The first time I met Ryan Star.

OK so since I changed my name, Twitlonger ate my recap of the first time I met Ryan. So I'll post it here in case anyone out there has not read it. Enjoy reading about the ecounter that started this crazy rollercoaster of awesomeness.

And this is my recap of a day that will go down in history… I must warn you though, it’s only been a couple of hours since I got home and my head is still spinning, for different reasons other than the obvious. And my memory isn’t the greatest, but I will try my hardest! But let’s get on with this thing. Let’s start from the top, shall we?

EDIT: *OK it has now been about 12 hours cause I didn’t post yesterday, but I didn't edit, so pretend this is still yesterday lol…moving on…*

So for the past few weeks I’d been hearing that Jason Castro was hitting Phoenix. He’s playing tonight at a place called The Rhythm Room. I won’t lie, I haven’t checked out his music. Loved him on Idol, voted for him and was sad to see him go. But like everything else, I’m really behind on his music. Well, all of a sudden I hear that he’s doing an Unplugged performance for Mix 969 along with Ryan Star. Who much like Jason, I was VERY behind on Ryan’s music. Unfortunately. *sigh* I’d been following him on Twitter, heard Breathe SO many times, watched the video a million times, watched performances on YouTube and I loved every single performance I came across. At first I was hesitant to even try and win tickets. I didn’t know Jason’s music, and BARELY knew Ryan’s. But the weird thing is, when I learned the date of the Unplugged performance, my heart sank! I DID want to go. But…on a Sunday? No, my bestest friend goes to church and works afterwards. This was not to happen. But …being the stubborn person that I am, I decided to go for it anyway. I’d figure something out. I’m becoming a concert addict, music is music and I LOVE IT!. I called a few times, and came SO close to winning. Coming that close every time was making me a nervous wreck. That panicky uneasy feeling of when I was trying to win tickets to David’s Unplugged show came back with a vengeance with every phone call.

Let’s fast forward to Saturday evening. Ryan RT’s someone who asked if he’d be doing a non-private show in Phoenix. He wasn’t, but said the station was giving away tickets or that maybe he could hook her up. Well *I* just about cried. This girl might possibly get hooked up and I get to sit at home wishing I was there. Minutes later he says that if we want to be hooked up with entrance to the show, to be among the first 10 people to respond back with the tag #rstarphoenix. Even after deciding that if I won tickets, I’d go come hell or water high, I still hesitated, I REALLY wanted my bestest friend with me. So I text her and asked if there was even a SLIGHT possibility that she’d be available. She said she wasn’t sure and asked why. So I told her. I didn’t get a response after that. (She was at work). So I had a slight freak out on Twitter. BTW, thanks to all those who tried to calm me down. It helped, even if it didn‘t seem like it. =) So then after waiting on my friend to text back, I said, screw it! And went right for it. I messed up the tag the first time. Yep! That’s Guadalupe for ya. Did it again. Waited…and waited. After about 20 mins I wondered why Ryan wasn’t saying anything. So I waited a little more, when all of a sudden I realized I’d put my profile back on Protected the night before! I’m not 100% sure of the ins and outs of Twitter so I PANICKED like nobody’s business. What if he didn’t get it? So I rushed to Unprotect my profile and sent the tag again….and proceeded to deleted the first one. More panic! I realized that because it was directed to him, he’d most likely be able to read it even if it my profile was protected. WTF had I done?! If my first one was among the 10, I’d royally messed up!! Surely the 2nd one wasn’t going to be in the first 10. I wanted to cry! But I waited anyway. I don’t know how much time had passed when I got a DM from Ryan or someone on his behalf. It said that if I lived in AZ and wanted to go to the show, to send an email. So I did. More time passed, then I get an email from someone named Trey, on behalf of Ryan. I was going to the show! Alone…they only had room for the 10 winners, no guests. Hesitated…again. Bestest friend texts me back and asked me if I’d got it. I said yes, but told her the unfortunate part…she was ECTSTATIC for me and told me to go! FTR…I LOVE HER! So I unleashed the news on Twitter. I cannot thank you all enough for being so excited for me! I mean that. I love you all! <3 Then came the task of finding a ride. Normally, bestest would drive to my house and we’d then take my dad’s van to wherever we plan on going. I panicked. Yes I did a lot of that. =P I told my mom that I’d be asking one of my sister’s and she said, “She goes to Sunday School, ask dad to drive you”. I didn’t think of my dad right away because he’s been battling a cold, and it’s been rainy and gross for a couple days. My mom said he was ok and willing to take me. That was that. Next came “WTH am I going to have Ryan sign?” So then came the bright idea of starting my collage. For those who don’t know, I re-arranged my room to make it look less like an office with a bed in and more like an actual bedroom. So the next step was to add my own touch. I decided on making a collage with all my favorite lines from various songs. I would print out my favorite line from Breathe, laminate it and ask him to sign THAT and make it the center piece of the collage. So I printed it out, laminated it and that was THAT. For one reason or another I decided to ask my mom if dad was working the next day. She responded with “Yes he’s leaving early in the morning…why?…oh!” You guessed it…Panicked. She says “OK call your other sis! So I woke her up …it was like 11pm at that point. She agreed to take me. I went to bed. Had a dream that I met Ryan and he signed my chair. LMAO…don’t ask. Woke up to ask my brother for my camera and card I’d let him borrow. He says his wife has it and to ask her for it before I leave. With that, I slept another couple hours. Got up around 9 and proceeded to get ready.

