The Richness - View topic - MEAMES' HAMPTON REVIEW! It's waaay long!! - Anything and everything Chris! - Free Message Board Hosting by FreePowerBoards.com

We got back from Charlottesville on Monday morning and ran through the shower and got ready for our day. Tandt and I left Kooshes at home doing laundry for us (bless her heart), while we ran to the airport to pick up Brian. I asked Tandt how would we recognize him, she reminded me he looks like Chris, so how could we miss him? We got to the gate, just as he was coming through. For those of you that have not formed a friendship with Brian, I have to tell you, you are sooo missing out on a blessing. He is the nicest guy and such fun to be around. On the way back from the airport we stopped by my church to pick up the large coolers we were borrowing for the event. I did not know that one cooler had NO HANDLES and the other only had one handle!! This has significance later in my story!

We get back to my house and start getting ready for the CATERER (SweetConfections) to arrive. SweetConfections had planned a menu fit for a king and a bunch of us were going to prepare it, put it in coolers and take it to Hampton Coliseum on Tuesday for our day at the venue waiting for HHC!! When she got here with her crew, I suddenly remembered I had completely forgotten to buy the chickens, ice and bread!! So I had to run out to WalMart and get them. While I was gone they started prepping what they could.
Let’s see who was here to do food prep – SweetConfections, Toryshell, Tandt, Briansco, Kooshes, CaliRichness, Krizisten and Meames. (Crichfan and her group were supposed to be there, but they got caught up at the mall shopping for Chris!)
We prepared the food under the very close supervision of Sweetconfections! Smile

Her menu was to die for –
Smoked turkey and Spinach wraps – prepared by Tandt
Ham wraps w/Salsa – prepared by Tandt and SweetConfections
Vegetable tray with ranch – prepared by Briansco (after a vegetable tutorial that turned into a riot!! LOL

)
Italian Bruschetta – prepared by Kooshes and who else?
Chicken salad lettuce cups – prepared by CaliRichness and Sweetconfections
Antipasto Piks – prepared by Meames and Toryshell
Candied jalapeno w/cream cheese – prepared by Krizisten
(please feel free to correct me on any of this - my memory ain't what it used to be!)
During the afternoon there was a little drama as we found out (thanks to Kooshes and her advice to double check on the arrangements) the Hampton Coliseum had changed there minds about letting us in the parking lots, so Sweetconfections and Toryshell worked their charm and got us a plan of action even with a contingency plan in case plan A didn’t work out. I just love these RICHNESS girls!!! Craig Kimberley (HamptonRoads.tv) called me and said he would be there on Tuesday to cover our story.

When all the food prep had been done we switched gears into making RICH CHRISPY TREATS. An assembly line was set up and before we knew it was done and we were ready to hit the road to HOOTERS.

There were three cars following each other – two decorated RICHMOBILES – what a hoot!! The downtown tunnel had never seen the likes! Hooters had been totally renovated and was sooo nice. They had our tables ready, balloons and all! We met GBCHES1 and her friend from Texas, SRichardson. We ate and drank and talked and waited for CRICHFAN and her group to get there. We caused quite a stir when they all arrived and we all were hugging, laughing, yelling!! What fun. Pink arrived – she’s such a love! I was worried about her driving all that way by herself, but she made it! We had a surprise phone call, but I’ll let Tandt tell about that – how sweet! None of Chris’s family or friends showed, but that’s ok – we had a good time getting to know each other and built some memories! At around 11:00pm it suddenly dawned on me that Kooshes and I were supposed to go and get her rental car that afternoon and we COMPLETELY forgot!! So, we made plans to do it the next day and I was praying that the place still had a car for her!! There was discussion before we left as to who would go downtown Norfolk, and I felt badly that I forced some to make a swift decision because I needed to get home to bed. We didn’t get home from HOOTERS until late and we knew the next morning would have to be an early one. Here are some pictures of our night at HOOTERS!

Tuesday morning Kooshes and I went to go get her rental car and that took longer than I anticipated, so we were late getting the car loaded with the coolers. OK so the food gets loaded from the fridge to the coolers and we’re ready to roll. I put the seats down in my car (passengers will travel with Pink in her car to the Coliseum). OK, now we need Brian to help LIFT these coolers into my car. Cooler one (food), no problem – cooler two (bottled water)? Brian grabs his end to lift and of course I’m not as strong as Brian so I was a little slow lifting my end (remembering neither one of us has a handle), well I didn’t know that this particular cooler didn’t have a plug either!!!!! And of course the plug was at MY END. Yes, Brian poured cold water on my day!! I’m yelling and screaming for him to “STOP, PUT IT DOWN!” – and poor Brian he’s like “WHAT? WHAT? WHAT?” FREEZING cold water runs all down my legs (jeans) and shoes. Poor Pink and Tandt end up cleaning up the mess while I run around to my neighbor to try and borrow coolers, plus take off my jeans and get them in the dryer so I can still wear them to the concert.

We finally get on the road to the Coliseum and drive around the back to the place that GBCHES1 had told me the buses would be. We park and scope out the area. Upon arrival there were a couple of younger fans in a minivan with their mom, they thought Brian was a relative of Chris!! We meet up with SweetConfections, SweetChasity, Krizisten and CaliRichness to go meet with the dude that promised us he would find a place for us “gather.” Long story short we ended up staying exactly where we were parked and waited for the buses to arrive.

It was an incredibly windy day and the sun came out periodically, but we never gave sun tan lotion a thought. Consequently in some of our pictures we look a little toasted!!

Before too long, the buses came trundling in.

