My mom and I cried through the first song and my dad took some of the most amazing pictures. And then after the show I got a DDub hug by the fence. It was too short, given the four hours of fence time I put in before the show, but I had my 5* a few days later, so I knew it was just a warm up. A couple of days before the Greenville show, I discovered Twitter. I trolled it for a while, mostly just checking out Donnie’s page, and not knowing what to make of it. Was it really him? Then I found out Jonathan had a page, too. Then I found out they REPLIED to people. I can’t believe that was less than a year ago. I don’t remember what my life was like without this TWO way communication with these men who had been a one way part of my life for so long. Nine months later, I have a humble gathering of amazing followers and follows that have kept me sane during the parts of 2009 that weren’t so fun. I’m so grateful for the people twitter has brought into my life, not only the luck I’ve had with communicating with the guys, but more than that the women and men I have met that share this brother and sisterhood we call the NKOTB army. I like to think of them not as an army but as an extended family. They are amazing people. I am so blessed to have them in my life. Then came Greenville. Or as Donnie likes to call it “GreenSville.” We won’t go into my hypothesis as to where the misstep came from because it’s probably the lowest point of my year NKOTB wise anyway. On the whole, however, the 5* was more than I expected. There’s nothing like turning around and realizing you’re the only girl in the room with all 5 guys and knowing that it’s entirely Joe McIntyre’s fault because he would NOT let go of you and nearly shooing off a bodyguard only to realize it’s actually Jordan Knight. (Oops. Sorry J.) The second-by-second 5*replay can be found here: But more than the 5* itself, GreenSville was about bonding with Nikki, who up until that point I only new because I was friends with her sister who is a quasi-blockhead, too, but more of the rationale, normal human being type. I needed a crazy fan road tripping buddy. That was the day Nikki and I became sistahs, even though we didn’t know it yet. Fast forward to the summer of all summers. Before Full Service it sure as hell was a rollercoaster. I was gonna go on the cruise, then I couldn’t find anyone to go with, then I found someone to go with but she backed out, all the while not knowing Nikki would have gone with me if we hadn’t gone through her sister to try to figure it out. The cruise was depressing, but not nearly as depressing as having both shows in my state (including my 5*) cancelled for the summer tour with little in terms of explanation. It was a good thing, Nikki and I had already begun fuelling each other’s insanity and had managed to get 5* tickets to Houston as well. So we switched our Charlotte tix to Dallas, and, on a whim, got tickets to Atlanta and Virginia Beach. My internal NKOTB lo-jack gave me the intuition to go to ATL the night before the show. The guys tend to go to the venue early the first show of the tour, so we booked a hotel, even before the guys started tweeting that they were in ATL four days early(God, I love twitter!). That was the longest 3 day work week of my life. Especially once Ethan and Rob started tweeting me back and telling me we should come early to hang out. *GULP*. But in what has been one of our last attempts at responsible adulthood, Nikki and I toughed it out until the day before the show before we headed down to Atlanta. In another instinctive mood, we decided to stalk the venue, since from their tweets, it sounded like the guys were still rehearsing, even though it was 10:30 at night. seven words and the most victorious tweet of my whole three months on twitter at that point: WAFFLE HOUSE FACE TIME IS REAL, YO!
It was more than the coolest Waffle House experience I’ve ever heard of, more than the best 5*, more than anything other than a fantasy experience. It was NORMAL. What’s more, other than a HAWT (lol) picture of me and Donnie, I met girls who are now some of my best friends because of that experience. Virginia Beach was also cool. Met some other Charlotte girls who I would have met in Charlotte had our show not been cancelled-nice to know there are others as persistent [read: crazy] as us and some other girls I had “met” through Twitter. Brought back memories of the Prodigy chat board nostalgia days of the Face the Music era. We went to the after party where we clearly didn’t learn our lesson that the after parties are insane because we would go to two or three more before the summer was over. We also learned that Nikki can survive on 3 hours sleep in four days…and I can’t. Also we learned that following the buses between cities becomes impossible when you damn near run out of gas and also when you aren’t willing to drive 90 miles an hour in a downpour just to keep up. Cincinnasty was next, and it was just that. It was also a life lesson in the realm of “the well of good NKOTB fortune eventually runs dry.” After nearly passing out in the heat waiting in line to get into the 5* I never should have had, I had to give sweat-soggy hugs to three of the guys. 
