| Bakersfield October 17, 2001 |
| I woke up at the butt-crack of dawn, no BEFORE the crack, PRE-crack lmao, in Reno on the morning of the 17th. Not even 4 hours of sleep. Thank god Marilyn has some sort of internal alarm clock since the REAL alarm clock didn't work. I still don't know how I made it in time. 6 am flight back to SJ to meet up with Bobbi, J, and Heidi for our lovely 4 hour drive to Bakersfield. Keep this in mind: we had all be up since the crack, spent hours in the car driving through the middle of nowhere... figures this would be an encounter day. Bakersfield... yes it IS the armpit of CA. lol Now, I've driven through Bakersfield on many occasions on the way to Vegas -- that is the ONLY PURPOSE of Bakersfield, as a pit stop about half way between the Bay Area and Vegas. Sure it's an agricultural center, blah, blah, blah, whatever. I know it as a place to stop for a soda and a pee break. For Bobbi, J, and Heidi, Bakersfield was a new experience, one I'm sure they don't want to repeat any time soon. I still can't belive BSB had a concert in freaking BAKERSFIELD of all places. What were their booking managers thinking??? But the good thing about it for us was that BSB didn't have very many places to hide. *grin* Heidi had made reservations at her "best guess" hotel, and sure enough she guessed right. Not like there were many options in Bakersfield. We pulled into the parking lot to find tour buses, lots and lots of tour buses -- which is why seeing the buses, specifically WHO WAS IN WHICH BUS, at the other shows earlier in the week paid off. Upon trying to check into our suite, we found out the suites were STILL OCCUPIED and they were waiting for the guests to check out -- hmmmmm I wonder who that could be? *coughBSBcough* Since we HAD to wait around for our room to be ready, why not wait in the parking lot by the buses? We got back in the car for some reason, can't for the life of me remember why, and saw a bus moving around towards the back of the hotel. So of course we stopped -- classic tires-screeching, park-in-the-first-spot-you-see moment. lol Heidi, I love you for driving through all of this. We got out and casually *yeah right* walked over to the back of the hotel, where there were 4 buses parked and one was along the side of the hotel still in view. 5 buses hmmm... By recognizing the drivers/security, we figured out that AJ's bus was the one on the side and Nick's was the one closest to us. Naturally the hotel security tried to get rid of us. Over and over and over again. We had to keep telling them that we were REGISTERED GUESTS waiting for our room to be ready. Luckily one of the hotel security guys was really nice (what was his name? Jim?) and eventually let us have free reign of the parking area. They actually made all of the other fans (like maybe a dozen, not too many at all) wait outside of the parking lot, but they let the four of us stay. We're just cool like that. lol K, speeding up the story here... we stayed at a distance from the buses so as not to seem like total freak fans. We saw Brian come out of the hotel and walk around the buses. He kind of looked at us like, "Why aren't they chasing me?" and waved before he got in and drove away. Little by little we walked closer to the buses. Then Howie did the same thing as Bri, came out of the hotel, walked to his bus, gave us the same look and wave, and then left. I think he was with Leigh, the fc chick, not sure, not really paying attention to anyone else. lol In the meantime, I guess AJ had come out the side door, got in his bus, and drove away. We weren't paying attention to that area at all. We were focused on Nick's bus. Now there were two buses left, one we knew was DEFINITELY Nick's and the other we figured might be Kevin's since he was the only one unaccounted for, although it wasn't the bus I saw Kev get out of in SB a few days before. So we conveniently positioned ourselves next to Nick's bus, still in sight of the hotel door, so he would have to walk past us to get in. Needless to say, I was totally shaking and felt completely sick -- but the good kind of sick, the "I'm actually going to see Nick" kind of sick. We all felt that way. Classic moment: the very last item loaded on to Nick's bus was his... *drum roll* ... PLAY STATION 2!!! LMAO Figures. I'm such a dork that I had to take a pic. Hey, it's Nick's Play Station, this is important. lol FYI, there was only one controller. (I think) Or as either Heidi or J called it (can't remember who!), "Nick's joystick." lol So then... the moment... I saw a pair of baggy jeans walk out the hotel door. There was a tree in the way so I couldn't see the person's face, just the jeans and the