My Hanson Experience on Monday (Warning: Long Entry)

I just realized last night that I forgot to write down everything that happened on Monday, so here it is.

I got up at 8am so I could get to work around 9. I didn't really have much work to do, so I just sat around waiting for someone to give me something to do. I eventually found a couple of small things I could do until I had to leave for home and get ready for the Walk with Hanson at 2pm.

I left work at about 12:15pm for home to have a little lunch and change into something more comfortable for the Walk. My mom drove me over to the place where the Walk was going to start and dropped me off at about 1:15-1:30. I had made a little name tag with my fan club username on it since I was planning on meeting another fan at the Walk. I never saw her, but eventually another fan that I had talked to online had found me a few minutes before the Walk started and she introduced me to her mom and her friend that had come to walk also. Oh, also a Walk organizer was walking around and asking who was going to go barefoot so that she could give them moist toilettes to clean their feet after the Walk was over.

One more interesting thing happened before the Walk started. Suddenly, people noticed tons of fans walking in one direction and nobody in my area knew what was going on, but we all figured that we should follow them. Then, I realized what was going on - somebody had found the guys eating at a cafe. Taylor then told everybody on the megaphone to go back to the Walk starting place and they'd be there soon. I just laughed and walked back to where the Walk was going to start. That's when the other fan I was meeting found me.

Finally, the guys arrived at the starting place and Taylor made his opening speech that he makes for each Walk. I made sure to take a video of what I could. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gz5uLWP5Y5M There's the link to my video on YouTube if you want to take a look. I'm sorry about the shakiness in some parts. I was carrying a lot and I didn't want to drop any of it.

So anyway, after Taylor finished his speech, we started the Walk and I had decided to walk barefoot along with a lot of other fans and the guys. For a while, I was just following other fans, not knowing which Hanson we were walking with. Eventually, I saw that we were following my favorite of the guys! Zac! Once I saw him in front of me, I took some videos of him and even recorded myself saying "Omg! There he is!" LOL! That was my teenie-fan girl coming out. But only once did I do anything of that kind.

After a few minutes of walking and talking with my new friends, I saw that we had practically caught up with him! As we got to an open area, I walked a little faster to keep up with my friend's mom. Then, I heard HIM (Zac) talking and laughing close behind me! I quickly got out my Flip Video camera and took another video of him pointing my camera behind me, but still looking ahead so I didn't run into anything. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zEQZjKmlBAw

Apparently, one of the fans next to him had asked him what deodorant or whatever he uses. He started laughing and then said, "I try ... It's Axe, actually." Then, I believe my new friend, Carli, who I was hanging out with a little before the Walk started had caught up and asked him to look towards her mom, who was on the other side of me trying to take a picture of her and Zac. In the video, I got him looking back to her and I do believe he saw me!  (Sorry, but he's been my favorite almost since the beginning!) Oh! So, then as he was looking towards her mom, he kind of smiled but he also said (maybe half jokingly), "You're trying to cheat a photo!"

I was right behind him for a while and took some more videos, but I don't think I could hear a word he was saying to anybody else because of all the fans talking around me.

We finally reached the end place of the Walk and it ended up being in front of the Georgia State University Student Center. As I looked around, there were a lot of people who were looking at us curiously as they walked by. I even heard somebody (probably a student or something) ask who was causing all this and one of the fans told them it was Hanson. I registered myself as taking the Walk at the table before getting back over to Taylor who was making an ending speech for everybody who was willing to listen. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKUWJiRt2_8 For everyone that registers his or her Walk, Hanson will donate a dollar to one of 5 causes that they are publically supporting. (Check out www.takethewalk.net for further info about that.)

I also ended up seeing Isaac about 5 to 10 feet away from me taking a video of Taylor's speech on his digital camera. At first, I was only pretty sure it was him. I took another look and confirmed in my mind that it was Isaac Hanson. He stopped taking the video and saw him walking towards me and I believe he was about to gently push me out of his way, but I saw him coming behind me so I moved up a little bit before he did. He walked up next to Taylor and continued recording his video from there. They then sent everybody over to the table for registering their Walk and preordering the Take the Walk Book/EP. I didn't think to take a video of this, but I saw a ton of fans crowding around the tables and Isaac and Taylor asked that real lines be formed to make it easier for everybody.

