Waiting in line to go in the venue for the show could’ve been a drag, but it wasn’t. Not with my friends, no. I took the opportunity to play around with my Vivitar.

Hey, Annie.

And then I saw Krizia, Tricia and Pat pass by and said they were going to get some food, and I joined Pat because she said she was going to Starbucks, and I had to charge the battery for my Nikon. So, we hung out, talked about past run-ins with the LIV5 bands, and all. Oh right, and Brighten and fun., of course.

Then I saw Dana and her twin and a few friends outside, so I went out and said hi to her, it was nice to see her again after so long.

So yeah, after I got a call from Julienne to go back already, and we did.

My friends and I pretty much hung out the whole time and I got to see a few people who I haven’t in a while, and it was pretty co0l.

It was some time in the evening when we were let in, and I lost myself while looking for Annie. She shouted my name, and I saw her right at the barricade; Kennedy’s side. That sly dog. Well, it was the plan, anyway.

The highlights during the show were that I talked to Kenny, told him i gave him the soccer ball, and he said he’s been playing with it on the floor, huzzah! Oh, and yeah he held three fingers up to me and told me he loves, me, aw! Anyway, my shots from the show, plus there’re more up on my flickr!

ps, that’s my friend’s mask. how wicked is that?

Concert day! I met up with my buddies from the day before, and found Julia and Reign behind me, so I said hi to them! Oh gosh, Reign’s hair is gorge. It took a while for us to be let in for Soundcheck, we were actually still outside when they started. When they did start playing, they started with a familiar song which I couldn’t place. John started singing “Cute face, slim waist….” And then I started tearing up. I turned to Fiel, and she had the same reaction, we were hugging and sobbing and all, I couldn’t help it. It was the song that started everything for me. Of course it was the strangest possible song to sob to, but it was way too sentimental for me. I found myself singing along at the top of my lungs with tears streaming down my face. No regrets, no shame. When we finally were let in though, it was amazing, seeing my boys playing again.

You know how it went, Pat did an impromptu song, my “triplet” Yana played drums for them, (I’m super proud of her, aaah!) and all. Plus my theory was correct; I did cry to When I’m At Home. Oh yeah, and I noticed that Gary was a few people away from me, at the sound booth which was next to the bleachers, I leaned across and said “I love you, Gary, Hi!” And he noticed me, and waved at me. That totally made up for the night before.

PS; photos from sound check are from my digicam (since I was saving the battery of my SLR for the show), and they came out looking pretty co0l.

And before I knew it, we started lining up for the meet and greets.

While I was in line and my friends Maegan and Britney were in front of me, I called Jared’s attention and showed him my shirt, which was his limited edition signature shirt. “Hey, Jared! Like my shirt?” “It’s awesome!” He thumbs up-ed it, well of course it’s awesome. I called John next, and asked him if he liked the suspenders I got him.

“Yeah, they’re at home!”

Home. Yeah, The Maine were definitely at home here, I’m sure.

Then, it was my turn! I hugged everyone, and John said “Hello again!” to me as we hugged, and I finally gave Kennedy the other half to my Daisy. The way he said “Aww, thank you!” was so sincere, really. Maybe there was even a hint of him being kilig and all! As I moved on to Pat, I heard Kenny say to John, “It’s the wife.” Oh my god, oh my god.

Anyway, I hugged Pat and Garrett and told Garrett that he owes me an instax. Then yeah, photo time! I asked them all to pose, heh.

I know, it’s weird, asking them to pose and I don’t even pose. I was supposed to make a face similar to Kennedy’s except with my mouth open, but I wanted to play it safe and smile. Widely.

Before I left I told them that I loved them to bits and asked for a group hug, and it was great. Kennedy’s arm was around my waist, aw yeah.

After everything, we evacuated to the room. We turned on the TV to watch Myx, then we fangirled over everything that happened. When Camille and Echa left, it was a bummer since they’re my fellow club members! It sucks how Anya wasn’t able to join us though, since she’s also part of the club. Annie, Julienne, Fiel, and I had a late night Starbucks run—which I’ve always wanted to do, so, yay! I said my name was Kenny, I felt like I was 11, or 12 again. Fiel said her name was Garrett, but it came out as Garreen. “It’s like a super classy way of saying green! Guh-reeeeen!”

So as we made our way to the room, we noticed how incredibly noisy it was upstairs. “Oh my god, I swear that’s John.” “CRIPES I HEAR KENNY” “JAREEEDD!” Those sly dogs, they waited for us to leave ‘till they played pool! “Sneaky bastards”, Fiel said.

