Where The Bright Light Broke Through

Hope it’s a good one!

Halloween night, a drunk driver slammed into my boyfriend’s pickup (and then left; the cops caught him about a mile away). The pickup did a one-eighty, hit the curb, and rolled down a hill into a low-lying area. Nothing’s broken on me, but I’m in a lot of pain, and I’m absolutely pissed. I’d decided I’d rather go to Wichita instead of Denver, but it didn’t matter; I didn’t get to go to either one, and you know, that pisses me off more than anything about the whole situation: I’m in so much pain I couldn’t even consider making the drive to the concert. Caring about something this much is a double-edged sword. I feel bad for the people that don’t have this when things are going well, but right now, missing the concert on top of the wicked seasonal affective disorder that sinks in every fall, it’s all that much worse. I am Jack’s homicidal rage.
It really caught up with me on my drive back to Albuquerque. I was driving back with my left hand, right shoulder splitting, and since I kind of stupidly loaded up my top twenty-five most played on my iPod, of course it was going through all the new Hanson and Everybody Else I’ve been listening to lately, and I finally just cried. Like Rob in the first chapter of High Fidelity, I should have just put on something that I could ignore.

So, there’s this obnoxious video on TMZ where some asshole was asking the guys some questions bugging the fuck out of them, but it was worth it just for Zac’s reaction: “Do you normally talk like that, or do you have a problem today?”

Zac posted a FUTY asking why people bring instruments to shows. I replied and was like, “Yeah, I was saying the same thing four years ago.” So, I reposted a slightly updated version of the Seven Deadly Concertgoing Sins.

‘Cause, you know, Zac so actually reads my blog. Don’t you know I’m awesome like that?

I’m finally over being sick from OKC/Tulsa. See, I was slightly stupid about the whole thing: Google maps tells me it’s about nine and a half hours to Tulsa from Albuquerque. I don’t know how I left at ten or eleven and didn’t get into Oklahoma City until eight-thirty (that girl running through the Oklahoma State Fair to the stage during MMMBop pretty much following the sound of the music? *waves* Oh, hai!), but yeah, it’s ostensibly nine and a half hours in the car. Alone. And the best part about taking road-trips alone is this: there are two places I really enjoy singing full-blast: alone in my car, and at concerts. In the car, nobody else can hear me, and at the concert, it’s too noisy for anyone to care anyway.

So of course I spent the entire drive singing along to Everybody Else and all the current Hanson stuff.

You’d think I’d've gotten tired, right? It should have told me something when my throat kept getting all fuzzy at the Tulsa show. By the end, I was dying, and kicking myself for not bringing cash to the show ’cause I had to wait until I got back to my car and then stop for a drink on the way back to the hotel. The guy at Starbucks the next morning could hardly understand me, but I felt better after coffee, so I didn’t learn, and drove home from Tulsa to Albuquerque with the new EP mostly on repeat.
The next day, I was very, very sorry. Coffee didn’t help. Dr. Pepper made it worse. I resorted to MSN and text messages instead of phone calls because speaking was almost not possible. My throat and chest felt like one giant scab and my sinuses were swollen. It killed me to walk to class because my throat was so dry. I downed glass after glass of juice and water, and I skipped an embarrassing number of classes, nursing both my sore throat and post-concert high.
This went on for about two weeks. The next weekend, I still had zero voice. David’s been spending the last two weekends pushing Airborne, decongestants, and Melatonin on me so I can actually sleep, ’cause as if things aren’t bad enough in Albuquerque, I can’t sleep, either (I gave up and started leaving my laptop on my headboard so I don’t have to get up for it).
Then over this weekend, it finally seemed to lift. I can speak. I can taste drinks. I can walk up and down stairs without feeling like I’m on the verge of a heart attack. It’s only a month to the Denver show. Here’s hoping I’ve learned from my mistake.

And finally, a short side note: I was driving out to my mom’s house yesterday afternoon before I came back to Albuquerque, and I happened to glance out my window in time to catch some guys riding in the back of what appeared to be a government car of some sort nudging each other and pointing at my license plate as they passed me. I just laughed. You cannot have an MMMBop license plate without a sense of humor to go along with it.

