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See pictures from the weekend Thursday
I met M at the airport around 8:30pm on Wednesday night – we checked in and checked our bags, and by that time, I had already lost my boarding pass. I am lots of fun to travel with. So I got another one, and as we trekked up to the gate to meet J, who was on our flight as well, I commented that since neither one of us had won the bowling contest, and since JC and Joey were clearly still in LA (having just filmed the Access Hollywood thing), the universe should love us and put them on our flight to Chicago.
At the gate, we met up with J, and a few minutes later, WM, apparently also on our flight, strolled up and sat with us. We sat around chatting until J noticed that Joey had just walked by, all by himself, and went to sit at the gate one down and one across from us. It took a few casual walk-bys to confirm that yes, it was the Fatone, and the rest of the time before boarding was spent in excited speculation over whether or not he'd be on our flight.
He wasn't, in fact, on our flight, but he was on the next flight to Chicago, which apparently left right after ours, because while M and J and I were waiting for our luggage, we saw an older guy walk into baggage claim, carrying a clipboard and an official CFTC sign. He looked around for a few minutes, then went over to a counter, set down the sign, and started flipping through the papers on the clipboard. A few minutes later, Joey came by and stopped maybe 3 feet from the guy, also looking around. It was really, really funny. After a few minutes of looking around, Joey shrugged and left the terminal, at which point I went up to the driver and said "Um, excuse me, sir? Are you here to pick up Joey Fatone? Because if you are, he just left that way."
"Oh, he did? Thank you!" the guy said, and rushed out of the terminal after Joey. AHAHAHAH!! Good start to the weekend, we all thought!
M and J and I negotiated the El to the Magnificent Mile, noting the rudeness of early-morning Chicagoans, and then trekked to the hotel in the muggy early-morning heat. We left our bags with the bellhop and met up with JB for the first of what would be many breakfasts at The Corner Bakery (side note: when my cousins got married in Chicago 3 years ago, my family stayed at the Hyatt on Wacker/Water, and we ate at the same Corner Bakery several times. Memories like the windmills of my mind!). After eating, we went over to the House of Blues Hotel to look at the 10pin, and passed a very cute construction worker standing on the bridge of State St. Did anyone else notice him? God, he was hot. I stared at him both times we crossed the bridge.
We spent most of the morning in the Hotel 71 lobby, because we were really exhausted and just wanted to check in as soon as possible. We spent time conversing with SD and CG, and eventually AK showed up. We watched the bodyguards getting briefed by Melinda, and were sad to note the absence of Lonnie. I talked to some girls who told me that Chris had checked in the night before and had gotten trashed and come back to the hotel at 4am. Aww, Christopher.
Finally, after at least two more Joey-passing-through-the-lobby-squee-moments, we got checked in, went up, dumped our stuff in the room – some of us went back out, I hung with MMH and ER. The suites were really nice, and because my group was 9 girls, I'm really glad we sprung for one.
Went downstairs to meet up with LX and GG, and we all then sat in the bar making the nametags for karaoke – if memory serves correctly, we saw Joey again, and Lance, I think. Then we headed out to Trader Todd's for karaoke, which went over really splendidly. It was loud and semi-smoky, and the other group there viewed us with rolling eyes, but we rocked the NSYNC karaoke, and it was simply fabulous. I met people I'd been wanting to meet, like DF and LS and PH and BGB and NJ and DH and WD and SS and JW (though not at karaoke, sadly) – it was a really great thing, and all props to GG for arranging it.
Towards the end of the karaoke evening, there was a rousing group rendition of "Space Cowboy" quickly followed by "Bye Bye Bye" – and everyone, and I mean everyone in that bar was singing and dancing. I felt full of love, 100% love. And alcohol. I lost my voice to the rhythm, man.
We took a cab back to the hotel and crashed hard. God.
Friday
I slept in Friday. Why? Because I could. Around 10:30 or 11am, I toddled down to Ye Olde Corner Bakery for breakfast – with MMH and GG, I believe. Back up to ER and DH's room for a shower, and we were down at the hotel bar, where we were indeed to spend much of our time over the weekend. It proved to be fruitful!
