The Richness - View topic - Meames' (and Lil'Meames) Charlottesville review!! - Anything and everything Chris! - Free Message Board Hosting by FreePowerBoards.com

First of all let me say that the ordeal of uploading pictures and trying to get thoughts on paper has elevated my respect for ALL OF YOU that have done it up until now! Geesh – this was waaaay harder than I thought and my apologies to anyone that was working on it while I impatiently PLEADED for details. I never knew it would be this hard.

I went to the airport to pick up Tandt on Saturday night. It was kind of surreal standing there waiting to see someone that you know you just love, but not sure you would recognize them. Finally my cell rings and it’s Tandt and she’s walking toward me on her phone, so I knew it was her. She’s a lot taller than I imagined and a beautiful young lady. (My husband made that observation too! Wink

He was expecting a middle age frump like me I think!) We just screamed and hugged right there in the middle of all these peeps trying to get around us. It was so cool. I wondered what people around us thought when we were hugging each other and screaming so loud and saying “It’s so good to meet you!” How many people do you greet like that the first time you meet them? Only in THE RICHNESS! Smile

We get down to the luggage carousel and are waiting for her suitcase when the carousel STOPS!! Some stupid car seat straps got caught up in the workings of the carousel and there we stood, and stood and stood!! Waiting, waiting, waiting!! Finally someone at Norfolk airport got smart and put the luggage on another carousel and we were soon out of there.

We needed to stop on the way home to get more car chalk to decorate the RICHMOBILE and some green gift bags for our Chris gifts. We stopped at Party City and although the store was not that busy we ended up spending FOREVER standing in line waiting to pay!! Little did we know that all this waiting, waiting, waiting was in preparation for the waiting that was to come!! Smile

Well I had spent weeks getting my house ready for THE RICHNESS and when I left for the airport to pick up Tandt, my house was fine, but because we were soooo late in getting back to the house I had called and asked my oldest son to start on dinner for us so we would have time to decorate the RICHMOBILE. Imagine my surprise when I pull up in the driveway and all the windows and doors to the house were open and there was the smell of smoke! My son had tried to bake fat laden rolls on a flat cookie sheet rather than the muffin pan that the baking instructions called for. Needless to say, the bottom of my oven NEEDS WORK!!

We hurry and decorate the RICHMOBILE while dinner is still being prepared by Geames and Deames.

After dinner we make a couple of batches of RICH CHRISPY TREATS for HHC and the fans we will meet in Charlottesville.

We didn’t get to bed until late and we needed to get up early and be on the road by 8:00am Sunday in order to get to Charlottesville airport in time to pick up Kooshes at the car rental place. As we are saying goodbye to my hubby he makes the comment, “Behave, do not get into any trouble and be safe.” I’m like “who, me?” His comment was “There’s Mandy, then there’s Mandy on Chris!!” LOL

Tandt made that the quote of the day!! LOL

The drive to Charlottesville was amazingly uneventful, no traffic (for those of you that know I64, that is a miracle), beautiful sunny day – we listened to Chris all the way - absolute perfection!! We stopped at a rest area and noticed that the flags on the RICHMOBILE were getting rather torn up in the wind so we brought them inside the car and because we had a little extra time we stopped at a WalMart to get some scissors and clear nail polish to trim them up and stop the fraying. The lines at WalMart were horrible but JUST as we walked up an angel in a WalMart apron walks up to us and tells us to go to customer service to pay – we zipped right on over there and boom we were on our way!!

We found the airport’s car rental place, no problem, thanks to AMAZING directions from Lindz!!! What a gem in the RICHNESS she is!!! We waited there for Kooshes to arrive. You should have seen us when Kooshes finally arrived, hugging and laughing with each other in the Hertz parking lot!!

We decide to head straight to the venue and scope it out. Well, we get to a stop sign where Lindz told us a small parking lot to the left is where the buses would pull in. Well we just drove right in there like we owned the place. I drove right by the security guy (Jeff) sitting in his car! We parked and we were getting ourselves together when up he walks and asks us why we’re there, because we were technically in a restricted area! Imagine the look on his face when we tell him we’re there for a 7pm concert at 11:30am!!! Of course the car being decorated told him we were no ORDINARY fans, WE ARE THE RICHNESS!!! He told us he would allow us to park there until 4pm but then we would have to move our car and then at 5pm we would have to pay to park in the multi storey lot behind us. I asked him if Lil’Meames could park in there with us, she was on her way. He said that was fine. We decided to get out and walk around a little, scope out the venue. We walked up to Jeff and I slipped him a small tip for helping us out. We walked around the outside of the arena and somehow ended up coming in the back way and ended up in the back of the parking lot where the buses and semi-trailers were parked. Lil’Meames arrived and I told her to walk down the hill and join us, she was not very happy with me. Especially when I told her she could change into her RICHNESS shirt right there behind the trailers!!

