Donnie Wahlberg

I am going to take a little detour here, and continue with my "Woman v. Woman" series after this post. And my goal for The Schlog is not meant to be a day to day chronicling of my life, but this one post is going to be more of a "diary" type entry for all of you that want to hear the details of my experience meeting Donnie Wahlberg last night.
First a little background for those who haven't heard it all yet. I was an uber New Kids On The Block fan in my tween years. I went to 5 concerts, thought I was "in love" with Donnie, Jordan, & Joey (sorry Jon & Danny). When they reunited last year I was ecstatic. I saw them in November and had a great time. I don't care what anyone says about them, they do put on a good show! So fast forward to last week. My favorite radio station, 92 ProFM, announced a contest to have a meet & greet with Donnie Wahlberg. Long story short, I won the contest. My dream was going to come true!
So my expectations were high. And here is where the disconnect occurred and the reason for some of my disappointment. Meeting Donnie Wahlberg was the dream of a 12 year old girl, yet I put the expectations of 30 year woman onto the event. Let me share a little story, one of my best friends has an eleven year old daughter, "A". "A" recently went to a Jonas Brothers concert. She was in the 8th row. I called her the next day to see how the night had been. "M", she said, "It was the best night of my life, EVER". When she told me that I remembered feeling like that when I saw NKOTB. It brought a grin to my face. Just to be in their presence at a concert was an amazing experience...to a 12 year old.
In preparation for last night, my friend "D" and I went out to buy a new outfits. I bought a really hot little black dress, emphasis on little. This was no dress for a 12 year old! Before leaving for Mohegan Sun, I straightened my hair to perfection, applied a lot more make-up than is typical for me, put on the chunky gold bracelet, and of course the strappy gold sandals that added about 3 inches to my height. Now, I am typically more of a jeans and t-shirt girl, but it felt good to be dolled up for a once in a lifetime experience. And of course this was going to get me noticed by Donnie. Right?
So we were told to arrive for the meet & greet at 6:45 for a 7 pm start. We, of course, were there on time. Donnie showed up at a little past 8. So Donnie shows up, with his whole entourage (about 20 people) and begins to quickly go from group to group making a very little bit of small talk and taking a pic with them by his staff photographer. When he came to us, we did have a few mini conversations, etc. Then about half way through the "meeting and greeting", he tried to leave. Seriously. Half of the girls/women hadn't even gotten a chance to meet him. I think then he realized how bad of a mistake that would be, especially for a man who claims to care so much about his fans. Well, he did make it around to everyone. Then he cut his bday cake and made a few comments, and then headed out.
Next was the 40th bday bash upstairs at Club Ultra 88 that he was "throwing". I use the term "throwing" loosely because of course you had to buy a ticket to this. The ticket was only $40.00. This was fun, very crowded, very packed, not necessarily well organized but he did perform almost the whole time after showing up 2 1/2 hours after the start. It was like being part of a intimate semi-private concert. After the show, he promised all fans that he would wait around so everyone could have their picture taken with him. We were all herded out of the club like cattle and then proceeded to wait in a line. When we got to Donnie, we were allowed a quick pic, no conversation and then literally pushed away.
If I was 12, this would have been the "best night of my life, EVER", but I am not 12. I had put my 30 year old expectations onto this event more for a 12 year old. I was disappointed that he was SO late to the functions. The adult in me found this to be very disrespectful. I was disappointed that he didn't "notice" me, didn't appreciate me for the 30 year old woman I have grown into. This 30 year old wasn't happy just getting to have a quick hug, I wanted conversation, dialogue, etc. But I am definitely not putting this all or even most of it onto Donnie. I accept that I had unrealistic expectations, expectations that were in fact foolish. My friend, D, who came with me was not disappointed. She is not a NKOTB fan, and had very little to no expectations for the night, therefore was not disappointed. Other than my foolish expectations, I did have a great time. Being a couple of feet away from Donnie while he performed some of my favorite songs was an unbelievable experience.