A decadent morning drink and smoke and chat, and soon enough, Chris' friends made their appearances. One of them plopped down on the stool next to MMH, and they had a nice little conversation – all the while, in my head, I was thinking Ingratiate! Ingratiate!. It was like she heard me! :) Not long after, Joey came down, wearing a railroad conductor hat and a brown t-shirt with a picture of a squirrel on it and the caption "I'm nuts." MMH got a picture with him, exchanged words – very cool. I tried to get a picture, but he was quickly mobbed by fans, and we overheard him say "I've got to get out of here," and he and Kelly left, hiking up the street.
Our girls left to go shopping/sightseeing, but MMH and I wanted another drink, so back to the bar we went, and after not long again, Tony Lucca came down to the bar with Joe Firstman, which made me laugh. A little later, Chris came down to the bar and passed through to the outside. MMH and I went and got her picture with him, and got the pictures of him hugging Mama Bass. Sated for the moment with NSYNC sightings, we snatched up ER for an afternoon of shopping – because I had seriously no club outfit at all.
We walked all over the Loop, going to Old Navy (where AK called with a Joey sighting at Niketown, and informed us that Tony and Joe Firstman were stalking her group), and many other clothing stores – but alas, to no avail. I think I tried on every single ugly fat-girl dress in Chicago! I did manage to find an acceptable pair of shoes at Payless, but by that time, poor ER was about ready to drop – lots of drinking and no sleep the night before, plus not eating regularly equals bad blood sugar, so we found a Subway and let her recover for 15 minutes or so before taking a cab the 4 blocks back to the hotel – Christ, how decadent!
Dumped stuff back in the room and back down to the bar. People came and went, LJ and non, but one of my girls went over to the bowling thing and I settled down with a drink and a DH to wait for someone, anyone, to leave. Then JC left, and it was the first time I had seen JC – or had I seen him earlier that morning? God, I don't even remember at this point. But it was exciting nonetheless. A little after he left, Tony and Joe Firstman trundled in and seemed firmly ensconced at the bar, and I ordered several drinks next to Tony, sort of wondering if he recognized me, but certainly not caring enough to say anything to him.
Joey came squeezing past DH with Kelly in tow, and just as he was passing her, he spotted Tony out of the corner of his eye. "TONY!" he yelled, and doubled back – squeezing past DH AGAIN – to hug Tony.
"Hey Joe!" we heard Tony exclaim happily, a big smile on his face. They exchanged more words, and then Joey started yelling "SAVE IT! SAVE IT!! SAVE IT!!" and pointing at Tony's chest. Weh? But then he tugged Kelly back to Tony and introduced them, and Tony and Kelly hugged, and I looked at DH and flat-out died.
Having flat-out died and whatnot, it took DH hitting me on the knee to notice that Lance was leaving in his little Mickey Mouse shirt – so cute! "Lance," I whispered to GG, "it's Lance!" "So? Over there, it's JUSTIN," she whispered back to me, and indeed, Justin was coming through the bar. He looked fabulous and happy and well-rested, and he was in a good mood – his bodyguards made him stop and wait for a few minutes before going out the door, and some girls sitting at a table said something to him that made him laugh, a big happy Justin laugh. He proceeded outside and I apparently took pictures of him on my camera-phone, ha – I have no recollection of doing that.
OMG I FORGET THE LJ DINNER. IT WAS AWESOME. I MET EVERYONE. I WAS DRUNK. Yeah. :)
Hung out in the bar forever with LJ people, and it was seriously a lot of fun. Plus, MMH and GG and I rode around in the elevators and stopped on various people's floors and committed all sorts of various improprieties, and wow, I was wasted. I remember going to LS's room to sniff her BPALS and coo over her Slytherin uniform. I remember people coming back from bowling with all sorts of wonderful stories, I remember dragging SS outside to talk to FK on the phone, I remember hanging on every story of people doing shots with Lance, of Justin bowling and making fun of people I know, of Joey being on the mic. I remember Justin coming back through the bar again, and being over-the-rainbow ecstatic at seeing him twice. I think that was the night AQ and I stayed up really late trying to watch JC coming back, but to no avail. We finally got to sleep around – jesus, 5am, I think. It was going to be a early day, but dude, we were at Challenge!!!
