SHOW #1, 11/12/05: CLEVELAND ROCKS, CLEVELAND ROCKS.

Driving and arriving:

When I arrived at Krystal’s, she informed me that Stephanie, who was flying in from Utah, would be about three hours late due to some sort of airplane mishap. So instead of leaving at around 2 o’clock, as we had planned, we picked Stephanie up at 4:30 and left Louisville around 5, just in time for some delightful rush hour traffic.

The drive to Cleveland was about six hours – not too bad. It’s long enough to be a major trip, but not so long that the drive gets excruciating. We stopped a few times along the way, but since we running so late, all we wanted was to get up there as soon as possible. Sara, who was coming from Canada, was staying in a room with us at the Holiday Inn Express. We knew that she would be arriving around 6 or so, and since her cell phone is an international call, she had planned to just wait on us in the lobby until we arrived. That, of course, had been when we thought we’d be arriving at about 8 o’clock. D’oh. So to keep her from waiting, we called and got her name put on the reservation so she could check in.

I really wanted a picture of the water tower in Florence – supposedly, the tower used to say FLORENCE MALL on the side, but due to some rule against advertising on water towers, it was changed to FLORENCE Y’ALL. Quite funny and charming, I think. However, the first time we went through Florence I wasn’t quick enough, and the second time it was dark. Krystal attempted to take a picture, but no such luck. So I stole this picture from Google images, because I want you all to see it:

 
FLORENCE, Y’ALL.

We made it into Cleveland and to the hotel with relative ease. Finding a place to park, however, proved a bit more tricky. I drove around the block, lamenting the fact that the road was being resurfaced and had essentially NO lines marking any of the lanes. I got honked at twice before managing a poor parallel parking job on the opposite side of the street, and Krystal and I went to check in while Stephanie guarded the car.

The hotel was surprisingly nice, considering the rate we got it for. Once checked in, we navigated the small rat maze that was the downstairs floor plan and got on the elevator… and then rode it up and down, bewildered as to why it wouldn’t stop on the floor that we wanted it to. Turns out you have to slide your key card in it before you’re allowed to press a floor. Haha. I guess that’s how they keep miscreants from crashing and hiding in the hotel.

We made it to our room, and upon entering, were floored by the sheer size of it. I kept calling it The Cave, which was a pretty apt description, I think. Seriously, you felt like you needed a hard hat and a flashlight headmount when you entered, like you were getting ready to go spelunking or perhaps mining for coal. It had a huge living room area, bedroom area, bathroom, and even a kitchenette (featuring a mini-fridge for all the Ale8s I’d brought). It was great.

Sara was waiting for us – I’d seen pictures of her, but they truly don’t do her justice. The first thing I noticed was her perfect, porcelain skin, complimented with a head of dark, loosely curled hair. Her voice was much softer and sweeter than I had expected – perhaps I’m used to the rough edges of the south, where our words are blunt and clipped. We introduced ourselves, hugged, and immediately sat down to gab. We stayed up until about 3:00AM, chatting and gossiping about who else? Hanson.

Ella’s embarrassing moment #1: At one point, I went to wash my face, and couldn’t get any hot water from the tap. I kept yelling about the fact that we had no hot water and how taking a shower was going to suck ass, before Krystal finally asked, “Did you turn it the other way?”

All I have to say is, what sort of dumbass tap makes the RIGHT side of the knob the hot water?? EVERYONE knows that hot water goes on the left!

November 12, the day of the show:

Stephanie did some early-morning exploring before the rest of us awoke. Once I got up, I decided to make use of the workout room, and went down to run my mile and a half. When I returned to the room, everyone else was gone, leaving me to get ready. Which was a good thing, because A) I am extremely prissy, which B) means that it takes me a long time to get ready, and C) I’m slow anyway. Once I was ready and they had returned, we decided to head to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which was just down the street. Just down Rock & Roll Boulevard, to be exact:

 
“Drivin’ down your freeway...”

