Before I start with the wonderful story of meeting Toby, there are a few names I'll be using a lot, and I probably won't stop to explain who they are:
Joy - My friend who I was backstage with
Mrs. Brenda - Joy's mom
Brent - My brother
Mike - My other brother
When I first got backstage, nothing all that eventful happened, except we had to take a steamer to some guy who apparently was with Toby. And I drank Mountain Dew. Oh yeah, and a bunch of people from Toby's crew came and ate and we saw them. But that wasn't really that big of a deal, because I wasn't even completely sure at first if that was who they were or not. But yeah.
After waiting a while and missing him twice, we finally had our first encounter with Toby. It was one of the strangest but most awesome moments of my entire life. I was just walking down the hall backstage with Joy and Mrs. Brenda, when all of a sudden, I noticed this short guy walking down the hall a few yards or so in front of me with hair that looked like tobyMac's. I was kind of in shock and I was pointing at him like "Is that... is... is that Toby?" But before I could even say that, Mrs. Brenda was like "Go catch him before he goes on stage!" because that's where he was going. I was sort of trying not to catch up with him, because I really thought it couldn't possibly be him since he was so short. But then I saw him walk through this door to the stage and it really was him. We waited just outside the door for a minute to see if he would come back, but we thought it was time for his show, so we turned around to walk off. As I was walking down the hall, I turned around and suddenly realized that tobyMac was walking down the hall behind me! I was trying to figure out what to do, because it's not every day that I turn around and see tobyMac walking behind me. It was insanely crazy.... Well then I decided to stop, so I was like "Joy... Joy stop walking" but she still had no clue what was going on. Then we both turned around and just like... didn't know what to say, and Mrs. Brenda kept whispering "Say hi to him" and all we could really say was "Hey." So he said hey back, and we were still speechless, and we were just standing there, so he walked over and shook my hand. Then I had something to say, of course, so I asked him for a hug. He gave us both hugs and then went in his room. But that's just the beginning of the story :D.
We still needed a picture with Toby, so we went and watched his show (and sang along with every song, killed our voices screaming, and got Brent down on the floor), then ran backstage to catch him before he ran off to his room and we never saw him again. I mean, the world could have come to an end at any moment. So we got back there and he was just coming off stage. We went and stood over by his room and when he walked past and I said "Hey Toby, can we get a picture?" and he was like "Yeah, just one minute," and went in his room to wipe off his sweat and change his hat. We sang TFK songs while we waited for him (like we had been doing all night), and then he came back out and had to go back onstage during the sermon (they have all the bands sit up there for some reason). Well as he was walking past, I thought he had forgotten and was gonna just walk past, so I was just like, "Uh... hey..." and he stopped and said, "Oh you wanted a picture?" We got some random guy to take a picture for us, and then I asked him, "Are you gonna be signing autographs or something afterward? Cuz my brother wanted to meet you, but he couldn't get backstage." From the look on his face, I was guessing he wasn't, but then he said, "Well, you know what, just bring him back here." Then he left to go back on stage, and Joy and I went to find a security guard who would actually let us bring him back there.
(Yes, I realize this is insanely long, but I can't leave out unimportant details!)
So after searching long and hard, the guy we were looking for was nowhere to be found. So we asked a different security guard. He said since the event was over for the night (which it was at this point), he wouldn't mind as long as it was ok with Toby, but he said he didn't have the authority to let us do that. So we waited a while longer for the other guy to come back, and he did eventually come back while Toby was still there. We asked him if it was ok to bring Brent back there to meet Toby, and he sent some guy with us to go get him so he wouldn't get kicked out or anything. So we went and got him and took him back where Toby was, and the first thing Brent said to him was, "You're not as tall as I expected." It was pretty funny and Toby didn't seem to mind, so he signed Joy's CD cover, my shoe, and... I don't think Brent had anything to get signed. So we took another pic with him. We were about to leave, when I remembered that I was disappointed. I have some kind of aversion to hugging people in bands with only one arm, like I had done when I hugged Toby earlier. Since he was standing right there anyway, I just asked him, "Can I have another hug?" and of course, he said, "Yeah" and hugged me. So all was well.
We also met Israel Houghton (I think I spelled his last name right) and this guy who sings, and took pics with them. We didn't get to meet Franklin Graham tho :(. But maybe we will tonight... or maybe they have him locked up in a big metal box in the back like we thought they had done to Toby at first... yeah don't ask.
OTHER RANDOM THINGS THAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT: The random guy who sings was wearing this jacket made of like velvet or something... I just thought that was interesting :P / I drank Mountain Dew / I ate chocolate!!! / I got about a million text messages trying to communicate with Brent somehow during the insanely loud event / I walked past so many "Staff Only" signs... insanely fun... / KEEP ROCKIN AND NEVER STOP! --MC
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