Sortakinda off-topic, but I heard Everybody Else playing in the school bookstore today. After I walked up to said bookstore listening to Everybody Else. I stopped my iPod on “In Memoriam,” the bookstore was playing “Born to Do.” And I have this awkward habit of just sort of forgetting what I’m doing and closing my eyes to listen (usually with a big stupid grin on my face) when I hear songs I love out somewhere like that; I hardly even realize I’m doing it. I had no idea anyone else listened to them around here (but then, I get all my music charts from last.fm, so I wouldn’t know what’s popular if it came up and puked on my shoes).

Is it time for the Denver show yet?

Zac made a From Us to You post last night mentioning that they’re going to be starting writing for the next studio album in November, presumably after the tour ends — and that they’re not releasing it until they have a plan in place to do so worldwide this time. He was talking about why they haven’t toured in Brazil, but I wonder if this explains the lack of a release of The Walk in a few other countries, as well.

(Edit: for other EP lyrics/general Hanson lyrics, see Hansonsongs.com — I’ve updated!)

Prompted by a post on the Hanson LJ community, I started working out the lyrics to the EP this morning, which I was thinking last night that I need to do for Hansonsongs. I actually like transcribing their lyrics because it seems to help me understand in general A) what Taylor’s mumbling, and B) song structure.
Here are the lyrics to Hope It Comes Soon:

Well I hope it comes now
Well I hope it comes soon
Well, I think it’s about time
I stopped waiting for you, for you
For you
Well I hope it comes soon

You know that there’s nowhere else to pass the buck this time
Fever(?) every time it’s getting rough
‘Cause there’s nowhere else to hide
It’s hard just making it by
But I’m tired of toeing the line

Feels like a change is going to come
Feels like a change is going to come

Well I hope it comes now
Well I hope it comes soon
Well I think it’s about time
I stopped waiting for you
Well I hope it comes now
Well I hope it comes soon
Well, I think it’s about time
Feels like change is coming
Well I hope it comes soon
Stopped waiting for you

Step back and look at where we’ve ended up this time
Are you satisfied with just enough
Or are you ready to stop trying?
Somehow we’ve been making it by
But I’m tired of toeing the line
Feels like a change is going to come
Feels like a change is going to come
Well I hope it comes now
Well I hope it comes soon
Well I think it’s about time
I stopped waiting for you
Well I hope it comes now
Well I hope it comes soon
Well I think it’s about time
Feels like change is coming soon
Well I hope it comes soon
I’m not waiting for you

Feels like a change is going to come (feels like change is coming)
Feels like a change is going to come (feels like change is coming)
I hope a change is going to come (feels like change is coming soon)
What’cha going to do? (soon)
Well I hope it comes soon
I’m not waiting for you

Well I hope it comes now
Well I hope it comes soon
Well I think it’s about time
Feel like change is coming

Well I hope it comes soon
I’m not waiting for you
Feels like change is coming, feels like change is coming soon
Well I hope it comes soon
I’m not waiting for you
What’cha going to do
Feels like change is coming, feels like change is coming soon
Well I hope it comes soon
I’m not waiting for you
What’cha going to do
Feels like change is coming, feels like change is coming soon
Well I hope it comes soon
Feels like change is coming soon
Feels like change is coming, feels like change is coming soon
I stopped waiting for you, for you

For about five minutes, I thought, Wow, this sounds an awful lot like a certain presidential candidate’s campaign speeches. Are they finally dropping some hints about which way they lean? And then I remembered, wait a minute, this is Hanson. These are the boys who threw around the word “soon” for two solid years while IDJ tried to flush their career down the toilet. “Soon” means nothing to them. If anything, I’d say they’re using it facetiously, but I don’t know whether Taylor’s quick enough to grasp the concept. But it’s really, really interesting. What d’you reckon?

It’s black and pullover. Comfortable as hell. I suspect I’ll be living in it this winter.