I know what you need...bring it on home to me

By the time we were done eating, Little Big Town’s set was just about to start. We walked back to the buses and saw Emily again and she asked, “Did you girls find it ok? Were you able to get something to eat?” We told her we had and thanked her again. We asked her and Heather Morgan, who was standing there too, if Sarah and Jedd were still on the bus, to see if they were still working/if we’d missed them since we could hear LBT doing their first song. Heather said she thought they were still on the bus and when she went to open the door to check for us, the door swung open and out came Sarah, apparently on her way to look for us haha

“Hey! You girls ready? Let’s go!” Sarah exclaimed and we eagerly followed her over to the door leading to the side of the stage. We walked inside and staked out a spot right near some sort of big road case where we laid our stuff. There were some other people standing side stage as well, along with some of the other artists who were watching and Sarah said hi to them while we immersed ourselves in Little Big Town.

After Sarah said hi and talked to some people she turned back towards us and we sang and rocked out to the rest of Fine Line. Then, all the sudden, Emily popped up next to Sarah, which was exciting. We all hugged her and said hi, and the 5 of us jammed to some Bones.

I think that Sarah and Emily were as entertained watching the three of us rock to LBT as we were entertained watching the two of them watch LBT haha It was so cool to watch Little Big Town from side stage because we could really see the crowd and their reaction to them and their music. This was especially true during Little Big Town’s new song “The Reason Why”. Emily and Sarah FLIPPED OUT over this song and they knew ALL the words. They were singing it to each other, and to us and it was so fun! The song is SO catchy and by the second chorus Mandie, Holly and I were singing right along too. It was adorable to see how excited they got over that song. Made me even more excited for AUGUST 24th to buy the new CD!!!!!!

Sarah, Emilly, Holly, Mandie and I swayed and sang along to A Little More You, and Sarah and Emily were so cute singing it to each other and us. At one point Emily and Sarah threw their arms around each other and said, “I love you friend”. It was seriously adorable and I had to take a picture of them, so I did. The moment was just so cute that I couldn’t pass it up, so I asked if I could get a picture with the two of them together and they were like, “Heck yes!” I got in between Emily and Sarah for the picture and we all leaned our heads together and hugged while Holly took it.

Then, we went back to absolutely jamming to Good as Gone.

When Phillip’s voice rang out through the ampitheater for the beginning of Bring It On Home, Mandie, Holly, Sarah, Emily and I all looked at each other at the same time and cheered so loud. I turned to Sarah and went to high five her over our excitement and love of the song.

Then something happened that I never would have expected, but I know I’ll never forget. Sarah gave me a high five, and squeezed my hand. But as we brought our hands down, she didn’t let go and continued to hold my hand. I looked at her, surprised, and she squeezed my hand again and smiled at me. We swayed back and forth to the song, singing along and still holding hands. As I stood there, listening to Little Big Town’s heart filled harmonies, and each lyric of the song, this wave of disbelief and love and joy just hit me. There I was, standing there, listening to my favorite band, holding the hand of a girl who is honestly one of my heroes, during a song that is pieced together by love and hope. As Sarah kept holding my hand well into the bridge of the song, I felt that with each line of the song that was passing as our hands swung together, Sarah was silently singing the song back to me through her gesture and through that moment. It was as if she was saying, ‘It’s going to be ok’. When our hands finally did let go, all I could do was smile.

In the middle of Boondocks, we followed Jedd and Sarah around to the other side of the stage so they could get ready to set up for the mini set on the main stage before Jamey Johnson, and before they would perform again. The funny thing was, as we walked out and around, I’m not sure we stopped singing Boondocks haha By the time we were settled on the other side they were at the “You get a line, I get a pole…” parts, and Sarah and Jedd were singing along to the 2 parts with us too! So fun. After Little Big Town was done, they walked off the stage on the side we were now on, and went right by where we were standing. They saw us as they walked off and gave us all high fives, which was awesome.

We watched Sarah and Jedd rock the main stage with Cory, and although we couldn’t see their faces while they performed because we were standing behind them, it was really cool to be able to support them from back there, especially being able to see them when they walked off at the end of their mini set and being able to tell them how great they were. After that, we went back to the buses for a little while so Sarah and Jedd could rehearse Copperhead Road some more last minute before going on with Jamey. Then, when it was time, we followed them back to side stage to wait for their turn to sing with him. We could tell they were really excited, yet nervous about their performance, and we were glad to be able to be standing there cheering them on once again.