Saturday
We all managed to be out of the hotel room by 9:30am and walked over to the Hyatt to pick up our rental cars. Easy as pie to get down to Rosemont – thanks to our intrepid drivers – and we went to Target to shop. Alas, still no club outfit, but I did get a nice sweater. We sat in the food court and played with someone's JC doll. Hehehe.
We then headed over to the will-call for the meet and greet and platinum tickets, where DRAMA ensued – but it wouldn't be NSYNC-related without drama, right? In each platinum package of two tickets, there was only one wristband for the meet and greet (the wristbands were clearly recycled, as they said on them NSYNC 2001 POPODYSSEY – which is super cool, because now I pretend like I got to go to a PopOdyssey show! I can put on my wristband and watch my DVD! God, I'll be so cool!) So we were mildly freaking as we got in line.
We were shuffled about in line several times – THAT side is for meet and greet. No, no, THAT side is for meet and greet – and we hung with ED and some other lovely ladies. Challenge staffers agreed to help us with the wristband situation – and *did*, fairly quickly! We also saw some Make A Wish kids going in, which made me very happy that NSYNC 10 chose Make A Wish as the charity to which any excess funds go to – and now that CFTC is over, we can try to *get* those excess funds, hint hint. :)
We were directed inside and down to the shoot-around – which consisted of Aaron Carter, JC, Joey, and some other people. It wasn't terribly much of a shoot-around – JC made literally one basket out of over fifty attempted, Joey kept a towel over his head, JC waved to us a few times – and then we were up and going over to the meet and greet. They kept us in a hot, airless hallway for about 45 minutes, but then, ooooch. I bullied the security guard into letting me leave my bag full of disposables in the hallway, and then in. Mmm. I wish I had thought to say something more than what I said, but what I would have said, I'm sure I don't know. As it was, I got pictures and signatures and brief contact, and I was a shaking, happy girl when I came out on the other side. And they all just seemed in good moods. As I reported in a phone post, I remember Joey telling JC to tell Justin something and JC going "Nooooo!" It was. Yeah. Great.
Lord almighty, I'm an NSYNC fan.
Then back in for the game, and I was sitting directly behind Papa Fatone, so I inadvertently got a lot of Joey sightings and cute moments between Joey and Joe. Tony Lucca was wonderful, I thought, and I was so amused that he did Death of Me, because does he ever start anything with any other song these days? And I was really pleased he did Hollywood Chain Gang, and I would have sung along at the top of my lungs, except my voice was completely, completely, completely gone.
I, like everyone else, freaked when they set out 5 microphones for the National Anthem, but The Happiness Club was pretty good. Joey and Justin were talking amongst themselves the entire time, and Joey was making fun, and it was all good.
You've all heard all about the game's highlights, so I'll just say how wonderful it was, again. I nearly cried when Chris, Justin and Joey came out all together. The Chris/Justin vibe was just amazing, and necessary, and JC talked lots and lots to Lance, and Joey talked and played around with Justin. Contrary to popular opinion, these two girls next to my section started the "We want Lance!" chant, and Justin turned around, nudged Joey, and picked up the chant. I *seriously* freaked out when I saw JC going into the bleachers opposite me, for some reason – I was screaming "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD" as I saw him coming back down with BGB. JC saying "thank you" over the mic at the end of the game made me tear up. I'm so grateful they all (except Chris, weirdo) took the time to say they'd see us next year.
Every moment of this year's CFTC was made better by the proximity of LJers. Really.
