I’d heard a lot of good things about Camp Heartland and
Rockapella Rendezvous and I made a point of going to this particular one. It was perfect timing because my cousin April was in New York City, doing internship at BMG as part of her Music Industry program at
USC. So, my other 2 cousins and I decided to take a week-and-a-half long vacation to NYC to visit April and to see Rockapella at Hofstra University for the Rendezvous. This was very exciting to me because, not only was I going back to New York for the first time in 4 years, but I was going to see my favorite music group perform, get to have dinner with them, and, not only that, but I finally get to meet these friends that I’d made online (fellow Rockapella fans) in person! I was absolutely looking forward to meeting, Barb, who I affectionately called “B-mom” or “ma.” I’d only met her online, after she sought me out and we struck up a friendship right away. We became very close, very fast and I, to this day, still consider her one of my best and dearest friends in my entire life. I still miss her to this day, 2 years after her passing. We took a “red-eye” flight out of LAX and arrived at JFK at approximately 6am EST. As soon as we arrived at our hotel in midtown Manhattan, we all crashed and slept ‘til about 11am. We had to get up and get ready really fast because we had to meet my aunt at the Marriott Marquis in the heart of Times Square and we walked over to a restaurant, the name of which escapes me at the moment, and ate there before heading over to Penn Station to take the LIRR into Hempstead. We barely caught the 6:00 pm train, and got into Hempstead around 7:00 pm. We waited around for a bus to take us to Hofstra University, and that took us at least half-an-hour. We finally arrived on campus grounds at approximately 7:30 pm, and when we walked in, the Camp Heartland part of the show had already gone underway. Luckily, we got there just in time for the guys to come on.
The show…. Guys did a great show as usual. Scott was wearing cargo pants that were so tight, and were very low on the waist, that you could see his abs every time he moved around. And he moves around A LOT, y’know what I’m sayin’? ;) Anyway, the best part of the whole thing was the auction. They had signed picture frames that have capability to record sounds being auctioned off, along with some other goodies. I absolutely enjoyed the moment when Jeff licked his frame so that he could get a higher bid for it. Classic! LOL If I had the $$$, I would’ve definitely made a bid on that frame. Nasty as it was, heck! It’s Spitter’s spit all over that darned thing! April even elbowed me when he did that, just to make sure that I was looking. Oh yeah, she knew I’d get a kick out of it. Okay, I better stop before I incriminate myself any further. Let’s just hope that the “subject” himself does not stumble upon this site and read this little anecdote. *ahem* Let’s move on, shall we? *nudge, nudge, wink, wink* LOL
The Rendezvous… 
Before I go on, let me just say God bless the caterer! I was starving towards the end of the show and I couldn’t wait to get my grub on. It was buffet-style and a wide variety of delicious dishes. And the dessert table!!! OH MY GAWWWWD! LOL Anyway, after getting our eat on, my cousins and I proceeded to hound the guys for autographs. I wandered off by myself at first and found Kevin. Talked to him, he gave me a hug, was surprised to see me on the wrong coast, got my picture taken with him (along with my cousins. They ran towards us just in time for the shot to be taken.), blah, blah, blah. The usual.
