I love whirlwind vacations! :) I wrote this on the plane ride home Sunday and then edited it and added to it on Monday and Tuesday, so I hope it makes sense! I meant to post it right away but unfortunately, I returned home to mass chaos at work so I am just now getting the chance to post it! It is not all DLF related. We did a little sightseeing so I am throwing that in as well.

Jennifer and I started planning to attend Lupus 2002 when I was in San Diego last October. She went to the first Lupus event in 2000 and had a blast but neither of us was able to attend last year (we spent too much money on concert tickets…LOL!) so we both knew we had to be there this year!

I was lucky enough to be the 14th person to call for the special "Meet & Greet" package with Howard! I was so excited when I learned I had in fact gotten thru and made it onto the list! I was afraid that living on the west coast might put me at a disadvantage given the time zone difference so I actually told my boss I would be late for work I go to work around 6:00 a.m. most days because we do considerable work with European companies and need to get in touch with them before their business day ends and I don't leave until after 5:00 p.m. to accommodate our west coast clients, so now you know why my updates are sporadic! in order to call the DLF as soon as they would accept calls on Monday! Jennifer played me the message I left on her answering machine after I got the tickets. I was so excited you could barely understand what I was saying! I have to admit it was hysterical!

We decided to go down to Orlando a couple of days early to do a little sight seeing. We had both been there before but had never really had the time or the opportunity to explore the old BSB haunts! We got a condo at the Westgate Lakes Resort for a few days. I LOVE Westgate Lakes! I stayed there in 1999 and when I told Jennifer about the rooms, we decided to stay there again. Their condos are better than my house! LOL! The master bedroom is HUGE and has a full sized hot tub in it. The 2nd bedroom has it's own bathroom and 2 queen size beds. There is a couch that folds out to another bed, a wide screen TV with a VCR and a CD player, a full kitchen and even a washer & dryer. Each condo sleeps 9 (I think) so there was more than enough room for the 2 of us. You can't beat the views and the amenities. They have 8 pools, a gym, restaurants, a grocery store and a dinner theater! Plus, the resort is close to everything you would want to do in Orlando so it is very convenient! Here is a palm tree as seen from our window, for Dana & Keri... :)

We arrived around 10:00 a.m. on Thursday. We got our car- a brand new silver Mustang! We were stylin'! LOL! We somehow found our way to the condo. CIRCLES GOOD…STRAIGHT LINES BAD was once again the motto for our trip! I don't think I am capable of driving or giving directions straight to a location! I think there is a little Lucy & Ethel in myself as well as all of my friends I take road trips with! Jen & I got SO lost! We had a map from the airport to the condo but the car rental place turned out to be in the opposite direction from where our map began and somehow we wound up on the Florida turnpike or something like that! We figure went spent between $7 and $10 in tolls by getting lost because for every booth we went through going in the wrong direction, we had to repeat the booth going back in the right direction! On top of it all, there was one booth that we still don't know if it accepted our payment or not! The light never turned green to say the change had been accepted so when a line started forming behind us, we just left! There may be an arrest warrant out for Jen right now for all we know!

Our first plan was to go to "Ladies Night" at Tabu on Thursday but after working all day on Wednesday, and then flying all night and fighting our way through airports, we decided we weren't quite up to the club scene that night! We were going to relax and watch videos for the rest of the day, order a pizza and just hang out but we wound up going to dinner with friends instead since it was the only night open in their schedule. We had so much fun! It is amazing how even though you haven't seen someone in 2 or 3 years, you get together and there is no lag in conversation. They took us to this place called I believe "The Roadhouse". It was one of those places where you eat peanuts and just throw the shells on the floor. Much better than what it sounds like! Jen & I had fabulous chicken sandwiches. The best ones we had in Orlando!

Friday we devoted to BSB sightseeing. We started with Howard's old house. I had been there before, when Johnny almost ran over June & I on our third and last time around the block…we can take a hint… but Jen had not seen his house so it was a good starting point since most everything we wanted to see was in the same general area. From there we went to Edgewater High School and without too much effort, found Howard's Holy Stone! I knew it was by the auditorium; all we had to do was find the auditorium! :) It turned out we had parked the car about 10 feet from it! I don't remember ever seeing as many lizards as I saw on Howard's stone and I lived in Guam for a year where lizards are an every hour occurrence! I think they must have been guarding his stone! :) We had directions to Howard's childhood church- which reminded me quite a bit of St. Paul's Cathedral in my town. It was BEAUTIFUL! Even if it wasn't Howard's church, it would be my choice for a place to worship. We went to NYPD PIZZA- Great pizza and the wall décor was incredible! *WINK* Don't go there for lunch though. The place was PACKED! We also scouted out Tabu for future reference since we had heard the after party would be there on Saturday night.

