Confessions

I am embarrassed to actually cop to this on the internet, but I have a shameful guilty pleasure. Because I did not get sucked into this particular pop culture phenomenon when the rest of America did, I am still actually enjoying it. For the record, I never thought I would like it - I hopped on the bandwagon because of peer pressure. I wanted to be able to fit in with my friends and coworkers every Wednesday and Thursday morning around the "bubblah." Unfortunately, I became an addict in the process and am mortified to admit I sometimes do it before noon and by myself. :( But, I can no longer deny there is a problem. I like American Idol. Perhaps a little too much. The first season I watched (The One With Taylor Hicks) was not much to talk about and I didn't think I'd be tuning in again. However, by that time I was with Anthony and he agreed to watch the next year with me. I really enjoyed the next season (The One With Jordin Sparks) because of all the different types of artists. But oh! I became undeniably, unabashedly obsessed with David Cook the following year. Oh. My. Gosh. When he would do his patented smoky bedroom eyes right into the camera, I would *literally* giggle. Though Anthony stopped watching after The One Where Michael Johns Went Home, I would make him watch when David C was on and he had to suffer through my swooning. (It's a celebrity, so it doesn't really count bee tee dubs.) So yeah, he is def my celebrity crush still and his CD is rarely far from my stereo.
But I digress... The reason for this post is to bemoan last night's sad ending. Scott has been my favorite since his very first audition. I admire his faith and determination and thoroughly enjoy his quirky sense of humor. Though I might admit under unbearable torture that he is probably one of the weaker singers left, I still loved watching him perform with that sweet earnestness and I especially loved his hysterical one-liners when bantering with Ryan or the judges (I am still laughing about his pink pants reference and am still on the fence if he was kidding or for real!). He actually made me pick up my phone and vote this season (oh, the burning shame!). Unfortunately on Tuesday night, I wrote down his number but forgot to do some dialing before I went to bed. Though I could not have voted 30,001 times, I feel like somehow I let him down and that makes me sad. Very very sad. For the record, I do think the judges should have saved him. They only have two weeks left to use it, and I would have thought the producers would have encouraged them not to wait til the last week just to up the suspense (unless of course the surprise will be that they never feel the need to use it). If they save Allison or Matt with it next week, I will be crushingly disappointed. Clearly America does not dig them as much as the judges do, so I feel it would be wasted as they would just be sent home the following week. I hope they end up regretting not using the save on Scott. I do think his fans would have saved him the next week, I really do.
On a happier note, I think Scott's best trick was faith-based ballads with a lot of powerful emotion behind the lyrics. I really hope there is a Christian label out there right now just waiting to pounce on him. I would absolutely buy his album the day it dropped to show my support for such an optimistic, funny, determined guy. Though he caught my attention because of his handicap, he kept it by the fact that he refuses to not reach for his dreams regardless of what society thinks he can not or should not be doing. I think there's a lot of non-impaired people that could stand to learn that lesson.