Again, we couldn’t see their faces, but we could tell that they were giving it everything they had, like they always do, when they sang with Jamey. The crowd seemed pretty responsive, and when the song was over, Sarah threw her arms around Jedd and they gave each other a huge hug, which was really touching to see. As soon as they made their way back to us, we gave them big hugs as well and told them how amazing they were.

The day was finally coming to an end, and Mandie, Holly and I knew it as we looked at each other, following Sarah and Jedd out the door back toward the buses and ultimately, the gate to leave. We stopped though in the open lot a few feet from the gate for one more picture taking/conversation/hugging session before we left. Holly asked Sarah and Jedd to record a video saying hi to her little neighbor, which they were more than happy to do, and which Kendall absolutely loved. After that, we got one last picture with Sarah and Jedd before saying our real goodbyes.

I said bye to Jedd first, while Holly and Mandie said goodbye to Sarah. He asked, “Did you have fun today? Thank you so much for all your help, we really appreciated it!” All I could do was laugh a little bit because saying I simply ‘had fun’ would have been the understatement of the century. I hugged him tight as I responded, “Yes, I had an incredible day. And it was seriously no problem. Thank YOU for everything that you did for us.” Then we switched, and Holly and Mandie said goodbye to Jedd, while I said goodbye to Sarah.

I turned to face Sarah and the first thing we did was hug. As we were pulling away, she put her hands on my shoulders and looked me right in the eye. She had this determination in her eyes, like she was going to make sure I listened to whatever it was she was about to say. “Michelle, it will get better. You’ll find friends because you’re too awesome not to.”

As the words came out of her mouth, I suddenly felt my heart beating faster out of nervousness because I couldn’t believe that she wanted to have this conversation; that she wanted to reassure me and make it a point to tell me what she was saying. I was trying in vain to remember what I’d said about that in the letter I wrote her, to attempt to elaborate on how things have been for the last 8-10 years. I stuttered, “Things were so bad in high school that when college came, I told myself that it would get better. But it didn’t, 4 years later it was just more of the same and I don’t understand if it’s me or what.” Not my most eloquent moment, but I didn’t want to ramble away my chance to hear what Sarah had to say.

Sarah continued, “If you think people are your best friends and they treat you like crap and it turns out they’re not? F*** ‘em. I’m sorry for being blunt, but I mean it. You don’t need them. Just let go of your ego and let them go.”

And in that moment, I understood exactly what she was saying. I had just graduated college a few weeks prior, and all the people I’d spent 4 years thinking were my good/close friends, I didn’t spend time with any of them; didn’t say any tearful goodbyes or ‘I’ll miss you’s’, let alone any goodbyes at all. I’d been feeling like I was never a part of their lives at all. I was wondering what was wrong with me, what had I done so wrong this whole time. That’s the ego Sarah was talking about. Not ‘look at me, I’m the best, aren’t I so great’, but the ‘what did I do? why aren’t I enough?’ Old habits die hard, but I’ve been trying to remember that advice more and more as the weeks pass by.

Anyway, after she said that to me and I was kind of in a state of shock because it was all hitting me, all I could do was hug her again. She held me tight and I whispered, “I hope some day I have a friend like you.”

Her response? “You do. You have me. You’ll always have me.”

If I wasn’t in shock before, I definitely was then. I hugged her tighter, bit my lip to suck in the tears threatening my eyes and said, “I love you Sarah” and she said, “I love you too Michelle.”

Finally we broke apart, gave one last round of hugs and said goodbye to Sarah and Jedd. Mandie, Holly and I walked together to the gate to go back out on the concourse. As I caught Mandie and Holly's faces in the floodlights, the tears in my eyes trickled out as we all let out an incredulous breath.

The weight of the world is on your shoulders

We speed walked to the gate because they had to go on stage with Emily and sing Barbie Doll with Jack Ingram and the three of us were trying to keep up because we have little legs compared to Sarah and Jedd haha It was pretty funny. We were about to walk through the gate with Sarah when the security lady stopped us and asked for our wristbands. We obviously didn’t have any at that moment because they didn’t know we were coming, but Sarah told the lady we were with her. The lady shook her head and wasn’t having any of that. Sarah was kind of frustrated and asked the lady if she got us wristbands could we come back with her. The security lady said yes and we could see the wheels turning in Sarah’s head. She said “Ok girls, you go watch Jack Ingram and I’ll try and find you wristbands and meet you back here afterwards” and it was kind of like ‘ready break’ like we were in the huddle of a neighborhood game of flag football or something haha

So Mandie, Holly and I walked down into the main ampitheater to watch them do Barbie Doll, all the while wondering if Sarah would A) remember to look for wristbands B) find any wristbands and C) come meet us back at the gate even if she couldn’t find any to let us know that. Emily, Sarah and Jedd doing Barbie Doll with Jack was so much fun and we were like one-two people away from the stage for it. It was a pretty cool angle, although the two guys in front of us were super tall and my arms definitely were feeling it taking video of that song haha When the song was over, we watched them walk off, and walked back over near the gate to wait and see what would happen.

