Thursday, March 2, 2000

We have been talking with some “friends” we email a lot about hooking up in Dallas. Tonight's convo reveals that they believe they've located the hotel where the boys will stay: Le Meridien. We're not sure about the boys, but we've confirmed the band and dancers are there, and we're there's smoke… there's probably A.J. (LMAO. Sorry, I couldn't resist.) We're pumped. Now we can stalk, I mean, LOOK for the boys inside the hotel instead of outside!

I get to my house in Seattle late that night and find an urgent message from Andrea. She's met Tommy Smith, the keyboardist. Excuse me??

I thought that the BSB might be staying at the Four Seasons at Las Colinas because they were going to be in town all weekend and it had a really nice golf course. And after I told my friend Bret my idea, he said, "oh, well if they're staying there then they'll hang out at this really cool restaurant/bar near there called Cool River. It's where all the athletes hang out when they come to town." (Las Colinas is where the Cowboys play/hang out.)

Coincidentally, I had just sold an extra set of tickets to the show on eBay, and had to drop them off to the buyer near there. After dropping them off, we thought, 'hey, Cool River is close, we'll just go hang out there.' Hung out for a while, waited forever for a table, and finally decided to just grab a table in the bar. Mid way through my meal, I looked up. I dropped the french fry from my finger and said, "ohmigod - there's Tommy Smith."

I was having a mild heart attack. Bret kept saying, 'go over there, go over and talk to him.' I was saying 'no way' because I knew it was him, but what if it wasn't?? Bret and I got up and walked near his table to get a better look. Bret kept saying 'go over, go over!' (Enough already!!) After I said no again, he said, 'what's his name? Because I'm going over there.' I was like, "no way! I'm not giving you his name so you can go over there and say, 'hey, my friend over there knows who you are and she's too shy to come over..." So I headed back to the table and Bret followed me. When we got back, he asked my sister Heather what his name was and she said, "Tommy Smith" (dang her!) and he stood up to go talk to Tommy.

Bret comes back over a few moments later and says, "Come over, come over!" I'm like "shut up!" but he wasn't smiling to clue me in that he was kidding. Then (gulp!) he says, "Come over - he wants to meet you!" I was like, "shut up!!" and he was like, "I swear!!" and I said, "so what did he say?" Bret said, "I went up and said, 'are you Tommy? Tommy Smith?' and Tommy said, 'yeah, how'djya know?' I said, 'my friend over there is a huge fan of y'alls.' and Tommy said 'bring her on over.'

So I go over there and I'm freaking. I mean, it's Tommy! I just said, "Hi, I'm Andrea, and it's nice to meet you." He asked me if I'd been to the show before, and I told him when and where. (Webmistress' comment: check out our reviews of our other experiences when you finish this one! Thanks!) I mentioned that *Alex* and I had thrown the inflatable bone up to AJ in Atlanta. (Can you believe it?? He said he remembered that!) He asked me if I was going to a show this weekend, and I said, 'yes, to both of them' and his girlfriend said, 'oh, you're one of the lucky ones!' I told him we had a few more bones for AJ.

They were eating dinner, so I didn't want to stand there and ask a ton of questions (like, "do the guys say "guilty" or "beauty" in SMTM?' and 'where are the guys staying?') I didn't ask him anything about the boys. I mean, he's got to know I'm a fan of the boys, not him, but he was so cool about it. I do appreciate him and his keyboard abilities, but come on!! He's my in!!!!! (If you're reading this Tommy, I really do love ya!)

I went back to my seat, but there was no way I could finish my meal! I was on such an adrenaline high! I turned to Bret and Heather and said, 'let's drive by the Four Seasons' because it was less than a mile away, and I wanted to see if there was anything to be seen. I was just having a feeling...

We got in the car and headed for the Four Seasons. Turned into the hotel, drove up the short driveway and VOILA!! Two black tour buses with Florida plates. I'd found them!! They had just arrived and were unloading their bags. I looked up into the the tour bus window and I swear on the Bible that I saw AJ through the glass. I was standing there having a heart attack. I made Heather drive around the driveway again, (she was freaking out too!) and I'm sure the valet was like, 'we know why you're here.' There was no one else around. I had to call *Alex*, but I didn't have her cell number. I had to let her and our friends know that "the eagle had landed and it was spotted by ME!" I got home and gave *Alex* the good news.

Go Andrea!!! I can't believe our luck!! At this point, we know the boys are at the Four Seasons. But it's darn expensive and we don't have a reservation. Hmmmm. Wonder if we can get in?

