Rockapella Meet and Greet - The Lobero Theatre, Santa Barbara, CA - December 9, 2000

The scene back in the dance-studio-turned-reception-room was madness! People were milling about, trying to get a chance to talk and take pictures with each ‘pella. April and I spotted Jeff first, so we went up to him. He immediately recognized us and we exchanged pleasantries with him. He said that we looked good in earth tones (but I believe he was only referring to my cousin April, who was wearing a brown coat. I, on the other hand, was wearing all black. LOL). We asked Jeff if we could each take a picture with him. After he signed our Christmas CDs, we thanked him and then moved on to Bear, who was sportin’ his platinum blonde hair! It was incredible! I told him that he could pass for a Backstreet Boy, he laughed and said that he’s too old to be one. But I told him that any of those boy bands could use a man like him! We said bye to Bear and found Elliott who was standing next to him. Poor guy had a cold! He was so congested, I was so surprised that he was able to sing at all! He was up on stage for 3 hours (and 20 minutes for the Christmas set)! But he got through the whole taping without a hitch. Although, he told us that he was starving because he hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, and it was already close to midnight! Awww… Elliott! We tried not to monopolize his time any longer since he was feeling under-the-weather and we knew that he needed to get through the whole line of fans that were waiting to talk to him, so we said goodbye to El and looked for another ‘pella. Scott was next, and we went up to him, said hi, asked him to sign our CDs and got our pictures taken. I noticed as I was standing next to Scott getting my picture taken, I smelled hot-tamales from his breath. It wasn’t awful, I just happened to smell it from him. LOL I know, the things a person would latch on to. LOL We moved on to Kevin, and this guy immediately gave me a hug. I remembered that clearly! I was a bit surprised, but I thought it was really nice. We took our pictures with him and had our CDs signed, then we decided to go mingle with other Pellaheads. I noticed that while I walking around though, every time I ran into Kevin, he would hug me. It was weird. He ended up hugging me 3 times before the night was over! And he would initiate the hug too. It seemed like every time I was about to pass him, he would grab my hand and hug me. I kid you not! It was great though, I’m not even complaining. It was just weird. LOL Since this was a turn-around trip, we all said goodbye to our new friends, Angela, Sherry, and sisters Laura and Sarah, hopped back on our van and headed straight back to L.A. that night with wonderful memories from that night.