We didn’t want the security lady to think we were trying to go where we didn’t belong or were annoying so we sat on a stone wall across the way so we could still see in the gate since it was open. We watched people go in and out of backstage, wondering what would happen. About 10 minutes or so went by when all the sudden we see someone walking toward the gate with flashes of green. As the person approached, we realized it was Sarah with wristbands in hand! We got up off the wall and met her at the gate and came face to face with the same security lady. Sarah looked at the lady, flashed her the bracelets and with a look of triumph said again, ‘Can they come back now?’ The lady said, “yep,” and Sarah handed each of us a VIP wristband.

We walked back to the bus with Sarah, and there were a lot more people on it than the day before. Everyone was just hanging out, and Troy was there and we told him how nice his sign looked on the bathroom door haha We also saw the purple wall hanging on the window in the front of the bus for everyone to see. It looked really cool there above the table. We sat and talked to Troy for a bit, while everyone else was going in and out of the back of the bus. He said, “Who wants to start a party with me? Come on, I’m trying to get one started” and he grabbed his guitar. He started playing La Bamba haha Then Emily came on the bus and he told her to sing French Blues or something. Not sure how that gets the party started, but it was really funny. Emily sounds amazing singing anything, and it was kind of neat to hear her make up her own “French Blues” song. Jedd and Sarah had been trying to figure out what song they were singing with Jamey Johnson that night, but when they came out from working on that, the one tour manager said we had to clear the bus because they were doing interviews. Sarah walked off the bus with us and we thought she had to do interviews, but lucky for us, she didn’t.

Sarah, Holly, Mandie and I started walking across the open lot backstage, and Sarah recited the words to “Copperhead Road”, which was the song she and Jedd would be performing with Jamey Johnson. None of us knew the song, but it was pretty cool to watch Sarah walk along with us and tell us the whole song, like we were at a poetry reading or something She was pretty proud of herself that she remembered them all after just looking at them a few minutes prior. After she recited the words she asked if we liked Jamey Johnson and looking back, I have to laugh because Jamey Johnson is probably one of my least favorite country artists. But Sarah LOVES him haha She told us how nice he is and how “real” his music is. We told her we didn’t know much of his music, though “In Color” isn’t bad. Sarah was so excited to be singing with Jedd with Jamey Johnson, and although we don’t like him, we were really excited for them.

As we were still walking, Sarah then asked if we knew Copperhead Road and we told her no. She told us how it was a Steve Earle song. I wish I could remember exactly how Sarah explained the song to us, because the look on her face and the way she described the song caught my attention and had me interested. I think she said the song was about Vietnam maybe? It’s definitely about a war. She asked if we knew anything about Steve Earle/any of his music. I told her, “Anything I know about Steve Earle is from the Sugarland song” haha At this point we’d stopped walking and stood in a circle on a grassy area backstage. Sarah asked about Sugarland’s song “Steve Earle” and Holly got out her iPod touch, which luckily has the external speaker, and played the song for her. We all swayed along to the song and in the middle of it, Sarah was like “Oh, I have heard this from the record!” When it was over, we all cracked up and Sarah said how she enjoys Sugarland a lot as well.

Of course we gushed about how much we loved Sugarland and LBT. It might have been at that point when Holly and I brought up seeing Sarah rocking out to LBT the night before from side stage. I asked, “If you go watch them tonight from side stage do you need some people to rock out with?” She nodded and said, “Yeah definitely! Jedd and I have to rehearse later for playing with Jamey tonight but if we’re done then for sure.”

Again, I wish I could remember the exact order of the rest of the conversation, although at the same time, it kind of jumped around to different topics anyway. I think it was after talking about Sugarland LBT when she asked me if I’d seen her tweet to me from the night before about the letter I’d written her. She asked if I’d seen it and I told her I had and she said, “Jedd and I cried reading your letter.” That floored me. I’m pretty sure we hugged and I know I told her that I cried reading her tweets in the middle of the show.

While the four of us were standing there together, it was so comfortable, like the three of us were just simply catching up with Sarah. We talked about music. We talked about being on tour. We talked about friendship. We talked about life in general. We must have stood there talking with Sarah for a half hour.