We soon got chased out of that area by a real mean security guard (turned out to be Jeff’s boss). Then he usurped Jeff and told us we had to move our cars too!! Sad

We ended up taking our vehicles and parked them in a shopping center and walked back to the arena where we staked out our pitch until the Idols arrived. We were soon joined by other RICHNESS members, SweetConfections, SweetChasity, Krizisten, CaliRichness, Lindz and her sister Shannon, Fedfan and her lil’Feds!! There were other Idol fans there too – we even met a good friend of KittyKittys!!

Well our waiting began and we waited and waited and waited and waited. In true Eames kid tradition “I gotta go potty!!” Well there were no bathrooms anywhere around and fear of missing Chris she decided to go rustic. Here’s her pic returning from the WILDERNESS!! She did share with us that the guy sitting in the tractor trailer got a wonderful view!! Shocked

I presented Jeff (our security guard) with a RICH CHRISPY TREAT and told him we only give those to VERY SPECIAL peeps!! After all he was keeping us SECURE!!

As Fed said, other Idols came and visited with us – Melinda is beautiful,
Phil is gorgeous, Chris Sligh was pretty cool, getting over a cold – bless him. Kathy the security guard came out with Melinda and we chatted with her for a while. Blake came up on a longboard Shocked

and signed autographs and took pics. He told us that he and Chris had an idea for their first music video and Lil’Meames asked if she and Tandt could be the video hoes!! Shocked

Around 5pm here comes HHC up the hill on his skateboard, he looked so cute! I yell at everyone sitting down in the sun – “Here’s Chris!! He’s coming!!” There was a mad dash to the temporary barrier they had set up to keep all us “unruly” fans penned in!! Chris came over to our corner and started chatting with us and taking pics and signing autographs. While he was talking with Kooshes, who was standing next to me, someone asked me to turn the tag on his necklace around, and I did. After I had done it, I felt kind of rude, like I’d invaded his space you know? But oh my let me tell you, the heat radiating from his chest – you could feel it!! I wondered afterward if maybe he had a slight fever and wondered if that was why he was late coming out to us, maybe he was a little under the weather Sad

When he got to Lil’Meames and me, I was all of a fluster (typical). I quite honestly cannot remember the details of all that happened, or in what order but I’ll try and recap as best I can.

I think I asked for a hug and at that point whispered in his ear, “Thank you for taking care of Amanda in Memphis.” He said it was no problem, it was his pleasure. You’ve got to love this kid and his caring ways!

I gave him YankeeJans gift, he was genuinely touched as I explained to him that it was from a lady in AZ that had tried so very hard to meet him at her concert and just couldn’t. He opened it up and looked at the shirt. He was very touched when he saw the pictures of Tommy and said something to the effect of “He’s my buddy!” I told him there was a letter in there to him also, which he could read later.

Our gift to him was a pair of American Eagle Jeans. As he was bending over looking into the gift bag I was trying to explain the reason for buying him Jeans, (Jeans from Meames and Lil’Meames) and I said something to the effect of “I don’t know if you remember me, but….., and he interrupted and responded “Oh no, I know who you are!!” Shocked

Oh boy – be still my heart!! The pockets were stuffed with RICH CHRISPY TREATS, to which he said “I love these!” and there was a tag attached to the fly zipper. “To Be Worn With White Belt Only! LOL!!!” He laughed when he read that! Smile

Another tag said “Jeans from Meames and Lil’Meames!” Then underneath I had taped a RICHNESS business card. He really liked the jeans. He was so cute – he kept looking at them saying “I really like those, those are really nice!” I told him I hoped the size was ok, he said they would be fine. I told him if they didn’t fit to let me know and they could be exchanged.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that NurseKJ had made me the most adorable collage of pics with him in various pairs of Jeans (including one with the WHITE BELT) and I had him sign two copies of that - one for me and one for Lil'Meames. I told him that nurseKJ had made it and he remembered who she was!

As he moved on to meet Lil’Meames I told Chris that this was my daughter and she was still waiting for an answer, she asked him if her remembered her from homecoming – HE DID!!! She told him she was still waiting for an answer, he laughed and took hold of her hands and said, “You didn’t hear me? I said I DO!!!” We all laughed – he’s so sweet! Lil’Meames asked Chris to sign her shirt. She made him blush when he went to sign her shirt, as she wanted it on the front. So she told him that she'd pull the shirt up to her shoulder so it wasn't awkward- but then as he was signing, she said "You can sign it from Oscar if you want to." He just kind of stopped, and tried to hold back the laughter, and then he blushed, and she said, “Aw, I made Chris Rich blush!” I don't think he said anything- he was too embarrassed! So he just did a nervous laugh!

Lil’Meames got a hug and they had an arm porn contest!!

I had my picture taken with Chris and so did Lil’Meames!

