From: Rakel

May 21, 1999
Benefit Concert
Las Vegas, NV

you TOTALLY wont believe this once i tell you!!!!!!! i cant believe it!!!!!!!! well just this last weekend i was going to go meet my dad and my step sister in las vegas on friday morning and that just happened to be the day that the *GOOS* would be there for the "rock to erase ms"!!!!!!!!!!! well my step sister kristal (who is two days younger than me by the way) called me at about 8:50pm on thursday night and was like ~ "guess what rakel?!?!" and i asked her what and she told me that her and my dad met the *GOO GOO DOLLS* that night at dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!! i was soooooo shocked i couldn't believe it!!!!!!! i just kept on saying ~ "are you serious?!?!?!" and she would be ~ "yes!! yes!!!" my dad and kristal were staying at caesars palace and the restaurant that they saw the *GOOS* at was at the HUGE hotel ~ it was so weird though because out of all of the restaurants that they were thinking of going to they went to that one...... AND the *GOOS* were there!!!!! so anyways she was telling me that the waitress had come over to her and my dads table and she asked them if they new who the *goo goo dolls* were and kristal was like ~ "YES!!!!" and then the waitress said ~ "well isn't that them over there??" and she pointed to a table about 20 feet away and kristal said ~ "yeah thats them!!!" so kristal got up and walked over to the whole band's (and the tour manager's) table and tapped johnny on the shoulder and asked for his autograph and johnny was like ~ "yeah sure!" she also asked him to sign one for me.

so when kristal got back to the table she was almost crying (well if i was her i would be hysterical or i would be passed out on the floor!!!!) and so then my dad got up and he knows how much i LOVE the *goo goo dolls* and he knows that i have a website (but at the time i guess he though i had a fan club or somthing). anyways he walks up to johnny and puts his hand on his neck and tells him that his other daughter (ME OF COURSE!!!!) will be coming to las vegas tomorrow and that i am a BIG fan and that i would really like to meet them and he asks him what hotel he is staying at. well johnny motions over to the tour manager on the other side of the table so my dad walks over there and starts talking to him ~ he told him that i live in palm springs and that i have a fan club there (which i dont! he got a little confused about the web site i guess) so the manager takes down our hotel room and the number and tells my dad that he will get free tickets for me for their concert tomorrow night (which by the way costed a MINIMUM of $5,000!!!!)

He tells my dad that he will call about the ticket info. so then i guess they leave ~ with two autographs from johnny AND the pen he wrote with!!!!!!! so that was when they called me!!!!! i was so happy!!!!! right after i got off the phone i started bawling my eyes out!!!!!!!! i was shaking and uncontrollable because i was so excited and so pissed at my mom for not letting me go on wednesday!!! that was when i was supposed to go but my mom told me that she didn't want me to miss that much of school!!!!!!

so anyways i woke up early on friday to go shopping for the concert for that night and then i get on my plane. well when i got to las vegas and to caesars palace kristal and i decide to walk around the mall in the HUGE hotel. well we finally decide that we want to go on the 3-d ride so we are standing at the booth in the middle of the mall when i look to my left and HOLY S***!!!!!!!! MIKE AND DAVE are standing right there talking to an elvis impersonator about the 3-d ride because they just happened to be going on the SAME ride!!!!!! so i turn to kristal and say ~ "oh my god!!!!!" the band is right there!!!!! and she isnt as big of a fan as me so she doesn't believe me at first because she knew how badly i wanted to meet them and so she was like ~ "yeah right rakel!!" and so she is listening to the 3-d guy sales person and i am just STARING at mike just to make sure that its really him because the last thing i wanted to do was go up to him and find out it isn't even him!!!

