#I was talking to one of the friends I’m going to the Gillette show with tonight

[waugh-bao]

So I’ve been thinking more about the asks I was sent about Keith on this tour and what the change up in concert structure (one solo song by Keith instead of two) portends for the band and the long term reception of this tour.

I’ve said it before, but I have to repeat, with even more emphasis, that I’m almost blown away by how much criticism there is of the musical quality of this tour 2 shows in. Especially after Keith has started sitting to play some of the songs.

There’s still people, generally Boomers, hitting back, but it’s never a real defense of their musical integrity or ability, just an appeal to age:

(Also the ‘they don’t need the money’ take is kind of stupid because UK death tax is a bitch and any of their British assets that aren’t tied up in the band’s Swiss based corporation are going to vanish by almost half when they’re split. Not to mention two of them have a ton of kids that it will probably need to be divided amongst. And Mick has always been money hungry).

And the rest of the comments look a lot more like this:

I was especially struck by the person who termed it ‘grading on a nostalgia curve’, because I think that’s a spot on description for the typical defense, whether it’s coming from Boomers who spent $800 on a ticket or not:

You may see it panned by individual critics or newspapers, I sincerely doubt any big music writers or magazines will be that harsh towards the tour because the Stones sell and they want access to the band more than integrity. It’s the same reason Hackney Diamonds got such glowing reviews. All the Stones’ albums since Steel Wheels get amazing mainstream reviews and then 5-10 years later everyone goes back and admits they weren’t that good/outright suck. By the same vein, I think once the band is genuinely over and a few years have passed, the consensus will shift to ‘they would have had a lot more integrity and dignity if they called it quits after No Filter, because everything that followed was the band rapidly becoming a parody of itself.’

And I do think the end is coming sooner rather than later. Tour insurance only becomes harder to secure with time (Mick would never take the risk of financially wiping himself out that personally guaranteeing a tour would run and most venues wouldn’t want to deal with liability that anyway) and they know it’s only getting worse musically whether or not they’ll ever own up to it. Embarrassment will win over eventually if physicals don’t. I tentatively doubt they’ll ever officially announce a last tour, because they have a longstanding aversion to the kind of pity involved in that, but I don’t seriously believe we’ll see more than one more European tour and maybe a final US/North America one.

I’ll close on the less depressing note of the unintentionally funniest (dark) comment/reply I’ve seen in a while:

[crossfire-essays-collected]

From Crossfire #2, June 1984

I have these things in my life called “markers.” You have them too, though you probably don’t know it. Markers are those things that remind us of who we are and how far we’ve come from… well, from wherever we were. Unless you stubbornly resist all change in your life, things happen to you that cause you to say, “Gee, five years ago, I couldn’t have believed I’d be doing this.” Or, “Gee, I sure have come a long way.”

Well, whatever causes you to say that… that’s a marker.

Some markers from my memory:

1959: I’m seven and a devout watcher of Soupy Sales’ TV show even though I have both of Soupy’s jokes committed to memory. As much as I love Soupy, his crew loves him more. You can always hear them laughing off-camera and it is those laughs that give me my first desires to be in the TV business… to be a part of this magic. Now, FLASH FORWARD TO 1980: I’m Head Writer on a variety special for NBC, we’re taping at a rental studio in Hollywood and who should be taping his new syndicated series on the adjoining stage but Soupy! Whenever I’m not needed on my show, I’m over watching his, chatting with Clyde “White Fang” Adler, talking to Soupy and being one of those off-camera folks you hear laughing in the background. Clyde even lets me hurl a pie shell of Gillette Foamy into Mr. Sales’ kisser at the close of one sketch; now, that’s a marker!

1961: Now I’m nine and most of the big things in my life, TV-wise, have the Hanna-Barbera logotype on the end: Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, Yogi Bear, et al. My favorite actor in the whole world (no contest) is the voice of the above characters, Daws Butler. FLASH FORWARD TO 1977: It is the day after I have completed my stint writing “Welcome Back, Kotter.” I get a call from my former editor at Gold Key Comics, Chase Craig, who’s editing a line of comics for H-B of Yogi Bear, The Flintstones and company. He says, “I know you’re out of comics and making a ton of money in TV but would you like to write a comic or two on the side? Dan Spiegle’s going to be drawing “Scooby Doo” and he asked for you.” I say, “Sure, if I can write everything” and I happily set to work, writing the characters I loved when I was nine, often working with the same artists who drew the comics I loved at the time. (Marker no. 1) Now, FLASH FORWARD TO 1982: Joe Barbera calls me in, which can only mean one thing — H-B has a script crisis. They never call Evanier unless there’s a script crisis. CBS has ordered a prime-time Yogi Bear Christmas Special and, to get the animation done in time, it should have been written two months ago. The problem? Every staff writer in the H-B building has done one or more outlines and CBS has bounced every last one of them. “You know these characters,” Mr. B says. “You’re always nagging me we ought to revive them. Well, here’s your chance. CBS wants to guest star Huckleberry, Quick Draw, Augie Doggie, Snagglepuss and all the rest.” Forty-eight hours after my agent closes the deal, CBS okays my outline and, before long, the script is approved. A few days later, I get home and play back the messages on my Record-a-Call. There, in the unmistakeable voice of Daws Butler is: “Hey, hey, hey, Mark. This is Yogi Bear. I just called to say that this is the first good script I’ve had in almost twenty years.” I’ve had actors like scripts before but when John Travolta liked something I wrote for him, that wasn’t even a marker. Yogi Bear liking his script, now that’s a marker.

1963: I’m eleven and my best friend is named Brian Jacobson. Brain [sic] has, secreted away in his room, a pile of Playboy magazines and it is there that I first find out what women look like under their clothes, a big moment in any boy’s life. Brian and I talk about the fold-out ladies and there is, of course, nothing more beautiful than them, especially when you’re at the age when your glands are just beginning to kick in. They are, of course, unattainable. If women like that even exist (we have our doubts), they are surely and forever out of the reach of guys like Brian and me. FLASH FORWARD TO 1976, I think, for two markers in rapid succession: One is that I meet a Miss September of my childhood and, while she is now married and a mother, that’s not the point. It’s like meeting Wonder Woman and finding out that she really exists, even though she’s hung up her tiara. Marker no. 2 is dating a then-current Playmate who turns out to be, contrary to my ’63 beliefs, a real live human being and not some glossy-paper fantasy. Intellectually, of course, I knew that all along. But while walking into a party at the Playboy Mansion with Miss February, I couldn’t help but think how far l’d come from when Brian and I would desperately hide his Playboy stash from his mother.

And I’ve had other markers: Meeting Groucho Marx, Bob Hope, Phil Silvers, George Burns. Writing for Gale Gordon, Eve Arden, Sid Caeser and others I loved when I was younger. I even, under duress, wrote a sketch once for Jerry Lewis, proving that not all markers are pleasant.

A lot of my markers have to do with comic books I loved as a kid and wound up writing as a bigger kid — and with the artists with whom I was teamed.

When Brian and I played at his house, we looked at the Playboys. When we were at mine, we looked at comic books. I had the biggest collection in town — and remember, this was years before there were any conventions or Price Guide or fanzines or mylar snugs or any of those things. Comics were ten, going up to twelve cents. And old comics were worth less, never more. The few bookstores that sold old comics priced them at a nickel each, six for a quarter.

One day, I decided to file all my comics. I had never heard of anyone doing such a thing but I did it because, I guess, they were important to me and it seemed like a gesture of respect. It took all day… The Harveys in this pile, the DCs in that stack. The biggest pile was the Dells and, when I had them all segregated by company, I broke them down into mini-stacks of licensors: The Disneys here, the Hanna-Barberas there. Dell was my favorite company. Of course, at the time, it was everyone’s favorite company. In the fifties and early sixties, they published a line of comics that made them, to this date, the best-selling comics company in the history of mankind. At one point, they were selling more comic books per week than all of today’s companies, collectively, sell in a month. Their worst-selling book was selling about double what X-Men now sells. (And I’ve got to explain this because it confuses everyone: Dell was the publisher of this line of Disney/Warner Bros./Lantz/etc. comics but the books were edited, written, drawn and printed by Western Printing and Lithography, a wholly-separate firm which owned the comic book rights to all those great characters. Dell was Publisher in that they handled the finances and distribution. In the early sixties, the two companies got a divorce and Western began publishing the same books themselves under the Gold Key colophon while Dell scrambled to assemble a new line. This, I find incredibly amusing: For at least one brief moment there, around 1962, Dell was the bestselling comic book publisher in America despite the fact that they had no characters, no titles, no editors, no writers, no artists and no printing facilities. Apart from those minor omissions, they were in great shape.)

