On meeting Max Adler~
Sorry this was so late, driving across three states kind of sucks the life out of you D:
I woke up like a bolt of lightning the same way I had done the previous two mornings, couldn’t eat very much because of nerves, and got ready at the hotel with Miss Lucy and Miss Cornflakes, both of whom mastered the art of calm before I was born, apparently. (pfffft)
The car ride to Heritage Park was full of my nervousness and stress and when we parked and walked toward the crowd under the tents I felt increasingly like I couldn’t handle being there. We met Jad, who turned out to be amazing (thank you buddy) and Max’s private security man for the day, we’ll just call him Anthony. He was so cool and sweet omg >_< He didn’t know who Max was so Lucy explained.
Max arrived, the girls saw him and it took me a while, I couldn’t see him in the crowd. Then, Pink Sleeves Rolled Over some Thick Arms, and I turned away in my spot at the picnic table to face the lake with my face in my hands. Everyone cooed me and I stood up to hide in Lucy’s arms, trying to handle my nervousness. I looked back to where Max was and I couldn’t see anything but his back and arms but Lucy told me he was wearing my favorite hat, followed by Errinne’s (Miss Cornflakes) announcement that he was wearing the white shoes I’m so un fond of. XD I finally saw his hat, neck, and cheeks, and I only remember that that was enough for the moment. Then he turned and he had that scruff, and sunglasses and he had a set face. From where I stood, he looked really tough, and I kind of couldn’t handle it so I sat back down.
Soon after, we spotted Jennifer at a tent, wearing a bohemian style shirt and blue jeans and I was too nervous to say anything to her either.
Max signed autographs and talked with people for a while before he was taken away for an interview, by whom I don’t know yet, they had no logo but it was for the FSH MD society. I used that time to get used to the fact that he was there, watching him from far away and noticing things like how he seemed smaller then I had assumed. How he moved a lot like how I’d seen him do in other interviews and saw him lick his lips a few times (let me die).
Jad got a water for me and we tried to settle into our picnic table more, pulling out our cameras and looking around. We met up with the sweet but quiet, Savekenny and the very outgoing lizzypoodle and Max made his way back to one of the silent auction tables where he began talking with people, taking photos, and signing autographs. We made no move to say hello, Jad and I just sat and stole photos and fiddled with our cams until Lucy, brave as ever, walked away from us and over to Max to talk. We all kind of followed suit after that and I went to hide behind her as she introduced herself and Errinne said hello and then he looked at me expectantly. I shook his hand and gave him my name, which he finished for me, saying “Markella, right, right, I know who you are.” (and then I died) Then I told him that I appreciated him for being involved in FSH and MDA because if it wasn’t for him I would never have known about it. I couldn’t say all that I wanted to though because he was quick to ask me questions, random one’s about how I got there, where I was from, what kind of job I had and what I wanted to do instead (wat?) and when I broke away from him Lucy was like “Why are you talking to Max about Animal Law?” (zhcglhdsjl)
Since we all knew each other Max asked if we wanted a group photo so we all huddled in and Jad took some photos, and I’d like to point out that at that point, I had calmed down considerably. When I had met Jonathan Groff I was kind of a nervous wreck the whole time, but after I talked to Max I felt totally calm, like a switch was thrown, he’s so normal and you could tell he just wanted to talk to people.
*~>video of Jad recording us instead of taking the photo/oops DX
Lucy started to talk to him again but his publicist pulled him away and we all started to get ready for the walk to begin. Max went to the front and he and the rest of the celebrities that were there held up the FSH MD sign for photos and I walked around to the side to take photos and video. At one point I was recording and Max looked over at me and waved and I totally waved back, shaking the cam and ruining the shot DX I forgot I was recording (because Max fucking Adler ok?) and then later he threw me the peace sign and I was able to hold my composure.
