And now I totally understand why thousands of screaming young girls camp out in front of their hotel for hours (and sometimes days) on end to catch a brief glimpse of them.

Oh yes -- there were plenty of fans lingering around the hotel where the meet and greet took place -- to the point where we had to check in with a security person before we were even permitted to enter the building. (Those chicks HATED me when they let me and my son in, by the way.)

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And somehow a few of them did manage to sneak through the door while trying to be subtle -- but they couldn't have made the fact that they were on a One Direction stakeout any more obvious. I found a bunch of them camped out in the ladies room giggling like school girls and fixing their hair. One girl walked straight up to the media table and asked how much money she had to fork over to purchase one of the press passes we were wearing. (And had to be told about five times that they weren't for sale.)

And then another young lady looked at me and begged me to take her into the interview room with us and said she'd be my best friend if I did. (Guess I missed out on gaining a new BFF.)

I'll be talking in more detail about my encounter with the boys later this week -- and you'll have to excuse me if I'm unable to stop gushing about how wonderful, funny, engaging, down-to-earth, and just plain kind, nice dudes they are. They totally blew this mom away and made the experience something my son will remember for the rest of his life -- and I can't thank them enough for it.

More on all that later. In the meantime, here are a few photos I snapped from the front row -- which was like four feet in front of them. OMG. 1D forever, baby.

 

Images via Mary Fischer