At one point, Sarah said to us, “I know how awkward being in your 20’s can be. There’s school and work and real life and you kind of feel like you’re torn between all these different things. And you wonder what you’re going to do with your life and what’s going to happen.” That’s when she told us again, “Open your heart to life’s possibilities, they’re out there. You’ll find them.” She looked us in the eye as she said all that, as if she was urging us to believe her and just keep holding on. When she looked at me, it’s like we shared an understanding; that somehow she knew her words were what I needed to hear.

Another cool moment was when we were talking about music and how when we’re sad or angry we all just put music on to get those emotions out and Sarah was telling us how she listens to really angry music when she’s upset so she doesn’t have to write it, or something like that haha I said, “My playlist when I’m having a bad day is Remedy and Mississippi’s Crying on repeat”, and Sarah asked me to remind her how Remedy went because it’d been a long time since she’d heard Remedy, even though it’s her own song. Of course, it was one of those moments where I could sing Remedy no problem from memory any other time, but since Sarah had asked me I totally blanked haha

So Holly got her iPod back out and put it on for us to hear. It’s one of my favorite songs of Sarah’s, and I’ve been dying to hear her actually sing it. Sarah held Holly’s iPod up to her ear so she could make sure to hear it. It was pretty funny to see her listening to herself on Holly’s iPod because she really didn’t remember how the song went, but was totally swaying along. Until the one part “Everything you’ve locked away is beautiful and it’s ok” came on. She totally busted out singing the next line, “Let it out, let me in.”

Towards the end of the song she said, “Me and Jedd should cut this,” to which I replied, “Yes please!” Then she explained, “I just feel bad because you know, Fleetwood Mac is a big influence of Little Big Town’s…Fleetwood Mac is my only influence. So I always feel bad because this sounds Little Big Townish. I just wouldn’t want to step on any toes, not that I could or would, you know what I mean? But this sounds like a Little Big Town song.” I had honestly never thought that about Remedy until Sarah said it, but I could definitely see what she meant. I think that just means that she and Little Big Town need to collaborate ASAP haha I didn’t tell her that though…maybe next time.

While we were standing there, Jedd walked by and asked Sarah if she was ready to rehearse some more. We told Sarah we were going to get food and we’d meet her back at the bus later when LBT’s set was about to start to see if she was done. From there, we wandered out to the concourse and attempted to find food. Once we finally decided to try the sub place, we found out they didn’t have any bread left…uh ok haha We walked backstage still hungry and we went to sit outside the bus again to figure out what to do. As we were sitting there, Troy walks by with a plate of food that looked really good. We wondered if with our wristbands we would be able to get catering, too. While we were deciding if we should try to go find it, Troy sees us and says, “Little Big Town is around the bus! Go say hi to them!” The three of us looked at him in disbelief. We thought he was teasing us ha He said, “No really, they’re right over there! You should go say hi.” We laughed and said bye to him as he got on the bus to eat his food.

Mandie, Holly and I got up from where we were sitting and decided to try to find catering since we were still really hungry. We take 2 steps and there coming around the bus next to us is Kimberly! Troy really wasn’t lying when he said Little Big Town was right around the corner haha She notices us and stopped to say hi. I’m pretty sure we got hugs, too. I told her that we came back because we had so much fun yesterday in Charlotte and she laughed and said she was glad. We said bye to her and continued on with our quest for catering. We walked another couple feet and saw Jimi and Karen walking in our direction. We called out hi to them as we all walked by each other, and they waved and said hi and that it was good to see us.

First part of our quest for catering? Epic fail. After wandering around backstage we definitely couldn’t find it, and felt awkward walking around aimlessly because we didn’t want to look like we didn’t belong back there. During our search we saw other people with the same wristbands eating, which made us feel a little better about looking for it, but were still bummed we couldn’t find it; not to mention, still hungry. We walked back towards the bus in hopes to find someone we could possibly ask. Lucky again for us, we saw Emily walking toward the bus too with food in hand. We called her name and she turned around and stopped as we caught up to her. I begged, “Emily can you help us? We tried to get food on the concourse but they didn’t have any bread left and we’re starving. Can you tell us where catering is?”

