Aragon Ballroom, Chicago
It was this last Friday, (10.11.02), and my best friend Aisling and I had early classes that day, so we got to the venue at about 2:30ish to wait in line (the show was general admission). Some nice girls offered to hold our spots in line (which formed in the side alley), so the two of us started walking down Lawrence, where the front of the theater is. All of a sudden, I saw a guy with light chin-length hair get out of a van and walk into the lobby (which was open), and I realized it was Nikolai, so we said hello and he stopped to chat with us a bit. He's very soft-spoken and nice; he asked each of us our names. He's not as tall as I expected him to be, but he's very handsome. It was very cool because no one else was there. A few hours later, the girls offered to hold our spots again, so Aisling and I took another trip to the front of the theater. This time, the crew people called us over because apparently they had a bet going on as to how old I am (???). Anyways, we were standing talking to them and the huge green tour bus pulls up, and out comes Nick (who has THE bluest eyes ever), who just walked straight into the Aragon, and Albert and Fab, who do the same thing. Then Julian came out, and by this time a bunch of people had figured out what was going on and ran over. He was very nice and very accomodating of all the fans' requests (I actually expected the opposite of him, for some reason), and he did the cutest smile in our picture together. A very cool guy. Some drunk kid there kept yelling "Hey, Jules! I got beer! Let's get loaded after the show.." and things of that nature, and Julian kept rolling his eyes and saying "No thanks, man, I'm good." We ended up getting second row, right in front of Julian, and the show was amazing. They started with NYC Cops, and ended with Take It or Leave It. After the show, I realized my cell had fallen out of my purse, so a very nice security guard (I love you, Mike!!!!) took me back into the venue and I actually got to go backstage really quickly, but I didn't see anyone except for Matt Ramano, whom we'd already talked to earlier. (Some girl had been like "Matt, for my picture, can you jump into my arms?" and he was like "No, I don't think so." It was funny. He's a nice kid). Anyways, I went back outside and Aisling and I hung out with some cool girls we met (Hi, Rahill, Hailey, and Emily Stroke!!) by the buses. Mike (security guard extraordinaire) ended up finding my phone, bringing it to me, and then making sure that we were there when Albert came out. Albert is so cool, very laid-back and nice. He told us that he "was actually sober that night," and stayed out and talked to people for a while. Then he left for the afterparty. A while later, Fab came out, but just drove away, and we decided we wouldn't even bother waiting for Nick because a person who's THAT beautiful probably wouldn't bother coming out anyways. So... That's my story.
kee_bat
Celebrity spotting action, not really stalking. Gotta catch them all! Originally a popular feature of my site popex.com, so mostly from the early 2000s. 99% written by other people. Hopefully now with some bonus location content that was lost for a while.