I am not a stalker fan.... A love story.

Let me say that again to start out.....I am not a stalker fan.

I do not follow the guys around. I do not stalk their families. I do not attack Gerard’s Mom when we see her at the shows. I couldn’t tell you the blood type, shoe size or color underwear that the guys are wearing at any given moment. I respect their private time, and family time and would NEVER, I repeat NEVER try to get in between them and their family at any time. The guys should be able to enjoy their lives away from their career as most of us are able to do. So why after nine years of following this band, have we never met them?

We have a bag. A concert bag which we want to retire when our favorite band signs it. It has signatures from over 100 bands which we have met over the last 15 years, and we promised each other not to retire it until MCR signed it. I mean after all, we’ve been fans from the original album and have seen them 18 times over the years. They have been a huge part of our life over the past years, and although I will not say they “saved my life”, I will say that they gave me and my sisters a common interest, and helped to make our relationship even stronger.

Last night, at Hershey we decided tonight was the night. We would be shameless and wait outside with the creepy “I want to touch Gerard” fan girls and try to get this bag signed once and for all. We waited for 3 hours, and watched the group outside dwindle from 30 down to the remaining six. After telling the fans they were asleep (as we could see them standing outside of the bus), I should have figured that it was not going to happen. We should have ended the night there- just disappointed and not disgusted. Security gave us a glimmer of hope- since we waited for so long, the guys were going to come out and quick sign our bag before leaving for the night! We were so excited- this was it!!

We were told to have our camera and bag ready because they were going to just pull up on their way out and stop. We didn’t want to keep them waiting, as we knew they had a long drive ahead. We waited inside as instructed and the bus pulled up and slowed down. We were so happy. It was finally going to be over with.....our bag could retire. The bus pulled up alongside of us, we stood up......and watched the buses drive right past us with not so much of a wave from the guys who were clearly more interested in watching TV. The security guard shrugged and said “Guess tonight wasn’t your night."

Ouch.

Disappointed, and exhausted we started our journey home. Thanks to some car issues and a GPS which I think was made in Nazi Germany, I was stuck doing an illegal U-turn past the buses onto a dead end road and ended up back on the highway after some other issues. Our huge mistake was when we found out we were driving on the same highway as the "marvelous” buses. I wasn’t aware that Rt. 81 only had enough room for two tour buses, and that my little Mazda would prove to be a rather large inconvenience. When attempting to pass them, the bus sped up. I was stuck in some sort of awful limbo between the bus and driving off road. Every time I tried to pass the bus (at abut 85 mph) my car would shake, causing me to slow down and continue to be in an awful situation of stalker-dom. Adding insult to injury, their second bus then pulled up behind me and flashed their high beams on me in some sort of weird warning sign. Message received- loud and clear. At that point I sucked it up, took my shaky car up to 95mph and passed the bus from hell that I honestly never want to see again in my entire life.

I made it to the right lane, and slowed my epileptic car down to the speed limit. The devil bus pulled up on my left side, matching my speed in a rather annoying fashion. (I get a bit nervous driving next to giant trucks as well as huge buses) All I wanted to do is cry. Well, cry and go to sleep. Cry, go to sleep and forget about the last 4 hours of my life? Yeah, that will work. In the last few moments of panic, the second bus decided to come up behind me for one last stabbing blow. Now boxed in with high beams on me, a shaky car, faulty GPS and sleep exhaustion I contemplated just driving off the side of the highway to get the hell away from this situation. If I had a monster truck I swear I would’ve made my own road just to get away from them. After about 15 more miles of this crap I finally hit my exit and was able to breathe for the first time in about 40min.

After all the bullshit was said and done, all I could say was, “Good show.”

This was all a huge misunderstanding. Security led us on. The guys would never intentionally blow off their fans. They were tired due to bus-lag. They didn’t know we were there. Maybe that TV show was REALLY good. Their bus drivers didn’t mean to almost kill me. These are all of the excuses we’ve made up over the last 24 hours.

I have been a fan for almost 10 years. I am not a stalker, though I was certainly treated as one. This was the first and most definitely the LAST time I will ever waste my time waiting to meet them. I will continue to be a (most likely now “non-active”) proud member of the MCRMY, I will continue to go to multiple shows per tour, I will buy their merchandise and will fully support the boys and all that they do. It’s what I know, and what I’m comfortable doing. Since I already have tickets to see the boys in Camden (which contrary to popular belief is not actually Philadelphia), I will put more miles on my shitty car and go out and spend the night having a good time dancing and singing along to my (still after all these years and all this shit) favorite band. When the show is over, I’ll take a look to all the fans eagerly waiting outside to catch a glimpse of their false idols as I maintain my integrity and walk past to my car. Since I’m a good sport I’ll even wish them luck- and possibly give a lucky ‘Fan' a pick from Toro. (since I have a knack for catching them as we’re always down front, and always on his side)

As for the concert bag...... I guess all I can really say is it’s time to retire it. It’s pretty obvious that it isn’t going to happen at this point, and after all we’ve been through having it signed now would be bittersweet. We will retire it and all of the memories of bands who seem to care. We will remember the good times we had, and every story attached to it. It’s like our own personal hall of fame in a way, and only the bands who are worthy enough of our love have had the chance to sign it. Being an old school Reggie and the full effect fan, I am happy to say that James has his place in our heart forever (as well as on our bag) and I hope that we will see you again at the Chameleon very soon.

To anyone reading who may wonder who the last band was to sign this bag? It’s a funny story to say that it was actually The Used. They were excited to talk to everyone who waited, signed and took pictures with everyone there and actually THANKED US for allowing them the chance to do what they love to do every day.

What a novel idea.

Good luck and safe trip on your tour boys, we will see you (ON STAGE) in Philly!

XOXO