The Fame Monster.

Sooo I met Lady Gaga. Here's how.

My friend Carlo works for Extra, doing all of the red carpet interviews and things of that nature. He basically gets to meet every big celebrity that the outlets talks to, which is pretty cool. Lady Gaga was having a signing of her new record on the day of the release at a Best Buy in West LA. Carlo IMed me the afternoon before and told me to call off of work so I could go with him and meet her. I was like “Carlo, I moved out here for this job, and as much as I'd like to, I'm not going to jeopardize that to meet Lady Gaga.” Besides, I saw her a ton at VMAs. He said he had to be at the signing from 3 – 8 and the interview could take place anytime in that time frame, and if I got of work in time and he hadn't interviewed her yet, I should come. Well, I agreed, but didn't think anything of it because it just seemed too good to be true.

The next day, I still wasn't thinking about it, when he texted me at work and told me she was doing Leno in the afternoon, so she wouldn't get to the signing until five o'clock. I get off at six o'clock. And whenever you're dealing with a celebrity and deadlines, you can guarantee that they will be late. So I got to thinking, maybe this could work...

No, no. this was NOT going to work. It just couldn't, right? Besides, work was crazy and I'd probably have to end up staying late that night, blowing my chances to meet Gaga. No big deal. That's when my boss told me she was leaving early so I could leave early too.

Umm...

So my boss left at five and at 5:01 I grabbed my (adorable) brief case and ran full sprint to my bike. “I'M COMING” I texted Carlo, and was off.

When I got to Best Buy, there were over 3,000 people that had been waiting in line all day. Lady Gaga sent a bunch of pizza to them earlier in the day, how nice is that. Anyway, I cut the line and went to the press check in, gave them my name and told them I was a production assistant for Extra. (I mean, I had made it this far, I wasn't going to let a little thing like LYING stand in my way of meeting her.)

I got in without any problems, put on my press badge, and waited. We only had to wait about 20 minutes, but it felt like forever. We were finally escorted back to the press room where she'd do the interviews before the signing. Carlo rehearsed his interview questions on me, and before long we were doing the “Just Dance” choreography in the middle of the press room while we waited. Not long after I busted out a perfect Charleston, we were told she was about ready. She walked in, wearing a low cut blazer with HUGE structured shoulders. I. Died. We introduced ourselves and she shook my hand and said “It's nice to meet you Tynan” My inner monologue was something along the lines of 'OMG OMG OMG LADY GAGA JUST SAID MY NAME. LADY GAGA IS TOUCHING MY HAND.'

Dying.

So, we talked for a second, she took a few pictures in front of the step & repeat, and then Carlo did the interview. I was standing there, shaking, freaking, and almost balling. You don't understand, in my line of work, I see celebrities all the time blah blah blaaah, but I love Lady Gaga SO much, I think she's such an artist and a breath of fresh air and a total wierdo. I love everything about her.

After the interview, we got to talk to her for a few more minutes as the the E! Crew was setting up, and I can honestly say she was really genuinely kind, and funny, and you could tell how appreciative she was of all of her fans. I couldn't believe how down to earth she was, even amid all of her monster success. As we were leaving, Carlo hugged her, and then I hugged her (omg omg omg) and then she KISSED ME ON THE CHEEK (OMG OMG OMG). It. Was. Amazing.

And, the clip of her hugging and kissing me was caught by E! and ended up on E! News the next day.



Dead.