We had another busy day at Jay Osmond's Get Together. We started out with getting some pastries and some delicious Hot Chocolate.
After we selected our table (we lucked out), there had a lot of items that they were raffling off...lots of Osmond memorabilia, like albums, puzzles, books, posters, dolls etc. We didn't enter any of the raffles. I loved all the stuff but didn't really have a way to get things back home and if even I did, what would I do with it at home except sit it on a shelf or something.
Prior to the Get Together, I only entered an online raffle - to win drum lessons with Jay...more on that later.
So, they got started talking about the day before and the play. Jay asked "Did you hear anything that you didn't already know?" and everyone agreed that we had heard everything. If you are a lifelong fan, you pretty much know everything about them.
Jay and Karen talked a while and told us the story about how they met and their first date. They met on an LDS app. She didn't know it was Jay when he sent her a message that he wanted to meet her, because they only had User Names. His was CrazyDrummer55. We did an ornament exchange. Our ornaments were the best because they were Jay themed.
We got some cute ones too - I got the US Capitol in DC and Susan got a pretty Lenox Silver Snowflake, which she gave to me since she said it wasn't her taste. I offered her the DC one, but she said she didn't want it.
Karen and Jay then played the Mr. & Mrs. game. So fun. They would ask questions, like "Who takes the longest to get ready? Who is most likely to spend more in Costco?" and things like that. They sat back-to-back so they couldn't see each other, and they held Blue to answer Jay or Pink to answer Karen. They got into a few heated (but light-hearted and fun) disagreements on some of them, which often lead to funny stories about Jay.
By the way...see his shirt? Dotty Dodson, a fan from Nashville, who actually received one of the ornaments I had brought, gave him this shirt. If you are looking up close, it has the lyrics of Crazy Horses.
At our table, Susan and I were the only Americans. Everyone else was from England we made great friends with them, including Eva (the 21 year old I spoke about yesterday) and her mom, along with (right to left) - Cora, Susan and Carol, who all went to Las Vegas the next day to see Donny's show.
They were the best!
We broke from lunch and went to the same French Cafe around the corner but this time we each got a whole croissant each and no dessert one. I was trying to drink a lot of water too because it is so dry out there. I had remembered that when I was there 20 years ago.
After lunch, some (on the other side of the room) played a joke on Jay. He always says he does "Squirreling" which mean he will get easily detracted, like the dog from "Up" and will be in the middle of something and "Squirrel"
So these ladies dressed at Squirrels - cute. Later, I learned they gave their customs away to some soccer players that were staying in the hotel, I'm sure those guys appreciated that.
Then they had the raffle drawing and .... I WON! I gave my chance to drum with Jay to Susan of course. He was only supposed to pick 3 people but ended up picking 6. I wish he would have kept it down to 3 because there was too many people trying to learn and he spread them out on different drums. I was the 2nd person picked.
Unfortunately, when Susan got to the stage, at first she was totally facing me, then she moved to the other drum and her back was to me the entire time....why did she do that? She just didn't think about where I was, she was in awe that she was on the stage, playing drums with Jay...it was a dream come true for her.
Then they took photos with Jay. That took a pretty good while.
Then they had dinner for us. It was pretty good, the chocolate mousse was heavenly.
During dinner, Karen ended up coming over to us she told me and British Susan (the one above with Pink hair) a LOT of stuff. I guess she just needed to unload some things. She talked to the 2 of us probably 45 minutes. I won't tell you everything she said because she didn't really want us to repeat it to anyone, but one thing she said was that Jay really misses Jimmy and Jimmy's wife won't let him really around any of the family. Jay went up to him at Wayne's funeral to hug and talk to him and Michelle ushered him away. She said Jimmy was crying and saying "Noooooo" but she wouldn't let him talk to Jay. It really hurt Jay and she felt so bad for Jimmy. Karen also told us that Wayne was so good to her and when they would visit him, he always said to her, "Sit here with me". I can see Wayne being like that.
Here is Karen with me and Susan (but not the Susan that she was talking with)
Later, they held heads above the drummer to pick the best one and Susan "really won" she got a LOT of applause. . . but there was a guy that was blind and he was hitting the symbols. I guess he got the sympathy vote, and Jay gave him an electronic drum it. Susan was okay with that because she said she didn't have a way to get it home anyone. She knew in her heart that she won and that was all that mattered to her.
Ryan joined Jay on stage, and we all did Osmond sing-alongs. We had a blast. You know, Ryan was fun and I enjoyed him, but I thought they gave him too much stage time. I wanted to hear more of Jay and less of Ryan. He was nice and I later found that those certain Brit girls that dressed as squirrels actually paid his way so he could go to Utah...they wanted to surprise Jay for his birthday.
We ended the evening around 10pm. We got a group shot and Susan and I made sure that we were next to Jay!
Close up shot - ha ha
It was a LONG but fun day!! We were both tuckered out.
I don't have a lot of photos from today but look at what we woke up to! Most of the day was spent in the Script Reading of "Osmonds - the Musical"
Since the play was cancelled, Jay did a script reading of it. People could enter raffles to win a part on who to play, but I didn't want to do that...I just wanted to enjoy the reading. Unfortunately, our phones were not allowed, and we had to put them in a secure bag, that we sealed and kept ourselves. If we went out of the room, we had to show the sealed bag, or get a new one and seal it back up. I didn't mind because I got to hear the whole play!
