So. Worth. It.

If for no other reason than a good story.

So....Melissa, Beth & I decided we were going to see Robert Pattinson at Orland Park on the 12th (which is so NOT Chicago). The mall warned people that they wouldn't be allowed to line up until 5am Wednesday morning. Beth and I were a little bummed because we'd planned on camping out like loonies & sleeping in the car. I got home from work around 10 (after I found parking) and got a call from Melissa telling me that she was on the livejournal boards and that there were already 175 people lined up - for 500 wristbands. I got her off the phone and called Beth, who answered, "So am I just coming to get you now?"

Yes.

We made it to Orland at about 12:30 in the AM and got in line. We met a girl in line behind us who flew in FROM ATLANTA by herself and was leaving the next night to fly to DC to see Kristen Stewart (Bella) - the moral: There is no judging of me. They let us into the mall after about half an hour to keep us from standing in the craptastic weather. Luckily, I hadn't really cleaned out my bag from the sleepover plan, so I had my computer and the mall had free wi-fi, and time passed pretty quickly.




We got our wristbands by 2am (numbers 405-408) and headed to Denny's with our new friend, Laura. I had Moons Over My Hammy for the first time in years at the slowest Denny's on the planet. You see, no one had told them anything was happening at the mall, so there were 2 people working. No worries, we didn't have anywhere we needed to be.

The sun was just rising when we got back to the mall to see MOBS of bitter parents/kids who showed up about 3 hours too late to get the wristbands. I have to give kudos to Hot Topic (not something I thought I would ever say) for the way they handled it. By midnight, there were already enough people to sell out the event. After the madness in San Francisco earlier in the week, they made the call to sell the wristbands at that time so we could (ideally) get some sleep, rather than tell us to disperse only to have us race each other back to the door in 5 hours.

The news cameras were there to catch all the hatefulness. I love that the people talking about 'rules being broken' by selling the tickets early are the same parents who took their kids out of school for the day. Semantics I know, but come on! If you know there are a limited number of tickets and you are driving from 6 hours away, why wouldn't you get there the night before?? Anyway, we saw the chick from Channel 7 interviewing the Hot Topic manager, then the mall manager. We told her we actually got wristbands and were very impressed with how everything ran like clockwork. She asked if she could interview us. The first question she asked us? "So are there kids with you guys or is this just for you?"

Yeah, I didn't really like her.

At least the Hot Topic guy heard us and thanked us because he was catching shit everywhere he turned. So now we had a couple of hours to kill until we could get back into the mall. Beth killed some time driving around the parking lot, checking out the angries. Then we decided to try and get the only sleep we would get before heading home that night.

About 45 minutes into the nap, I get a text from my sister Kim, telling me that she contacted her local morning radio show (105.3 HOT-FM) to let them know her little sister was standing in line to meet Robert Pattinson. Actually I think she said, "If you'd like to talk to a 30 year old teenager, here's my little sister's phone number." About 5 minutes after that text, I got a call from a 616 number. 10 minutes later, I'm a faux-celebrity on Grand Rapids radio and I've promised to try to thumb-wrestle our own Edward Cullen. Oy.

I'll have to finish next time. I'm sleepy & it was a long day.

However Andrea, "I Heart Hot English Guys Who Play Vampires" is SO not out of the question.