Kristen's Airshow Review

Ok, here's my POV (Point Of View) Review of what happened at Saturday's Airshow!

Part 1
I arrived around 10:15. It was hard because we had an on base parking pass and my family had never been to an airshow before. We were following signs turning everywhere to get to the on base parking area. We had no clue that when we got the on base parking pass that it was actually ON BASE it was really close so we were happy we could drop things off at our car and get things out of it as often as we needed to it was really convineint! My first instinct was "FIND TOWNSEND" of course my family had the biggest desire in the world to explore AS we headed to where Townsend was said to have been. I couldn't really be like "HURRY UP GUYS" because my family had already been a little annoyed by the fact I was hurrying everyone out of our place that morning to get a move on. Finally I spoted a twin! Sitting at the corner of a table he was wearing a red tank top. I looked to figure out which one and I screamed from about 100 feet away "NICK!" and he was like "HEY CRAZY K!" and I ran up to give him a hug. Eventually he and the rest of my family started talking and I made my rounds to the other guys. I saw Dom next, then Rye (who was preoccupied with a girl so there wasn't a hug just yet and I didn't want to inurrupt), then I saw Matt and Todd was like "KRISTEN!" and got up off his rolling chair to give me a hug. I stayed talking to the guys for a big and I went over to my parents to make sure my mom wasn't saying anything to embarass me to Nick. Before I could make my way to them this lady with red hair kinda stopped and started to smile at me. I thought she may have confused me with someone else. She said "Excuse me do I know you from somewhere?" and I said "Um, no I'm sorry I don't think so." kinda half smiling. She said "Are you Kristen?" and I said "Yes?" and she goes, "I'm Wendy." I smiled really huge and gave her a huge hug. (Wendy and I have been exchanging emails for a while and we hadn't met till Saturday in person.) She told me that Bob had taken a picture of me at the NSync concert I was at and had given it to her and she recognized me. She asked to meet my family and we talked for a little while. (Let me tell you, Wendy is like pne of the nicest people I have ever met, her and Bob are so awesome!) Bob rode up on his bike behind me and I jumped to give him a hug. He had to ride off to patrol and Wendy had to get back to the Astrobiology booth. My dad forked out 40 for 2 T-Shirts and Dom and Matt, Nick, and Todd signed it afterwards. It was funny because Dom (who I guess wasn't paying attention wrote "K-Angle" instead of "K-Angel" (What they call me on occasion.) and Nick squinted at the T-Shirt and I was like "Having some problems over there?" and he's all "I think it says K-Angle!" I said "Is someone being dislyexic?" and I gave him a hard time. I looked and the only person I was missing was Rye. So I went over to him since he was fairly unoccupied with anything else and I said "You're missing on this" and handed it to him. I talked to him for a while and joked while he was writing his note. He gave it back and I said "I haven't given you a hug yet!" so he smiled and reached over the table for a hug. (All of the guys give the best hugs in the world don't they?) I kinda stuck around talking and joking with the guys till they had to go off to lunch. I wandered around for a while talking with all of the AWESOME fans and time drew closer to SHOWTIME! Part 2...
It was about show time and I was standing with Andrea, Katie, Megan and Ryan's mom (Who by the way is really cool and really sweet!) talking about some guys that were there and hitting on some of the Townsend fans. Anyways eventually we all kind of parted our ways and security blocked off a section about 10 feet away from the stage. My family got a pretty good view because we were about in the middle and right behind the Caution Tape. A lot of people noticed 6 chairs on the stage being manuvered around by different people constantly. Everyone in my area was asking each other what the 6 chairs were for, including me. I eventually mentally decided that one of the stage guys might've put an extra one up there "just in case" I mean I know that I'd probably do the same thing too, besides it's easier to take a chair away then go out and find an extra one right? I stood as they said at 2 (the time the show was scheduled to start) that it would be 12 minutes till show time. Time drew closer and I saw the five guys pull up in a golf cart. I got excited and happy that they were there and of course being in the hysteria, my heart started pounding and I started to get really jumpy. I was counting down the minutes and about 2 minutes before my pager hit 2:12 I heard "Will Christine Ramos please report to the sound area." I thought I heard my name and then thought "Well it's a Christine" and my mom told me to go ahead and go check since all of the Townsend fans named Christine don't have "Ramos" as their last name. So I ran into a lady heading to it and stopped to apologize. I went up to Julie and said "Um, hi?" and she goes "Kristen, hi, I'm sorry I just was corrected on your name." I introduced myself and shook her hand and she told me she'd stay with me. I asked why I was there and she said "Because the guys wanted to sing to you on the second song." Nothing really hit me yet Pt. 3

