Impractical Jokers!!!!!

Howdy y’all!  It has been a LONG time since I have blogged.  I have lots to catch up on.  First and foremost, I must update on the diet.  I went two weeks ago to the doctor for my checkup to see how I have done since I was told I needed to change my lifestyle basically.  I have lost almost 60 pounds!  Holy cow!  My blood work shows my cholesterol very good and the best news of all?  My A1C went down to 5!  He says I have completely reversed diabetes and I should not get it now.  WOW!  I have whipped it!  I am still shocked that I turned this around  He said that I have completely changed my life.  He also says that as I lose more weight I should be able to eventually go off all my blood pressure meds.  I am still walking when I have time.  I am not sure if I have talked about this or not but I went back to work.  I don’t mind because we are finally starting to get caught up and able to have some money left over but as far as doing stuff and having time to myself, not much of that is happening.  It is hard to find time to walk but he said that the walking I do at work is helping me.  I am still drinking the water and avoiding sweets as much as possible.  But here is another issue:  since it is getting colder, I have got to figure out a way to exercise and not walk.   Today we got a pilates video kit, a yoga video kit and some yoga mats.  I have in the past blogs been talking about toning up things and I hope this way I can exercise inside and tone stuff up.  I have a goal, which I will lay on y’all toward the end of the blog.  One goal is to figure out where I want to go to.  I want to get the little over 40 pounds off that will take me down to losing a total of 100 pounds, reevaluate and see where I am.  I know I need to go lower to hit my ideal weight, but I think that I need to see where I am.  I am glad that I am getting a smaller face and chin and I hope that pilates or something will cause it to go down lower. (The pics I have later are some of the first ones that I can say I absolutely love looking at and I have NEVER said that about myself.) I have a goal of what size pants I want to fit in but there are other goals than that too.  Now that the health scare is better, I can concentrate on getting thinner just to look better and to be overall healthier.

Now on to what I really want to blog about today.  A long time ago we started watching a TV show called Impractical Jokers. I know I have mentioned it before but just briefly.  I started watching it first and then my daughter joined in.  We absolutely love this show!  We can catch little glimpses of their personalities in it and just love the comedy part of it.  We figured out very quickly that these guys go on tour across the country.  After we had watched it for so long and was really grooving on which jokers we liked the best, my daughter told me that she didn’t care how much it was going to cost, that I was going to get to meet Q, my favorite joker.  We had been waiting and waiting and waiting and guess what?  Tickets finally came up for a show in Indy on November 9th.  I had to work they day they went on sale and left her with the task of trying to see if she could get tickets.  She sent me a message saying that she couldn’t get any of the tickets.  OH NO!  A little later she sent me a pic that showed she got meet and greet front row pit VIP tickets!  OMG!!!!  I actually screamed!  This was to take place on November 9th, Annie’s birthday.  I have been so excited and just could not wait!

The day rolls around.  I had to go in to work but for future reference, I can make it to Indy in 2 hours. Ha! The loop was a bear!  Holy cow traffic was backed up!  But going to see those guys was well worth it!  We got to the Murat and there was their bus.  We went picture crazy and took pics with the bus and stuff.  In one you can really tell that I have lost some serious weight.  

After we took the pics and got settled down we went and ate supper at Subway.   During all this I can just feel my nervousness building up.  You know how you can kind of feel impending doom?  Yeah, but on a totally personal level.  I know i had made the comment at one time that I hope I didn’t see my supper again.  I didn’t know how I was going to react to this.  I had never met anyone that I really wanted to meet like I did Q.  Yeah, I know I met Rob but that isn’t the same as this.  This will be, I was assuming, full on, face to face, hi how ya doing kind of stuff, if we were allowed to do that and not just a quick pic or something.  At that time we had no idea how this would work but we knew what we wanted to happen.   I knew I was going to be ok for the show as far as nerves go, but afterward when we got to meet them?  I mean come on now!  I am always telling Annie that I think my favorite one is perfection.  (Let me stop here and tell y’all that I know no one is really perfect.  In my eyes though, I think he is and nothing is going to change that.  Don’t try to make me change my mind.  He tried to and it didn’t work.)  I cannot put into words why I think that.  I just know I do and that is that.  You ever just see someone and you are just drawn to them?  Yeah that is me.

We walk back down the street and there is a line forming to get inside.  Oh boy.  Once they opened the doors it went way faster than I thought it would.  Since we were VIP people we had to go to a separate table once we got in to pick up our bag of stuff, and get our passes for the meet and greet.  We didn’t have to wait in line long for that one.  We got a tote bag which had a signed poster, a can koozie, and a VIP pass on a lanyard.  That was awesome!  We also bought our t shirts and a key chain at the other table before the show. We had them sign our bags for us too when we were backstage.  

We get ready to head to our seats.  We of course had front row pit which means we were right on the stage.  Almost literally.  We had to look up to see them.  They come out and I tell you it is one of the best shows I have ever been to!  If you want to know what all they do, I would have to advise you to go check them out.  It is an awesome show!  Here are some pics I took of the show.  

After the show all the meet and greet people were instructed to stay in their seats.  It took a little while to get the place emptied.  A guy comes out and explains to us how this meet and greet will work and instructs us to line up along the wall. We had an idea of how this was going to work but they way the explained it was NOT what we had pictured–it was a million times better! Since we had been to these things before we knew to take our place in the back of the line.  Well they send the first group in and there was a few less in that group than what they said they were going to take in.  The next group goes in and we are locked in the last group.  That was fine with us.  I was getting soooo nervous.  I was starting to shake, my brain was racing and I was having an appearance check with Annie.  Next thing I know they are leading us back and we had to wait a minute on the last people to go out but it was our turn!

