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Oct 28, 2006... Saturday night, I used my ticket to the Voodoo Music Fest in New Orleans to see Red Hot Chilli Peppers. The show and the lights were great and so were the drinks, but they were doing a lot of songs I didn't know so I went to catch the shuttle bus back to the hotel. The bus was full, but I got a seat and a man sat down next to me and his wife sat down in a seat nearby. We started chatting and at first I was thinking, "Great, another random drunk..." New Orleans has a lot of tourist drunks b/c of their really loose liquor laws. But he said he was from Texas and had just got in that day. I said I had arrived the day before from New Jersey, and mostly came to see My Chemical Romance. He said... MCR was why he was there b/c he won a radio contest to come to the concert and meet them!!! AND he asked if I wanted to come with him! Ok, so basically a drunk guy was making promises and even though I thought there was a big chance it wouldn't happen, we exchanged room numbers so that we could call each other.

That night I had all MCR dreams, from meeting them, to them canceling and every other combination of dreaming of the band.

When I woke up, mostly b/c of the dreams, I wrote a note with my name and cell phone number, thanking the guy for inviting me and if he couldn't get me in to see them, could he at least get an autograph. I slipped it under his hotel room door and went shopping.

While I was in the shoe store, he called and said he wasn't going to have time to meet them. sad And would I go in his place? Hell yeah I'd go in his place! I met him at the restaurant where he and his wife were having breakfast so that he could give me all the information of who to call, where to go, etc. And would I get his cd signed for him? Sure...

I waited in agony for the shuttle bus b/c I only had 15 minutes to get to the place but the town was crowded b/c of the concert and a football game and I was pratically in tears before the bus started moving. I got to the concert 15 minutes late and ran around looking for the meeting place and no one knew where it was!!! So I called the number of the lady who organized the contest and she said to use my yellow wristband to get to the LOA area. Yellow? Mine is gray... the yellow costs about 10 times what my gray one did. And the LOA area is very VIP. No problem apparently b/c she tells me where to meet her and after a long time trying to find each other she gets me in.

And we wait... none of the other winners are there yet and it's an hour late by now. At the very last moment everyone shows up. We're standing near a museum and the sun is shining down as brightly as it possibly can and I look over underneath some trees and there's Gerard all in black and blond in the shade smoking a cigarette. It was like watching a really good quality black and white movie. And I had to look away b/c a voice in my head started panicking, thinking, I'll be over there soon!!!

So finally we all went and the guys shook everyone's hand and introduced themselves... which I guess is the polite thing to do, but really... I know their names... they really didn't have to tell me although it was nice. At first I only saw Gerard and Mikey, but then everyone else showed up and Ray was really cheerful and happy with everyone. I'm not saying the others weren't... it's just Ray was extremely happy.

The contest lady (who's name I know, but I'm just not telling) gave us these posters for the guys to sign for us. I walked over to the guy closest to me, Gerard, and he asked how to spell my name... (Note how I forgot all about the guy that told me about the meet and greet.) Gerard asked how to spell my name so I told him! And I told him I was from New Jersey, and he said, "Really?" and smiled a very beautiful smile! I love that smile.

I eventually got everyone to sign and all I really remember is everyone was mostly quiet, but Ray was energetic and I couldn't stop staring at his hair. His hair looks really really nice in person. Very shallow thing to notice, so I didn't say anything to him about it. Ray saw me with my camera and said, "Oh, do you want a picture?" And before I could really say anything he got a guy to take the picture for me! Posing for the picture I kind of lost my mind b/c I had no clue who was standing on my right. I just assumed it was Ray, and then Gerard moved closer and put his hand on my back I'm guessing for balance and I just froze. Which explains the weird smile on my face. But great picture anyway!

And then it was over and it only really lasted about 10 minutes... My poster was signed, I had my picture... and oh my god! I forgot to get that guy's CD signed!!! Well, too late now. Bad me!!! I still kind of feel bad about that, but when I gave him the cd and explained, he seemed ok and was just happy that I had a good time. He likes their music, but the meet and greet was not something that interested him. Plus, I got to use the LOA stuff the rest of the day!!!