Rockapella Concert - The Coach House, San Juan Capistrano, CA - April 11, 2001

This was the show that I completely missed altogether. I actually wasn’t planning on going to this show until fellow diehards, Angela and Sherry, left me a message on April's voicemail that night telling me that Angela bought me a ticket to the show and would leave it at the Will-Call window. I had spent the whole day, having a late lunch/early dinner with my cousin April, our friend and So Cal CASA co-ambassador Amy, and m-pact, and helping out with the preparations for m-pact’s first-ever Los Angeles concert, with Sixth Wave (Amy’s group) as their opening act. April and I had volunteered to help sell tickets at the window and man the CASA table. Anyway, the m-pact/Sixth Wave concert ended around 9:00pm and I noticed that I had gotten a new message in my voicemail and turned out to be Angela and Sherry’s message. Needless to say, I darted out of Hermosa Beach Auditorium, and drove to San Juan Capistrano like a maniac (SJC is at least 1 hour away from Hermosa Beach). I got there just a little under an hour, but as I exited the freeway, guess what happened? I got LOST! Sure did! I couldn’t find the street where I was supposed to turn onto to get to The Coach House. I kept driving up-and-down the main street, looking for a street sign, which was impossible to find, by the way, because there weren’t any street lights at all! After about 20 minutes of driving, I finally saw the teeny-tiny street sign (I was ready to hop back on the freeway and head home. Who wouldn’t?). So I made the turn, found The Coach House, and immediately parked on the first available parking spot I could find (I didn’t really care if it was a handicapped parking spot at that point). So, I went in and found the place almost empty, with only a few fans wandering about. I didn’t really notice anyone. I was too pre-occupied looking for Angela and Sherry (you can imagine that I was a little frazzled when I got there) I almost ran into Scott and knock him over! I was literally inches away from him. He had to grab a hold of my shoulders to make sure I didn’t fall over (or was it the other way around? hehe). He immediately recognized me and hugged me. I apologized to him and told him that I was looking for my friends. He noticed that I was a little frazzled so I told him what happened. I explained to him that I had just arrived and missed the show completely. He looked at me with this worried look on his face and asked if I was okay. He must’ve thought that I had gotten into some kind of accident judging from the look of concern he gave me. I assured him that I was okay, it’s just that I had just come from helping out at the m-pact show in Hermosa Beach, and that it took me an hour to get there and had even gotten lost after I got off the exit. That was why I was incredibly late. He smiled and told me to be careful next time, and that he was glad that I made it. He got curious about the m-pact show, so he asked me what exactly I did to help out, so I explained to him that I helped sell tickets at the booth and man the CASA table. He thought that was interesting and he proceeded to ask me about Hermosa Beach Auditorium. He wanted to find out if it was a good venue and such, so I told him as much as I knew about the place. I explained to him that it’s where the Los Angeles Harmony Sweepstakes are held every year, and I thought that it would be a great place for them (Rockapella) to perform at. I guess he was shopping for new venues. After that conversation, and another hug, he excused himself and said that he was going to go upstairs to grab a bite to eat, he offered to look for Angela and Sherry, as he thought they might be upstairs (they’re part of the Rockapella fan club, so they had the privilege of hanging out with the guys in the “green room” – I wasn’t a member at the time. Yeah, I know.), and told me that he would send them down if he saw them. So, I said goodbye to Scott, and off he went upstairs. After Scott left, I found myself all by my lonesome, so I turned around and who did I see? Jeff, about 5 feet away from me, talking to a guy and signing his CD. I just stood there, somewhat waiting, then he looked up, saw me, turned to the guy and said, “excuse me, I have to go say ‘hi’ to her”. hehe So, he walked up to me, said hello and gave me a hug. It was a nice, tight, “haven’t-seen-you-in-while-I’m-so-glad-to-see-you” hug. He even made a sound, like a groan or a sigh (LOL). He asked me how I was doing, I told him that I was tired, and that I had just gotten there and completely missed the show. Like Scott, Jeff looked at me with this worried look on his face and asked me if I was okay. I said that I was and explained to him why I missed the show. When he found out that I was at the m-pact show, he gave me a hard time about it and that he was disappointed that I’d rather go see m-pact than them. Of course he was joking. I had to explain to him about helping out, so that somewhat got me off the hook with him, but he did say that I had to make it up to him. So, I told him that I was going to, because I will be at their show at The Key Club the following night. So, that did the trick, I guess (me, getting off the hook). We hugged again, and then he turned to these fans that were waiting for him so they could take a picture with him. So being the nice, helpful diehard that I was, I offered to take the picture for them. After I took the picture, I waved goodbye to Jeff with a “see you tomorrow”. At this point, Angela and Sherry made their way downstairs and found me. I had to explain to them my whole ordeal over again. They showed me all the goodies that they had for the Boys, and told me that they were incredibly excited that Scott knew who they were because he figured out that they were the “friends” that I was looking for. Anyway, the girls went off to look for Elliott (or Barry, can’t remember which) to give him their gifts. So I told them that I would meet up with them again later. I wandered around and saw Kevin talking to a couple. So, I went over and sat down on one of the chairs right in front of Kevin. He noticed that I was sitting there and he smiled at me (cute!). He continued on talking to this couple, and then they asked him if they could take a picture with him. So, again, being the nice diehard that I was, I offered to take their picture. After the couple left, I went up to Kevin, and he gave me a hug, said that it was nice to see me. I had brief chat with Kevin, talking about So Cal weather, and that he didn’t anticipate that it was going to be a little chilly in So Cal so he didn’t pack a jacket. Poor thing. Anyway, like I said, it was a quick chat with Kevin, said bye to him and then I was off. I found Barry next, he was standing next to Kevin, but there were a bunch of guys standing right in front of me, talking to Barry, so I just stood on my toes and waved hello to Bear. He saw me, and gave me this big surprised grin! Next thing I knew, he worked his way through those guys, and gave me a hug! I didn’t get to say much to Bear, basically I just told him that I was just wanted to say "hi" before I left. He thought that was sweet and said that it was good to see me. *sigh* I love Bear! I didn’t get to talk to Elliott at all, but I did see him play with Bear’s mom’s dog (I think it was a golden retriever, from what I can remember), he saw me, flashed that adorable smile of his, and said that he had to go upstairs. Awww…I know. But as El walked up the stairs, Jeff was walking down, and he started playing around with the dog and started talking to Bear’s mom. Too cute! I went to look for Angela and Sherry as I was about to leave. I found them, said my goodbyes. I hopped in my car and tried to make my way out of the parking area, but I soon realized that I didn’t know how to get back on the main street to get to the freeway. So, I went back to The Coach House and asked one of the workers there how to get back on the freeway. After I had gotten the directions, I went back to my car, and I noticed that Jeff had just walked out of the club and was putting his garment bag in a white car, which turned out to be Bear’s mom’s car! As I got back in my car, I yelled bye to Jeff, he turned around and said bye as I drove past him, with Level 42’s “Something About You” blaring on my car’s CD player…how appropo. hehe