Just a few of my fondest memories from 'Operation Atlanta'
By: *Nicki*




What started out as a hellish excursion, ended up to be the best trip of my life!
Due to a terrible snow storm heading our way, Lisa, Linzi and Charity all left a day early for Atlanta.
I stayed back at home and waited for H-Dawg. While also taking my sister to an LFO concert...which as an "Operation" in itself!
The morning came to leave, and I found out that my flight was cancelled.
I was a mess! I called my (now ex-husband) at work and made him come home to take me to the airport to see if I could fly stand-by on another flight.
We sat there and watched as every flight out of Detroit Metro Airport cancelled.
Luckily, Lisa's mom had a connection and I was told "If the plane leaves Detroit, you will be on it!"
I took that as a good sign. But later, it began to really start snowing hard.
I got very disheartened.
I called Lisa about 10 times in 2 hours on my cell phone, she was my sanity at the time.
While walking past the gift shop, I heard "Tell Me Why Can't I Be Where You Are....!!!"
Yes, it was the Boys!
I took it as a good omen and immediately called Lisa.
About 2 hours had passed and the snow was terrible, yet I was still handed a ticket.
I was surprised when she asked "Is first class OK?"
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!? LOL!
Needless to say, the plane took off, the gentleman next to me and I, sat there chatting and drinking wine, coffee and Bailey's...whatever alcohol they would serve us.
As I stepped off the plane, I saw Linzi, Charity and Lisa all standing there waiting for me.
I was never so happy to see them in all my life.
I threw my arms around Lisa and cried.
All of us kept hugging, and hugging, blocking traffic from coming out of the plane.
Charity handed me my "Prize for getting there", a cute little sunshine TY Teddy Bear...My most prized bear!
That evening, we went to Buckhead, a trendy downtown area with a ton of bars.
We drank and danced and partied all night.



Finally, we all piled into a cab and went to the Hard Rock Cafe, where I was introduced to Hodapp...the waitor that Linzi had been hot for the night before...
Nobody except Linzi was hot for him UNTILL...
Me, figuring that nobody in that place would ever see me again, so I just hammed it up, and asked Hodapp to tie the cherry stem from my strawberry margarita with his tongue!
AND HE DID IT! Making all of us...including Lisa, TOTALLY HOT FOR HODAPP! "Wipe the drool Lisa."
WE LOVE HODAPP!!!
Linzi and I drank ourselved practically into a coma...shot after shot, drink after drink...it was insane! But so much fun!
We got up the next morning and I went downstairs to meet Leann for the first time.
I was SO EXCITED to finally meet her face to face!
We chatted a bit and headed over to Melissa's house, stopping at Starbuck's on the way.
EnRoute, we passed the BSB hotel, where we saw all of the girls waiting outside at the busses.
The worst thing was when I found out about my incognito status with Melissa.
The first thing I wanted to do when I saw her, was give her a great big hug.
But I kept calm and waited until we got in the car.
On the way home, I got a very special peek at some VERY SPECIAL, VERY PRIVATE pictures. I felt so honored that she shared them with me!
After spending a bit of time at the hotel, Leann, Melissa, Charity and I went out to the mall.
We spent time looking for new stuff to wear to the concert that night.
We got back to the hotel quite late, and Linzi and Lisa were in a panic.
We all got ready, each of us in our cutest little outfits and diva-tizing ourselves. Giving Melissa and Leann a first hand look at the insanity of it all.
We ended up taking out "B*tch Ride" the 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee Laredo out to the venue.
Unfortunately, we ended up parking about 2 blocks past the hotel and walking to the venue because of traffic.

SIDE NOTE:
When we came in from shopping, it was about 65 degrees out. VERY warm for us Michigander's who were used to the sub zero temperatures.
When we came out to go to the concert, it was about 55 degrees.
Getting quite cold.
