AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Phew, okay, now that that's over...I can go on with my little concert review! Well, more like a story of my day trip, hehe.

Kenice, Jackie, my parents and I left at about 9:30 in the morning for Penn State. We listened to BSB the whole way, of course (except for when we put in the 98* CD, but anyway). We got to State College at 12:36, and then went looking for the Nittany Lion Inn, where we were meeting Lauren & co. for lunch. We must've passed it when we were driving around campus, because we eventually went into town looking for it. We asked someone for directions and they told us it was on campus...LoL. So we finally found it, and Kenice was freaking out because we saw these buses parked in front of the hotel. I didn't think they were BSB tour buses, cuz there were "civilians" getting off of them. Jackie kept telling Kenice, "BSB aren't the only ones who travel in buses!" Haha...So we got inside the restaurant, and met up with Lauren (where I lost my parents, lol, they were in the bathroom), and we went and ate and etc. When lunch was over, we were all deciding where we'd all go. Most of the girls had hotel reservations, so they were gonna go check in and hang out there, but my little groupie didn't. So we went SHOPPING!! (Hey, who doesn't want to go spend money and look for hot college men at the same time?)

We looked for a place to park downtown, and while we did that, we passed the Atherton Hotel! That's where we'd heard BSB were staying thru Kenice's friend's sister. (She works at the bar there, and supposedly she met Bubba from the BSB band!) We got all excited, especially when we saw all the fans gathered in the front. We found a parking spot, decided we'd split from my parents and meet them at 5, and walked to the Atherton. On our way there, we saw two police cars parked outside the garage of the Atherton. Kenice walked up to the one and talked to the woman. She said that the policewoman said she didn't know if BSB were actually staying at the Atherton. The policewoman said she THOUGHT the dancers and band were staying at the Atherton, BSB were at the Nittany Lion Inn, and the crew was at Motel 6. (LoL!) But we decided to go to the Atherton anyway, since it was right there. We went inside to talk to Tanya (Kenice's friend's sister), but she wasn't there. We met some BSB dancers!!!! We met Angela and a blonde one (I didn't catch her name). We all got Angela's autograph, but we didn't get the blonde one's. (She didn't look too friendly.) Angela is the one who dances with Kevin during LTL. Cool! Kenice asked if they had to have their hair that long to dance with BSB, and Angela said yes. So then, Kenice asked if they were extensions (lol, she's "bold" like that), and she didn't answer. But you could tell that they were...The blonde dancer had dark blonde hair on the top of her head, but the ponytail was like extremely blond (almost white). So, no, it wasn't obvious at all...

We left the Atherton and went SHOPPING!! (Wooeee, hehe.) There was a lot of the "BSB atmosphere," if you know what I mean. A lot of stores had signs advertising the concert; cars kept driving by with BSB messages on the windows; there were 10-yr-olds walking around alone everywhere (like that doesn't tip you off right there?); a lot of [hot] college men were walking around singing LTL and IWITW. Some were making fun of BSB, and others were actually excited to go to the concert. (Some college guys actually asked my parents if they had any extra tickets!) It was cool! Anyway. We got paranoid that we were gonna meet BSB and they weren't gonna have anything to sign. A)We were insane/hopeful. B)When we met the dancers, we had to SCRAMBLE and look for something for them to sign!! So we went into a Hallmark shop, and I bought some cute stationery and some Penn State/Bryce Jordan Center postcards. (Wouldn't it have been fitting if BSB had signed those?) Then we left, wandered around, and we found this little record shop. They had so much BSB stuff! They had a bucket hat/fisherman's hat for $17.99 (at a concert, it would've been $30), but I didn't buy it. I got a BSB poster that I've never seen before. I went to look at the records they had, and they had SO MANY! (It was like Toones! *sniff*) They had Millennium and the LP; they had imports of Millennium; Star Profiles; IWITW and LTL singles; a SMTM single from Holland! (never saw it before, but I had all the songs and not enough money); that 5-track CD with radio edits of songs like ALAYLM, INBYH, etc.; the single & available box set; etc., etc. I wanted a lot of it! But I decided to save my money for the concert. =)