As I pored through my newly-separated pile of Dell “adventure-type” comics, I began to recognize artists’ styles. I didn’t know how a comic book came to be but I figured that there were artists and that they didn’t draw exactly the same. There were no credits but I did manage to deduce that the guy who drew Maverick was the same guy who drew certain issues of Sea Hunt. He did a lot of the Dell (later Gold Key) books: Days later, paging through the Disney stack, I found him in The Hardy Boys and most of the adaptations of live-action Disney movies. His work was wonderful and dramatic and fascinating. No one could draw Hayley Mills like this fellow. Years later - in one of the best-selling comics of all time, Space Family Robinson — he got to sign his work and I got a name to go with the style. He was Dan Spiegle.

Still later, I learned about his background. In 1949, fresh from art school, he got his first job, drawing the “Hopalong Cassidy” newspaper strip. (True story: He got it when he answered a newspaper ad for a strip artist, only to find that the job was on Bozo the Clown. Dan was skilled at adventure, not humor and he was about to leave when the executive doing the interviewing said, “My brother-in-law is Hopalong Cassidy’s manager and he’s looking for someone to draw a strip too.” That’s how Dan wound up drawing one of the best western strips of its day.)

Westerns were big at the time and Western Printing, true to its name, produced zillions of cowboy comics for Dell to publish. They lassoed Dan and made him their “star” adventure artist. In the sixties, if you walked into Marvel and inquired about work, they told you you had to draw like Jack Kirby. At DC, you had to draw like Curt Swan. At Western, if you aspired to draw adventure material, they handed you Dan Spiegle comics and said, “This is what we’re looking for.” But this did not apply to their humor comics; there, the works of Paul Murry and Carl Barks were the ideal. Dan Spiegle could draw anything… except humor —

— which posed a problem after Western lost the rights to the Edgar Rice Burroughs characters. They’d been publishing Tarzan and Korak with Spiegle on the latter. Dan’s Korak was the better-selling of the two, making it the best selling of all the E.R.B. comic book adaptations ever, not just in this country, but everywhere. Chase Craig was the editor at Western’s L.A. office then and he found himself with no book suited for Mr. Spiegle’s art style. Cautiously, Chase assigned him the Scooby-Doo comic based on the Hanna-Barbera hound of the same name. It was a stretch for Dan and, at first, the results were un-impressive. Spiegle tried like hell but it was like Pavarotti trying to be the lead singer in Culture Club. Chase decided that, if the art wasn’t going to be special, the scripts had better be - so he reassigned that task to this new kid he had writing (literally) a third of their line, a kid named Evanier.

Marker!

I was thrilled to be writing something that would be going to the artist whose work I’d so admired. I was even more pleased when I met Dan Spiegle and found him to be, easily, one of the three nicest people in the whole comic book business and, no, I won’t tell who the other two are. As a team, we “clicked” and I learned an awful lot about comic book writing by seeing how Dan staged my scripts. I wasn’t the only one who learned from him: A great number of comic book artists - new and old - avidly study his work and are impressed with how devoid it is of comic book drawing cliches and how solid he is in visual imagery, perspective and a dogged determination to never repeat a pose or composition.

We work together whenever possible. When foreign publishers of Tarzan and Korak comics demanded them, we did a batch of Korak comics for overseas consumption. Later, I edited a batch of comics for Japan and the first artist I called was Spiegle. When Hanna-Barbera made a deal with Marvel to publish Scooby-Doo and other H-B comics, we were again reunited. When I was off doing TV work, Dan was snatched up by DC and they had him — sans M.E. — on Jonah Hex, Nemesis, Bat Lash, Zatanna, Green Arrow and others. But when they assigned him to a revival of Blackhawk, I came out of my funnybook retirement and joined him on what came to be known around the DC offices as “The Unknown Comic.” In spite of DC’s best efforts, the book developed a small but loyal following due to Dan’s excellent artwork Recently, along with co-writer Sharman DiVono, Dan and I did a new adaptation of Tarzan of the Apes for the Burroughs folks. He was their first choice as illustrator and, also, the choice of foreign publishers who are issuing the book by the millions. I love the way he draws and I’m not alone.

I’m writing this the day after Dan sent me the artwork for Crossfire number one. It is, perhaps, the two hundredth Evanier script he’s illustrated and the two hundredth time I’ve gotten this giddy grin on my face over the way he takes what I give him and makes it look like a real comic book. He’s improved leaps and bounds since his Maverick days and, yet, I can still see that he’s the same artist whose work got me all excited over comics. back when I was eleven. You see, to you folks, Crossfire may be a comic but, to me, it’s a monthly marker.

                                  — Mark Evanier

[imaginyimagines]

Hello

A/N: Rina prepares for the first meeting of Tom Brady as a member of the opposing team and her Patriots. Week 4 of the 2021 season. Fluff. 

Rina wrung her hands nervously as she waited in the portico area of the Gillette Stadium complex. It was certainly not the first time she was waiting for her friend Tom after he had left the Patriots. They'd spent several days in the offseason as families, their children playing and laughing together in the Florida sunshine. She'd been there for him during the playoffs and Super Bowl LV as a guest. That had been different, as she was not on the sidelines like she could be with the Patriots. Bruce Arians was cordial to her but was not trusting enough to allow her near his coaching staff or players during games. It was only fair; she was viewed as a potential Patriots spy. There had been plenty of media speculation that this had been a Belichick ploy to send in a Trojan horse.

It was indeed a different atmosphere than last week when she had been waiting for Jules, who was honored during last week's game. She felt a wave of unsureness as she turned to her phone again. It was a text message from her husband Josh, checking in with the kids as they were about to depart their Boston apartment to head towards the stadium. Even as AJ and Thomas grew older, it was hard for them to still be at the stadium many hours ahead of game time. A smile broke her lips as she saw them dressed in their little Patriots jerseys and jeans, Josh rebelliously wearing a Detroit Lions t-shirt as well. "See you soon, my loves, careful of the traffic, babe," was what she typed in response. Down the hall, she could see Steve Belichick's way towards her.

"Rina, my dad wants to see you," the youngest Belichick relayed his father's message. Rina nodded, following the younger Belichick back down the hall towards the team locker room area. As a woman, she preferred not to go into men's locker rooms unless necessary. So she waited across the hallway and down a few paces while the younger Belichick went in, and a few seconds later, the elder Belichick came out.

"Are you ready for this?" Bill asked abruptly; Coach didn't waste time, especially on game days. He'd be relying on her eagle eyes if she spotted something on the field, just in case one of the other coaches and assistants missed the tiniest opening. He also knew how she felt about Tom, and working against one of your best friends was never easy, especially for someone who wore her emotions as Rina could.

"Yes. I know my job here, Coach." Rina responded with her chin held aloft, the infamous McMahon dimple and gumption showing.

"I know you do. I'm asking if you can handle the other side," His blue-grey eyes pinned her to the wall as she felt the anxiety well up again. Looking down for a moment, she looked back up with a half-smile.

"It's not going to be fun, and I'm as prepared for whatever feelings may come up as best as I can be." Coach Belichick nodded.

"You going to go see him?"

"Of course,"

"Then I'll see you after that," With that, Belichick went back into the locker room, and Rina jogged back down to wait. When she arrived, she saw that she had to wait no longer, as Tom Brady was chatting happily with Robert Kraft. As Mr. Kraft moved past Brady at last, she walked over with a smile.

"Lookie here what the cat dragged in; gosh, they'll just let anyone in this place these days," She quipped to catch Tom's attention. He looked over his shoulder, they made eye contact, and a piece in Rina's heart clicked back into place.