Finally, after the concert...it was about 35 degrees and I was wearing a tank top, and NO COAT! IT WAS FREEZING!

We made up songs all the way to the Georgia Dome.
We were all in shock as we finally took our place in the front row.



The concert was delayed for about 45 minutes.
We waited patiently.
FINALLY, after the HORRIBLE Jungle Brothers...
Guy and Louie, came out and immediately noticed Lisa, and were talking to her from the stage.
Tommy walked past us, was staring at us, while continuing to watch us...finally slapping himself in the face to make himself look away. THAT was DAMN Funny! He must have went back and warned the Boys about us!
Finally, the Boys came out to a roar from the crowd!
The entire show was fantastic!
We were such entertainers! We entertained the Boys, the band, Marcus and Carlos (the bodyguards)!
One time, Marcus was laughing at us so hard, that he was pounding his fists on the railing.
Near the beginning of the show, AJ came over to our side, stood at the edge of the stage, staring at us.
He turned around, walked over to Louie and Guy and made a sign with his hands about 'big boobs'.
As soon as I saw that, I tried in vain to cover a bit of my overflowing cleavage.
But I guess I deserved it, because everytime he would come near me, I would oggle him like a stripper.
Between Linzi and I...I think we showed more cleavage than poor AJ could handle!
During the introductions, the spotlight was on Brian.
AJ sat there in the dark, and we held up our first sign of the night.
It said "AJ, Back That Thang Up!"
We held it up for him and he went into this crazy, wild, booty dance for us!
He was insane!
We laughed so hard at him! It was great!
A bit later, we held up the sign we had made for Nick, which read "Yes Nick, You Are Sexual" with 'sexual' in large red letters.
Nick looked down at our sign, gave us a sheepish little grin as if to say "who me?" which quickly turned into a grin that said more of "Yeah I am!" It was SO HOT!!
Just before 'Back To Your Heart' (Yes, I know, I had it up wrong, I had it up as DWLYN...It is actually BTYH) I noticed Amanda sitting beind the barricades about 20 feet to the right of us.
I don't know what it is about that song, but it get to me every time!
Unfortunately, as I watched AJ sing, tears began to fall from my eyes.
Just then, AJ looked over at me.
I felt warm as our eyes locked into each others.
Lisa grabbed my arm, noticing what was happening.
AJ nodded to me, pointed at me and began to sing to me.
After about 2 or 3 lines, I couldn't take it anymore.
I turned to Lisa in total shock.
She stood there, also teary eyed and said "I Know! I know!"
I threw my arms around her and hugged her for the rest of the song as I cried.
It took me a few minutes until I composed myself.
Luckily, my favorite songe began to play.
As the Boys came out in my favorite white outfits, I was back to normal.
We sang and danced, and had a blast.
Finally, it came time for the long awaited Nick part of "Am I Sexual?!"
We noticed that he was on our side of the stage, but all the way to the right of us.
As Brian sang "Am I the only one?"
Nick looked right over at us...walked all sexy over to us and gave us the most erotic "Am I Sexual?" we had ever seen, rolling his body, biting his lip and playing with his zipper.
Yes, for those of you that saw that (and we know there are many! Because we saw it all over the net already!)...It was our sign that prompted it...You can thank us later!
We all collapsed onto the floor in utter shock!
While still recooperating from Nick's little 'sexual' episode, AJ walked over to our side of the stage, stood right in front of us, and ripped off his shirt.
he looked down at me, and threw his soaking wet, ripped shirt right to us, easily landing into the hands of Linzi.
We all freaked out for a few seconds.
I felt like the luckiest person on the face of the earth when Linzi immediately handed it to me, feeling that I was the one he meant it to go to.
I held onto it as girls began to try to rip it out of my hands.
I finally had to tie it into the waistband of my pants to keep it from getting stolen!
"I Have AJ's Fluid!" LOL!
I actually had girls offering me $10 for a fingernail size piece of the shirt...I was a witch and said "No!" to all of them!