Friday, March 3, 2000

3:15 a.m.
Wake to go to the airport to catch my flight.

What I was thinking during the turbulent takeoff: "Dear Lord, please don't let me get delayed. Or crash. I have 13th row seats and tons of bones, so I have to make it. I just have a feeling that something really great is going to happen. Amen."

After sleeping for way-too-short-a-time, I awoke and started working on this darn website. Lots of people read our Atlanta concert review and I owe it to my fans (ha!) to deliver better design. :)

1:00 p.m.
Three ladies show up at my doorstep to pick me up and take me to the hotel (still Le Meridien). One of them (*Jill*) comes in and says she's found a reservation at the Four Seasons for Saturday night - can't believe they had availability - and did we want to move to the Four Seasons?? Heck yeah! In the most business-like voice I've ever heard, she snags the rooms at Four Seasons and gets us out of the rooms at Le Meridien (how she did this, we don't know). YOU GO GIRL!! I don't know ya, but you're my hero! Left a message for *Alex* informing her of the change of plans.

We stop by McDonalds on the way to the Four Seasons (no AJ, darn!) and then check into the hotel to wait for *Alex*. And we're hoping for some sightings, of course.

3:15 p.m.
I'm at baggage claim when I remember to turn on my cell phone. "You have two new messages" (read in a 'Joey Tribbiani' voice for fun). "Hi *Alex*. It's Andrea. Just thought I'd let you know that we've had a change of plans. We're at the Four Seasons and the guys are here. See you soon!" Whoooo-hoooo! And I look like crap, so I know that if ever I'm gonna see them, it's gonna be now. (Thankfully I was wrong.)

3:45 p.m.
The boys are obviously in residence because security is intense. They've erected a barricade at the entrance to the hotel (it's a private golf club and hotel with a long winding driveway) and you have to give them your name and room number to get anywhere. Thankfully I've got friends I've never met waiting for me inside.

3:50 p.m.
I walk inside and find my three new friends in the lobby. To protect the innocent (ha!), I'm going to call them *Jill*, *Sabrina* and SingItBone. They were holding down the fort on some couches in the lounge, hoping to see the boys depart for the concert. They didn't come through the lobby though. Finally we decided to head upstairs and get beautiful.

We walk to our room on the second floor (one of two smoking floors, so the "AJ sighting probability" is higher here) and pass a large suite on the way to our door. Hmmm. Wonder if he's in there?

I walk in the room and see two beds. Two twin beds. And there are five of us. Hmmm. Gonna be close quarters. Oh well. If all else fails, I can just go join AJ in his suite, I guess. :)

Got dressed, got in the car, tried to find the arena, which we did with few problems. We really hacked off a limo driver by stopping on the off ramp to talk to a tee shirt vendor. We laughed and said, 'what if it's the guys behind us, watching us buy contraband?' but we knew it wasn't them behind us - they'd left long before we had. You could always tell when the guys were in the hotel - security was rampant. When they were out, it was like, 'heck yeah. Come on in!" :)

Traffic and parking were well under control. (Hey Atlanta, are you listening?) We had an extra ticket we were trying to sell but we talked to a scalper and he said they weren't selling all that well. So we donated it to a radio station DJ who was standing out front at a van. So I'm sure we made somebody's day. I hope so.

We nearly missed the whole show while waiting in line for the ladies' room. J/K. When will these male architects ever learn?? Anyway, I digress. Andrea and I got our orange wristbands and made our way to the "floor seat entrance." We walked down this massive set of stairs and the rent-a-cop pointed us to the section at the front dead center. Wow. It looks like we're really close. We're directly in front of the big black box this time.

Oh my goodness. Row M is only seven rows from the stage. SEVEN FREAKIN' ROWS. We can't believe it. Not only are the boys going to fly right over us at the beginning, but we realize that we're going to have an incredible view when Brian flies over us during QPG. And I mean incredible. Check out this picture!! HE'S LOOKING RIGHT AT US!!!!!

The Jungle Brothers came out right as we sat down. We aren't paying too much attention because we're blowing up more bones. We've got one that we've written on for AJ (one of the things we wrote was "It was so nice of you to let Elton sing with you at the Grammys!!" LOL!!) Taped to it is a picture of us in Atlanta holding the bone we gave him. We also have two for us to wave. (And let me just apologize right now to the millions of people whose view we blocked by waving the bones. I'm sorry. But I'm not. You'll see why later.)

