Blue Roses

It's 11am. 90 degrees. 102 heat index. We are not the desert, people. This is not on.

So, I shall stay cool and post about my experience at CHallenge for the CHildren last weekend. Yay *NSYNC! (All present tense because I wrote it in Word there)

Thursday:
I am all checked in and waiting for SJ and Emily. Noora's flight got into Chicago around 4:30 this morning, and she arrived at my house soon after. She slept while I went to work, then we watched some baby!Billy in Lonesome Dove. *giggle*

There was, of course, drama checking in. When is there not? LOL We got here, waited in a long line, and finally it was our turn. Bitchy guy swiped my card like 5 times and finally said he couldn't get it to work, but hey, how about I stay just one night? Uh, no. So, blushing madly and cranky, I have to go call my bank.

I love my bank. My bank rules. I will send Kathy from personal banking flowers on Monday. She chcked my account - hotel 71 had done two authorizations. One for $550, and one for $1100. My limit is $500, anyway, and the hotel cost was $720. So, she upped my debit amount to $800 for the day, since I knew the hotel wasn't more than that, and said she'd keep watching my account to make sure they only took that amount out of it. And then th sweet concierge guy checked me in and my room os great, and I saw Joey. <.g> He was wearing a Brady Bunch t-shirt and was surrounded by many people.

Noora and I decided we should have all decided on some secret code or handshake before we all came. "The raven flies at midnight." Or, "Trickyfish! Trickyfish!" Then we saw a woman with a Chris bag and that was a good enough clue. LOL

Our view sucks, but the room is huge and lovely. Even if the closet is in the bathroom.

So far, I am totally jazzed about the weekend. Yay, weekend!

**

Friday:
In celebrity news: saw Joey again, and had Aaron Carter walk by us twice without us realizing it. LOL

In fandom news, Glendaglamazon set up one hell of a party at Trader Todd's last night. Oh, man, it was fabulous. I didn't get a chance to sing (alas, we left before our song, Baby One More Time, was announced), but Emily and SJ rocked out to the Beatles with Jessa. Thanks to the ingenious nametag idea, I know I met a lot of fans, but the yellow marker on some meant I totally missed who a bunch of you were. LOL The NSYNC songs were fabulous and totally added to the night. Although I'm sure the regulars kind of disagreed. LOL

The four of us sat up near the front by the stage, and as such got to see a lot of people writing their songs down. When their pen ran out, I lent my floofy cute one out to a few people. One guy was so pleased at my generosity, he gave me a kiss. LOL Beating that, though, Noora got propositioned by a totally drunk guy. He was very subtle - slid his arm around her and motioned to the door. But, as he had already tried to badmouth NSYNC and more importantly, did not know Space Cowboy, she regretfully declined. She decided that her standard included taking advice from JC on One Night Stands. 'Cause he was that smooth.

What did I miss? The crush into the cab to get there was fun, although likely not so much for Noora, as I was on her lap the whole time. The ride back was a hyper giggly time, and we weren't even drunk! Just high on life, man. Drunk were the two girls singing to Chumbawumba - WOW with the bad and literal choreography. Kind of painful, but fun. LOL

OH! And those poor regulars. LOL I loved when Ninjetti sang I Drive Myself Crazy, the majority of the bar began singing JC's descant part (I drive....myself....crazy, crazy, crazy!) even though those words didn't appear on the screen. And when another group sang TIPY, we all did it in Spanish even though the words were in English. Loved the signers, too. LOL Space Cowboy and It Makes Me Ill were other highlights, confusing the rest of the bar entirely. One woman had to ask Noora who sang the song. LOL

I'm sure I'll think of more later, but take it from me - this was a fabulous night to start off the Challenge weekend. The official club party could never even hold a candle to this one!

**
Saturday:
Oh my Squee!

Not much of substance here. In short form:

Went to Oak Park, had a blast. Butterbeer is of the good, the library is the place of my dreams. Was sorted into Gryffindor.

Came back to the hotel just as JC was leaving, so caught good look. But, as was holding pizza, did not get a chance to go in bag for camera.

Rested here, watched Numb3rs, saw CBS's NSYNC coverage.

Went to Borders. Bought 2 CSI books and another Max Collins book. Got in line at 11:45, falling asleep, and was out the door with Harry Potter by 12:20.

Saw Aaron Carter at the front desk, except it turned out it was really David Gallagher. But then it was okay, because Aaron was next to him after all.

Got in the elevator and David and Aaron ran in to escape fans. Ended up with arm/bodyful of David Gallagher as he backed into me. Got impromtu singing performance from Aaron when his cell phone rang and he sang with it. Might have groped David a wee bit as slid past him to leave elevator.

