Disclaimer: This blog
contains spoilers!
So naturally I was going to
let Megan write the blog about Monday’s happenings but all she had written was
“OH. MY. GOD.” over and over again, so I stepped in and took over. Seeing as there were many events
leading up to those that rendered her speechless we should probably start at
the beginning….
But first, there were a few
honorable mentions that Megan forgot to talk about in her last blog. The
craziest things always seem to happen while we’re standing in the meet and
greet line. While we were waiting for group pictures, a kind stranger stared
awkwardly at us and then finally got the nerve to ask us, “Hi, we’re you guys
at the show in Boston?” our response was, of course, “Yes, we were.” She said “You’re
the girls with the shirts! We stood behind you in the meet and greet line and
talked with you.” (The shirts being the “SNC” ones we made that were covered in
glitter and glowed in the dark) Oops, I didn’t remember her. (this must be an
inside glimpse of how the guys feel meeting so many people after every show.)
Also, Sunday night upon returning to our hotel, Megan and I entered the
elevator at resorts. It’s a casino, so it would be unreasonable for us to
assume we could have the elevators to ourselves. We were joined by some
familiar faces who had also just been at the SNC show. The woman turned around
and looked us and turned back to the people she was with stating, “They just
came from the show too!” She was stating the obvious considering I don’t normally
walk around in ALL my chaser apparel at once on just any day. She turned around
and glanced at our “I’m A Chaser” shirt and made a comment about how we had not
bought them at the show that night (also something we had prior knowledge of,
since they were OUR shirts and we put them on BEFORE the show.) We were polite
though and said no, we hadn’t just purchased them. She then, in a somewhat
condescending tone, said “I got a shirt, and I got mine signed” and then held
it up for us to see. Clearly, she didn’t understand what our shirts said. I’m
not sure why she took the tone she did with us but it’s okay because whatever
she was doing, didn’t work. We could not be brought down and we happily breezed
by her as we exited the elevators.
Now onto Monday…..
The morning didn’t bring
much excitement our way, mostly because we didn’t leave our hotel room. When we
finally did, it was nearing 11:00 and the hunt was on for Starbucks. My
blackberry application, poynt, told me there was one within 2 minutes of where
we were. What it did not tell me was that it was hidden within the depths of
the Trump Taj Mahal (nor did it tell me that our hotel, Resorts, and the Trump
Taj Mahal were connected. Rude.) Starbucks was eventually found and our day was
back on track. We knew if we went back to our room we would just start getting
ready for the concert, so we distracted ourselves with a nice walk along the
boardwalk. We stumbled upon Dunkin Donuts (a reassuring sight for anyone from
MA), which angered us since we’d spent so much time scouring the boardwalk for
Starbucks. With our newfound anger at the boardwalk we returned to our room and
proceeded to get “dolled up” for the show. It wasn’t Megan’s actual birthday (July 9th) but
since we both had to work and couldn’t properly celebrate her actual birthday
we decided to save the celebrations for Atlantic City. She had all the necessary essentials to
properly celebrate, a crown that said “Happy Birthday” and a necklace that said
“It’s My Birthday”, which I bought and she had no choice in wearing. (Not to
mention the light up lei and SNC buttons) She would prove to be unmistakable
and hard to ignore in the crowd.
Anyways, where was I? Oh,
right. It was about 4:45pm when we were finally ready and we made our way to
Harrah’s to meet up with all the other chasers. They weren’t back at Harrah’s
yet but they arrived shortly after we got there. We were invited up to their
room to watch the SNC-TV Web chat.
We got to watch the web chat with Mary, Lynnette, Denise, Dottie, &
Valarie (from the UK.) The only problem we had was the volume was so low it was
hard to hear the guys talking. It seemed like such a silly problem considering
they were sitting only 7 floors below us (We probably should have just went and
listened through the concert venue doors.) When the web chat ended some of the
other chasers needed to go pick up their tickets from the box office so we
headed down. There we met up with Sara and Cindy. We all headed in to find our seats, which lead to there
being a bout of frantic waving followed by “Hey * insert name here *
We’re over here!” I’m always a little worried about whom I’m sitting near at
the shows because lets be honest, Megan and I could be considered a huge
distraction to the others trying to view the show. We were able to breathe a
huge sigh of relief when our “seat neighbor” walked over and it was Mary. Man,
oh man, she’s a fun lady to be around.
