Story of a Gavin Girl - First time meeting Gavin DeGraw and what led up to it :-)

I'm not much of a writer, but I'm gonna try out this blogging thing :-) This is my very first blog after apparently signing up for this back in october 2010!! What brings me here today, is Gavin DeGraw, and what better way to start off this blog than to write about him???

A Little Background on my fandom
Because that's important, right? :-)

Okay, so I'm probably going to come off as slightly obsessed, but I don't even care! :-P

I guess I should start off by saying, I kind of jumped on the Gavin Girl bus rather late. I first heard of him on Dancing With the Stars, in Spring 2012... I was already a die-hard fangirl for Tristan MacManus, but I had some Gavin Fever for sure by the end of week 3 (The week of his rumba), with all the interviews I seen of him. His personality on the show was very appealing. Once I heard his name during week 1, I did check out his music out of curiosity, and found out that he sang "Not Over You". That was a song I LOVED on the radio at the time, and had no idea it was him who sang it. That lead me to look up his other music. Found out that he sang "I Don't Wanna Be" and "In Love with a Girl", and I was like I KNOW THOSE SONGS! I used to love those songs when they were on the radio years ago :-) Then this all led to me looking his videos up on you tube... as well as interviews. I was developing quite the crush on him...

I really wanted to see him in concert summer 2012 with Colbie Callait, but for some reason, it didn't happen. We were doing something else already when he came close enough... But me and my husband decided to look out for new tour dates after that was over. I occasionally tweeted about him, but at the time I had no idea that if your twitter was locked, that your non-followers couldn't see it... so I had no idea that there was an amazing community of Gavin Girls out there that I know about now (Shout Out to all of them!) :-)

My hubby found tour dates early this year... I think we had the tickets since early February! I was totally looking forward to it, but it wouldn't be until July 19th! Long time away at that time!

Moving forward... Eventually I owned all his CDs on iTunes... I would periodically check in on him on the internet, but in May my Gavin Fever was reignited (haha) as the concert kept getting closer... I enjoyed watching You Tube videos of him and listening to his music everyday, every chance I got... it's very addicting!

So for some reason around this same time in May, I googled if people could read my tweets when my twitter is locked... apparently not, unless they are your follower, and I had like... 9 followers at the time! (whoops!) So after all this time on twitter of trying to get people to notice me, they couldn't even see me! I unlocked my twitter, and happened to mention Gavin DeGraw a couple times! and What do you know? He follows me... I had NO IDEA he followed his fans and I was caught off guard! But soooo excited!!!  I even remember the date, May 21st. I was actually at work, when I logged on and seen! I was so excited, but there was no one at work who I felt like would really care at the time! So I was quietly celebrating on twitter and instagram... But it totally made me like him even more...

So anyway.... a slightly horrible story, that some may have already heard... That next morning, after my shift at work, I decided to write Gavin a DM on twitter, to thank him for following me, since we were mutually following each other (whoohoo!) and I had to get out of the screen for something, and instead of hitting "Cancel", I accidentally hit "Block"... as soon as I did that, my heart sank into my stomach and I remember actually gasping! I instantly unblocked him, and noticed he was no longer following me! I was so mad at myself, and couldn't believe I did that!!! I spent the whole next week, on my free-time, tweeting him trying to get him to refollow me! I had gained a few Gavin Girls as followers during this, and about a week later, Ingrid from Norway (shoutout to her!) and I did a little experiment one day, and I found that he probably couldn't even see my tweets anymore. So she offered to tweet him, so we gave that a shot... and exactly a week later he refollowed me!!! (Which was equally as awesome, but also a relief!)

