Shriiiiiiieeeeek!

20 February 1999


Ohmygod!OhmygodOhmygod!
I saw him! I not only saw him, I *touched* him!  I spoke to him!  It was perhaps the 20 seconds of
my life that I will treasure forever 8-)

Tony & I went downtown to the convention center, where we found a teacher's convention. 
Wrong conference.  Oh well, I figured at least I tried.  So we went to the nearest hotel, just in case.
Nope.  Hung out at the nearby mall for a while.  Decided to walk to another mall downtown,
because the food court's better and we were hungry.  The other mall happens to be attached to the
Hyatt. Guess where the radio people were?

We found the room (I had gotten the room name and time off the Gavin website, but neglected to
get the name of the hotel...) in which he was performing and hung around the door as the meeting
was breaking up.  We waited.  After a few minutes, most people seemed to have left the room, the
guard left, and we wandered inside.  Tony spotted him.  I walked up behind him, waited till he was
finished talking to someone, and put my hand on his shoulder.  He turned around and smiled that
smile at me <swoon>.  I didn't lose my cool.  I said "I just wanted to tell you that I'm a big fan of
yours from way back"  He grinned, *shook my hand* and said  "thank you. Nice to meet you!"
Then he leaned over and shook hands with Tony, who said: "you've made her *very* happy"  He
grinned and said thank you, then left.  I was shaking.  I stopped to pick up a couple of flyers that
had been left on the tables that thanked people for supporting his new cd and had his signature
(I'm sure they're photocopies, but still...) Then we wound up following him and two people he was
with to the elevator, a good 30 yards we followed him-- not intentionally; we were headed the
same way. He was limping very badly.  He and his companions got on the elevator, and we went
on to lunch.  I could've got on the elevator, but that would come too close to stalking.   I kept my
cool.  I kept my dignity.  I didn't shriek or knock him down or throw up on him<g>  I am on cloud
12!  No pictures, no autographs; just a wonderful 20 second lifetime memory.  I *touched* him! 
He *smiled* at me!
He was wearing black pants and a black valour shirt with a v-neck.  He was gorgeous!

And that smile! <G>  Can you tell I'm a happy camper?

I don't know what else to say...  Next task is to see him perform, but this is better, I think...