Not quickly enough though! Or, in the case of my bank accounts, too soon!!! Some odd jobs here and there have come into play (anybody want to hire us? babysitting? happy hour for hire?), but we're trying to figure out how to come up with a little extra cash.
What's a totally rational way to try to make some money? Enter contests! I'm kidding about the rational part, but this seems like one that I might actually be able to win.
Our local newspaper is running a "Vote for the Cutest Dog" contest. Tank is pretty damn cute.
If you feel so inclined, it would be awesome if you would vote for him. Grand prize is $1000!
There are four photos that you can choose from at this point. Click the "save vote" button under the picture to cast your vote. I think you have to register in order to vote, but they swear they won't spam you. It's so they can track the votes. You're limited to 1 per hour.
Seriously, just watching this blast from the past makes me tired. The boys have mellowed a bit over the years, huh? It's like they each slammed three Red Bulls before going onstage...
Remember last month when we asked you all to bombard us with questions about our personal lives, so we wouldn’t run out of things to write about during NaBloPoMo?
I guess we had enough things to write about. Sorry to keep you waiting!
To make it interesting, we have decided to answer your questions in haiku form. This may or may not be a recurring feature on our site.
Shauna Walsh-Knight said... If you can do one thing over again from your travels this year to ensure a meet up with the guys...what would you do???
heather1ynn said... Other then buying a 5* VIP ticket, what is the best way to get your FACE TIME? Have you found Robo or Zach to be helpful at all?
with no crystal ball creepy stalking ain’t our game more Five Star next time?
~Mel said... What did Joe say when you brought up the true "project NKOTB" magnet scandal?
don’t hold no ill will she was just starstruck by me you girls are da bomb
spicyvets said... Was the price of the 5* totally worth it? I'm hearing some bad things about ILAA and am wondering if I should spring for it during their summer tour. (I personally think the seats alone would be worth it, but need to be able to sell the expense to my husband!)
wish we could say no it will leave you wanting more totally worth it
cheers said... what has been the reaction of people in your "nonNKs" world? Do they support you? Read your blog? Any negative repercussions?
some mixed reactions each subsequent adventure opinions came out…
you’re wasting your life grown women should not have fun you people are weird
are they still around? i guess if that’s what you like… you only live once
blockheads enable you’re the wind beneath my wings let’s get this!!! (again!)
Tiff said... I'd like to address the 400# gorilla in the corner of every Blockhead's mind: What are you going to do when the tour ends? Is there anything that you've learned from the whole experience that you plan to apply to "life after New Kids"?
Belinda said... Are you worried about the let down when it's all over?
life after new kids let’s not think about that yet world domination!
Kim said... When are you throwing another NK bash at Shamrock's? It was a blast and we hope you will do it again and again!
dancing on tables celebrate the 09 dates to be continued…
jen said... Hey, I met you in Milwaukee when you handed me a magnet. What a great blog! What is the goal of Project NKOTB? To go to as many shows as possible? To get backstage? Other...?
constant obsessing didn’t want to bore our friends with tales of New Kids
after MOA we suddenly had readers who knew they’d like us?
Denise S said... I am a married mother of 1 and I live in Vancouver, Canada so my question is what do your husbands REALLY think of all this??
Drew just ignores us Jason is an enab'ler holla at the guys!
Coach Corrie said... "Do you find it hard to come down from the hype after a show in order to get back to the reality of work and home life???"
constantly running no time to come down aren’t you a life coach?
Christina said... If you could stow away on one of the NKOTB tour buses, which one would it be? Why? And what would you do with the members of NKOTB whose bus you were on, let's say if you had like a week to spend with them?
baby daddy bus we’d kick out zach and robo the champagne of beers
Trisha said... What has been the funniest part of your NKOTB journey. Back in the day to present!!
Wisconsin was wild beer lube and soiled boxers maybe that’s just gross
Ivonne Padilla said... I do have a question, where do you work? that is allowing you to go to all this concert and pay for them ! (EliMltNKOTB, kathy, and missnkotb also asked this question)
Kim protects your food Alexis plays with flowers they both get dirty
Peg said... I heard that one of you had relations with Donnie Wahlberg. Is this true? If yes, tell us all the details!!
oh Peggy, shut up let’s not start any rumors we love you, holla!
EliMltNKOTB said... If their is a summer tour what are your plans ? Would you go to another country for a show ?Don't you think my idea for you two to audition for the Amazing Race is a good idea !?
we will be there, duh! our passports are expired we’d make good TV
heather1ynn said... My question - what advice to you have for a girl with a NKOTB addiction? I'm not even totally sure that I want to get over it, buy how do I cope with knowing that I'm not going to another show for a while?