Our next stop was Howard Middle School where Quit Playing Games was filmed. Once again we headed in the wrong direction and wound up on the opposite end of the street we were supposed to be on! The neighborhood was scary! We were like "Leave it to Lou to drag the guys into an unsafe neighborhood like this!" LOL! Then we realized we were driving south instead of north Is it a wonder Jen & I have navigational systems in our cars at home? so we turned around and found the school in a very nice neighborhood! I'm not apologizing to Lou for what I said though… We had heard from several people that the school was being remodeled and had even heard the steps and the basketball courts no longer existed. When we turned the corner and saw a nice cement sign in front of an empty field, with construction equipment parked on it, we feared the reports were right! Remember our motto CIRCLES GOOD…STRAIGHT LINES BAD? Well, it once again proved to be an EXCELLENT motto! We decided to circle the field. Something just didn't look right. I said to Jen "That grass is awfully green for a lot where a newly demolished building once sat!" We came around to the opposite side of the field and discovered the actual middle school is across the street from the athletic field which IS being remodeled! For some reason the field is clearly marked as Howard Middle School but the school itself is not well marked! We parked the car in the teacher's parking lot (no classes were in session so we figured no harm, no foul…) and set off on foot to find the video shoot location. It was a piece of cake to find! Once you find the school, the basketball court and stairs are in plain sight! It was so cool to see the actual location where the video was shot! We looked at our pictures later and said to each other "We sat exactly where Nick sat and where Howard played the guitar!" LOL! Yeah…I know we're freaks…

We went to Point Orlando after that. We couldn't decide if we wanted to go to a movie or not. We intended to see Scooby Doo but after reading the reviews, I just wasn't sure if I wanted to see it so I asked Jen if we could walk around and think about it. We wound up not going. I hope Jen wasn't disappointed. We paid a visit to Abercrombie & Fitch. I desperately need one closer to me! I go nuts every time I go in there! We cracked the sales guy up by telling which bags we wanted my purchases put in! What can say? Abercrombie & Fitch definitely have the best looking shopping bags I have ever seen! We also went to FAO Schwartz. They had the coolest Star Wars display! A life size Darth Vader, Darth Maul and Queen Amidala. Darth Vader talked when you pushed buttons on his wrist. People were actually videotaping after they pushed the buttons! Jen bought a new Curious George. They had so many cute ones! I didn't realize Curious George was still so popular but I guess there must have been a resurgence after Margret Rey passed away! Or was it her husband who passed away? After that we decided to have dinner at Johnny Rocket's. I don't recommend the chicken sandwich there. Mine was very soggy and smelled funny. Jen had the chili cheese fries. She said they were really good! The shakes weren't bad. A little thin but I'm a shake snob because we get thick, delicious chocolate shakes where I live that I have never found anywhere else!

Bet you are wondering if I will ever get to Lupus 2002 aren't you… :)

Friday night there as HUGE thunder storm so neither of us got much sleep. The chairs around the pools blew into the pools! There was a tornado warning in the next county, which really wasn't that far from where were! The electricity went off at least twice. Luckily, we had our cell phones to use as alarm clocks. We finally got up and around on Saturday about 10:00 a.m. We dropped our film from the previous day off at the one-hour developing center at the resort. We set out to find a KFC because we wanted popcorn chicken. We didn't find one though so we settled for TGI Fridays. Not bad. Chicken strips were pretty good and very filling! Waiter was kinda cute too… :)

Back to the hotel for an attempt at making ourselves presentable for Lupus 2002! Keep in mind it is still raining so no matter what we do to our hair, it is not going to matter by the time we get to the meet & greet! I stuck my fingernails through my nylons not once but 3 times! The third time was in a place not hidden by my dress so I had to give up and wear black tights instead. I didn't realize how bad that looked until I got my pictures back! HIDEOUS is the word that springs to mind! I wore a really cute purple dress from India that I got a street fair last year. I still like the dress but next time, I will just skip the nylons all together!