We went in to tell the others, and they all flipped too. Fiel said “I swear, if Myx airs the TVC, I’m going up.” “Count me in!” I said.

And minutes later, it did go on. “FUCK THIS, I’M GOING UP.” Fiel said “IT’S A SIGN, OKAY LET’S GO.” I followed, and I was the only one. We were pussies, so we didn’t go up, we listened to them instead, and it was the most calming thing ever. It’s creepy yeah, but it was super calming. Fiel said “Hey, let’s do bird calls for Garrett. WAKKOOOOO!” And I immediately followed, and oh my god, Garrett heard us I guess, since he mimicked the bird calls during the show! How crazy is that, it got me thinking, what else did they hear? Fiel and I were shushing them, so they probably heard that.

We went back in, and Anne told us she tweeted them to go to bed and that we could hear them from the 14th, coming from the 22nd. We went out, then Pat followed. 

This crazy thing happened, while we were all exchanging stories, we heard tons of people laughing and saying “KENNEDY” and stuff, so Fiel nudged me and smiled, then I heard music coming from upstairs. “Quiet, quiet. Is that Call Me Maybe?” And right I was, since a few seconds after we all heard “Hey, I just met you, and this is crazy…” loud and clear. WE WERE ALL FREAKING. “OH MY GOD CAMILLE, OH MY GOD” Then, we heard someone say “CAMNEDY!” That was it for us. We ran inside, told the girls and they were freaking as well! I tried to call Camille and Echa, but they wouldn’t pick up. I texted and tweeted Cam though, and I was so happy and proud of her.

We heard the boys shushing each other, and it was adorable. Plus every time someone would get a ball in a hole, they’d all go “OOOOHHHHHHH” then quickly “SHHHH!” each other after a while, we reckon they saw, or someone told them about Anne’s tweet. 

We talked about so many things, we talked about our LIV5 experiences, Brighten, and Pat did her impression of drunk Halvo, and it’s a classic! That whole time we were outside goes down in my mental list of the best moments I’ve ever had.

We heard a high pitched scream from upstairs. “I SWEAR TO GOD, THAT’S PAT” We all told each other, then all at the same time, we whispered “RATBOY!” Then, seconds later, we heard it again. We flipped of course, and as usual, we told the girls inside. It’s absolutely bonkers. I never thought I’d hear, let alone witness (ish!) Ratboy, it’s too crazy. We went inside because the guard told us to. Party pooper!

I had so much fun that day, especially along the hallway with Fiel and Pat. I left at around past 3 AM, and the boys were still up. As one last hurrah, I said in a voice I think they’d hear, “BYE! Go to bed, guys! You have tons of plans tomorrow! SEE YA!” I hope they heard me. They accompanied me downstairs and I gave ‘em a hug and thanked them for one of the best days ever. I ended March 30, and started the 31st in the most perfect ways possible, and spent it with the grandest people ever.

2.5/3

We checked in and hung out at the room for a bit, then went down later to fetch Anne, and hell, the number of people increased, there were probably like 30 people already, and that’s insane. We went to McDonald’s later, and then my mum called me, something happened, and I had to go home. After much persuasion, she let me stay until the late night/very early morning, since they were picking me up after my dad’s show.

So, our little group was Krizia, Julienne, Fiel, Camille, Echa, Anne, Cla, and myself. We were laughing at Anne’s never ending collection of embarrassing The Maine and Halvo photos from when they were younger, then after, The Maine goes on RX! Fangirl, fangirl, fangirl, then we went to Megamall to get our dinner and to drop Fiel and Cla off. Sadly, Cla had to leave, but Fiel just had to drop by school. We decided to get KFC, and we met up with Pat and Tricia there.

We headed to the 22nd floor since I got a call from Fiel “Rian. Rian. RIAN. The boys are here.” We headed up as fast as we could, but the 22nd floor was blocked from the elevator, so we took the stairs from the 21st. When we got up there, we went to the others, and they said they were in the private room near the entrance. We waited and waited for a pretty long time, oh and I told my aunt where I was at, and she met up with me at the hotel. Of course, she and my friends got on really well.

