I arrive to the fencing I was at yesterday around 1:30pm. The buses are not there. I sit in the sun and meet someone from katharinefans.com (Sitily). She gives me a free orange shirt that has a caricature of Katharine and says, “There’s no cure for the McPheever!” She also gives me a glow stick. She is the only other McPhee fan there, which is definitely better than yesterday.
Around 2:30pm the buses come and I search around for Kat. Mandisa enters first and I call out her name and wave. She waves back. Then Paris and Lisa enter. Kellie goes in, I call her name, and she waves at me. Fred comes out saying the girls aren’t going to come out and sign, so we should give him anything we want to give the girls. I dig into my backpack and hand Fred a handwritten note for Katharine and a picture printed out with a post-it note attached, asking to personalize it to “S-town.” I secretly hope as I am handing these things to Fred and moving away from the prime viewing spot near the entrance that McPhee does not sneak in. I thank Fred quickly and dash back over to my spot.
I hang around and two Elliott fans tell me that Kat isn’t even here. She apparently is out hanging with friends in Dallas. I thank them for this information and continue waiting.
While standing next to the fence, a red car drives into the parking lot through the fencing and I hear some guys next to me saying, “Kat’s in that car.” I snap my neck.
“What? She’s in a car?”
“Yeah, in that red one.”
I look over and I see Kat getting out of the car with Nick, holding hands. I jump out of the line for another idol's autograph (I forget who...) and run over to the fence where Kat and Nick are walking by.
“K.I.Gs LOVE K-DAWG!”
No response. She keeps walking hand-in-hand with Nick.
“I LOVE YOU KAT!”
People laugh around me.
“I am not ashamed!”
Kat is still not looking at me. She is almost to the ramp of the entrance. She is going to enter soon, and my mind is racing, thinking of what I can say that will get her attention.
“NICK IS HOT!”
Kat and Nick both immediately look over at me, and Katharine bursts out laughing, while Nick is chuckling. He says, “That’s what I like to hear!” They enter the building still laughing.
While we are standing in line, I noticed McPhee coming out of the entrance with Fred! I scream out, “MCPHEE!!” and ditch the line to run over to the fencing where Kat is.
She actually came out to sign! She is walking up to the fencing where a woman is standing and asks how she should sign since there is a chain-link fence. I show up and tell her that there is a gap nearby where people can hand stuff over. The woman shoves me up to the fence and tells Katharine that I have been waiting for her and I am going to four concerts. I beam and hand her my notebook through the gap.
“Hey K-dawg!”
“Hi…”
Her voice is very soft. She is shorter than I imagined. She is perfection standing inches away through a chain-link fence.
“Can I have your autograph?”
“Sure… what’s your name? *she looks at an autograph from another idol* S-town?”
“Yeah, that’s my gang name! You know, the K.I.Gs.”
“Oh yeah… I read your letter last night. It was really funny.”
“Thanks! Do you like us?”
“Yeah, totally. Why wouldn’t I like you guys?”
“Oh, well, some people thought you wouldn’t like us.”
“*jolly chuckle* Yeah, I love all my fan groups… Yeah, the kigs.”
“*laughs* No, it’s not kigs, it’s the K.I.Gs, more gangsta that way.”
“Oh…”
I notice on my autograph that she wrote, “Go K.I.T.”
“Oh, no – it’s G, not T.”
“What? It’s not K.I.T?”
“No, it’s G.”
“Oh yeah, G! Duh!”
Katharine chuckles to herself. I ask her to sign my bandana too. She agrees and signs her name on it. I then ask her for a picture as well. I proceed to ask if we can flash the gang sign in our picture. She looks confused.
“Do you know the gang sign?”
She does the
WTF face.
“You know, the scissors you did in Black Horse and the Cherry Tree? *scissors*”
“Oh yeah! *makes the scissors* You know why I did that?”
“No, why?”
“Well, because I couldn’t remember the words so I had to do something to help me remember – so that’s why I did *sings and does scissors* So I cut some cord and I shouldn’tve done it…
I stand there, elated that she just sang. I laugh. We take the picture. I then turn to her quickly and ask her if she knows why our gang color is yellow.
“No, why?”
“Because of your ‘I Have Nothing’ dress.”
“Oh okay…”
I thank her profusely, then jump out of the line because I feel guilty I took up so much of her time while there was a mob line forming behind me. I step back a few feet, taking in what had just happened for a few seconds. Shakily, I call Dutch and told her about the best moment of my life. I run back over so Dutch can hear Kat’s voice. Jenn is getting her autograph. Kat asks her for her name, and Jenn tells her.
“G?” *looks at Jenn confused at how to spell her name*
“No, Jenn. J-e-n-n.”
“Oh, duh! I don’t know why I tried to spell it with a G…”
Sidenote: Jenn and I believe that Kat tried to spell it with a G because I kept saying ‘G’ repetitively to her right before, and McPhee was flustered!
Dutch tells me on the phone to tell Kat that she loves her.
“K-dawg! My friend Dutch says she loves you!”
“Aww, tell them thank you.”
I pass the message along, and Dutch giggles. I walk casually over to where Kat is signing more autographs and ask if she can talk on the phone. Fred is standing next to Kat and says no talking on the phone. I ask if I can just hold it up near the fence instead and he agrees. Kat talks to Dutch while signing an autograph.
“Hello. I can’t hear you, but you can hear me…”
I continue holding it up so Dutch can hear Kat’s speaking voice. Eventually I walk away because I feel like I am being obnoxious. Dutch is speechless at what all just happened. I walk back so I can record some video clips of McPhee with my digital camera. She is talking to a fan about touching Ace’s butt. Katharine laughs and walks away, then does a little dance. We laugh and she continues walking away, while I call out a “thank you so much, Kat!” She moves away and I yell out, “Thank you, K-dawg!” while Jenn says, “Thank you!” Kat turns around, smiles, and waves at us.
Taylor and a crew member are throwing a football nearby. Katharine pretends to join in, and they throw the football to her. McPhee catches the ball awkwardly then does a victory dance. She drops the ball on the ground, attempting to spike it. She then moves out of sight.
Jenn and I burst out laughing, wondering why we didn’t get that on video. My camera didn’t have enough zoom to get it. A few minutes later, Kat reappears to go back in.
”Hey Kat! Keep it gangsta!”
Kat smiles at me, then flashes a sideways peace sign with BOTH hands! Jenn and I burst out laughing again.
“Yeah K-dawg, keep it gangsta!”
Jenn whips out her camera and attempts to catch this in a picture. Kat flashes the gang sign again for her, but Jenn is too flustered to get her camera to work an d only gets a picture of Kat putting her arms down.
And you'll feel like her best friend for life.