1 year ago today was
the most EPIC of concerts in the history of NKOTB….Fenway Park! How can one truly put into words the feeling
of being in that stadium, standing on center field, watching such an amazing
group of men on a stage. While most in
my twitter timeline have spent today reflecting on the cruise they just
disembarked from, I have spent today reflecting on a moment in time that
happened one year ago! It truly was a
night of EPIC proportions!
It was a night that
began, NOT when I arrived in Boston on June 11, 2011, but on Wednesday, January
26, 2011…the Fenway Park concert announcement.
After much speculation, the guys confirmed that they were indeed going
to be performing in America’s Most Beloved, Historic, & Legendary Ballpark,
Fenway Park. They would join the ranks
of so many greats that have played in the ballpark….Bruce Springsteen, Paul
McCartney, Neil Diamond, and Aerosmith…just to name a few! As a Red Sox fan, how could I NOT be at this
ONCE IN A LIFETIME event!? Well…my bank
account had other things to say.
In the weeks prior, as
speculation started to arise about the possibility of a Fenway show, my girls
and I decided, YES, we MUST be there, and we MUST do it the right way….5*!! There simply was no other way to attend this
concert in our minds! Done deal,
right!? Flash forward to Monday, January
24, 2011….CRASH!!! A car accident would
take that money that would have gone to Fenway right out of my pocket!! I hoped and prayed that when the announcement
was officially made that we would have plenty of notice about when tickets
would go on sale. HA! Funny right…have I learned nothing in my
years as a Blockhead? “Plenty of notice”
is not in the vocabulary of the New Kids!
Return now to Wednesday, January 26, 2011…according to the announcement
on nkotb.com…“Block Nation presale will begin on Thursday, January 27 at 10 am
PST.” Sssssssssssccccreeeeeettttttccccchhhhh
my hopes and dreams of attending this concert 5* style drastically came to a
halt!! I cried! I literally sat at my desk and cried! I was both THRILLED about the announcement of
the concert and HEARTBROKEN over the thought that I would not be able to attend
this concert in the way I had originally planned to!! We had less than 24 hours’ notice as Block
Nation members to decide on a game plan…what would I do? For about an hour after the announcement, I
sat and cried. I couldn’t think of what
to do! How could I possibly afford to
buy a 5* ticket when I just had to pay to have my car repaired? I didn’t even have my car at the time…I was
more upset about the concert than I was about my car! After about an hour of tears, I opened up my
bank account and a calendar to determine what bills were due when. I moved some funds around, and hoped and
prayed that the 5* would not cost any more than $500…because also with less
than 24 hours’ notice, we had NO IDEA about prices for meet & greets…all we
knew was that they were going to cost more than the typical NKOTB meet &
greet.
I had moved the funds
around…now it was time to wait for sale time.
I went to work that next day, told my supervisor I needed my lunch break
a little before 1pm. I had my game
plan. Then the stomach bug, which had
been going around the school, hit me!
After only about an hour of work, I was sent home sick. Being home sick of course didn’t help the
nerves of a typical ticket buying day!
At least if I had been at work there would have been some distraction to
keep me from staring at the clock. Now,
I lay in bed watching the hours tick by on the clock. Finally, 12:45 rolled around…I got out of
bed, sat at my desk, sent some tweets, and then turned off twitter at around
12:55…couldn’t have anything extra open potentially slowing down the ticket
buying process. 12:59pm, I am a bundle
of nerves and nausea (not a good mix, btw)!
I start to click refresh, and at 1pm on the dot, I get in! By 1:02pm I had confirmation!!! I would be doing a 5* meet & greet at
Fenway Park!!!!!!!!! Receiving that
confirmation from ILAA (now known as VIP Nation) completely turned my week
around…It had been the most emotional week, and I was happy to have the
confirmation in my hand that I would be attending the Fenway concert 5*…even if
it did mean that I couldn’t do anything else for the months leading up to the
show!!
Saturday, June 11, 2011...With
the threat of pouring rain, I get in the car and start heading to Beantown,
extremely excited and anxious for the meet & greet and concert. I’m equipped with my suitcase, Ziploc bags,
my water repellent Red Sox coat, an umbrella, TWO cameras and fully charged
camera batteries! Driving alone from CT,
I have no one to distract me with how long this trip can feel! 2 hours and 45 minutes later, I arrive in
Boston, MA. As I am heading to my exit
off the Mass Pike, I see my first signs of Fenway Park…the Citgo sign! My stomach starts to do flips, and my heart
starts racing! I’ve been to Fenway Park
many times before, but on that day in that moment, it was all different.