We met back up with my parents and drove down to the BJC. My parents dropped us off, and immediately, Jackie went down to where the buses were (by Gate D; we were supposed to meet Lauren & co. at Gate A). We were already late meeting Lauren, and Jackie wouldn't leave right away, so I got kinda ticked. But it was GOOD that Jackie didn't leave right away, cuz the buses came!! We RAN to the fences and saw the bus pull in. WE SAW HOWIE IN THE WINDOW!! AHHH!!! He was soo cute!! He was on the phone, and he waved at us!! Jackie got pics of the bus, lol. I couldn't get my camera set in time! =( But he was so cute! Ahh! Okay, anyway. The bus drove to the other side of the parking place, and we followed (as much as we could, cuz they were on the other side of the fence). It pulled into this garage-type place, so we couldn't see anything! Then, ANOTHER bus came (I don't know who was in it), and it blocked our view of the first bus. Grr!! The second bus finally pulled away (as the fans were chanting, "MOVE THAT BUS! MOVE THAT BUS!"), but we didn't see any more action from the first bus for a while. There were some boys hanging around that area...One was in his 20s, and the other must've been like 13. Some of the fans by the fence were yelling at them, cuz they wanted to talk to them. "Little kid, come here!" etc. So finally I was like, "WE KNOW YOU'RE AJ'S CHILD!!!!" LMAO!

So we left to find the ticket office and to see Cathy Gray. (PSU messed up when they sold tickets to the concert. They double-printed some tickets, meaning that for some seats, two people had the same ticket. We were supposed to meet her and get those tickets exchanged for better ones.) Kenice and Jackie had section 234 (or something like that), but when we got them exchanged, they had section 106! Wow! I went to see their seats, and they were AWESOME. They weren't so high that they were crappy seats, and they weren't so low that you couldn't see the entire stage. Awesome!

Anyway. We met up with Lauren and waited to be let in. They finally let us in, and of course there were people handing out the envelopes for the "official concert pictures." Of course, Jackie took half the pile (LoL, at the Philly concerts, she ran off with an entire pile!), and the rest of us got like 10 each. They have a different cover!

We split there and walked around. Laur, Allie (her friend) and I saw this thing for the webcast (MCY.com). I don't know what it was exactly, but the guy who was representing it was there. We took pics of it, cuz Laur had to use up the rest of the 200 speed film before the concert started. We were talking with the guy, too, using our standard "hints," like "Your pass looks GREAT with my outfit!" or "WOW, I used to look EXACTLY like that before I grew out my hair." LoL! Then went to see where our seats are. OMFG, LAUR AND I HAD THE GREATEST SEATS! We were midway between the stage and the black box they fly out of. Took pics of that too, lol. We chatted up this guy who worked for the record company (Joe Daddio!), and we were also hinting at how great his pass looked. LoL. He was so cute! Gotta get those pics scanned (well, gotta get them developed first, LOL).

We went back up to hang out with Allie. She had 2nd level seats, and we were gonna sneak her down later, but we couldn't right away cuz our section was still kind of bare and it was really light, so security would've noticed that she wasn't supposed to be there. We walked around some more, and bought some merchandise. They have the same shirts but with different cities printed on the back...I thought that was really cool! They also had this new shirt, where it was BSB's heads inside these circles, and all of it circled around "bsb." It was cute, so I bought it! They didn't have tattoos, scarfs, stickers, or the little stuff like that. They just had t-shirts (adult and youth), 8 x 10 laminate pictures, programs, pins, hats, laminates (the bsp lookalike things)...There was probably more, but I can't remember! Prices all the same, too...You know, ripoffs don't fluctuate that much. LoL.

We wandered around some more until we heard some quiet screaming (hmm), so we looked thru one of the doors/portals/windows thingies. TOMMY!!!! We RAN down there! He was wearing a red shirt, and he had hair! LoL! We were like, "Tommy!" and we got pictures. He was kinda rushed tho...When we got my pic taken (I was the third), he was like "This is the last one." =( But that's okay, cuz I got my pic taken with Tommy! AHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hehehehe...We went back to our seats, and when Tommy came back to our side of the stage, we waved. (Well when we met him, it was on the other side of the stage, but you know what I mean.)