Anyhoo, we made our rounds and found Bear. He was so sweet! Upon seeing April and me, he smiled so big and gave us both a big hug and referred to both of us as “my girls.” I think it’s the whole Los Angeles connection, you know? We Angelenos are always glad to see one another. I noticed that Bear strategically situated himself right next to the giant coffee percolator and I made sure I pointed that out to him. He smiled at me as if to say, “where else would I be?” LOL It’s the coffee-lover in Bear. That’s why I love him, because of the whole caffeine connection. (Where’s my caffeine I-V?) We made our way to Scott. I barely remember what I said to him. He was kinda stand-offish, somewhat tired I believe. It’s forgivable, Scott. I love you anyway, because you’re absolutely brilliant and when I grow up, I want to be just like you. LOL We went over to Elliott afterwards, he was feeling a little under the weather, hence, the blue turtle-neck sweater and not to mention, the bright, Santa-red pants (Goodness gracious! LOL)! Anyway, he sounded very congested, but managed to talk about his son, Eli, at length, and showed baby pictures. Abso-freaking-lutely adorable! LOL Was there every any doubt?! Just look at who the father is! Duh! Anyway, I got a very nice hug from El and a very adorable picture (Damn those dimples!). We found Jeff next. For some reason, I decided to bring every single thing “Rockapella” that I have and handed them over to Jeff to sign. Of course, being the smart-“you-know-what” that he is, he had to say something about it. And of course, being as star-struck as I was, I was too slow to come up with a comeback. He did, however, say that it was very sweet of me to fly, and I quote, “2500 miles” to see them. Uh, sure thing Mr. Thacher. ;-)
And because of that act of devotion from yours-truly, the man was compelled to give me a hug and a kiss and repeatedly said the phrase, “you’re so sweet.” hehehe…. Ah, Mr. Thacher, I do like it when you are in a good and appreciative mood. ;) I asked if I could have my picture taken with him, he obliged, but not without trying out a few antics, if you will. As we stood there, arms around each other’s waist, he decided to give me a squeeze, which hurt a bit, I yelled “ow!” and darted a look at him thinking it was some kind of accident. But it wasn’t an accident, because he decided to do it one more time, just for the fun of it. Ah, goofy Mr. Thacher. During some time in the course of the meet-and-greet, I found myself standing around, watching Kevin sign CDs and posters, and as I looked up, I saw Jeff looking at me, as he was talking to a group of girls, and was doing “flying” motions, his arms stretched-out as if they were wings, and pointed at me, which prompted the girls to look back at me, which was very weird. I didn’t know why he was talking about me (and I still don't), but I should be flattered, I guess…. LOL Anyway, after all the hoopla, I decided to chill out and talk to some friends. Caught up with Barb, took pictures, snickered about our favorite ‘pella. (Care to take a guess who? LOL) Eventually, I ended up talking to Fred, their sound technician, and later on, we were joined by my good friend, MJ. We were talking about the Yankees (?) gig the guys had the other day, when they sang the National Anthem before the baseball game, when Kevin came and joined us, carrot cake in hand. As he approached me, I looked at his cake and said, “hungry eh, Kev?” He nodded and offered his fork to me. Thanks Kev, but are you sure you wanna share? LOL He joined our conversation and we started talking about fishing. He said that he could just go to his backyard to fish because he has a lake in his backyard. Whoa Kev! He even invited me, MJ and Fred to go fishing in his backyard sometime. Uh, Kev, I’d like to take you up on your invitation now. LOL At this point, my cousin and other diehards congregated around Kevin. When Kevin noticed that our “little singing group” was complete (meaning, my cousins and I, a.k.a. In Harmony), he asked us if we were going to sing for him again. (We had sung for him at a previous "meet and greet" in Los Angeles a few months back) I said “sure” and we sang “Zombie Jamboree” for him, Sean-version. He gave me a good ribbing about that. He said that it was good, but it would’ve been better if we had sung the “eyeball” version. Sorry Kev, I learned Sean’s version first, and I kinda liked it better because it has more of the calypso flava to it. After “Zombie” we asked Kev to sing “A Little Fall of Rain” from Les Miserables with one of my cousins. She started singing, but of course, Kevin didn’t remember the words. Ahhh…shame, SHAME on you Marius! LOL So, fellow Rockapellaholics Amy, Jenn and Cheryl tried to help him out, but it was hopeless. OH well… What could you do? This, from a guy who sang, “she’ll take you for a ride on the hhmmhmmmmm Carolina.” heeehehee The Rendezvous ended with Scott coming back inside (he was, apparently, outside waiting for everyone else to come out and get in the limo), and kinda yelled at Kevin to get the heck outta there. Kinda scared me there a little, Mr. Leonard. It’s understandable. We still love yah. ;-)
