so excited

There is a post coming all about Bear camping from last weekend, but before that, I need to tell all about my trip to see Janet on the Today show. Thursday night I left work and went straight to Union Station to meet up with my sister Lindsey. We jumped on Amtrak for a train to Penn Station in NYC.

We got up there around 7:30, with just enough time to buy our tickets for a quick trip out to Long Island. Lindsey is competing in the Miss MD pageant for the Miss USA pageant. She has coaches who live on Long Island. They are making her gown this year and needed to do a fitting. We got out there around 9 and went straight to their house. We spent a few hours with them (these are the same ones were went to Aruba with this year) and they fitted her gown. I think she will look even more beautiful this year, if that is possible.

We left their place at 1:30 AM and headed back to the train station to catch a train back into the city. We got back to Penn Station around 3:15 AM and took a cab from there to Rockefeller Center. When we got there, we found the line and there were already at least 80 people ahead of us. We spent the next few hours praying for it not to rain and for the time to pass quickly.

Around 5 AM, my friend Nic and his boyfriend Jordan showed up. They live in Chelsea and Nic is a huge Janet fan as well. Jordan claimed to know someone who worked security for the Today show, so he was going to try and get us VIP access. I was skeptical at best. Finally at 7:30, Jordan pulled us out of the general access line and over to a VIP line. I was thinking the whole time that if it didn't work out, I'd kill Jordan. I didn't stay up all night to miss seeing Janet!

By this time, they were letting the general access line into the plaza, but not the VIP line. Finally at 8:15 they let us into the building. We waited there a few minutes and I saw Meredith getting ready to go on air. She is very pretty in person, but a lot more wrinkles than I expected. Matt on the other hand was fine as fuck in person. Were I not consumed with craze at being moments away from seeing Janet, I definitely would have attacked him right then and there.

We finally got out to the Plaza, after being issued our VIP passes, and we were literally feet away from the stage. I was dying. We turned to look behind us and the general access people were at least 60 feet behind us. Jordan's friend came through! Finally Janet took the stage and I about died. She performed three songs, looked and sounded amazing, and did a short Q&A of fan submitted questions. It was so fucking awesome. It was over and done with in the blink of an eye, but so worth it.

After the concert, Lindsey and I said good-bye to Nic and Jordan. We called my friend Rob and met him for a minute outside of his office, right beside Rockefeller Center. From there we jumped in a cab and headed back to Penn Station. By noon we were already on our way back to DC. We got back around 3:30 and came to my apartment. We turned on the Tivo and checked the tape. Sure enough, you can see me on TV! When they interviewed Dane Cook, before Janet took the stage, you can see my head, right over Al's! There were a bunch of shots of them panning the crowds when you can see all four of us as well. Here is a picture from my camera phone, so you can see just how close we were to the stage.



All in all, it was an amazing twenty-four hours. In that short time, we went to and from New York, visited friends in Long Island, and saw most of my friends in the City, not to mention seeing Janet! AHHH!!! It still gets me all giddy just thinking about it.