hollafina28
04-01-08, 10:02 PM
Two of my friends and I took a road trip to Cincinnati this weekend to see Team Cincinnati perform and Nick present the check to the hospital (from MD about an 8 hour drive ). We had gone to one of the Clash of the Choir shows and had a really great time, so we thought, why not, road trips are fun too! The choir performed just as well as they did on the TV show, if not better, and added some new songs to their set as well. Nick looked great at the benefit and really is just one of the nicest guys that you will ever meet. One of the first things that they did was have him present the check to the hospital. The choir also presented him and Steve Zegree (choir director) with gifts. Nick was not really part of the performance, but he sat in the front row for the entire show (about 5 rows in front of us!). The choir performed about 6 songs, all of the ones they performed on TV and some new ones and then there was an intermission. Nick actually stayed in the audience during the intermission, which meant that of course, the entire crowd swarmed around him. Please keep in mind that while he had his bodyguard there, there really was not any other security. He was so patient even though there was no order and people were pushing at him, surrounding him, etc. He signed everything given to him and took photos with everyone that he could. I cannot imagine how overwhelmed he was by the mass chaos, because I was overwhelmed for him! Unfortunately, while we got really close to him, got to take some pictures of him (and hold up a few children so they could see him!) we did not get to talk to him at that point because we just could not deal with all of the people pushing etc. I was really surprised that people actually went back to their seats when they said intermission was over. There was a local choir there and Team Cincinnati sang a few additional songs. Nick led them in Flight of the Bumble Bee. Steve spoke about Nick at the end and reiterated what has been said about him since the beginning (and what we all knew!) that he really cared about the choir, that he spent a lot of time with them even though other stars just showed up when the cameras were rolling, etc. It was really nice to hear.
Afterwards we got to meet pretty much everyone on the choir, which was pretty neat. They also were all just as nice as they seemed on TV. Now, I know this is already long, but please bear with me as I move on to another story (I tend to be a rambler-I’ll apologize in advance ). I manage a child care center with 85 children, the other two people that came with me on the trip also work there (one of our preschool teachers and the assistant director). When we traveled to New York to go to Clash of the Choirs the children all watched it because they wanted to see if they saw us on TV. They got really excited by the show. The last night the show was on we had an extended care night for families so that parents could go out to dinner/movies etc. Most of the families came back to the center about 9PM and sat in our lobby watching Clash of the Choirs and cheering “TEAM LACHEY” on to their victory! So, our preschoolers are still pretty amazed by them and were really excited that we were going to meet them this weekend. The preschool classroom has a class mascot “Patches the Dog” that goes home every weekend with a different family who records his travels in Patches’ diary and shares it with the class on Monday. Well, Patches got to come with us this weekend on our trip, which the children were thrilled about! Patches got his photo taken in the new Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Transport Unit that was just purchased with the winnings as well as with a lot of the members of Team Cincinnati-who were very excited that Patches traveled all the way from MD to see them. Patches’ last photo op at the benefit was with Steve Zegree. He also is just the nicest guy there possibly could be. He listened to our story about Patches and told us that Nick would love to hear that story and meet Patches. He finished what he was doing and said “Come on Maryland, let’s go find Nick” and took us backstage. We were so excited and I will spare the long details as this is already pretty lengthy but after much back and forth and being patient, we missed Nick. He had finished his interviews and left. But, one of the choir members told us if we came to the Reds game the next day (which we were already going to!) that they would put Patches on stage while they were singing. We left a little sad that we did not get to meet Nick, but all in all, having had a great time and thinking that our adventure was over.
The place the concert was held at was about a half hour from where we were staying in downtown Cincinnati and we really had no idea what was around anywhere. We started back to the hotel, but decided to find something to eat along the way. Thankfully my trusty navigation system in the car pulled up our choices for us and we found a TGI Fridays about 15 minutes away. We went in, sat in the bar, ordered drinks and were looking at the menu, when in walks Nick Lachey. It was such dumb luck that in a town we know nothing about, we pick the restaurant that the guy we came to see comes in to (If we are being really honest here, we had met him in a Fridays before about 2 years ago in Pennsylvania, so we had a little glimmer of hope going in that maybe it could happen again) It was just him and Andre. Nick headed straight to the rest room and we headed straight to Andre at the bar! They were both so nice to us. I am sure they both just wanted to eat dinner in peace and be done with the evening, but they chatted with us for quite a while about random things (our mascot Patches; the benefit and looking at our pictures of the choir with Patches; our bad choice in hotel-the Millennium-which I DO NOT recommend; the Rap tour that was staying at the hotel with us-still no idea who was a part of that!; the upcoming Reds and Nationals opening days; our Mirror Magic/Photo Hunt tournament we were creating at the other end of the bar). Nick took quite a few pictures with us (and with Patches!) and so did Andre. We finally decided that we needed to go back to our side of the bar (it was REALLY hard to walk away, but we did not want to continue to push our luck ). We sent over shots to them to thank them for being so nice to us, which was fun, I can kind of say I did a shot with Nick Lachey We did remember that we had brought our unused FRONT ROW tickets to the concert that was supposed to have occurred last July in New Jersey-but was cancelled- with us in case we met him, he could autograph those. We went back to talk to him and again he was really nice to the three girls disturbing his dinner! It took him a minute to figure out what cancelled concert we were talking about and for us to tell him that he owed us since we sat outside all night to be the first people to buy tickets and we did not even get to go. He assured us that it was not his fault that the concert was cancelled, but that it was out of his control. We had figured that was the case and were really just teasing him about it, but it was kind of cute to hear him defending himself on it He signed all of our tickets and after a little more chatting, we made our way back to our own seats and eventually out of the bar (it was really hard to leave when he was still there ). But, we feel like we had such great luck to not only have the opportunity to meet him again and get autographs/photos but to chat with him for a while. It really showed me what everyone always says about him, that he is a down to earth, genuine, guy and is just really sweet (he’s hot too!) It is definitely a night that we will remember and made the road trip to Cincinnati completely worth it! THANKS NICK!
