OttawaMay99

Paul in Ottawa - May 30th, 1999
Mall Tour ~ Place D'Orleans Shopping Center

I was surfing the net one night and I fell upon a message left by Paul's mom, Edith, entitled " Coming to a Mall Near You" ... I saw this message on April 25th, a month before the release of Paul's new album " That's the Truth", so I thought to myself " Ok, the new CD is ?Coming to a Mall Near You' " ... So I started to read the post, and was in total dis belief when I read that Paul would be touring malls a cross Canada to promote the release of his new album. He would be giving a free concert, and signing autographs for his fans afterwards.

I read through all of the cities, and Ottawa was the last one on the list . I flipped out, I didn't know if I should laugh or cry.... The only thing I could say was " Oh my God ! Oh my God! Oh my God !!!" It had only been a few months since Paul's last visit to Ottawa, so I wasn't really expecting him to come back here until CCMA week. For the next couple of days I was on cloud 9 just to think that Paul would be coming back ...

I counted the days till May 30th. Everybody was excited and anxiously a waiting Paul's arrival . Since Paul was to visit Ottawa last, for 5 days I read post of people sharing their stories on their meeting Paul. In Edmonton, he signed autographs for 7h15 !!!! What a sport !

That weekend, I was so excited about Paul coming that I only slept 7 hour . I wasn't even tired ~ I was too hyper to be !!! I woke up at 5h00 on May 30th to get ready to head on down to the mall. I arrived at 7h45 AM . Needless to say that I was the first one there. I didn't mind waiting all day. I'd already waited 9h00's in the rain to see Paul perform on Parliament Hill. About an hour later a couple of people arrived, and I ended up by sending the entire day with them . I sat beside the stage all day long ~ kinda hard to believe, but I wasn't bored at all. But, I have to admit that I did look at my watch every single minute that I was there... Around 2h00 I met up with Jenna and her family . A DJ from Y 105 started making some announcements around 2h55 ~ I was becoming impatient, and I couldn't stand still . I turned around and I saw him come down the stair. I began to scream like crazy. I have a high pitch scream, so it stuck out .

I was behind him, he was singing towards the exit way...I had the choice between going in front of him while he sang, or stay behind him and run in line for his autograph...I stayed behind . Paul gave us a mix of some old favorites, and some up coming hits off of his new album. Paul told us the story of how the troupes in Bosnia told him to re-write " I Do" ~ he came up with the divorce mix of " I Do"

" Baby, I won't, I'm not, I can't I ain't . . . . Screw You !!!!!" ~ At the sound of those words the crowd went nuts !!!

He also sang one of my favorite songs off the record called " Lets Live it Up". Paul said that he would be making his solo debut on the guitar. He'd try to play it, then he'd stop, he tried and stopped again . Well , I decided to give Paul a little of encouragement so after he stopped again I screamed out " You go Boy !!! " . Paul looked at me and started to laugh... you had to be there.

After he finished that song, I decided to call him over ?cause I wanted to take some pictures " Paul !!! Paul !!! Come here !!!!! ". Paul made his way to my side of the stage and so I took a few pictures. It is then that Paul took my camera right out of my hands and took a picture of me. I was so surprised, look at my face, you'd think that I was doing a promo shoot for Colgate !!! People from the Ottawa Citizen and Sun took pictures of Paul taking a picture of me. The picture ended up by being published in the Sun.

The show ended, so I rushed in line for my autograph. When Paul came back down to sign autographs, I was the first one to notice his at the top of the stairs, so obviously I started screaming my head off.

I waited in line about 45 minutes to meet him again. I went up to him and gave him a big hug, just like I always do. I was in a massive daze the whole time ~ I could hardly speak . So many things that I wanted to ask him ~ but I was at lost for words. He signed my new CD and we took a picture together. As you can tell, I was totally on cloud 9 !!!

I stuck around for a while, and watched him interact with the fans. But I acted very very stupid because I left while Paul signed his autographs : ( He signed for 5 hours.

Some people tell me that they're not star struck anymore when they meet somebody famous... I guess I always will be when it comes to meeting Paul ...

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