It was a beautiful day in Cleveland, albeit a bit windy (though my companions swore it wasn’t that windy earlier in the day when they’d gone out). It took maybe fifteen minutes before we could see the museum. What a great piece of architecture.

 
"Is that the Louvre...?"

The current featured exhibit at that time was a feature about The Who’s Tommy. We all immediately said, “Oh! Juliet should be here! Call her!”

 
That deaf, dumb, and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball…

I went for a pose in front of the sign:

 
One Key Plaza.

I’d always wanted to go to the RnRHOF, and let me just say it didn’t disappoint. As soon as we walked inside we were assaulted with memorabilia – and that was before we even paid our admission and went inside to the ‘real’ exhibits. And the gift shop! I spent a ridiculous amount of money there. I bought a shirt for myself, an ashtray for John, high-ball glasses for Michelle and Ellen, golf balls for my dad, a book for Lisa, and some postcards. Amount of money blown: approximately $100. Yikes.

When you go to pay your admission, they take your picture, similar to the way pictures are done for amusement park rides. We liked ours, and so we ended up buying it:

Ready to rock.

I don’t think I can adequately describe the experience inside the RnRHoF. Where do you begin? With the clothes worn by the likes of David Bowie, Sting, Janis Joplin and Angus Young? Handwritten lyrics to “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”? Jim Morrison’s old report cards? Again, where do you begin?! We wandered through the exhibits, alternately squealing and sighing.

Embarrassing moment #2: We were looking at the “Teen Idol” exhibit, which featured clothing and costumes worn by the likes of Britney Spears, Tiffany, and the Backstreet Boys, among many others. Suddenly, I saw a tall platform featuring three familiar male outfits: Hanson’s clothes from the “If Only” video. We walked over to stare at it, and I marveled at how cool Taylor’s shoes were. Without thinking, I reached out to touch them… only to have my hand slapped away by Krystal, who hissed, “You can’t touch that!” It was only then that I noticed the signs, plastered all around the Hanson part of the exhibit, warning people not to touch the items or else an alarm would sound. Whew. Crisis and embarrassment avoided, thanks to Krystal.

Before the show:

After getting our dose of rock and roll history, we decided to head back and get something to eat. I called Gina and harassed her about meeting up approximately three times. Our original plan had been to eat at the House of Blues restaurant and do the whole ‘Pass the Line’ deal, which also happened to be the same plan as 1,234,854 other Hanson fans. We walked in to the HOB restaurant to check out the wait. The hostess behind the podium looked absolutely thrilled to be there, and when we asked, she informed us in a monotonous tone that the wait was an hour and a half. On an amusing note, another hostess leaned over to her and hissed in a stage whisper, “Don’t tell them that! Tell them it’s an hour!” Um, we’re standing right in front of you. We can hear every word you’re saying.

We decided it wasn’t worth the wait and headed down the street, which is one of the wisest decisions we made on the entire trip. We ended up at a Bar & Grill called Harry Buffalo, and though it doesn’t really sound all that appetizing, it was absolutely delicious. Memorable items included my bison burger, Stephanie’s mashed sweet potatoes, and Krystal and Sara’s Sweet Potato Wafers, which were like little crinkly bits of sliced-up heaven.

 
Mmmm… sweet potato chips…

During dinner, the four of us noticed a small entourage of people roughly our age coming into the bar. Krystal and Stephanie saw them carrying instruments, and immediately we suspected something was up. The group came into the bar, and our eyes fell on the shaggy blond guy in the I LOVE NY shirt. We suspected he was Shane Piasecki, the Cleveland opening act, but debated on whether to say anything to him. Was it actually him? Would we be bothering him? Would he think we were weirdos?

In the end, Sara had the most balls, and as she stood up, she proclaimed, “I have no shame!” before walking over. Turns out, we were right and wrong – It was indeed Shane, but he was actually thrilled that we ‘recognized’ him. As he walked over, he was all grins and enthusiasm. “You all have made my day!” he exclaimed. “You’re the first people to come up to me!”

