OK our adventure started the day before with the realization that there were four Edgers sitting together all in a row and two of the renowned Glitter Girls were among them. Bet you can see where this is leading. SO with a little help from Shelly an addition to the ELDREDGE sign was created. Maybe that will explain the attention we got from Todd - more to details to follow....
Our seats were in the front row and wonderfully close to center. I think Wendy should audition for "Touched By An Angel" because she pulled off a miracle getting such great seats. We settled in and waited for the show to begin.The opening number was the standard COI fare. Everyone had their little clip of music. Todd skated to "One Week" by Barenaked Ladies. Really cute moves. He really can dance! He had on black pants and a black shirt with some kind of animal print on the front. It was something we expected as it was those good ol' stand-bys the black pants and a partly black buttoned down shirt. Of course the leopard print was a new twist but still it was basically black.
Todd appears second in the second half of the show. He skated to "Pity the Child" and it is a beautiful program. Todd landed a huge triple axel, a gorgeous triple loop (right at us), a triple Lutz, a triple Salchow and a double axel (which he w'axeled). Prior to the show we'd asked Richard what costume Todd would be wearing and we finally have a description of that indescribable costume from the Japan Open. According to Richard the costume is "the black shirt that isn't really black" Really helpful huh? But there you have it folks - the official word.
The finale was really fun. It is a group number and a huge improvement over last year's finale. The only music that stuck out in my head was "Sing Sing Sing" but a few people mentioned it was a Brian Setzer medley. And a few people were wrong (namely me). It's actually a medley from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. At least we think.
Todd had on black pants and the shirt has a black back and black sleeves with a purple front that has wide vertical pink stripes. Think last year's opening shirt only hot pink and florescent purple instead of olive and yellow. Eye-popping to say the least. And like Janet, we too seemed to have missed most of the finale other than what Todd was doing except for the lovely distraction of Jerod dancing right in front of us. Oops.
I forgot to mention that Todd was very aware that we were there. He waved to us a few times, kind of gave us a cute "eyebrow raise" at another time and pointed to us too. The audience was really quiet in the beginning and since we were yelling and cheering a lot we got a lot of attention from Michael Weiss, Rudy Galindo, Viktor Petrenko and Philippe Candeloro.The audience was pretty dead and we were pretty loud. So every time a male skater came whizzing by we had to whistle, hoot, holler and generally make a ruckus. Todd first noticed us near the end of the opening number when we screamed his name as he went by a mere two feet in front of us - sorry if he's deaf for future shows - not really our fault.
The next Todd moment came during the beginning of the finale when we hooted as he was dancing by us. reaction was totally Todd - a quick glance over with raised eyebrows and Todd smirk firmly in place. Next came the moment we hinted at in the beginning. During the final victory lap - which Todd lead - the four of us were standing holding up yet another huge sign. This one spelled TODD in colors and glitter matching the original ELDREDGE sign. The look on his face was priceless and he pointed and waved right at us. We think the others were jealous as we had the only visible sign in the whole place. Todd fans truly are one of a kind.
