Chris's Fan Encounter With Lilian

After she finished with them, she walked over to our table, and shook Eric's hand, asked him his name, and where he was from. She then proceeded to do the same thing with myself and the other person that was sitting with us.

I had made her a book of pictures that I'd taken of her in the past three years, which totaled 24 pictures. I handed it to her, and she was really surprised, and started to look at it. I went over next to her to look with her, and in a moment I swear could only happen to me, I knocked over the lemonade I was drinking and spilled it all over the floor! I can laugh at it now, but at the time I was so mortified. I was thinking "here's the day I've waited seven years for, and within two seconds of meeting her, I almost spill lemonade on her." I remember just looking at the spill, looking at Lilian, then back to the spill again. I must've had a "deer in the headlights" type of look, because Eric jumped into action and said he'd clean it up, and I think even Lilian said not to worry about it.

After that, we looked through my book, and she made various comments on some of the outfits and events that were in there. I'll share some of the more interesting ones. For an event in Boston in December of 2005, I told her that that was my favorite picture I'd taken of her. She must've thought I said "outfit" because she said "I forgot about that one." The outfit was a teal blue dress with stars that was one of the first things of hers that was on the WWE's auction site. I mentioned it had been auctioned, and she just said "oh yeah...." and then said "I forgot about those boots, too." Then she said she should put more boots on the auction site, since one of her pairs had gone for like $3000 on the site. I really wanted to tell her she should, because I'm sure that a lot of her fans-like me-would want to own a pair of her boots, because they're pretty much her trademark. But I didn't.

When she got to the picture I took of her at Summerslam 2006, she noted that that outfit had been put up for auction, too, and I told her that I had previously won the top, and she said that was awesome. When we got to the one of her on September 11, 2006, she got a little melancholy for a moment, and just said "yeah....Madison Square Garden." Then when we got to the one I took at the next show at MSG, she said "oh yeah, that's when I had to do that American Idol thing."

Lastly, when I got to the one I took at Mohegan Sun earlier in the year, which was the first show with her short hair, she laughed and said "wow, that's when I had the short hair! You can see how long that lasted, hair extensions do wonderful things...." Someone from the Chiefs then asked if I wanted a picture, I said sure, and got my picture taken with her. She then said thank you for the book, and gave me a hug.

After we got through with that, she asked if anyone had been following the draft, and that it was crazy because a lot of people had moved to other shows. Someone asked if she'd been drafted to Smackdown, and she said "no, but this thing could go into like tomorrow, so who knows?" and got a big laugh for that.

She continued to talk with everyone else there-I felt bad because there were fifty tickets available, but only about twenty people were there. Then they announced that if anyone had anything to sign, she would be doing that now. I went up and got the four promos I'd been saving for the chance I got to meet her signed. She was laughing at the two oldest ones, saying she'd forgotten about them. When she finished signing, she took one of the balloons that was there, and sucked some helium out, and thanked everyone for coming in a Mickey Mouse voice. It was hilarious, and everyone got a big laugh about it.

The high point for me came next. I was talking to Eric and the other person at our table, and I saw her showing the book to a woman from the Chiefs, and a few other people that were part of her Entourage. As if that wasn't flattering enough, I heard the woman ask who made it, then I heard my name, and she's like "Chris, Chris where are you? Like wave or something." So I stood up, and the woman from the Chiefs said the book was amazing and creative. It was just such an amazing feeling, that not only did she love the book, but she remembered my name as making it, AND showed it off to other people. That made the trip so worth it.

Oh, and some big news is that she WILL be in the Summer Skin feature WWE.com is doing. Someone asked if she was staying for the game, and she said she couldn't, she was going to do the regular signing that was scheduled, and then she had to leave because she was doing a photo shoot the next day. Someone else asked if it was for Summer Skin, and she said yeah, that it was a bikini shoot. So some good news there.

Also, someone asked her about working with Viscera, and that got some hilarious comments. She said that "he's a nice guy, but most of what I did was total acting. I mean, especially when I had to propose to him, and then get dumped for the Godfather's ho's? That was the best acting I've ever done, I should've gotten an Emmy for that!" And someone else said "yeah, or a bigger paycheck!"

Then it came time to say goodbye, and she went over to everyone and said thank you for coming. When she came to me, she gave me another hug and thanked me for the book again.

We stayed to watch her announce the Chiefs lineup, and do her usual amazing job with the anthem, then we left because Eric had to be to work early the next day. As we were leaving, it looked like she had a decent crowd waiting for the regular signing, so that was nice to see.

All in all, it was such an amazing experience. She's such a sweetheart, and everything I'd ever heard from other fans who've met her about her being super nice was proven true. So even though it was a 444 mile roundtrip that took more than a tank of gas and three and a half hours each way, and $50 to get into the meet and greet, it was worth every penny.

Photos of this event can be found here.