The lights come back on and we get a nice lady to snap our picture. We take one standing at the barricade at the stage and another holding one of our bones. Isn't it cute? Meanwhile, "Willa Ford" comes out and performs three songs. It's kinda hard to hear over the noise, (because the lights have gone off and everyone thinks it's time for BSB) but Nick introduces her. All I could really hear was him saying, "Willa Ford is somewhere in the arena." Oh really? Could she possibly be the one at the front of the stage wearing the cordless mic? Ya think?

Let me just say this. I don't feel strongly about her one way or another, so I'll just give my observations: she's incredibly thin and looked pretty from where we were. She had on a ton of glitter eyeshadow that flew off as she danced. She was wearing a tight pink top on Friday night that made her look like a hoochie. (My word for the weekend.) She spends half her show tossing her hair out of her face. (Get a barrette, for crying out loud!) She sang a weird remix of "Here Comes The Rain Again" and sounded a lot like Britney, or what I think Britney would sound like if she actually tried to dance AND sing at the same time. LOL! Her dancing wasn't that bad, but her dancers (using the term loosely) sucked big time. The scene reminded me of Mandy Moore's ‘Candy’ video - lots of long thin arms flailing about. Willa seemed really intent on getting us up on to our feet. "Come on! Get up! I said stand UP!" Do you talk to Nick this way, Sweetie? Hmmm.

Andrea goes up to the security guard at the barricade in front of us and tells him that we have a bone for Bone. Would he be so sweet as to throw it up there for us? He won't make any promises, but Andrea tells him she'll be back during the show to see if he can help us out. She's cute, she's blonde and she's tan. We're using every tool at our disposal! :) (But the guard turns out to be a big fat jerk and won't help us out. We really hate him.)

Well, the moment of truth is upon us - it's time for the boys to come out. We can see by looking at the harnesses that the boys are strapped in and one of them is wiggling like a three year old who has to tinkle. (It was Frack, of course.) They rise up from the box and they are,directly overhead. I couldn't believe how close we were to them. We got (for lack of a better term) some serious crotch shots. They landed on stage and Brian was stuck in his harness. They finally got him out and they were in front of us. Right in front of us. Bone was dead ahead but was wearing shades so we couldn't tell if he could see the bones we were waving around. Andrea got a FABULOUS picture of Kevin saluting. (Here's another one. And another one. )

I won't go into too many specifics about the show, because a.) it's a big blur and b.) you can read a regular old review anywhere. (But if you want the show from "*Alex*'s Eyes," check out my review of Saturday's show.) Again though, there were some things that stuck out, so here you go:

* Ahhh, those leather pants. As SingItBone said, "I worship the cow that died to make those pants." You know, somebody really should tell them not to wear them. But bless the people who haven't. We owe you big time.

* Nick stepped up to play drums for "Back To Your Heart." He did a very nice job, though for some strange reason he held a drum stick in front of his face during his solo. Couldn't he have put it down? It looks in the pictures like a massive chopstick! LOL!

* AJ's hair and sideburns were the color of Brian's on Friday night. It was gross shade that we've classified as "carrot gray."

* During IWITW, Nick walked over to the main camera and got right up in it to sing. So we got a lovely view that's somewhat reminiscent of an orthodontist's photo. He even fogged up the whole lens. Pretty funny.

*As the guys walked their girls around the stage for "Perfect Fan," Nick kept dancing around his girl. It was really pretty cute. He was playing with her hair too. He used to kind of ignore his girl, but he was really cute this time.

* It's so true that the guys interact and flirt with the front of the house. It's worth whatever you have to pay to be close! We had Brian on our side a lot and he was making so many faces at us. Particularly during DWYB. He kept playing peekaboo with us through his ladder. It was so cute! (Speaking of which, for someone who's afraid of heights, he sure seemed very relaxed on his ladder and while flying around. Go B-Rok!)

*Someone threw a UT jersey up to Brian during "It's Gotta Be You." He looked out to the crowd and seemed very thankful for it - he kinda did a half bow of gratitude. He sat down on the pyramid thing and very carefully folded it (Awww!) before handing it to someone underneath the stage. When they came back up for IWITW, Kevin was right in front of us, wearing it. And he looked so good!! (Webmistress’ comment: The person who threw that shirt was Steffi, and her concert review can be found on our Concert Index – check it out!)

* Mindi has dyed her hair, or at least, the bottom half of it. The top is pale blonde and the lower half is Christmas red. It's actually kind of cute.

* During the interlude of SMTM, the guys came down and "ballroom danced" with the girl dancers. We had Howie right in front of us and he was amazing!! Seeing him that close opened my eyes. He is just as beautiful as the rest of them! I mean, I always knew it, but it was just like "Hello Nurse!" when he was in front of us.