Linzi went absolutely crazy when Howie noticed our sign for him, and began waving, winking and shaking his finger at her wildly.
Howie kept coming to our side of the stage to get some attention.
When he would come by, all of us would scream and wave and blow kisses!
He was in his glory!
His face was lit up like a Christmas tree!
Finally, near the end of the show, we held up our sign for Kevin.
It said "Kevin, make our wish come true, please come here!"
He noticed it right away and waved and nodded at us saying 'later'.
As the Boys began saying their good-bye's, Kevin walked to the edge of the stage, smiled, waved and 'peaced' at us.
Linzi lost control of herself and shook her head at him and started screaming "NO!!!"
She pointed down at the floor.
He looked at her and sat down on the edge of the stage and jumped down.
Lisa, Linzi and Charity all rushed up to the barricade.
Charity grabbed ahold of his buldging, moist bicep, while Linzi asked him for a hug.
Lisa followed suit and also asked for a hug.
I have never been happier in all of my life. Including when AJ sang to me.
To see you best friend in the whole world, get "the hug that she's been waiting for forever", he face was just glowing.
I struggled to take a picture of it as more girls began to crown the area.
I got pushed and shoved, but managed to get a shot of it. (admittedly not very good....but she loves it!)



He stood in front of me and I shook his hand and said "Congratulations Kevin.", and he smiled and me and said "thank you very much."
I turned around to see Lisa looking lost.
I grabbed her from behind and shoved her through the crowd and to her seat.
I knelt down on the ground in front of her as she cried.
She was so happy, she just couldn't contain it anymore.
We hugged and cried together for a moment.
As I tried to sit up again, I noticed a little girl was sitting on my back!!! It is funny now, but it was annoying then!
I sat next to Lisa as she called her mom to tell her the exciting news. Happy with all that had happened that night, but sad that what we had looked so forward to, for so long, was now over.
It was still, a feeling like no other.
Standing there with your best friends, reveling in the experience that you had just shared.
Knowing that you were the only people on earth that could have shared this experience, in this way.
The only word to describe it was INCREDIBLE!
After finally meeting up with Leann and Melissa again, we went to leave.
We rehashed our favorite moments of the concert with each other while Charity stood in line for her souveniers.
A rather cute young man came over to tell that we had to leave.
Again, I was beligerant, jokingly, I said "Oh, No! You gotta beg us to leave now!"
He pleaded with us for a moment.
I stood firm, saying "No, you have to get down on your knees and beg us!"
It was so funny!
I actually ended up trying to 'hook him up' with Charity before we left.
Our feet aching, freezing to death, we finally all piled into a cab and headed for the hotel.
When we got to the parking lot, Melissa, Leann and I said our teary good-byes.
We went to pull out of the driveway and noticed Leann running toward us again.
She had left her trunk open and now her car battery was dead!
So they rode with us to the hotel, we let the hot valet guy from the Ritz take our "B*tch Ride" to jump start Leann's car.
Again, we went to Hard Rock Cafe, which was totally packed!
The girl at the door told us that it would be about 45 minutes to an hour wait.
But since it was our last night in town and our last time to visit Hodapp, we decided to stay.
We waited for about 5 minutes and they called us to our table.
Hodapp walked over to us and said "They told me that my ladies were back to see me!"
Unfortunately, he couldn't wait on our table that night, but he did stay and talk for awhile.
He prodded us to take off our coats so that he coud see "our outfits".
Yeah Hodapp! Right! Our Outfits! Is that what you are calling them tonight? AJ just called them 'boobs'!
We chatted about the concert, who our favorites were, the things that happened that night.
Then our server, Reggie came over to talk, we were shocked by his knowledge of the boys, he knew their names, he knew that Brian and Kevin were cousins and that they had just announced their engagements that week.
We were so excited!
Hodapp came over a few minutes later to say "One of the Backstreet Boys is across the street at Plante Hollywood."
