I went to bed at 4am and am up at 6:30am. Need to put this down in words:
What up, chicas! Thank you so much for all your amazing support/tweets/msgs yesterday. You benches are some fine ass people and I'm glad to be a part of this crew . So, here's how the day went:
1:15pm - Arrived at barricades. Whoa! There are already about a 100-150 people here. Gonna have to work some magic to get some prime barricade space. Met up with some great ONTD_AI girls - I totally namedropped Holly a.k.a blondehollywood (thanks, Holly!) passed out some Noopy face buttons (thanks, Kary!) and I was IN. Luckily, all the girls liked different peeps (Kris, Matt, Scott, Anoop), so we all agreed to rotate out of our front of barricade space.
The girls were so nice! They commented on how Noopy fans were some of the best ones out there because we were, and I quote, "Cool, nice, respectful, not bummed about Anoop being less popular than someone else, just doing our thing to support him." YES. That is what I love to hear. That is the reputation Troopers should have.
3:00-3:30pm. Out come Scott, Todd & Sarver. One of our crew was a Scott fan (she had a "Mrs.MacIntyre" shirt on - really cute!) so we got her to the front of the barricade and she got a GREAT pic with both Scott & Todd. She was literally shaking & crying (like truly shaking & crying). Scott & Sarver were both so sweet - Sarver def takes the longest time with the fans. He deserves some love fo'sho. He told us that he dropped like $4000 shopping in Toronto yesterday. Sweet!
4:30 We're getting a little fidgety now. No Idols for a while and ppl are beginning to feel a little scorned. And then out comes pocket Idol. Ladies, that Kris Allen is one good-looking man. Bow chicka wow wow. The boy looked fine. And of course, the barricades went crazy. He was great, took pics with fans, signed tons of autographs. The ONTD_AI girls got pics with him so they were all stoked. It was only me & one other girl who hadn't had our "fan moment" yet with Anoop.
5:00pm. ANOOOOOOP!!! Holy shit, I thought my heart was going to pound out of my chest when I saw him come out the door. Seriously, I had no idea it would be that damn emotional. My ONTD_AI girls jammed me at the front of the barricade (thanks girls! you rawwk!) I held up my sign, took a deep breath, and then all of a sudden he was there in front of me. He is INCREDIBLY good-looking in person. Looks like he's been losing more weight on tour - his button-down shirt looked even looser on him. And that southern accent - hot damn!
Oh! While Anoop was moving down the line, Allison came out. She was kind of running up and down the line. She is adorable. She is the one who saw my Anoop sign and said "Anoop!" and like elbowed him. LOL. Love u, Allison, you 17-yr-old ball of happy goodness.
So, when Anoop got closer to me, I handed my camera to my cousin, got my WBand. I said "Hi Anoop. Did you lose your wristbands?" and I held out my WB. He says, "Not exactly, they are down in wardrobe somewhere." But he kind of smiled like he had no idea where they were. So, he takes mine from me, signs my Clefhangers CD cover and I ask "Could I get a quick pic with you?" and all the ONTD_AI girls were like "She's a huge fan, Anoop!" so he smiles and leans in and I lean in and touched his arm. My cousin got a pic of us! But then I felt bad because I know he doesn't like people grabbing on him and stuff. I DID NOT grab, just touched his arm, but still felt a little bad. I said "Oh, I'm sorry! I didn't mean to do that" and he said "No, no, it's all cool" and smiled. I also handed him a little gift bag (it had an AnoopFan4Life button pinned to it, Kary!) and he said "Thank you very much" and smiled again. I swear, that boy's smiles = puddle of Anjana.
Then he put MY Wband on. The ONTD_AI girls were going nuts "He's wearing YOUR 'effin' WB!" I was honestly so damn excited I didn't know what to do with myself.
On his way back down the line to go back inside, when he gets to me, he specifically points to the Wband, points to me and kinda does this little wave thing. Either that or he was trying to tell me in sign language that I ROCKED HIS WORLD. Again, the ONTD_AI girls were like "Girl, he loves you. He's wearing your WB like a boss! He's giving you mad shout-outs." At this point, I'm a little overwhelmed by it all, but am enjoying being in Anoop Fan Heaven.
Security told us no more idols after that & started taking down barricades. But I heard from @kissoffools (ONTD_AI girl) that Matt actually came out after. We had all left and then she got a text from someone saying "Matt is out!" So, she ran back and got her pic with him. Happy, happy day.
7:00 - 10:00 pm: CONCERT! My cousin pointed out that Anoop was wearing my WB still and I was ecstatic. He was amazing during his set (I would expect nothing less). I am REALLY DIGGING the more subtle "spreadin' myself around." It is much sexier and even some peeps around me who know I was an Anoop fan were like "that was HOT." I was videoing "Mad" but security got all up in my business, so I only have a partial vid. I had seats that were just okay, so my pics are not great either, but I will post a few of the better ones. I won't do concert synopsis here as you all know what goes down. All I'll say is that Anoop delivered like a champ. Unfortunately, no jacket removal by any men during Beggin' - just a button un-do by Anoop & Matt.
10:15 - Back at the barricades again. It was mayhem out there. But somehow, we spotted the ONTD_AI girls and managed to get close to the front of the barricades. Idols came out in this order: Allison (she was wearing one of the mustaches from the boys' bubbletweet! I adore her), Sarver, Kris, Lil, Anoop, Megan, Danny, Matt. That's how it seems in my photo timeline. LOL. I had a tall guy (friend of ONTD_AI girls) next to me, and he held up my ANOOP sign, and actually passed it to Anoop who signed it. I said "Anoop, thank you for wearing the WB." And he points to me, with two hands. and says "Thank YOU for that." I was still feeling bad about touching his arm (I know, I know, I'm a loser - and a Canadian. We feel the need to apologize when someone bumps into US for goodness sake), so I said "I'm sorry for touching your arm earlier, I know you're not into that." He waved, smiled and shook his head like "don't even worry about it." So, I felt much better. I say "You were amazing tonight." He says "thank you!" and moves on. I wish I would have said something like "See you at the NC State Fair" but seriously, in that moment, my brain was mush.
So chicas, that is pretty much it. When I look at my experience written down, it all seems kinda lame that I would remember such details. LOL. But it sure as hell felt epic to me. Anoop was gorgeous, so sweet to the fans and incredible on-stage. AnoopFan4Life.
*Funny excerpts:
- ONTD_AI girls thought I was 23-24, when in actuality, I am 31. They were shocked when I told them. One of their moms thought I was 18. #MaturityFail??? I am a grown ass woman who made a sign with foam bubble letters. LOL.
- I inadvertenly took a pic of Sarver's *ahem* fanbase.
- If you didn't catch my tweet, there was a woman (40's? 50's?) who had a full-on ADAM face tattoo on her back. It was like the size of a small plate. No joke. She was EXTRA.
- Follow the ONTD_AI girls on Twitter! They are great and love Anoop too:
slytherins, @kissoffools, @logannie, @aloneonoutside and one more that I can't remember. It's saved on my cell phone which is recovering from Anoopnanigans. I'll post later.
- WTF do I do with my signed Anoop poster??? The signed Clefs CD cover - that's cool and all. But it's not like I can hang the poster up in my bedroom or something. LOL. I will bring it to Philly!
Again, thanks for all the mad love & support - you guys make this whole Anoop experience that much more meaningful.
Love,
Anjana
P.S. Gonna post pics now.