"Hey now," Tom said as he reached out for Rina and pulled her close. As she settled into his embrace, memories of many years in this same building ran through her head. They didn't need to talk; they spoke regularly on the phone and by text. The symbolism wasn't lost on others, who let them have their moment unhurried and unbothered. Perhaps they could've made their relationship work so many years ago in another life. Nearly twenty years had passed since the two had dated, and Rina still felt the faintest butterflies in her stomach when he looked at her. She settled into the embrace and knew it was all just hopes and dreams. Those weren't ones to come true, not in a million years. Sometimes they were nice to reminisce and re-visit, to feel that way again for a moment. Now, as she looked up at his bright smile and blue eyes, she was even more thankful for how things turned out.

[killingbill]

all my photos are kinda crap cause my phone is old 😭 but I’ll share them soon anyway. Maybe, I can try to edit them once I have ps back, but - i took some killer videos. Schneider and Richard were acting like 100% dorks all evening, & reesh was pissy at the jump cause he couldn’t hear shit. But he did dance a lot 🥰Schneider gave me all the secondhand embarrassment I expected from my favourite baby boy. Also very dancy, and I was so happy to see so much interaction between him and the others. BUT FUCK HE WORE THE SEXY OUTFIT!!!!!!1 in the same breath, it was super hard for me to get good photos of the drums with the lights and stuff, so hopefully someone can supplement me. little grumpy he threw his sticks on Paul’s end twice but like it’s cool baby. When he came to bow I made sure to tell him I loved him ✌️lmfao. additionally, hearing his kit live for the first time & literally feeling it in my chest? Naw like, I could have cried. 😭😭 it was very special. Ask me about it, lmfao. 😩but, Till was also funny. Very sweet, very silly. He still makes you feel like you’re participating without outright talking to you, so that part holds true. At one point he spit in the air & tried to catch it. Mint as fuck, my dude. Paul was also acting an absolute fool. Silliest of silly. He faked Richard out on their kiss, the first time. not steaming with paulchard moments but the ones we got were amazing!! & olli looked like a god, no shirt on. He came to stand right in front of me on the box the sound guys are in. I could go on, but 🤷‍♀️ it was just so fucking surreal. It almost feels like it never happened, lol. I do have the other show coming in three weeks, but I can’t help but grapple with whether I should have not taken so much footage/pictures??? I might just enjoy the show when it comes to Gillette &,not take any? But at the same time I’m so glad I have these memories, now. Idk - either way I’m not gonna let it dampen my experience: it was absolutely wonderful - mind blowing. actually feeling the fire, being able to look anywhere on the stage and see something cool or funny happening? Just insane. & we met some great friends in line we rode or died with, and we’re keeping in touch already ❤️❤️ we got to watch the show next to them at the barricade. 🥰🥰🥰

[imaginepirates]

James going out with some of his men would include...

For the anon who wanted a story about Gillette and Groves dragging James out for a night of fun: I’m all too happy to deliver. (We’re going to assume that he’s a captain, at this point, given everything that happened just after his promotion wouldn’t leave time for much).

@emdrabbles​ @tesserphantom​ @paljonkaikenlaista​ @viper-official​ @wordsinwinters​ @groovyfluxie​ @hellspawn-brownies​

James isn’t even remotely aware that any one of his men would have the idea of asking him to do something with them. He feels socially isolated from them, which is how he figures it should be. He’s their commanding officer; they should be able to look up to him, and he fears that being too close to them will make him lose their respect.

Still, Groves gets up the nerve to ask James to go out with them one day. James, of course, is caught completely off guard. He never expected his men to try and include him in anything, given his station, and given the fact that he hasn’t been particularly friendly with any of them.

James hates the idea. He hates the idea of losing any sort of control over himself, even if in the company of “friends”. He’s afraid to make himself look like a fool in any capacity, and that his presence will make things awkward for the usual company. He knows that he’s stiff, that he doesn’t relax well around others. He figures his presence will dampen the mood.

He tries to politely decline, but Groves is insistent that he comes along. Groves figures that James could use a drink, and that the paperwork isn’t going anywhere. He says as much, too, which James can’t entirely deny, because with his position, he could use a lot of drinks, and he doesn’t particularly want to do tedious paperwork all evening.

“Pardon me for saying, Captain, but I think it would be good to spend some time with your men.”

What Groves means, of course, is that James needs to loosen up before he completely exhausts himself. And that James could use a friend or two.

James figures, at this point, that it might be rude not to accept, so he agrees to come along, if not entirely willingly.

Groves is screaming internally with victory, and he drags James out of his office to tell the others. They’re game for it, of course, having talked the idea over for ages. They’re all trying to hide smiles, and James is trying to hide the growing mortification he feels.  He knows he doesn’t fit in with them, and it shows.

They manage to make it to a tavern without incident, chatting along the way. Groves makes sure that they keep James close, but that they don’t directly engage him unless he wants to talk. James appreciates that he doesn’t seem to be interrupting anything, and for once, he’s not the center of attention. It comes as a relief.

Being at the tavern is a whole different story. Once they arrive, a thousand worries cross his mind. He wouldn’t know anyone, of course, but what if he did, and what if they told anyone, and…… The man has anxiety. He’s afraid that someone will catch him at this, like it’s a crime to be at a tavern.

Groves simply puts a hand on his shoulder as he notices James paling. James still feels awkward entering the tavern. He knows that people will recognize him, of course. He’s a fairly well-known man, and being somewhat in the public eye, he knows that there will be those who are surprised to see him.

The bartender greets the group, being the regulars they are. They probably eye James, but they wouldn’t say anything.

Each man in the group has their roles. Gillette, of course, is the one who regails everyone else with impossible feats and bawdy tales. Groves calls Gillette on his shit, and is, shockingly, the responsible one in the group. Unshockingly, Gillette is the one who drinks the most, though he somehow manages to never make a complete fool of himself, other than by flirting with servers.

James sits there, sipping at an ale, listening to the others, mildly amused by their antics. He starts to relax as he realizes that nothing is expected of him. He doesn’t have to act a certain way, or say anything.

For the first time in his life, he actually learns who his crewmates are outside of the Navy. He never knew about their families--their children and wives and siblings. He doesn’t know their hobbies, or who they were seeing, or who their friends were. It’s refreshing for him to learn more about them, and opens his eyes a little.

He’s shocked that Groves isn’t seeing anyone, given his station and the fact that, to James, he’s perhaps the most tolerable of all the other members of his ship. That there isn’t a woman he has his eye on surprises James, and shocks Gillette, who thinks that Groves deserves a nice young lady because the company of such is lovely indeed.

Those of the table who know shoot Groves sympathetic looks, especially due to Gillette’s interest in women.

Gillette is actually a raging bisexual, but is oblivious, and hasn’t thought that there was any need to broach the subject. This causes Groves a whole lot of unnecessary angst.

I will go down with this ship, I swear.

Groves offers James another drink, and though he tries to refuse on the basis that he’ll be working the next morning, Groves points out that they all will be, so James will be fine.

“How long’s it been since you’ve had a proper drink, anyway?”

James gives in, and ends up telling some stories about his time as a captain while he was stationed in England at Groves’ prompting. Everyone listens, enraptured, to James’ tales. He seriously downplays his own part in them. The group is impressed anyway.

The girl serving the table plays right along with Gillette’s flirting, but she drops teasing remarks at all of the boys present.

James is a little embarrassed, but he’s more embarrassed that he actually doesn’t mind being flirted with. In fact, he rather likes it. He could never, of course, admit to such a thing, but he appreciates the way she looks, and even more the way she looks at him.

Look, sometimes, he needs to know that people are interested.

However, he’s a level of repressed only known to Jane Austen novels, so he makes no advances, and doesn’t flirt back, only accepts her compliments with a gracious smile.

The others notice, of course, but they keep it to themselves. They can see the heat rising under James’ collar.

At some point, a group of drunkards decides, rather loudly, that they won’t be paying their bill. They also decide to be handsy with the server, who clearly isn’t having it.

James lets the farce go on for about a minute before standing, walking over to the table, ripping a man’s hand off the server, and, in his coldest, most commanding Naval voice, hisses at them to pay and leave.

Needless to say, they do. The fact that James can sober up that fast and intimidate an entire group of drunks says a lot. Mostly, it reminds his own men why they have such a healthy respect for him in the first place.