The show was amazing.
Although I’m pretty sure Megan spent a good majority of the beginning portion
of the show freaking out that Seggie would spot her in the audience and bring
her up on stage. It was a rational fear though; She was wearing a birthday
crown and light up lei, for goodness sake. * Disclaimer: We didn’t walk into the show thinking this.
When the usher walked us to our seats he told Megan that she stood out and
would definitely be going up on stage. Naturally, she panicked * When *SPOILERS*
Uptown Girl passed without incident she was able relax a little. The relaxation didn’t last very long.
She was finally able to breathe a little and then the guys started singing “End
Of The Road” by Boyz II Men. When they started singing there was no panicking
involved but then Charlie started coming down the stairs and the panic she had
in the beginning of the show came rushing back. We both noticed that it was
taking him a significantly longer time to get down the stairs to the audience
than it had the night before. And then it happened he came right over to her
seat and asked her to dance. I’ll
let the video Mary took do all the talking for me (I mean honestly, If a
picture is worth a thousand words, this video must be worth millions) Dottie
also snapped some amazing pictures.
 |
| Megan Dancing with Charlie Courtesy of Dottie. |
I, on the other hand, her supposed best
friend did nothing but sit in my seat and laugh. When Charlie returned her to
her seat the only thing she said to me was “I hate you!” (All though there may
have been a “You’re a jerk” somewhere in there as well) Once Charlie and Jerome
left the audience the hilarity didn’t stop there. They continued to sing to her
and Jerome even told her “You light up my world.” Seriously, ALL I could do was
laugh and I looked up on stage and DR was most definitely joining in on that
laughter as well.
 |
| DR laughing |
 |
| Charlie Reaching for Megan |
From what Megan tells me, that portion of the concert seemed
like it went on for hours, but Mary’s video is only about a minute or so long.
The concert ended and we
needed to take a few moments to put ourselves back together. The other chasers joined up and we were
ready to go wait for the meet and greet line. We didn’t get in the line right
away because Megan and I had some gift bags we needed to get ready for the
guys. They were too bulky to be carrying around already put together so we
split the stuff up and loaded up our purses. Inside the bags there was a shot glass, hand decorated with
“Straight No Chaser” at the top and their name at the bottom (and we even made
one for Richard), a Postcard of Boston that we wrote a little thank you note
on, a little bag filled with Throat Coat Tea, a “Beah” O’ Honey (and yes, we were
walking around with 10 bears of honey in our purses. I’m pretty sure they could
have been used as weapons.) If you need the back-story of the bears of honey,
just go back to our Q&A with Ryan. He mentioned one of his pet peeves was
when “someone” left the cover loose on the honey and it got all sticky. Ryan
does NOT like sticky bears. We tried to be stealthy with the gift bags but we
had to walk right by them and it was inevitable that they were noticed,
especially considering they were brightly colored.
Thank goodness the meet and
greet lines aren’t too long and they seem to move quickly. Those bags were
starting to get heavy! We did have
a fun encounter before our turn. A man who had been sitting near us came up to
Megan and asked, “Aren’t you the one who danced with Charlie?” when she
responded yes, he then replied with, “Oh, can I have YOUR autograph!” We both
laughed and Megan said “Sure!” Apparently he was only kidding, she was
not. By this point it was our turn
to go up those magical stairs. We got up to Jerome and I told him that we felt
a little bit guilty giving gifts to only some of the guys the day before so today
we came with gifts for everyone. He immediately stood up, gave me a hug, and
said, “You know you don’t need to do that!”… We know, but we wanted to! (the
gifts for all of them came well before our gift ideas for Charlie, Ryan, and
DR) We made sure to explain the postcard they were given. For instance, when we
wrote Jerome’s card, we didn’t make it out to Jerome but instead “Jahrome”
because that is how we say it in our Boston accents. Tyler became “Tylah”, DR
was “D. ah.” (Which sometimes gets shortened even further to just duh), Walter
was “Waltah”, Charlie was “Chahlie” and lastly, Richard become “Richahd.