* Speaking of Howie, we know he saw us waving our bones. He was looking right at us and kinda smiled. We're almost certain that Kevin and Nick did too. Brian? Absolutely. Bone? We're not sure, since I figured that if he had he would have acknowledged us in some way and he didn't. Hmmm. (Lucky for us, we found out later that he did.)

* Tommy noticed us from the stage!! We were right in front of him and sometime during the first set when we were wagging our bones, he looked right at us and nodded his head!! How cool is that?!?! Then at the very end of the show, before "It's Gotta Be You" he looked to us again, and this time he pointed at us and nodded like, 'I see you!" So cool!!

* People kept hucking their glowsticks at the stage. Like from the upper levels even, and they were flying across the stage. They were really zinging them! Okay, you know what? Don't do that. Are you nuts? They could really hurt the guys if they hit them. I feel sorry for the band because I'm pretty certain that either Louie or Guy was hit by one. Stuffed animals are one thing (unless they're filled with lead - heheeh!) but not a hard plastic object, okay?

* We hardly got to see Kevin at all until IWITW, when he devoted himself to our side. (I got a little snap happy - LOL!) He is so handsome. He did his little jiggy dance for us. I can die happy now. He's still got some serious hair issues, like at the Grammys. Hmmm.

* As they leave the stage, each guy is escorted out by his body guard. AJ went down a stairwell, but instead of going his pre-arranged way, he took off the other way. Marcus was chasing him big time and AJ was making it difficult - kinda playing cat and mouse. It was really pretty funny. Howie, Kevin and Brian walked right in front of us. (We were at fourth row by this time.)

11:00 p.m.
Well, there's a lot more, but I have so much to tell you, so I'm gonna move on. Left the concert, met back up with our friends, got in the car, drove to the hotel. There are hordes of people around a fence hoping for a glimpse of the guys as they leave. Little secret: it's not them, friends. We're talking decoys. When the boys leave the stage they are wearing long robes with hoods. They're put on buses and they vanish. When you're standing there waiting for a glimpse of them, you are seeing different people wearing robes like theirs. Personally I think it's the band members, since they aren't able to leave the stage as quickly as the boys do. But it's not the boys. Trust me.

On the radio station, Howie said they were going to Dallas Alley after the show. Yeah, right. I wonder how much Dallas Alley paid for that little bit of promotion. The guys weren't there. Like they'd announce their plans on the freakin' radio. Gimme a break.

We drive up to the hotel and figure out that the guys are there based on the number of anal security guards present. (I'm so glad we have rooms here - if not, there's no way to get anywhere close.) We have to give our name and room number three different times to get in: at the driveway, at the door and at the elevator. We go upstairs, drop off our comic books and go back down to the lobby. We park ourselves at a table and wait, fairly certain that at least one will come down to the hotel bar. (Nick! hahaha)

There's one guy we keep seeing everywhere. We can tell he thinks he's a huge stud - he never ever takes off his Millennium tour jacket. I guess he thinks it's a chick magnet. He's over at another table hitting on some girl. Finally she leaves and he looks around for someone else to talk to. For a second I think he's coming to see us, but he heads for a table of three women who are directly behind me. He takes the chair that is directly to my back. He talks kind of loud and I can't help but overhear. Really. I can't help it. At all.

Turns out the jacket stud is Skip, the tour manager. And he's talking to the boys' public relations team. They're discussing business such as AJ and Howie being asked to present at the Juno awards, and should they do a press conference while they're there. What time they're going to get Brian up so he can play golf tomorrow (8 a.m. - thanks for the tip! Golf anyone?). The fact that Carlos, Kevin's bodyguard, doesn't rush Kevin enough so Kevin's always late. (Carlos the "enabler.") The fact that Brian thinks the white outfits they wear are "gay." Based on something he said, I think Skip is actually "TC" but I can't confirm. Sorry. A girl can only do so much!!

I am totally eavesdropping and I can't stop myself!! The girls at my table are busy talking, I'm busy absorbing. They smile at me and mouth that I'm doing a great job. Every so often I look over at Andrea and whisper something for her to write down. (I'm taking brief notes so I can remember different things to tell them later.)