The server is grateful, but also has no problem telling James that she had things perfectly under control.

“I had that covered. You didn’t need to worry about it.”

“It’s the least I can do. There’s no need for you to take care of everything yourself.”

She seems amused, but in a pleasant way. She gives James a little kiss on the cheek, resting her hands on his chest, and he goes absolutely tomato red.

For the naval boys, the scene is an absolute riot, and they love every second of it. They know that they’ll never be allowed to bring it up ever again, but they relish the sight of their commanding officer at such a loss.

James manages to make it back to the fort, a little unsteadily, and dearly flushed. The group is all smiles, even the horribly tipsy Gillette, who somehow managed to understand the whole situation while drunk.

James knows that he’ll never live the moment down, but is secretly glad that he joined his crew. It was a much better way of spending his time than doing paperwork.

Upon return to his office, he finds a small napkin tucked into a pocket of his coat. It says “next drink is on the house”. James flushes even worse at that, glad to be alone in his study. He figures it was planted on him during the kiss.

And the next time the group goes out, James joins them. They’re surprised, but glad to have him along, and he’s glad that accept him how he is instead of how he always forces himself to be.

In the end, it’s a win-win situation for everyone involved. Even, over the course of several visits, the server, who enjoys teasing James greatly.

[youareinlovees]

Taylor & Joe in 2018

January 12th – Taylor likes this Tumblr post following the release of the End Game music video (x)

January 27th – Taylor was spotted in Italy ordering coffee, the same week that Joe was there for a Prada event (x) (x)

January 28th – In an interview, Todrick is asked about Taylor’s relationship with Joe (x)

“I think that they've done a really great job at being very secretive and keeping that as a personal thing between them. All I can say is that I have met him and he is a lovely, lovely person.”

February 9th – The BTS of the End Game video is released, and Taylor talks about how she’s playing online scrabble against Joe (x) (via tayorswift)

“Oooh he played me in Scrabble. I’m about to– It’s a tight game, no I can wait, I can wait. I’ll make him wait. It’ll make him sweat, his game will get, you know, he’ll get stressed, he’ll be like ‘what’s she gonna play next? Is she gonna get that triple word?’”

February 21st – It is theorised that Taylor gave Joe this Patek Philippe watch for his 27th birthday. (x) (x)

February 27th – @ss_shans posts photos of Taylor in Big Sur, California from the previous week (x)

It is rumored that she was there with Joe and they were celebrating his birthday together (x)

A video from their trip is later included in the Lover lyric video.

March 7th – Taylor and Joe are seen hiking in Malibu (x)

March 12th – The Delicate music video is released, and a “Joe’s Deli” sign can be seen in the background of a scene. (x)

April 13th – Taylor covers September by Earth, Wind & Fire, and changes a lyric to “Do you remember the 28th night of September?”

In the original press release article by Spotify, Taylor says she chose to cover the song for sentimental reasons. (x)

She’s always loved the classic tune by Earth, Wind & Fire, and notes that the month of September is especially meaningful to one of her relationships.

April 17th – Taylor likes this Tumblr post (x)

April 24th – A family friend of the Alwyns says in a Tumblr post that Taylor gets on really well with Joe’s family, and she turned up to help paint Patrick’s room once. (x)

April 26th – The same family friend also talked about Taylor meeting Joe’s parents for the first time (x)

Apparently Joe’s mum didn’t realise who she was and told the two of them to go for a walk in the park because the food wasn’t ready. Taylor was like ‘I can’t….’ and Joe’s mum was like ‘what no don’t be silly’ and Taylor had to be like ‘no seriously I really can’t’

May 6th – Taylor likes this Tumblr post (x)

May 7th – Taylor and Joe post matching cacti pictures on Instagram.

May 8th – Joe and his mom attend the opening night of Rep Tour in Glendale, Arizona. (x) (x) (via joealwyndaily)

Taylor singing Gorgeous to Joe (video)

Joe watching Taylor perform Gorgeous (video)

Taylor singing King Of My Heart to Joe (x) (x)

Taylor pointing at Joe during Dress (video)

Joe clapping at the end of the show (via dallas_dante)

Joe and Jack Antonoff hug as they leave the stadium together (video)

Taylor and Joe backstage after the show (via nessa007)

In Rep Room, there were J necklace cookies

Taylor talks to a fan about how she plays Scrabble with Joe all the time

May 19th – A YouTuber named Lauren Lipman meets Taylor backstage at Rep Tour Pasadena and says she’s so happy for her and Joe, and Taylor replies “aww thanks he’s the best” (x)

May 12th – Taylor tells a fan (xiwantyourmidnightsx) in Rep Room that Joe is “the best” and “such an amazing person.”

“He calms me down whenever I see something mean someone says about me, he just takes me right out of it all. And he’s been my longest relationship!!! We’ve been together for 20 months now. When we get to two years, I’m going to freak out. I’m going to be so obnoxious about it.”

The fan also asked Taylor about this polaroid in the rep magazines, and she said people in England have bonfires all the time and she and Joe just hang out in his backyard burning stuff. Taylor also said Joe takes pictures of her all the time and confirmed that all of the pictures in the rep magazines were taken by him.

May 16th – Taylor releases the Delicate vertical video, in which she points to her J necklace during “you must like me for me” (x)

May 23rd – Taylor likes a chain post of fans recreating Joe memes (x)

May 30th – Taylor likes a Tumblr post about how she can relate to You Are In Love now (x)

May 30th – Taylor and Joe are seen leaving The Flask Pub and Restaurant in North London, after a fish and chips lunch. (x)

June 2nd – At night 2 of rep tour Chicago, Taylor sees a cardboard cutout of Joe in the crowd (x)

(via afterglowws)

June 9th – Joe and his brother Patrick attend night 2 of Rep Tour Manchester (x)

Patrick, Andrea and Joe in Club Meredith

Taylor smiled and winked at Joe during Gorgeous (via swiftiekyle)

Taylor waving at Joe during Bad Blood (x)

In rep room, Taylor tells a fan that it calms her so much knowing that Joe is in the audience (x)

June 16th – During night 2 of rep tour Dublin, Taylor says to a fan that her favourite fast-food restaurant in London is LEON. (x)

June 19th – Taylor posts a video of Meredith on Instagram, and Joe’s laugh can be heard in the background (x)

June 22nd – Joe and his family and friends attend night 1 of Rep Tour London.

During Taylor’s opening speech, she talks about how she spends a lot of time in London (x)

“This is my first time looking out into a crowd like this at Wembley Stadium (…) I spend a lot of time in London, so I know there's so many things you could be doing tonight - and yet you've decided to spend your Friday night with us here at the reputation stadium tour, thank you so much.”

Taylor singing Gorgeous to Joe (video)

Club Meredith during End Game and Bad Blood (video)

June 23rd – Joe and his family and friends attend night 2 of Rep Tour London.

Tom Hooper (the director of CATS) entering the stadium with Joe

Taylor smiling at Joe during Gorgeous (video)

Taylor singing King of My Heart to Joe (video)

Taylor during Dress (via paths-of-my-childhood)

Taylor pointing at Joe during “flashback to when you met me, your buzzcut and my hair bleached” (video)

Taylor pointing at Joe during Call It What You Want (via paths-of-my-childhood) (x)

June 23rd – Taylor talks to a fan about how she and Joe have a “relationship band.”

It is theorized that the band is The National because a lot of their songs are on Taylor’s playlists.

Taylor thanks a fan for the proud signs and says the project made Andrea and Joe so emotional

June 24th – In an interview with Metro, Niall Horan talks about performing at Wembley Stadium with Taylor. (x)

“When we caught up backstage we were talking about how she’s doing, where she’s living and what she’s up to. I haven’t seen her in about a year and a half so it was kind of a catch-up, how things are going with the new fella – just general chat.”

June 28th – Taylor performs at an AT&T fan event in Chicago and talks about reputation.

“It’s legitimately an album about finding love throughout all the noise."