Emily totally saved the day and gave us directions to the little building where catering was, and who to go to so we could pay to get the little ticket to go through the buffet line. We thanked her profusely and she said, “If you can’t find it or have any problems let me know.” Such a sweetheart. On our way again, this time we walked by Phillip and he stopped to give us all hugs. He told us it was great to see us again. Another total sweetheart. Love him. We found the building she was talking about, which turns out, was right where we had been looking before. I guess we just assumed catering would be an outside thing, but it wasn’t. Eventually we got our little ticket and found the other room where the food was. There were a bunch of people in there eating, but just as we were finishing going through the line a table opened up and we sat down. As we’re sitting there eating, I looked up and saw Heidi Newfield sitting at the table next to us haha We didn’t say hi to her, but I thought that was pretty neat anyway haha We also saw Chelsea, the girl who handed out stuff about the Blue Bird Café in the tent and she came over and sat with us to eat. It was cool to talk to her and share dessert haha

When your long day is over and you can barely drag your feet

As Holly, Mandie and I drove to Raleigh, I made signs we came up with that we wanted to give Troy (as promised), Emily, Sarah and Jedd. They actually turned out fairly well for making them in a moving vehicle against the dashboard! Troy’s sign said “We Love Troy Olsen…Country Throwdown Tour 2010 ~Buxton Hughes Bus Girls”. Emily’s sign said “We Love Emily” and Sarah and Jedd’s sign said “We Need Friends…Facebook.com/BuxtonHughes” on one side and the other side said “We Love You ~Your Purple Wall Girls”.

Once we made it to Raleigh and bought our tickets, we walked around and explained what everything was to Mandie. While we were finding where the tents/stages were that we needed for the day, we saw Walker and went over to say hi. He was like, “Who are you? How do I know you?” in a funny voice, and once we told him Charlotte from yesterday, he remembered us and said he was glad to see us again and glad we were there, which was sweet.

We were right up against the barricade again for Emily’s set at the Outlaw stage, which was awesome. She was amazing as always, and when she saw us there, she called out hi to us and waved. After her set we went over to see the first songwriter’s group at the Blue Bird Tent, which was Troy, Heather Morgan and Walker. We watched each of their first songs, then went back to the Capitol tent real quick to say hi to Emily. When she saw me, she gave me a big hug, and then did the same for Holly. We introduced Mandie to her and Emily gave Mandie a hug too. I showed Emily her sign, and she freaked out. She showed it to her boyfriend and best friend who were in the tent too and kept gushing about how this was her first sign, and that she loved it.

After the 3 of us got pictures with Emily, we went back to the Blue Bird tent to catch the end of the songwriter’s group. We went up to Troy and introduced ourselves again and gave him his sign. He was pretty excited. He said, “I have to go back to the bus right now to hang this up!” He also told us that Sarah and Jedd hung their purple wall up on the bus for everyone to see. We got pictures with him as well, and when he left, we got a group picture with Walker. At one point after that while we were waiting for Buxton Hughes’ set next, Brad Tursi was walking around in the tent too and we said hi to him. He replied, “Hi! You’re the girls who made the purple wall right?” We told him we were, and he said he thought it was cool we made that for them. We thought it was kind of funny that he knew we’re the ones that made it.

Eventually Jedd came to set up his guitar and stuff and when he looked over in our general direction, we called out hi to him and his eyes lit up and he waved. A little while later, Sarah rolled up (literally) on the back of Tyler Reeve’s scooter and she looked so cute with her backpack on haha As she was setting up, she saw us as well and waved. At the beginning of their set with Cory Brannan, Sarah and Jedd mentioned how they were a duo now, which is when we busted out our sign. We held it up and Sarah saw it right away and started reading it out loud.

“We need friends..Oh my gosh! That is AWESOME! We do need friends!” Her and Jedd were cracking up, and I handed the sign to Sarah. Then Sarah held it up again for everyone to see and read their Facebook page URL out loud for everyone. I told her to flip it over because there was a back, and she did and held it up again for the tent to see and read, “We Love You. ~Your Purple Wall Girls” She said she loved us too and decided to tell the ENTIRE tent of people aboutthe purple wall and how Holly and I made it for them. She was like, “These two girls right here, Holly and Michelle, they’re so awesome. They made Jedd and I a purple wall banner for our online chats that we do!”

When their set was over, they went over to one of the plastic tables to be able to take pictures with people and sign stuff. Mandie, Holly and I went and stood off to the side of the line to wait to be able to talk to Sarah and Jedd. While we were standing there, I noticed how much longer the line was than it had been in Charlotte, and I felt bad because not only were Sarah and Jedd trying to meet people, they were responsible for trying to sell their CDs and stuff themselves. Somehow I got the courage to ask, “Hey Sarah, do you want us to help you sell your merch or something?” She looked at me for a second and responded, “Oh my gosh, would you?” We all nodded and walked over to the table and helped them get the CDs and pictures and stuff out of the duffel bag they had with them.

