Lunch? Did someone mention lunch?
(No pie. Drat!)

**Warning: This is long so grab a snack and a beverage.

Sooo, after a quick sleep and a shower, I called Stagemanager who was waiting patiently at WEM with Sheila, daughter #2, and LS. We made arrangements to meet and I told them I'd call as soon as I got into the mall and they could lead me to where they were waiting. It was quite fun walking past people who were listening in to my end of the conversation, LOL! Anyway, I found them! Here they are!

Notice the swell GREEN wristbands!

After hearing all the good news about contest winners (Sheila winning the Calgary radio contest over her cell phone on Highway 2, and LS winning the Zone tickets from 96X), we spent several minutes looking through the pictures on my camera that I had taken in Vancouver. We discussed the interviews Kalan had done earlier in the morning. I'm not sure whose idea it was, but we decided that since Kalan mentioned he wanted the new U2 CD, we would buy it for him! LS had to go pick up her passes at the radio station which was clear across the city, and Stage and I had to get a move on to the hotel for lunch. We left Sheila and daughter #2 to hold the fort! Oh yeah, Stage gave me the copy of 219 Days she had picked up for me (and by the way? I still totally owe her for that, LOLOL. Stage...call me, LOL!).

On the way out of the mall, we stopped in at HMV and picked up the U2 CD. While we were at the cash register, I asked the guy what they were doing with the posters with Kalan on them that were all over the store. I told him I wanted one, LOL! He said he didn't know but if he can he will get me one! He took my name and number and will call me once he finds out. Awesome!

We make a quick trip to pick up some sharpies and off we go! Stage is giving me directions to the hotel as she's putting on her Kalan (!) boots and as we're driving, AIAD comes on the radio! How great is that?? :) It ends just as we're getting of the car. I believe that was a very good sign indeed!

We get into the hotel and find the room where all the festivities would take place. The room is almost full of contest winners by the time we get there. Stage immediately sees someone she knows, LOL, which was hilarious. :) We sit beside these two sweet young girls, Kathyrn and Steph (in grade 7) who were almost peeing themselves they were so excited! I believe they are perfect B&Hers in training! :) Turns out Stage knows Kathryn too! This girl knows EVERYONE! [ctug]

The radio guy is updating us as to when Kalan might be coming. Everyone is getting so excited, and Stage and I are totally snarking on the "working girls" across the table from us. ha! Finally it's announced that Kalan is here! Woohooo! I notice over to the left of me, a mother and daughter team and the daughter is rubbing her mom's shoulder trying to calm her down! I immediately think to myself, A-HA! I must go talk to them later and recruit another member for the B&Hers, LOL! Little did I know....

Cameras flash and the young girls beside me are trembling, LOL! It was SO CUTE! They were afraid that they were going to do something really stupid and I told them they should because it would make the day even more memorable, LOL! Then I told them that a bunch of us "older" fans had seen him the day before and we probably did some stupid things too, and it was nothing to worry about. [ctug]

So Kalan and Jim are there with some radio guys, and Jim notices me first. He says, "Hey, you made it!" Kalan then notices me and says, "How was the flight?" LOL! Apparently Stage was sneaking a peek at the working girls and they didn't seem too pleased that they knew who I was. Ha! As Arrandu said in the thread that night..Boomer Girls - 1 Hookers - 0. Bwahahaaaa!

They're trying to decide about autographs and pictures and stuff and Kalan says, "Why don't I just start over here (pointing to Stage and me) and work my way around the table?" You know, I just love this guy! Not because he started with us (okay, maybe a little bit because of that, LOL), but because he just seems to take control of a room and whatever he wants to do is exactly what is going to happen. It's quite a thing to witness! If there is one thing Kalan is not, it's a pushover. *sigh* and *squeeee!*

Kalan comes over and we say hi. Stage is working madly to get the plastic off her CD as I start right in talking to Kalan. I mean, really - we're old friends by this point, right? LOL! I asked him how his flight was and if he got a chance to look at the.... He interrupted me and said, "the book?" I said, "yeah." He said, "Yes, I did! It's great! I read it on the plane." Wheeee!! That was so exciting I almost peed right there, LOL! I told him that all we really wanted to do with it was make him laugh and he said that he did. Whew! Meanwhile, Stage is still having trouble with the CD plastic, so Kalan takes it and tries to show us some nifty trick with an "edge" of a table or wall to open it. It didn't work, LOL, so I think they ended up using a knife or something. Anyway, I started talking again, you know..about stuff, and the book again and he asked if I was the one who put it together! (I was pretty sure that he had indeed read it at that point because he wouldn't have known that unless he looked through it) I said that I was and he said it must have been a lot of work. I told him that I was mostly the put-er together-er and that everyone worked really hard on it. Forgot to say this: Kalan asked me if we had all known each other before CI, or if we had met on the forums. I told him we met because of him and the forums and that we had become such good and close friends. He thought that was so cool! :) I then told him that when he goes to Vancouver to do a concert, we're all coming back! He seemed very pleased about that. Yay! He really did like it, you guys! Then I asked him if he could personalize the photo we had received at the Vicki show. I swear I pulled mine out of the little folder I had, but I just noticed that I still have that one, PLUS another one that he wrote Toque on. Weird! Then he was talking to Stage and signing her stuff. Yay! Radio guy takes our picture with his camera:

As he moved on to Kathryn and Steph, we people-watched others in the room, and grumbled a wee bit that we didn't get pictures on our own cameras. Only for a minute though. :) As Kalan moved around the table, I got up to speak to Jim. He was in a convo with one of the radio guys. I told him I had a little something for him that we had forgotten to give him the day before. He said that he'd get it at the end of the event. Then he introduces me to the radio guy. He says, "She's one of the 'older fans'." He looks at me and says, "What should I call you guys...a faction? A faction of the fan club?" I said, "Well, you can call us whatever you want." LOLOL!!! So he tells radio guy that we're the Boomers and Hens and that a bunch of us were at the Vicki show the day before. Radio guy says, "They're not called Cougars?" hahahaaaaa! Jim says, "No, they're Boomers." LOLOL

Everyone sits down finally and lunch is served. The salad was really good, LOL! We snuck a peek at Kalan and the working girls were totally monopolizing his time. He did have a roll in his hand which he was trying to eat a little bit at a time because he had to keep answering questions from them. Geez. I leaned over to Steph and Kathryn and asked them how it was meeting Kalan. They were just thrilled to pieces, but Kathryn was mad that she didn't bring a special pen with her that he could have used to sign her things so that she could put it away after and keep it forever and ever and ever! Awwww. Stage gave her the pen that Kalan used to sign our stuff! Coolest thing ever, Stage! [ctug]

The rest of the lunch was served, which was rice and veggies and chicken or some such thing, LOL! At that point, one of the BMG guys who was sitting beside Kalan comes over and tells Kathryn that he wants to switch seats with her so she could go sit by him. Then a radio girl comes over and switches seats with Steph so she could go too! Look at this! How cute!

I took that opportunity to go over and try my B&H recruitment skillz on that mother/daughter team I spotted earlier. So, off I go and I tap the mom on the shoulder and say that I saw the daughter rubbing her shoulder to calm her down and I thought she'd make a perfect addition to our B&H family. So she goes, "Are you Toque?" LMAO! I go, "Yeah, I am. Why?" She says, "I'm supposed to say hi to you from AlbertaIdol!" Hahahaaa! Hilarious! Turns out, Doreen and Christa are long time lurkers and know allllllll about us! They were in line earlier at the mall with AlbertaIdol and westwingnut from the TWoP boards! I was supposed to call her (wwn) after the lunch to try and meet up! Turns out everyone knows everyone already. And so we meet Kalanslunch (Doreen and Christa) and they start posting that very night, LOL!! Excellent! Welcome, you guys! :)

Dessert came so I went back to my seat. Ice cream and sauce and some other stuff. The ice cream was most delicious! A reporter and photographer from the Edmonton Journal show up so they take Kalan away to the back of the room for an interview. This gives us a perfect opportunity to go grab the U2 CD that was at his place setting. By the way? He kept picking it up and looking at the back of it while the working girls were blabbing away, LOL! Ha! Anyway, I skip over there and tell Kathryn and Steph not to tell Kalan when he gets back that I 'borrowed' his CD for a minute. Stage and I take the plastic off and autograph it for him, LOL!

I took it back to his place setting and told the girls to keep our secret! They were thrilled to do so. :) The interview was over and radio guy says he wants to take a group picture. We go into one corner of the room and poor Stage is stuck with me in the back and she's a bit shorter than I am and was lost in the crowd. Kalan sort of grabs her and pulls her right next to him (sa-woooooon!) and I think I ended up with my head on his shoulder from behind, LMAO! I haven't seen the photo so I have no idea how it turned out. That pretty much ended the lunch. I called out to Jim and took him the little giftie, and then Kalan was getting rushed out of the room. He had forgotten the CD on the table. Oh no!! Stage runs and grabs it, and goes to the door to catch Kalan before he leaves. Success! She was able to give it to him, and then we got ready to go back to the mall for the next chapter in a pretty awesome day so far!

Thanks Stage, for letting me be a part of it. It was incredible! :)

Part Two - LS and The Zone coming soon....