same!

On Saturday, we went with Adrian and Anne to Newport Beach to check out the Pacific Ocean and then to lunch at Rubios and then played some Apples to Apples and Mad Gab games together before heading off to dinner and the concert.

We met up at Karl Strauss for "Diners of the Alpocalypse." There was a large group (more than 20 less than 30) of us coming together and it seemed like more people kept showing up so we kept adding more chairs and another table. The staff and servers were friendly and professional and everything went smoothly. We really are thankful that Adrian was our liaison with the restaurant and set this up as well as keeping things running smoothly and collecting money for the bill at the end. We managed to meet and greet, eat and chat, take photos and pay the bill so we could leave in just 2 hours. That's pretty good for as many people as we had show up.

When we got to the concert venue we were in line to enter through the bag check line and a reporter from the OC Register asked to take a group photo of us as well as a solo photo of Alicia. Find those here: http://www.ocregister.com/articles/weir ... tml?pic=23" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Joe Jaffa ended up with an extra ticket so Alicia was able to join him and a large group of friends in row 6. I ended up in Section 1 row M sitting with Kevin Cable and his wife Cid. Kevin came to the concert dressed as AL
The concert was amazing and exciting and full of new music and costumes and old songs I hadn't ever seen performed live including "You Make Me." It's hard to describe the excitement of being at this concert that had an audience full of excited friends and a stage full of happy, wonderful, beloved performers.

If you want to view my FB pics, you can add me as a friend: http://www.facebook.com/shelley.carney" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

After the concert, Alicia, Adrian, Anne, Anna Canada, Jon, Joe, Kristine and I went to Norm's diner in Costa Mesa to devour all of their brownies and stack all of their steak knives as well as discuss our concert experience. Hugs all around as we left around 2 a.m.

On Sunday we spent the day at Universal Studios with Adrian and Anne and went to dinner late that night at Downtown Disney's Tortilla Jo's. We finished off the night by visiting with Vinkesh the Vicious and Slurpee Girl who were also on a vacation mission in California due to the plethora of midgets at Disneyland.

Alicia and I slept late the next day and flew home. We will miss all of our friends we got to hang out with this past weekend and I plan to get to California more often to hang out with them some more. Thank you everyone for making this concert and this whole Costa Mesa Tour a special and memorable experience for me.