After hours (I think!) of waiting, John came out. Fiel, Anne, and I missed our chance to shout “ETHNIC BEAUTY!” at him, but we did just that when he came back. And I swear, the smile on his face could cure cancer, Fiel and I tried looking for a photo that had that exact same smile, but nope, even in the 4k+ photos I have of The Maine. It was just such a genuine smile, I melted inside. Then, everyone crowded; and it was pretty brutal, I only wanted to give my give to John and for him to sign the photos, and that’s what I did. I gave my gift to him, and he said “Why, thank you! Is this for all of us? “No, just you! It has your name and picture on it.” I replied. “Oh, right. Thank you!” Huggsss. Right after that, I backed away so other people could have their chance. Oh right, and reference to what I got them here, by the way.

Kenny, Pat, and Larry followed after a while, and of course, chaos. Again. I have no idea how I was able to, but I was able to give my gift to Pat before actually having a conversation with him, same with Kennedy. When I did get to Pat though, I asked for a photo and a hug of course.

“Rian, your sister is so pretty!” Eunice told me via twitter a few days after, haha. When I did ask him to take the photo, he was already handling so many things so I offered to take them for a bit, but he graciously declined. I felt really bad, actually, because everyone crowded over to Ken and Pat got pushed to the glass already. 

I always get asked about the thing he scribbled out, so, here! “Hey Pat, can you sign it for me?” “Of course! What’s your name?” “Rian! R-i-a-n.” But he wrote Arin. I was like, “Pat, it’s Rian! Like Dawson from All Time Low.” “Oh, I’m so sorry! R-i-a-n?” “Yep, thanks!” He wrote the smiley after he wrote my name and scratched it out. I hugged him quite a lot, actually. He was so nice, and it was amazing finally getting to meet him since I wasn’t able to last year, we talked for a while more, and hugged more, then I went over to Kenny.

“Hey, you came back!” “I told you!” “For you.” I handed over my gift to him and he said “Aw hey, thanks!” We hugged, and yeah! I asked for him to take the photo, and can I just say that his angling is mighty good, which is not surprising since he’s the pretty boy of the group!

I so badly wanted to say “Hey Ken come here, let’s take a MySpace shot!” But whoops, wrong band. I had my chance with Kyle, but it didn’t happen.

I asked him to sign it, told him about the Kennedy Brock Wives Club, and he knew about us already, thanks to Echa and Camille who met him before me! I kissed his cheek and asked if he could come back out and he said “Err, it’s possible?” I thanked him, then hugged him again.

We formed a line to make it more systematic ish and less mosh pit ish. I forgot who came out first; Jared or Matt. But for Matt, he is such a sweetheart, I took a photo with him and wow, honestly, nothing about him is nasty at all! I took a photo of Matt with my (aunt’s) Vivitar, and yeah! Vivitar sounds like a Pokemon.

Jared, again. I gave my gift to him, took a photo of him with the Vivitar, asked him to sign our photo, hugged him, and yeah! Oh, and Anne took a photo of Jared and I, with our matching shirts. Soulmates.

After a while, Happee and Larry came out and kinda scolded us for being so, er, rowdy. Not me though, but as a collective, we definitely were. Larry said “They wanna play pool, so would it be okay for you guys not to bother them? You can stare and all, but don’t go up to them. The boys want to enjoy the hotel, and they love you guys, but don’t go all…AAAAHHHH!” And when he did his mimicking fangirl scream, it came with a flail and all, and it was golden. “Just be cool!” Or something, but that summed it up. Then Happee added that “Hey, at least you guys can say you hung out with The Maine!” She had no idea how right she actually was. I talked to Larry since I was right there, so… “Hey Larry, where’re Gary and Garrett….” “I can promise you guys Garrett, but Gary will not sign anything or take any photos, since he is a crew member.” “BUT I LOVE GARY” I really do. I really really really do. “And he loves you too, but he’s a crew member.” “Aww, alrighty. Garrett though, please?” “Yes!” Then, they left. We went back to our table, and no, we did not get Garrett, it’s a bummer since we didn’t get our couples shot and I wasn’t able to give his gift personally, so I’m not sure if he got it! When the boys left the room, I looked back, and there it was. Kennedy was spinning my soccer ball with his hand, and was playing with it.

I fell off of the goddamn couch. It was like the first time meeting The Maine all over again, but this time, it was different. It was Kennedy Brock, playing with the ball I gave him. I screamed, and Fiel, Echa, Camille were next to me, so they witnessed it. “AAH RIAN THE BALL” Fiel said. “OH MY GOD KENNEDY WAS PLAYING WITH MY BALL” I shouted. “wait, WHAT” Echa replied. “Wait that sounded really wrong, what I meant to say was THAT I GAVE HIM THAT SOCCER BALL” I shouted ish, I could NOT help it, I was laughing like a maniac and I couldn’t help it at all.

2/3