(We won’t talk about the next day that I spent in the pouring rain at the Opening Day Parade and at the Reds Game prior to driving 8 hours back to MD in time to be at work today at 6:30 AM! At least Patches can say he went to a parade and to a Reds game-he has a Reds hat to prove it!).
I have a ton of pictures from when we met him, from the benefit, from the parade and the game (and from Patches road trip!). I can't figure out how to attach them, it keeps saying they need to be shrunk...anyone have any idea how?
Afterwards we got to meet pretty much everyone on the choir, which was pretty neat. They also were all just as nice as they seemed on TV. Now, I know this is already long, but please bear with me as I move on to another story (I tend to be a rambler-I’ll apologize in advance ). I manage a child care center with 85 children, the other two people that came with me on the trip also work there (one of our preschool teachers and the assistant director). When we traveled to New York to go to Clash of the Choirs the children all watched it because they wanted to see if they saw us on TV. They got really excited by the show. The last night the show was on we had an extended care night for families so that parents could go out to dinner/movies etc. Most of the families came back to the center about 9PM and sat in our lobby watching Clash of the Choirs and cheering “TEAM LACHEY” on to their victory! So, our preschoolers are still pretty amazed by them and were really excited that we were going to meet them this weekend. The preschool classroom has a class mascot “Patches the Dog” that goes home every weekend with a different family who records his travels in Patches’ diary and shares it with the class on Monday. Well, Patches got to come with us this weekend on our trip, which the children were thrilled about! Patches got his photo taken in the new Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Transport Unit that was just purchased with the winnings as well as with a lot of the members of Team Cincinnati-who were very excited that Patches traveled all the way from MD to see them. Patches’ last photo op at the benefit was with Steve Zegree. He also is just the nicest guy there possibly could be. He listened to our story about Patches and told us that Nick would love to hear that story and meet Patches. He finished what he was doing and said “Come on Maryland, let’s go find Nick” and took us backstage. We were so excited and I will spare the long details as this is already pretty lengthy but after much back and forth and being patient, we missed Nick. He had finished his interviews and left. But, one of the choir members told us if we came to the Reds game the next day (which we were already going to!) that they would put Patches on stage while they were singing. We left a little sad that we did not get to meet Nick, but all in all, having had a great time and thinking that our adventure was over.
The place the concert was held at was about a half hour from where we were staying in downtown Cincinnati and we really had no idea what was around anywhere. We started back to the hotel, but decided to find something to eat along the way. Thankfully my trusty navigation system in the car pulled up our choices for us and we found a TGI Fridays about 15 minutes away. We went in, sat in the bar, ordered drinks and were looking at the menu, when in walks Nick Lachey. It was such dumb luck that in a town we know nothing about, we pick the restaurant that the guy we came to see comes in to (If we are being really honest here, we had met him in a Fridays before about 2 years ago in Pennsylvania, so we had a little glimmer of hope going in that maybe it could happen again) It was just him and Andre. Nick headed straight to the rest room and we headed straight to Andre at the bar! They were both so nice to us. I am sure they both just wanted to eat dinner in peace and be done with the evening, but they chatted with us for quite a while about random things (our mascot Patches; the benefit and looking at our pictures of the choir with Patches; our bad choice in hotel-the Millennium-which I DO NOT recommend; the Rap tour that was staying at the hotel with us-still no idea who was a part of that!; the upcoming Reds and Nationals opening days; our Mirror Magic/Photo Hunt tournament we were creating at the other end of the bar). Nick took quite a few pictures with us (and with Patches!) and so did Andre. We finally decided that we needed to go back to our side of the bar (it was REALLY hard to walk away, but we did not want to continue to push our luck ). We sent over shots to them to thank them for being so nice to us, which was fun, I can kind of say I did a shot with Nick Lachey We did remember that we had brought our unused FRONT ROW tickets to the concert that was supposed to have occurred last July in New Jersey-but was cancelled- with us in case we met him, he could autograph those. We went back to talk to him and again he was really nice to the three girls disturbing his dinner! It took him a minute to figure out what cancelled concert we were talking about and for us to tell him that he owed us since we sat outside all night to be the first people to buy tickets and we did not even get to go. He assured us that it was not his fault that the concert was cancelled, but that it was out of his control. We had figured that was the case and were really just teasing him about it, but it was kind of cute to hear him defending himself on it He signed all of our tickets and after a little more chatting, we made our way back to our own seats and eventually out of the bar (it was really hard to leave when he was still there ). But, we feel like we had such great luck to not only have the opportunity to meet him again and get autographs/photos but to chat with him for a while. It really showed me what everyone always says about him, that he is a down to earth, genuine, guy and is just really sweet (he’s hot too!) It is definitely a night that we will remember and made the road trip to Cincinnati completely worth it! THANKS NICK!
(We won’t talk about the next day that I spent in the pouring rain at the Opening Day Parade and at the Reds Game prior to driving 8 hours back to MD in time to be at work today at 6:30 AM! At least Patches can say he went to a parade and to a Reds game-he has a Reds hat to prove it!).
I have a ton of pictures from when we met him, from the benefit, from the parade and the game (and from Patches road trip!). I can't figure out how to attach them, it keeps saying they need to be shrunk...anyone have any idea how?