I had received a call on Monday from the DLF telling me the meet & greet had been moved from after the show to before the show. I was told we needed to be at the Hard Rock between 5:00 & 5:30 to pick up our packets and that the meet & greet would start at 5:30. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case. We got there a little before 5:00 and found out you could already pick up your tickets and wristbands but not the programs yet. That was actually OK. I wouldn't have wanted to get the program wet and it would have if we had received it right away. We tried our best to stay out of the rain but it wasn't easy! We met the contest winner from whatever magazine it was and her mom at this point. They were from North Carolina and very nice. The girl has to have one of the best streaks of luck I have heard of! This was the 3rd or 4th contest she had won! She had recently been a winner of another contest to meet Aaron as well. They thought (as I did as well) the contest winner was to be included in the meet & greet but there was some sort of a misunderstanding or mix up and they were not included. She was disappointed but I think she went away happy. I'll explain later.

We also encountered what had to be the absolute scariest fan you will ever see! She was about 6' tall and easily weighed 275-300 pounds. She was HUGE! That is not the scary part though. The scary part was that she was wearing a black, spaghetti strap tank top and a wrap around knit skirt like dancers wear over their leotards. You could see every ripple on her body! GROSS! Add to that the fact she had tattooed the names and dates of every BSB encounter she has ever had onto her shoulder! I think she had met them all but I didn't want to stare long enough to verify that!

We kept getting shuffled and positioned all around the outside of the building before they let us into the meet & greet. If it hadn't been raining, I probably wouldn't have minded as much. I did mind though because every time we got shuffled, I got wet again! Shuffling did provide us with the opportunity to see Johnny, Hoke & Paula and Angie & Tom enter the building. That was cool! Paula stopped in front of Jen & I and thanked everyone in the general area for coming to the show. She is so little and cute! Even I am taller than she is! Not by much but I was wearing flats and she was wearing heels so I doubt she is even 5' tall because I'm 5' 3" and I look about 3" taller than her in the picture I got with her later.

Finally, around 7:00 they moved us into the last line before the meet & greet. Jen and I were positioned about half way up the stairs. Looking back down, it looked like a lot more than 100 people had gotten passes! It took us about 15 minutes to get into the room where Howard, Pollyanna, Paula, Tom, Angie and at times, Hoke were waiting. May I just say that all of the Doroughs are wonderful people! I was impressed at how they seem at all bothered by the fans. They talk to them as if they have known them for years. Tom Herring was especially welcoming to everyone! He stood and talked to anyone who wanted to talk as we made our way through the line. I heard him tell someone ahead of us that Chelsea would not be at the benefit because Sam had a dance recital. How cute is that?

Jen kept reminding me to breath and to remember to actually TOUCH Howard this time! LOL! He looked so adorable! I didn't want to just hug him; I wanted to hold him for awhile! I'm not a psycho stalker like a certain mother/daughter team we know, who were of course there, so I didn't act on my thoughts… I got up to Howard without passing out. He said "Hi" and reached forward to hug me. I stepped forward and promptly stepped on his toes! I am such a klutz! I was mortified! I apologized to him and he said "Its OK. I didn't even feel it!" and then he hugged me. Here are your details Keri… He hugged very tightly! The hug was so tight, that my chin was resting on his shoulder. I'm sure he could feel my heart racing! After he released I thanked him and turned toward Pollyanna. She said "That is a beautiful dress you are wearing! You poor thing! You got wet standing out there!" and she hugged me too. They grouped me between them with their arms around me and a lady named Diana took our picture. No...there picture is not here. As explained before, I have a phobia about putting pictures of myself on the net...Piper says it looks like I was pinching Howard's butt in the picture but I SWEAR I did not pinch Howard's butt! I was so nervous that I almost forgot my purse on the chair beside Howard!