We took two pictures with him on my camera. Then, to our surprise, his friend whipped out another camera and said, “Hey, can I get another picture for our website?”

 
Shane’s world.

Juliet said later that he’s her ‘little Roger Daltrey’, and I think I agree. Everyone kept comparing him to Ryan Cabrera, but personally, I’d take The Who over RC any day. Better music, more street cred, higher level of sexiness.

Anyway, we thanked him and wished him luck, and I remember Krystal saying, “You’ll love the Hanson fans, they’re amazing.” With that, we returned to our table to finish dinner.

When we left Harry Buffalo’s, I glanced back at Shane. He was watching us leave, and I smiled and waved. He waved back. Completely fucking adorable.

Hanson, SOLD OUT!:

I had to get a picture of the HOB sign:

Hanson, SOLD OUT!

Waiting in line sucks. Waiting in line for a Hanson show, behind about 500 other crazed girls, sucks more. Waiting in line for a Hanson show, behind about 500 girls, in the cold Cleveland wind, sucks the most.

However, waiting in line and having Shane Piasecki come up to you and say “Hello” again pretty much rocks.

The four of us got in line somewhere around 5:30 or 6:00, I believe. The doors didn’t open until 7:00 (ha!), so we had a while to wait. Out in the alarmingly fierce Cleveland wind.

The line. Featuring a surprising number of guys this time.

Now, we knew that there were a slew of fellow Hanson fans from our little LiveJournal clique coming. Lily and Kit Fox, Toona, and Juliet were all slated to arrive, along with the Fox father, whose name I now know is Dave. I briefly met Stefanie while standing in line, but she was frantically searching for a ticket and couldn’t stop to chat.

I couldn’t wait to meet them all, but they seemed content to take their sweet time arriving. I decided to call. I asked Stephanie for Toona’s number, even though I’ve never spoken to her in person before. I thought it would be funny.

When she answered, I didn’t even bother saying hello. “Hey, hussy, where are you?”

“Uh….” Toona’s voice was deeper than I expected, especially coming from someone who looked so tiny in pictures. After finally telling her who it was, she asked where we were.

“Outside the venue,” I said, “waiting in line.”

“What?”

“Outside, in line.”

“What?”

“OUTSIDE!”

Apparently, my accent is thicker than I realized. “I have never heard it pronounced that way,” she said in amazement. I pestered her and the rest of them to hurry up and get there. In the meantime, I took the cutest picture of Krystal that ever existed:

 
Is it Easter already?

Next was Gina. She called, having finally arrived at the venue, and minutes later, walked up to us in line. I immediately gave her a hug. I <3 Gina. We became friends via AIM sometime last spring, and when I met her in Florida on the Hanfic retreat I thought she was the cutest thing ever, and so, so funny. She talks very fast, and I talk very slow, so our conversations are probably a bit like the tortoise and the hare sitting down to chat over a cup of tea.

At Mayfest, Gina and I took a picture together which ended up being possibly the most bizarre-looking photo of all time, because our heads look all screwed up in proportion to our bodies. I felt we had to make up for that picture by taking another one, and the results were a little better this time. Even though my hair is doing its best impression of an octopus in the throes of a grand mal seizure.

 
Get me a marine biologist, STAT!

Shortly afterwards, the Fox clan arrived. Stephanie called them and gave our coordinates, and I waited anxiously to see who was coming. Here’s a secret: I’m shy. And paranoid. I was a cheerleader for eight years, which is a fact that still is a bit mind-boggling to this day… but the thing is, that’s a performance. It’s rehearsed. Like Hanson, up onstage, playing to the crowd. In real life, I used to be the type of kid who perfected the art of blending in; sitting in the back of the bus after a game with a set of headphones. Completely invisible to the world, because I didn’t want anyone to talk to me. It’s just a facet of my personality – a lot of the time, I prefer to be the observer in the corner. In fact, the first time I met Krystal, she commented on what a quiet person I was. Though I’m not so sure she still thinks that now. But the point is, again, I'm a little on the introverted side.