and while i am staring (mike didn't seem to notice by the way) kristal and the sales guy turn to me and ask me some stuped question about the ride and i was just totally out of it so i was like ~ "huh?? what???? umm...... yeah!!" and kristal was asked me ~ "is that really them??" and i said ~ "YESSSS!!!! thats mike the drummer and thats dave the keyboardist that is touring with them!!!" and so she starts telling me to go up to them and talk to them. but i needed to make sure that it was really them because i had no idea i mean i might have been hallucinating because i wanted to meet them sooooo badly so i kept on staring and mike is only about two inches away from me!!!!!! he was RIGHT there!!! so when they finished talking to elvis i tapped mike on the shoulder and asked him if they are playing at the hard rock hotel that night and he told me yes and then i asked him where johnny and robby were and he told me he didn't know. so then they walk away and i just stand there staring after them for a few seconds and then it sunk into me and kristal so we start freaking out and we tell the booth guy that it REALLY was the *goo goo dolls* and he was a really funny guy ~ he was pretty excited for us and then i tell elvis ~ THAT WAS THE GOO GOO DOLLS!!!!! he didnt believe me at first and he was like ~ "what??? no it wasnt! was it really?!?!" it was sooooo funny!!!! so we finally got the tickets and then we started racing throught the mall after them!!!

when we finally see them we start walking behind them about 20 feet. so we start to get in line after them when mike tells us that it will be a 15 minute wait so we walk back up the stairs together and when we reach the top mike asks us where we are from and we tell him washington state and then he tells us that that was where he was born. and then he said something about how the elvis impersonator wasn't very GOOd so then they started to walk away since we had 15 minutes and we were walking a ways behind them and then they turned around and smiled back at us. then we decided to go into a clothes store (beyond the beach if you wanna be specific!! lol!) and i am just tripping over clothes wracks and everything else and i am shaking and hot and *DIZZY* and it just felt like a dream. so we walked out of the store about 10 minutes later and we were standing at the top of the stairs waiting to see when mike and dave would come back so a couple seconds later kristal sees them walking and tells me not to look cause we didnt want to make it too obvious. so then we follow them down the stairs once they got to the bottom and we got a pen from one of the workers there and we asked mike and dave for autographs on our tickets. so then we all go wait in line ~ we were the only ones standing in line so we start talking to them again and i ask where nathan is and they were like ~ "probly sleeping" then they laughed. they told us that he was meeting his wife and kids down here. so then kristal tells them about her meeting them at the restaurant the night before and how the tour manager promised us tickets. so mike was like ~ "oh yeah!" and then dave was said something like ~ "you guys are lucky thats a free $10,000!!!" and then i told them that i would probably be going to four of their concerts this summer and mike asked me which ones and i tell him. then i asked him if they were going to minniapollis tomorrow and he seemed pretty surprised that i knew exactly where lol!

then we were just standing there waiting some more and me and kristal were just listening to them talk ~ they were making fun of the elvis impersonator and then there was this song in the backround ~ i dont know who it was but it was some chic and then we hear some really high voice that sounded like a girl and kristal turns to me and asks if it was me and i told her that it wasnt (it was dave!!! it was soooo funny!!) and then they were talking about how they couldnt wait for like two weeks or somthing like that (cuz thats when they get about a months vacation which they totally deserve ~ they must be so tired!!). so we finally got to go to the rows where we would get on the ride only to stand some more and listen to some really stuped safty tape that was supposed to be funny (for little kids i guess) but it was really really corney ~ some guy had on a hell of alot of makeup with like orange rubbery hair!!!!

so we heard dave behind us mimiking the stuped safty guy it was sooo funny!!!!!!! well we finally got to go onto the ride and sit down and we heard dave say ~ "i'm scared." that was really funny too!!!! lol! mike and dave were right in front of us the whole ride so i am sure you can imagine what i was looking at for most of the ride :)!!!!!!! so we got off the ride after two rounds ~ which turned out to be pretty stuped (but it was really fun for me because i got to look at mike and dave the whole time :)!!!!) we got to the top of the stairs and mike and dave tell us GOOd bye and i tell them that it was nice meeting them (now that is NOT a lie!!!!!) and they said the same. so we followed quite a ways behind them for a minute or two and then decide to go into a store. then we were walking out of the mall and into the casino when we saw dave playing the slot machines and then we reached the casino and we saw mike gambling at a table. we walked around him a couple times ~ not making it obvious. then we decided to go eat and when we finished we walked back to the table where we saw him but he isn't there any more so then we decided to go back up to the room to see if there were any messages concerning the tickets for that nights *GOO* show at the hard rock hotel!!! there wasn't one though!! and we kept on checking back at the room until like 6:30 and we knew that they wouldnt call because mike had told us that they were going to play at 8:30 (he also told us that they would probably play for only 45minutes ~ unfortunatly but one minute is great with me!!!). so me and kristal just decide to get dressed anyways because our names might be on the list at the hotel. so we get all dressed up and i curl my hair and stuff (cuz we knew that this thing would be fancy because its for multiple sclerosis and it costs so much moola!!!!). so we finally got ready and my dad takes us down to get a taxi but INSTEAD my dad decides to get us a limo instead!!!!!!! so we got to the hotel and we get out ~ and just about everyone was staring at us!!! just a little embarassing lol!!! well we went up to the people who had the lists and we told them our name and they cant find it so they told us to go to the woman with the lap top and the end of the table so we did and my dad tells her our name and she cant find it! so then he tells her the story about how they were going to get us tickets ~ but she couldnt do anything about it. so then my dad asks her how much money me and kristal would be and she tells him $2,000!!!!!!! so thats $1,000 each!!!!