So the walk begins, and he’s bullshiting with the other celebrities, who were all totally awesome, and I fell in line with my friends and put on my MD Walk and Roll shirt. We walked around the lake which wasn’t that impressive (I wish we had gone out and actually showed off the shirts to advertise and get publicity), and I stopped when Lizzy needed a photo of her and Max on her phone. I took a photo for them and hung around for a bit before walking the lake again. Went to the bathroom, came back, hung out with my group while Max got food and then he walked past us with his plate and said “I want to sit with you guys, go get some food, you drove all this way, let’s sit together.” and we were like @_@
Honestly, I don’t really remember a thing that was said between my friends and I, just that they were calm and happy and yes, Lucy and Jad, etc., did exchange omgomomgomgtho’s every once and a while. =3
So food, chicken, coleslaw, bread roll, cookie. We walked over to him and he was sitting with a full table of people so we chose the table next to him to eat. As I sat down, I was looking at my plate when someone slid up next to me at the end of the table and said, “Mind if I sit here?” Yes it was Max and I knew it. Yes I said, “Um, actually Max was going to sit here so,” to which he replied “That asshole” (or something similar, I don’t remember but I think it was a curse word) So everyone I had been with was at the table, Jad, Errinne, Lucy, Savekenny, Lizz, me, and we talked about all kinds of stuff. Jad talked to him about working at Pixar vs Dreamworks, shooting (and killing?) Max’s fireman character in LA Noir, and Max told us about what it was like to be filmed for the sequences. He also had stories about getting injured on the set of AWOL and showed us the scar, and I told him how excited everyone is for both of his films to come out and we agreed that AWOL is gonna be awesome! XDDD
Jennifer came to the table with her friends and Max turned to introduce her and I perked up and said “Hi Jennifer!” and she was sooo happy and nice, and I honestly can’t remember if it was before she came up or after she left that we talked about wanting to see her in more movies or shows. When we started talking about her, Max lit up, he really did, he’s so in love with her and he said that it was really rough to make it as an actor even in California. Anyway, she asked for the keys because she was leaving soon and omg I saw Max’s car keys DX I don’t know why that’s cool but it is, deal with it ahh. Eeh, don’t remember what we talked about before she came back, I know we talked to him about some fan stuff, like dlgr’s help with MD over on the each coast, and some of the other Pirates we knew. Errinne told him that Meagan (butweredead) got his twitter message and that she’s ok and he had more to say about the Pirates then I thought he would. We talk to him nearly every day right? He seems to know what’s going on and has a pretty good idea of how much we love him. He also mentioned working with Chris but I don’t know how that conversation started, and Errinne told me I made a noise which I don’t remember making…at all…I really didn’t mean to if I did. Anyway, Jennifer came back and she bought him a Redbull (ah so cute ah) and he stood up and hugged and kissed her on the cheek. She turned to everyone and he was like “We were talking about you,” and I was like “we want to see you in more films and tv shows,” and she was soo happy and cute about it. She’s sweet, for sure, and waved and said goodbye and so did a friend she was with and the whole table said goodbye to her. It was awesome!
He talked for a while about Muscular Dystorphy when Lizz asked him what our bracelets that we received meant; “Unlock the code”, and he told us that they’re always needing the funding for the research. They do tests and studies all the time and that the goal was to figure out how to turn on a chromosome that they know is the cause of the disease. I told him I wished they had done a speech or something so I could learn more about it and he said he was about to do that and asked if I was going to record it and I said yeah.
We talked more and then he had to get up to be social again (but he was approached a few times before he actually left the table) and he went off to do event stuff and we hung out for a while, looking at the silent auction and getting drinks. They did do some speeches before the auctions began and it was really cool, Max went up first and talked about MD and how it’s personal for him, then another speaker came up, a guy who was involved and lived in the community , and another man, Dr. William R. Lewis, who was chairman of the board of directors for FSH. He was really intriguing and I was so glad he was there. I wish I had recorded his speech though, dang it. Max stood on the other side of where we were sitting and yeah, I looked over at him a few times. Dhjdklfhjkldhafhjk, and they started the auctions which were fun. Lucy and Lizz had a biddng war that ended at $200 for a Glee gift basket. When Lizz won Max ran up and hugged her. He said, “thank you so much,” and he sounded really sincere. All the money was going to the FSH and it was nice to see most of the items going for $150 or more.
*~>my video of his speech
*~>Lucy’s video
After that we did the silent auction items and I won a gift basket and Max was like “Markella!” when I walked up, then I declined the basket when I got to the lady in charge of the stuff because it was mostly gift certificates to local businesses but what I should have done was keep the stuff I could keep and give the rest to bady and lapifors who I met later on that day. Dang =( Jad also won a bath and beauty basket that also included a training session with a youth soccer team or something, and everyone laughed XD Oh and the first person to win anything was a young girl of about 10 who won golf lessons and when she walked passed Max to the winner booth Max was like “Have fun with those golfing lessons!”