So the end of May, I seen the VIP Meet and Greet tickets available on his website... and was very interested. Tried talking my husband into buying us some for our anniversary, which didn't work (haha). That was okay because he already bought the concert tickets! I went ahead and bought myself a Meet and Greet ticket, and decided that it would probably be best to leave my husband out of that portion of it anyway :-)

I then kept gaining more Gavin Girl fans on twitter, who I enjoy talking to very much! It's a special type of fangirl for sure! Many conversations got me hyped up for my first-time meet and greet, and my first-time concert! I also joined the fan club last Sunday as well :-)

So, I think that's plenty of background info, thanks for bearing with me :-)


July 19th 2013 -- Day of the event

Our concert was at Klipsch Music Center in Noblesville, Indiana. We live in Northern Kentucky, so we were going to make a weekend trip out of it. It was about a 2 hour drive up there. My husband honestly only knew 3 of his songs, so I made sure he heard almost all of them by the time we got up there...

I honestly didn't really feel nervous on the drive up. It kind of didn't feel like it was really going to happen, like it wasn't real. I did spend a lot of time the week leading up to this, thinking about what I wanted to maybe say to him. I was afraid of not being able to speak to him, so I was trying my hardest to avoid that from happening!

Once we got there, we ate a really late lunch. We went to the concert venue early... got there about 5:00pm. We then picked up my wrist band at Will Call, and waited... and waited... gates didn't open until about 5:40. It was so hot outside also! 90 degree weather, so we were all sweating while waiting, unfortunately.

Gates opened and we went to the meeting place. They gave us our bag with the t-shirt (which is the most comfortable t-shirt I have ever had, By the way!), the poster, and wristbands... I was doing this alone, so I was happy to find a couple people to be able to talk to :-) I actually met someone who had recently followed me on twitter, named Carey, who ended up standing right behind me in line, which was pretty cool! Then there were a couple other first-timers at the meet and greet, so we were all excited and talking about it. About 6:00pm, we were taken to this little shelter type area, with picnic tables... and okay... I was starting to get nervous! I was 5th in line!


Then there he was!

I instantly thought, Yes!!! He's wearing a Fedora!!! (haha) ...And how handsome he was in person! I was gushing! and all I could say while waiting was "Oh my gosh" :-)

So it was my turn...
I walked up and handed my camera to the camera guy, who told me his name, but I don't remember what it was...
This is probably the hardest part of the story to tell, but I'm going to try my best...
I guess the easiest way to tell this story would be with some quotations :-)

Gavin said "Hello, What's your name?" and I said "Charity" and shook his hand and I guess he didn't hear me at first, and so I repeated it. He said "Nice to meet you" and said "Do you have something you want me to sign?" and I gave him my poster. As he was preparing to sign the poster, I told him that I love all his music so much and that I cant wait for the new album, and he said "Thank you so much, I appreciate that" He was so appreciative about it! and he goes, "Is your name spelled the usual way to spell Charity" and I said, "Yes, like your giving money to a Charity" and he laughed! (hahaha, That is usually what I tell people, because they spell it wrong otherwise, for some reason!) Then I asked him if he would try to come to Cincinnati on his next tour, and he sounded excited and said "I would LOVE to, I would Love to, I will try" or something to that effect :-) and then he asked me if that was where I was from, and I got a little jumbled in my words, and said that I was from "just North... I mean south, of Cincinnati, in Northern Kentucky. Just acrossed the river" And I can't remember what exactly he said to that. I think he was just like "Oh okay, that's cool..." or something to that effect!

But then I just went in for the hug... and I don't even know what made me do it! It just seemed like a natural thing to do, because it was just such as awesome experience! and he was just such a sweetheart! And as I hugged him, he said "Do you have a picture you want to take with me?" and I said "Oh yeah, I almost forgot" (lol!) because I totally almost forgot about the picture... I was a little fuzzy from the hug on! (Unfortunately I just remember that I did it, and he hugged back. I don't even remember the actual feeling, besides... a blur!! But I just know it had to have been awesome!)

and as I was turning for a picture, I was still kind of in a blur, and I heard him tell me that I was a beautiful woman... (Hence my red face in the last picture below!!!) I don't even know if he said "Come here and Hold me" or anything... all I heard was "You're a Beautiful Woman" and I was gushing inside... like omg? Really? You think so Gavin??? :-P But of course I didn't say that, haha! and the picture was taken, and Gavin was like "Did you get it?" and the camera guy was like "Great picture" (I think, hahaha, still blurry!!!)

and I think they were kind of pushing me along after that... I shook his hand and said "Thank you so much!" and walked away... I looked in my camera, and expected to just find the one, formal, picture of us, but he happened to get 3 pictures, which is very cool!

