| Atlanta |
| On Saturday, January 27,2001 I was lucky enough to attend my first Backstreet concert. I know, I know pathetic right?! They've been around for years, done major North American tours and this is the first time I've seen them!! Anyways, Saturday morning *Alex*, Sabrina, myself and Cat went to the airport to pick up DJ and Jill. We headed for the hotel, checked in and dropped our bags off in our room. While we were there, I looked out of our 6th floor window at the buses below and who do you think I see walking across the parking lot? HOWIE DOROUGH!! The man looked absolutely gorgeous. I turned to the room and said, "Guys, its Howie!" At first they didn't believe me, so I repeated myself. You should've seen the six of us crowding the window to get a good look at the man!!! It was about 10:00 or 10:30 in the morning and none of us had eaten breakfast yet, so we headed down the street to Einstein's. After getting our food, *Alex* left to do another airport run, this time to pick up Mo and Sassy. Okay, now that you know who all was there, let's get to the good stuff! Jill and I had stayed in our room, while everyone else went down to the lobby to see what they could see. I'm sitting in the window sill watching the crowds of people outside when the buses start to move from the parking lot to the front of the hotel. "Jill, they're moving the buses" I say as my eyes stay glued to the ground below. We grab our camera's and head downstairs. When we get there, the lobby is full of people. We find our friends and settled into wait. We didn't have to wait long, about 20 minutes later Nick comes out. "Nick, Nick, Nick" everyone's hollering for his attention. He's going so fast, I don't have a chance to get a pic. SNIFF SNIFF!! I had promised my daughter I'd do everything I could to get her a picture of him, so when I noticed he was standing outside signing autographs, Jill and I headed outside to snap our pics. The man looked awesome. Yellow shirt, messy I-just-got-outta-bed hair! The crowd started singing Happy Birthday to him and he looked up and smiled. I took a couple of more pics and headed back inside to be ready when the rest of the guys came out. I had just reached my friends, when this young girl comes up to a man sitting next to us and says, "Dad, I got Nick's and Kevin's autographs!" Okay, now I'm very interested. Kevin is my favorite and I was determined to at least get a picture of him. So I walked over to her and asked, "You got Kevin's autograph? Where is he?" "In the parking lot by the buses" she told me. I didn't even stop. I grabbed DJ and Sassy, my Kevvy sister's, and told them what was going on. We walked out and sure enough, there he was!!! OMG! The man is beautiful in pictures, but nothing is like standing in front of him, seeing him upclose enough to see the little scar under his eye. So I'm snapping away, hoping and praying like mad that my height (I'm only 5'4") doesn't ruin the pictures. Then Carlos, Kevin's BG is telling us that they're running late and that they really have to leave. Inside I'm screaming 'NO NOT YET. I'VE NOT EVEN SAID HELLO TO HIM YET', so instead of just standing there, I walk closer to the bus and wait to catch his eye. He looks out at the remaining crowd and waves good-bye, his eyes met mine and I realized that this would be my only chance so I smiled and said "Good Luck Tonight!" He smiled, that little half smile, his eyes were sparkling and he says "Thank you" as he waves to me!!! SIGH, THUD, DOT!!!!!!!! I would've hit the ground right there, if it hadn't have been for Sassy and DJ who had come to stand beside me. I told them what had happened and found myself in a KEVVY SISTER HUG! We walked back to the front of the hotel talking excitedly. I still can't believe that my dream came true. Some people go their whole lives wanting to experience what I did and it happened to me at my first BSB encounter. To say I was in shock would be the understatement of the year!! I was standing outside the hotel when Howie came out, but I was across the drive from him. *Alex* got to speak with him inside the hotel though, and Sabrina had walked over to where he was and had a chance to see him up close. I had made another promise to my son to get a pic of AJ, so while everyone else went upstairs to get ready, I stayed in the lobby waiting. All of the fans were lined up on the left side of the lobby with their backs to the right waiting for AJ to come off the elevators. Marcus had got the brilliant idea to take AJ out on the right and so needless to say, I only got a pic of the back of Marcus and AJ's cornrows. Although the shadows in the lobby make it hard to see AJ at all in my pic!!! Brian was no where to be seen that day and speculation was that he was staying at home with Leighanne. So there you have it. My first encounter's with the Backstreet Boys. They are truly as nice as everyone says they are. Here's to hoping that in the month's to come, I'll be lucky enough to run into them again. My Kevin and Nick pics from outside the hotel are on the pics page. DREAM_A_LITTLE_DREAM5 |