So the game was just fab, and some of my girls won AMAZING silent auctions, so we ooohed and ahhhed over those, and then made the trek back into town. I dropped off my cameras at Walgreens and got back into the lobby just in time to see one of my girls go down with a fainting spell – just as all the elevators were breaking. We used authoritative voices and made them put us on an elevator ASAP – and they dicked around enough in the process – but getting her up to the room and making sure she was okay was fairly hectic and freaky. Needless to say, we were late out the door to the club, so we were maybe 150 people back in line.
We waited. And waited. And waited. And waited. It was so hot, and so muggy, and so uncomfortable, and some of my girls left sooner, but I waited with GG, MMH, SH, M and NYD for HOURS. Finally, we were going to try to get a table, but by then, they had bumped the price to $1000 for a table, and I just couldn't justify it – especially since JC had already left, although had I known that Joey was going to sing NSYNC songs, I might have fought harder. But no, we went back to the hotel and hung out, and I read some of my wonderful HP story and eventually went to bed, with no more sightings that night. I'm well over it now, but I was really, really angry. The party situation was terribly fucked up. Terribly. But I'm glad everyone who went it had a lovely time, of course.
Sunday
Sunday morning, my girls all went sightseeing, but having had no party last night, I wasn't in the mood to NOT see NSYNC members. So M and I went down and had some breakfast, and I got my HP story and she got her magazines, and we sat and read in the bar, while I smoked. It was really calm and quiet, and very relaxing. MMH and SS and WD and BP and um. Others? Yes, others, surely. We sat and chilled. We chilled as we watched Lance leave the hotel with his mamma. We chilled as we watched JC come through the bar towards us . . . and stop, smile and wave. Suddenly excited, we waved back. "Bye," he said, "thank you guys for coming." "Bye!" we said, chilling outwardly but smiling happily also outwardly, and squeeing inwardly. We then chilled as we watched Joey leave. We chilled further as Chris' friends came into the bar, sat down next to us and chatted with us for half an hour or so. We watched weird sports on the TV with them, discussed the club, discussed the merits of LA versus Orlando, and continued to chill when Chris came into the bar and hung out for 20 minutes. It was just awesome and laid-back, and a very nice way to do the morning. MMH heard where Chris and his friends were going to lunch, but we figured that would be way too stalkery, so she, M, GG and I went down to Wabash and Adams.
We took many pictures, flew paper airplanes, made fools of ourselves – it was lovely. Got some lunch/dinner and went back to the hotel to steal some signs from the seventh floor, pack up and look decent for – what else, hanging out in the bar all night. Which was lots of fun, really. I love getting drunk with friends. :) SH and GG and MMH and I hung out most of the night, and then I hung with LB and NYD and AQ, and then it was beyond bedtime.
Monday morning was sleeping in as late as possible and packing, freaking out over the airplane situation – apparently, there were thunderstorms in the East, so many eastbound flights out of O'Hare were cancelled or delayed – and seeing Chris again as he left, speaking with him and getting pictures. A wonderful capper to a great weekend, that was, because it was the only picture I got with any of them, and I'm glad it was Chris, and I love Chris. I was holding LX's giant Pixy Stick in my hand when I got my picture, hahaha.
M and I walked around some, looking for souvenirs and gawking at the Chicago architecture, and I read my HP story (which is SO GOOD OMG), and we went to the airport and waited for a million years as our flight was delayed. We saw some Challenge staff at the gate for the Orlando flight, and figured that was going to be our last sighting, heh. We saw airport folk set out cots for people who had to sleep at the airport due to the delays – it was really nuts, the airport drama. But we finally boarded, and got in to LA around 1am, and I got my bags and I took a cab to AK's house and got in my car and drove home and went to sleep.
THE END.
All in all, Challenge was fantastic – some parts could have been better, but it could have been a hell of a lot worse, and all five of them were there, and happy, and relaxed, and they all looked like they were having fun, and WE were all having fun, and that is so very the most important thing of all. Thank you to everyone who drank with me, joked with me, waited with me, traveled with me, and tolerated me.
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