After I was done, I picked up my gift bag, which had the signed program, a signed picture of Pollyanna and DLF pin it. I stepped to the side and waited for Jen. She was finished about the same time I finished picking up my bag. They moved everyone through the line REALLY fast because they were running so late. After Jen rejoined me, we went over to talk to Mama D. She was really sweet! I had my picture taken with her as well. We sat down in the chairs along the side and watched as other people trickled in. Three events stick out in my mind. The first was a REALLY tall girl who had her picture made with Howard. She was at least a foot taller than him! He cracked up and tried to stretch to be as tall as she was! It was really cute! Next was an elderly lady with a lot of spunk! She hugged Howard really tight. He dipped her and pretended to kiss her. I read a review where someone said he pretended to hump her but I didn't see that and it doesn't even sound like something Howard would do! I mean, this is a man who declared "I would never say 'crap' in an interview!" I don't see him doing that. Especially to someone older than his mama! LOL! Maybe that is just what it looked like from where they were standing??? The third event was at the very end of the meet & greet. A photographer climbed up on the table in front of Howard and Pollyanna and asked everyone to crowd in around Howard. You can imagine how fast everyone in the room moved!

On to the show…Bet you were thinking I would never get here!

Jen and I walked right in to the theater. It was quite a bit smaller than what I thought it was going to be. The Goo Goo Dolls had played there a couple days before so I thought it would be a fairly good-sized place. Tabu is almost as big as Hard Rock Live! We stopped to get raffle tickets for a DLF jacket they were raffling off and then we found our seats. The stage arrangement was not great. Unless you had dead center tickets, speakers and curtains obstructed your view for quite a bit of the show. Jen and I were in the second row, on the left hand side. One of the DLF promo boards was right in front of us. I don't know who painted these boards but they are really cool! The contest winner and her mom were right in front of us. We talked to them again for a few minutes and then the lady representing the magazine came to talk to them. Call me a snob, a bitch, whatever you want to call me but I was not at all impressed by this lady! She looked like she hadn't washed her hair in days, it was 2 different colors, piled in a mess on her head and her clothes looked as if she had taken them out of her bag and threw them on. I think if you are going to represent a publication of any kind, you should show more respect for your job and have a little pride in your appearance! She was really loud too! I'm sure anyone in the general area heard her tell the contest winner that Taylor Hansen got married because he knocked up his wife! According to her, the guests were given 24 hours notice that the wedding was taking place! She did do one thing that redeemed her a bit in my eyes. The contest winner's mom bought her a DLF Bear. The magazine lady took it backstage and had Howard sign it since the girl didn't get to meet him and then she brought it back out to the girl. I thought that was a nice thing to do.

Jen & I looked through the program before the show started. We laughed our heads off when she found the picture of Howard at Wal-Mart wearing a nametag that said "Howie D. Wal-Mart Employee"!!! I still laugh when I think about it! The program was full of gorgeous photos of Howard and his family. I was most impressed! :)

Here are my thoughts on the show, in no particular order.