We went back up and snuck Allie down, because there was a family on the other side of Laur at the end of the row and an empty seat between the father and Laur. We didn't think the person was gonna come, so we said, hell, she's coming down now! So anyway. The lights went down, and the opening act came out. We thought it was gonna be EYC, but it was Raquel! I love her! She was great...I think she lip synced the second song, but she sang the rest, and she was GREAT! She looked really good tho, especially since she had that baby and all. (Okay, so it was back in late '98 early '99, but still.) She's so cute! Hehe. Then she left, and we waited some more. The ushers came over, and the girl who had the empty seat was there. We almost got in so much trouble! We made like Allie couldn't find her ticket, and etc. They made us get up and leave our seats! We were looking for Allie's ticket and stuff...Of course, we couldn't find it. So the ushers and the manager were talking and they were like, "She's gonna have to go," etc. We asked if they could've double-printed the ticket, because they did with so many others...The one usher guy was like, "Show me your ticket, and we'll see if it was double-printed." ARGH! So we got pist and everything, and we were like "WHAT is she gonna do?!" The manager lady got pist, and she was like, "You want to leave with her?" GRR! So they "escorted" her out, and I don't know WHAT they did. But we waited, and RIGHT when the lights went down for BSB, they brought her back. The usher guy was tapping me on my shoulder for me and Laur to get out of the row and talk to him or whatever, I was like to hell with you!, BSB's coming out! So he gave up and just let Allie come to our row. (I mean, she was waiting there when he was tapping me on my shoulder, I guess he wanted to explain it to us or whatever, but hell.)

I don't know why EYC didn't come out. We really thought they were going to! Laur even asked the security people (backstage security people, not usher people) if EYC was going to perform, and they said yes. Hmm, maybe one of them died or something, but they never came out. I was going to waste the rest of my 200 speed film on them, too (I had like 8 pics left to go), but they never came out! When the lights came down for BSB, I was FRANTIC, I just kept taking pictures of nothing and changed my film REAL quick. But I made it JUST IN TIME! Turns out that I had one extra roll of 200 sp film, and I put that in by accident. =( But it was okay, cuz when BSB flew out on their surfboards, it was slow. AHH!! THEY WERE SO CLOSE! I could SEE Howie's face clearly! He was SO cute, just smiling and winking and stuff. LoL! Then they went around the stage and did their thing, and sang LTL. I wasted an entire roll of film just on that! Well, you know how the songs go, so I won't bore you with that. Some of the highlights:

Brian was the one who flew on our side for QPG. He was also RIGHT there! He was such a cutie! He mocked us for taking pictures, LoL...He made a motion with his hands like he was taking pictures, and he laughed! Awww!! ::thud:: One of the times that they flew him really fast the entire way, he curled up into a ball (fetal position), and it was so cute! Got pictures of that too, hehe. When he threw one of the teddy bears, it landed 2 rows back! ARGH! *sniff* But I'm happy, cuz he was so close! I took a break from looking at Bri and looked at Howie. He was doing flips again! He always does...He's so cute! AWW! Jackie said that he threw a rose RIGHT at them, but they only got like a petal cuz it was a little out of their reach. Aww! Hehe, he's so cute!! AHH! Okay.

During one of the costume changes, the band started playing this jazz type song. I really liked it! Seriously, it was AWESOME! And BSB, one by one, started coming up out of the center of the stage. AJ was first, and then Nick. When Nick came up, he was doing this crazy little dance, it was so cute! LoL, I wanted to take a pic, but it was too dark right there to do it. Then Howie came up, and he was sitting on the other side of the stage. =(

Did BSB wear all leather before? I think they did for a few of their songs, they wore all black leather. I didn't remember that! But then again, I'm slow like that. It's what they wear before they put on the pink suits, I think. But they looked cute, as usual. Nick's hair! OMG! It was spikey! It looked so different, but I liked it. Not so much as the olden days when he was 18, but I liked it. Hehe, he had a complexion problem, with some zits here or there, or everywhere...LoL. But he's still a cutie. At the end, when they sang "It's Gotta Be You," they were wearing normal clothes. AJ was wearing a yellow wifebeater, Nick was wearing an orange and green jersey with 33 on the back, of course Howie wore the black hoodie with no sleeves (::pant pant::)...SHOOT, I don't remember what the others wore! =( But they didn't before, so I thought that was cool. The blonde dancer that we met before was wearing a white Playboy shirt (with a sparkly blue Playboy bunny on the front). Eww. One of the cute dancers, I think it was Nikki, was wearing this shirt that said, "I [heart] Boys," and when Brian introduced her, he asked if she really liked Boys (Backstreet Boys, that is). You couldn't hear her, cuz she didn't have a mic, but I think shook her head and said something like, "Just you, Brian." Aww! LoL. And when they were doing the battle of the dancers, Howie walked up to Bubba (who was on our side) and tried to bang on the drums! AWW! (He can bang on me any time he wants!) He finally found an extra pair of drum sticks, so he was playing with them. Not on the drum, he was like smacking them together in the air, and HE WAS SO CUTE! He had this playful look on his face, and he was shakin' his booty to the beat. Then, he turned around and started playing on Bubba's drums. He wasn't just fooling around and banging whenever, he was actually with the beat and stuff! He did that for almost the entire battle of the dancers! I got to look at his booty the whole time. =) Then, of course, he went to do his little rap thing. They didn't call him MC D this time (aww!), he was "MC Freaky D." AWW! ::thud and a half:: And when he was asked if he was gonna rap for us, he didn't say anything...Just nodded. TOO CUTE!!!! He had his arms folded and the hood covered his eyes...He really looked like he belonged in Center City Allentown! (Even got the Puerto Rican look goin' on, LMAO.) And he did his rap, and he was just too cute! ::thud:: Of course, when AJ introduced Dennis, he was playing with Guido. Aww! (That reminds me, when I was shopping, I saw this TOO CUTE stuffed duck...It was giant and fluffy and it had no arms. Well, the really big one was $100, and the small one was $15. I was gonna buy it and try to throw it up there, but I figured that they wouldn't get it, so I didn't...But it was so cute!) They introduced Mindi, and they called her the inventor of Post-It notes...LoL! I don't remember them doing them at the last concerts, but Kenice said they did. And of course, when they sang IWITW, they came out in Penn State jerseys! The ENTIRE PLACE went WILD! Cuz half the audience was students (girls and their boyfriends). AWESOME! They even had their names on the back, like "LITTRELL 00" or "DOROUGH 00." Now that I look back, I shouldn't be surprised, but I was so not expecting it! Aww! AJ said stuff like, "Maybe after the tour, I'll come back and go to Penn State." LoL, the crowd loved it!

