Brian Regan! backstage and all

On Thursday, January 26th, 2012 I got to officially meet my hero. First we went to Abrevanel Hall to see the show. When we got there I had to go downstairs to go and get my tickets for the show, and my VIP backstage passes. Because of some miscommuncations that I had with Brian's secretary I ended up with 15 tickets, so these are the people that I took. Of course my family and my self, that's 4. Then, Kate and Chad (sister and brother-in-law), 6. And of course the people who introduced us to Brian Regan a few years back, my Aunt Kathy and Uncle Alfred, 8. Then I had to bring my bishop and his wife for everything that he's done for me in the past nearly 2 years. And the other one that's been such a good, good, friend to me, Michelle Madruga, I had to bring her too. That's 11. Who the heck could be the other four? See this is where I had some miscommunication with Yamari (Brian's secretary). So two of them were Tonya's worker, Trish Cook and her husband, Justin. Then, finally I wanted to bring someone who has been such a good friend to me since long before the accident and has remained there anytime I need a friend (or 4 including her 3 sweet little girls!) This one is Jen Call, and her husband Doug Call.

So we went to our seats, fairly close to the front, and got to see the show. It was probably about 90% new stuff, things that I hadn't heard before. Which is saying a lot since I practically stock him and own every album, or DVD he has come out with. But then, after the show came. This was it. This was the moment that I have lost so much sleep in anxiety about. I was going to get to meet Brian Regan! Oh my gosh! So I called Chris Abbott, the manager for Abrevanel Hall while he was there and I got directed to go around to find him and Brian's stage manager Andrew Levitt. They had us all put on our backstage passes on our shirts and they escorted us backstage. Before Brian met us back there we saw an assortment of food that Brian had put back there, specifically for us. And there was a big cake on the other side from where we came in and my sister pointed that out to me and told me to go see what it said on it. This part, you'll never believe, but see first, you have to remember the phone call that I had with Brian on my 17th birthday. If you have trouble remembering it, here's a link to my blog post when it happened http://www.shannonblackham.blogspot.com/2010/08/thursday-8-6-10.html. So then you should remember that i ended our conversation saying "take luck Brian." And on this cake, it said, none other than "Take Luck Shannon." OH MY GOSH!!!!!! I totally screamed so loud when I saw what it said. And then not too long after my mom told me to turn around and there, coming from the hall I saw Brian Regan himself. So of course, I started screaming so loud again and I ran over to him and just like stood there gawking at the fact that I was actually standing right next to Brian Regan. And then, omg, he totally reached out to hug me!!! Oh my gosh! He totally hugged me!!! Oh my gosh!!! But anyway, then I gave him the two little gifts that I had brought for him. And this should be exciting. I gave him a little book about Christ and amazing pictures of Him and stuff, and I gave him a Book of Mormon. Yep, I totally did. And I have 14 witnesses, including my bishop if you don't believe me. But throughout the course of the evening he kept giving me hugs and stuff and OH MY GOSH!!!!! So we ended up talking with him for about 45 minutes, talking about my progress, his family and just about everything. But it amazed me at how truly genuine this celebrity actually is. For example, he told me that from time to time, he still checks my blog. And that he is so ecstatic about all of the impact that he's made in my progress. He is seriously the greatest guy ever. And you would think that me going backstage to meet him would ruin that perception that I have of him and such, but oh heavens how it did just the opposite. Meeting him just reinforced every amazing perception that I have of the man. He is incredible and I am so grateful to his secretary, Yamari, for making this possible, and so incredibly grateful to Brian himself for everything he does. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!