For the next hour and a half or so we had the BEST time selling merch. It was seriously SO much fun. Mandie took pictures for anyone who wasn’t with someone already in line. Holly went on the hunt for change at the concession stands because we were severely lacking anything less than a $20 bill haha I handed people their CD or picture and took money from them and handed it off to Mandie or Holly and gave them back their change (once we finally got some).

At one point Mandie tried to use her own money to make change just to help out and Sarah caught her. Sarah was like “Oh no, you put your money away right now!” hahaha It was so funny. Mandie snuck some back in there when she wasn’t looking until Holly brought back some change and switched Mandie’s money out. Another funny moment was when I asked Jedd if I could wear his sunglasses because it was so bright out and I put them on. He said, "Yeah, keep wearing them! You look really good in them!"

The last singer-songwriter group was performing while they were signing and we were selling merch, so it was cool to get to hear the last group as well. When Dave sang “Do You Believe Me Now”, the three of us were totally singing it and jamming. At one point, Sarah and Jedd turned around while we were singing along to it and were like ‘Heck yeah!’ Sarah bobbed her head along to the music and Jedd started singing along with me…it was so awesome. We also got to finally hear a little bit of Eli Young Band when they played their set too haha

It was really cool to get to see Sarah and Jedd interact with everyone waiting in line to meet them. They were genuinely so excited to meet everyone, and it was really special to get to watch all that.

When Sarah and Jedd were done signing and meeting with everyone, they kept thanking us over and over again and we were like, ‘No seriously, thank YOU! We had a blast!’ They told us that we should come back with them and we told them that Troy told us about the purple wall hanging on the bus. Sarah said, “Yeah, Troy showed us his sign and he said do you want the good news or the bad news? Good news is I got my own sign! The bad news is, I think I stole your biggest fans” hahah We laughed about that and then helped them pack up their duffel bag and went to walk backstage.

I'm dreaming like a child..but some things just don't go out of style

I've been trying for over a week to figure out exactly what to say in this blog entry. To attempt to find adequate words to describe what happened last Thursday and Friday. I'm not sure if I've found the ones I want, but I know that I'll regret not writing something about my experience. I apologize in advance if this post jumps around alot...honestly, when I think back to all that happened, it still overwhelms me a little.

Thursday May 27th, I went to the Country Throwdown Tour in Charlotte with my friend Holly. We really had no idea what to expect from this tour. All I was hoping for was to see Emily, Sarah and Jedd play, because LBT was on the main stage so I knew I'd see them; and to maybe get an LBT meet & greet. Oh boy, little did I know.

Holly and I got there around 12:30 and found the table to pick up our wristbands for our LBT meet & greets. Check one thing off the list :) This was Holly's first time seeing LBT live, let alone meeting them, so I was so excited to be able to be there for that. We also were listed for a wristband for a meet & greet for Sarah. We weren't sure what a Sarah meet & greet really meant, but we hoped to be able to talk to them after their set to make sure we knew what to do.

Once we got in the venue and walked around, we eventually found where everything was. We won some free stuff at some of the tents, and then staked out our spots right against the barricade in front of the Outlaw stage where Emily West was playing. Emily came out and rocked it. She saw us and waved and if she saw us taking pictures, she'd pose...it was adorable.

After her set, she was signing at the Capitol tent so Holly and I went over there to wait for her to come. We were standing in line, when all the sudden I saw a guy walking around by the Blue Bird Tent which was just across from the Capitol one. The guy was Jedd Hughes, and Holly and I quickly got out of line and went over to say hi to him. I called out his name and he turned around and when he saw us, he got a big smile on his face. He gave both of us big hugs and asked how we were. We talked for a few minutes, and we told him that we couldn't wait to give him and Sarah their surprise. He told us that they were excited too and had been trying to figure out what it might be. We said we'd see him later and we went back to get in line for Emily.

When Holly and I got up to the table, Emily gave me a big hug and I introduced her to Holly. Then I gave Emily a bracelet I'd made her and when I showed it to her her eyes lit up. She told me, "I haven't been feeling well with my allergies today and I really needed a pick me up. Thank you so much Michelle, you're so sweet." So I tied the bracelet on her wrist, and we took a picture. Emily had burned her own CDs to sell since her record still isn't out, and when I went to buy one, she gave me one for free. Then Holly got her picture and we asked her if she needed any help. She said she had to go do press at the moment but she'd come find us afterwards and we could help her sell stuff. That actually didn't end up happening because Emily took a much needed nap instead, but she tweeted Holly apologizing to us for not finding us, it was cute.