Well anyways, back to the
M&G line, we gave Mike his gift and as he opened the shot glass he
exclaimed “Are you promoting drinking?!” WHAT! US? NEVER! That then prompted
the reaction of “I don’t drink” From Seggie. (Seggie- you lie!) Next up was
Tyler. He took some time to look at this postcard (he needed no explanation of
the “Tylah” written on the back) he then looked up at us and said, “So, I know
your twitter handles but what are your real names?”
Seggie chimed in with “Don’t
you read their blog? It’s all about how hot they think Tyler is” (again, lies
from Seggie) He then said, “Oh wait, that’s mine, but actually it is really
good.” (Thanks Seggie, we appreciate it!)
When we gave Walter his
gift, Megan made sure to tell him about the story behind Da Waltah. It goes a
little something like this. Megan and I were watching a Red Sox game one
afternoon, when behind one of the batters there was a sign that read “DeWalt”,
of course that reminded us of Walt. This led us to start calling him De Walt,
which turned into Da Walter, and in our Boston accents was magically changed to
Da Waltah. So of course, we wrote his thank you note on the back of a postcard
with a picture of Fenway Park and addressed it to “Waltah”
We got to Don and he opened
his gift bag and looked at his postcard. He started talking about Boston and
how “it was going to be an amazing show.” Of course it will be! Boston is a
very rowdy bunch (even if we are the only chasers there.) Our conversation with
Don kind of ended abruptly, well, I think. I don’t actually remember how we
switched from Don to Ryan, but I’m pretty sure it’s because Ryan joined our
Boston conversation and another person in line behind us approached Don. Ryan
brought up the book we had given him the night before and told us it was going
to be “a staple on the tour bus this fall.” I’m glad we could provide some
entertainment for the road.
When we gave Ryan his gift,
I had to make sure to tell him that while the honey bears were in my purse one
of them had gotten his gift a bit sticky. (Oh, the irony) He told us we always
“one up ourselves” during each meet and greet. He may have exaggerated a
little, but we still appreciate it.
He first looked at his postcard and asked, “Is that Paul Revere?” We
told him it was and he began telling us about the song he’s writing about Paul
Revere and then asked “Did I already tell you about this?” He had (during the
Q&A from before, which is why we gave him that postcard) but I was willing
to listen to it again. He then told us that Don was helping him with the song
(then jokingly added, that he would not be given credit for it) and told us he
was going to hang up the postcard we gave him as motivation. He then proceeded to open the shot
glass we gave him. After, he informed us that they were not in fact shot
glasses, but shooters, he asked, “How did you do these?” My response? “A little
glass paint and a steady hand.” True Story. After that Ryan told us about how
funny the mental image of the two of us was going into a store and just filling
a cart with 10 bears of honey. Let’s be fair, the actual image was hysterical, it
involved Megan climbing on shelves and everything. Also, when carrying the
bears with did not use a cart! We were each holding a giant heap of bears in
our arms as we walked towards the cashier. She didn’t say anything to us when
we approached her but her look was priceless when she asked “Paper or plastic.”
Apparently, forklift was not an option.
After we finished chatting
with Ryan, the hunt was on for Richard, (I’m sorry, I have a hard time calling
him Korby since the first time he we met him he introduced himself as Richard.)
We had a shot glass to give to him too.
He didn’t open it until after group photos had finished because he needed
to take on the role of photographer extraordinaire during group pictures, but
he did give us a hug and thanked us for the gift when we gave it to him. We
took the opportunity to have a Chaser group photo taken with the guys. It came
out fabulous. After pictures, Richard opened the gift and read his postcard in
an almost perfect Boston accent (who knew!) I couldn’t help but laugh while he
was doing it, but in reality, I couldn’t tell what was wrong with the way he
was saying things.
