Manifesto- Grammys 2000

Arrival: we arrived at the Grammys at about 11:30 a.m. to a torrential downpour of rain. It was about 50 degrees and the rain was pouring along with some wind. Mind you I was only wearing my bright red tank/sweater set and a pair of jeans so I threw my jacket on, grabbed my umbrella and off we went. We arrived at the barricades behind a bunch of people who were basically there to see BSB. Some people were already talking about how they came yesterday and met BSB during their rehearsals and how they met Ricky Martin and stuff. But I didn't care to listen to their stories, I wanted to see the people!!

PRE-GRAMMY REHEARSALS BSB Sighting #1: in the pouring rain we spotted a little figure emerge from the automatic doors....screaming soon followed, as it was none other than Alexander James McLean that had decided to answer the call of the Nicotine fit. Yep, he needed a smoke break so he came to our side and decided to smoke. He kind of played behind the pole of the building, sticking his hand out and waving or even sticking his head out to see how we would scream. I was lucky enough to kind of see him head on so I got to watch him play with the crowd. It was cute =) Then when he went back in he kinda snuck behind this big guy into the building but before he went in he stuck his head back out and waved. It was usual AJ style I guess =) At this point we were pretty discouraged because security had moved us back another 5 feet or so and we were still in the rain. Then we noticed that the artists were going into their limos in the parking garage so we moved to a covered (thank Goodness) part near the parking lot! However, there were other people who stayed in their spots in the rain, a larger group of them. They had the view of the end of the red carpet just before you enter the Staples Center, where the plastic, almost-see-through covering ended from the red-carpet. Our view was better because we got to see everyone waiting for their limos...and we even got the attention of a few!! Ok, for logistical purposes we were about 30 feet from all the action, k??

Miscellaneous Sightings: Erykah Badu was absolutely the best fan-related personality there at rehearsals. Everytime she came out she would wave at everybody and give us all that really huge smile of hers, at one point she even came out to the fans in the pouring rain to sign autographs and stuff. She was really cool. Let's see, who else...Oh yeah, we saw Carlos Santana enter the building but all he did was wave and run into the building (not a big fan person I don't think), we also saw Rob Thomas enter (best story is to come). Others we saw enter/exit the building were Sting (he was sooo cool, we all shouted his name and he turned to us and bowed, too cool), Billy Joel, Britney Spears (she just waved once and then was busy talking to her people), Gloria Estefan (she waved and stuff, but nothing too out of the ordinary), and Kid Rock (who we saw MANY MANY times because his trailer was about 10 feet from us).

Rob Thomas Sighting #1: when Rob Thomas exited the Staples Center he walked down the red-carpet over to his limo and we all did the 1-2-3 Rob shout thing and he actually turned around. Sherry called him over to us and he actually started walking towards us!! He was within 15 feet and he started talking about how he would love to come and talk to us but he had to be back in about an hour and he still needed to go back to the hotel and get ready for the show. Isn't that cool?? I got a picture, hope it turns out!!

BSB Sighting #2: OMG, this is when we got to see ALL 5!!! Ok, here's the play by play. Everyone started screaming because AJ (Mr. Attention) was the first one to exit the Staples Center. He was wearing a black jacket (no hat) and was kinda playfully skipping down the red carpet...he waved as we were all screaming for him...shouts of "AJ" and "Backstreet Boys, Backstreet Boys" were heard from all of us looney people in the rain/freezing cold. Then comes little Brian, he also had a black jacket on with some brown looking pants, he had a black baseball cap on (the normal way) but he didn't really pay too much attention to us screaming at him, he just kinda looked straight ahead and occassionally turned his head and waved, of course the screams of "Brian" were heard at this point. Then comes this tall, gangly lookin guy with a white baseball cap (backwards), grey sweatshirt, and white lookin pants with a huge backpack on his back...it's Nick!! We all start screaming "NICK, NICK" and he turned around a little bit but nothing too special. I think that AJ, Brian and Nick were all in the same limo. Then Howie comes down the red carpet, wearing a beige sweater and black pants (dressed up as usual) with a backpack on his back, hair pulled back in the pony tail. We totally lucked out with Howie because his limo was on our side and he actually had to walk to it! We were all screaming "Howie, Howie" and he actually turned our way, waved at us a whole bunch, and even did the trademark wink!! It was soooo cool, Howie by far was the nicest (this time around). The last to leave was Kevin, he was wearing a bucket hat on his head (almost looked like a grey lampshade) and a black jacket. We all started screaming "Kevin, Kevin" but he didn't really turn our way, he just waved a couple of times and went into the limo. Mind you, all of this happened in about 5 minutes.

