Remember oh so long ago, waaay back in the beginning of May, when I confessed to my stunned reading public and the world at large that I had a "thing" for American Idol contestants Constantine Maroulis and Bo Bice? And how I shared with you the story of how I managed to snap some rather nice shots of the former and then shared with you those nice shots? Yes. Of course you do.

Well, I'm here today to proudly show you that although my admiration of Mr. Maroulis was one thing, my TRUE LOVE for Mr. Bice is quite another. And how am I going to do that, you wonder? By telling you that I went to see Bo perform at Rockefeller Plaza this morning as part of the Today Show's Summer Concert Series. And showing you photographic evidence of my experience.

I've heard that I'm not the only person in the country who thinks Bo's a pretty cool cat. (Don't ask me how I know that. Some things I know just by instinct, friends, and not by reading your fancy tabloids and popular periodicals devoted to the worship of celebrity.) So, because I am nothing if not extremely clever, I decided I would have to get to the site of the concert rather early if I wanted to be close enough to the stage to make intense eye contact and quite possibly secure a marriage proposal from Bo Bice. As many of you know, I am accustomed to getting up at 4:25 a.m. to go to the gym, so getting out of bed to go somewhere that I wouldn't have to exert myself physically was a piece of cake (devil's food with thick rich chocolate frosting to dab on your nose ... 'cause it's cute that way).

So I got there. In line, I met a really cool woman I'll just call "M" who was on vacation with her husband and son, and two other women, one a college student from North Carolina and the other just back from active duty in Korea and on her way (tomorrow, I think) to Iraq. We all chatted in line about how much we thought Bo Bice was, indeed, the bee's knees.

An acquaintance from the gym had told me that before the actual show, at around 6:00, the performers perform sound checks. So when I heard something sounding suspiciously like THE VOICE OF VELVET, BUTTERCREAM FROSTING, AND THE SMOOTHEST OF WHISKEYS singing over the speakers, I put two and two together, surmised that the singing was not a recording, and decided to check it out. With "M" in tow, and with the other two girls telling us they would hold our place in line, I went to check out the sound check.

You can see and listen to snippets here:
Vehicle
Inside Your Heaven

The quality isn't the best, but it doesn't matter. Or at least it shouldn't matter. This concert was FREE and my sharing it with you is FREE. Plus, if you really love Bo (and me!), you won't even think about stuff like quality. You'll just think, "Man oh man, do I love Bo Bice!" and also "Jodi's the ginchiest!" (not necessarily in that order)

"M" and I could barely contain our elegant selves during the four checks. (We witnessed him doing each song twice, but I know he did more than those four.) We agreed that if we weren't able to see the actual concert after that, for whatever reason, we would be satisfied with what we'd just witnessed. Fortunately for us, the preceding sentence was just factual and not some sort of foreshadowing.

BECAUSE ...

We managed to get close enough to the stage so that if it were an actual theater, we would have been in about the sixth row, just off center and to the right of the stage (facing it). Which is where we enjoyed seeing Bo, as follows:

 
Singing "Vehicle"

  
Singing "Inside Your Heaven"

    
Doing other stuff, a/k/a not singing

    
Multi-tasking, singing "Changing for the Better"

After he was done delighting our ears, he prepared to greet his fans off-stage. Here he is, mid-preparation:

Then he made his rounds. He eventually came 'round to where "A" (another woman I befriended) and I were busy hanging onto each other and acting like girly fangirl girlfan dorks. (I won't give details, as I wish to respect "A"'s privacy, even though I am just calling her "A" here. After all, the world is a crazy place and you can never be too safe. I do not want some of the loonier among you trying to track down a girl with the first initial of "A" and then hounding her, paparazzi-style, just because she's now my new lady love. I am not Tom Cruise.) Look how close I was to this sweet Alabaman:

  
Bo, about one foot from my hand, which just so
happened to touch the back of his shirt

"A" and I had bolted to the rail so I could get his autograph (even though I don't understand autographs and think they're pointless), which I cleverly had him put on a card from my favorite restaurant:

Shortly thereafer, "A" leaned over the railing, opened her arms, and Bo entered into them and into an embrace. They then kissed each other on the cheek. And then "A" turned to me with the same expression Marcia Brady had on her face when Desi Arnaz, Jr. kissed her on the cheek. "A" will be undergoing a high-tech procedure to delicately remove the skin of that cheek and then preserve it under glass for display on her living room wall. She will, of course, receive a skin graft to replace the excised skin.

Unfortunately, Bo had to meet his other fans, too, so as we took leave of our senses, he took leave of us. Here he is, off to cheat on us with others:

P.S. Make sure to click on the photos. Some of them will yield rather large images to show quite exquisite detail!

P.P.S. The wedding is next June 20. :-)