Nathan & Nadja: 2008

Dali^^ I thought it was ironic. LOL

So I went to San Fransisco this weekend to see a friend and to see Robert Pattinson as a part of the Hot Topic Twilight Tour. He was there Monday the 10th. They were only allowing 500 in to the autograph signing and you would need a wrist band to enter. We were told that you could begin to line up at 7am and that the wrist bands would be handed out at 8am. Before 7, if you were found on mall property, you would be kicked off.
My friend and I decided that we would try to get there at about 6. Maybe wander around until the line started at 7. At midnight the night before we heard that there was already a crowd there. By 1 we were told that there were already 100s there. So we headed to the mall. We got there around 4:30 am. We were not allowed to park on mall property either, so she dropped me off with the crowd that had gathered (probably around 3oo people at that point) and left to park the car.
I stood next to a crowd of people and a girl asked me, "Did you get a number?" I thought "huh?" She told me that they were assigning themselves numbers and forming an unofficial line, and that I needed to move to the back of the line. I saw where the line extended to, and knew that my friend wouldn't be able to find me when she came back, so I decided to just stand in the corner of the parking lot until she got there and then we would decide what to do from there.
There were maybe 15 or 2o people standing there. I hadn't been standing there for more than 2 minutes when some guy, probably in his early 40's, walks past our small cluster or people and says,"I'm memorizing faces. I have been here all night and if any of you get in line in front of me, I am knocking you down." He then stared into the faces of all the WOMEN standing there. I stared back. LOL And he dropped his eyes from me.
Less than a few minutes later, the ONE SECURITY GUARD that was on duty came by to tell people that if they didn't move their cars, they were gonna get towed. While he was there, a girl next to me asked him if we all needed to get in the line. He said NO. It was unofficial and that the numbers didn't mean anything.
Shortly after he walked away, a woman probably in her 40s *coughtwimomcough* comes up to us and tells us, "Just so you know, the line is over there." We told her that the security guard disagreed. She said, "Well I have been here since 4 o'clock yesterday, and you people are not going to line jump us." She then walked away and started shouting to the group lined up, " These people refuse to get in line! If they get in line ahead of you, you might not get in! You have been here all night, you deserve your place in line!" Well naturally that got them all riled up and they shouted back. This all happened before my friend got back from parking the car, which she did just a few minutes later.
I went over to her and we decided to go to McDonald's across the street where it was warm and mainly, that there were bathrooms there. When we got there, there was a group of about 30 people waiting to get in, all talking about the line, and how at McDonald's we were closer to the building than they were. They were talking about charging the builing at 7. My friend and I weren't sure what we were going to do beyond using the bathroom.
When McDonald's opened, we did what we needed, and headed back outside to see what was going on. It was about 6am at this point.
As we crossed the street, they charged the building. What we are told was about 3,000 people. We jogged over there to see what was going on, if they were letting people line up early. We were right in front, near the door to the mall.
The security guard then (still only one) starts trying to get everyone's attention with a bullhorn he doesn't know how to use. People were shouting, some lady lost her purse (which she never found). The police got there around 6:30. They started making people who were in the front (like me) move to the back. PEOPLE FLIPPED OUT. Started yelling and screaming at the police. They were not about to move to the back of the line, they wouldn't get in if they did. Some girl broke her nose, another was crushed up against the door, and while another was trampled. We were made to move, and when we saw the line, we left. There were 3000 people there, and we figured there was no way we were gonna get a wrist band.
We found out later that the event was canceled. And then un-canceled. People who got there long after we did got wrist bands.

But at least we didn't get trampled, right?

So anyway, we just hung around SF for awhile and then went back to her house to crash, we had been up for over 24 hours.