         

 <--- Blushing big time. ;-P

As I was walking out, there was a big line, I believe it was to meet the guy from Train... and they were smiling at me, and I let out an excited "Eeeee!" and the girl in the front was smiling really big at me and kind of giggling and said "Your guy's faces when you walk out!" and asked me how it was! I told them it was so awesome! Short, but awesome, and totally worth it! and then I also shared that I was kind of shaking... like I had the jitters! haha...

I felt a little delirious! Like it was a dream, or an out of body experience! It was amazing! I can't think of better words besides amazing and awesome! :-) I waited to ask the couple of people I talked to in line how it went for them, and then I went to find my seat... of course, my husband can't quite fangirl with me, so I turned to twitter some while waiting for the show to begin :-)

I was so very proud of myself for how well I did... I was so afraid that I wouldn't be able to say anything... but I almost got out everything I thought up to say... except I wanted to tell him that it was my first time seeing him live and that I was looking forward to it... But that's alright, he didn't necessarily need to know that :-) I do hope that I smiled at him, and looked him in the face enough... I felt like I had trouble holding my eyes on his face! I'm sure his sunglasses saved me though! If he weren't wearing those, and I seen his eyes more, I may have been silent! (hehehe!)

But, I couldn't have asked for a better first time meet and greet!!! It was an amazing experience! Every GG, everywhere needs to be able to do this at least once! BUT I'm almost sure that this is going to be a recurring thing ;-P I really didn't think I could love him any more than I already did, but I do!!!


The Concert

The concert started, and when he first started singing, I was like WOW! He really does sound GREAT live... like everyone says!!! Even better live actually!!! It was so good! My only real complaint was that his set was too short!!! I could have listened to him sing all night... But what he did sing, was amazing!! I was very excited to hear "Make a Move" and "Who's Gonna Save Us Tonight" and "Best I Ever Had" live! Which there are my videos down in the next section.

My husband made fun of me (not in a mean way) when Gavin came out into the audience, I got up and ran over to him!!! And got pretty close! (Didn't get my high five I wanted while he was singing, but that's totally okay! I got a hug at the Meet and Greet!) Here are a couple shots from the audience :-)



 


And I can't forget to share the one that looks like he's looking at me and trying to Fist Bump me from way over there! ;-P

Yep, so Minus the fact that it was short, I LOVED it. There are so many more songs of his that I would LOVE to see actually live instead of on You Tube... so I'm hoping for a headling tour or solo tour after this new album is released :-) ::Crossing My Fingers::



Some Videos

By The Way, here are my You Tube videos... please excuse my unsteady hands, and the mediocre sound... I am not a good concert videographer, because I usually can't sit still! :-P

Make A Move

Best I Ever Had

and the Save Us video is only a partial video, because I got excited when he started coming out into the audience, and quit filming so I could take pictures!!! :-P I was sad when I watched it because I couldn't zoom in for some reason, and I didn't get my favorite part of the song on video, but oh well! Maybe next time! :-)

Who's Gonna Save Us Tonight?

I enjoyed The Script and Train as well... but of course I was really there for Gavin :-) I got a great Gavin experience!!!

and then, lastly... I there was the group song they did "The Weight", which I did get video of... The picture isn't the best, but the sound it alright, I guess! But my favorite part of this video, was of course, Gavin DeGraw's part, BUT I loved how everyone screamed louder when Gavin started singing, than they did for anyone else :-)

The Weight

Gavin DeGraw is simply... AMAZING :-)

Hope you enjoyed my first blog :-) I hope I didn't leave ANYTHING out!

Until next time,

~Charity~