I didn’t get near Danny (even though I intended to stand by him in the picture) because the other Danny girl threatened me and she was all Jersey about it, so I wasn’t gonna play. Donnie was surrounded as usual, so I didn’t even bother. Then ILAA confiscated my camera and blamed it on the guys. Cuz, ya know, Jonathan has nothing better to do than measure people’s lens lengths. Shut up. I didn’t mean it that way. Okay I did. *giggle*. At least my picture turned out good. Fast forward again to Texas. The single greatest adventure in planes and automobiles I’ve ever experienced. Two days, two cities, two concerts, two rental cars, and three flights. 
It was EXHAUSTING, but completely worth it. I didn’t blog about it at the time because it was just too much. Volunteering for Let’s Get This in Dallas (so glad to meet my sisters especially Molly and Rita who make me smile DAILY on twitter, although I could have lived without sweating off my spray tan due to lack of shade),
the perfect 5* in Houston (they even had air conditioning, bless them!), and quality time with my sistahs Nikki and Sara and Jenn. I’m sooooo glad we decided to do something that seemed sheer madness at the time we booked our plane tickets. Of course it didn’t end there. We came back and immediately scheduled the SleepOvah- because we couldn’t handle the depressing parts of Houston. Bruce contributed to an email conversation of hilarity that will go down in history as “The SleepOvah Rules” I expect more rules and other insanity before the SleepOvah Volume 2 scheduled for January 23rd (info coming “soon”). I can’t even think about Kristie, Erin’s and my impulse, 24 trip to Nashville without my heart fluttering and a huge smile crossing my face. I already blogged about that here:
The only other thing I can say about that trip is that my favorite part was being completely WRONG about everything I thought I knew about the psychology of Jordan Knight. God, I love him. I appreciated and liked him before, but…okay, I have to move on now… My NKOTB adventures in 2009 culminated with my trip to Atlanta for Jordan Idol and Donnie’s “I Got It” Party. What a rollercoaster. We had VIP for Donnie’s party which ended up being one of the smartest moves we could have made. Not only did we get to paw all over Donnie when he came to our side of the stage, but Jordan recognized and held hands/sang to both me and Kristie and gave me the most snuggly hug I could have asked for (*ducks as Desiree throws shoes at me*) as he was walking through the crowd. I don’t think I expected Jordan to recognize me, even though Nashville was pretty unforgettable for US I didn’t think it was so special for him. And maybe it was just close enough in time that he still remembered it, but wow. I got some great videos of that night… Jordan Idol ATL was exciting, too. I still can’t believe I got up and sang. Jordan and Donnie were both backstage at the time which made it easier for me to not pass out. I didn’t do my best because I was sick as a dog from screaming my brains out in a smoky club when Jordan showed up at Donnie’s party the night before, but I DID IT! That was exciting. There was also the bittersweet meet and greet after the show, and the weirdest most awkward Waffle House encounter ever, but I won’t go into details on those incidents here. I will, however say that Kristie, Des, Whitney, Erin, Sara, and Tara got me through that night and I don’t know what I would have done without you girls. Thank you for being my sistahs during the tough times, too. I love you guys so much. 2009 had its low points. Like when Jon deleted all his tweets and Jordan disappeared and I flashed back to 1994. I can’t rehash that again, it made me seriously depressed, but you can read what I wrote when it happened here: and the drama with Aaron leaving Twitter altogether which I still don’t completely understand and at this point don’t want to. But on the whole 2009 has been a dream. My first instinct is to thank the guys, but really, I want to thank you, my sisters, my tweeps, my twitches! LOL. Because without you this journey and this blog would be MUCH shorter!
Mostly, I have to thank my husband, Bruce, without whom none of this would be possible. I think I laugh loudest when I catch him singing/whistling Step by Step or when he pretends to get excited about some twitter gossip I’m babbling on about. He’s the most incredibly patient, tolerant partner I could have asked for. Even though he won’t go with me to see a show, he has put up with more than I ever should have asked for this year and when things went bad in Atlanta, he stayed awake all night to talk me through the 4 hour drive home. I love you, Bru.
There are other things I’ve been thankful for, too. My family is mostly healthy and happy. We gained another dogter this year-right pain in the ass that she is, but we love her. I’ve managed to keep *most* of my friends, and the ones I’ve lost, well, there were issues there anyway, I suppose. And 2010 is already guaranteed to be amazing. I start a new job January 4th that will be less stressful, less time consuming, and more fun. I’m going to the NYC Joe Show, I’ve already spotted myself in the Coming Home video, and I’ve got a cabin on the cruise, provided I can pay for it with my new, lower paying job. And all the surprises Danny keeps teasing us with that are coming “soon”. As I get ready to ring in the new year with 2 of my Charlotte Road Soldier Sistahs I just want to say thank you to everyone who made 2009 the most incredible year of my life. There are too many people to name here, but if you’re reading this, you played a part, and I love you for it.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! Dannie
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