My brain completely almost fries on me at this point.  I of course am looking for my favorite one, and while standing there waiting Sal is walking to the right of us reminding us that there is no line and to just move around.  Ha!  I turn back and there is Murr, standing there with his arms open and saying hi, how are you guys!  OMG! His excitement is just contagious!  I of course was the first one there out of me and Annie and I got a hug.  He asked our names and stuff and surprisingly I remembered it.  Ha!  Let me tell you something about him.  He looks so little on TV but in person, he is very beefy and a little taller than I am.  He was just a sweetheart.  

Next up was Joe.  Got a hug there too (imagine that huh?  Ha!)  I asked him that although we weren’t supposed to if he cared to get a pic with me on my phone too.  He said well if we are going to do this let’s just break all the rules–what are they gonna do throw me out?  Ha!  No not at all.  He was just a sweetheart too.  

Now while I was waiting on Joe I was just kind of standing there in between two lines because the next one, was Q.  I was just getting more nervous by the second.  After Joe, I stood there waiting on Q.  Annie of course is standing behind me and shooing me on. As if I needed to be shooed on, this was Q we are talking about here that I, I was getting ready to meet and possibly hug.  I wasn’t sure at this point what I was going to do.  I know I was a bundle of nerves and it wasn’t getting any better.  The people in front of me moved on and he spoke to me.  Ok folks, he just SPOKE to me.  I am literally about to come unglued at this point and can barely squeak out a Hi.  I got a hug (OMG OMG) and somewhere in the process of this I totally believe I am going to have a meltdown.  I think I may have even said that much.  He asked me if I was ok, (NO) and of course I am like yes. I told him how much I loved him and he was my favorite and he asked me my name which I did remember. (He does too later–just wait for this.)  I think I ended up getting a gazillion hugs from him (he didn’t seem to mind) and I literally at one time had to talk myself out of crying.  I had always heard of people meeting their favorite stars and crying and thought they were nuts but let me tell you, I get it now.  Annie took some really good pics of this.  The first one says it all.  

I am finally able to settle down and am able to have a normal conversation with him.  (Normal with the most perfect dude in the world?  It happened. I don’t know how this happened but it did.) Now don’t forget Annie is here and talking to him too.  Some of the things we were talking about I am not going to repeat here but rest assured it was a good conversation and I cannot wait to see them again!  🙂  Yes I admit it I got a LOT of hugs. He smelled soooo good. And yes I got a pic or two with him on my phone.  But of course part of this was Annie’s fault.  She tells him that I am always talking about him.  Ok, here we go.  She says this TWICE.  Ok, Annie, I got you, I will go there.  I proceed to tell him that I think he is perfection.  (How many of us can really say we told our favorite person, celebrity or otherwise, how we really feel?  I can.)  He of course argued with me over that, and I plainly stated I don’t care, I think you are perfect (not being hateful here, I just don’t want to type what he told me but with what he said it makes sense how I responded).  Again, from above, y’all know that I do know no one is perfect.  But he thanked me and of course I got another hug.  🙂  Imagine that.  We spent most of our time backstage talking to him, and amazingly enough no one else came up to run us off.  THAT was truly amazing.  Just tells me we were supposed to be there hanging out with him like that.  But of course we know we had to move on because Annie’s favorite, Sal, is next.

I got up there and hugged him first.  As I went in for the hug, he read my shirt out loud which said Team Q and Annie said he rolled his eyes at her especially since she was wearing her Team Sal shirt.  Ha!  I didn’t expect anything less from him. He is a sweetheart and I took several of her and him too since he is her favorite.  At this time the people were trying to get us all to get our pics taken and he put a stop to that since we were talking to him!  🙂  Go Sal!  We talked to him a while too, telling him how much we loved them and how much we were thankful that they do what they do and how it makes crappy days so much better.  Now mind you I told all of them how much we loved them.  He thanked us for being allowed to do this.  I am so glad that they can do this because they do make life better.  

We finally had to get in line for the group pic.  Somehow we were last in line for that and that was ok.  We set our stuff down and go to get the pic and of course I have to be by Q.  He comes over there and we get involved in a conversation about how we gotta suck it in for the pic.  At one point in time in the earlier conversation we were talking about being fat or something.  

Anyway, as we were getting ready to walk away Q says no, I gotta get a picture with just me and Stacey.  O.  M.  G.  For real?!?!?!  Yes for real!  I didn’t ask him that but I was thinking it.  Oh wow.  That REALLY made my night.  This has to be the cutest pic ever.  I still say he is the sweetest one ever.  It only made me realize that I wasn’t that far off about him being perfection.  Of courses now, Sal couldn’t be outdone so grabbed Annie and got one with just her.  O.  M.  G.  That made her night too!  And Joe and Murr couldn’t be outdone and they had to get one together.  Ha!  If you are curious, the pics they took at Indy can be found here:  http://thetenderloins.com/nov-9-2015-indy-murat-theatre-old-national-centre/ .  These guys put on a fabulous live show and they are all sweethearts!  Please check them out if you get the chance to.

It was a most awesome night and this has had to be one of my favorite blogs ever that I have written.  I can’t wait to see them again which brings me to my next goal.  I want to get between 50-100 more pounds off and get my mouth fixed before I see them again.  I have two goals there that I can meet because I met my first one, which was losing weight before I met them the first time.  I lost almost 60 pounds.  Now of course my health was the main reason but having this as a side reason wasn’t a bad motivator.  And I can do it again!

Now that I am working all the time my posts may have time in between them but I will keep everyone updated.  And of course who knows where we may end up going!  We also saw Rob again about three weeks ago and he was as awesome as ever!  Next year will bring lots more fun stuff I am sure!  Have a great day y’all!  And look for the link-up on Wednesday!

–S