Minutes later, we saw Toona and Lily walking up to us, having left the others behind to hold their place in line. I think I stared at them, mentally comparing them to the images I’d seen from LiveJournal, before finally turning to say hello.

Impressions: Toona truly is a ‘toon, to quote Dave Fox. Tiny, cute girl with a huge shit-eating smile and a deep voice. She came up to me first, and I remember demanding a hug, which I think confused her. Lily is more reserved and calm than I expected, and much prettier in person. She has a headful of wonderful Alley-style curls (though they’re red, not blond), and I wanted to tug on them and watch them bounce.

 
Oh, is it cold? I hadn’t noticed.

After introductions, Lily whipped out the Cleveland Tour Poster she’d drawn just for that show. It is, frankly, a fucking amazing piece of work. She’d actually made us all copies, and we spent a few minutes fawning over it before I decided to run mine back to the hotel, along with my camera. Because I decided that putting my camera in my bra wasn’t going to work, seeing how security was using wands to scan everyone who came in... and I could just imagine my embarrassment when something started beeping frantically at my chest area.

By the time Krystal and I had run to the room and back, the crew we’d been standing with had been ushered inside. We walked down the line, looking for a familiar face to join, when we saw Lily again. We hopped in with her, and immediately met her father, Dave, who has to be about 6’5”. I remember seeing an Amazon-height dark-haired girl, and though I didn’t actually know what she looked like, just knowing that it was Kit. I think I said, “Oh, you must be Kit!” or something corny along those lines.

My favorite introduction of the evening, however, goes to Juliet. Krystal and I were talking to the others, when suddenly Lily stepped over and Juliet leaped out from behind her, like a pint-sized jack-in-the-box. It totally caught me off guard, but I immediately recognized her from her pictures and apparently she recognized me. We squealed at each other, hugging and laughing. I started rambling about something, as I am wont to do upon meeting people for the first time, and suddenly she cut in: “Oh, your accent!” I stopped, confused, and she laughed. “No, keep talking! Keep talking!”

On with the show:

It was my first ‘real’ Hanson concert. My previous two Hansony experiences were the Kentucky State Fair in 2004 (in a baseball stadium, with one of the oddest concert set-ups ever) and Mayfest 2005 (in a parking lot with approximately 15,000 other people). So I’d never been to an indoor, intimate, up-close Hanson show. Krystal and Stephanie both promised me I would love it, and that Taylor Hanson was a force that had to be experienced in his element – in other words, in a smaller, sold-out venue.

We managed to get a good vantage point for the show, despite us forgoing the whole ‘Pass the Line’ deal. We stood off to the left, each of us lining the wall next to the backstage door. There was just enough room for us to stand and talk or get out and dance, plus we had a great view of the stage. Perfect.

Highlights, notes and random bits:

• Shane Piasecki. We really, really wanted him to be good, since we’d met him before the show and had instantly fallen in love with him. I was going to feel really bad if I’d hated his music. Luckily, his set was light, upbeat, and fun, and very suited for a Hanson crowd. He also played the first few lines of Misery at one point, which showed us all that he’d at least done his homework, and naturally, it endeared him further to all of us Hanson fans. Afterward, he and his band came out of the backstage door and walked through the crowd. I reached out and touched his arm, which is something of a bold move for me when it comes to cute guys, and said, “Shane, you did a great job.” He was all smiles again as he spoke to us, obviously on an incredible high after getting the opportunity to perform his music for an energetic, sold-out crowd. I nearly melted when he leaned over and murmured the infamous, “Come talk to me later” line that I keep telling everyone about… although now I suspect that he was just intending to use me to get to Sara. She’s gotten not one, but two emails from him since then!
   