Everyone dove for their cell phones when we got into the room:
Noora: Fast finnish-Aaron Carter!!-fast Finnish
SJ: Fast spanish-Aaron Carter!!-FAST spanish
Emily: Fast english-Aaron Carter!!-fast english
Rina: fast texting-Aaron Carter and seventh heaven guy!!-fast texting

So funny.

Grabbed HP books (SJ grabbed nsync/hp crossover on Winnie) and crashed in the lobby to people watch. Noora and SJ left around 3, then Emily and I saw Joey and Kelly, Chris (who stopped to sign and take pics), Lance and JC. I got a pic of Chris, everyone else moved too fast. Oh, and Lance's back. Cute Mickey shirt.

Went upstairs at 4:30ish. Emily went to bed at 5. I went to bed at 6:15 - after finishing Harry Potter.

Harry Potter. OMG. People, read! Read! Want to discuss!

And now, we get ready for the game. On 4 hours of sleep. Yay sleep!

**
Sunday:
Time to finish off the Challenge updates. LOL

I got about 4 hours of sleep that morning, before waking up to go to the game. Noora and I cabbed it, and hung out at Target before heading over to get into line. Where a random woman from Israel chatted us up. LOL!

The game was so fun! Even if I was sitting in front of obnoxious fans. I heard a lot of "Aaron! Your brother is hot!" and "Boooo Justin!" and "Give Chris the mic!" The last wasn't obnoxious on its own, but more for the shrillness and repetition. (Chris did not get the mic, but Joey and Justin looked back at them a few times.)

My seat wasn't too bad. If I'd brought along my digital camera, the pics would have been great. Who would have thought they wouldn't check bags or wand?!?! Ugh. So I had two rolls of disposable, which look much farther than I was. I was directly behind the blue team, so it was fun to watch Joey and Justin on the bench. They were all over each other, so cute.

Lots of people have done detailed recaps of the game itself, so I'm just going to talk about the funness I saw.

It really seemed like the only person David Gallagher liked was Aaron Carter, because he was following Aaron through most of the warm-up times, and they were climbing all over each other. Major cuteness. (Then, apparently, Aaron and JC played together a lot, but that was on the Red side of things and so I didn't see. Sadness.)

I know there were two teams and I can even tell you which nsyncer was on what team, but I had no clue who was scoring on what side and which score belonged to who. That made things interesting. LOL Basically I watched for the boys. I loved Joey and JC guarding each other...they were cute and teasey and adorable and fun. I guess Chris and JC guarded each other too, but I only noticed that when Chris smacked him in the nose, tried to pants him and slapped his ass. Fun, totally, (except the nose thing, but the resulting hug was sweet), but I didn't get the TrickC vibe everyone else did. LOL

I took cute pics of Justin/Joey, Justin/JC, Joey/JC and Chris/Justin. Of course they are small, so I probably won't post them, but I had fun. Oh, and Lance doing his forward roll. That amused me. I was pretty impressed with Aaron's gymnastic abilities. LOL

I ended up buying Challenge shorts and pink tank, both of which looked tiny, but actually fit me. Oh, and an nsync notepad and pen. Fun!

Then we all met up from our various spots, and headed to Chipotle for brunner, since it was 6 and we hadn't eaten all day, and managed to hail down a cab. We never intended to go to the club, figuring none of us were cool kids and wouldn't get in, but we had planned on dressing up and heading down to the lobby to watch people leave and play the CSI board game on a date with Gil, Nicky and Greg. But really, we were all so tired that we ended up putting on pjs, watching CSI on TV and going to bed. LOL!

To top it all off the next morning, SJ and Noora turned on Nickelodeon to find The Fairy Oddparents....and it was a Chris's episode! Perfect ending to the weekend.

This was my first Challenge and I had an AWESOME time. It wasn't very celeb-y for me...I saw all but Justin at the hotel from across the lobby, Joey three times, saw Mama Bass and Papa Fatone, and rode the elevator with David and Aaron...and that's fine. It was really kind of perfect, actually. I met tons of fans, like anamchara, who I thought was so cool, and hung out with the few I'd met before and basically had a great weekend with friends. I wouldn't trade that for anything! Low key is more my style, so I had a really fun, comfortable time. Plus, I had fab roommates and got to merge a few fandoms this weekend. *g*

Noora and I came back here after we checked out, we read HP and/or CSI, watched CSI, played the CSI boardgame and just generally squeed and had fun all day yesterday and today. She's so sweet, and I loved having her around.

I think I'd love to do another Challenge, but I don't know how it would compare! We shall see. *g*