This is AJ McLean

Does he really exist?

In my many years of loving the Backstreet Boys, I have come very close to meeting AJ several times. I have come to the conclusion that he doesn’t really exist....he’s a hologram.

Close Encounter #1
Orlando, Florida - July 22, 2000
Hard Rock Live
Miss US Teen Pageant

My friends and I were heading to Florida for vacation on July 19th. We found out that AJ was going to be hosting a pageant at the Hard Rock in Orlando. We thought this was fait. We were going to be in Orlando at the exact same time AJ was going to be hosting this pageant. We were destined to meet him. HA! Little did we know, it wasn’t going to be that easy. So we end up getting tickets front row center and we were EXSTATIC! Well, two of us were...the major AJ junkies...LOL The other two were excited but not pissing their pants. THEN it’s announced that there is going to be an afterparty. All of the stars (AJ, 3Deep, Christian Davis) were going to be there and you could get tickets for it. So, needless to say, we bought tickets. We were beyond exstatic at this point because it was pretty much a guarentee that we would meet the man of our dreams. HA! Not that easy.
The day of the pageant arrives and we are all hoochied out. NOTE: I’m not a hoochie in real life but this is AJ so I wanted to make a good impression...LMAO We get to the Hard Rock and we find out that CBS had turned the pageant into General Admission seating. OMG! That meant that our front row tickets were null and void. The only way we could get front row is if we were at the front of the line. And of course, the line was a mile long already. We were livid. After bitching, moaning, yelling and screaming at the staff we decided not to attend the pageant. There was no way in hell we were sitting WAY in the back when our tickets said Row A. We waited outside sulking until the show was over because we were going to go to the afterparty. We were first in line for that, thank god. It took them a good hour to two hours to finally let us in. When we got inside, we find out that AJ left already. He said that he was “emotionally exhausted and just wanted to go home”. Now, don’t get me wrong...I know that he deserves to have his privacy and to get his rest. But we paid good money to meet that man and he should have stayed! He KNEW there were fans waiting to meet him and purposely blew us off. We were extremely pissed off. Not only did we not get to see him in the pageant but we didn’t get to see him afterwards either. It was a major disappointment...in fact, I was beyond disappointed. I don’t even know what I was.

Conclusion:
Was AJ really at the pageant? No, because he doesn’t exist. He ducked out of the afterparty at the last minute. We never saw him. Cuz he doesn’t exist.

Close Encounter #2
Orlando, Florida - July 23, 2000
Club Tabu

My friends and I went to see Howie perform for the opening of Latin night at his club in downtown Orlando. He was amazing. I was totally impressed with him. At the end of the night we waited outside to see if we could run into Howie. There was a limo out front waiting to take him to the airport. He was flying to Canada to film the Burger King Commercials. He came out and we met him...my friend got an autograph as he passed. He got into the limo and left.

Conclusion:
AJ was in the limo. Or was he?? *cue eerie music*

Close Encounter #3
Orlando, Florida October 2000

My friends and I went back to Florida to visit a couple friends of ours that we had met there in July. We found out where AJ lived from another friend. We were cruising by his place for maybe the hundreth time when we pulled up to a red light. We knew that he drove a silver Mercedez and what was sitting in front of us? That’s right. A silver Mercedez. We all sort of freaked out. We strained to see who was driving the car. When the person turned their head we realized it was a guy. He was wearing a ballcap and sunglasses. Cue teeny moment number one. The light turns green and we are begging him to make the turn towards AJ’s. He does. Teeny moment number two. As we approach AJ’s development we once again pray to the God’s above that he turns into it. He does. We watch him turn as we pass him and we see him look at us. Teeny moment number three. So, now you have a car full of dying women, who think they just saw AJ Mclean check them out.

Conclusion:
We still aren’t sure if it was really him. Rumor had it he was in Las Vegas at the time. It probably wasn’t him since he doesn’t exist.

Close Encounter #4
Pittsburgh, PA - February 10, 2001

We stayed in the Boy’s hotel when they came here for the Black and Blue show. We met Nick and Kevin at their buses at the side of the hotel. While we were standing in line to see Kevin, AJ snuck out the front.

Conclusion:
I’ve pretty much decided at this point that we are NEVER going to meet AJ. This was also the point where I truly believed the man was a hologram. This made me go back and evaluate all of my “close encounters” and I realized that he never really was there. He doesn’t exist. He’s a hologram.

See! There he goes! And there's even a GLOW around him!
H-O-L-L-O-G-R-A-M

He’s real!!!

Well folks....I finally did it. After two years of trying. I went to Cleveland for the BSB show and stayed on the same floor as the elusive one. I got to meet him on his way to the venue. I got to touch him. I had my arm around him. He’s real. I can’t believe it. I’m still in shock.

This was taken by a friend right outside our hotel room door. :-)

*sniff* This is our group shot with AJ. The camera broke right before this when she tripped over my friend’s four year old. I'm the green blur next to AJ. I was hoping it would come out but it didn’t. Would have been a good shot too.