and me and kristal just knew that we wouldn't get in now and we were so dissapointed that the tour manager didn't call when my dad pulled out his check book and starts write a check for $2,000!!!!!!!!!!!! we could NOT believe it!!!! we didnt even ask him!!!! so then we hugged him and told him thanx and we ran into line to get into the concert (oh AND the tommy hilfiger fashion show!!

the fashion show was going to be taking place at the same time the *GOOS* would be performing!! so once we got inside it is pretty crowded and we were pushing our way to the front when we saw that there were reserved tables right next to the stage and the catwalk (which was attached to the stage) and then we started to stand right next to the catwalk but then someone tells us that that is where the photographers were supposed to stand so we had to stand behind them. but we could still see really well!!!! we were about 5 feet away from the catwalk and about 40 or 50 feet away from the stage where JOHNNY would be!!!!!!!!! then i saw this guy walk behind me that looks like john stamos (jessi from full house ~ the one with the black hair) i knew that it was him because i knew that rebecca romane stamos would be in the fashion show cuz i know that she models for tommy hilfiger. and then we saw mike walk on stage and kinda hide behind his drum set cuz he has to be there early so he can start once johnny and robby come out to sing (AND nathan and dave!!) so tom arnald came out and did an intorduction and then two boys came out and told poems about their mothers with ms. and then the *GOOS* came on and start playing *dizzy*!!!!!! it was so loud!!!! i LOVED it!!!!!! and the models were walking on the catwalk (even rebecca!!!!) but i wasn't paying attention to them!! i was too wrapped up in watching the band!! well after they played about 4 songs. me and kristal just started screaming our lungs out after every song!! well the models were finished the *GOOS* walked off stage like they were finished and then ran back on to play more (an encore i guess) but i think most people were there for the fashion show cuz after the models were done alot of people left. but the crowd responded really GOOd when they started playing slide which was the last song. a bunch of people started dancing ~ when they finished that song me and kristal really really started screaming our lungs out ~ tons of people turned around and looked at us ~ they just smiled and laughed!!! any ways i was pissed that i didn't bring a camera but then i remebered oh yeah its gonna be on vh1!!!! so if you watch it and you hear screaming girls thats me and kristal!!!!!!! well after the *GOOS* finished me and kristal went to the party afterwards where only people with tickets were allowed! there were models everywhere ~ we saw wyclef jon, coolio, that chic billy off days of our lives, that bald fat guy off news radio who used to be on saturday night live and who was the on the wedding singer - he was the guy who tried out for drew barrymores wedding if you know who i am talking about, we also saw the neve campbells boyfriend off scream 2, rebecca romane stamos, her husband john stamos, and other beautiful people!!!!! we were hoping to see the *GOOS* but unfortunatly they weren't there!!!!! oh well!! it was such a blast!!!!!!! when we got back to the hotel i took pictures of everyplace where we saw them!! the restaurant and the 3-d ticket booth (yeah i know call me crazy!!!!), and kristal kept the pen that johnny wrote with so i took that home!!! and since he was eating i could feel the grease or somthing from his fingers (or maybe its just me!) lol!!!! it was great!!!!!! well have to go this took me an hour to write everyone but it was all very very worth it!!!!!! oh by the way the *GOOS* played seven songs the order was dizzy ~ lazy eye ~ naked ~ january friend ~ bullet proof ~ black balloon ~ and slide!!!! :)