I live right down the street from Mount Prospect's Village Green and just had to walk down to check out the American Idol finale viewing party. I wasn't sure when I was going to get there as I was spending the day with my crew preparing for the estate sale in the Edgebrook neighborhood of Chicago which will take place this weekend. We came to a good breaking point around 6:30 so I headed for home. Kuochun got home shortly after me, it was almost 7:00 and Ruby our schnauzer needed a walk so we decided to walk her down. We got there a little after 7:00 and I was surprised to see the crowd wasn't as large as expected. We stood on the fringe of the crowd across Emerson Street along Busse Avenue. The sound quality was great and I had nearly a clear picture of the Jumbotron except for a couple of people blocking the way with their balloons.
Ruby turned out to be a little celebrity, kids and adults alike wanted to pet her and a lady even took Ruby's photo with her cell phone! Kuochun was getting tired and Ruby had enough so he walked her home and I continued to watch the show. It was so much fun when the camera panning our crowd would go live. I didn't think the portions related to Simon were all that funny but I loved all the duets with the Idols and various musical stars. My favorites were the Top 6 boys singing with Hall & Oates and Casey James singing with Bret Michaels. I heard Simon suggested that Bret Michaels replace him as a judge on Idol and I think that's an awesome idea. He seems like a great guy, I've watched every season of Rock of Love and was so happy when he won Celebrity Apprentice.
Kuochun came back, we watched the show a bit longer. It was really disappointing when they had to shut our sound down while Lee was performing with Chicago, but of course we had our backup copy recording at home on the DVR. Then during a commercial break we walked around a bit. There were a lot of different Lee T-shirts for sale along with many food offerings from local restaurants. My parents' next door neighbor at the lake house is a rabid AI fan, so my mother asked me to pick up a T-shirt for her. We decided we didn't want to carry it and to wait to get it until the show was over. We did pick up a Lee cookie from Central Continental Bakery's booth for her. After a short rest on the curb while Janet Jackson was performing (we didn't bring chairs and were tired!) we went back to our post to await the results.
It was so exciting when Lee was announced as the winner! I just knew he was going to win, not only because of his talent and appeal but because of girl power! Teenage girls vote for their favorite American Idols in droves and they love Lee! Everyone was cheering like crazy and we were very impressed with the orderly nature of the crowd. After the show was over, we walked over to the T-shirts. The turquoise shirts were sold out of size Extra Large, so we got my parents' neighbor a black shirt and the guy threw in a matching baseball cap. I got a white T-shirt with a newspaper headline on it, it's really cute. After that, we walked home. It was a great experience and I'm glad I went!