Poor Kathy, I thought she was security, not baggage handler!! Shocked

Rumor had it, Chris would not be on the buses and the rumor was true because not too much later up drives HIS HOTNESS in his BEAUTIFUL BLUE CHEVY COBRA SS!! Bless him, Kathy went out to him and helped him carry in some of his gear.

All the fans were VERY respectful and didn’t rush him or anything, we just stood aside as he walked by. He told us that he was going inside to drop off his stuff and he would be right back, and true to form he was. I believe this was when we handed out some RICH CHRISPY TREATS with RICHNESS business cards attached, promoting our website and MySpace!

I can only recall what my encounter with him was and I’ll let the others tell of their experiences with him. I had given him my gift in Charlottesville, so here at Hampton I wanted him to sign my concert book and my two shirts. He signed the back of my embroidered RICHNESS shirt “Thank You.”

And I asked him to sign my airbrushed shirt, and was trying to make it easy by leaning on my concert book, but he told me that it would “be fine if he just pulled it hard!!” Shocked

I really cannot remember any conversation with him, and I don’t think I got a hug Sad

And I could kick myself for completely forgetting to ask him for a picture! Man, the things you think of AFTER the fact! I should’ve asked him to come and sit with me in THE RICHMOBILE for a pic!! I remember asking him at some point was he going to wear his jeans and he said he had EVERYTHING with him – so that made me happy!

At one point someone alerted me that I should be taking a picture of what you could see through the back of his shirt! Nurse got it too I think!

But then my eyes wondered to what was in his pocket!! The neatest phone I ever saw, I couldn’t resist snapping this one!!

He took a lot of time with the fans, which was very cool – he’s such a love and so kind. I asked if he would give a shout out to THE RICHNESS peeps that couldn’t be there that were all over the country, but I think with all the wind and the commotion of fans around him, he thought I was asking for a shout out to the fans that had traveled from all across the country. Regardless, the shout out was GREAT!! Love the way he introduces himself, like we don't know who he is!!!

He allowed us to get a group picture with THE RICHNESS

After Chris went back inside we were just kind of hanging around and chatting when SweetConfections alerted me to the fact that the parking space beside Chris’s car was VACANT!! Shocked

I told her to stand in the spot while I ran (not a pretty sight) to move my car. I was soooo pleased (and so grateful to SweetCon) that I could get a pic of THE RICHMOBILE next to THE CHRISMOBILE!!

As the afternoon wore on we just enjoyed visiting with each other and meeting other fans and of course EATING out of the back of my car. We were so thrilled when Blue and (is it Jimmy?) showed up to say “Hi!” They didn’t want any food, but they did take some RICH CHRISPY TREATS! Smile

Before going into the concert en masse my hubby took a picture of THE RICHNESS (minus a couple of peeps Sad

)

The concert itself was AMAZING!! We had the most wonderful seats (row 4) and I met some new Chris fans!! Gave them RICHNESS business cards, glow bracelets and showed them my pics from Charlottesville. One lady told me I was so cute, she wanted to be my new BFF!! Shocked

My hubby was in charge of the camera, so I could enjoy the entire show without worrying about pics, but unfortunately he didn’t have the hang of the new camera either, so we got very few good shots of Chris. Sad

He did take an awesome video though – which is posted in a separate thread.

At the end of ONE of Chris's songs, and man I can't remember which one, I think he was wearing his BLUE VA IS FOR LOVERS shirt - he came to my side of the stage and WAVED AT ME - EVEN MADE EYE CONTACT!!!!! HOORAY!!

Most of the RICHNESS peeps got after party passes, so after the concert my hubby and I went out to the RICHMOBILE to wait for them. On our way through the Coliseum we ran across Blue going in the opposite direction. I waved “Bye Blue!” and he held his arms out to me and said “Bye Buddy!” and gave me a hug!!! AAWWW he’s such a love. I introduced him to my hubby, who told him he had heard a lot about him!! LOL! Blue asked me if I was going to the after party and I told him we didn’t have passes and he made a sad face, but I told him I was fine with that. Katy and I got to go backstage in Charlottesville, and I was so very grateful for the time that Chris gave us before both shows.

Meames and Krizisten after the concert!

Meames and Briansco after the concert!

My hubby left and led Pink out of Hampton onto the right road back to NC and we loaded peeps into my car and 77elizabethanne’s and headed for the Eames house. We didn’t get home until late and then we had to unload ALL that food that we didn’t eat. Well, we figured it was easier to eat it rather than find room in the refrigerator Smile

We didn’t eat it all and Brian saved room for FOUR bowls of ice cream – man that guy can EAT!!!

The next morning Kooshes left waaay early before anyone was awake, Tandt and I took Brian to the airport. We got stuck in bumper to bumper traffic in THE RICHMOBILE, Brian was in the front seat and this one girl in the lane next to us was CONVINCED that CHRIS RICHARDSON was riding in our car. She got sooo excited and was talking on her phone and kept looking in her wing and rear view mirrors, she almost wrecked at one point. It was quite hilarious. When Tandt and I got back to the house 77elizabethanne had left. We ate some breakfast and that was when I took a tumble down the stairs – sooo glad I did that after the RICHNESS convention and not before.

I have to say that the time spent with THE RICHNESS that week was precious to me, and I will always look back with fond memories of September 2007. In addition, Chris Richardson has been elevated even higher in my esteem for exhibiting his character in the most wonderful, professional way on this tour. The time, the effort, the patience the love he shows for his fans will carry him far in the industry he is about to embark on as a solo artist. I admire and respect this young man immensely and I hope that the little bit of support I can offer will assist in carrying him far.

Charlottesville/Hampton was a blast – can’t wait to do it all again!!
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