• I know you’ve all probably heard about this by now, but Lily’s father took her tour posters and got sister Jessica to take them back, where they were signed by Taylor and Zac. All in all, by the end of the night, I think six of her posters were requested by the Hanson camp. They fucking loved them, as we all knew they would. But we wanted Isaac to sign them, as well, so we made plans to do the dreaded ‘waiting by the bus’ after the show.
   

• Pat McGee. Round, baby face, lame haircut. Looks like someone’s pesky little brother – the kind of guy who would spy on his older sister’s sleepovers and put fake dog shit on your pillow as a prank. His band has two drummers (or ‘percussionists’, if you prefer), which is kind of cool, I suppose.
  
  I dunno. There’s just nothing about him that sets me on fire (in a musical or sexual way, which we all know are the two ways that bands sell records). His songs are okay, decent enough, I suppose. But there’s just something missing. I got bored watching him, though he appeared to be a competent musician and engaged the crowd several times. The one highlight of his set, for me, was the medley of Tom Petty’s American Girl leading into I Want You To Want Me. It was upbeat, rocking, and fun. I was like, “Pat, dude. Where have you been hiding this for the past half-hour??”
   

• The setlist. Oh, my. They opened with In a Way (at least, I think that’s what it’s called, which I will explain later). Frankly, I don’t remember much about this. I kept hearing all this buzz about Taylor on drums, Taylor on drums, but I actually didn’t get to see that at this show… because Isaac was blocking my view. And when Isaac wasn’t blocking my view, some girl with a gigantic pair of 3X panties that said ZAC, I’M YOUR BIGGEST FAN was. Apparently, she found it amusing to hold said panties up for the duration of the show, blocking EVERYONE’S view behind her. It was funny, it really was. At first. For maybe like, five minutes. After that, it rapidly became unfunny and eventually became annoying as hell.
   

• Other setlist highlights: Desire. Sexy, fun, dancy. Taylor shaking his hips with a tambourine. It’s little moments like those that make you realize that you ca officially die happy. Thinking of You, which I believe is the song where Zac started jumping up and down while banging his drums. Hand in Hand, featuring Isaac going positively apeshit – it was possibly the best impression of an exorcism I’ve ever seen. Of all the shows I saw, that particular performance of HiH was the most stunning. Antics galore. Long Train Running, where Zac comes into his own, and Taylor sits on his piano. I’m convinced the man spent a great deal of time debating on the sexiest way of sitting and playing the shakers. Probably in front of a mirror, or maybe using his wife as a second opinion. “Hmm, facing forward? Nah. On the bench? Nah. Propped up on the closed piano lid with one leg casually lifted on the bench? Bingo.”
  
  And, of course, Crazy Beautiful, which is a song that should be performed at every Hanson show, in my opinion. Although, am I the only one who noticed that Taylor accidentally skipped half the second verse? After the first “You drive me cra-zeeee” he totally missed the “Driftwood, won’t you float me down your stream?” line, which is one of my favorites. Or, you know, maybe I just dreamed all that. hahaha. Did anyone else notice?
  
  Aaaaaaannnnnddddd… No Mmm Bop. :) Score one for Ella.
   

• The 6’4”, 250 pound guy who stood next to me and played non-stop air guitar for about the first 15 songs. It was hysterical. I leaned over to Toona at one point and made her look at him, commenting that I was afraid he was going to get carpal tunnel from all his guitar-mocking wrist-flicking. Or a stiff neck from the rhythmic head bobbing. He was great.
   

• Taylor, sauntering out for the encore and traipsing across his piano. He did this bizarre slow-motion walk across the top with his arms spread out, and of course the crowd screamed and freaked out as if it were the most amazing thing we’d ever witnessed. Then, he suddenly leaped off the top into the floor, and for a second I thought he was going to totally wipe out and fall to the floor. Now that would have been entertainment.
   

