"BIRTHDAY BOYS & INDIANS"
2.9.2011
As usual, my mind seems to have a bit of a blank out whenever I’m in the presence of the Mars men. I don’t know what it is, but like usual, my memory isn’t great on everything said at the Meet and Greet but I’ll do my best.
Highlands was a huge (and sold out!) Meet and Greet… 100 people. A huge contrast to the mere 6 of us that did the Meet & Greet in Taipei!
We all assembled in a massive circle (if you want to call it that) and awaited the boys. We had handfuls of confetti, others had party hats and noisemakers and as the boys appeared on the stage and headed down toward us, we started singing Happy Birthday.
Jared and Shannon immediately smiled while Tomo seemed a bit unsure. As we finished singing, Jared said "Speech!" and Tomo; now in the centre of the circle, put both his middle fingers up and proceeded to spin, flipping us all off. Yeah, we love you too dude!
Jared started his Hello's a few people to my left, while Shannon and Tomo started on the other side. Interestingly, Jared was going anti-clockwise as the other boys went clockwise.
As Jared approached Kate, who was to my left, I just tried to smile and take everything in but "Mars Effect" took hold and I got that nervous / excited / mind-has-left-the-building feeling all over again.
"Hey" I said smiling when Jared came up to me. I wasn’t sure if he’d remember me from Asia but wasn’t going to ask in fear of major embarrassment if he didn’t... though I had printed an A4 version of my Taipei Meet & Greet photo and brought it over with me to get signed, so I guess that would have triggered his memory anyway. We chatted briefly but I don’t remember what about before I held the photo out for him to sign. As his pen touched the photo I squealed. "Ahhhh no!" He stopped dead and I pointed to him in the photo. "Not on Shannon!" I laughed. He had gone to sign on Shannon and not himself. It wasn’t really a big deal but I guess that’s my perfectionist streak coming out. I feel a little bad for telling him off (lol) but hey, it’s going on my wall!
Funnily, now every time I see that dot beside Shannon’s signature I remember that moment lol. Anyway…
After he’d signed the photo I handed him the present I’d made for the boys; another set of postcards, but this time I’d given them 2 of their own card and stamped and addressed 1 to myself. As Jared looked at them I told him to look on the back, pointing out that it was addressed to me. He smiled and nodded. Kate chipped in from next to me "She's cheeky ain't she?!" so I said "You gotta give me credit for trying!" He put them away and said Thankyou before continuing on.
I actually felt quite sad as Jared moved on. I understand that they had a lot of people to see but it was over so quickly and as soon as he’d gone, I didn’t even remember him talking to me. I hate the way my brain does that!
I waited for quite a while before Shannon, who came in from the opposite side, stopped in front of me. "Hey Shan" I said. He asked me how I was and I held out my photo for him to sign. As he was doing so, I pointed out where Jared had gone to sign over his picture. "You know, your brother tried to sign on you…" I said. He theatrically gasped and looked around to where Jared was along the line lol.
I handed him his set of postcards and as he looked through them curiously I again explained that I’d addressed and stamped one to myself. "If you ever get bored, feel free to send it to me" I said cheekily. He looked up at me and replied instantly in a semi-cutesy voice "But I want to keep it…". That was when I said "Ah, but there’s 2 of your one, so you can have the set and still send me one… I thought ahead!" He seemed suitably impressed. He pointed at me, smiled and said "That’s very smart", before Thanking me and moving on.
If anyone was going to actually send the postcard, I’m sure it would be Shannon just because I got the chance to explain it properly. In saying that, I haven’t gotten it back yet (nor do I actually expect to) but hey, I tried! :P
That was definitely the longest Shan had spoken to me at a Meet and Greet. He’s always the first one finished while Jared’s usually still only about half done so I was happy. I kind of fell in love with him after that, well, more like I just felt like he’d given me his time and I was thankful for it.
Just after Shannon left, Tomo stopped in front of me. I always get all fuzzy when I see Tomo, just cus he was so nice to me in Asia. I held out my "Happy Bday Mofo" shirt for him to see as he stopped and smiled at him. We did the standard, ‘Hi, How are you’ thing and I held out photo for him to sign. As I held it out, I asked him "Do you remember this?" pointing at him wearing my crown in the photo. "DUH!" he quipped. "How could I forget?!" I laughed and told him how everyone had loved him for doing that and being such a good sport. I forget what he said in response, but I think it was something along the lines of "Why wouldn’t I? It was a bit of fun and it was a cool crown". What a cool guy!
He was absolutely overloaded with gifts since it was his Birthday so I just put the postcards on top of the stuff he was struggling to carry. He smiled, Thanked me and along he went.
I dislike the moment that came next, I hadn’t really had it at my previous Meet & Greets. It’s where you’ve had your time with the guys and they’re still talking to other people. Especially when your mind pretty much absorbed nothing of what just happened. It happens to me all the time… it’s so frustrating! I was feeling emotional and felt as though I was getting tears in my eyes but I was fine, just lost in the moment I suppose.
As we stayed in our huge circle and started doing our photos, I couldn’t see what was happening ahead of me because we were near the end.
As we got about half way round I jokingly said "Maybe I should wear this" holding up the Indian head-dress that I was carrying. "I DARE YOU TO!!" someone said. "Oh God. What have I done?" I remember thinking to myself. I was hesitant, I mean, I was actually in my nice clothes for a change from jeans and converse and now I was going to ruin the photo I’d planned on being my "nice" photo with headwear? As we got closer I thought "Fuck it" and decided do it. I was half in hysterics / half mortified and I quickly planned on the expression I would make, I mean, you can’t just stand there all normal with that thing on your head!
I felt ridiculous as I got to being next in line, by now they’d probably already seen me and thought "Oh God." I walked up to them laughing and said "Sorry! I got dared to!" I don’t know if they said anything because I was too consumed in my ridiculous get-up. "Crazy faces!" I said as I put my arm around Jared. Then SNAP! I Thanked the guys and as I walked off the photographer said to me "That was CRAZY!" I laughed, curiously thinking about how it would turn out and apparently the guys were smiling too.
It ended up tying for my favourite of the four photos I have with the Mars boys, with Taipei being my other favourite (possibly because of emotional connection / memories I have to that night) but this one was definitely a VERY cool photo.
We went home and wound-down, ready to drive to Vegas in the morning