He moved down the line to meet others and we kind of followed along in the background enjoying listening to what others were saying to him and what he was saying to them. I’ll let them report on their details.

I asked him if he would please give a shout out to Wil, our MySpace creator who lives in the Phillipines and does so much for THE RICHNESS and would never get to see him in person. Wil has posted it already

Lil’Meames and I were able to get a mother/daughter picture with Chris – I just love this picture!

If I remember right Chris asked if he could get a group picture with the RICHNESS!! What a doll.

I would guess he spent a good 45 minutes out there with us, before riding off into the sunset on his skateboard with his bags of gifts.

We decided to go get something to eat before the concert began, boy, why did we pick the SLOWEST restaurant in town? Our food took FOREVER to arrive. Fed and her kids were so smart – they went and did fast food. We scrambled to get to the concert in time for the start. Firstmate gave me a gift to deliver to Chris’s mom – a RICHNESS SHIRT with “Chris’ Mom” embroidered on it! I had hoped that at some point I would see Phyllis to give it to her. The peeps checking bags at the front door, would not allow us to bring in the gift in a bag. He wanted me to dump it right there. I argued with him, it’s just a shirt, what’s the big deal? He said no gifts were allowed. So I took the shirt out of the gift bag and stuffed the shirt into my purse and threw the gift bag and tissue in the trash can right there. “Can I go in now?” He said that would be fine! GGRRR!! Give people power and it goes to their heads! By the time we got to our seats I felt so hassled and discombobulated!! Our seats were not the best, and I was next to a guy that really needed two seats!! Shocked

My camera would not co-operate, so most of my pictures turned out to be fuzzy and horrible! Sad

At intermission Sweetconfections tried so very hard (Thank you SweetCon) to get security to allow us to move to the floor where she was and there were empty seats around her. We even got the head honcho, nothing doing. Kind of made me mad, we paid more for our yucky seats than she did for hers that were on the floor. Kathy came over and Lil’Meames, Tandt and she were involved in some kind of conversation I couldn’t hear. Imagine my surprise when Lil’Meames holds up three AFTER PARTY passes!! It was the last three that Kathy had and they had come from Kathy’s aunts that were sitting right there. Kathy’s the BOMB!!

We enjoyed the concert – performance after performance rocked the house. Everyone proving that television does them no justice whatsoever. Live, is the way to go!! I noticed that Chris’s mom and dad were sitting in the floor seating right behind SweetConfections, Sweetchasity, CaliRichness and Krizisten. So I figured that at the after party I could give Phyllis her shirt.

After the concert we went and waited in the SPECIAL area for those attending the after party. Chris’s mom came over and I called her name. She looked at me and recognized me and waved, said “Hi.” I called her over telling her I had something for her and pulled the shirt out of my bag. I apologized it was not in a bag and explained that whole thing. Her face just LIT UP when she saw it and said “Oh, I get one?” I told her that her “name was on it, well sort of!” She opened it up and saw “Chris’ Mom” and her face just melted. She loved it and said she would wear it “next time!” Well we all knew that “next time” would be Hampton – we were so excited!

Here's Tandt and Lil'Meames showing off their after party passes! Smile

At the after party we were led into a room where a lot of the idols were, not all of them. Chris was all the way in the back. I was VERY grateful to have had that opportunity to go back there and mingle with the idols, but I much preferred the one on one time we had earlier in the day with Chris outside. It was so much more personal. Lil’Meames asked Chris if he would wear his jeans in the Hampton concert so I could take a picture and send to her because she had to go back to school and couldn’t attend Hampton. He looked sad and said he would. (However he didn’t, but that’s ok – he’ll wear them at some point).

Poor Kooshes and Fed and her kids were waiting for us outside the venue. Lil’Meames drove back to her school that night and we followed Fed and her kids back to her house for the night. It was about 1am when we went to bed and we had to be on the road by 8:00am the next morning. I didn’t sleep that well until about 5:00am then I went into a deeper sleep and boy was it hard to wake up at 7:00am!! We had a cup of coffee with Fed before we got on the road. She is such a sweet person and her family is awesomeness!! Thank you so much Fed for your hospitality, I really appreciate it. You’re a gem!!!

We got on the road at 7:55am and got back to my house around 10:45am.

Charlottesville was a blast, some of the venue staff were not so nice to us, but that’s ok – we didn’t let it spoil our fun. It was a BLAST to meet Fed and her family, Lindz and her sister – what sweethearts!! They sure all showed us that southern hospitality!!

Sorry this is so long - there was so much to tell!! Smile

I just have to say I am so very proud to call myself part of THE RICHNESS. Everyone I've met this past week are the sweetest, kindest, nicest peeps - Love ya'll!

*off to write the Hampton review*

EDIT: Feeling so clever I added a video to the part where Chris skates off into the sunset!! Smile

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