Bonus: Ryan Anderson, who played Merrill in the musical in the U.K. came to the get together and of course, he played Merrill's part. Jay and Ryan had some inside information about the play and behind the scene things, which was extra special.
This is Ryan and Karen, Jay's wife
While we didn't get to use our phones during the reading, there was one photographer, Judy Taylor, who knows EVERYTHING about the Osmonds and I mean she is like a savant, she remembers dates when certain concerts were, dates when they played in Las Vegas or appeared on a TV show and every member of the Osmond family's birthdays, including the grandchildren..its amazing and a little unusual that she knows so much...but she was the official photographer for the event.
We didn't eat breakfast, we just right into the reading first thing and that lasted until about 4 pm, with a short break for lunch. We walked to a cute French Bakery around the corner. Susan and I split a Turkey & Cheese Croissant and a Blueberry Croissant for dessert. Both were good.
After lunch we returned for the rest of the reading and there was a raffle for people that wanted to sing Osmond songs and several people did that.
This is Eva, 21 years old and a HUGE Osmond fan, especially Jay, who is her favorite. She was so cute and she sat with us at our table the next day with her mom.
These are friends we made at the Get-Together, more on them tomorrow.
This is Tracy Pearson, she's from Nashville and was there with her husband, another Osmond Fan
This is Gina Wolff, a longtime fan, who has been to LOTS of Donny's shows in Las Vegas and she went to more after the weekend was over.
The day wasn't over until 9 pm and we were tired, but hungry, since all we had the entire day was to split 2 croissants and they were not very filling.
So...afterwards, Susan and I went driving around Provo and found Burgers Supreme. Man, oh man! I guess this was the PLACE to go in Provo. It was PACKED and they were making burgers faster than anybody ever saw! I wonder how many they sell in a day - wow! The drive thru was also packed. I've never seen so many people coming and going. They had burgers, hot dogs, cheesesteaks, fish, chicken, ice cream, shakes and all kinds of stuff.
Susan got a Burger and I got a Chili Dog and we split an order of Fries.
Of course they included Utah's Fry Sauce. I mean a trip wouldn't be complete with Fry Sauce.
I think we got to bed about midnight and we were tired, but we were happy.
My friend Susan and I decided to go to Utah to see Jay Osmond's Musical about the Osmonds. I wish my friend Lynn could have joined us, but she told me when it was first announced that she wouldn't be able to attend.
I wasn't sure about going all that way, but I thought it might be my only chance to see the play and I really wanted to see it. Sadly, after I had bought the play tickets and we got our hotel and airline reservations, the play was cancelled due to financing at the theater.
I thought about canceling the trip, honestly, but since we already had our airline tickets, we just decided to go to Utah and make a trip out of it. I hadn't been in 20 years with Lynn and my friend Susan had never been and it was her dream to see "Osmond Lane" since she was young..also Jay was having a "get together" with fans so I thought...what the hay!
So, since the play was cancelled, Jay added a tour for those that were going to be there on opening night. We were going to be there, but our flight didn't land until 1 pm and we still had to get our rental car and drive to Provo so we wouldn't make the tours in time...oh well. I was a little disappointed because those that were there went inside the old Osmond Studios, which is now Cirque Lodge, a rehab facility. But...there is still a small recording studio inside and they got to see that and the place where the stage was and even Jay's apartment, which he lived in for 2 years while filming the Donny & Marie show.
I'm sad we didn't get to see that, but I'm glad for those that did. Some of my OsFriends sent me these pictures though
This is where the Donny & Marie show was filmed - cool!
So, the first day, we just kind of relaxed. Luckily, we flew out before all the TSA problems started (whew).
Once we landed in Salt Lake City, we got our rental car. It was supposed to be an economy car, but they were out of them, so they gave us an upgrade for free to a cute and brand new (only 162 miles) Mitsubishi Eclipse, which was super nice!
I even spotted Donny in the airport at SLC and you know I had to get a picture of THAT!
We drove to Provo, where even the highway barriers had mountains on them.
In Provo, we checked into the Marriott and look at our view!! This photo isn't mine but wanted to show our hotel (big, tall white building) and our view of the mountains, that were snow capped at the time.
After we were settled, Susan wanted to go to In and Out Burger since she had never been to one.
We drove around a bit and then went to Leatherby's Creamery. One thing that Utah has is a LOT of Creamerys - there is practically one on every corner...this is the only one we tried though, and it was excellent...so creamy! We couldn't even finish it all ! By the way...we asked for a single scoop!
As the day winded down, we went back to the hotel and saw this really unusual clouds. Weird.
Time for another update on my Work in Progress. Sometimes I feel like I will never finish this. BUT, I'm at the half-way mark finally - whoo hoo!!
So, here is my half-way finished Around the World Blanket. - How does it look so far?
The color is a little off because of where I took the photo, the colors are much more vibrant in person
These are the skeins I have remaining. Do you think it will be enough to finish it? I'm still a bit nervous of running out. Obviously, I need more black, but luckily that is one color that wasn't discontinued (and black and whites are never discontinued unless the entire brand is).
