It's officially over... for now...

When we last left you, Kim was entertaining you with stories of San Diego and the adventures of getting back to LA.

We woke up Wednesday morning at 9am without an alarm which we had set for noon. We were both tired but couldn’t sleep any more. After sitting and staring at each other for about an hour we decided that we should set out and find some breakfast/lunch. We tried the hotel restaurant but they did not seem so keen on us eating there so we set off into the pouring rain to try and find something. We walked around, not really sure where we were until we came upon these nice gentlemen.


They were nice enough to pose for a picture with us.

We ended up finding a spot around the corner from our hotel to eat called The Liberty Grill. We had a seat at the bar and ordered a few drinks. I was super excited by their menu because I was able to order a chili cheese hotdog which is my favorite food. I could eat them for three meals a day (and sometimes do). After a few hours and a few too many cocktails served by this gentleman



we decided to head out and walk around the theater since the rain had finally stopped. Kim would like to state for the record that she did not have too many cocktails. She just had two. It was me who may have had too many. Thank goodness the universe intervened and it made me spill one of them.

We ran into some fans trying to get tickets and some readers who recognized us. That was fun.





After the little walk we headed back to our hotel to begin our complicated personal grooming process to get ready for 5*. This was our first concert in a while that we did not get ready for in the backseat of a car or highway rest stop so it was nice to have luxuries like running hot water.

At about 4:15 we headed out to go get in line for 5*. We met up with some fellow TCBlockheads, Jenny and Chrissy who were also waiting in line. Our friend Ashley from Canadia had virtually introduced us to Heidi and Vicki from www.NKOTB.ca so that we could do a vlog with them (which you saw earlier, OMG...) Treana and Keturah. We decided that we wanted to be the last groups to go in because we had heard that the last groups were getting more mingle time. So we stood outside pretending that we were still waiting on someone.




While we were waiting we had some fun treats. Lady Gaga got dropped off and I decided that we needed a picture with her. I approached her said, “Lady Gaga, we need our picture taken together because you want your hair color to be just like mine!” In a very airy voice she responded, “Thank you!” Whatever…



I few minutes later her DJ was also dropped off. I had “made eyes” at him on several occasions at different shows but he never noticed me. Since we were both all gussied up I figured we need to get a shot together too.


Aren’t we all cute and stuff on our way to the prom?

When we were pretty sure we were the last group out there we headed towards the door and went through the metal detectors. We got out ILAA booty and picture assignment. Group M ended up being the last group! Holla at us!

We did a spin through the crowd free merchandise shopping and I picked up an extra track jacket (you never know when you need a backup) and a few things for my kids.
We headed towards the bar and grabbed some snacks. The food was pretty terrible but the wine was nice. Unlike St Paul it was all you can drink and not limited to drink tickets.

Ok, I had been debating for weeks (months? years?) about what I was going to say to them this time around. In St Paul I only cared about setting the record straight about imposters that I didn’t have time or brain power to think about anything else. Mission accomplished. After much debating I decided that I was going to go out on a limb and ask Donnie if Kim and I could get a picture taken of just us with the band.

So when the curtain opened for us to go in I whizzed by Joe who told me that I looked beautiful tonight and headed straight for Donnie. He hugged me and I squealed and then my mouth started spewing all sorts of nonsense.

It went something like, “Ohmygod,Ihavea favor. MybestfriendandIhavebeento8concertssofarandIwaswondering ifwecouldgetapictureof just us. Wehavethisblog,wehavebeeninelevenpapers,magazines,TVetcanditwouldreallybeawesomeifwecouldgetthat. ImeanIknowyoudon’tdothatstuffbutwewaitedoutsideofStPaulalldayandyounevercame out.”

At this point my arms were frantically moving around and I didn’t know where Kim had gone. Kim saw me flailing from the other side of the room and figured I either needed her or was having a seizure. Meanwhile, Donnie was asking me who this best friend was and where she was. Like magic Kim showed up at my side. Donnie gave us the once over and agreed. He told us to go stand behind the couch and NOT MOVE and he would make it happen.

Like naughty school girls Kim and I went behind the couch and didn’t move. Not an inch. Like, I was afraid to even move towards Jon or Danny for the picture for fear of making Donnie mad and not getting the picture. Until the picture was actually taken, Donnie rubbed Kim’s back. If you look at the ILAA picture you can see that I was only able to bring myself to move my head slightly between Danny and Jon. I could have easily grabbed one (or both) of them but could only tilt my head. Kim was holding onto the back of the couch in case someone pushed her a few inches and she was accused of moving.



When the big group shot was done Donnie grabbed our hands and said that the picture could only be of the two of us and him. Danny then walked up and he said, “Oh, and Danny.’ I then squealed, “What about Joey?” Donnie replied, “I don’t know. Ask him yourself.” My arms then started moving franticly again I yelled “JOEY!” and started pointing to the spot in front of me and Joey replied looking at Donnie, “Whoa. What? Really?”



As pointed out by one of our readers, don’t we have obscenely long legs compared to them? I mean, I know we are wearing heels but STILL. Gotta love that good old Scandinavian stock!

And that is the story of how Kim and I got our picture with the three of them. On the way out I grabbed Jordan and hugged him even though he was putting hand sanitizer all over himself at the time.

We have already posted the
vlog and PSA we did with NKOTB.ca. We missed most of Lady Gaga this time around hanging out in the 5* room.



When we got to our seats, we were a bit shocked. Our row 4 seats were about 3 feet from the stage allowing for some leaning on and touching of the actual stage.
We actually had better seats than Nick Lachey and his posse!

Between Lady Gaga and Natasha (and then again between Natasha and the boys) we headed to the drink stand and bought $12 tiny bottles of sparkling wine that was then served in a plastic beer cup.

We amused our bartender. We always amuse bartenders.


A few photos... the rest can be found here

Note the proximity to the stage…


Our seat neighbors


The last time we’ll see this (for awhile?)












Does this guy remind you of Uncle Traveling Matt from Fraggle Rock?






This one’s for the fellas… Our two male readers, Drew and Jason


Going Old-Skool for a minute


Donnie channeling Elvis


The pose-off


And then, it was over. Neither of us knew what to do so we stood there and stared at each other for a few minutes. We hooked back up with Jenny and Chrissy and went back to our hotel and changed into “street clothes” because we were going to go back to the arena and stalk for a bit. On our way back to the arena we got sidetracked at the bar and slammed a quick drink.

At the arena we stood and watched and realized that nothing exciting was going to happen. Jordan had already left in a van. We headed back to the hotel and threw our stuff back into our bags and laid down to sleep for two hours. 4:30 came really early. We had no problems getting home. We arrived on time and able to finish cooking Thanksgiving dinner for our families.

The entire 48 hours that we were in California were surreal. It was an amazing experience. The entire tour was amazing. But, I have to admit. It was really nice to get home and start to readjust to a “normal” life. A non New Kids-centric life if you will. And honestly, I think that Kim and I needed a little break from each other too. We realized that between July and December we rarely had gone more than 48 hours without seeing each other. We had stuck to our aforementioned mission statement of not abandoning our careers and families but NKOTB had played a pretty big role too. In addition to scheduling time for friends, family and work, we also had to squeeze in time for New Kids related activities. We feel that we were pretty successful in striking a balance between everything. The children were fed and read to, the weeds got pulled, things got inspected and the menfolk were taken care of. And we still had time for all of our New Kids craft-a-thons.

Here is looking to 2009. We can’t wait.

Woot! Holla! Slow-mo hug! XOXOXOXOX,
Alexis and Kim