Yesterday, Lauren and I planned to leave for Hershey at 10am, putting us there around 2pm with M&G; not starting until 4pm so we would have a 2 hours buffer in case of traffic. Except at 9am I rolled over in bed and saw SNOW.
A snow storm which was supposed to hit much later in the day (aka long after we had arrived in Hershey) ended up surprising everyone by coming early. The snow was fast and furious and within moments of me coming downstairs to check the weather, a tractor trailer jack knifed and closed down I-95 South – the highway we had planned on taking down to PA.
Lauren was still on her way to my house and when she got here we decided we would use our 2 hour buffer to wait the storm out, as a couple of friends in PA were keeping us updated and the snow had already finished there.
We hit the road at noon, fueled up the car and our stomachs and were on our way. We made it to the Hershey Theater just after 4pm and hopped in line with friends for the M&G.; It was freezing out but the line seemed to be moving quickly.
We debated what we were going to buy. We set a budget of $20 and decided that while posters were probably the cheapest option, we didn’t want to deal with getting those signed. However, our minds were made up for us when we got to the merch table and the only item left was the Fashionably Late Tour Shirt. I am really not a fan of shirts w/ the band on it (anymore. I rocked a huge JC Chasez and Joey Fatone head on my shirts in my youth) but we had no choice. And before we got to buy ours the only sizes left were small and medium!
While we were waiting, a news crew showed up and took the guys away temporarily to record a clip for their news show. After the guys came back, the camera guy filmed US in the crowd. We took note that the reporter’s mic said ABC 27 on it.
Made it through the line, showed Jason my pick locket that I had his pick in. He seemed impressed with it and gave me a hug. Then I told Alex that we had no rats on this trip and he laughed and was like “Rat free? Good!” and Jason over heard and was trying to figure out what we were saying. I don’t think he thought we would be talking about RATS… and Lauren told him he didn’t know the story. Alex excitedly turned to him and said, “ILL TELL YA LATER!” hahaha.
Mike was next and I told him that we almost didn’t make it down there and he asked why, but then was like OH SNOW! (All but Andy had gone down there the night before, which we would have done too, had we known the snow was going to come early!) And then we were on to Andy. He took my shirt and was laying it out to sign but I knew he hadn’t looked up and spotted me yet. When he did look up he was like OH HEY! and gave me a hug. I told him we missed him at Alvin and in his gift bag I photoshopped him in to our picture. He said he was upstate with family and he meant to photoshop HIMSELF in the photo but hadn’t gotten around to it yet. (Obviously not OUR picture, but the other ones of the guys that were taken that night lol)
Unfortunately we couldn’t give our gifts to them directly (it would hold up the line too much I guess) so I didn’t get to see their reaction to the panda poo journals š I will have to ask them about them next time I see them…
After the M&G; we went to check in to the hotel and of course I fell in a puddle. I don’t even know how it happened, but I marched right up to the room and put my PJ pants on and used our room’s hair dryer to dry my pants.
We relaxed a little bit and decided to get pizza from a local joint. Lauren went out while I hung in the room and then I got a call that NOTHING was open so we were getting microwave meals from Rite Aid across the street. So we had Vitamin Water, White Castle burgers and I had some Chef Boyardee. Throwback to the college days haha
I am going to finish the concert/midnight portion of this blog another time because I am suuuuper tired… and I feel like this has gone on for too long as it is.