Back in my early teenage years, when the question was to go or not to go hang out at the skating rink on Friday nights, who would slip me a note that day in the school cafeteria, and when the “cool” thing to have was a matching BONGO jeans and vest set (need I say more), my best friend (Serena) and I found ourselves completely infatuated with the group, Hanson. Wow… I said it! All these sixteen years later!
We were never really interested in N’Sync or The Backstreet Boys. They were hot, don’t get me wrong, but there was just something about Hanson. Something about them that was real. They weren’t wearing matching outfits and dancing a choreographed routine with several other guys (but if you’re into that sort of thing, I totally understand, LOL!) They were just these kids who discovered their musicality and went with it, driven to succeed. Everyone (at least at my middle school) made fun of their long hair and high pitched voices, but the truth was that they were making bank and had thousands of pretty girls screaming their names everywhere we went. Could my pimply faced, male classmates say the same? I tell my husband the same thing about Justin Bieber and the Jonas Brothers today--- they may drive us crazy and seem incredibly annoying, but seriously their the ones who can afford all the things in life that we cannot. Is there really an argument here?
Soo.. back to my story. Serena and I were these crazed fans who would just die every time Hanson appeared on our television set. The world suddenly seemed so big from our small town
Alabama bedrooms adorned with wall to wall posters of our favorite boys. It was our dream to meet Hanson and just like every other girl in America who fantasized about our teen heart throb, we thought if we could just get the chance to meet them, that they would fall madly in love with us and we would spend all eternity together and have 10,000 babies with them! But….
Time went on and we never met them. Our posters were eventually taken down and put into a box (which I still have in the top of my old room closet in my parents house), we got “real” boyfriends and would embarrassingly laugh when our old friends would remind us of our once obsession with those boys who sang “Mmmbop.” We grew up. Such a sad thing, I know. We got married, had babies, and I have to admit that I thought about Taylor Hanson quite a few times over the years and what he was like now, all grown up. Who did he marry? What was it like to be married to Taylor Hanson? Was she a fan of his before?
A few weeks ago, my husband and I made the decision to travel to New Orleans, LA (it’s only about 2.5 hours from our hometown) for a weekend trip to celebrate our 4rth wedding anniversary. We wanted to go visit some of the historic plantations and eat some Cajun cuisine. While planning this trip, an e-mail from “House of Blues” appeared in my in-box alerting me of the newest event… Hanson would be performing there the same weekend we would be visiting New Orleans. They would be within walking distance of our hotel. Seriously? Did I really want to go see Hanson all these years later? What would my husband think? And you know what? Of course I wanted to go see them and my husband said, “Wow- of course you should go! You always wanted to see them and here is your chance! I can drink beer!” LOL
So I bought the tickets and we went!!! Let me just say that if you are a single male and want to meet hot girls, you should suck it up and buy you a ticket to a Hanson concert because my husband was surrounded by beautiful girls dancing with him, singing along to the music, and telling him he gets “Husband of the Year Award” for bringing his wife to a Hanson concert! I think he ate up all the attention and that was just fine with me. I was too busy being mesmerized by my teenage dream coming true! I got really excited when they first came out and seriously tried to contain myself and be the mature adult that I am, LOL
Their music is actually really good--- they’re grown up now and have grown up voices. They sang a lot of new stuff that I was unfamiliar with but they went back to their original album from my days of hoping and wishing, and I could actually remember every single word!!
We left the concert with me beaming and once we were outside and headed back to our hotel, we realized some girls were waiting around Hanson’s tour bus and they said that Hanson always comes out and signs autographs, so you know I had to stick around for this, right? One of the girls was nice enough to rip a page out of her magazine and give to me so I could get their autographs.
I was so glad my husband agreed to wait, because all three of them came out, signed autographs, and took pictures!! I was calm and collected as the boy I once dreamed of seeing in person, put his arm around me and smiled for the camera. I just never guessed it would be my husband taking the pictures with a big smile on his face! What a trooper!
I went to bed that night gleaming! Cheesy, I know… but seriously one of the best weekends of my life. It was so worth waiting so many years to meet them. I am still in awe that I finally got to see them live in concert, much less get pictures with them and get to talk to them. “Awesome” would be an understatement of this event and I just had to share my excitement with you all! The End.
Love, E
P.S…. There are seriously some crazy fans out there (like, not right in the head). I just want to note that I am nothing like that; I am quite normal, I sware. I just wanted to live out my teenage dream. I totally did not sign up for the official Hanson fan club yesterday ;)