At this point, the chasers
were a bit scattered in front of the concert venue. We started gathering back
together so that we could go properly celebrate fellow chaser, Denise’s,
birthday. We got to the restaurant and Mary stepped up as our leader. She had
made the reservations earlier in the day for our celebration. We were walked
back to our table and given our menus, which read “Happy Birthday Denise!” at
the top. Korby had told us to tell them that we were friends of his, so we did.
We then found out that our waitress, Kelly, was also a friend of the guys. She
then took our drink orders and left to give us a few minutes to look over the
menu (just like any waitress at a restaurant would.) Unlike any other
restaurant, when she came back to our table, she came baring gifts, going by
the names of Mike, Randy, and Don. They came to our table and just chatted with us for a bit. If
I recall correctly it was Don who said, “I love to see you guys eating dinner
all together like this.” I completely agree it was nice to see us all together
like that. After Mike tried to steal the rolls off the table, the guys went
back to where they were sitting to enjoy their own dinner and drinks. Once they
had walked away we were all a bit in shock. “Did that just happen?” was definitely muttered once or
twice. Everyone was silent and we were now all just staring at each other. Once
we had finally recovered from that experience our food was being served to us
and we all started joking, laughing, and enjoying our dinner (yes, at 11:00 at
night)
It was then I heard a little squeak out of Megan, who had seen Mike and Ryan approaching before anyone else. They started talking and then Mike left Ryan while we were all chatting. (I really hope Ryan didn’t feel obligated to stay and chat with us, I would never want any of them to feel like that.) He left shortly after because he didn’t want to intrude on our dinner. I’m pretty sure after he left none of us really ate anymore anyways. It was all too overwhelming. I may only be speaking for myself but after that I think all I did was push my food around my plate. That’s fine though.
Not long went by before we
noticed a man standing in the corner holding up an iPhone (What a creep!) We could definitely tell that his camera
was pointed our way but we were all a bit concerned since none of us were
really sure who he was or what he was doing. We all got a little nervous as to
why he was filming us (or taking photos, we couldn’t tell at that point) Once
again, that tell all squeak came from Megan and I looked up to see our waitress
Kelly, Mike, Ryan, Jerome, Randy, and Don coming around the corner with a
little dessert complete with candle. They walked over to Denise and started
singing Happy Birthday to her.
They took a picture with her and then she blew
out the candle (I’m pretty sure she was shaking the entire time) they already
had walked away (with the exception of Jerome) and Denise couldn’t contain
herself anymore. She spit out a “SWEET BABY JESUS!” which had Jerome laughing
and saying, “I’m so glad I was here to hear that.”
 |
After he left, we paid our
bill and decided that we would head over to the bar area for a bit. Once there, we found ourselves in the
presence of Mike, Don, Walt, Richard, and David Britz. We got over there only to find out that
the bar had already stopped serving drinks. The other chasers began discussing
where we would head to next. At one point Megan and I thought we were in the
way of people so we moved over. That kind of put us outside of the loop of the
other chasers but awkwardly standing next to Don and Walt. We got distracted (not hard to do) by
the TV in the bar, which happened to show a clip of the Red Sox game from
earlier in the day and kind of faded out of whatever was happening behind us.
We were brought back to reality by Don, who had noticed us awkwardly standing
there, saying, “Hey girls, how are you?” We then began discussing the dinner we
had just finished. He asked us how our meals were and we honestly didn’t have
an answer for him because neither of us even remembered eating at all. He told us we should have tried the
Salmon and when I told him I didn’t eat seafood he told me I still should have
tried the Salmon because it’s his favorite.
I’m not sure how the
conversation transitioned but we then started talking about the show Jeopardy.
