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Upon arriving at the Palace Theater in Columbus, we ran smack into Neil again! That was three shows in a row! LOL. We also talked to Daryl from Bowling Green, Ohio. And I saw Mel across  the lobby, but didn’t get a chance to talk to her.  Even though we had M&Gs for this show, the seats were not in the pit. We were Row 3 on the aisle, left side. Still pretty good, but not sure how much interaction we’d get from the stage. The stage was very shallow/short. There was not much room for movement. Girls had to step out of the way when walking past one another. And definitely no spinning! (Well of course Mairead did her spinning!) When the girls started T.A.R., we didn’t know where to look. It seems they were well BEHIND us this time and engaging much more of the audience in their antics! As Lisa came down the aisle toward the stage, she stopped right beside Barb and reached out and squeezed her hand! NOW,she knew where we were seated and we got a good amount of attention from then on. My one complaint about this is that when they start out in the audience, those of us up front can’t see their interactions/expressions. It was much more fun to watch them gesturing and making fun of each other when I could see it all in front of me. Guess that’s the (small) price we pay for seats in the front rows. This audience was pretty lame as far as showing appreciation to the girls. There were only a few forum members and we were scattered about. However, Neil and Daryl were both able to ISU – Neil to the pit and Daryl, Row 1.  When the show was over, James called off the names for the M&G. Huh? Only EIGHT people at the M&G? Wow, never had that happen before. He moved us to the back of the theater where a table was being set up. We were sort of lined up along the wall and I was bending down trying to organize my “stuff.”  James said, “here they come now” and Barb let out a little squeal. Yup! Lisa and Chloe! My heart did a little flip flop! As Bubba was leading the girls to the table, Lisa looked over at us, and I swear, she acted like she wanted to run right over and hug me! But you know Bubba, she had to follow him to the table.  We let the other folks go ahead of us, of course. LOL. Can I just say, this was the best. meet. and. greet. ever! No rushing us out. We got hugs, cheek to cheek pictures with both girls,  spent however long we wanted to talk with each girl, went back when I forgot to tell Lisa something, went back to take more pictures, it was just so awesome! Now I know why we didn’t have Lisa at either of the earlier M&Gs this week. An 8 person M&G is WAY better than a 30 or 40 person M&G! It couldn’t have been better! Lisa made me feel like she wanted to meet me as much as I wanted to meet her! Side note: I was able to get Barb’s birthday card signed by Lisa and Chloe, thanks to Neil, Bubba and James. I can’t believe she didn’t see it happening....right in front of her!

Got up the next morning to drive back to my house, three hours away, and then onward to Chicago Friday morning. We stopped at the Dollar Tree to pick up some plastic glasses for an idea I had for “The Parting Glass” at the Chicago show. We also came across some darling little lamb puppets and couldn’t pass them up! We made our way to Chicago and checked in around 2:00. Got ready for the pre-show dinner at the Embassy with about 20 other CWForum friends! This was Barb’s birthday, so I had the waiter bring out a double chocolate muffin with a candle in it....he classed it up a bit on a white plate with some chocolate and raspberry drizzle.  LOL. When he brought it out, all of the forum folks sang Happy Birthday and the waiter also handed her the birthday card (which she assumed was signed by all of us.) She was very surprised and excited to see the girls had all signed it and wondered how in the world I had gotten their signatures! What fun that was. Then it was off to the Akoo Theater (formerly Rosemont Theater) for night one of Chicago!

This night we had Row 2, center pit seats and we were surrounded by about 30 other forum fans! Standing O’s after every song (much to the chagrin of one Deborah O’Brien if I remember her name correctly, who felt the need to chastise us “dorky groupies” on the CWNAT FB page.)  The girls, choir, and band were in top form tonight and we all got so much attention from the girls. And yes, I did feel quite a bit of attention directed at me from one Lisa Lambe. Of course, the lamb puppets drew her attention and we got the hand over the heart, awwwww, look from her. If you’ve seen Lisa in person, you know what I mean! The show went by so fast and suddenly it was the final song, THE PARTING GLASS.  Unbeknownst to anyone on stage, I had distributed plastic stemmed glasses to 24 of us in the center pit. At the moment in the song where the girls are lined up across the front of the stage and Lisa raises an imaginary glass, we ALL raised our glasses.  I must say, it was the best concert moment ever!!!!!! The look on Lisa’s face and then the other girls and the band and the choir.......so hard to describe........so priceless! Lisa actually stopped singing she was so shocked! And then when Anthony came out, we raised the glasses again and when he saw them, he began laughing so hard, he had to release the mouthpiece. Don’t know that we can top that moment! But next up was the M&G that Barb and I had tickets to! And YAY! It was Lisa and Susan. So we had more hugs and pictures and squeeeeeees! Lisa signed a copy of the picture we had taken at the Columbus M&G and when she saw it, she remarked, “We look gooooood!”  I must say I have to agree.  She asked about the puppets and the glasses so we had a good chuckle about that!  Post-show gathering back at the Embassy was good.....missing a few fans who had ventured out to find a mechanical bull.....but I’ll let them tell that story!

Saturday’s seats were 3rd row to the right of center. We continued to receive attention from Lisa and brought out the lamb puppets again. This show was every bit as wonderful as the previous shows! We didn’t raise our parting glasses, but we did hold up plastic spoons during Dulaman and promptly received another priceless reaction from Ms. Lambe! She proceeded to show us how to play the spoons! At the end of the show, as everyone was taking their bows, Craig, the dancer was right in front of me. I had been tweeting him throughout the week to express my appreciation of his wonderful dancing.  When I caught his eye, I pointed at him and he pointed back and bowed his head. He confirmed via a tweet later, yes he remembered! No M&G for us tonight, but as we had already had FOUR M&Gs this week, we were perfectly satisfied. I thanked James for being such a nice guy and he asked if we were coming in to the M&G. I told him that we didn’t have passes tonight and that this was our last show this tour.  “That you know of” he responded with a chuckle.  He knows us “dorky groupies” too well, doesn’t he?  Back to the Embassy for post-show eats and reviewing the show! So many good friends I have made because of CW! And a big THANK YOU to all my CW friends for making this tour so wonderful!

If you have made it to the end of this “review” you are to be commended! Sorry it’s so long, but as you can tell, this week-long tour was very meaningful to me! The ONLY thing missing from our tour was one Lisa Kelly, and she was greatly missed by me and my sister! We’re keeping fingers crossed that Lisa will return and Susan will remain! Wouldn’t that be awesome!!!!