My love of the boy bands.
It is true!
I remember taping over my sister's Poison and Guns N Roses cassettes with New Kids On The Block's Step by Step and Happy Birthday. Oh man. Those songs take me back to a time when I was younger (okay, I was like four). But the love of those songs have never, ever left me.
Fast forward to 2008.
I found my "twin" (we say we are the same person, she is just nine years old than me) but we love pretty much all of the same things. Meri is me. It is just that simple. I was eight months pregnant when New Kids was out on tour again. The nearest show? Why, Kansas City of course. Three hours away. Did that stop us? No! The fact it was three hours away and I was so swollen that I couldn't get my Ugg boots off on the drive home didn't make my night any less fun for me.
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| here we are at the KC show |
This is before Lady Gaga got super popular and was an opening act:
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| NKOTB always has the best dances |
Fast forward again to April 2009. My baby girl was born in January so I didn't have to worry about swelling this time. NKOTB decided to extend their tour, and this time come to Des Moines, only 45 minutes away from us this time! This time we rounded up another fan, not as hardcore though, and had some fancy fun t-shirts made.
Since we were "veterans" now for this particular tour, we knew that they would be coming out to sing around the piano placed in the middle of the floor. Guess who scored floor seats and were happily waiting at the fenced off area when they came out to that piano? Oh yeah, we were! I am a Donnie fan, I mean, who isn't...but Meri is hardcore Wahlberg fanatic, so I settled on Joey and guess what? He totally read my shirt and shook my hand during this moment out on the floor!
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| Meri & I at NKOTB show #2 |
Fast forward to June 30, 2013. The city is St. Louis. The Package Tour!! Boyz II Men, 98 Degrees & New Kids On The Block (25 years I might add)
After asking Meri if we should go, since it is a six hour drive for us this time, we decided we cannot miss it! We drove down the day before and stayed a bit closer, at her sister's house, still two hours away from St. Louis, though.
So while on our drive into the STL I was checking out Twitter, and saw that 98 Degrees was having a giveaway for walk-up VIPs! This means basically a free meet & greet with the group! SAY WHAT?!
I told Meri right then that we were going to win those. I felt confident. Typically when I feel that confident something really good is going to happen. The previous two times before this I won a computer and iPod at my husband's work party and came out $300 ahead one night at the casino. I felt confident.
Here's the thing - our t-shirts we had made for our last NKOTB concert are no longer around. We had to go get new ones made. I found a shop at a mall about 15 minutes away from Scottrade Center that could make them for less than $20 each in about 30 minutes (threadsllc.com).
While we were walking into the mall I told Meri I was going to go with Jeff Timmons from 98 Degrees, because, well who didn't have a teenage crush on him? And told her that she should get Nick Lachey's name on her shirt. She decided to stick with ol' Donnie. We got our shirts going, headed to the food court, and then we were back on our way to Scottrade Center.
We didn't know what the contest was going to be, how many people would win, what we had to do, or anything, we just wanted to be there because something in the rainy air told me we were going to win.
Well, all the people who paid at least $175 for their meet & greets were all lined up waiting to get in. So we wondered around aimlessly, joining random lines, not having a clue what we were doing. We asked the guy at the VIP table for 98 Degrees if we could upgrade since we already had our ticket. We sure could for $175. We were sad and joined the line for the "commoners" just waiting to get inside.
There we stood, feeling sad, wondering if they were really going to do a contest. We had the people in front of us take a photo of us in our shirts. We stood a few more minutes.
Then my phone buzzed. The contest was on!
We had to find the lady under the statue holding 4 Hawaiian leis. The first four gets backstage!
We scanned, spotted the leis right outside and ran. We don't even remember how we got there, but we knew we were number one and two!
Screaming. Jumping up and down. Screaming. Hugging. High-fives. Oh yeah, that was us. People were staring, we didn't care. The people who won after us just ran because they saw us running. I didn't care. We were going t meet Jeff, Nick, Drew and Justin. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS.
We headed back in and got into the VIP line we were previously in and didn't realize it. Came to the table with the guy who wanted to sell us our passes...oh no, we proudly pointed to those leis announcing that we had won. He just smiled and shook his head.
We were towards the back of the line, and headed down and backstage into a room where we all had to line up against the wall. Our nerves were shot, hands shaking, we couldn't think clearly, and worse of all it was HOT and we were sweating so badly!!
The guys came in, we all clapped and waited patiently for our turn to go through the line to have them autograph something. Luckily the contest lady gave us their new 2.0 CD promotional poster like all the other VIPs to have signed. Meri went through just fine.
"Hi! I'm Drew" Drew Lachey holds out his hand.
"Hi, I'm Emily, it is so nice to meet you"
He writes something down on the poster, slides it to Nick, whom I can't even look at.
"Hi, I'm Nick, how area ya?"
SPEAK EMILY.
I repeat, "Hi, I'm Emily, so nice to meet you."
Same thing happens to Justin.
Then my world came to a hault.
I am wearing my shirt, "Emily heart Jeff" on the front, "Mrs. Timmons" on the back.
Jeff smiles, makes a comment about his real wife being here.
I laugh nervously and go to grab my poster and walk back to my spot in line, but Jeff stands up quickly and grabs me (literally, the lady behind me got a picture of it) and wraps me in a big hug and the photographer snaps this awesome photo of us:
Suddenly the entire room (there were about 80 VIPs in there) start clapping since no one has gotten any special attention through the entire session.
What happens next? Well Mr. Timmons plants a kiss on my temple, right there where our faces are touching. WHOA!! Everyone was totally jelly in that moment! hahaha!
Meri pretty much hated me in that moment though, and TOTALLY regretted her decision not to get Nick on her shirt....
So, we stand in line again to go through to get our picture taken with all the guys. We are about the 5th from the back, so we talk about it in the entire time we wait again...then we reach the line again.
The guys are all so funny, they are saying "Oh, here comes Mrs. T!!" "Hey Mrs. T!" and laughing about my shirt with me and it is genuinely a fun moment!
Even as I was walking away, they were all saying "there goes Mrs. T." "That's a great shirt" it was fun!
Meri with her Donnie shirt.
Jeff tried to move her purse out from in front of her during the autograph line, but she didn't want to show it.
Needless to say, it was THEE BEST NKOTB show we have seen. The dancing was amazing, they are amazing. The show was just amazing!!
Boyz II Men are still wonderful! I love their songs and always will.
And 98 Degrees is still as amazing as they were when I was 12. Oh boy, yes it is true. I was 12.
It was such a fun night, and next time I think Meri will listen to her when I saw I feel really confident about something!!!
And, I do love my real hubby. The shirts are all just fun and games! It was such a fun night, and I am so thankful to the group for giving away free meet and greets. It was amazing!
I can't wait for this Sunday when I get to take my daughter to her very first concert. Who might it be? Well none other than thee Justin Bieber. She is sooooo excited to go. I can't wait to be there with her. Who knows, maybe my luck might still be hot and we might get to meet him also?
The photos from 98 Degrees were taken for vipnation.smugmug.com THANK YOU!
This was hilarious! Love this post!
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