This is a little tale I'd like to call: How I met PCD Twice in 1 Day
Part 1
So Saturday morning I went to the hair salon around 9:00. I was able to get out at 12:00 even though the stylist was busy that morning. The salon is about 5 minutes from house so when I got home I was thinking about going to the autograph signing at the Verizon Wireless store. I was still kinda debating because I wasn't sure what it was going to be like and I didn't want to go alone. Then, I thought about it again and realized that it's not very often that artists I actually like come to Maryland. And it's even rarer that they do autograph signings so I decided to just go.
I got there at about 1:30 and had no idea where I was supposed to go. There was a radio station there, as well so I asked one of the girls and she told me to go around the back. I went around back and got a wrist band and stood in line. Eventually, I was let in to go to the autograph line. While I was standing in line, I noticed that I only saw 5 Dolls. Nicole wasn't there. At first, I thought she might have been at the end of the table because I'm really short and I couldn't see around the huge lady in front of me. But she really wasn't there. Of course, I was disappointed because I've wanted to meet her since her Popstars days and I'd missed Eden's Crush when they came to MD years ago (I didn't know about it until it was too late to get tickets). I still wanted to meet the other girls, though. I took some pictures, but everytime I went to snap the picture, the person in front of me kept moving so most of the pics ended up being nothing, but a yellow shirt.
So the line was moving pretty steadily and the guard was handing out pictures for the girls to sign as you got closer. I asked them to sign my cd booklet and Jessica thanked me for picking up the cd and she and Melody were asking what I thought about it. We talked about the concert a little bit and I mentioned that I heard that they really liked the fan book. As soon as I mentioned that I swear they all looked at me. And Melody asked if I'd helped with the book. I told her that we used my Nicole site to get some of the messages. And Carmit asked me what the site was and I told her. Then, she called over their manager and told him who I was. Melody said she would tell Nicole that I came. I ended up talking to their manager for a little while about the site and then he had a girl that does some stuff with their website put my name down for backstage passes. I talked to her for awhile and she took my phone number and said she would call me when they got to the venue which should be around 6:00. I left a few minutes after that and the whole time I'm driving home thinking "Did that really just happen?" I called my friend, Shikha (the girl in the pic) and told her that we were going backstage so we should get to the concert earlier than we had planned.
Meanwhile, the weather is awful. It had been raining off and on all day and the humidity made the curls in my hair fall out, but it didn't look too bad. I got lost on my way home so I ended up getting home around 3:00. I came onto to DD and posted the pics I took. I talked to Jose for a few minutes. He had gone to the NYC show the night before. I told him that I felt like I should bring something when I meet Nicole, but I didn't know what. I had found out I would be meeting her like 2 hours before that so I didn't have time to like buy a gift or anything so I thought maybe I should write something. I hate writing, but I felt the need to write something specific at the end of the note. I thought about it just from a conversation I had with someone else about Nicole a long time ago and since I had the opportunity, I thought I should say it. So I pulled out my trusty Hello Kitty stationary and wrote this really short note and I put this thing I was thinking about at the end of it. Then, I stuck it in my purse, grabbed my camera and left for the concert.
Part 2
My friend Shikha drove to the concert and I accidently left my jacket in my car at her house, but it wasn't raining when we got to Merriweather and I had a hoodie and it wasn't cold so I figured I'd be ok. Even though it's an outdoor pavilion, they have a cover over it so if it rained we'd be ok. So Shikha and I were driving to the venue and we were debating about whether or not we should stop and eat first. We were both really hungry, but we decided to just go to the concert because I was supposed to get a phone call when the girls got there. I was told that I could find my tickets at Will Call when I got there. Since I never got my phone call, I figured she most have forgotten about me. We went to Will Call, anyway to see if the tickets were there. When we got there, that lady at the window asked the guy that was going through the names and he told her that they hadn't gotten PCD's stuff, yet. By this time it was 6:30 and the concert started at 7:00. Then, it started pouring and I mean, pouring and Shikha and I both got soaked. My $60 hairstyle was ruined. So here we are standing in the pouring rain and my tickets weren't there. I was convinced that she had forgotten about me, but we decided to wait a few more minutes to see if someone would be bringing PCD's stuff to Will Call before 7:00. We waited for about 10 minutes and finally Shikha decided to just ask some else at another window. Well, when we asked her, she went and looked and the tickets were there. Keep in mind, that NO ONE had come to Will Call to drop anything off so the tickets were there the whole time and the dude just didn't know what he was talking about. So we got our passes and asked the girl at the window where we go to use them. She didn't know and told me to ask once we got to the entrance where they scan your tickets.
So we asked them and they didn't know, but told me to ask someone else. Basically, we went to about 6 different people and they all pointed us to someone else. So one girl sent us down the aisle near the stage because if we were going backstage that's where we would go from. So we had our passes, but the girl still wouldn't let us go backstage. While we were talking to her, I saw the girl from that morning that put me on the list so she told the girl doing security that we were with her and told us to wait for her because she had to go to Will Call. She was gone for a long time. I honestly didn't think she was coming back after awhile. At that point, Shikha and I decided we were just going to say forget it and go back to our seats because the show was about to start although neither of us had any interest in seeing Flipsyde. At all. We saw her right when we were about to leave. She came back about 5 minutes before Flipsyde came on. So she was going backstage and we were following her, but the security lady wouldn't let us go at first. She had to tell her again that we were with her. So we followed her backstage and she led us in this room.
