To the Buses!
"breathe in...breathe out... breathe in...breathe OH MY GOSH HE PUT HIS ARM AROUND ME!!!!!!!"
*click*
...that I wasn't ready for the picture...explaining the strange look on my face...
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| Meeting Jim!!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Wow...where to start...This, obviously, is the story of when I met Jim. But I guess that I'll have to start at the beginning. So relax, this may take awhile...*click on any pictures to see them larger* | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Over here I am putting subjects for each paragraph. This is for those of you who do not want to read this whole story. But make sure you scroll down to see the autographs! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ======== | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Home | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| J | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| (Edna and I ended up going to our third and final Al concert for the tour on October 1st, 2000. We had good seats and met a lot of really nice people. (hi!) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| I | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| M | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| July 3rd, the date of our second concert, slowly rolled around and I was completely excited about seeing Jim. So Edna and I went on up to our balcony seats to wait for the show to start. Eventually, we went back downstairs to the lobby to stand. We were talking to these three people named Karen, Jon, and Diana. (Karen & Jon run www.polkamon.com) We were discussing seats and found out that they were in the first row right in front of Jim! We said we were in the balcony, and boy did they have a surprise for us... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| W | Meeting Karen & Jon | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| E | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| S | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| T | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| THREE EXTRA EIGHTH ROW TICKETS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| After getting over the feeling that I was going to pass out for the 3rd time, we thanked them over and over for about 20 minutes while we ventured in to find our seats. They were perfect! My seat was on an aisle (creating a perfect view of Jim...) and could not have possibly gotten any more centred than it was! We were sitting behind a security guard and his family (who obviously were not Al fans at all and were probably just there because they could be), and at the other end of our row was this guy with long, curly hair, a mustache, and wire-rimmed glasses (hmm...). We even had an extra seat for our stuff. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Our Seats | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| The opening act guy started out pretty bad, but he got a lot better by the end of it. I even think that I perhaps might've seen Steve standing off to the side of the theatre watching. I could be wrong though. The concert was great! We were covered with lots of fake snow and during "One More Minute", Al was only about three feet away! (He gave one scarf to the mom of the family in front of us, who I doubt appreciated it as much as she should have.) During "Like A Surgeon", it dawned on us that we had cameras - I don't know why we brought them, we hadn't planned on taking any pictures. I used up my disposable camera with 27 (!!!) pictures on it by taking 25 of the pictures of Jim. Edna took one and a half rolls of film. The concert ended way too fast. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| The Concert | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| We got up and started to go get our t-shirts and leave, but we decided to go say good-bye to Karen, Jon, and Diana and thank them again. So we went back to the front where they were standing. There were a bunch of people waiting around to see if any of the band members would come onto the stage (we could see Jim off to the side). We decided to go ahead and get our shirts after awhile. By the time we did, they had kicked everyone out of the theatre. We found Karen and Jon again and thanked them for the millionth time (we just can't thank them enough!). They said that they were going to go wait by the buses and that we could follow them. So we did, of course. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Afterwards - To the Buses! |
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| We sat around by the buses for about 45 minutes. Karen and Jon assured me that I would have a pretty good chance of meeting Jim since I didn't give a hoot about meeting anyone else and because he was usually one of the first ones out. (Sure, I would've loved to meet the other band members, but I had my heart set on seeing Jim.) After about 45 minutes to an hour, a lot of people had left and everyone began crowding around this really tall fence. I don't know what was on the other side of it. We moved closer to it and Jon (Karen's husband, not Bermuda) took off the other direction. He got our attention and said that Jim was over by the buses! How he got past everyone, I don't know! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Jim-Spotting!!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| So Edna took off over to the crowd forming around Jim, leaving me standing alone staring blankly. By this time I had gone completely comatose and was just standing there muttering, "oh my gosh...I can't do this...it's Jim..." Karen ushered me over there where I stood behind the crowd and fished out my CD insert from Jim's CD "Coconut Hat." Jim wasn't really talking much, just signing things and handing them back. Everyone I had talked to had told me that if I ever had the chance to meet Jim, I should introduce myself as his biggest fan ever, but I decided that I'd just embarrass myself if I ever tried. I got up next to Edna just as she handed him her scrapbook-thing for him to sign. While I was thinking to myself that I was probably next, it dawned on me that she had just said something to Jim. Then I realized what she said..."I just want you to know that this is your biggest fan ever."...!!! So I'm just about ready to kill her when Jim looks at me and says, "Oh, really?" I just made this really goofy grin and handed him my CD insert. I can't remember if I said anything then...sad thing is...I can't remember hardly any of my conversation with Jim. I think that I was just too nervous/excited/shocked. I remember him asking me what my name was. I also know that he said something like, "Oh, you got my CD?" and I said something original like, "Yeah. I love it!" I'm almost sure that he might've said something to the effect of "It was nice to meet you." I can't remember much more than that. :'-( But I do know that where he was not really talking to anyone, he talked to me!!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Meeting Jim and Talking to him!!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Another sad thing is that Edna doesn't know what my conversation with Jim consisted of either. While we were waiting to get Jim's autograph, Ruben had shown up out of nowhere. So after she had gotten Jim's autograph, she went over to get Ruben's. After Jim gave me back my CD insert, I kind of ambled over to get Ruben's autograph on my RWS insert. I was waiting in line there trying to register everything that had just happened, when someone (I was later informed that it was "Skip") came out and told everyone to get in line to meet Al. I had been next in line to see Ruben, but I didn't have any choice. Oh, well...maybe the next concert... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Ruben | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| I was walking over to get in the end of the already really long line to meet Al when Edna asked me if I wanted to get my picture taken with Jim. I declined because I hadn't seen anyone else ask for a picture, I was too afraid to ask, and I figured that I'd pass out before the picture was taken anyway. But Edna, being the annoyingly persistent person she is, ran on over to Jim and asked him. I heard him say, "Sure," (or something like that), and about lost it. So she got out her camera and Jim walked over to me, that's where I all but passed out. I was so busy reminding myself to... "breathe in...breathe out... breathe in...breathe OH MY GOSH HE PUT HIS ARM AROUND ME!!!!!!!" *click* ...that I wasn't ready for the picture...explaining the strange look on my face... |
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| The Picture!!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| So it may not have been the best picture of me, but it turned out to be the best-quality picture out of all of the ones that turned out. I think it's a sign... Anyway, in the background on the left is Karen! I think that it's only fitting that she got in the picture of the happiest moment of my life, because without her none of this would've been possible!!! | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| OK, for anyone who may actually wonder about when I met Al... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| There really isn't much to say. We stood in line for a long time and were about 5 people from the end. When I got up to the front, I handed Al my RWS insert to sign. Our conversation literally consisted of this: Al: "Hello." Me: "Hello." Al: *signs my insert* Me: "Thank you." Al: "Thank you." and that was it. Edna, on the other hand, had more of a conversation. She has been planning on buying two more pet rats, but doesn't know what to name them. So she decided to ask Al what he'd name them. She did and he said, "Bob," and she said, "And?" and he said, "Bob," with a laugh. Edna was at a loss as to what to name them, but finally decided on Justin Bob and Brutus Bob. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Meeting Al | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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