After we got food and picked at it, we staked out our spot in the Blue Bird tent right in front of the stage. While Holly and I were sitting on the ground eating the equivalent of 1 chicken tender, all the sudden we saw someone standing next to us; we look up and it's Sarah! We called out her name and she turned around and was SO excited to see us. It was kind of funny in an awkward way because Holly and I had stuff in our laps and couldn't get up right away haha But once we stood up she gave us each a huge hug. She and Jedd finished setting up their stuff on the stage, and then their set began. It was them with Walker Hayes, who I hadn't heard of before, but quickly grew to love. He's awesome! And hilarious.

At the beginning of the set, Sarah pulled out her shaker and tambourine and I jokingly said, "Sarah, do you have another tambourine?" She heard me and replied, "Yeah I do!" And pulled out another one and handed it to me. Then she asked if anyone wanted her shaker and she went to hand it out to someone and I thought she was going to give it to Holly, but then she said, "Give it to that man" and I was like who? Turns out, she wanted Holly to hand it to my dad! haha When I realized she wanted my dad to use it, I told her that was my dad. Sarah's eyes got big and she said, "That's your dad?! You're Michelle's dad?! We love Michelle!" So Holly gave Sarah's shaker to my dad, and while Walker played his first song, we used Sarah's stuff as we stood in front of the stage. I had thought that Sarah gave me the tambourine for that purpose-to play it while I stood in the audience. I should have known better.

After Walker finished his first song, it was Sarah and Jedd's turn to play. They started with Outside My Window, and Sarah and Jedd told me, and my dad to get up there to do the song with them. This other random girl also came up on stage as well. It was unbelievable to stand up on the little stage in between Sarah and Jedd as they played Outside My Window. It was so much fun to play the tambourine with Sarah Buxton and to look over at her during the song and just laugh and smile and sing along.

It was honestly something I will never forget. After Outside My Window, I went back and stood next to Holly and jammed to the rest of Walker and Sarah and Jedd's set. When they were done playing, Holly and I got in line to get a picture with Walker, and we waited for Sarah and Jedd to finish meeting people so we could see when we could give them their surprise. Holly and I had gotten wristbands marked for Sarah and Jedd for some sort of meet & greet, but none of us had any idea really what that meant. Joe, one of the tour managers, was sweet enough to explain to them and us what our wristbands meant. He told them that they could take us backstage with them/to their bus as long as they escorted us. Sarah and Jedd were pretty excited about that and really wanted to know what their surprise was.

One last couple came up to them as we were about to leave and while they talked to Sarah, Holly and I stood with Jedd and talked with him. I forget now how we got on the subject, but we started talking about Sesame Street. Jedd told us about how Sesame Street was his introduction to Blue Grass music, which I thought was really interesting. I told him he and Sarah should sing on Sesame Street, and he said it's a huge honor if you're asked to do that. That somehow led into Jedd telling us that he has an alter ego haha I asked Jedd if his alter ego had a name, and he replied, "Bert, you know, like Bert and Ernie" and then he started singing Rubber Ducky. It was awesome haha

Sarah and Jedd then led us backstage and on to their tour bus. It was really cool to actually see/sit inside one. They introduced us to Dave Pahanish and Troy Olsen who are also part of the Blue Bird singer-songwriter tent. Holly and I sat down and Sarah got us Dr. Pepper lol There were 2 other women on the bus that Dave had been talking to, so while Sarah and Jedd put their stuff away, we talked to Dave, Troy and the 2 women. Dave is incredibly entertaining and was really nice to us, and Troy is a sweetheart. Dave brought up an interesting topic of conversation and I have never laughed so hard in my life. It was so funny, that Sarah called her fiancee, Tom, and had Dave talk to him about it. After that conversation wound down, Sarah and Jedd looked at us and Sarah asked, "So where is it?! What's the surprise?!" It was adorable. Then Dave asked if there would be a big unveiling or something and we laughed.

I took the "Purple Wall" out of my bag and Holly and I un folded it. As soon as we unfolded the fabric, Jedd and Sarah's mouths dropped open. They were like "Is this...what is this?! Is this a purple banner for us?!" We told them, "It's your own purple wall" and they FLIPPED out. Sarah started jumping up and down a little and she and Jedd kept looking at it. Holly and I told them that the cloud was to represent Outside My Window and Big Blue Sky, the radio was for Radio Love, the ice cream cone was f or That Kind of Day plus Sarah loves ice cream, and the beer bottle was for the "beer bottle solo" inside joke from their UStream chats. (Go watch all the archive ones under teammuffin and buxtonhughes if you've never seen them...SO MUCH FUN). Dave and Troy thought the Purple Wall was pretty awesome. Troy joked, "Where's my sign? Next time y'all need to make me one too."