Now let’s fast forward to my getting to the “venue”. =D

This was held in a small restaurant type of place which is part of a hotel, I get to the main entrance of the hotel at about 11:40 and was told that the place was on the other side of the building. So my BIL and a nice valet dude walked me over. As I’m getting to the parking lot of the restaurant, I glance over and see a familiar face. I couldn’t place it until I saw two more familiar faces behind him unloading equipment from a vehicle. First familiar face: Bo Rinehart! (guitar) Other two faces: Seth Bolt (bass) and Joe Stillwell (drums) !!!!! Ladies and gentlemen, this was the exact moment I found out NeedtoBreathe were also performing. I was speechless, confused and beyond ecstatic. As I neared the door, I glanced over at Bo and said hi. He smiled and nodded! I went and checked in with the nice dude from the station. There were about 10 or so people already in the lobby. From where I was I could only see the stage area and not the sitting area. I was nervous so I wasn’t paying much attention to my surroundings except for a young lady standing next to me. I glanced over a few times and we smiled at each other, but didn‘t talk. Suddenly I glance back over to the stage area and see Jason sound checking. I was in awe of how good looking that boy is. Ahem, yeah I like looking at boys…so sue me. LOL I watched for a bit but again got distracted. Next thing I know, I look up and Jason’s crew is packing up his stuff, I glance to the people standing in front of Jason who was still in the stage area, and I see none other than Ryan Star chatting with someone. I was so focused on Ryan that I didn’t notice Jason wasn’t there anymore. I look over and he’s 2 feet away from me but as soon as I caught a glance, he had to go outside. That’s when I tweeted “Jason just walked right past me!”. Cue internal squee! It took me a second to refocus on Ryan who was still talking to someone. Next tweet: “I see Ryan!“ Next thing I know, he walks out of the stage area and starts to make his way to the door, THEN he glances down (I’m short!) and he SMILES RIGHT AT ME! A sincere, beautiful smile. *sigh* I was complete putty by then. Well, half putty actually. It took me longer to refocus than before. But when I did, I glance over to see Bear (lead singer for NeedtoBreathe) on stage, sound checking. BEEEYOOTIFUL! My memory is hazy about the next 10 mins. Then they announce that we can take our seats. Oh I should add that whilst I was tweeting, I was also exchanging squees with V via texts *waves at V*! That was fun! =D So I make my way to the area which like I said before was a restaurant, so the tables were reeeally close together. I thought “how the heck am I going to get back there?” My plan was to sit a few tables back. There were no bad seats, let me tell you. BUT, nice dude (who I think was from the station) had other plans. As I was attempting to squeeze by the front table, he asked me where I would be sitting, and I pointed before anything even came out of my mouth. Yes, feel free to laugh at me! The table I was right in front of was occupied by some other guests, but he asked them if they would be so kind as to make room for me. They said yes. So I hesitantly parked myself about foot in front of the table. I’m awkward, I didn’t want to sit TOO close to a group of people who already knew one another. So I look behind me to make sure I’m not gonna hit anyone as I’m attempting to park. When I feel comfy I turn back in front of me and suddenly, too suddenly realize that the mics are set up about 4 feet from me. I proceed to freak out a little! That’s when I tweeted about possibly being able to see up Ryan’s nose! Lol. Then the DJ from the station welcomed us and introduced Matt Hires. Or as I heard “Matt *mumble*” lol. Then V asked me if they’d already started so she can let me enjoy the music. Her words, not mine. Then I said they were just about to start with Matt…something. And she said “MATT HIRES!” …I think she likes him. =) What happened next made me panic…yes again! I take out my camera to set it up for pics, and when I turn it on, I realize there are 6 pics left!!! My bro had used up most of my card! Now, I wasn’t upset about this when I remembered I had let him borrow the card with the least amount of memory. So I quickly went through the pics and thankfully there were a bunch of repeats where he was just learning to use the camera and just failed to delete the bad ones. *semi-relieved sigh* Problem: I wasn’t able to delete all of them while the DJ was talking. So I quickly put it away when Matt walked on stage. Figured I would just wait between songs to take pics and delete un-needed ones. The DJ asks Matt a few questions and he begins his first song. Can’t remember the name though, but I CAN tell you this: the kid is AMAZING! I was blown away! His voice is just…beautiful! So soothing and pretty! =D He did a total of three songs and I smiled the entire time! Let me go back to the camera thing for a second. I cannot remember if I got any pics with my camera but I have one on my phone =D When I’m done with the recap I will upload pics. I managed to clear enough pics to get about 30 available. But I still didn’t take very many TBH.