[haiku break] We are the wrong people to answer that. Let us know if you figure it out.
SARAH said... You might not be able to answer this until the end of the tour .... but what was your favorite venue to see the guys? Also, which venue was the most "fan friendly" for Face Time?
we cannot agree Milwaukee or S T P Omaha was good
misnkotb said... Are you both married? Kids? Are any of your kids named after the guys?
we’ve both walked the aisle six’s kids just love new kids kim’s kids both have tails
amber said... Two questions: Alexis - In one of the early blogs there is mention of your stalking skillzzz, could you elaborate? What other stalk-worthy celebs have had the privilege of your skillz in action? Kim-Do the guys have any idea you are from Fargo, and do you think they understand how awesome Fargo is?Maybe you should go on tour with them? Helping backstage with the wardrobe? I will gladly be a reference, and I will gladly help with quick changes. Oh, and do you think Jon will call me? And will you give him (and maybe Danny, what with all the Lady Wood popping up...) my card again in LA? I am quite sure they need a comic to open for them instead of a musical act.
oh boy a long one Amber, please learn how to count that’s like eight questions
Six stalked in Boston Donnie’s grocery store was neat he tips carry-out
ND is awesome Magic Summer Fargodome? quick changes are fun
a comic op’ner… do you have a plastic skirt? yay for Lady Wood!
The video was originally from the Official UK site: http://www.newkidsareback.com/
It appears that sometime between when we posted this yesterday and now, the video has been pulled from that site. Interesting!
The demographic info at the end kind of makes it look like it may have been a promotional item for advertisers or sponsors... maybe it was never destined for the website? Or maybe it was a tease?
At any rate, Donnie pretty much confirmed a summer tour in today's blog post. See it for yourself here: http://nkotb.com/blog/2008/12/happy-holidays-from-donnie/
I'm not feeling fancy tonight. No clicky word links this time!
As awesome as this news is, I almost feel like it's too soon! The $55K median income tidbit is great and all, but some of us need to stockpile some vacation days!
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.
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
And so began the last leg of NKOTB tour 2008. California here we come!!!
I woke up at 4:30 on Tuesday morning and the first thing I did was check my email. There was a note from Alexis saying "I think you must have reserved the hotel room because I can't find it anywhere in my email."
Hm.
I scoured my in-boxes on both of my email accounts (AGAIN), and resolved that we had just forgotten to reserve a room altogether. Awesome. Luckily the Holiday Inn Express where we *thought* we had made a reservation still had a room available.
Jason graciously offered to drive us to the airport on his way to work. I arrived at Alexis's house to find Peggy still there from the night before... Nice! We got to the airport just before 7:00 AM. We were hoping to be able to fly standby on the 9:05 AM flight, because our original flight didn't leave until 9:30 PM, and that was going to be way too late to make it to the San Diego show.
With some very friendly assistance from a Northwest employee, we found two open seats on our desired flight, and for a grand total of only $50 for both of us! Thank goddess we didn't pay the $200 to change the flights the previous week.
With tickets in hand, we set off into the airport mall/gate/concourse/whatever you call it area. We did a bit of window shopping, and then Alexis decided to audition for a part in New Moon .
We checked in on our friends at the claw machine. Miss Kitty must have found a home, because she was no longer singing her torch songs in that particular arcade.
By that point we were hungry, and we still had an hour until our flight began boarding, so we stopped at Rock Bottom for breakfast.
Yeah, we look pretty tired, don't we?
We already wrote about the good omen that we found in our aisle as we were boarding. Pink smily faces are a good thing, right?
We landed in Sunny Los Angeles right on time. We were ridiculed by the car rental ladies for stripping down to tank tops, but hey - it was like 60 degrees! And sunny! It was 11 degrees when we left Minnesota that morning!
Rather than drive around aimlessly, we decided to start making our way towards San Diego. My friend Karen grew up in San Clemente, and she recommended that we stop there for lunch and a look at the ocean. We had a lovely lunch at Sonny's Pizza, where Alexis's friend from high school, also named Alexis, met up with us.
We still had some time to kill, so we headed down to the San Clemente Pier.
Alexis won the jackpot in the parking meter machine:
Alexis would like to point out that if you needed quarters for laundry, these parking meter machines would be a good place to get them.
I love how there is accidentally a public health warning in this photo of us.
Love this photo of the little boys chasing seagulls
Alexis having a moment in the ocean...
Do you think that shoes say something about a person's personality?
It was beginning to get dark by that point, so we decided to head onwards towards San Diego.
