Challenge Week, Day Four
Jul. 18th, 2003 09:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
aruanWaking up at ass o'clock this morning was no sweat really, as ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
giddyupnow and I got to meet without_me when her flight arrived at eight. Now, I have to be honest here - I'm not usually anxious about meeting new people as I don't possess any pressing need to have everyone like me. And then there's meeting people I already like and want to like me, at which I'm either a stuttering mess or quietly retaining my dignity but not making much of an impression. But she's so sweet! And cool! And fun! Insecurities right out the window, and we had ourselves a fabulous, fabulous morning.
We drove across town to my post office, as my ID had arrived but needed to be signed for, after which Alicia insisted on taking us to breakfast for our "trouble."
Einstein's was exceptional fare, as usual. We talked fandom, the convoluted and not so much routes we took to arrive here. I'm constantly surprised that there was a time in fandom when slash was hush-hush underground stuff and love to hear about a time before Smallville, where if you weren't writing Clark/Lex, you weren't being read.
The girls were up by the time we got back. Alicia shared some lovely JC photos from a radio appearance she was lucky enough to attend and regaled us with one of the most adorable JoLa stories in all known canon. There were about three seconds of absolute silence from her rapt audience of four before we all broke down in squees and joyful whimpering. Theirloveissosweet! Then we lost ourselves in some truly choice footage, everything from the good (That's the Way Love Goes, which our convertplum_evil especially liked) to the absurd (the video for For the Girl Who Has Everything - frolicking on the beach! Those boys and their early video treatments, man, I could kiss every one of the directors.)
We set out for Miami early in the afternoon, and had a mostly uneventful ride down.giddyupnow dropped our stuff at our lodging for the next two nights, the lovely Abbey Hotel, which was two blocks inland from the Skills arena on the beach, before we arrived at the Eden Roc, where without_me was staying. Ray from the Not-So Boyband at the check-in counter with us! The lobby was already teeming with clusters of teenies, apparently there since yesterday afternoon, at which we could only roll our eyes.
The room was nice, and before Alicia even got her suitcase open,jc_dreaming arrived and delightfully regaled us with her story of meeting Lance in her pyjamas this morning. When else, really? *g* Tattoo rumors also started circulating; at this point it was the Rock On! Hand signal, which in retrospect is in some ways even better and more appropriate than what it ended up being.
We went downstairs to meet some others at the veranda bar, includinghammerhead22, amuse139, liz_w, kachera, and several others. Great conversation and passing around Liz's photos, that is until Jen went out on the boardwalk to make a phone call and came back babbling mostly incoherently about Lance's gorgeous naked back and the tattoo thereon, all visible on the upper deck swimming pool from where she was standing. Naturally, we all went out there and didn't do a very good job of trying to crane our necks for a view.
First pseudo-celebrity sighting for me! As we were standing around talking on the patio, I was facing the walkway leading to our deck from the hotel, so I was first to spot Lynn coming out of the lobby and walking toward the beach, which would take her past our group. I told them, and admirably not only did everyone remain discreet, I myself stayed completely nonchalant as she passed not a foot by me.
A and I left after the group dispersed and she got to dip her toes in the Atlantic. We unwound at the hotel, took much needed showers, and made dinner plans.
We took a cab to meetrunerinrun and mac_girl. The front desk receptionist at their hotel then referred us to a, turns out, nonexistent restaurant, seven blocks down Ocean Drive. We walked it in heels. And as much fun as it was to have a guy and his friend stop us and ask for a picture because we were 'too beautiful to pass up,' needless to say, we picked the first restaurant we came to after realizing the fact, which actually ended up being a lovely choice. Erin and Amy are great girls, fun and mellow about all the madness going on around us, which was a nice change of pace from the girls staking out the lobby of the Eden Roc all day for two days now. They look like the kind of girls who could've gotten by in life without being likeable because of other assets, but are instead sweet and smart, with the kind of laissez-faire perspective about the whole *NSYNC phenomenon that's rare to see with a fandom as obsessed as this.
After we finished eating, we caught a cab to Crobar.
giddyupnow and I got to meet without_me when her flight arrived at eight. Now, I have to be honest here - I'm not usually anxious about meeting new people as I don't possess any pressing need to have everyone like me. And then there's meeting people I already like and want to like me, at which I'm either a stuttering mess or quietly retaining my dignity but not making much of an impression. But she's so sweet! And cool! And fun! Insecurities right out the window, and we had ourselves a fabulous, fabulous morning.We drove across town to my post office, as my ID had arrived but needed to be signed for, after which Alicia insisted on taking us to breakfast for our "trouble."