Dave suggested then that Sarah and Jedd should play for us on the bus. He said, "It's one thing to see someone up on a stage and play for a crowd. It's another to have them sing just for you." Sarah and Jedd we re all for it, and Jedd borrowed Dave's guitar. They sang Outside My Window and Sarah danced around the bus with the Purple Wall...it was amazing. When they were done, Sarah was still so excited and yelled "TWIT PIC! WE NEED TO TWIT PIC THIS!" Holly and I handed our cameras to Troy and he gladly snapped away pictures.

While Troy was taking the pictures, he asked Jedd, "Where's your enthusiasm?!" And Jedd replied, "What? This is my sexy Australian face!" Finally, when we got to Sarah's Twit Pic, this is the face he made.

After we were done taking pictures, Sarah and Jedd had to go do their press, so we walked with them to the press trailer, which was on the way to the gate where Holly and I had to go out. By that time, it was almost time to go to the Little White Church tent for the LBT m&g, so that's where we went. There, we met back up with my parents, who also had a m&g because my mom won the Little White Church contest that I entered her in haha While we were waiting, I somehow spotted Emily walking around and we went up to her and said hi. She asked us if we'd gotten her tweet, and we told her we had, and she apologized again for not meeting back up with us.

We told her it was cool and we totally understood. Then she asked if we knew where they had any Blue Moon hahaha Poor girl was on a hunt for it, but couldn't find it so she had to settle for some other brand and shell out $12. Her face was pretty funny when the guy told her that's how much it was. She asked us if we wanted to come back with her and hang out some more, but we couldn't because our LBT m&g was about to start :( So we gave her more hugs and said bye, then went to get in line for the m&g.

My parents were towards the front of the line, while Holly and I stayed towards the back. My parents were secretly excited to meet LBT again, which made me happy. Eventually it was my turn because Holly made me go first. I walked up to them and said hi to Jimi and gave him a hug. Then it was Karen and she smiled at me and said, "There's our faithful Twitter follower!" I thought that was cute. I hugged Kimberly and Phillip was well, and as I got in between Karen and Kimberly for the picture, I said, "I've missed you guys, it's been forever" and the girls agreed. Then I told them that I've graduated college since I last saw them and they were all like 'Oh wow!' and Karen told me congrats.

Then it was Holly's turn and somewhere in there Kimberly, Phillip and I started talking about the Little White Church video and how awesome it is. They were really excited that we love the song so much. The guy who takes the pictures overheard me telling Phillip that Holly was my best friend and asked if we wanted a picture together with them, so after Holly got her's, we got one together and I stood next to Kimberly. Then Holly and I went to leave the tent and go find our seats, which happened to be when they were escorting LBT out of the tent to backstage. Somehow I got caught up in the crowd of people and ended up in the middle of Karen and Phillip haha I said bye again and told them to look for us in the 2nd row where we'd be rocking out.

Little Big Town was incredible as always. True to their word, they all saw us at some point during the show and smiled/waved/sang to us. It was so great. The new songs "Why Oh Why", "The Reason Why" & "Runaway Train" are AMAZING. I'm SO excited for the new CD on August 24th. After LBT's set, Sarah, Jedd and Walker came out on the main stage to sing 2 songs in between sets. The lame security guard wouldn't let us stand in front of where they were playing because we couldn't see from our seats, even though no one was sitting there the entire show. Eventually Holly and I went back up on the concourse and were sitting at a picnic table, wishing we could've said goodbye to Sarah and Jedd.

All the sudden I turned to Holly and said, "I have a proposition...it could be epic, but you'll probably say no." She agreed to hear it, as long as she could veto it if she didn't want to do it. I said, "What if we got tickets to Raleigh tomorrow and went there instead of Speed Street with Mandie? I'll call Mandie and see if she'd want to come so we could all still hang out, and we'll go pick her up in the morning and go. That way we'd at least get to see Sarah and Jedd after their set to say thank you and goodbye." She thought about it, and between the weather looking awful for Speed Street, our amazing time that day, and not getting to really say thank you to Sarah and Jedd, she agreed. I called Mandie, and she convinced her parents and our plan was in motion...which, little did I know at the time, would somehow top this day, and will lead to my next blog entry :)