The long-awaited guest blog from Christina M, recounting her tale of the Grand Rapids show last month. Enjoy!
So I've finally recovered a little mentally and physically to try and write a blog about the last 3 NKOTB shows that I attended. Sorry if this is a bit long. [No worries! -k&a] Let's start with Grand Rizzle as the Blockheads were calling it.
The day started when Lori met me at my house at 7AM and we headed off to pick up Jen and Erica in Racine. Once we picked them up, we headed on the road to Grand Rapids. We listened to my boy band playlist on the ipod and were jamming to all of our fave tunes. After a couple of hours of driving, it was time for a pit stop. We were near Gary, IN so we decided to stop there. We immediately regretted our decision. Every business that we passed looked broken down. We finally found a gas station and decided to stop there to use the bathroom. That was the filthiest bathroom that any of us had ever seen. We were all scared to touch anything in it. We left scary Gary, IN and proceeded onward to Grand Rapids.
We arrived in GR around 1:30pm and checked into our hotel. Erica and Jen stayed behind at the hotel and Lori and I went to the venue to try to get some preshow Face Time. We arrived just in time to see Joe Mac and Barrett stepping off of the bus with baby Griffin. We waived and Joe waived back. Then we hung up my WI Blockheads sign. A little later Jordan stepped off the bus. Noone even recognized him at first but then all of a sudden the waive of screams came from the group of fans waiting outside. Jordan waived at us and then went into the venue. It was 2 hours before the meet and greet so Lori and I decided to head back to the hotel to get ready. We joked to each other that as soon as we leave, Donnie would make an appearance. We were just about to cross the street when we heard the fans screaming. I ran back to find out what was going on and a group of fans said that Donnie had just come out. He hugged a few fans and then went into the arena.
We went back to the hotel to get dressed for the meet and greet and then returned to the venue. We were group T, the 2nd to last group at the M&G. We were coming up the escalator to the M&G area when the security guy told us to stop. Lori was like we can't stop we are on an escalator. Just then she saw Jordan and Donnie walk by. When I got to the top of the escalator, I saw Joe and he was looking at us like why are people still coming up the escalator. We ran across to where the other fans were standing and then we looked over and saw Jon and Danny. Jon came over and hugged Erica. She had tweeted Jon earlier that day to look for the girl with the blue hair. After waiting around for awhile, it was finally our turn to meet the guys. We walk in and all of the guys had a girl in front of them so I was waiting to talk to Jon who was closest to the entrance. Lori tells me that Joe is trying to read my shirt and to go over to him. So I walk over to him and he reads my shirt which said Joe Time 2009 with his picture on the front and Let's Get This on the back. He told me that it was sweet and thanked me. He gave me a really nice hug and then kept rubbing my back. Then it was picture time so he moved me over to Danny. I couldn't believe that I had a Joe and Danny sandwich for the picture. After the picture I got another hug from Joe then I bee-lined over to Donnie to give him the cd that I had brought. I was inspired to write a song after meeting him at the MOA and I gave him a cd of the song at the M&G. He said that he would listen to it that night and I said that he better because I would see him the next day in Champaign. I then got an awesome Donnie hug. I went over to hug Jordan but only got a one armed half hug because he was trying to walk over to another fan. Then I went to hug Danny who gave an awesome hug. As we were leaving, Danny told us that he wanted to see us shaking our a**es that night.
So we left the M&G room and I went to pick up my stuff and my purse if there but my gift bag with my jacket in it is gone. I look around it is is nowhere to be found. I talk to the security and he says to wait and see if someone comes back with it but there is nothing else he can do. I wait for about 20 minutes and noone returns with it. Security removes the table that the bags were sitting on and there were 3 bags left none of which were mine. I go to guest services and ask if anyone turned in a bag and they said no and told be to talk to ILAA. I go back over to ILAA and as I am walking I see a bag with a black coat in it that was left behind. It is not my coat but I figure that this probably belongs to the person who took my bag since we both had black coats. So I take the bag to ILAA and we find a name sticker in it. They look up the person on their list and tell me that they will find them at their seat to try to get my bag back. So we go over to the person before Jabba starts but the girl says that she has her bag and didn't have a jacket. So now ILAA doesn't really know what to do cause we have no idea whose bag this is. They say that they will keep trying to figure it out and gave me a new gift bag since mine was gone. They were very nice and helpful about the whole situation. I was very happy that I had taken my car keys out of my jacket pocket and put them in my purse. Was also happy that I put my concert ticket in my pocket and not in the gift bag.
On to the show. The Jabbawokeez were awesome. I especially loved the 4th chapter. It got the crowd up and dancing. Then it was time for NKOTB. My seat was in the 4th row center which was awesome. The only problem was that the girl in front of me kept waiving at the guys every time I was trying to take a picture.
The guys were awesome. Donnie spotted girl with a Today show sign in the audience and pointed her out.
At that moment the girl in front her stood on her seat and started waiving. I was like Donnie is trying to see the sign and not you. They also acknowledged Michigan State. There was a girl who was 2 rows in front of me who had been holding up a State shirt during the show. So during Donnie's speech before Games he asked for the shirt. The girl was like I don't want to give you my shirt. Donnie was like give me the shirt girl, I'll give it back.
On the b-stage, Danny wore a tank top with an airbrushed picture of him and his mother on it that some fans gave him at the M&G. Pose off was fun, they had a do over. Pyro Donnie made another appearance with a flaming guitar. They wore State jerseys during Hangin Tough.
So on our way out of the show, my friend notices a fan standing there with a black jacket calling my name and pulls me over there. The girl asks if this was my jacket and I said yes. Mind you that my gift bag still had my name sticker on it. So she asks where her bag and jacket are. I told her that it was just sitting upstairs so I gave it to the ILAA people. She then got very nasty with me and started grilling me about who had her jacket and if there was only a black jacket in the bag and nothing else. It seemed like she thought that I had tried to steal her jacket when it was she who took my stuff in the first place. Apparently her jacket cost $140. She gave my stuff back to me. I told her to try at guest services to see if ILAA turned her stuff into them. Apparently they didn't and she was pissed. So we were drivng out of the show and she and her group were walking towards us, it was a bit awkward. Come to find out that the girl whose name sticker was in the bag that I found was one of her friends. So we left the show to get some sleep and then were off to Champaign.
Thanks Christina! If any of you want to guest blog for us during the summer tour, just send us an email!
xoxo, Kim and Alexis
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