My dad said (and I agree) that it was a smart thing for Penn State to have BSB there. The economy probably got a GIANT boost just from all the people shopping, renting hotel rooms, eating out, etc. I mean, 30,000 people each night for the concert, plus their parents and whomever else came with them. Plus, any of the younger kids (like my age) that came could've checked out the campus and decide to go there for college. Smart, eh? But anyway.

After the concert ended, and the lights came on, we (Laur, Allie and I) tried to barge our way thru people in order to get to one of the giant posters left. (They were giant posters, made of vinyl or something, advertising for the MCY.com webcast March 15 thru July 30.) We had planned to get them before the concert started, we even asked he MCY.com guy if they were for taking, and he said we could. But other fans had already started taking some of them down, so we were worried that we weren't gonna get one! We raced up the stairs to one of the posters at the end of the 1st level and encountered some problems. The people in charge were yelling at people for taking them down. The one woman was like, "We were told not to let anyone take these." And WE were like, "We talked to the GUY FROM MCY.COM and HE said that we COULD!" She said, "It doesn't matter, we were ordered not to!" Grrr! The people who worked in the floor sections yelled up that they let the girls take the posters, and that we were allowed to, but they still wouldn't let us! Finally, these "guys from downstairs" talked to the one woman, and while she was talking, Laur motioned as if she were trying to pull off the poster, and the girl was like, "You can't do that! Don't touch that poster!" And we kept saying the MCY guy told us we could, and she said, "It doesn't matter, that's my supervisor [the other woman] and I can't just let you take it." GRR, well it turns out the "guys from downstairs" said that they checked and we COULD! ARGH, so the younger woman just said, "Okay, you can take it." I JUMPED onto the chair and started pulling it down, but these other girls were also trying to. Doesn't matter! We got it pulled down and Laur yanked it away. The girls started bitching at us and the one was like, "It's her [the other girl] birthday today, why don't you just let her have it?" And I was like, "It's gonna be my birthday too...in a few months." How old was she gonna be, like 12? (That supposed to be an insult, btw, cuz she looked my age.) And they were calling us mean and bitches and stuff, "We'd let you have it if it was YOUR birthday." Well, you're a moron, you don't know grammar, and we got the poster anyway. LOL. Laur and I walked out of there and we were like, fearing for our lives. I heard one of the girls curse and her mother yelled at her, lol. But we just kept on walking. We lost Allie, cuz Allie went for a different poster, and then we got lost in the crowd (from Allie). We met up with her later tho, and she got a poster too! 2 posters amongst 3 people. =( Laur was INCREDIBLY nice tho, she said I could have it! I didn't want to take it tho, cuz I would've been guilty..."for about 5 min." Hehe...THANK YOU LAUR!

We took one last pic together, Laur and Allie and me and the poster, lol. Then we all went our separate ways, Laur and Allie and her rents to the hotel and I to my car. As I walked out, I could even hear some of the boyfriends saying, "That wasn't that bad!" and stuff like that. ROCK ON, DUDE! LoL...It was a GREAT night! Minnie! =)