• Toona is a close talker. Whether this is her general way of conversing, or whether it’s because it was so damn loud in there, every time we spoke her face was about three inches from mine (luckily, it’s a very cute face ;)). People probably thought we were on the verge of making out or something. Haha. The fact that we spent a large part of our evening trading blatant, redneck sexual innuendos only added to that, I’m sure.
   

• It’s nice to be in a crowd of people who are dancing along. Well, it’s nice to actually have the ROOM to do that. Of all my concerts, this show was the only one where I felt I had room to move around, mainly because the positions we took in the other venues were in danger of being stolen by other rabid fans – we didn’t dare stray from our assigned floor space. In Cleveland, I was behind Juliet, in front of Sara, and in between Toona and the giant Air Guitar Man, dancing and bobbing like a fool. I remember clapping along and accidentally grabbing Juliet’s hair in the process. Sorry, babe.
   

• Toona saying, at one point, “This is ghey. G-H-E-Y. Ghey.” I don’t even remember what she was referring to, but it was even more hilarious to hear it in person.
   

• Kit’s patched, autographed pants, which were quite awesome. We all signed them. I wish now I’d written something cooler. Haha.
   

• My blue-and-white striped KENTUCKY scarf was an unofficial hit with everyone. YES. ha. I love that scarf. It was abandoned at the company I work at by someone who left for another job, so I stole it. As Stephanie remarked on more than one occasion, “You’re such a blue-blood.”
   

• Dave Fox buying my drink. The funniest part was when I left the bar and went back to the girls. I marched right up to Kit and announced, “Hey, your dad just bought me a drink! Haha!”
  
  She just shook her head. “He’s such a lecherous old man,” she said with a laugh.
  
  Nah. He's cool in my book. :)
   

• Apparently, there’s something about all HOBs that prevents you from getting a cell phone signal. ? I don’t know. I tried to text/call Gina to tell her where we were standing, but it wouldn’t go through. And I couldn’t find her in the crowd. This made me sad. :(

After the show:

Main objective: get Isaac to sign Lily’s tour posters, thus making the autographs complete.

Method: Suck it up and – ugh – wait by the bus.

Once we’d managed to make it out of the HOB intact, we headed around the corner to where the bus was parked. Here’s something that struck us as unusual – before the show, when we were going to eat, we’d walked past the alley where the bus was sitting, and NO ONE was out waiting. How often does that happen?? And it wasn’t like it was particularly hidden, or anything. Strange.

And once we made it back there after the show, we noticed that the crowd wasn’t actually that big, either. What, maybe 50 people? Considering Cleveland was a sold-out show, that seemed relatively tame to me. We joined the small crowd and waited. I did manage to call Gina and tell her where we were, and she rejoined us for a brief bit.

The security guys kept moving us around, herding us like sheep. “Stand back! Move over! Get behind the line! Now come over here! Line up!” Etc, etc. We went through this process for maybe 20 minutes or so before Zac came out, grinning from ear to ear. He was in an incredibly great mood for the entire show, and that feeling obviously remained afterwards. As the girls crowded around him, he amused everyone by shouting various things, with that maniacal grin on his face all the while. “Get back or I’ll get a gun and shoot you!” was one of his charming little endearments, I believe, along with, “Don’t make me lose my voice!”

At one point, I did get my ticket out, thinking that if he came close, I’d ask him to sign. I then immediately realized what a dumb idea that was. In that sort of situation, if you want an autograph, you have to fight for it. And frankly, I’m not a fighter. I’m not aggressive. And since getting a Hanson autograph was not particularly a concern of mine that evening, I put it away and decided to better spend my time talking to my girls. Meanwhile, Stephanie dragged Lily forward, determined to get the poster signed.

I spent a lot of time back there talking to Juliet, who is adorable. She is so happy and always smiling, and you can’t help but smile back. We had a conversation about how we were the only picture- and autograph-less fans of our group, and yet it was ironic that we were the two standing in the back, ignoring the Hanson madness straight ahead of us. At one point, Juliet and I were talking, and suddenly this girl wearing about ¼ of a shirt walked up, with her cleavage spilling out and her stomach exposed… in the 30 degree weather. We stopped talking and simultaneously exchanged this look as the girl passed by, before bursting into giggles.

 Long story short: Lily and Stephanie got Bex to take the posters back, and Isaac signed them. Before Taylor came out, Lily stepped over to us, her eyes wide. She looked as though she had something earth-shattering to say.

“Tell me the truth,” she said, her voice somber as she looked each of us in the eye. “Does my hair look stupid?”

I laughed at her. No at her, which is what she thought I was doing, but at her sudden hair terror. It was so unexpected that it caught me by surprise. She looked at me as I giggled, chagrined. “It does! You’re laughing at me!” No, no, honey. It looked fine. It was the Alley-ness of your statement that I found amusing. The hair, always the hair.

Anyway, Taylor finally came out, and Lily got fawned over once he was informed that she was the girl who drew the posters. Amazing. The rest of us stood in the back, just watching him talk to her. As I said before, I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy for anyone else in my life. It was really just a surreal, touching moment.

 Once Lily received her long-overdue and highly deserved Taylor moment, we left it up to her whether to stay or go ahead and leave. She was overwhelmed, I think, and so we went ahead and left. I gave Gina a hug, since she was with a different group of friends and couldn’t leave, and we all headed back to our hotel room to chat for a few before parting ways.

To the Fan-Cave!

Everyone was highly impressed with our room, as they should have been. Toona posed with the CURTAINS of DOOM™ for a photo op.

 
The CURTAINS of DOOM™!

I showed off my 20-pound printed version of Catapult. Juliet drank an Ale8. We made Lily sign all of our posters, since, you know, they’ll be worth millions one day. Sara had the ingenious idea of bringing a ‘tour book’ with her, and she asked everyone to sign it with a small message. I am generally terrible with those sort of things – it’s like writing in a yearbook, worrying about words that are going to be imprinted on that souvenir piece of paper for eternity – and I can’t remember what I wrote exactly, but I’m sure it was ghey – as Toona would say.

I took a photo with Juliet and Toona. As you can see, Toona can’t help but fan herself off from the overwhelming hotness that is me and Juliet. Obviously. Plus, she’s holding my Hanfic novel in her lap, which I didn’t even notice until Juliet pointed it out. Hahaha.

 
Is it hot in here, or is it just them?

Before everyone left, we took a few group pictures. In this one, half of us are pointing at the Abominable Curtains, and the other half are pointing to Juliet and her Ale8. Except for me, who just looks confused. heh. Lack of communication there. I think we were all supposed to be pointing at the same thing.

 
Huh? What’s going on?

And another version, closer up:

Ten times cooler than Hanson could ever hope to be.

After pictures, we gave hugs and said our goodbyes. I was truly sad to see the girls go – I would have loved to talk to everyone longer and spent more time together, but we all had demanding schedules ahead. Juliet and Toona were heading back to the Northeast the next morning (a nine-hour drive) and Sara had to leave to get on a bus back to Canada at 4:00AM.

When the others left, I decided I wanted pizza. At 2:00AM, this can be somewhat difficult, particularly in an unfamiliar city. I couldn’t find anyone who was still open, and the snooty Papa John’s that I finally got ahold of informed me in a very cool tone that they “didn’t deliver downtown,” as if downtown was a leper colony. Luckily, though, Stephanie saved the day, having spotted a pizza joint delivering some goods down in the lobby only minutes earlier. Once it arrived, I scarfed down about four pieces and then collapsed on the couch, spent.

Sara decided to just stay up until 4:00AM, rather than go back to bed and try to get up, and I wish I could say that I stayed right up with her. Unfortunately, my body shut down shortly after eating (as it is prone to do) and I was forced to give in to sleep. Krystal and Stephanie promised they’d wait up with her, and so I gave her a hug, said goodbye, and toddled off to bed – resting up for our journey down to Cincinnati the next morning, for another dose of Hanson music.

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