August 04, 2008: The Cab opening for The Hush Sound @ Slim's. Showed Singer my *NSYNC tattoo, talked to his dad, Papa Singer saw my pic with SInger and his lil sis Sophia so Papa was like "THATS MY DAUGHTER TOO!" I was like, I know, lol. Papa is such a cool dude.
It wasn't until August 2008, that the dream was actually becoming a reality. In the middle of August, a meet and greet was announced for Burbank, CA on August 28th, 2008. Laurina and I were working for Movin at the Stanford Blood Drive and I told her that I was going to LA next week to meet New Kids on the Block and she said that she wanted to go. We rented a car and were off to LA to meet them the following week. We waited 26 hours in line and had Alyssa and other friends stop by through the night. We ordered pizza, played Uno and amused ourselves with NKOTB trading cards. Jon's turn offs and turn ons card had the half asleep line awake immediately, and laughing hysterically for a couple minutes. Even though we were tired and sleeping on the cement, we still had a blast. We made the sign that ended up on TMZ during the day while we waited, and Laurina made her famous Donnie visor. We were such dorks, but we didn't care what anyone said. We met a lot of cool people in line, and some not so cool, but for the most part, it was a good place to see how the comeback tour would play out. The whole New Kids experience was pretty much about commraderie, although a few haters sneak in there and try to make it a competition, it was a positive experience overall. As the day wore on, we got anxious, but the moment most of us had been waiting for for 15 years was about to go down. We started off within the first 10 people, but with line jumpers and what not, we ended up in the first 40, which still got us in the first group. We were told that we could only get one picture with one guy, but I don't like rules like that so I was on a mission to get a pic with all of them. Once we were let in and the guys had fulfilled their obligations to Best Buy, the meet and greet began. I can't even describe the anticipation. I had already met my favorite member a few years before, but I was still freaking out at seeing all five of them together at one time in one place. I was totally calm when I met them, I had them sign their very first CD and I got two autographs from Joey because I had an 8x10 of the times I had met him before. I met Jon first and got a pic, then Jordan. I took one pic with Jordan, but I was too far zoomed in, so luckily I snuck another one in. Joey was next and Jennifer and Alyssa, who were working the event, got mine and Joe's attention and took the pic for us, it went so fast and he said something about the 8x10 but I didn't quite catch it so I quickly turned back to him and told him it was from the Dancing with the Stars tour in 2006 in San Jose. Danny also leaned in to my pic with Joey, and I got a solo one with Danny as well. Donnie was last and I ended up with two pix with him as well. One on my camera and one from Jennifer. After it was over, I was hanging around to try to get pix from when Christina and Tina were going to meet them. Best Buy was a freaking mad house, but it was awesome to be a part of. Jon came out half way through for a smoke break (which ironically, he named as one of his turn offs on those old school trading cards) and it was Jennifer and Alyssa's job to shield him from the fans so I joined them for a brief minute as a human Jon shield. Quite hilarious. Finally Christina and Tina got to them and the section was pretty well blocked off, and at that point, they had stopped allowing photos with the guys so I tried getting any I could of them with the guys. There ended up being well over 500 people waiting to meet them and the shindig went on for at least two hours. Afterwards, as we were all basking in New Kids glory, we waited out back to see the guys take off, and it was a mad dash when they did. When their car came out of the garage, it was craziness as cars chased after them in every direction. That was only a sneak peak of what was to come, and even, what we ended up doing at different spots on the tour. It was an amazing experience and a great way to kick off our New Kids year.
September 23, 2008: Dancing With the Stars Week 1 Results show. I went to LA with 2.5 intentions, 1 - To get into the results show taping in which the Jonas Brothers and Jesse McCartney were performing on, 2 - to meet Lance Bass again, and 2.5 - Attempt to meet the Jonas Brothers (which I knew was a long shot). And well, 2 out of 2.5 ain't bad! Got into the taping with a stroke of good luck and impecable timing (Thanks Elaine and hubby!), and once in the taping, my fantastic job of hiding my camera, and my big mouth came in handy! Called Lancey over and got pix, BOO YAH! Twas rather amazing. Didn't meet the JoBros, but seeing em perform on a television show and watching Joe Jonas putting on his tap dancing shoes was totally worth it!
Jesse from Maroon 5 in September. Followed M5 to SF, security was total douches but we met Jesse on the other side of the street so they couldn't say shit! Levine entered the hotel and we couldn't even get close, booo!
October 11, 2008: Chris Carrabba from Dashboard Confessional @ San Jose State Event Center. He saw my NKOTB hoodie and was like "Did you go to the concert...?!" All adorable like and I was like "DUH!" lol. He is such a sweet guy, it amazes me how he writes such emo songs!
October 12, 2008: Alex Johnson from The Cab @ Arco Arena. Was trying to meet Panic and The Cab and security was total tools, so literally right in front of them, I was like "well if no one if going to meet fans then why is AJ standing right here!?" No good answer, therefore, I asked AJ for a pic and of course he obliged!
October 30, 2008: Victoria Asher and Gabe Saporta from Cobra Starship @ The Fillmore. Victoria was wandering around right after the show so she was nice as always and took a pic. Gabe was about to have throat surgery so he shouldn't have been talking or meeting people at all, but being as it was Gabe, of course he met fans. He dug my NKOTB shirt and told me not to blast out his Donnie love, lol.
November 11, 2008: New Kids on the Block at the Sprint Center in Kansas City, MO Five Star
Sometime in October, word began to spread at how awesome the 5 star package was and it began to sell out. The minute "upgrades" were released, we bought em and booked the nearest flight to where ever it was scheduled to be. On November 11th, we landed in Kansas City, MO for our chance for meet and greet and pre-party. Even though the chick I was with was crazy, I ignored her the best I could and managed to enjoy myself. A couple weeks before our five star, I decided to get a NKOTB related tattoo and once we got to KC, I showed it to Donnie because I know he would appreciate it the most. In the five star, Jordan called me Natasha Bedingfield and I was like "Really!? Well I am gonna take that as a compliment as he eyed me skank attire up and down, haha. The experience was awesome and I knew that I had to do it again!
November 25, 2008: Donnie Wahlberg at Cox Arena in San Diego, CA. Donnie being Donnie, always down for facetime, met all the fans before the show in San Diego and made sure everyone had the tix they needed for the show, awwww!
November 26, 2008: Drew Lachey at the NKOTB show at Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles, CA. I met Nick Lachey too, but the picture didn't take and I never received one that someone else had taken of us :(. It's OK though. I will get a pic next time!
December 21, 2008: Alex Deleon from The Cab stopping in for the Fall Out Boy show at the Great American Music Hall in San Francisco, CA. Singer is such a nice kid!!!
© Celebrity Obsession 2008