Part 3
When we got into the room, there a bunch of people from PCD's crew eating. We were in the room where they set up catering and stuff. There were some people around my age sitting at these two tables. At that point, I realized that I wasn't just going to be meeting Nicole by myself. I figured that I'd just get to get her autograph or something like everyone else. Shikha and I were standing with the girl that gave me the passes, but she had to go get backstage passes for some other people so she left for a few minutes and we had no idea what we were supposed to do or where we were supposed to go so we stood by the door. There was this weird German guy that was telling us to go sit with the other people to get our pictures taken and the meet and greet, but those people had won a contest. We weren't supposed to be with them and we tried to tell him that, but he wouldn't listen. So we went and set with them just so he would leave us alone.
Then, the Dolls' manager came in, followed by the Dolls. They're all so tiny and so much prettier in person! Esp. Melody and Carmit. They were all dressed up in their concert attire because they were going onstage in less than 30 minutes. They stood in front of this table and took pictures with the contest winners. Then, the started signing autographs. There were a few people getting autographs so Shikha and I just sat at the table and watched for a few minutes. Then, Shikha made a comment about how "she doesn't look very happy". I didn't know who she was talking about so I asked and she said Nicole. I looked at Nicole and noticed it, too. She didn't look like she was too into it. She wasn't smiling or anything and the other girls were so it kinda made her stand out. I thought "Oh, no. We must have caught her on a bad day". I was like, I hope she's not in a bad mood or something. And the way my concert experience had gone so far, I wouldn't be surprised if she was.
Luckily for us, while they were doing that, the girl that had given me the passes came back so Shikha and I went over to her to find out what we were supposed to be doing. She told us to get in line with the other people that were getting autographs. I thought that would be it. I was kinda disappointed because I thought I wouldn't be able to give my note, but I said "well, atleast I'll get to meet her, at all". I try to look on the bright side of things. When I got to the table, I saw their manager, again and we spoke. Ashley was at the beginning of the table and she remembered me from earlier that morning. And then, Melody asked me what my name was, again and then she tapped Nicole on the shoulder and told her that I was the girl with the fansite for her. And she was asking what the site was and Kim told her it was nicole-scherzinger.net (I can't believe she actually remembered!). So Nicole asked what my name was and she wrote a little message on my poster that she signed and she told me to stick around until they were done so we could talk. We had a backstage pass so we were told by someone there that we pretty much could go anywhere back there with the passes we had and we could help ourselves to the catering. We didn't, of course. That would have been weird.
We sat at this table while they finished signing autographs and I saw Nicole's sister, Ke'ala sitting at another table with her sidekick. Honestly, she looked kinda bored. Anyway, after the girls were done, they all left the room, but Nicole stayed behind and went over to this group of people with her manager and took pictures with them. Shikha and I walked over to where she was just because we didn't know what else to do and after she spoke to the people for a few seconds she told me to come with her. Nicole, Ke'ala, her manager, Shikha and I went another room where there was less people. There was someone else there, but I can't remember who it was. I introduced her to Shikha and she introduced us to Ke'ala. I talked to Ke'ala briefly and then Nicole and I talked for a bit. She asked me about the site and what made me decide to make one about her. It was funny because she said like "What made you want to make a site about me? Is it because you like me?" And we all started laughing at her and Ke'ala was like "No, it's because she hates you!". It was funny. You had to be there.
So I gave her the little note I'd written and she asked if she could read it now and I told her sure. It wasn't a really big deal or anything. She said that the last thing I'd written in the note (which was my main reason for writing it) really encouraged her so that was good. She asked if I had a camera because she wanted to take some pictures. I was glad she asked because I wanted to take pictures, but I'm actually kinda shy in person so I didn't really want to ask. So I was glad that she did. So we took a few pictures and talked for a few more minutes, she hugged us both and then she had to leave to go do vocal warm-ups.
She was really nice. I definately wasn't disappointed. I just hope that the people that were there for the autograph signing didn't leave with the wrong impression of her because she didn't seem as chipper and happy as the other girls. She certainly wasn't mean to them or anything, but I think it was obvious, or atleast it was to me, that she wasn't having the best day. But like she said, you never know what's going on in a person's head.
Shikha and I walked back out to the main stage and got back right when Flipsyde was ending (yay!). We were backstage during their entire 30 minute set. It was great. Then, we went to our seats and waited for PCD to start.
BEP, on the other hand, started off really bad. Fergie and Will.I.Am both forgot the words to "Hey Mama" and just started making stuff up. The first thing Shikha said when Fergie came out was that she looked stoned. And lmfao @ her face when Fergie started singing. I wish I had my camera out. The rest of the group recovered nicely. Fergie screwed up on 2 or 3 more songs and just generally seemed out it. All in all it was a good show, though. PCD def. stole it, though. They were better than BEP.