MET ROB DYRDEK!

I'm still so freakin pumped and I met him a week ago. If you've been following my blog at all, you know how obsessed I am with Rob and Big and Fantasy Factory right now. I LOVE it. I watch it all the time. Annndd..I think Rob Dyrdek is amazing, haha. A week ago, I was just sitting at work like a normal day. I talked to Jackie earlier and we were talking about Rob Dyrdek and how if I could meet any celebrity right now, who would I want it to be. Obviously I said Rob. I was so bummed out that I didn't see him in LA. We drove by the Rob and Big house and I got so excited, and he doesn't even live there anymore, haha.

Anyways, Rob is from Kettering, Ohio which is about a 5.5 hour drive from Chicago. I already knew this because he has gone home during a few episodes of his show and filmed there with his family. I told Jackie...if Rob ever goes back to Ohio, I HAVE to go. I have to try and meet him. It's way closer than LA and I probably won't be going back to LA for another year.

I was sitting at work on Monday and my phone vibrated. I get Drama's (Rob's cousin), Rob's, and the Fantasy Factory Crew's tweets sent directly to my phone via text because they always tweet cool pictures and stuff about what they are filming. I picked up the phone to check the text and it was Drama saying he is on his way to Ohio. That was insane to me. I JUST said I would have to go if he ever came back there. Now he is going there right now?! So..at first I thought, okay, maybe just Drama is going back to see his family or something. I like Drama, but I won't drive 300 miles for him. Sorry Drama. I didn't get too excited at this point. I started poking around on twitter and found Shane Nickerson's twitter (the executive producer of Fantasy Factory.) He tweeted something about sitting behind Rob Dyrdek on an airplane and watching people recognize him. Ok...that was it. Obviously Rob was going too. THEN the Fantasy Factory crew tweeted about being in Ohio. So..that told me that they were going to be filming there.

At this point, I knew I had to try. That night I asked my mom and she was pretty hesitant. It would be somewhat expensive, I would have gas money, food money and a hotel room for a night. Also, I couldn't go myself. Jackie was working and had class. I decided to take my sister. She has never met a celebrity before. She would have to miss two days of school, but she is getting straight A's so my parents said that would be fine. I was literally bouncing off the walls. I haven't been this excited in a long time. We decided we would drive out there early Wednesday morning and come home Thursday. I had the address for the Rob Dyrdek Skate Plaza in Kettering and I knew he lived a few blocks from there. That info was posted on the internet. This was actually going to happen! I didn't want to be TOO excited because I knew it wasn't a guarantee that I would be able to meet him. I was PRETTY sure it would happen because Kettering isn't a huge town, it couldn't be that hard to find production trucks.

Anyways, we woke up at 5am the next morning and got going. As we were approaching Kettering, I started getting nervous which is really odd for me. I never get weird about meeting celebrities. I've met hundreds. I've only been star struck twice in my life. The first time I met Justin Timberlake, and when I met Matthew Perry. This was a weird feeling. I was also worried he might be mean. I couldn't picture him being mean in my head, and all the experiences I've read about fans meeting him have been positive, but still, I was worried. What if I drove all the way out there and he was a dick? I would be heartbroken. He is my FAVORITE celebrity right now. I tried to push it out of my head. I mean, he is Rob Dyrdek, not Brad Pitt. Most people don't even know who he is.

So we get to Kettering and the first place we go is to the skate park. Just seeing the sign I've seen on the show got me pumped up. We took pictures with it, haha. I felt like a complete tourist, but hell, I was a tourist. Then we went and walked the actual skate park. It was icy as hell. I almost fell about 15 times. It looked like someone had set it up for snowboarding...which was interesting to me because I thought they might film something there.

At this point we were freezing and we got back in the car and circled the neighborhood in hopes to find his house. I knew he would probably be filming there, so it was the first place I wanted to look. It didn't take long to find it, as there were abotu 15 cars parked in front of it and a few production vans. Also, the house looked identical to how it does on TV and there is an adorable sign on the front that says "The Dyrdeks."