We went to the arena to see if there were any tickets available... No scalpers lurking around (which was good, I don't know if my psyche could have handled buying tickets from a scalper outside of an arena), so we tried the obvious and headed to the box office. We ended up with Section R, approximately 5 rows up, and on the aisle closest to the stage. Nice seats! Especially for last-minute! And we even got a cash discount!!!
So, in one day, we found a hotel room, we made it onto a flight for which we didn't have tickets, and we got great seats legally! I was pretty proud of us.
We still had a couple of hours to kill until the show started so we went to find some dinner.
We went back to the arena, and met some folks. Holla if you see yourself!
We went into the show, and started to ponder the question of whether or not we had become jaded to shows... We didn't have the same anxious, nervous energy that we've had at previous shows, and we just sort of felt "off" a little bit. We came to the conclusion that we're not jaded. We were just tired.
The show was great. They were kind of crazy that night, and they kept referring to that show as "the last stop." We kept checking ourselves to make sure that yes, there was indeed a show the following night in Los Angeles...
We hung out for a few minutes after the show ended, but we realized that a) nothing cool was happening, b) we were really, REALLY tired, and c) it was starting to rain pretty hard.
So you know those (false) internet rumors about Donnie nearly dying on the highway on his drive between San Diego and Los Angeles? I was believing it, because that was one of the scariest drives I’ve ever made. It sucked. It was beyond sucking. Imagine the scariest drive you’ve ever done, whether it was a rainstorm, or a blizzard, or an ice storm, or whatever. And then imagine it’s the middle of the night, you’ve been awake for more than 24 hours, and you’re on an unfamiliar, poorly-lit highway. Then multiply the suckiness of that by about 35 million, and you might be close to understanding how much it sucked.
The rain was coming down in sheets, there was standing water on the roads, cars were spun out all over the place, and you couldn’t see them until it was almost too late. The SUV that we had rented didn’t have four wheel drive. WTF? That’s not standard?
Alexis likes to say that she had her eyes closed because she was scared. I caught her snoring more than once though. For the last 30 miles I made her stay awake and talk to me. By that point, the adrenaline from hydroplaning every five minutes wasn’t even doing it anymore. We discussed such important topics as “what was your favorite outfit that they wore during the tour?” and “let’s count the times when we made eye contact with them from the stage” and “of those moments, which ones do you think were the most meaningful?”
Yeah. We were getting desperate.
We finally made it to our hotel after about three hours. I think we said about five words to each other from the time we entered the room to the time that we turned out the lights. I’m pretty sure we both fell asleep immediately.
Stay Tuned for Part II of our California Adventure… Los Angeles!
If getting home after work tonight took 5 times as long as it normally does...
If you're counting the days until the winter solstice...
This video is for you. We recorded it at the San Clemente Pier on 11/25, on our way to the San Diego show. Try not to cry a little.
In music news, is Britney Spears on crack? $549 for a "VIP" package that involves General Admission seating, and no meet-and-greet??!?! It makes the I Love All Access 5* packages look like pocket change! We are going to see her, but we're in the nosebleed section. I am not paying $100+ for a general admission ticket. And I am certainly not paying more than that for lower bowl reserved seats. That's insane.
We may also go to KDWB's Jingle Ball, but that will be on a whim, and only to see Lady GaGa. So again, we'll probably have crappy seats. That's fine though.
So, you saw the PSA that we did in LA with NKOTB.ca after the 5* Festivities. Well, here is the VLOG that we did with Heidi and Vicki for their NKOTB.ca TV. I should have learned my lesson after the 5* in St Paul. Alexis+wine+NKOTB should never include a video camera as well. So, go grab a beer and watch the video below. Try not to laugh so hard at the dorkaliciousness that you squirt beer out of your nose.
On the surface, you get savvy, smart, master's degree holding professionals who excel at their jobs and have loving families. Underneath all that impressiveness lie two raging fangirls willing to endure discomfort, inconvenience and the possibility of humiliation to prove that they are NKOTB's biggest fans (and hopefully, to score some backstage access).
About Project NKOTB
It all started about 20 years ago, when NKOTB really were new on the block. Kim and Alexis were fans then, and the love never faded. When the reunion was announced, Kim and Alexis knew that they had to make the most of the opportunity and see NKOTB as many times as possible, without totally abandoning those aforementioned careers and families.
Here, at Project NKOTB, they have chronicled their journeys to concerts at the Mall of America, Boston, Chicago, Saint Paul, Milwaukee, Omaha, San Diego, Los Angeles, Champaign, Des Moines, and Green Bay. They've trotted out memorabilia guaranteed to make women (and men) of their age group wistful and nostalgic. When it comes down to it, they generally party like it's 1988 (but with more drinks).
Posts