GRAMMY ARRIVALS: Well, we sort of found out at this point that we were actually at the BACK entrance to the grammys, so a lot of the random people were coming in from the back, but a few were people we actually cared about. First one we saw was Will Smith, he came down the red-carpet in this black lookin, leather outfit with DJ Jazzy Jeff and a few of his other peeps. Then later we saw Gloria Estefan (she looked really pretty, as usual cuz she always dresses classy), Erykah Badu, Barry Manilow (LOL!), Tony Bennet (LOL!), Jimmy Smitts, that big-haired blonde girl from Ally McBeal, and Gray Davis (Governor of California). All others actually entered the front entrance, that was all decked out for the Grammys so we didn't get to see a lot of good entrances =( Oh well. OH YEAH! And even though we saw Kid Rock MANY MANY times already he had the official entrance with all of his peeps (pretty strange ones if you ask me) and his "vertically-challenged" stage buddy lil' Joe...and guess who was with him? None other than Mr. Carson Daly himself! We all started screaming for Carson and he waved at us, but it was almost like a forced wave...kinda something that he NEEDED to do to keep his ratings up or something. JERK.

GRAMMY EXITS: Ok, so at this point we were kind of bored because no big stars had gone through our entrance in a while, and the show had actually already started. We heard Will Smith's music playing and the girls outside were screaming cuz we could see the show on the TV that was about 50 feet away, we just couldn't really hear it that loud. Anyway, about 2 minutes after the show started we spotted this little guy with platinum hair running down the red carpet from the Staples Center and into his car...it was Sisqo! We all shouted for him and he turned around and waved and started jumping up and down, it was funny! =) Then all of a sudden we see Will Smith walking down the red-carpet again back to his car, guess he didn't want to stay for the whole thing. That's when we realized that we're glad we stayed cuz a whole lot of people were going to leave once they weren't up for any other awards. At that point the parade of stars began. Those who left the show early were: Clint Black and Lisa Hartman (country), Tim McGraw and Faith Hill (country), Jennifer Lopez (OMG what was she wearing???) and Puff Daddy (they both waved and stuff at us screaming people), Ricky Martin (who didn't pay any attention to us when we were screaming for him...JERK), Fred Durst and that Wes guy from Limp Bizkit (they actually went to the group of people that were out in the cold and signed some stuff). John Reznik from the Goo Goo Dolls was standing and waiting for his limo and we all started yelling for him (our goal was to get at least 1 celebrity over to our fan secion, which never happened) and he turned and waved at us...then he got on the phone and proceeded to yell at someone (or so it seemed) and he started walking towards us like he forgot where he was.