She also says that she jumped into a freezing pool fully clothed two New Year’s Eves ago. (via speaknow)

June 28th – Taylor talks to a fan (keep-him-forever-vendetta) about Joe (x)

I told her that Ryan and I started dating around the same time and her and Joe and she goes “WAIT when” and I said it will be two years in September! And she said “YES that’s right! See the media thinks they’re sooo sneaky and they say ‘oh that’s her NEW boy’ and that we met in May. HA. They don’t know he’s been around!”

Her face literally LIT UP when she talked about him. Also I asked her if she had a great time in the UK and if she got to see Joe and his family a lot and she was like “oh I’m there like all the time!! Like this was just for work, but I go there literally all the time.”

June 30th – Taylor meets a fan in Rep Room Louisville who had a Joe meme on her sign. (x)

July 3rd – Taylor and Joe are spotted walking along the beach in Turks and Caicos (x)

July 4th – Taylor and Joe are seen snorkeling in Turks and Caicos (x)

July 10th – Several fans saw Joe and his mom in the soundbooth at night 1 of Rep Tour DC (x)

July 10th – Taylor says to a fan in Rep Room that Joe taught her everything she needs to know about the World Cup (x)

July 20th – In rep room at Metlife night 1, Taylor mentions how happy she is in her current relationship

July 22nd – Joe and his family attend night 3 of Rep Tour Metlife.

Taylor winks at Joe during Gorgeous (x)

During King of My Heart, Taylor can’t stop looking and pointing in Joe’s direction. (x) (x)

Joe singing along to Don’t Blame Me

July 27th – During night 2 of Rep Tour Gillette, a fan holds up a Joe meme at barricade (x)

July 28th – Taylor invites two fans with “Joe’s Deli” costumes to meet her backstage in rep room.

In Rep Room, Taylor also talks to another fan about Joe.

August 4th – Taylor performs Come Back Be Here acoustic in Toronto, while wearing the J necklace. (video)

In the last chorus, she changes the lyric “I guess you’re in New York today to “I guess you’re in London today” because Joe is in London filming.

In rep room, a fan talks to Taylor about how they both have initial necklaces (x)

August 17th – At rep Tour Cleveland, Taylor talks to a fan in rep room about Joe

August 22nd – Taylor and Joe go on a double date with two of their British friends at a restaurant in Covent Garden, London. (x)

September 19th & 21st - Joe mentions in several interviews that he wants to keep his relationship with Taylor private (x) (x)

September 28th – On Taylor and Joe’s 2-year anniversary, Taylor attends the NYFF premiere of Joe’s movie The Favourite, as well as the afterparty.

Afterwards, they are seen returning to Taylor’s NYC apartment. (x)

September 29th – At Rep Tour Houston, a fan met Taylor in rep room and wished her and Joe a happy belated anniversary. (x)

October 5th – Backstage at night 1 of Rep Tour Arlington, Taylor tells Ryan Hurd that she loves his song Love in a Bar because it was especially meaningful to her relationship with Joe. (x)

[Taylor] said, “I love that song” and something about her and her boyfriend and referenced my song and I was like, “That’s cool.”

October 8th – In an interview for W Magazine, Joe is asked about his Patek Philippe watch.

“It was a present,” he says with a wicked grin.

October 18th – A reporter asks Joe about his thoughts on Taylor taking a political stance (x)

“I think it’s great, I think it's important”

October 28th – Joe posts a picture on Instagram that was taken on the rooftop of Taylor’s NYC apartment (x)

November 15th – Taylor and Joe attend the after party for Mary Queen of Scots held at Chateau Marmont in LA (x) (x)

November 16th – Taylor was seen at the an afterparty for The Favourite LA premiere held at Baltaire Restaurant. (x) (x)

November 16th – A video of Taylor playing the guitar is filmed, and is later included in the Lover lyric video.

November 22nd – On her Instagram, Taylor posts a compilation of all of Joe’s scenes in The Favourite and calls the movie phenomenal.

She also posts about it on her Instagram story (x)

November 24th/25th – Taylor and Joe were seen hiking in Nashville

November 26th – In a GQ interview, Joe talks about how Lykke Li is one of his favorite artists. (x)

Some of Lykke Li’s songs, such as bad woman and utopia, have been featured on Taylor’s Spotify and Apple Music playlists. (x) (x)

December 4th – Joe is seen leaving Taylor’s NYC apartment (x)

December 4th – In an interview with Esquire, Joe is asked whether he sought out guidance on his relationship with Taylor (x)

“I didn’t seek out advice on that. Because I know what I feel about it. I think there’s a very clear line as to what somebody should share, or feel like they have to share, and what they don’t want to, and shouldn’t have to.”

December 5th – Taylor plays Delicate at the Ally Coalition and sticks her tongue out at Joe during “you must like me for me.” (via taylorswifh) (x)

After the show, they are seen returning to Taylor’s apartment together. (x)

December 8th –  Joe posts a picture of him and Jack Lowden from inside Taylor’s NYC apartment (x)

December 10th – Taylor is seen at the London premiere of Joe’s movie Mary Queen of Scots (x)

December 13th – Taylor spends her 29th birthday in London. A clip of her blowing out the candles on her birthday cake is later shown in Miss Americana (x)

December 24th-25th – Taylor and Joe celebrate Christmas together with both of their families at Glin Castle in Limerick, Ireland. (x)

December 25th – Joe posts a picture on Instagram that fans theorize Taylor took.

December 30th – Taylor, Joe, and some of their British friends go for a walk in the West Village to visit Taylor’s old Cornelia Street rental (x)

December 30th – Taylor, Joe, Abigail, Matt and Patrick are seen going out to dinner in New York City.

Joe turns his whole body and walks backwards to block Taylor from the paparazzi.

December 31st – Taylor throws a childhood heroes themed party for New Year’s Eve, and Joe is spotted in the background of some pictures (x)

Taylor is dressed as Ariel and Joe is dressed as Zorro (x)

2016 // 2017 // 2019 // 2020

[ducktracy]

184. the woods are full of cuckoos (1937)

release date: december 4th, 1937

series: merrie melodies

director: frank tashlin

starring: mel blanc (owlcott, walter finchell, milton squirrel, wendell howl, fox, raven mcquandry), tedd pierce (ben birdie, tizzie fish, andy bovine), sara berner (polly gillette, canary livingstone)

this cartoon gets the honorable award of possibly being the most dated warner bros. shorts in its vast repertoire of cartoons. not to worry! this will be a fun cartoon to unpack—i love delving into the shorts that involve extensive research. learning something new is something that‘s very rewarding to me, and i hope it is to you, too!

a giant ode to the short lived radio program community sing (lasting from 1936-1937), the short chronicles a woodland radio show hosted by a variety of caricatured animals putting on various acts.

iris in to the ringing of a bell. a pudgy, bespectacled owl rings it as he stands illuminated by the moonlight, preaching to all of the woodland critters, ready to start the show. he introduces himself as “owlcott”, a take on commentator alexander woollcott. he “blandly announces” (his words, not mine) the introduction of the master of ceremonies, ben birdie--a bird caricature of radio personality ben bernie, “the old maestro”.

birdie’s caricature is not new to audience’s eyes. the caricature, along with a handful of others, is reused from friz freleng’s the coocoo nut grove from 1936, a short that is very similar in vein to this one. tedd pierce provides birdie’s suave, velvety vocals as he introduces the program, only to be interrupted by the nasally cries of mel blanc. out pops walter finchell, a caricature of bernie’s faux-enemy walter winchell, both of whom carrying a notorious (and fake) feud in the radio-verse. it was common for winchell to interrupt the smooth-talking bernie, either throwing pranks or remarks his way, to which bernie dismissed every time. indeed, a signature tashlin upshot angle reveals finchell dropping an egg on top of birdie, who blocks it nonchalantly with a handy umbrella.

art loomer’s backgrounds for the cartoon are absolutely gorgeous. they’re vibrant in color, very lush and painterly, but remain playful and sophisticated at the same time. they certainly serve as a highlight to the short. and, as always, carl stalling’s scores are a blast to hear--his sardonic, wah-wah rendition of “cause my baby says it’s so” is a jolly juxtaposition to the prior score of “love is on the air tonight”, the latter being the song’s cartoon debut. it would be reused in cartoons such as the daffy doc, whereas “cause my baby says its so” was heard previously in rover’s rival.

