On June 24, I found out on the EMI site that Sky was going to be doing instore autograph sessions across Canada and the last one, July 25, was going to be held at the HMV on Robson in Vancouver, British Columbia. I (as in Linda--no more anonymity) live in Victoria, British Columbia which is about 1 hour and 45 minutes by ferry to Vancouver and then another hour by bus to reach downtown Vancouver where HMV on Robson is located at. I was going to go to HMV on Robson in Vancouver on July 25 no matter what! I told my friend K and it was immediately planned that she and I would go to Vancouver on that Sunday along with my older sister and her bestfriend but they will leave us in downtown while they went shopping in Metrotown.

During the month long wait, on Friday July 16, for the 3rd straight Friday in a row, I woke up at 6am to listen to the morning show on our local radio station, the OCEAN, to try and win tickets for the Sky/Britney Spears concert in Vancouver at GM Place. And guess who won them? That made July 25th even a more agonizing wait becuz now we can stay in Vancouver longer and see more of Sky.

Finally, July 25 comes. We wake up at 5am so we could make it for the 7am ferry to Vancouver. We reach downtown at about 10:15am and K and I take our seats in the lineup of about 30-40 people. At around 2:15pm, Sky was already at HMV and the session had begun. At about 2:30pm, K and I were already at the entrance of the HMV and we could see James and Antoine. They're seated at a table in the front right hand side corner of the store. I'm just looking at them thinking, is this for real? James was greeting the people, and posing for pics and he seemed very nice and personable. Antoine was . . . I don't remember. K went in ahead of me but I was stopped becuz 4 front of the line people came right when I was about to go in, too. About 5-7 minutes later, I was allowed in. K was supposed to go up to the table but she let the 4 front of the line people go ahead of her so she could come back in the line with me. She went up first and I just stared and took pics as fast as I could.

The procedure was--for the first group of people anyway--you gave your item to James, he would sign it and then he would slide it across the table to Antoine and then you would move over to Antoine and then the next person would go up so it would be like 2 people at a time. I went up after K moved over to Antoine. I quickly flipped my US Piece of Paradise CD cover open to the picture of James and Antoine in the center hoping that James would please sign it there. I said hi when I passed it to to him and he said hi back. I was still thinking this is sooo beyond surreal. Before he could sign my thing, K rushes over and asks James if she could take a picture with him. He says sure and he leans forward on the table to get closer to K and K quickly tells me how to use her camera. I take the picture after what seemed like centuries becuz the camera wasn't in focus and I had to wait until there was no more blurring. I looked through the lens and thought, oh my God, I'm taking a picture of James and K. I'm seeing his face through this lens. It's too unreal. I take the pic and K is told by a security guard to move on. So now, James signs my CD cover and he slides it to Antoine and I quickly ask him may I shake your hand? He says sure. He leans forward in his seat and looks at me in the eye (and I look at him anywhere but his--maybe his forehead and hair) and shakes my hand rather firmly--more like crushingly--and says to me at the same time thank you for coming today. I nod and say okay and move over to Antoine who's done signing my thing and says to me the artwork in this is excellent, I really love it. I sort of nod and say okay and take the cover from him and move back to where K is standing. She's standing behind a video display along with a group of people which is no more than 4 meters from where Sky is seated at.

We spend almost the entire time standing there and taking more pics and staring at Sky. At about 3:45pm, a security guard tells everyone up to me and K to move over to the left side, like right now! He was being really mean and no one knew why, so me and K just move more over to the right side because it's just me and her and a few other people standing by there. So now, there's us, the video display, and a gap between the video display and the wall. So there's room for people to move between the wall and the video display. Antoine and James signed the last autograph and they both put on their jean jackets and got up. Most of the people that stood with us at the video display moved to the middle--in front of the table where Sky was seated--to take more pics of them, so now it was basically me and K at the video display. Now we know why the security guard told those people to move becuz Sky was going to go through that gap between the video display and the wall. The security guard led Antoine and James through that gap and I couldn't believe they were so close to me and K. They walked passed us and I was like, is this for real? James was last and one of the girls who was told to move stopped him for an autograph, so he stopped and bent over another video display in that aisle. The security guard and Antoine stopped right in front of me and K, but we just stood there and stared and grabbed a couple of closeup shots. A few other people rushed up to James and that's when that security guard left Antoine and went to get James. Antoine was in front of me and I was thinking, how strange, Antoine is standing in front of me. But then he started walking down that aisle and James was walking down that aisle where he was caught in and me and K just watched as Antoine went through the back door first and then James, and then when we couldn't see James anymore, we left.

10:20PM After the concert at GM Place K and I decided to skip Britney's encore of "Baby One More Time" to try and see if we could find Sky's tourbus. When we first arrived at GM Place, we saw a parking area where 3 tourbuses were parked and one was Michael Fredo's. Now, the three tourbuses parked in that area were all different from the ones we saw earlier in the evening. There's one bus which has it's door opened with a small Canadian flag seated on the dashboard on the right hand side. I think to myself, maybe this is Sky's tourbus becuz they're the only ones who are Canadian. K thought Sky probably left already becuz their set ended like 45 min ago. But I was thinking, why would Britney or those other acts have a Canadian flag on their tourbus? K started to leave and I followed behind her but then I looked at the bus and I saw someone who looks just like James walking next to the bus and I raised my arm and said to K, hey, it's uh, that's uh, you know . . .my mind was a blank but she knew who it was too (I've been awake since 5am and I had only 5 hrs sleep, so it's not my fault I couldn't remember!) His head was facing down and he was carrying a bag over his right shoulder. There was a small group of people standing by the tour bus but no one screamed or rushed at James becuz most mistakenly thought that this bus was Britney's. Someone did yell out good show but James didn't react. K and I stayed and then K noticed someone wearing a red shirt by the window of the doorway and she said that's Antoine. I was like, anyone could be wearing a red shirt. But then he moved and we saw the tatoos and I'm like, it is Antoine. Then their band went onto the bus and we stayed until the bus pulled out of the parking area.

And that's my encounter and I can't believe I actually have a Sky encounter to share with you guys.

skybear@home.com