I wasn't about to bother him at his house. I don't believe its right to go up to someone on their property. We sat at the end of the block and waited for him to go somewhere. I knew he wasn't going to film all day in there. We waited for a few hours and finally a white van pulled out of his driveway. From experience, I knew that when people film scenes in cars, there is usually a production car in front of it and behind it. The van that pulled out of the driveway was headed our way. It turned right in front of us and I saw that Drama was driving and Rob was in the passenger seat. It pulled to the end of the block and waited. Then, just as predicted, two more cars followed. Drama let one get in front of him, then he pulled out, then the other car followed. I'm pretty sure it was Jeff Tremaine and Shane Nickerson in the second car. I turned the car on and followed. I was so excited at this point, but I was hoping he was going somewhere public so I would be able to go up to him. He ended up leading us to a cute mall in Beavercreek, OH. The van stopped in front of a Panera, and Rob hopped out. That's when my heart kind of jumped. This was it. Then, Drama got out, and they went into Panera.

I sped around that lot looking for a parking spot, which wasn't easy. We found one and grabbed my Fantasy Factory DVD and ran to Panera. We got inside and were standing by the front. We saw this guy in a white hoodie, the hood up, bright blue shoes, and a shiny blackberry ordering food. He obviously didn't look like he lived in Kettering, he stood out like crazy, haha. He was about the height I assumed Rob would be, and he was standing all by himself. My heart was beating like crazy. I waited until he was done ordering, and when he turned around, it was him. I asked him if we could get a picture and he was totally cool about it.This is what I remember from the conversation..there was more, but its all kind of a blur.

Me - "Hey, Rob, do you think we could get a picture with you?"

Rob - "Sure, no problem."

Me - "Yeah, we drove out here from chicago because I saw Drama's tweet about you guys filming in Ohio."

Rob - "You came all the way out from Chicago to see me? That's crazy!"

Me- "I'm so sorry to bother you with this"

Rob - "No, its cool, you aren't bothering me at all. Did you guys see Drama over there?"

Me - "Yeah,"

Rob - "Do you wanna go get a picture with him?"

Me - "Sure!"

Rob - "Ok, follow me."

Rob - "Hey Drama, these young ladies saw your tweet about filming and they drove all the way out here from Chicago, can they get a picture with you?"

Drama - "yeah, sure"

Rob - "Here, I can take the picture"

Me - "Actually, can I get one with both of you guys?"

Rob - "Yeah, absolutley"

Drama - "I can't believe you came this far for us"

Rob "Well, see, you gotta work for what you want, and it pays off. Hard work always pays!"

Me - "Yeah, Ohio is a lot closer than LA. Sorry if this is kind of creepy."

Drama - "No, hey, sometimes its good to be a little creepy to get what you want,"

Me - "Can you guys maybe sign my Fantasy Factory DVD?"

Rob - "Yeah, sure, no problem. What's your name?"

Me - "Carli"

Rob - "Carli..Hard Work Pays!" Then he blew on it for a second for it to dry. "Christopher, can you sign this young ladies DVD please?"

Drama - "sure" and he signed it as well.

Me - "Thanks so much, I really appreciate it!"

Rob - "No problem, thanks for coming all the way out here to meet me"

Then...i was able to breathe again, haha. I was so relieved that he was so cool about it. He wasn't as hyper as he is on TV, but I think he was just tired. Also, Drama was really REALLY quiet. I know he seems shy and stuff on TV, but in person he is really shy. Probably the shyest celebrity I've ever met. About 3 hours later, he tweeted that he really wanted to take a nap and couldn't, so he was probably super tired also.

After that we drove by the skate park again, went and checked into the hotel, went to dinner, then went back to the hotel and crashed. I was SO exhausted. Then the next morning we drove home. Overall, PERFECT experience. It couldn't have gone any better. The only thing I would have liked that didn't happen, was I would have liked to see him skate. It turns out, the next day they tweeted that they were at the skate park snowboarding, just like i thought. I was kinda bummed we missed it, but it would have been REALLY creepy for us to show up there too. I didn't want to freak him out or anything. I just wanted to meet him and then I left him alone, lol.

Looking back on it, I realize I must have apologized for bothering him thousands of times. I think I was rambling on and on, haha. Also, I kind of wish I would have gotten a picture with Jeff Tremaine too because that guy is awesome, but he was eating and I didn't want to bother him.

Overall, no regrets. I am so happy and it was so much fun. :)