birdie introduces a clever squirrel caricature of milton berle, whose routine gets interrupted by a little parrot named polly. polly is a take on eileen barton’s character, little jolly gillette, who was portrayed as the daughter of the show’s sponsor. polly and milton go through their act together, polly bluntly (yet innocently) announcing “my daddy says ya gotta let me sing ‘cause he’s a sponsor!” you can listen to real recordings of their banter here!

volney white’s animation of milton and polly is lively and jovial, constantly moving. milton energetically introduces us to our next star, pointing in the wrong direction and fixing it last second as he gestures towards a bird caricature of country singer wendell hall.

even if viewers don’t recognize the bird’s counterpart, they will most certainly recognize his voice--mel uses his foghorn leghorn voice for wendell “howl”. of course, foghorn wouldn’t debut for another 9 years, but that’s another story. the animation of the raucous bird is fun to watch as he extends his neck and wraps it around in coils around the microphone stand. random? yes, but fun nevertheless.

perhaps even more commendable is the staggering crowd shot that succeeds wendell’s scenes. the crowd is mirrored horizontally, but that doesn’t lessen the blow from how claustrophobic it is. wendell asks the audience to get out their songbooks and turn to page “22... no, page 44. uh, no, uh, page 28. uh, 42, uh, 36, uh, 45...” 

wendell is transformed from an entertainer to an auctioneer, spitting out numbers at rapid pace as his crowd frantically tears through their songbooks. finally, he concedes. “oh, never mind. we won’t use the books.” off screen, the crowd roars in unison: “OH YES WE WILL!” with that, wendell is generously showered with a barrage of books, buried in the pile of rejected papers. the timing of the scene is comedically sharp and energetic, one of the more entertaining acts of the cartoon.

now, for the real song number, lead by goat and bear caricatures of billy jones and ernie hare (would a rabbit caricature be too on the nose?) respectively, animated by volney white. they march out onto the stage--er, tree trunk--and open the curtains to reveal a sing-along to the eponymous song. thus, the camera pans into the lyrics as everybody bursts into the all-too-earworm-causing song number. 

as the crowd, ben birdie and walter finchell all lend their voices to the song, a fox caricature of fred allen sings “swanee river”, clashing with the unity of everybody else. in a nod to friz freleng’s toy town hall where the same routine was executed, a little bunny excitedly coos “ohhhh, mr. allen! you’re singing the wrong sooooong!” the fox bursts into everybody’s favorite Mel Blanc Yell as he repeats a frequent ‘30s catchphrase: “WHY DON’T SOMEBODY TELL ME THESE THINGS!?”

featured in the song is a seemingly interminable cast of celebrity caricatures, all introduced as the camera pans across the screen, each lending their voice to part of the song. some puns require more effort than others (dick powell as “dick fowl” rolls off the tongue better than al jolson as “al goatson”). caricatures include: 

eddie cantor as eddie gander, sophie tucker as sophie turkey, w.c. fields as w.c. fieldmouse, dick powell as dick fowl, fats waller as fats swallow, deanna durbin as deanna terrapin, irvin s. cobb as irvin s. frog, fred macmurray as fred mcfurry, bing crosby as bing crowsby, al jolson as al goatson, ruby keeler as ruby squealer, lanny ross as lanny hoss, grace moore as grace moose, and finally lily pons as lily swans.

speaking of grace and lily, they’re both highlighted as they fight to out-perform each other, seeing who can sing the highest note. tashlin pulls of a rather intriguing camera move: as the pan settles on the two of them, the background changes. it’s a subtle maneuver, but smart thinking nonetheless--especially since the camera extends into a vertical pan. as both women fight to sing the highest note, their necks extend, both of them scaling high into the night sky, harmonizing on one final shrill note. they both crumple back into the stands, exhausted by their efforts. some fun exaggerated animation for sure--one wonders how much further this would have been pushed had this been tashlin’s second stint at WB rather than his first. his speed often rivaled, if not out-performed, tex avery’s.

birdie and finchell have a brief interstitial together before making way for a raven caricature of haven macquarrie (raven mcquandry). his sequence is almost jarringly short, but full of fun drawings and poses--the pose of him standing curtly with his arms crossed is awfully reminiscent of izzy ellis’ work under tashlin and later bob clampett in the mid ‘40s. mcquandry asks “do YOU wanna be an actor?”, parotting the name of his real life counterpart’s show so do you want to be an actor? the audience shouts “NO!” in unison, causing mcquandry to do a take and shrug dubiously. though the scene is only a few short seconds, the animation brings forth some much needed vitality.

next is a penguin caricature of joe penner, singing a hilariously out-of-tune rendition of “my green fedora”. the animation is reused from the cartoon of the same name (notice how he doesn’t have penguin feet!), which was also used in toy town hall. not a complaint, but more an observation--this is by far the most humorous performance of the song yet, sung by blanc rather than tommy bond.

another fun scene with some vivacious animation is a sequence featuring a mule caricature of martha raye (dubbed moutha bray), singing a cover of “how could you?”, which has been featured as an underscore in cartoons such as porky’s badtime story and its later remake, tick tock tuckered. raye’s large mouth served as prime material for caricatures, as we see here. the animation is snappy, fun, and vivid--she finishes her song by “swallowing” the camera, an old trick that beckons memories of the harman and ising cartoons of animation past. 

an interesting trend in the ‘30s WB cartoons is the trend of playing with the iris, whether it was the closing iris out or an iris in between transitions. tex avery would consistently play with the final iris out on his cartoons, whereas directors such as friz freleng and bob clampett would use one as a transition between scenes. here, tashlin uses the “swallow the camera” technique as a segue for an iris in, tedd pierce’s falsetto squeaking “hello folksies!” as we’re introduced to a fish caricature of tizzie lish, a character played by bill comstock on al pearce and his gang.

though tizzie has long faded into obscurity (as has the entire community sing radio show), it’s still quite easy to appreciate pierce’s vocals and mannerisms as he portrays the character. it’s always a joy to hear him doing voices for cartoons--he’s never been my favorite writer on the crew, but he was an excellent talent as a voice actor. his squeaky deliveries, matter of fact deliveries “mix them up... are you mixing? my friends say i’m a good mixer. are you? or aren’t you?” as tizzie haphazardly dumps food items and their respective utensils into a bowl and prepares the meal are nothing short of hilarious. the timing is very well executed and can be appreciated regardless of background knowledge.

after humming a pitchy rendition of “the lady in red” while waiting for her concoction to bake in the waffle iron, tizzie removes the homemade waffle and discards it, instructing the audience “now take the ‘wiffle’ out and eat the iron. you must have iron in your system. or should you?” thus concludes tizzie’s act, certainly heightened in hilarity by pierce’s vocals and timing.

for the final act, ben birdie introduces a possum caricature of louella parsons, the host of the radio program hollywood hotel, which served as a way to advertise upcoming movies by featuring guest stars enacting some of the scenes. here, we have caricatures of jack benny (as jack bunny, the first of his many reoccurrences), mary livingstone (canary livingstone), and andy devine (andy bovine).

tedd pierce voices andy bovine, whose voice burlusqued not only in this cartoon, but to a greater extent in friz freleng’s my little buckeroo not even a year later. devine, a western star, was notorious for his scratchy, shrill voice which was rife for comedic opportunity. indeed, this scene here with pierce’s vocals is nothing short of hilarious: 

the trio chronicle the prodigal’s return, in which bunny and canary coo over their baby son. out of the bassinet pops incongruously large bovine, who shrieks “HOWDY MAAAA! HI PAAAA!”, the sheer volume of his voice enough to blow both of his parents away and out of the scene. and, with that, the scene ends, red curtains colorized from porky’s romance marking the sequence’s end. short, sweet, to the point, and hilarious.

ending right where the cartoon began, the owl caricature of alexander woollcott bids us farewell, the iris closing in on the bell he rings as he exclaims that all is well.

like so many other cartoons i’ve reviewed, this is one that i slowly warmed up to upon rewatching it and typing out the review for myself. i didn’t entirely dislike the cartoon upon my first watch, but it’s undeniably dated and deserves its title as possibly the most dated cartoon. without further research, some of the jokes and caricatures (if not all of them) are difficult to appreciate. the animation has bursts of energy throughout the short, the highlights being the scenes featuring raven mcquarry and moutha bray, but otherwise remains relatively simple and conservative. tashlin does incorporate a few intriguing camera angles throughout the cartoon, but many other entries of his are far more cinematic.

however, despite all of that, this cartoon is not without its bonuses: art loomer’s backgrounds are stunningly gorgeous and rich, and as someone who loves the lush, painterly backgrounds of the 1930s, this is heaven to me. and, as i mentioned previously, tedd pierce’s scenes are great--the tizzie fish and andy bovine sequences are undeniable comedic highlights.

so, if you’re willing to dedicate time to put in the research for this cartoon, you’ll find it’s quite fascinating! i’m certain this was a much bigger gut-buster in 1937 than it is in 2020, but even then, this is a good cartoon for people such as myself who love to learn more information and seek out facts. as a result, i’d recommend it to people who fall into that category. if you’re just someone who wants a good laugh and a leisurely watch, there are more interesting cartoons that lie ahead. you won’t miss much by skipping it.

with that said, here’s the link!