I check into my hotel
room, and await the arrival of the three girls I am sharing the room with. Jill is coming down from Canada, and has met
up with my Maine girls, Lauren and Holly.
The three of them were driving down together, and I couldn’t wait to see
them! While awaiting their arrival, I
pop over to the hotel room of my other girls who would be in our meet &
greet photo with us. I am in the middle
of a hug with one of the girls, when I look over at the bed and scream!! My 2010 cruise roommate and one of my bests,
Carin, is sitting on the bed! I run to
the bed and practically jump her! I
start crying because I am so excited to see her! One of “my favorite girls” has just pulled a
major surprise on me! When I had left
the cruise that year, I was unsure when I would see her again, knowing I had no
plans to go on the 2012 cruise! Best
surprise of the day!
After getting ready for
meet & greet, and assuming I have “packed” everything I need in my bag, we
girls cross over the bridge from the Buckminster Hotel to Fenway Park. I am getting so nervous and excited at this
point. We head over to the entrance of
the State Street Pavilion, and check in for meet & greet. We receive our lanyards and our envelopes
with concert tickets. I am hopeful to
have good seats, but based on my experience with the Foxwoods 5* in 2010 (20th
row), I am not very positive that I will have much luck. I look down at my ticket…*double take*…2nd
ROW!!!!! The event hadn’t even started
and this concert was already EPIC on so many levels.
We head upstairs to
meet & greet, where I proceed to knock back FOUR Sam Adam’s Summer Ale’s
before our letter is called. While
waiting, we are able to see part of the preparations for the concert from the
big windows overlooking the field. By
the time our letter is called, I have a SERIOUS buzz going, but determine that
this MIGHT be helpful for me…I can never get words out to Jonathan…I simply
freeze when I get near him. He makes me
so nervous that I can barely get out a hello and thank you. I was hopeful the alcohol in my system would
make it different! As we head into the
curtained off “room,” I head over to Joe Mac first...big smile, big hug, and
then he sees my “Soxasm” shirt with the photo collage of them at the Fenway
press conference… “That shirt is AWESOME!”
Aww, thanks Joe! Guess what…I
FINALLY met Joe Mac! 2 cruises and 2 5*
meet & greets later and I finally met the bastahd! ;-)
Heading over to Jon, my
nerves begin to appear again…DAMMIT! I
say hi, put my arm around him, and turn toward the camera just in time for our
picture to be taken. After our picture
is taken, I get one of the AMAZING Jon hugs!
As we are hugging, Jon tells me to make sure I say hi to all the guys
before heading out. “Ok, thank you.” Just like that my moment with Jon is over…and
all I’ve said is “hi” and “ok, thank you.”
FAIL! Hahahaha!! Clearly alcohol
does NOTHING for my ability to talk to Jon Knight! I get a hug from Danny, who is also very
excited about my shirt, and a hug from Donnie and Jordan. I contemplate going to Jon for one more hug,
but freak out and walk out of there instead.
Oh well! The man makes me
nervous, what can I say!
We grab a bite to eat
after meet & greet. A chance to hang
out and talk with each other before we all head off to our seats for the
show. As we head to our seats, and begin
to walk out to the seats, that wave of butterflies hits me again. I know the field is covered with a platform,
but I was about to step “on the field”!!
This became one of the most surreal moments of my life. Jill and I, both Red Sox fans held onto each
other and practically jumped to our seats!
We took pictures everywhere. I
didn’t know what I was most excited about…the concert or standing in center
field! I mean, seriously…I was standing
where Jacoby Ellsbury stands….not to mention the fact that only one row was
separating me from the stage! I was on
an overload of emotions at that moment!