Part of me was trying to function that and look at Nick, Rye, and Matt (who were on the side I was on) jumping up and down getting hyped up. You could really tell the adrenaline was flowing through them. I hugged Matt to wish him luck and then their intro came on. I all of a sudden realized that they were going to be on stage in 2 seconds and got excited for them. They jumped on stage and I remember just turning to Julie with this ear to ear smile and turned back to the guys. Both of us had this smile on our face, Julie looked so happy and proud of them. Once the song ended Matt, Dom, and Nick started moving ALL six chairs up. Rye was drinking water and then adjusted the 6th chair which was different looking from the other 5 who were grey. Julie started to walk me up to the steps and kept asking "Do you want Kristen now?" I couldn't hear too much of what they were saying since the speakers were facing the opposite direction. Then I heard Todd go "Where is Kristen?" my heart I think skipped a beat and I got all nervous and Julie said "Go ahead, go up there." As all this was happening I remembered that they were going to dedicate the song (I was so caught up in the present moment since that morning I hardly remembered anything that happened 2 minutes prior.) but I had no clue in the world Todd would be asking me to go up there. I thought I was just going to catch a view behind the scenes but then the whole 6th chair thing made sense, kinda like the puzzle fit you know? I walked up the stairs trying to remember to do al the vital things, not to trip, not to stop breathing, and not fall flat on my face (falling is a really bad habit sometimes for me lol). I hugged Todd and Matt came over to help me get seated and gave me a hug. I heard the guys talking about losing someone you love and I realized what was happening and my heart started having a harder time beating, in fact it almost hurt. Part 4

The past couple of weeks had been hard for me, I'm still coping with the loss of my grandfather in June and the day prior to the airshow I had returned to the cemetery to see the headstone and place flowers there, I had also returned to Chinatown for the first time in months (I'm half Chinese and my grandfather has taken me to Chinatown since I was a baby), I hadn't been there since probably April. So it was hard and I was suddenly fighting back tears. I was speechless, remembering my grandfather had a hard time with my heart beating normal, fighting back a lot of tears, and just all together shocked. When the song (the right song, after some technical difficulties lol) started to play I heard the instrumentals and everything I was feeling was being felt times 10. You know when you want to cry and your eyes begin to burn? That's what my eyes were going through. I looked at Ryan and Todd who were the closest to me and saw them smiling. Rye was smiling the most adorable and sweet smile and Todd had a smile on his face that in a major way, made me feel better, it was like a big brother smile that I needed. Matt sang the first couple of lines and he started to get up. He walked around my chair and I smiled (hoping it would stop me from letting out Niagra Falls from my eyes) next thing I know he was taking my hand motioning for me to get up. I looked at him as he sang with five million things going through my head. I felt someone on my left grab my hand and turned to see Nick smiling at me. He took me over to a chair between him and his brother. I sat down and felt Todd behind me grab my shoulder and I took his hand and held it and felt Dom stroke the back of my head. I knew if I looked at Dom or Nick too long that I would cry and I didn't want to cry because I knew if I started I wouldn't stop. I heard all of the guys singing (yes they were live) and just looked out to my mom who was already crying and mouthed "I love you" to her. (For the longest time "Just Say Goodbye" had been the song we would listen to.) I saw Ryan come into my view and he threw his hand out for me to take it. I smiled and took it (of course I did! who wouldn't??) as he led me around back to the other chair. He got down on one knee and had that smile that could melt a thousand hearts on his face. I looked at him while he sang to me and remember having flashbacks of all the times I had spent time with the guys and seeing Ryan and Todd over the past four years. Then Nick came to his side and Dom came down and got on his knees and I looked at Dom (who had always happened to be around when I was down about my grandfather) and he smiled and was just singing with such emotion that I let a couple tears go. All of them started to go back to the other chairs and Todd grabbed my shoulder and they all got into their seats and were singing to me and looking at me like before. At the end when I had given them the hugs I got down off the stairs and hugged Julie wiping the tears that I just let go after I had hugged Todd. I watched the last show and the guys came off the stage and gave me hugs. I had walked over to my mom and sister and just started crying I was constantly wiping away tears. We saw Bob on the way over to the booth and I hugged him. After we talked with Bob, I had gone over to the tent and hugged all of them and thanked them. They were there for a little while longer mom hugged most of the guys to thank them and then they had to go. I walked back to the astrobiology booth to say goodbye to Wendy and then we left. August 11th will be a day I NEVER forget! THE END!

Thanks for reading everyone, pictures from myself will soon be posted! HI HOLLY! GOOD JOB!

Love Always,
Kristen

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