When mostly everybody was finished, the guys got into a white van and I guessed they headed off to the venue for their soundcheck, Meet N Greet and do the Reporter thing they do before every show. That left a ton of fans, including me, who were just hanging around the Georgia State University Student Center trying to figure out where the venue was.

I called my mom after I realized that my new friends were headed off to their hotel to change and get ready for the show later that evening. My mom said that I could get on the marta train and she would pick me up from the station that's closest to our house. I put my shoes back on ... completely forgetting that I had the moist toilette for a reason and walked around looking for the closest marta train station I could.

I ended up finding the one that was near Underground Atlanta and finally got back home. I relaxed my feet for a while before having a quick dinner on my own and changing into socks and tennis shoes for the concert that evening.

Finally, my mom drove me to the venue where the concert was going to be. I got in the shorter line at about 7pm for the 8 o'clock show and noticed that it was only for those people who took the Walk earlier that afternoon.

What I didn't know about until later was that originally there was one huge group of people all standing around the entrances to the venue. Eventually, one of the moms went up to the front and told the staff that the people who walked were supposed to be able to get in before people who had just lined up and the staff made them separate into two lines. They made everybody who didn't have the stamp for the Walkers get out of that line and into the other line.

Anyway, I got in at about 7:10 and found a real seat since I didn't really want to stand the whole time. Then, I saw a familiar face walk by me. It was my friend, Mary, from Reinhardt! I remembered that she was a Hanson fan also, so as she started walking back towards me, I said to the girl, "Mary?" She looked at me and recognized me almost immediately. We were rather surprised to see each other here since we hadn't been in contact with each other since she graduated the semester before me. We hugged and talked for a bit before I sat down with her and her friends she found from Reinhardt who were also Hanson fans!

Then, at about 7:30, the band called Everybody Else were coming on stage to play some songs. Everybody Else was the first opening act for Hanson. They played about 5 or 6 songs, which I thought were okay, but I was really there for Hanson. After the staff had finished setting up for the second opening act, The Veronicas came on and played a few songs. They were done around 9:15. It was probably a half hour before Hanson finally came on!

Zac walked on the stage first and started drumming before the other two had made their way to the stage. They got the crowd really excited with their first song, Something Going Round, but as they played, I saw Isaac walk over to Taylor's side of the stage and start pointing out a fan or two angrily and said something like "No, stop it. Stop pushing." He was doing that for a good 10 seconds before he walked back over to his side of the stage. Mary and I looked at each other going, "What was that about?" I also saw the other Reinhardt people next to me doing the same thing. None of us knew why Isaac looked and acted so angry towards somebody at the front closest to the stage.

Just yesterday, I figured out what happened. Apparently, some fans were pushing and shoving each other to get a few inches closer to Taylor's side of the stage. Isaac noticed this and became 'the hero', as one fan later called him, to the fans up close who were supposed to be there.

The rest of the concert went beautifully! I was planning on going back near their tour buses to meet them and get something signed, but when the concert was over, I felt too sick to go. I just called my dad when the concert was over for him to come get me and then sat in a chair outside to wait for him.

So, that's it. Feel free to comment on anything, but please don't be rude about it.

Hanson related

So, I just told my parents that this Walk is only one mile long and barefoot. My mom was quite surprised about that even though I swear I had already told her that. She said that she thought it was a 3-mile walk or something. Then, I had to go in an explain the whole purpose of the Walk to them, which I also swear that I've already done. So, then we got into this discussion about how some celebrities are using their fame and money to help different causes that they support. That ended up leading to asking the guys a question during the Walk or after the show and to have a back-up question just in case the question was already asked.

The question I have for any of them was "Do you watch any sports on TV?" which could lead to the follow-up question, "How often do you watch?" Or "What (if any) are your favorite sports teams?" or even just "Which teams (if any) do you follow?" If they don't watch any sports on TV, which could happen, then I want to think of another question. I haven't thought of my back-up question yet.

OMG!