The Taylor - FINALLY

10 1/2 years. 7 concerts. Several failed attempts at meeting, the most famous ones involving Frankie Muniz, Emerson College security, and that damn food poisoning. Multiple Sims marriages and children. 1 real marriage and 3 children (for him). 1 mile of walking, all leading to this moment:

#8: Meet Taylor Hanson

FINALLY.

And with only 5 days left on The List! This was actually one of the few tasks that I really, really wanted to complete and would have been happy with completing just that single list item. 10 1/2 years, people. Taylor has been one of my Top 2 Celebrity Boyfriends for 10 1/2 years (holding the #1 spot for a good 85% of that time) and after eluding me for that long, I finally caught up with him. Literally. Let me start at the top, shall we?

The Hanson boys are doing a special thing during their current tour in support of their new album, The Walk. They went to Southern Africa to record a song for the album and were overwhelmed by all of the poverty plaguing the area along with the AIDS crisis out that way. Early this year, they raised money with a charity single which donated 100% of the money earned on each download to the cause. Now, they are doing a new thing where they have teamed up with a shoe manufacturer to donate shoes to the area. For every pair bought, one will be donated. To promote awareness, the band is hosting a one mile walk at each tour stop the day of the show. (Full details are here if you want to know more.)

Anyhoo - I was supposed to go to NYC with Frito and Lucy for 2 days, but our plans fell through last week. When we were exploring options of what to do instead, I remembered that Hanson had a concert in Connecticut today that I wasn't able to attend because of my trip. Now that I was free and clear, I knew that we had to hit the pre-show walk. Unfortunately, Lucy could not join us, but Frito was game for the adventure. We made the trip to Hartford and then it all just happened. Well, first we arrived about 2:20 for the 3:00 walk, and ended up having to stand there in the 85 degree sun until the boys finally emerged at 3:35 for the walk. Translation? It was HOT, y'all. (That also explains why I'm not wearing the cute little white gauzy button-down that I had over my tank top in the picture with Taylor. I was too hot to care at that point since it was taken at the end of the walk.) But Frito was as awesome as ever, indulging me in my whims, even when he is surrounded by all girls:

And me? Here is my excitement when faced with the prospect of finally meeting Taylor:

In other words, I was just a wee bit excited. Just a tad.

Anyway - so yes, the walk. I was expecting about 60 people there, which was about how many were there when we arrived, but by the time the walk got underway, there were about 100 people participating. (Number of boys? About 4.) The great thing about the walks is that the band does it with you, so they are just walking amongst you, chatting - that is, if you can get near them. The not-so-great thing? They encourage you to do the walk barefoot along with them so you can experience what it's like to have no shoes. Frito's immediate response when I told him this? "NO." Hey, it was just encouraged. Me? I will do whatever Taylor asks of me, so I walked the filthy streets of Hartford in my bare feet. Was it gross? A little. Uncomfortable? Not really. Did I get injured? Yes:

Was it worth it? HELL YES.

You see, Taylor and Zac take off like bats out of hell and speedwalk while Isaac kind of hangs in the back with the megaphone. The other problem is that there are so many girls angling to get near the boys and the sidewalks are so skinny that you end up losing a lot of ground if you're trying to get to one of the boys. However, I discovered a few things today: 1) I am like a ninja in many ways. Or a cat. 2) When necessary, I can somehow convince my body to move at superhuman speeds. 3) The way I was able to stealthily sneak between girls without touching them while still moving at a very fast pace makes me think I should look into being a spy. 4) When I have an opportunity to meet Taylor Hanson, I will leave you in the dust. Sorry, Frito!

Really - when the walk started, I didn't even think to stay with Frito and just hauled ass. I managed to catch up to Taylor and walked beside him for a second before I was waylayed by a tree before I could get his attention. Then I looked at this for a few minutes while I straggled behind:

I got boxed out again shortly thereafter and lost a lot of distance, but this is where the superhuman speed kicked in. Frito was behind me and witnessed the whole thing and he told me it was hilarious. When we hit an intersection where we had to cross the street, I was able to break free from the thin sidewalk cluster and I just went outside the pack and RAN across the street, catching up with Taylor and ending up walking right next to him. I just turned to him and said, "Hi, Taylor." He said hello and asked how I was doing. I then told him that this was pretty much the only thing that would get an old woman like me to walk a mile. He laughed and replied, "You're an old woman? Come on." Then someone else grabbed him away and he was gone again. I rejoined Frito who said, "You were talking to him!" Oh yes.

Shortly thereafter, we had to stop at a major intersection to wait to cross the street, so Taylor and Isaac got on the megaphone to reiterate what the purpose of the walk was:

This afforded us a chance to catch up to Taylor again and this is when our second conversation took place. I asked him if they were going to be signing any more acts to their record label. Eh, instead of me explaining what he said, let's let him just tell you, shall we? Oh yes, there is video of me talking to The Taylor:

Chatting With Taylor

The funniest part is cut out of the video because it's a little wobbly, but you see me give an "Oh my God" look to the camera after we are done talking and then I whisper to Frito, "Did you get that?" and he nonchalantly answers, "Mmm-hmm!"

I did walk with Taylor again for a little bit at the end of the walk, and I LOVE this picture that Frito got of it:

And I'm so thankful that Frito and I have the same brain, because right after that was the end of the walk and our miniscule picture opportunity. Taylor probably only took pictures with about 4 other people, because he was all about moving and walking the whole time, but Frito and I saw an opening and without even having to communicate, we just made that picture happen. It was awesome. Right after that, Taylor headed back behind a little barricade with Isaac and Zac to give a post-walk speech. I captured some of it at the end of this montage video from the walk - the beginning is the pre-walk speech, and then there are some quick shots of Taylor during the walk and then the post-walk speech:

Here's a couple of other shots I got during the day:

At the end of all of it, we were tired, sweaty and in dire need of a cold drink. I was also bleeding from one of my two dirty feet, and overcome by euphoria. Oh, and the water we had in my car was WARM and disgusting. Frito is going to kill me for posting this, but here is a video that I took right after the walk, when I was still on an endorphin high and we were headed for Dehydration Land:

I especially love my fist pump of victory while wheezing, "Taylor!" at the end. And I'm really not like that all the time. I blame the endorphins and lack of fluids. And Frito doesn't normally offer sex acts to women for Gatorade. We're usually a lot more normal than that. Okay, maybe Frito is.

Anyway, even with all of that, I had the time of my life and would do it all again tomorrow. The Walk was such a cool thing to do, and I would encourage anyone who lives in a city where Hanson will be playing to go get in on the action. It's total madness, but so much fun.

Plus, I got to meet Taylor FINALLY. I actually thought that I was just going to be able to say hello to him during the walk and that would be it - I would have officially met Taylor and been on my way. I knew I'd be able to get some pictures of him during the walk, but I didn't think I'd ever be able to score a picture with him with all of the people there and madness going on. So that? That was just the cherry on top of a marvelous day. Speaking of which, let's take a look at that picture again, shall we?

Pure bliss.

Comments

[Liz]

You are so damn funny. I love it. I'm glad you got to cross off #8!

See you soon!

[frito]

Gatorade made me straight for about 30 seconds....I hope you're happy...more like Gatorape - good one frito....