Things Happen for a reason...
You know they say God works in mysterious ways, and that things happen for a reason. I’ve always kind of believed that, I mean I’ve always believed in God, but would usually only say ‘Things happen for a reason’ if something went wrong.
Monday Night, Dawn and I had planned on spending some sister time together, we hadn’t been able to spend some ‘sister’ time together in more than 2 months, so we were overdue. We decided to go to see Mark Ballas ( a professional dancer from the TV show Dancing with the Stars) do his show live. He sings, and Dawn and I have heard his music and I dug it. Now true, I do find him attractive (OK, I can’t even write that, that’s a lie, I think the guy is gorgeous) Anyways, after calling the Mint, getting ready and driving all the way down there, they tell us “Oh, he’s not gonna make it tonight.” I was bummed, so Dawn and I drove home. We had originally planned to hang out at the show, but since that didn’t work out, we planned on attending the Ricky Martin signing the next night. Then Dawn got casted. We held out hope that maybe she might be wrapped in time to go to the signing, but to be honest it wasn’t the signing, it was the bonding & hanging with my sister that I wanted the most. It got til about 6:00 PM and Dawn said she didn’t think she was gonna make it. I went and got gas, about to head out to go meet Ricky Martin for her, when she called saying that Spyder was gonna wrap her early.
Of course I freaked hearing this thinking it was gonna cost us future work. ( I’ve recently talked to Spyder on FB, and everything is fine, he assured me that both Dawn & I are always welcome on ‘Community.’ He said that even though they don’t like people leaving early, Dawn and I are always on time & never complain so he was happy to let Dawn go this one time. )
So I picked Dawn up and rushed her over to the Grove, parking and hurried (as fast as I could on crutches) to Barnes & Noble, only to find out the wristbands were sold out, and there was no way to meet him. We were kind of bummed when I suggested just hanging around anyways, so we can at least get some sister time.
We walked around the Grove for awhile, when walking by this one restaurant I noticed Tom Bergeron (The Host of Dancing with the Stars) was sitting at one of the tables. I nudged Dawn and literally as I’m telling Dawn this, I notice this guy standing near us on his phone. The guy looks over, smiles wide and I look back to Dawn “Is that Tony?” Tony is another professional dancer from Dancing with the Stars, Dawn slowly turns & looks, Tony smiled again at us, when Dawn turns back around & goes “Oh yeah.” FYI Tony Dovliano is really HOT in person, TV does not do him justice!
So Tony walks by us back into the restaurant, Dawn and I are just giggling as we walked forward when all of a sudden this guy walks right in front of us. Before I can say anything, Dawn turns to me, pointing she screams “Is that who I f***ing think that is?” The guy turns, totally confirming it was who we thought, I grab Dawn, practically engulfing her in a hug, whispering for her to shut up, as the guy’s looking over at us. I just smile wide and all I hear from Dawn was “Oh my god.” See Kiddies, back when Dawn was just hitting puberty, there was this band called *NSYNC. Dawn had seen them in concert a few times, but she had never seen her favorite guy JC Chasez in the flesh right in front of her before, well until he walked right by us on Tuesday night. We tried to find him to maybe bother him for a pic, but he had slipped into the movie theater.
Usually we’re not the celebrity stalker type, but this was a pure luck meeting & who knew when the next chance would come.
We were walking around a bit, when I had to sit, my knee was killing me, so we went and sat near the restaurant where Tony & the host of Dancing with the Stars were still eating. I figured since I missed Mark Ballas the night before, maybe this was the way of the universe, making it up to me. I kept saying “A photo with Tony would be cool, but he’s no Ballas.” We sat on the bench for a little while, as I just happened to look over and I see this guy in a green jacket & jeans (that beautifully framed his backside by the way) he’s just strolling by smiling. I felt that knot in my stomach and I turn to Dawn “Oh my god! Tell me that’s not who I think it is!” Dawn leans forward & erupts into laughter. Which confirmed my thoughts…it was Mark Ballas! The same guy that we missed the night before! I turned to Dawn and was like “This is not happening! I missed my chance last night!”
Dawn and I quickly tried to catch up, not seeing him we walked into the theatres and ended up RIGHT BEHIND HIM! He was buying tickets at the machine as Dawn whispered “Say something!” I kept staring at the movie times when out of nowhere DAWN, my own flesh and blood, says loudly “See anything that perks your interest Melissa?” Mark turns around, and I quickly looked back to the posted times whispering “I hate you” to Dawn, while she’s just laughing. Mark turns back around and I turn to Dawn and she’s like “I didn’t mean for it to be that loud!” as I was like “Leave…just leave…You are no help!” Mark’s friend had left earlier to go to the bathroom, as Dawn whispered to me “Say something! He’s alone! This is your chance!” as she gently pushed me forward as I caught myself on my crutches right in front of him. He turns around and it was showtime.
I took a deep breath and was like “You’re not Mark Ballas are you?” His whole face lit up as he smiled and was like “Yeah, I am…” I blushed as I extended my hand, shaking his as I rambled about how I was a fan and went to go see him last night at The Mint. He smiled wide and was like “Oh we were cancelled last night!” I told him how they told us, and he said “Oh well, we’re gonna try for next week, if we do the show I’ll look for you!” I smiled and told him that would be great! I blushed and asked if I could get a picture, and he was like “Of course!” as he wrapped his arm around me. He saw my crutches and was like “What’d you do to your leg?” I blushed, worried about looking stupid with my crutches. I said “I busted my knee about a week ago…” He was like “ACL? MCL?” asking me questions about my knee. I told him about ripping the bursa from it’s spot and my knee being full of blood. Dawn then added “It’s nasty!” Mark looked down to my knee, you could see how large my knee was under my jeans. He looked back to me and was like “That. Is. Awesome!” which totally made me blush even harder.
We got the pic taken and he was like “Oh do you need surgery?” I told him I didn’t know yet, we had to wait for the fluid & blood to drain out first. He then told me how he hurt his MCL last season on Dancing with the Stars. I told him about how I enjoyed his music, and was SO CUTE! His eyes grew wide, and he was like “Wait til you hear the new stuff!” I was like “It’s gonna be good?” He started rambling about how he had just heard 6 of the new tracks and they sound good. I asked about the new album, which Dawn piped in “Christmas Present…”
Then Mark said the new album would be out at the end of this year/early next year to which Dawn said “Ok then Birthday Present.” Mark smiled as he turned to me and asked “Early birthday huh?” as I blushed. All was going well, I was talking fine then I say something stupid.
So I was telling him if he does do the show next Monday to send it out, and what do I say? “Oh if you do get on the tweeter and send out a twit!” OH. MY. GOD. The coolness just flew out of me as I stammered, trying to think of a way to cover up what I just said. Dawn’s laughing. Mark’s laughing. And I’m just dark red. I just closed my eyes and hung my head in shame. All I hear is Dawn go “It’s called twitter Melissa.” I was so embarrassed! Mark was nice though, he came over wrapping his arm around my shoulders and goes “I say that all the time! Don’t worry!” I just blushed as he said “Well if I do the show Monday, I’ll send it out on twitter and I’ll look for ya there!” We thanked him and split ways.
It was insane, days later & I’m still gushing. There’s no other explanantion then it was meant to be. I still feel bad Dawn didn’t get her photo with JC, but I think she’s more than excited that she saw him in the flesh. True, Mark Ballas probably thinks I’m an idiot, but the night was Epic.!