An exhaustive, minutiae-laden story about The Amazing Race 5 finale party at Madison Square Garden, with lots of fangirl pictures of Phil's head in the crowd.
A party planner brought this inflatable cow to symbolie the side of beef that racers carried earlier in the season. So here we have Tracey, fellow line-stander Chad, and Sarah. The cow partied hard, and then was left on the top of someone's car at the end of the night.
This is not the original mat from the show, but a remarkable recreation. You can buy the original on EBay, if you hurry. Tracey and Sarah, you are Team Number One!
Janell, why is your leg sticking out at that weird angle? You and Sarah are Team Number Two!
This is the table where all the cool kids hung out. Well not really. But I knew the people at this table.
I approached a stranger to admire her shirt and her crown. Another person at the table gave me her crown, so we were crowned beauty queens together. That is a custom "My Ox is Broken!" shirt, right there.
No, this was not my dinner, we went to Subway earlier. So I had the Oreo sundae for dessert. And it only had one Oreo in it, of all the nerve! Sarah took this picture of me stuffing my face.
Kevin and Drew, the frat brothers from Season 1, arrived with their tv cameras to film the mayhem.
My corner of the table was right next to the entrance, quite happenin'. So this is people being excited to see Kevin and Drew. No, that is not my hand holding the camera, that hand belongs to Joel.
When Kevin and Drew sat by us to watch the show. "Act natural." I am always natural when wearing a paper crown. Also, another of Joel's pictures.
Then they took a microphone and asked Sarah lame questions about which roadblock she would choose. She thinks that she backhandedly insulted Brandon during this interview. As far as we know, it didn't make it on the air. Also, Joel's picture.
I just took a crowd shot during the show, I don't know what was happening. It looks like some people were happy, Becca, not so much. Unless she wasn't paying attention.
Danny and Oswald, Team Cha Cha Cha, arrive. I know that's one of them on the right, and I think that's the other one carrying the girl.
This is Zach, and a small corner of Flo's head, they are the winners of Season 3. And an unknown party girl in front, I think I tried to fix the red in her eyes.
I wasn't sure how close I would get to people, so I took crowd shots. The helpful yellow arrow is pointing at Brandon's hair.
Brandon's hair is big, so you can't see his face. But that is him and Nicole, third place team this season.
Karen's husband Bill was in the crowd, and he proudly showed off his Bowling Moms t-shirt.
That's Linda in the middle, and half of Karen's head to the right. Everyone said they were really nice and noticed that the camera added a lot of weight.
Again, as indicated by the helpful yellow arrow. Maybe I should call it the Amazing Arrow (I drew it, by the way). Look, Chip's here!
Brandon's hair, actually. Every picture that people took of Colin has a red eye. Evil, perhaps?
Yes, the Amazing Arrow is pointing at Phil's hair! Because I wasn't sure if I'd ever see the rest of him.
At first I spelled it phorehead, but that's a little too cutesy. There he is!
A fan hands Phil a custom pin. I think it said "I'm in the Phil Camp." Various pins declared loyalty to different teams, but the Phil Camp button was the most common from what I saw.
He has decided to put on the t-shirt, and is thinking about removing his other shirt first. I didn't hear this discussion, but I think Christie was advising him to button his shirt back up.
Colin puts the shirt on over is other shirt, and grins. I believe Christie is wearing a "I'm in the Colin Camp" pin.
This is a guy from the frat brothers' tv show, interviewing Colin in his t-shirt. Around this point, Colin shouted "I'm packin' it!" because that was another catchphrase he invented during a meltdown while trying to pack bricks.
The cake brought by CBS to celebrate the TAR Emmy win. Word is the cake was broken (My Cake is Broken!) by the crowd on the way to the table.
Look how close! My initial goal was to be in a picture with them, but it was so crowded I chickened out. Much later, when the crowd had thinned and I was back at my table, Chip walked by. I clapped and said "Yay Chip!" He said thanks and patted me on the back as he walked past. So, that was my brush with Chip.
He is mobbed again, some more. Someone gave him a cell phone and he was very nice and talked with a fan who couldn't make it to the party.
Nancy really wanted a picture with Phil. Right about the time Phil had to leave. So he was trying to escape, but people kept asking him for one mroe picture. We didn't think he would ever turn around, so Nancy posed with his back just in case.
