Meet and Greet question..

Xtam, I hope I'm not too late with this (my family and I attended a college football event earlier today). I had my M&G with Alan just last year and I wasn't actually the one who won it. . .my then 34 year old autistic son did and he was so thrilled to meet Alan and have a picture taken with him. I was asked by the guy assisting the fans in the line up for the M&G if I wish (or would like)to be in the picture too. But of course! LOL! Yes, it was a brief one, as Kd5giv stated, and Alan was and is very "down to earth" friendly and made eye contact. My experience was quite hilarious. You see, I'm only 4'10 and with Alan being 6'4 tall, well. . .he kind of dwarfed me. As we approached him I veered towards an empty chair in the tent, where the M&G was held, to leave my purse there. Alan called on me and said, "C'mon over here!" I started to stand next to my son and Alan motioned for me to stand next to him. As I did, he held me close to his side with his hand on my upper arm close to my shoulder. My arm was getting a little squeezed against him so I thought, what the heck, and put my arm around his waist. Other fans had done it too. . . and still do. . .and Alan didn't mind it at all. After the photo was taken and as we were walking away, Alan looked at us smiling and said, "Enjoy the show." From the time we got close to Alan to the end of our M&G with him I wasn't able to utter anything. His height is very intimidating, at least to me, and I got all nervous. I knew, however, that I would be too nervous to say anything to him and that the time would be too short to actually have a friendly chat with him so I put everything I wanted to tell him in a letter and I handed that letter to the same guy that assisted us the M&G and he put it with the stuffs other fans at the M&G left for Alan.

As for Alan not making eye contact, that has been the kind of talk I've read and heard about in the early years of Alan's music career (I and my son has been fans of Alan since '93). Alan has always been known to be very shy when he meets people for the first time and there was that time that yes, people has commented about his not making eye contact and I'm sure it's for any number of reasons. . .shyness, being overwhelmed with his new celebrity status and, perhaps, just basically didn't know how to properly interact with his fans. . .and in the process his demeanor or actions were often misconstrued. But, in my observation, that all has changed. As he often has said in his interviews. once you get to know him he really is not that shy. If you start a conversation with him I'm sure he'll converse back with you. By the way, my son and my picture with Alan at the M&G appeared in the Spring '12 issue of the AJFC newsletter. You can see the colored version of it in the DOWNLOAD section of the FAN CLUB page at this site (click on DOWNLOAD then NEWSLETTERS). And, oh, one more thing, do not lose the autographed photo you'll be be given after the M&G as it has the instruction attached at the back on how to get your copy of your M&G photo.

Enjoy your Meet and Greet! Don't forget to send Cindy a copy of your photo with Alan.

BHR