Hey y'all, I wanted to say I love your site, and I wanted to share my 98° Experience with you guys. My 4 friends and I trekked to NYC for two days to catch a glimpse of the guys on MTV's TRL, which my friend Jess got picked to go upstairs for (she was the one dressed as the boxer). We didn't get to go upstairs, but when the guys heard from Jess how we were dissed by MTV's producers, they came to the window and blew kisses at us and stuff, it was so cute.
So then the next day my friend Steph and I trekked back to NYC (we live in Connecticut) because we heard the guys were doing an autograph signing at Coconuts. We got there at 11:30 am, and the signing started at 3:30. So we waited a while, we were about 50th in line, and as we waited we were talkin' to the girls in front of us, who were really cool (They were like 25 years old!) So then one of the girls told some lady about my huge 98° scrapbook that I've been doing since "Invisible Man" came out. The lady turned out to be from the Associated Press, and she interviewed me talking about them. Anyway, the guys finally got to Coconuts at like 3:20 and they started letting people in. I was SOOO nervous because I love them so much, Steph and I had a mission. We had to wish Jeff an early happy birthday (the signing was on April 21), tell Justin he had beautiful eyes, ask Drew why he sticks his right ear in his hat when he wears it backwards, and I had to give Nick a teddybear. So we finally get in the store and the girls in front of us were like, "Nicole, DONT CRY!" I was so nervous. Steph went first and wished Jeff a happy birthday, he was so sweet! Then she shook Justin's hand and said hello to him, then she moved down to her fave., Drew. She shook his hand and then Nick's, then turned back to Drew and said, "Can I ask you a question?" and he said, "Sure!" So she asked him, "When you wear your hat backwards, why do you stick your right ear in and your left ear out?" and he said, "Oh, my head's too small." It was so cute. So then I walked up to the table and the lady put my scrapbook down in front of Jeff. I must have looked like I was about to cry, because Justin stuck his hand out and real soothingly said, "Hey sweetheart." I said hello and shook his hand. I was gonna say something to him but then Jeff was like, "Excuse me, which page do you want signed?" so I pointed to the page and he was like, "Yeah, that's a good one!" and signed it. So then I moved to Jeff, who was already finished signing my book. He looked at me like he knew me, so I said, "We were outside at MTV yesterday, my friend Jess was the one dressed as the boxer" and it was like a light went off, he was like, "Oh yeah, we saw you!" It was so cute, he got all excited. While I was talking to Jeff, Justin was flipping through my scrapbook, and he was like, "Wow." and then he ripped a page and was like, "oops, I didn't do that." It was so cute. Then I went to Drew, and shook his hand. While I was shaking Drew's hand, Nick was looking at me, and I was freaking. So I stuck out the teddy bear and said to Nick, "This is for you," and he took it and said, "Aww, thank you sweetheart." He hugged it against his chest, then I mustered up all my courage and said, "Could I have a hug?" He got a sad look on his face and said, "Oh I'm sorry, we can't give hugs, but..." then he reached across the table and grabbed my hand and held it for like the longest time (ok so it was only for like 30 seconds) and gave it a little squeeze, Steph was dying! Drew started hitting him in the elbow with the scrapbook so he let go of my hand and put the bear on his lap, signed my scrapbook, and handed it right back to me. Then he put the bear under his chair, waved goodbye, and that was it. But the coolest part was that we saw them in concert on the 24th, and we squeezed our way down to the front row (we had seventh row). We were standing on chairs screaming, and all of a sudden Jeff looks right at me and waves, like he remembered me! And for the rest of the song he was looking right at me. Anyway, here's some pictures! They didn't come out very good b/c I took a picture of the picture with my digital camera, but you get the idea! *LOL* There's one of Jeff, Justin, and Drew from the signing, then one of Drew and Nick from the signing. In the one of Drew and Nick, Nick has my teddybear in his hand and he's talking to me. The other picture is of Jeff singing Invisible Man after he remembered me, as you can see he's looking directly at me.