sneakers, and I said, "It's Nick." I recognized him by his lower half. LMAO! He was wearing, as I said, baggy jeans and sneakers, a big black short-sleeved shirt with gray stripes down the sleeves, and his hair was down in his face, ya know, not spiked up or pushed back. And I realized later looking at my pictures that his hair was wet. *sigh* Anyway, Nick and Eddie walked out the hotel door and came towards us, er, towards the bus. We all said hi, babbled something, not sure what. I think I said that the show the night before was great. Doy. He was very nice, very soft-spoken, very low-key, saying hi back and thanking us. First was Bobbi who handed Nick a gift and he kind of gave her a look like "Wait, you don't want anything else from me?" Then he signed something for her with the pen I lent her, but he kept the pen. He signed all of our stuff with it and eventually got in the bus with it. Nick tried to swipe my pen! lol Eddie did bring it back out to us though. *sigh* The Nick pen. So he signed stuff for all of us. I only had the B&B cd booklet that I had Howie sign in March. Next time, and there WILL be a next time, I'll be better prepared with a cool photo of him. He did a double take when he saw J's picture -- the infamous water picture -- probably thinking, "Damn I'm beautiful." lol He added an extra "BSB" to his signature for her. She's the cool one. Then Heidi, brilliant woman that she is, had the sense to ask Nick for a picture. He was nice and said that he'd like to but that he was running late and offered -- here's where the signature quote comes from -- "I can do all four of you at once." *giggle* THANK GOD we didn't realize he said that at the time or ALL of us INCLUDING HIM would have been soooooo embarrassed. But the comment still caught us off guard because, doy, who was going to take the picture if we were all in it? We kind of fumbled around for a few seconds looking at the security guys, trying to figure out what to do (next time we need to plan better), but Nick finally said that he was sorry and that he really had to go. So no picture. *pout* He got in his bus, we thanked him and wished him luck for the show that night, and away he went. And that's the story of me officially losing my Nick virginity. lol Granted, I had seen him off stage 4 other times and I had spoken to him 3 other times, but with the autograph it was an actual MEETING. The SD/pool table thing is still a cooler story because it lasted longer and it wasn't really a "fan" experience, but this is real, this has proof, and this time he was nice. And our story is that we got Nick's suite in the hotel (when they FINALLY let us check in hours later that is). Don't know if it's true, don't want to know if it's not. I just like thinking, "I slept in the same bed as Nick." *sigh* Now, let's get on with the show... (I know this is already really long, too bad) The only reason why I even went to the Bakersfield show at all after the postponement was my seat -- 3rd row on Nick's side. I have never been that close for BSB and I was not about to pass it up for anything. Screw work. Bobbi and J had seats in the same row as me and I moved so we were stitting next to each other. Heidi was in the front row on Kevin's side. Krystal wasn't there and we were running late, thanks to them not allowing bags in and making us go back to the car where we could hide our cameras and Kermit and Piggy, so we missed Sisqo. Oh darn. I didn't see him all week... on purpose. OH MY LORD 3RD ROW ON NICK'S SIDE!!! WOW!!! I am so spoiled now. Amazing, freaking amazing. I'm sure I've forgotten half of what I saw, but dammit all if the half I remember isn't spectacular. Thank god for pictures, 10 rolls in just two hours, new record for me. Oh yeah, definitely getting my money's worth out of this camera. *trying to remember as much as possilbe about the concert* Remember I'm a Nick freak so like ALL of my concert memories are about him. When they first came out of the stage on their pedestals, Nick was talking to someone, I think Brian and/or AJ. He was just chattering away like there weren't thousands of people watching him. Smoke, lights, band playing, Nick talking. Freak. And not just like a word or two, a full on conversation. I couldn't figure it out at first, I was like, "WTF? Why are his lips moving?" During LTL I had to turn to Bobbi and J and ask, "Is it just my imagination or does Nick keep looking at us?" I swear to God it seemed like he was but I thought it was just my wishful thinking. However, Bobbi and J confirmed it -- they were like, "YES HE IS!!!" OMG he totally recognized us from that afternoon at the hotel. Wow. We got Nicky eye contact (and more *grin*) throughout