WARPED...and meeting DEXTER
So Warped was alright. I guess. Michael got lost and he's the type of person that doesn’t worry about things, so he just went and did what he wanted to do while I walked around looking for him. Needless to say I was in a crummy mood for the majority of the day. Saw Jamie and Kevin from high school and they gave me hugs. Ran into Danny and friends and walked around with them for a bit before going to look for Michael again. Saw a few people from myspace, didn't say hi. I got to meet missliz and her friend brandi from the GCR boards so that was cool. Sorry I didnt stick around very long!
Won a jump ahead thing from Cingular so I got to meet The All American Rejects. Nice guys, I took pictures. Waited in line to meet The Transplants but didn’t get to. Got some pictures of them though. It was crazy to see Travis Barker so close to where I was. Saw Ian and the Riverboat Gamblers play. They were awesome. Got to the front of the pit for The Offspring and wound up next to Danny and friends which was awesome. Danny expressed how much he hated me again for meeting The Offspring years ago like he loves too, while I laughed and said that I didn’t get to meet Dexter then which really sucked and how much I wanted to meet him, etc. He said "SO, I still hate you" hahaha
The Offspring's set was beyond amazing. They haven't played Dallas in like 7 years, so that might have been why so many stuck around for them. The crowd was great, and they loved us. They said a lot of nice things like that we were old school because people were moshing up front, there were circle pits in the middle and people crowd surfing all over the place. Danny yelled out his love for Dexter who heard him and laughed and talked about "those crazy kids right there" where we were up front, they said we were tough. After that I wound up in the back because I couldn't breathe and was getting crushed. Mainly I was so afraid my knee was going to go out if I stayed there and then I'd get really hurt. So I watched the rest of their set near the back which kind of sucked because I couldn’t see that good as I'm so small. They played some old songs and it was wonderful. Session, Bad Habit, Can't Repeat, The Kids Aren't All Right...and I think Staring at the Sun and a couple others...maybe Come Out and Play? I cant remember. It made my night that they played Session though, because its so old. I loved it. But there were those that didn’t know it. Anyways, they loved the crowd and said they were going to have to come back real soon. So I’m freaking PUMPED.
After they were done I got back up front and found Danny and friends, who looked like they were about to pass out, so I let Danny have the rest of my Gatorade and they all made the mistake of leaving. I stood around looking at the trash on the ground in front of the stage and hoping to see Michael as well when I noticed some people against the fence that led to backstage. I went over there and stood against the fence next to this girl and watched Noodles and Dexter talking to some people back there. I saw Greg, Atom and Higgins as well sitting down. I took some pictures of them through the fence. The girl and guy next to me kept yelling and trying to get someone to come over I guess because they wanted to get Dexter to come over to the fence.
I was about to give up and leave when I saw Higgins come over to Dexter with a sharpie talking as he gestured towards the fence and Dexter looked over. I took this to mean that he was going to come over and sign autographs. And he did!!! When he was getting close everyone started cheering and more people came over towards the fence area I guess because it got considerably more crowded. I couldn’t believe he was so close to me, it was insane. I dug a flyer out of my pocket and held it out over the girl in front of me for him to sign. I crammed it back into my pocket right then so no one would take it. The girl in front of me was taking pictures and I took one of him too, only to find out that was my last picture on the camera which sucked. Some guys pushed up front and 2-3 got a picture with him when the girl in front of me left and I was in her spot directly next to Dexter. I waited angrily for this tall guy that had pushed in front of me for a picture to get out of the way so I could perhaps shake his hand. I noticed one girl on the other side who wanted a handshake, but had used her right hand which happened to be the hand he was signing with so she ended up with a fast clumsy shake since his right hand had the sharpie in it. Then the guy in front of me moved and I held out my left hand waiting. People were more calm then, so he noticed, smiled, leaned in close, looked at me as he shook my hand and said "how are you". I just grinned and managed to mumble 'good' after he was already signing another autograph. Almost right after that he was lead away from everyone. I think there was a collective sad "aw" let out too. haha
So I made my way out to the gates and it took about a minute to get to Michael’s car where he was just arriving too. I was happy that he was there and we could enjoy the cold water we had left in a cooler and go home. He was sunburned and told me how many times he had got kicked in the face and various other places from moshing.