Einstein's was exceptional fare, as usual. We talked fandom, the convoluted and not so much routes we took to arrive here. I'm constantly surprised that there was a time in fandom when slash was hush-hush underground stuff and love to hear about a time before Smallville, where if you weren't writing Clark/Lex, you weren't being read.
The girls were up by the time we got back. Alicia shared some lovely JC photos from a radio appearance she was lucky enough to attend and regaled us with one of the most adorable JoLa stories in all known canon. There were about three seconds of absolute silence from her rapt audience of four before we all broke down in squees and joyful whimpering. Theirloveissosweet! Then we lost ourselves in some truly choice footage, everything from the good (That's the Way Love Goes, which our convert
plum_evil especially liked) to the absurd (the video for For the Girl Who Has Everything - frolicking on the beach! Those boys and their early video treatments, man, I could kiss every one of the directors.)We set out for Miami early in the afternoon, and had a mostly uneventful ride down.
giddyupnow dropped our stuff at our lodging for the next two nights, the lovely Abbey Hotel, which was two blocks inland from the Skills arena on the beach, before we arrived at the Eden Roc, where without_me was staying. Ray from the Not-So Boyband at the check-in counter with us! The lobby was already teeming with clusters of teenies, apparently there since yesterday afternoon, at which we could only roll our eyes. The room was nice, and before Alicia even got her suitcase open,
jc_dreaming arrived and delightfully regaled us with her story of meeting Lance in her pyjamas this morning. When else, really? *g* Tattoo rumors also started circulating; at this point it was the Rock On! Hand signal, which in retrospect is in some ways even better and more appropriate than what it ended up being.We went downstairs to meet some others at the veranda bar, including
hammerhead22, amuse139, liz_w, kachera, and several others. Great conversation and passing around Liz's photos, that is until Jen went out on the boardwalk to make a phone call and came back babbling mostly incoherently about Lance's gorgeous naked back and the tattoo thereon, all visible on the upper deck swimming pool from where she was standing. Naturally, we all went out there and didn't do a very good job of trying to crane our necks for a view.First pseudo-celebrity sighting for me! As we were standing around talking on the patio, I was facing the walkway leading to our deck from the hotel, so I was first to spot Lynn coming out of the lobby and walking toward the beach, which would take her past our group. I told them, and admirably not only did everyone remain discreet, I myself stayed completely nonchalant as she passed not a foot by me.
A and I left after the group dispersed and she got to dip her toes in the Atlantic. We unwound at the hotel, took much needed showers, and made dinner plans.
We took a cab to meet
runerinrun and mac_girl. The front desk receptionist at their hotel then referred us to a, turns out, nonexistent restaurant, seven blocks down Ocean Drive. We walked it in heels. And as much fun as it was to have a guy and his friend stop us and ask for a picture because we were 'too beautiful to pass up,' needless to say, we picked the first restaurant we came to after realizing the fact, which actually ended up being a lovely choice. Erin and Amy are great girls, fun and mellow about all the madness going on around us, which was a nice change of pace from the girls staking out the lobby of the Eden Roc all day for two days now. They look like the kind of girls who could've gotten by in life without being likeable because of other assets, but are instead sweet and smart, with the kind of laissez-faire perspective about the whole *NSYNC phenomenon that's rare to see with a fandom as obsessed as this.After we finished eating, we caught a cab to Crobar.
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no subject
Date: July 26th, 2003 05:12 pm (UTC)Solo!Club!Tour!!!
no subject
Date: July 26th, 2003 05:32 pm (UTC)I feel like we should be writing a cheer here. And yet, i can't think of a single thing that rhymes with tour. Good thing I was never a cheerleader. So until then, I'll just tack on another exclamation point. How's that?
Solo!Club!Tour!!!!
no subject
Date: July 27th, 2003 12:16 am (UTC)Solo!Club!Tour!!!!! :-D
no subject
Date: July 27th, 2003 01:41 am (UTC)I don't think there's a single person in this fandom who can't claim a connection, some stronger than others, with their inner "tween". I was never into NKOTB or any of the boyband/music acts in middle school, so this whole phenomenon is both refreshing and oddly nostalgic to me.
For what it's worth, I would've been happy to chill with you as fifteen or fifty. *hugs*
Solo!Club!Tour!!!!!! By the time we end this thread, there'll be enough punctuation to form a sort of beacon that could be seen from miles and miles away. With any lucky, JC will take it as a Sign. *g*
no subject
Date: July 27th, 2003 12:56 pm (UTC)(Okay, this was just an excuse to use my new icon, I admit it.)
*hugs*
no subject
Date: July 28th, 2003 03:09 am (UTC)('Tis a lovely icon indeed. Gorgeous boy that he is. Who needs to stand next to that and feel inadequate? ;)
*hugs* Can't wait to hear about your fabulous time at Tony's listening party!