Then Max started to call out the names of the people who won items at the silent auction. He started with the signed photos of himself and basically called out Errinne, Jad, and Lucy 4 times, which got him and us all laughing. We didn’t realize we would get all of them :< but anyway, everyone laughed so it was alright.
The speeches and auctions ended and we grouped up and talked again and I saw a huge black bag stuck in a tree above us so I went to take a photo when Max came up and asked if I was trying to be artistic. I probably said ‘yeah’, I don’t know DX I took the photo and then told him how much I liked the speeches and how I wanted to talk to the board of directors. Max was like, “Do you want me to introduce you to him?” and I said, “yeah!” so Max pulled me away and we walked up to Dr. Lewis and he introduced me and we shook hands.Dr. Lewis asked me how I knew Max and Max says “Oh, she’s a friend.” And I actually had to hit pause in my head. I was explaining to him that I actually only knew Max from the TV show that he was in but my mind was totally on pause for like ever. Freaking. Out. And Max started talking to one of the buddies he’d made there (I forgot her name and can’t find it) and getting photos with her and I listened to Dr. Lewis talk more about MD and how FSH was different from MDA and how we should remember to support both if we can. He also gave me the connections in Washington state where I live. Lucy came up to listen in and I thanked him afterward.
Stood around again. One of the event coordinators called Max up to announce something and handed him the microphone. Me, Jad and someone else was standing behind him, just people watching and when he was through the woman had disappeared, leaving him with the mic. Max turned to his left, looking for her, then behind himself and stopped at me and held the microphone up and said “Sing something,” and I made a face and said “No,” then he laughed and said the same thing to Jad and out other friend. Ahahahahaha aaaaaaah (I should have totally told him to sing something!)
THEN we went to the silent auction table to get our prizes and we sat with Max one last time and he signed them with our names (and a few dear Pirates). The event staff began to wrap things up so we all took some last minute photos with Max and the sun had got behind the trees enough that I didn’t need my sunglasses anymore, and one thing I noticed, which I thought was incredibly endearing, was that for most, if not all of the photos that day, Max would remember to take off his sunglasses. It’s so sweet. So we were saying goodbye and I went to hug him and thank him for everything that happened and dude…dude dude dude, his hugs though. I lifted my arms and he went straight in, and I’m short so he bent down like I’ve seen him do before, and I kind of felt like we hugged for a good 10 minutes, which totally didn’t happen but it was longer than a normal hug. The guy knows what he’s doing. He gets how important he is to his fans and that’s one way he can show his gratitude I guess. So we stop hugging (fine) and I thanked him again and said something about MD but I don’t remember anything I said because I realized that for the first time that day, we were looking at each other without our sunglasses on and I totally freaked out, like I was just meeting him again. I don’t really ever hold eye contact with people when I speak to them but I felt like it was important to do so now and yeah, it was like a stare down and I don’t know who won but Max has the craziest eyes, they’re so light. Gosh…ok…anyway, what’s words?
We went over to everyone and he gave big hugs and apparently his scruff got tangled in Errinne’s hair! lulz, then he yelled to Jad “See you at Pixar!”
He left us after that and Jad fan girled and we all kind of questioned if this was real life. We slowly walked toward the parking lot and we turned to see where Max was and he was walking off with his publicist and the private security guy to his own car on the other side.
Went to the bathroom, asked if this was real life, made plans to meet with bady and lapifors in Hollywood, which we totally did and Lap drew me adorable Blainofsky art and we had milkshakes. Then walked past Danny Bonaduce, which I was oblivious to, and then had to say good bye to Jad and the girls and start the long journey home.
*~>Compilation video of all the video I took that day
And that’s what you missed on 2011 FSH MD Walk n’ Roll <3
Also, “I hope you like cole slaw.” Lulz inside joke >_>
Also, I can’t explain enough how normal and young and sweet Max really is. He’s so passionate about raising the money to help FSH and he gets serious when he talks about it. He was also really funny, always making jokes so we would laugh, and I think he was trying to get us to calm down so that we could just hang out with him, which we did. Meeting him has only made me care more, and trust me, he deserves all of our love, he’s so worth it.
*~>You can donate to FSH Society here <3
oh and here’s his Facebook post from after the walk:
