March 31, 1997, felt like one of the best and longest days of my life. It all started off at about 9:30 a.m when I went to Portage Place, the place where the Backstreet Boys would be signing autographs. I thought I was nuts to be coming so early... they weren't supposed to come till 2:00 p.m. That meant waiting for 4 1/2 hours for them to arrive. When I got there I saw my friend was also in line, she had skipped university early, like I had. When we got there there was about 20 people ahead of us. But as the minutes and hours wore on, the line grew longer and longer and longer, untill the first floor around the center court was full, the second and third floor balconies were also full. One thing is for sure, it was a mad house. No one can even think to sympathize unless they were actually with us, right where we were, squished like some pre-teenage sardines packed together to meet some sexy, hot men that sang wonderfully.

As we wait... I seriously don't remember how time went by. I do remember that they played the album about 5 or 6 times, so if you didn't the album before, you sure did now. We made friends in line, though it was very evident that we were the oldest... 18. I had my camera, tele-photo lense, and camcorder... hey I didn't know what was going to happen. So we stood and waited. Our other friends were supposed to show up at about 11:30 - 12:00... see Christy's report of the events at Christy's BSB Homepage . When they came, my friend and I were certain that they couldn't come join us, because now one was aloud in the line. So they had to go to the back, though we gave money to one of our friends and she bought us Cokes! (Thanks you Heather!!! :)

We met some friends in the line, who earlier on had snuck in behind us in the line and then skipped a whole bunch of people, and hopped over the ropes that seperated the zig zagging line to bring them about 20 people closer to the front. At first we were a bit mad.. but then they called us over and we snuck in. There were also some youngsters and I'm talking YOUNG! They reached my waist and didn't belong there. I'm not saying that they didn't love BSB enough or anything like that, but in the end all of those "children" and "babies" (as they were called by the mothers who yelled at the security guards to get her "baby" out of there) got trampled or squished, causing a lot of havoc which we didn't need to have. The amount of people got so bad that they shut off the second floor elevator that went to the first floor. There was this woman who kept going to the front telling us to not push.. and blah blah. I felt like I was in Kindergarten again. She should have gotten in with us and then she would have known how we felt.

By the time 2:00 rolled around, I think the crowd was all dying of being tired and standing for so long. We chanted, we yelled, but they never came. That was when it started to get bad, since none of us knew when BSB would come, and we also didn't know how to get out. We couldn't move, I couldn't even raise my hands. Finally, (thank the lord!), they came and boy oh boy, was it ever a spectical. Everyone was screaming and crying and just being hysterical. Now at first my mouth dropped to the ground (My friend and I are on the news with our mouths to the ground), and I was screaming and yelling, heck, these were the superstars that we were promised to see, but then I became camera happy and started taking pictures of anything and everything. As soon as they were spotted coming up the ramp, my camera just kept clicking away. Then they came on stage and I nearly fainted, either from the rush of people or from my awesome state. They all sat down, except Kevin (who I was dying from the sight of), looked around at ALL the people. (Later reports say that there were about 4,000 people. But I felt like there was twice that amount).

Seeing them in person was so awesome. You hear their music, and see the videos and pictures in magazines.. and then you get to meet these "super stars". It was a wierd feeling. Then came the wait, and the madness. Everyone was pushing and pushing in all ways. I have never in all my life felt that squished. I don't think I need any reductions to my body.. in the way of chest/thigh/butt etc. I was plastered to people. One time my sunglasses came off my head, but I couldn't even lift my arms to get them, so some nice girl grabbed them and put them back on. The bodyguards kept yelling us to move back, but please, there was NO room. They also yelled to stop shoving... hahahaha, right, let's all wait till the Spice Girls come and we'll see what the men do.

Anyways, then I came to the front of the stage... still had to wait in line. This was the perfect opportunity to take pictures. I took pictures of them as a group and of them singular. I yelled y head off at Kevin, but he never turned to look right at me, though I still got a good picture. Then came my quick fantasy come true with Brian. One thing I should note, is that the boys looked very tired... and maybe a bit angry. I don't know if they expected all these people, their last autograph session was in Ottawa and a riot broke out. I did get a picture of Nick kinda frowning, with all of them looking tired. I noticed Brian looked glum, but heck it was a great opportunity to take his picture, so click and flash! He turned and looked right at me (he's a beautiful man!), and gave me this goofy look, sort of like "Hey! Are you taking my picture!" Later on I realized (duh!) that he is the joker of the group... so I guess that explained the funny face. He also gave me a sympathetic look and smile... yeah I was a sardine then. I then took a picture of Nick while he was looking right at me. It did look kinda posed, but then I guess that's what they do a lot, pose. Of course it had to turn out blurry UGH! Then came the moment of pure sorrow and defeat... no more film! AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!! so I put my camera down, though of some nasty thoughts. Though as quick as those thoughts came in, out they went, with the next thought of concoring the crowd and getting to those boys!

The next moments were scary. Bodyguards were yelling at us and some even tried to come through the mob, to get at "fainting" people. Some were fake, some were real. All I know, is it was horrible. Picture hundreds of girls squished together with no room and then someone yelling for help. Then picture two huge bodyguards, the size of 3 girls put together, trying to come through this crowd. When I finally got to the beginning of the stage, I had to grab hold of the railing and the bodyguard, so I wasn't taken with the flow. Oh, further note: There was a big huge mistake made by those stupid (yes, stupid) management/bodyguard people. They let people come in from the side... girls that hadn't been waiting in line for 4 hours, only 30 minutes. So this caused more ruckus from the crowd. All I can say about it is I saw girls come and see BSB that had waited for maybe 20 mintues by standing at the side, and I also saw girls that had been waiting for 3 hours not get it. Next was Nick, he was wearing a black t-shirt with some sort of logo on it and no jacket. He must have been cold! Okay girls, confession time. I don't really think he's all that. I didn't go for Joe in N.K.O.T.B. and I didn't/don't go for Nick. I'm not saying that he's not hot or anything... but Kevin and Brian are my Boys. So I smiled at Nick (heck, I smiled at them all!) and handed him my poster which he also scribbled on and said, "I loved that flip you did in the "Get Down" video." He looked up at me and said "What?" So I leaned closer and repeated what I had said a bit louder. He smiled and said "Thanks."

Then I moved on to Brian (I love this man!) and smiled again. He took my poster and that's when I sort of froze. What the heck was I going to say when I wanted to say so much? So Brain took it upon himself to start up the quickest, but longest conversation I've ever had with him. "What's it like out there?" He asked and looked up at me, (I of course was off in Brian land, staring into those baby blue's of his.) He looked ab fab in a black Nike hat that was backwards, black sweart shirt, and black coat. "It's horrible out there, it's so squishy." He nodded in agreement and then I told him, "You know, I skipped my Lab Test because of you guys." "Really?" he asked me. "Yup." I replied. Then I leaned closer and said "You know, we're probably you're oldest fans..." This made him do a laugh-smile and then he asked "So are you coming to the concert?" I looked at him as if he was from the moon. "Of course I am!" I told him. He nodded in agreement and told me "It'll be Terrific." (or something like that).

Next was A.J. who smiled at me, and seemed hyped up by all the fans. He was wearing a grey hoodie and white baseball hat, but no shades! So he took my poster and I asked him where his shades where. He looked up at me and said "What?" I leaned closer and asked again pointed to my head... hey, it was REALLY loud! He smiled and pointed to his pouches in the front of his hoodie and said 'They're safe, in my pockets." Which made sense, cause anyone could have grabbed them off, or they could have fallen off.

Next came Kevin... sigh! Picture me getting all dreamy eyed, but very nervous. He was the first B Boy in my heart and always will be, I'm sure he'll be happy to know that ;) He looked like some Greek God in a backwards black hat, Adidas jacket (he was the only on to keep his jacket on), black pants (the only one not wearing jeans), a black shirt underneath the jacket, with a white t-shirt underneath that... yeah I noticed a lot about him.) It seemed I had known for so long what I had wanted to say to him, other than proposing. So Kev took the poster, while I sort of started with my mouth agape at him. Then the better half of me took hold and I ask him... "Do you remember on that Europe video, when that girl asks Nick what his fan-ta-say was?" Kevin looked up at me with the 'what the heck are you talking about?' look on his face. "You know, fan-ta-say." I pronounced it just the way he had in the video. "Oh!" he said... "Fan-ta-say!" And then he got this big grin on his face... "Fan-ta-say!" and then him and I said it together... halalalalalala. And then BOOM! I had to go off the stage.

Then I had to find my friend. I waited about 10 mintues for her. Then I went to the filim shop and got more film, I also had a short chat with the guy working there about this mob and hysteria. He though I was sain until he found out that I was a BSB fan. So I went back to find my friend, and about 5 mintues later I got to her. (Don't worry Kim... I'll spare them the gory details of how you were :) Just as I was about to pull her to the second floor to use my telephoto and camcorder, they got up and left :O Yup, after being there for LESS than an hour and seeing about 400 people, they went bye-bye. Later we found out it was because of the mob, and those Boys didn't want to get anyone hurt... aren't they used to it by now? Anyways, we shed a few tears (no, I'm joking) and found our friends. We then went to my truck, dropped off my heave artillary and headed to the Winnipeg Convention Center where they were supposed to be.