the whole show. A couple times I put up my camera to take a pic and he just stood there looking at me like he was posing for me. *sigh* NFM... OMG... The grab, oh my lord the grab. Damn him. Directly in front of us. *thud* And then the right arm. Wow. Is this like the best choreography or what? First the handful then the sleeve at CLOSE RANGE -- enough to kill me on the spot. During his introduction, Nick came up with a water bottle and sprayed it on the fans at the end of the wing on his side. Little devil. Then he basically french kissed the camera on Kev's side of the stage. Not just his usual smooch, full on open mouth. lol By some miracle I was able to capture the big screen on film. *grin* Does he need a girlfriend? Where do I sign up? For IWITW, Nick chickened out on his "Don't wanna hear you saaaaaaaaaayyy" part, doing his hold-the-mic-up-to-the-audience thing. I hate when he does that. And the audience didn't sing along! lol He looked at us like "WTF is wrong with these people?" and I looked back at him like "WTF is YOUR problem? You're supposed to sing it YOURSELF!" The blue outfits... if it wasn't my favorite color already, it would be now.Nick was a total tease for DWYB -- he waited and waited and waited to rip off his shirt and jacket, but DAMN it was worth the wait. Bobbi and I got identical pics of that moment. *thud* And THEN, for "another victim of your sexualitly", we were poised with our cameras ready for some Nicky hip action, but he gave us something even better -- he laid down and HUMPED THE STAGE!!! And the whole time he was looking in our direction! I swear he did that just for us. He didn't do it at ANY of the other shows that week, but when he knew WE were there watching, he did it. He knows he drives us crazy and he LOVES it. And then of course it came to the box part. First the belt *thud*, then Nick made the "mistake" of taking off his shoes and bending over to pick them up right in front of me. Too tempting. *click* Very nice blue booty shot. The bridge... silly string galore. Brian and Nick even signaled people in the crowd to spray it in their mouths. lol (I got a picture of Brian's tongue! Am I going to hell for that? Not like I'm not going already though) We were armed and ready with sily string, and even though they were taking cans from people, they didn't take ours. The bridge ended up covered in the stuff, so much that even when they raised it up, the silly string was hanging down all the way TO THE STAGE. There was one long piece that Kevin was trying to casually pull down, but it wouldn't break. He ended up walking away with it almost to the wing before it finally snapped. Kev, always trying to play it cool. Oh, and Nick was wearing a green clown wig from someone in the crowd, a wig that reappeared in Vegas two days later. What a goober. The band/dancer introductions... Nick was his usual goofy self. For the usual Bye Bye Bye part I was ready for AJ to come out on stage, but nope. Instead Nick basically went off like a wild man, jumping on the drum set, freaking out, falling on the ground, jumping back up, hair flying... When he was done he just turned to US -- I have a pic, I swear he was looking at us -- kind of like, "Aaawww yeah, how'd ya like that?" Gotta love him. Everybody... the wigs. Nick and Brian had worn wigs all week, but this time everyone but Kevin got into the act. (he's the party pooper) Nick had on his usual, not-so-sexy red wig, Brian was wearing the green wig Nick had on the bridge, AJ had Brian's usual blue one, and Howie was wearing a huge black fro wig. Nick and Brian were so cute interacting with each other, the classic Frick and Frack goofiness. Nick singing: "Am I sexual?" Brian singing: "Yeah" but shaking his head no. lol During SOMH, Bobbi tried to get the Kermit and Piggy puppets up on stage, but no luck. They both fell short. Nick actually watched Kermit fly and miss. We were bummed of course, but little did we know that Kermit would make a return appearance in Vegas two nights later. :) Ummmmm... *trying to remember anything else* I think that's all my brain can recall. I really should have kept a journal or something so I could remember what happened at which concerts. Oh, one other thing. My first ever BSB concert and encounter was October 16th/17th 1999 in Las Vegas, exactly two years to the day of my Bakersfield experience. Kinda weird huh? October must be my lucky BSB month. :) One concert to go of my week on tour with BSB... Vegas. *big grin* "I can do all 4 of you at once." ~NICK to Bobbi, Heidi, J, and Angela on 10/17/01 |
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| HUGE THANKS to Alison and Meg for capturing this moment on film! |