Next came my boys: NeedtoBreathe! First, the mini interview with the DJ. At some point during the set they talked about a few of their songs being on various soundtracks. “PS I Love You” among others. He also said that a song (or a few) were also featured on The Hills. They got a kick out of it. And Bear said “We don’t watch the show” And I hear the lady behind whisper “Well no one admits to watching it!“ LOL! Whilst Bear was chatting it up with the DJ some more, I was looking at Seth. He glanced at me a few times. I think…lol. No smile, he was just skimming the room, I guess. Then they started playing The Outsiders! This is where it gets really funny. When I’m at a live show (haven’t been to very many) I tend to forget the words to songs, no matter how much I know the song. I get so focused on just taking it all in and listening that my mind kind of does what it wants and it usually wants to forget lyrics to a song that is being performed. Well, I’m sitting there trying to sing along to The Outsiders all the while I keep glancing over at Seth. (Shush!) Seth glances over at me and smiles slightly. I smile back, but totally screw up the words while he’s watching me. *face palm* It WAS partly because I was so focused on him and I quit paying attention to the actual song. He smiles. Not in a mocking/playful way, just a smile. I refocus momentarily but soon found myself looking at him, he looks at me again, I freak and avoid eye contact. (I PANICKED, shut…up lol) I turn back around and he’s shaking his head and trying not to laugh while singing. Tsk tsk tsk. This happened a few more times during the song. Damn front row seat! Lol. So then, more funny chatter with the DJ (Bear is a funny guy) and then Hurricane! I know this song a bit less, so I just sat back and listened. Chimed in at the little bits that I knew. This time, I focused on Joe, the drummer. He was playing the box…thing. OK y’all know what I’m talking about. IDK what it’s called. He was awesome! =D I stole a few more glances at Seth, who thank GOD was not looking at me those few times. Then toward the end of the song I focused on Bo. Unfortunately there was no dancing, but he was subtly grooving to the music! More chatter with the DJ then they said this was their last song *sad face* They didn’t introduce it. But as soon as Bear started playing the first few chords, I KNEW it was “Something Beautiful”. Cue shortness of breath and momentary lack of heart beat! I LOVE this song!!!! No no, let me rephrase: I absolutely f****** LOVE THIS SONG TO PIECES!!!! I regret to inform all NTB fans, at that moment, the only person I noticed on that stage was Bear. Oh the other boys were present, doing their thing…but Bear KILLED IT on “Something Beautiful” and I couldn’t look at anyone else. And boy am I glad! We made eye contact about 3 times and I got some smiles! Amazing…ah-ma-zing! His voice has this rawness to it, and at the same time a hint of…smoothness (if that makes any sense)… and it’s just…*sigh* I am in love with his voice. Sadly the song ends, they walk off stage, and the techs prepare for Jason. Jason comes out accompanied by another guitarist. The DJ has to ask him how long he’s been growing his hair. I BELIEVE he says 7 years! Lol He then begins his set. Or at least he tries…lol he was having some difficulty with the pedal board. He thought it wasn’t plugged in but it was. He messed with it for about 2 minutes. =D Then got it to work, and says “You can hear me now!“ lol! So he begins his first song. I don’t know what it’s called (boo!) but he sounded so awesome! I was really proud of him at that moment. At one point during his chat, they talked a little bit about his AI experience, the fact that he‘s from TX and where he went to college. Then he sang his current single. Let’s Just Fall in Love Again (I think it‘s called…?) Please correct me if I’m wrong. I recognized it a bit and it was fun to listen to. Again, sounded amazing! THEN, yes more chatter. He then ended his set with …yes, ladies and gentlemen…Hallelujah! I love this song. He did fantastic. I sang along! =) He finished the song and suddenly I look inside my purse and notice the backlight on my phone is on…hmm. As he’s walking off the stage, I take out my phone and notice I accidentally purse-dialed V! OMG! I think the call was like 10 minutes! LMAO! So I hang up…lol. Then I get a text from V thanking me! o_O Apparently I gave her a personal, albeit accidental cellcast of some of Jason’s set. I have no words…it was quite hilarious! I then tell her I would be calling her if Ryan sang Breathe.