Then…it all
begins! The Mayor of Boston comes out
and declares June 11, 2011 NKOTBSB day in Boston, and the large NKOTBSB banner
drops over the Green Monster!! AMAZING…but
then, MARK WAHLBERG hits the stage! His
introduction is perfect, and it takes a lot of effort to hold back the tears as
he talks about how proud he is of his brother, and how grateful he is for
Donnie…because if it hadn’t been for Donnie, he might still be locked up
somewhere! NKOTB is introduced over the
loudspeaker as if they are players on the Red Sox! They each run out of the dugout and onto the
field, waving to the crowd, until Donnie, “the captain,” rounds them up and
they run onto the stage…”Ladies and gentlemen….NKOTBSB!” I am bundle of excitement.
The rest of the night
is a blur of different emotions! It was
the perfect night! 2nd row on
the side of the stage that Jon spent most of the time! So there he was, along with 8 other guys, in
blinged out Red Sox jersey’s, standing 2 rows from me! I was in HEAVEN! SOXASM for sure!! I just kept clicking pictures, I couldn’t
stop! Goosebumps during the opening
number, as Donnie screamed out FENWAY!!!!
The minutes seemed to fly by during the concert! Before I knew it, my camera battery on my
good camera had died. Apparently the
rest of those batteries were in the hotel room…I had the batteries to the
crappy camera, which I thought I had left in the hotel room…only to find out
later it was buried in my bag…major camera fail! Oh well…it forced me to live in the moment
that was Fenway and not watch the concert through the lens of my camera! Looking back I am thankful for the camera
fail, because had I been focused on what I was seeing in the camera, I would
have missed some of the incredible, epic moments that happened once the rain
came!
And boy did that rain
come! I remember thinking at one moment,
maybe we are going to get lucky and the rain is going to hold out! Then, the skies opened up and it started to
pour!!! Both the guys and the fans had
nothing to do but embrace the rain that was falling! Shirts came flying off new kid’s backs, and
the stage became a Slip N Slide! I will
NEVER forget watching 9 guys splashing around on a stage like a bunch of kids
jumping in rain puddles! I embraced the
rain, handing my umbrella off to a friend.
Alternated between taking one picture on the camera, before the battery
would die again, and my blackberry…and of course trying to keep them dry was a
task all its own!
There were Bruins
jerseys for Don’t Turn Out the Lights, and then blinged out Celtics jerseys
atop the Green Monster for the encore!!
Hearing the Dropkick Murphy’s “Shipping Up to Boston” intro to the
encore always gets me pumped and excited, but that night it had a different
feeling! Being in that stadium, hearing that
song, which has meaning to both the Red Sox AND the New Kids made it all the
more exciting! Jon Knight and Danny wood
slip n sliding up the stage and almost crashing into the steps! Danny almost slipping off the stage during
the group huddle at the end, but having his band mates grab him and pull him back
up! The sprays off water off the stage
as new kids and backstreet boys slid up and down the stage!
How could I possibly
leave this moment? How could I possibly
walk out of that ballpark when the lights went out on the stage? I never wanted that night to end. I didn’t care that I was standing there,
drenched to the bone, with my feet squishing in my sneakers! How could I walk out of a concert where I
stood center field at Fenway fahkin pahk and witnessed the most epic of
concerts in NKOTB history? As I sit
here, thinking about that night one year ago, my heart is racing, and there are
goose bumps on my arms again! The smile
on my face right now reminds me just how incredible that night was! I feel so blessed to have experienced such an
amazing moment! To share in that moment
with some of my favorite girls in the world, made the night all the more
epic! People in my life who don’t
understand what we share with NKOTB all said to me that it must have sucked
that it poured the way it did at the show.
I look at them and with a giant smile on my face, say “NOPE! It was EPIC!
Fenway would not have been Fenway without the rain!” As Neil Diamond would sing “Good times never
seemed so good, so good, so good!” Thank
you New Kids on the Block and Backstreet Boys for such a once in a lifetime
event! I am truly grateful to have been
able to be there in that moment! Happy
Fenwayversary to all my fellow BH’s who were lucky enough to be in that rainy
ballpark on June 11, 2011!! Here’s
hoping we’ll someday get a DVD of that incredible night!
*side note…as I was
writing this blog, Sweet Caroline, and the Fenway Tour opener (which I got from
a YouTube video) both played, and as I was writing the end of the blog, the live
version of Hangin’ Tough/We Will Rock You, complete with the Dropkick intro,
played…It was awesome and creepy that that song played as I was writing the end
of this blog!*
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