   · Howard was adorable! Kraft once again present the foundation with a check for $100,000! You could tell Howard was incredibly grateful and sincere in his acceptance of the check. He warned us ahead of time he was going to change clothes several times and he did! He had a different outfit on every time he came on stage! I wish he had performed more than he did. He only sang "Fly To Heaven" with Pollyanna and then later he joined REO Speedwagon for a couple of chorus on two of their songs. He was a great host! Don't get me wrong! I just wanted to hear him sing more! :)
   · Barry Williams was scheduled to appear but he wasn't able to make it for some reason. I was a huge Brady Bunch fan so I was a little disappointed but life goes on!
   · Pollyanna is a wonderful performer! She sings with an incredible amount of feeling. She doesn't quite rank up there with Nick when it comes to emoting but she puts her whole heart into her songs! I was hoping "D-Band" would be with her so I could see Obie again! She sang live to backing tracks though. She performed a couple of her older songs plus 2 new ones, "Wet" and "We Will Meet Again" which she wrote and dedicated to the victims of 9/11. It was a well-written song. I misted up a little bit thinking not only of the 9/11 victims and their families but of other loved ones, such as Caroline and relatives I have lost as well. She has a really cute dancer! I think she said his name was Nick. I'm not 100% sure of that though so if anyone did catch his name then please let me know!
   · 3LW- Sorry folks! Howard said they were sweet girls and friends of his but their performance left a lot to be desired! First of all the base on their backing tracks was so loud I think it vibrated the curl right out of my hair! Second, they did a wretched job of lip-synching! At times there would be someone singing but no lips moving and at other times their lips were moving but there were no vocals coming out! Lastly, why do 3 girls need 4 male dancers? Too many bodies on the stage leads to confusion and people tripping over each other!
   · The Tyrones… Gotta love a garage band… :) LOL! Sorry! That's what they reminded me of! I think they were a last minute replacement for Barry Williams. The drummer is a friend of Howard's who is a district manager for Wal-Mart. They were entertaining. They weren't bad. They were certainly better than 3LW! They just weren't really polished.
   · Survivor brought the house to it's feet! They were FANTASTIC! Howard's introduction made me giggle. He said "This next band's hit song pumped me up so much that I wanted to beat up my brother. Of course, since he is 10 years older than me, he beat me right back down!" I was a teen when Survivor was really big. The only song I *thought* I knew by them was "Eye of the Tiger". If anyone reading this went to USA Dance & Drill camp in 1983, you might remember a routine to the song. I was standing there singing along and the dance moves kept running through my head! I was surprised when I recognized almost every song they performed. The entire audience was singing along with them. I don't know about you, but I LOVE it when you can hear the audience singing over the act on the stage. It think it sounds really cool and is a great tribute to the group on the stage. The little old lady I mentioned earlier really got into their performance. She even approached the stage to shake hands with the lead singing! I think his name is Jimi Jamison??? Jen and I saw him at the airport the next day. The lines for my airline were really long so I didn't stop to chat but I think Jen might have.
   · Howard is not great at stalling for time but he is really cute when he does it! He and Tom came out to do the drawing for the jacket. He tried to stall for time! He introduced Tom a couple of times and then he made comments like "Doesn't my brother-in-law Tommy look nice tonight!" and "Let's hear it for Tommy!" LOL! He started to announce the winning number in English and then changed to Spanish and then back to English! Rob Thomas (of Matchbox 20)'s mom won the jacket. She talked to Howard for several minutes, which was great for Jen & I because we had moved to the front row so he was RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!! My best pictures are from this section of the show. Rob's mom said she would be donating the jacket to be auctioned off for an abused children's charity. I'm assuming it is one of Rob's charities but I don't know that for sure.
   · Throughout the show Howard kept saying things about the Backstreet Boys. Every time he did, the crowd would go crazy! Toward the end of the night he said "I keep saying Backstreet Boys because I love the reaction I get when I say it!" He did the nose wrinkle thing that drives me insane! I could watch him do it all day! I'm so pathetic!
   · I didn't really care for Blood, Sweat and Tears. I only knew the song they started off with and they didn't come anywhere near pumping up the crowd the way Survivor did.
   · REO Speedwagon closed out the show. I didn't know ahead of time that the boys opened up for REO Speedwagon at one time or that Kevin Cronin's stepson has Lupus. Both facts made their appearance that much more special. They did a good job with the crowd but they didn't quite reach the level of audience participation that Survivor did. Howard came out and briefly joined them on "Keep On Loving You". He was wearing a green shirt and yellow glasses. He went backstage to change for the last time. He came out wearing a jacket like Nick wore in ALAYLM and the sunglasses. He said the jacket was from Nick and the glasses were from Alex since they couldn't be there and he wanted to make a fashion statement. It was a little hard to understand what he was saying from where I was so this is what it sounded like he said…. Pollyanna joined him as did Jimi from Survivor and Doug from the Tyrones. I think the song was "Keep On Running". I don't remember very many REO Speedwagon songs!

After the show was over, Jen I booked to Tabu. It was after 1:00 a.m. by the time we got there. I had been to the Tabu website. I thought I had an idea of what the club looked like but my idea was NOT at all what the inside of the club looks like! Yes, there are a few couches and tables at the back of the club and in the VIP area but for the most part, Tabu is nothing spectacular. It is no different than clubs where I live. There is a big dance floor with a couple of small platforms at one end of the floor and a big platform at the other end. There is a small bar as you walk in and a couple more closer to the dance floor. That is pretty much it! Jen and I hung out until almost 3:00 a.m. We didn't get anywhere near Howard and his entourage so we decided to leave. I later learned if we had stuck around about 15 minutes more, we could have met Howard again when he and Pollyanna left the club!

There is my account for this year. I am DEFINETLY planning on going again next year!

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