[maarmendes]

Extra #2 - Meeting The Class

A/N: Sorry for the delay guys! I wasn’t happy with how the most recent chapter turned out so I had to rewrite it... twice! :^D Meanwhile have this extra bit while I work on chapter 10 and 11 and also another extra I’ll be dropping after chapter 10 hehehe blessed be! <3

EXTRA CONTENT: What happened when Ana met each classmate for the first time?

Yuga Aoyama

Ana was heading back to class after going to the bathroom when she bumped into him. She apologized and tried to move out of his way but he held her shoulder.

"Don't Move." He whispered and Ana froze on the spot, not knowing what to do. The boy proceeded to untie her hair, combing it back. She was expecting it to hurt but it felt nice, the boy was gentle as he messed with her hair. For Ana her hair was fine, but as soon as Aoyama laid eyes on her this morning, he was annoyed. She had her hair tied up in such a messy way... Aoyama couldn't take it anymore. When he saw her walking back to class, - after obviously seeing herself in the mirror and DOING NOTHING ABOUT IT - he had to take matters into his own hands.

"There you go, Darling. Much better!" He held up a pocket mirror for Ana to check his handy work. He had braided her hair beautifully over her shoulder.

"Oh, my God! It's beautiful. How did you-"

"You're welcome." He winked and walked away, leaving a confused but happy Ana behind.

Mina Ashido

Mina was one of the first classmates to approach Ana. She was the first to ask all kinds of questions about Ana's family and quirk. She was also the first to ask Ana to have lunch with them. They became instant friends, hitting it off almost immediately like they were meant to be. Mina thought she met her soulmate when Ana always finished all the lyrics she started singing.

"I can't believe you know so many songs!"

"I mean, they're not my style... But I'm a bit of a music freak."

"OH MY GOD, YOU GOTTA MEET JIRO!"

Mina tried to introduce Ana to everyone but mostly just ended up rushing it and dragging Ana into another group of people, and another... and another... and another... Until she finally let Ana settle down. In the end, no one got to know anyone, especially not Ana, but she still appreciated Mina's excitement.

Tsuyu Asiu

They met when Mina asked Ana to have lunch with her. The girls all sat together and introduced themselves. They both told each other to refer to themselves by their nicknames and bonded over how adorable both names were.

"Ana, about you telling us to get to know each other slowly..." Tsu shyly faced Ana. "I'm sorry if we made you feel overwhelmed. I hope we can be good friends in the future."

"If you keep being that cute, I think I might just offer you my soul, Tsu." The girls laughed. "It's okay, I'm okay, everything's okay!"

With a pet on Tsuyu's head, Ana figured she'd made the sweetest friend she could ever wish for.

Tenya Iida

Ana was annoying Bakugo early in the morning when Tenya approached them. She was sitting on Bakugo's desk who had his feet up. Tenya cleared his throat to get their attention and began his rant.

"Bakugo Katsuki and Shuzenji Anahita! How dare you disrespect school's property like that! Show some respect! Especially you, Bakugo! It's the second day in a row I catch you in the act!"

"The fuck did you say to me? You wanna die or something, shitty glasses?!"

Ana watched the boys bicker and soon an entertaining idea came to mind.

"How about you guys arm-wrestle and whoever wins tells the other what to do?"

It was a joke but the boys took it seriously. Ana was impressed by how much of a fight the class rep put up but in the end, Bakugo obviously won. The winner completely forgot his price, too engrossed in his celebration, so Ana decided to claim the price.

"Since my friend won, it's time for our price..."

Ana made Iida sit on the desk next to her for the rest of the day. Even during class.

Ochaco Uraraka

It was time to try on their hero suits and the girls made their way towards the changing room. Ana was adjusting the belt around her waist while waiting for the others when Ochaco gasped behind her. She turned to see the girl pointing between themselves. At first, she didn't get it but then... The resemblance... Bodysuits, belt, helmet... If it wasn't for Ana's suit being blue and Uraraka's being pink, they'd look exactly the same.

The girls got dragged out before they could talk about it but once outside there was an opportunity, and so the Pink and Blue team was born!

Mashirao Ojiro

In between classes, Mina was chatting with Ana but her attention was elsewhere. The boys tail was swaying has he talked to his friends and Ana couldn't stop staring in wonder.

"Ana! Did you even hear me?! What are you staring at?"

"Do you think Tail Boy is strong enough to let me sit on him?" Mina blinked for a minute before staring at Ana with a perverted smile on her face. "His tail, Mina! Sit on his tail!"

"Why don't you try to ask him?" Ana scowled at Mina. "I bet ten bucks you won't do it."

Ana was on her feet so fast her chair nearly fell over and walked over to Ojiro's group.

"Hey, Tail Boy, is your tail strong enough for me to sit on like a chair?"

"Probably... Yes?" The boy had no idea what the hell was happening but still answered the tiny girl.

"So... Can I?"

With that Ana sat on the boy's tail, pinching him when he commented on her being lighter than he expected. Mina couldn't stop laughing with her phone out, either recording or taking pictures of them. At first, he was flustered and didn't know what to do since Bakugo was glaring at him from across the room, but soon followed Ana's playfulness as she tried to balance herself on his tail.

"It's unbelievably soft, that's so cute!" Ana petted the boy. "Sorry, Ojiro. This was supposed to be a bet I made with Mina but now I'm way too into it."

"Oi! Get back here, pipsqueak!"

Thankfully Bakugo rescued Ojiro from having to carry Ana everywhere with him. The boy could only think that Ana was unexpectedly childish and weird, not in a bad way though.

Denki Kaminari

As per usual, Ana, Mina, Bakugo, and Kirishima were hanging out in-between classes when someone decided to insert themselves into the group.

"Hey, hey, hey! Who's the cutie?"

Kaminari wrapped an arm over Kirishima's shoulder, interrupting his conversation with Ana.

"Do you believe in love at first sight? Or should I walk by again?"

Ana scoffed at Kaminari's bad attempt at a pick-up line, and so the war began.

"Nice one, blondie. I hope you know CPR because you just took my breath away!"

"Good... But not good enough! Let me guess... Your middle name is Gillette, right? 'Cause you're the best a man can get!"

"HAH! Is there an airport nearby, or was that just my heart taking off?!"

"Go ahead! Feel my shirt! Boyfriend material!"

"Oh, wait... wait, where... where's my... Oh no, oh fuck..." Ana suddenly got serious, patting her pockets and looking through her bag. The look of pure dread getting the group's attention.

"W-what? What's up?" Kaminari grew worried the more frantic Ana seemed, instinctively putting his hands up as if signaling Bakugo he did nothing.

"Oh no... I lost my phone number... Mind if I have yours?" Ana gave Kaminari a big smirk and an innocent look as she dropped her desperate act. A few frustrated grunts and sighs of relief come from the group and the boy announced her victory, both becoming friends on the spot.

"What the fuck did we just witness..." Bakugo asked Kirishima, who only gave him a shrug.

Eijiro Kirishima

After witnessing Ana's argument with Bakugo, Kirishima couldn't stop worrying about the girl. He knew Bakugo was pissed but Bakugo is always pissed. Ana was coming back to class with Bakugo who left her soon after, giving Kirishima a chance to talk to Ana.

