First Impressions

I told that fool I wasn't interested. But he persisted, "come out and support me." I relented. I agreed to attend his rehearsal despite my reservations. When I arrived, I was told I needed to be on my best behavior. Excuse me? What am I 12? "For what?" I questioned. I don't know these people, don't want to know these people and don't plan to get to know any of these people. "Shawn!" he said with a beady-eyed look. I stared him down. "Shawn!" the other visiting friend said with a sarcastic scowl. I stared her down. I was neither swayed to consider a change in behavior or amused with the tag team rebuke they were applying.

Anyhoo, after an hour or so delay the AI Tour rehearsal was 'bout ready to begin. That's when a wayward hand made it's way towards my face, invading my personal space. I was sitting, fiddling with my mp3 player while she was standing. I ignored the hand at first. Perhaps this person doesn't realize i'm busy doing something, hence my eyes trained on my player and fingers busy using the buttons to scroll through my song list. It seems a second effort was made by the extendee to make the hand more visible to me. I turned to face the culprit. "Hi! I'm ___" she said. I met her hand with my own and shook. "Shawn," I said with a half-hearted, fake grin. "As I was walking away I realized I came over here and spoke but didn't introduce myself to everyone." I can't recall if I responded or not. I was guessing at that point she wasn't getting the hint "I don't really care." Naturally, the tag team chastising resumed once ____ walked away. "Be nice!" one said. "That was ugly" the other chimed in.

Since I didn't watch the show, it was interesting having my first look at the finalists. I was hard pressed to believe some of these "singers" were 10 of the 12 best the country had to offer. Yikes! A few thoughts I had from watching rehearsal: 1) The chubby, curly haired dude is really out of place. 2) Whomever decided S (the most despised contestant) should help sing Proud Mary needs to be beaten with a bat. Y'all needed to see this boy gyrating and bouncing across the stage. 3) B is a star. He was barely going through the motions, just feeling his way through his portion of the act but you could see it on him. He had that extra something the others didn't.

The highlight of the day, was listening to my friend (that was also visiting the rehearsal) share her experience of walking into Puffy's rehearsal room unaware that she was in the wrong place. She said she walked past right past the bodyguards and took a spot standing against a wall. She saw a female dancers rehearsing their butts off and thought "Oh, they're gonna have dancers on the tour. How nice!" She then noticed that she was drawing hostile glances from a few women that were also in the room. She didn't think much of it until she saw Puffy walking menacingly towards the dancers and yelling "Run it again! Run it again! Her eyes bugged out 'cause she realized she was in the wrong rehearsal hall. She politely excused herself from the rehearsal and wondered why the nation of islam bodyguards didn't stop her when she first entered. For the rest of the day, all I heard this fool saying was "run it again...run it again. Shawn you shoulda seen the look on his face." She even recorded herself

I really thought she was joking about Puffy until I saw him with my own eyes. Lord, if this fool didn't drive off in a 5-car motorcade people. Riding in the backseat of a bentley with mortician curtains drawn on the rear windows.