| I'm fairly certain that the point of the challenge of writing a blog for the altarholics ambassadors challenge was to encourage more people to go see the show. Well, I guess it's a little late for that considering that the last shows in Austin were earlier today. But quite aside from wanting more communion wafers, which are always nice, of course, I think that I've learned and experienced a lot, and had a lot of fun over the course of the past few days, and hopefully some of you will get something out of my experiences.
(If you have no idea what I was talking about first paragraph, disregard and read on.)
I've never been the fan-girl type. At all. Except for a minor episode with Elijah Wood either my soph. or jr. year in high school, I've never had celebrity crushes. It just wasn't me. Until last May, when I saw Altar Boyz in NYC. As those of you know know me personally know, I have a knack for "falling in love" with gay guys, and then finding out later (though the finding out later bit wasn't the case this time... ). So my new-found obsession with Tyler Maynard led me to the Altarholics website, which I've had a lot of fun at. (Sorry for kind of going off on a tangent, but hopefully it'll help you see where I'm coming from).
Well, when I found out that there was going to be a national tour of Altar Boyz, and more importantly, that they were coming to Austin, where I live, I was pretty much ecstatic. I got tickets when they first became available about 4 months before the show was scheduled to get here. I think I was also pretty much the original Austin Ambassador, because I was contacted by Casey, who works at the Paramount Theatre, in November, before we could sign up on the altarholics website. I didn't end up actually doing much in the way of being an ambassador, but I got tons of perks. One of which was a free ticket to the opening night performance and an invitation to the VIP opening night party afterwards, where I met the boyz, Scott Porter, and Bri (sci fi chic sq1), and got pictures and autographs.
Really, I need to thank Bri, because if she hadn't been at the party, I don't know if I would have ever even talked to the boyz, much less gotten all the opportunities that I did. I'm incredibly shy (though I tried really hard not to be) and the least aggressive person that I know.
Anyways, fast forward to Friday when my best friend Dani came from out of town to go see the Boyz. Since we'd gotten tickets so far in advance, we had second row center seats, which were nice. It made the show a lot better, considering that I could actually make out the guys' faces and see the little things that were lost on those in the upper balcony. I also ended up with the (sorry I don't know the actual name!) autographed hat thing from Abraham, which was so cool!
Also, at some point, Bri came up with the absolutely brilliant plan to invite the boyz to go eat lunch with us on Saturday at Freebirds, which is a really good fast food Mexican place specializing in burritos. Amazingly enough, they agreed to go eat with us. But then disaster (almost, thankfully) struck! We inadvertantly got to introduce the boyz to true Texas weather. It went from being in the 60s and 70s on Friday to the 40s on Saturday with tornados and flash floods that morning. (And it's supposed to ice over tonight) I was so scared that all the plans would be ruined. I didn't know if we'd still be able to go eat, and I also had several people coming from out of town to see the 5:00 matinee later on.
Thankfully, everything worked out and we were able to still meet the boyz for lunch, and they brought Scott Porter, which was a definite plus. It was a fun hour, in which we got to hear stories from little things that happened on stage, to the new tattoos that Jesse and Ryan had gotten the previous night. I'm so thankful that they agreed to come. The tour boyz are so incredibly nice and sweet!
My people from out of town were also able to make it to the show, where we had front row tickets, and they really enjoyed it. Afterwards, I introduced them to the boyz. Bri, my two friends, and I decided we wanted to go back to see the 9:00 show, so we got tickets in the upper balcony, since we were all running out of money, but were able to move to probably the 10th or 12th row in orchestra seating. Afterwards, we tried to go say goodbye to the boyz, but didn't get to see them because they had to go to something or another. That was disappointing, but understandable. They were probably sick of us by then anyway.
But today, I've come to a couple of realizations about myself. This was my first time meeting someone that I was actually excited and nervous about. Like I've said before, I've never particularly wanted to meet any specific celebrity or anything like that. I sent all the boyz messages on myspace thanking them for the time they spent with us, and all of a sudden, I think I understand why some people on altarholics are starting to pick fights and stuff. At least, for me, I've developed a bad case of jealousy. I want to be the favored altarholic. I want the boyz to like me the best. Etc, etc. I KNOW it's stupid. I know the boyz, however talented they might be, are just people and are nothing to be so possessive of. And it's never something I've had to deal with before. It's really bothering me because all of a sudden, I'm starting to view other altarholics as competition rather then as other fans who also enjoy the show. I never really understood why other people were experiencing these things... now I do. I guess this counts as my confession. I'm probably never going to see the tour cast again, and in a week or so, it's really not going to matter to me, but for now, I'm going to work on not focusing on myself and my wants, and instead realize how blessed I was to have the amazing opportunities that I did.
 
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