All of us were like "WHO IS IT?!?!"
He said he would call his bartender friend over there and ask.
Immediately, Lisa and I thrust our cell phones at him and he called.
We talked amongst ourselves wondering who it would be.
Lisa said to me "You know it is either yours or Howie!"
I had a feeling that it was AJ!
Hodapp came back to the table, looked at me and said "It's AJ!"
We all screamed.
I asked right away "Can you get me in there?"
And he said "Sure, let me call." (He had just sent another of his friends over there just a few minutes ago.)
I sat there terrified.
Lisa was yelling at me "Go! Nicki! It's yours! Go! Go now!!"
Hodapp came back a minute later and said that AJ had just left.
I was a bit disappointed, yet relieved at the same time.
Just then, the girl that he had sent over there, came back and we all talked about it.
She got to meet him, he was with Amanda, she chatted with them for a couple of minutes. She said that they were both really polite and really nice.
I was so excited for her!!
So the night went on...Linzi and I began to drink again...DRINK HEAVILY!
One time, while trying to get my attention to drink the shots of Kamakazee shots that we had just ordered, she yelled "Hey Spartacus!"
We still don't know where that came from, but we chalk it all up to drunken babble!
There was a scary bum that came over to our table, and wouldn't leave me alone.
He kept telling me how beautiful I was. Then he asked me "Are you black or white?"
I almost fell off my chair laughing!
Nobody has ever mistaken my pasty white butt for being black before! It was cracking me up!
Linzi and Hodapp were getting cozy across the table, I eyed Linzi.
Linzi turned to Hodapp and said "Hodapp, get rid of the bum for us please!" with a stone straight face and a slight brittish accent!
That made me laugh even harder!
Finally, the night came to an end, we had to say good bye to Hodapp, he posed for some pretty provocative pictures with us.
He thought he was a stud!
All we can say about Atlanta is...WHO 'DAT? HODAPP!!!
We Are ALL ABOUT Hodapp!
We stumbled back to the hotel, coming across some papers outside our door.
They appeared to be petitions for the BSB.
We signed them, thinking that they wanted everyone to sign, but when they came out, the papers were actually signs and birthday cards that they were going to give to the Boys at the next show.
We felt so bad! To make up for it, I showed the girls AJ's shirt, and they asked if they could touch it, and I handed it to them. Their mom said "Wait! Let me get the camera!"
These two little 8 year old girls were so excited to take a picture with AJ's shirt! It was cute!
We went back into our room, and mother Linzi began to read us a bedtime story.
The Backstreet Project. Including character voices and everything. It was the funniest thing I had ever heard!
We got up the next morning, and since we stayed on teh club level at the Ritz, we got free food.
We went down to the room to get breakfast, we ran into the little girls next door, and the little brittish boy who was only 4 but acted like he was 40.
"Is this 2% Milk Mother? I want 2% milk." LMAO!
We sadly began to leave the Ritz, they all told us how much they were going to miss us.
We were their entertainment for the weekend.
The valet guys all gave us a standing ovation as we walked out the doors, they took pictures of us, and with us, and all came out to the corner to wave as we drove away.
It was sad, but so fulfilling at the same time.
We sat at the airport, chatting and rehashing the funny moments of the weekend, and how I almost never even made it there!
A small child, about 16 months old, her name was Natalie, came over to Lisa, who was sitting on the floor, sat down in her lap and almost fell asleep.
This dumbfounded her mother who said "She NEVER does this with anyone!"
After about a half hour, the little girl got up and ran away.
As we walked onto the plane, we began to sing, and the pilot looked out and said "Better keep and eye on those gals!" and lsughed.
I said "You aren't the first one to say that this weekend!"
The flight ended and we all got our bags, it was sad to leave Charity and Linzi at the airport, but we all knew that in just a few weeks, our next mission, "Operation East Lansing" was about to begin.