Last but most certainly not least…Ryan Star!!! Now, I think at this point in my recap, the excitement has gotten to me all over again and I fail to remember two of the songs he sang (major FAIL!) one of the two was a cover which I didn‘t recognize. He sang Last Train Home. This ladies and gentlemen is where I continue turning into putty. For those who have seen him live, you don’t need me to tell you the intensity in which he performs! He threw EVERY SINGLE ounce of himself into this particular performance. You could FEEL it. It was almost too much for me to handle! Then more chatter…lol. He is so humble. He appreciates where he is in his career and he appreciates the people who helped him get there. He thanked the fans a few times during his set. (sound familiar?) He also thanked the station for giving him the opportunity to come in and play for us. He talked a bit about being on Rock Star Supernova. He talked briefly about being on tour with David. And he talked about the level of support his family has offered. He even told us about the time his grandpa (?…dang it!) was watching WWE (lol) and one of the wrestlers walked out to one of his songs, his grandpa called him CRYING, told him he was proud. It was sooo sweet! Then, the moment I had been waiting for HOURS: Breathe! My heart sped up. I thought I might pass out! I grab my phone, dialed V and then placed in on top of my purse hoping that she’d be able to hear. At some point before starting he says “Feel free to sing along if you know this one. But only on the soft parts, don’t upstage me!“ LMAO! Best thing ever!!. Then he starts. Just to give you an idea of this performance, it had the intensity of Last Train Home, times 100! Strong, emotional, heavy! I sang along to every word!!! Yay to my brain for not failing me! Then came: “Let go of the ones who try to put you down.” and we made eye contact! I think I died a little. End of the song…DJ thanks us, and everyone makes their way to the waiting area.

