The Hunger Games: Meeting Peeta

I have a story I need to tell. It’s one I’ve brought up to a few friends before. But I am hoping by typing out my feelings I may finally be able to overcome this grief.

Sounds really dramatic, huh? Well any serious fangirl would understand that when you have the chance of a lifetime – and miss out on it – you’re gonna have to figure out how to move on.

So this is my “Meeting Peeta” post that has been on my mind for years now.

It all started in 2012 when I read The Hunger Games trilogy in just three days. I was instantly a huge fan and took the books with me every where. I couldn’t put them down! Next thing I knew I was buying shirts, posters, pins, magazines and all the movie guides. When I discovered that several of the cast members were doing a mall tour to promote the first movie I just about jumped from my seat! One of the huge perks of living in the Dallas, Tx area is that we’re lucky to be on a lot of tour lists. Jacqueline Emerson (Foxface), Isabelle Fuhrman (Clove), and Josh Hutcherson (Peeta Mellark) were to be at the Dallas Galleria. I knew without a doubt I had to go, so I began doing more research on when and where to be. This is how I discovered a blog (I wish I could remember the name of it) that was holding a contest to win a chance for the trio’s autograph. They weren’t doing a signing for the public but a few lucky winners could meet the cast members before their Q&A and have a poster signed. All I had to do was send in a photo showing how big a fan I was.

I grabbed Pixie and my fan gear and had my mom take a few pictures of us. When I sent the above pic in, I captioned that my cat was “Buttercup” hunting mice like in the book. The blog posted the entries and to be honest I didn’t think I had a chance to win. Several others were cosplaying as Katniss and looked incredible! Well I went to work that evening at my salon and didn’t get off until 9pm. I checked my phone and saw I had a missed call at 8pm. The voicemail was from the lady running the contest and she said I WON! I got two tickets to to the private signing! All I had to do was call her back by 9pm. Yep…. 9pm …. I died. I just died. I called right away but when she answered she said she already had to give the tickets to the second place winner and that there was nothing she could do. I started crying and felt ill! I couldn’t believe I won and just missed the opportunity by a few minutes.

The next day was the event so my parents and I got there really early to see if there would somehow be a chance to still meet the cast. We waited by the ice rink (where they were having the Q&A) for HOURS. Like six or seven hours. Something insane like that. *Let me just say how awesome my folks are.. I love you guys.*

We never got into the private signing, but since we were there so early we did manage a great viewing spot for the event. The place filled up like crazy! The rink is an oval so there were fans alllllllll the way around and on every level!

Our spot was right by the entrance to the ice rink. So even though the cast would be facing the other way we were still the closest. The best part was they had to walk RIGHT BY us to enter. And you know what? Josh Hutcherson saw me! He motioned up and down his arms and said “I like your tattoos!” AHHH!! He talked to me! Well at this point the whole place was a deafening scream and I was pumping so much adrenaline I couldn’t think straight. So I replied with what any fangirl would – “I LOVE YOU!” .. Yep… That’s all I said. *facepalm* And then he said…. “Thank you.”  *double facepalm*

The cool thing is another fan next to me got video of them coming in. And you can see Josh talking to me at 0:32.

The memory of Josh Hutcherson making eye contact with me when there were literally thousands of screaming fans does help make up for my loss at getting his autograph. I hope that one day he and the cast will come to conventions, and maybe I can tell him a (shorter version) of my story and add his signature to my collection.

It feels good to get that off my chest. The moral of the story is if you enter a contest CHECK YOUR PHONE! Or give them a number of a family member that isn’t at work .. lol.

:+:+:+:+:

I’m super excited to see Mockingjay Part 1!! Will you be seeing it in theaters?