FINAL GRAMMY EXITS: This is when things kinda turned into pandemonium, because the show let out there were random people and artists all exiting the same door so it was even harder to see who was coming out. There was a girl next to me who is a big BSB and NSYNC fan and her friends are HUGE NSYNC fans...and she needed to call her mom on the phone to make sure she was taping the awards. She said, "watch, when I'm on the phone somebody big is gonna come out and I'm going to end up dropping my phone or something"...we all started laughing and she proceeded to call her mom. Having the eagle-eyes that I do, I spotted PINK HAIR at the door to exit...I tapped her on the shoulder and said, "I dont mean to frighten you or anything but isn't that Joey's hair????" and with that she screamed at her mother on the phone and handed the phone over to her friends who were screaming because NSYNC were coming out of the exit. All 5 of them exited at the same time, in a group...I was able to see Joey, Lance, Justin and Chris...but of course I couldn't find the only one I like...anyway, they all kind of disappeared in the crowd of people waiting for their limos....then the one girl started whispering to her friend that she saw someone by the pole and the tree...and it was Justin...we all started screaming his name thinking that he may turn our direction (at least) but instead he was busy talking to some girls and stuff...he didn't turn around at all even though we (yes, even me) were screaming to get his attention. Amidst this whole "Justin, Justin" screaming I hear a girl nex to me "isn't that Nick??" OK, so I thought I was going to die, because during my screaming for Justin I missed ample opportunity to stare at Nick!!!! At first I didn't recognize him because of that crazy hair...but then I noticed him because of the glasses...yummy...he looks SOSOSOSOSOSOSOSO good with glasses on!!! And we all started shouting for Nick (and this is where I get disappointed) but he didn't even turn around and look at us, he was like 15 feet away and he didn't turn around...oh yeah, and Mandah (Willa) was with him...she died her hair dark-brown so she wouldn't be recognized by fans. Ok, so then we went back to trying to get Justin's attention because he was still standing there, on his cell phone obviously in some kind of heated discussion because he kept putting his hand down and stuff...I assumed it was the limo company because all the other NSYNCers were already gone. It was kinda funny cuz Justin was on the phone and I think he forgot where he was cuz he started walking towards us...and everyone started screaming and then he looked up, kinda looked at us like a deer in headlights, and then turned around LOL!! Anyway, as we were still trying to get Justin's attention I heard another girl say, "isn't that Brian??" GREAT, another missed opportunity because of Justin!! This time though I almost completely missed Brian, all I saw was his head and the back of Leighanne's head...oh well, there went another BSB sighting!!! Ok, at that point I had decided to forget Justin and only focus on the BSB sightings...then they were all screaming at Justin and he actually waved at us...which I missed because I was busy looking for Howie, AJ, or Kevvy-Kev!! GOODNESS!! Anyway, finally Justin's limo arrived and I had all the other eyes peeled out looking for the 3 left...then someone said "isn't that Howie??" and it was, we started screaming and stuff, and he waved again, but he had to walk the other way because his limo was on the other side. Then I hear "wait, that's Kevin right??" and there he was...rounding the corner with some people and he was closer than Nick or Howie were..about 10 feet away or so...and we all started screaming "KEVIN! KEVIN!" and he sort of stopped, waved, gave his trademark Peace sign and then got into the limo...but since I was on the corner I noticed his door was still open and I said "Bye Kevin" and he actually stuck his head out the door and waved goodbye!!! We decided to try to wait for AJ but then the place started quieting down and stuff so we declared AJ MIA and just decided to relax and wait till traffic died down a little. At this point most of the girls had gone home...but there were 2 girls that were waiting for Madonna and us sitting there when Carlos Santana walked out...we yelled congratulations to him and he waved and he left.

Rob Thomas Meeting: The last person to leave from the Staples Center (that we really cared about) was Rob Thomas. He walked out of the door and he only had his wife there and a body guard..he came out for a smoke in between interviews I think. A little girl walked up to him to get his autograph so we decided that we would go too. But I felt kinda creepy going up to him and asking him for an autograph and stuff so I stayed in the background. The girls that were waiting for Madonna were freaking out cuz they love Rob and my friend Sherry asked him for an autograph and got their pictures with him. I didn't want to cuz I didn't feel right doing it, so I just decided to hang out in the background and wished him congratulations...it was pretty cool!!! But can I honestly say that Rob Thomas is WAY better looking on TV??? EGAD, he's soooo skinny in person...almost tiny. And he just isn't as rugged looking in person either...LOL!! I like him better when he looks dirty =P

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