Suddenly Jill looks up and sees Marcus walking into the hotel bar with someone wearing a hat. Hmmm. She announces "There's Marcus." Sabrina and Andrea run over to meet Marcus. (See, we have an "in" and think that maybe if we meet Marcus and become his buds that we can meet the guys. Yeah, we know we're dreaming. Leave us alone!) Sabrina walks right up to Marcus and starts talking. She's totally stepping in front of the guy next to him. It was like, "Hmm. Sorry sir, but I'm trying to get next to this bodyguard." Turns out it was A.J. that she was ignoring and walking past. LOL! Label her "C" for Clueless. Ha!

Well none of us at the table saw this, and we wonder what's taking them so long. We figured that A.J. had to be inside, so in we went. Sure enough, there he was, as well as Mindi, Tommy and Amanda Latona (not at ALL what I expected, but looks very nice).

I realize that the girls left my purse outside so I go back to our table. Lo and behold, only one of the PR ladies is still there. I make some stupid comment about leaving my purse behind and she says, "yeah, I just realized it was there." I say, ever so sweetly, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to eavesdrop but I couldn't help but overhear a little of your conversation. Are you with the Backstreet Boys?" She says yes. "Can I ask what you do?" She tells me that she is a senior PR person who has it in her contract to only travel to the "cool cities." HA! (Personally, I think ANY city where the boys are at is a cool city, but I guess the novelty and attraction has worn off for her. LOL!) We kind of start to talk, meanwhile the other PR chicks come back. I ask all about the whole "meet and greet" concept and how the boys decide who gets to come (they put all the requests in their dressing room, the boys decide), do they do hospital visits (Brian does with his charity, that's it), etc. We're kind of laughing and they realize I'm not a vicious stalker (so I guess looks are deceiving), so I gather my courage and ask about the whole "Rainbow Connection/"BSB Says No To Girl With Leukemia - Story At Ten" thing. They are very nice about it - though I can tell it was a big pain in their behinds - and they verify that the organization hadn't filled out the proper paperwork and that the little girl's dad was a jerk about it all.

Oh, before I forget, one the chicks tells me that she turns down every single request by TV stations and MTV to film the guys doing meet and greets and "Make A Wish" visits. She verifies that the boys have received lots of recognition for all their charity work like that, but that they boys and all their people don't want to publicize that and thus look like they're looking for "praise" for their efforts. Personally, I think that is SO COOL and respect them even more for that. You know their PR team could have said, "well they do this and this and this..." when the whole Rainbow Connection thing happened but didn't. In fact, she tells me that Make A Wish (MAW) is the one who came forward and announced that BSB was their number one wish granter last year, because MAW was upset at the allegation that BSB ignored requests. BSB's camp didn't spread the word or ask MAW to do so. One more thing that makes me a fan.

Okay, back to my little foray into the world of BSB PR. I don't want to be TOO intrusive (though I'm dying to pump them for information), so I say goodnight and go back into the bar. Lo and behold my girls have commandeered the dart board right next to AJ's pool table. Every so often he has to say "excuse me" or "sorry" to us so we'll move out of his way. *sigh* I learned two very important things tonight. 1. I suck at darts. Big time. and 2. AJ is a normal guy. Does what every normal person does. He misses shots at pool (though he's very good). He calls his girlfriend "baby." He wiggles and sings all the time. He was just a regular guy playing pool in a bar with a friend (who we call “Dave”, since we don't know who he is. We realize at Saturday's show that he's Louie Vigilante, their guitar player. LOL!) It was like we were seeing past the "AJ the Backstreet Boy" persona and seeing "Alex McLean, regular guy." Very cool.

By the way, no one is talking to him, snapping pics or asking for autographs, even though we are all watching him like a hawk. I know I'll wish I had pics to share, but it's not that kind of moment. I'm really glad everyone respects him enough not to take pictures. Go fans!!

Well, Andrea goes up to Tommy again, who acknowledges that he saw us from the stage. I go up and introduce myself to Mindi. She's incredibly nice. I tell her that I have downloaded some music from her site and really enjoy it. I then told her she is very talented. She immediately asks me my name and shakes my hand. I ask if she has any CDs with her and she said she does, but they're at her hotel. She apologizes for not having them. She is very sweet.

3:00 a.m.
Well, I head upstairs. Not that I am tired, but we can tell A.J. is fixing to leave the bar, so it's my job - as our resident spy - to try and get on the elevator with him. (No such luck - they ducked into a hidden service elevator. But I found it the next day! No more hiding from *Alex*!) *Jill*, *Sabrina* and Andrea are still downstairs. I think they finally made it back upstairs at 5 a.m. Sorry for the lack of details, but some things, like tattoos(!) are better left unseen/unsaid. (ha ha ha!)

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