I took my place in the exact same spot where I was as I was waiting to go in. I was overwhelmed. I didn’t know who to try to talk to first. Ryan was to my left about 10 ft from me, but there was a HUGE crowd. Then I noticed that Jason was a few feet in front of me talking with people and taking pics. Remember the girl I mentioned earlier who was waiting next to me? Well she was standing next to me again, looks over and asks if I’m waiting for a pic. I really wasn’t sure what I was waiting on. But I said yes. LOL She then says, “I’ll get Jason over here for you”. And I say “well he’s talking to a bunch of people, I can wait”. She then smiles at me and says “I got him” So as soon as he’s done talking and taking pics with one group, before he can talk to the next group she says “JASON! Wanna come take a picture with her?” He looks at me, smiles and says “Oh yeah! Sure!” He walks over and I shake his hand and quickly tell him how amazing he was. He says “Aww thank you so much!” and poses for a pic. I thank him and he smiles at me. The girl then says, “who else do you want to take a pic with?” and I said “Uh everyone!” She laughs and says “How about Matt?” and I say yes! We debate as to whether we’ll go over to him together or if she’s going to go get him. It had only been a few minutes since we made our way to the waiting area so it was still crowded. She says she’ll be right back. Some of the people in front of me clear out and I spot NeedtoBreathe talking to a small group of people, then I see them posing for a pic. As soon as the group clears, I make my way over to them but by the time I get there someone was talking w/ them. Dang! So I wait. One of the ladies from the station asked me if I wanted a picture with them and I said yes. So she politely interrupts. (I COULD’VE waited LOL) They turn around and right smack in front of me, from right to left, they introduce themselves, and I shake hands with: Bear, Bo, Joe and Seth. I ask for a pic and tell them I‘ll be at the April 29th show. They pose for a pic and I thank them again. Before I know it, I hear myself saying “Uh…can you do me a favor? Uh…*sigh* OK never mind” I got nervous! And they all say (at almost the same time) “no no, what?” And I say “OK a friend of mine is a HUGE fan, if I called her could you say hi really quick?” they smile and say yes. Well, as I’m dialing V’s number someone grabs their attention and Bear looks at me and says “you’ll tell me when you got her on the phone?” and I nod and he politely turns around to the people who want to talk to him. I won’t go into the conversation V and I had before I actually gave Bear the phone lol but I wait until he’s done talking and looks at me and I say “OK she’s on the phone” he then asks me her name. They talk for a bit, he hands me the phone, I thank him, he smiles and points like saying “I gotta go”. I just nod. Then I hear “There she is!!” And Awesome Girl is walking towards me with Matt by her side. I tell him “You were AMAZING! OK that wasn’t the word I was looking for. It doesn’t even come close. But you get my point” And he says “Thank you so much!”, poses for a pic, shakes my hand, I thank him, he thanks ME again for coming and goes on his way. Such a sweetie!

Then…Ryan. There was still a pretty good sized crowd by him. Except, well it wasn’t much of crowd, it turned into a line. But there was still a lot of people waiting. It got more organized as I was taking pics w/ everyone else. Lol So I waited…and waited. I watched him a lot too. I stayed close enough to where I could be in plain sight but far enough to where I couldn’t hear his conversations with other people. I didn’t get in line though. There wasn’t anyone else out of the line who looked like they were going to take pics, so I assumed I could just be the last one, or close to the last one. One of the promoters was putting away the last of the posters and asked me if I’d gotten one. I hadn’t because I was just planning on getting my collage piece signed. But he handed one to me. At one point as a girl was standing next to Ryan waiting for her friend to fix the camera, he looked over, spotted me, smiled and waved. I waved back. The line got smaller until there were about 3 girls. But from what I understood, they were friends of radio station people, so one of the radio station people called Ryan over to me and told him I wanted a picture. He looked at her before looking to where she was pointing and then he glances over and smiles BIG. He walks over and says to no one in particular “She’s been waiting a long time” and I say “No worries, I was relaxing. Just hanging out.” I think he thanked me for coming, and said I had a good spot in the front. and I say “YEAH I DID! Thank YOU SO MUCH!! You were…just…amazing! I was one of the Twitter winners” and he says “OH!! OK! What’s your Twitter name?” And I tell him. He then points to the poster and the following conversation takes place:

Ryan: “Do you want me to sign that?”
Me: “Oh yeah!”
Ryan: “What’s your name?”
Me: “Guadalupe”
Ryan: *smile* “How do you spell that?”
Me: “G-U-A-D…” *I wait for him to write*
Ryan: “G…U…A…” *sounded like ‘T‘*
Me: “D…*I look over at the poster* wait did you write a T or a D?”
Ryan: “Um…T”
Me: *small voice* “It’s a D”
Ryan: “Aaah! *laugh* OK someone get me another one!”
Some Lady: “This is going to take 3 tries”
Me: “Yeah! Pay. Attention. Ryan. GAH!”
Ryan *laughing hard* “OK!”

*everyone laughs*
*Someone hands him a new poster*

The same guy who gave me the poster comes back with a new poster and something else but I didn’t notice what it was right away.

Ryan: “Oh I got one. Thanks! OK one more time! G-U-A….D! *laugh* What else?
Me: *whisper* G-U-A-D…damn it, I have no idea! I can’t spell my own name!
Ryan: *laughing harder* “Oh come on!” *more laughter*
Me: “Sorry! *laugh* OK it’s A-L-U-P-E…”
Ryan: “Sure?”
Me: “Shush! Yes!”

The poster dude hands him a what he had in his hand. I look and it’s a hard copy of Breathe. He says “Here give this to her” Ryan takes it, signs it and hands it to me and says “I saw you right up there singing along to every word. It just made me want to give it even more!” I was…in awe. I somehow managed to tell him he did an amazing job. I thanked him for the CD and tell him I NEED him to please sign one more thing. He says “of course!” and I hand him the collage piece and tell him it’s going in the center. He then turns to the guy and says “These are always the ones with more pressure, when someone tells you it’s going to be the the center of something” LOL! He reads it and says “Perfect! You got it right.” And I said “Well, I had some help. I HAD to make sure it was right!” He signs it and hands it back to me, he then gets ready to pose for the pic. BUT before I could take my camera out, one of his people says, “if you want I can take the pictures. I’ll email them to you later on” I said yeah. (I got them btw). She takes two pics, and then Ryan says “OK sexy pose, ready?” I said “Uh…suuuure.” That pic is coming up, shortly! It was weird. LOL! So she took 3 pics…that I was aware of. LOL! He then stands back up (yes he kneeled to my level) and the next 5 seconds were a blur, until I heard him ask someone (not me) jokingly “Was my butt showing?” and he did this weird turn towards where I was (completely unaware that he’d done it) and I said “What? Did you want ME to check or what?” And he laughs! Yes ladies and gentlemen, I asked Ryan Star if he wanted me to check whether or not his butt was showing. GO ME! He thanked me again, I thanked HIM…again. He says hopefully he’ll be back to AZ and I said “Schedule a show and I will be there!” And we hugged. And I was ready to leave. OK I wasn’t ready to leave. I wanted to stay there for freaking ever and ever. Ahem anyway, I lingered by the door, totally unaware that I had 2 missed calls from my sis wanting to tell me she was waiting for me. Ooops, so I took one last glance at Ryan who was chatting with the lady who took the pics. He looked over and noticed me looking. I wasn’t staring, I just glanced over and he happened to look in my direction at that very second. I waved and he puts his hand up as if he were to wave back, but puts it back down, runs over to me, stops, I put my hand out to shake his but he kneels down and hugs me again. We thank each other again! And I say “Hey do me a favor?” and he says “Yeah what is it?” And I say “Tell the SafetySuit boys to quit stealing your food” and he says “OH! I KNOW! God, I was f’ing hungry, I was like what?” and I said “Yeah I told Jeremy to quit being so mean and let you eat” and he laughs. And we said our last goodbyes. For real this time.

And with THAT ladies and gentlemen, ended my epic day. One of the most amazing days of my life. All made possible by some of the sweetest, most humble and talented men I have ever had the honor of meeting. Thank you for getting this far and sharing the epicness with me.