Which we learned, Don is very passionate about. He mentioned a rule that he had
when watching jeopardy that no one followed (except for Ryan). At this point, I
had misheard him and thought he said that no one watches except for Ryan. Which is why Don was confused when I
said “Well, that doesn’t surprise me” Don asked, “why does that not surprise
you?” and I said “Oh, I thought you said no one watches with you except Ryan,
and he really likes trivia.” At this point, Don had still not mentioned what
exactly the rule was he had for Jeopardy. Naturally, being the nosy people that
we are, we asked him. If you’re wondering, his rule is: You can’t answer the
questions until Alex Trebek is done reading. He made it clear that it should
not be about how fast you can read (because then Walt would always win.) I told
him I’d like to think I’d be good at Jeopardy and that I know I’d be good at
Kids Jeopardy (because I’m definitely smarter than a 5th grader) He did NOT
approve of that statement. It sent him into a tizzy reminiscing about a day
when DR told him that regular Jeopardy was not on. He was legitimately yelling
in the bar and reenacting the hissy fit he took. I’m pretty sure Walt told him
to settle down.
It was then that we noticed
the other chasers had decided on a plan of action on where we were going. I should mention that also at this
point, Richard, Mike, and David Britz were already gone. As the chasers began
the trek to the next bar, we walked by Walt on our way out and I said “See you
tomorrow!” which he responded with a simple “yup, see you tomorrow.” And off we
went.
Once we got to the next bar,
the first thing we noticed was Jerome, Mike, and Richard were inside. The
second thing we noticed was that there was no place for any of us to sit. A
couple of us stood at the bar waiting for the bartender to come over to us but
that never happened (rude). We were becoming very impatient and then someone
mentioned that we should just head to one of the rooms and continue Denise’s
birthday celebrations there. As we started to make our way out of the bar we
ended up stopping in front of the stairway into the bar to gather our thoughts
and make a game plan (since what we needed was scattered in different rooms of
the hotel) Jerome had noticed that we were about to leave and came over to
stairs to chat with us (Megan, Cindy, and I) before we left (not very quickly I
may add, those splits really do a number on him) He told us as he literally was
using Megan to support him that we should stay young. Jerome had also told us that he had won $800 playing black
jack. This then started a conversation about how black jack is the only game
Jerome plays and playing slots “back in the day”, which I might add, Megan and
I were too young to remember. The conversation took some twists and turns there
(having to do with technology) and landed us right on Kindles. Jerome said the last thing he read
(other than the Ben & Jerry’s menu) was a long time ago, and we all had a
good laugh. With that Jerome said good-bye to us and headed back to join Mike
and Richard.
Megan and I had decided that
we would not be going back to anyone’s room, it was late and since we weren’t
staying at Harrah’s we still had to drive back to our hotel. We said good-bye
to everyone and told them we’d see them again tomorrow. As we were leaving we thought it in our
best interest to use the ladies’ room before getting in the car. We headed
towards the bathroom near the concert venue (mostly because that was the only
one we knew how to get to) and I must admit I do not regret that decision. As we were coming out of the bathroom
we ran into our old friend (or at least that’s what it feels like anyways) Ryan
Ahlwardt. He was coming out of the
concert venue. He said Hello to us and stopped to chat for a few minutes. I
told him I couldn’t believe he was still in there, and he told me that he’s
always pretty wired after a show.
He asked us how dinner was and we told him it was AMAZING, but to be
honest neither one of us were referring to the food we had eaten. We somehow started talking about my
dislike for seafood again and I was informed that Randy also dislikes seafood.
This was relieving because I had gotten some judgment before but it made me
feel better knowing I wasn’t alone.
He then thanked us for the gifts we had given (which seemed like years
ago at this point) and said, “See you tomorrow, Sleep well.” What a perfect way
to end an amazing night!
We finally made our way to
the parking garage. There was very little talking between the two of us during
the walk back. We were both just in awe of the night we had just had. When we started our journey back to the
Resorts Casino I decided I didn’t need my GPS, I was feeling adventurous. The entire drive back also had very
little conversation. It was mostly filled with “seriously? Did that just
happen?” The entire night felt like a dream and I honestly thought I would wake
up any minute and realize none of it was real. That didn’t happen and I
couldn’t be more thankful. Somehow we made it safely back to our hotel and I’m
still not sure how that happened.
Hopefully, you all
understand now why Megan was speechless when trying to write about this day. Thank
you to each and every member of Straight No Chaser for making this night so
amazing.
Stay tuned for the
continuing adventures of this week....
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