"Hey, Ana..." The girl looked up at Kiri with a smile. "Sorry to bother you, I was just checking how you're doing, and- Why are you in your gym clothes?"

"Oh! Some stupid bitch with some kind of water quirk picked a fight with me, what an idiot. Don't worry, she got what she deserved!"

Ana put her bruised fists up in a fighting stance and Kirishima stood frozen in place feeling stupid for even worrying about her in the first place. As Ana told more details about the fight he couldn't help but laugh.

"What?! I'm serious! I knocked her nose real good!" Ana pouted to which Kiri couldn't help but pat her head.

"No, no, it's not that! It's just... I was worried about you and the whole Bakugo thing, but I guess there's no need for that."

"That's cute but I can handle myself. Thanks for caring though." Ana gave the boy a hug which he gladly returned.

"No problem, Cutie!"

From then on Ana and Kirishima referred to each other with random pet names and found it entertaining to never explain Bakugo why.

Koji Koda

Koda usually feels bad when he's stuck inside for long periods of time, so when the bell rang signaling lunchtime he decided to take a walk around campus. When passing a tree behind the building, he heard a small meow coming from above.

Ana was trying to escape Bakugo and find a quiet place to rest and figures the back of the building would be deserted. But, when she was passing by a tree, she wasn't expecting what she heard.

"U-Uhm... E-Excuse me..."

"God? Is that you?"

"Uhm... No?" Ana looked up to see Koda sitting on a tree branch hugging a small kitten to his chest. "I-I'm... I'm s-stuck."

Ana couldn't stop laughing while she climbed the tree to help both the boy and the kitten getting down. Once the boy got down and the kitten was safe and sound, she finally stopped laughing and asked the boy.

"Next time you try to rescue an animal, be careful not to get stuck too, ok?" The boy nodded shyly. "So, what now? What are you gonna do with the cat?"

"Oh! Principal Nezu said I can't keep any animals on campus..."

"Then let's hide them until we find a place for them!"

The boy was ecstatic! One of them found a box, another one got some blankets and both built a small house for the small kitty. Coming back the next day, Koda found Ana already there, feeding a bunch of cats.

"Koda, look!" Ana held up what Koda assumed was the kittens' mother. "Mama Kitty came to get her baby and decided to stay! We have a family now!"

In the end, Koda convinced Ana they couldn't find a home for all those kittens alone, so she decided to ask the person she trusts the most for help. And that is how Aizawa got so many cats.

Rikido Sato

Living in the dorms was already weird enough for Ana since she never really had a big lively home. Her grandmother was quite rowdy but even with Aizawa there, the house was never as vivid as the dorms were. So it wasn't unusual for Ana to have a tough time sleeping. She had just given up on sleep and decided to get some coffee and just stay up all night when she stumbles into Sato in the kitchen.

"What are you doing? It's like 4 am." Ana mumbled and then noticed the sweets on the boy's hands. "I thought you had an oven in your room."

"I do! But then the room smells like sweets and it becomes a bit unbearable and the boys have been complaining about the smell and-"

"Did you break it?" The boy nodded. "Lemme eat and I won't snitch."

Both of them spent the next couple of hours in the kitchen. Ana would taste-test all the sweets and gave feedback to Sato who would bake something different. Once the sun was up and people started to walk around the dorms, Iida found them on the kitchen floor sleeping, Ana still had sweets on her lap and Sato was filled with flour. Neither of them ever talked about what happened that night but when Ana is looking tired, Sato secretly shares some of his sweets.

Mezo Shoji

Aizawa was giving the class instructions on what the training exercise would be when someone interrupted him. The class was all standing on the field waiting for instructions when Aizawa said he had to leave for a minute, giving them orders to behave and work out or their own. Once out of sight, Mina and Ana exchanged looks.

"Hide and Seek?" They both agreed, getting a few students to join them. Luckily, Ana wasn't it. She ran around to find a place to hide until she had a brilliant idea.

"Mezo! Can you hide me? Quick!" The boy said nothing, just wrapped his arms around the tiny girl, holding and hiding Ana behind his back. She muffled a laugh when Mina ran by and even the boy had to hide his mouth to avoid laughing. Not too long after, Mina approached the boy.

"Mezo... What you got there, sweety?"

"I don't know what you're talking about."

"Just drop her, Mezo! I know she's in there!" Mina tried to tickle Mezo.

"Don't betray me, Mezo!" Ana yelled from behind him.

They were all laughing and fighting in their own playful way when they hear someone clearing their throat.

"If you have that much energy, how about you guys do some extra training after class?"

They all grunted at Aizawa's punishment as they got back with the others. Ana tried apologizing for getting Mezo into trouble (Mina thought it was offensive she didn't get an apology) but the boy paid her no attention, saying he had fun anyway, so he didn't regret it.

Kyoka Jiro

Much like some other girls, they met during lunch. Mina yelled about how Ana knows a lot about music and Jiro's ears perked up. For a moment they just stared at each other until Jiro broke the silence.

"Queen?"

"Bohemian Rhapsody."

"Nirvana?"

"Lithium."

"Metallica?"

"Master Of Puppets."

"Red Hot Chilli Peppers?"

"Otherside."

"Pink Floyd?"

"Their whole discography."

They both laughed and fist-bumped each other. The other girls didn't get it but what matters was that they bonded over their music taste. Since then, both Ana and Jiro lent vinyl albums to each other that they think the other might like.

Hanta Sero

The class was having mock battles during training and Aizawa refused to split the class since in real combat there were no differences in gender or of any other kind. So, Ana and Sero got paired.

"Are you sure you want this? I don't want to fight a girl."

Ana ignored him and Aizawa smirked behind Seto. The whole class shivered at the sight. He blew the whistle and Ana was as quick as ever sliding under Sero's legs to get on his blind spot and knock him off his feet. He was stunned on the floor, Ana standing over him.

"So, is it that you don't want to fight a girl or that you can't?"

Ana offered a hand to help him up. Sero chuckled and nodded with a new-found respect for the small girl.

"I'm sorry I disrespected you. Let's go again. This time for real."

"Good."

They both did their best but, in the end, Ana had more fighting experience than him and won the mock battle. After that, Sero would often ask Ana to train with him to help him get stronger.

Fumikage Tokoyami

Training was getting rough and the class was all spread about, training their abilities with the help of Ectoplasm. As per Aizawa's instructions, Ana had to train using her quirks and keeping herself moving even in uneven terrain. So, as Cimentoss had made various platforms, Ana was running around healing whoever needed it. Suddenly a scream echoed and Ana bolted in that direction with no hesitation. Arriving there, Tokoyami stumbled out of the dark cave, his arm bleeding.

"Hey, it's okay, I'm here. Let me see." Ana was kneeling down next to the boy who was still shaking.

"I'm sorry. This is nothing, I'm fine. Dark Shadow just got a bit enthusiastic, that's all."

"Just shut up and let me help." Ana inspected the cut and determined it wasn't too deep so it wouldn't need too much to heal. She was about to do her job when a whimper caught her attention. Behind the boy, there was a shadow with sad eyes looking worried at its owner. He tried to reassure his friend he was alright but it wouldn't listen.

"Hey, buddy. Look!" Ana caught the shadow's attention as she placed a kiss on the boy's arm and the cut faded. "Everything's alright, see? He's all good!"

Ana patted the shadow who chirped happily at her. Tokoyami apologize a thousand times but Ana ignored it and reassured him it was her job to help out. After this, Ana would help him calm down Dark Shadow when it was worried about him or even let her play with it from time to time. Most would say he didn't care either way and probably thought it was good control training, but he was actually happy about it.

Shoto Todoroki

Ana was complaining to Deku and Ururaka about how her tea got cold on the way to class. Todoroki overhears, grabs the cup, and heats it up. Ana decides to have his children.

It was lunchtime and Deku had witnessed Ana fight during the mock battle training and insisted on her telling him all about it, joined by Uraraka and Tenya. They were sitting in class and Ana was telling them all about the training Aizawa had put her through.

"Ana... I think that's child abuse..." Uraraka said with a concerned look on her face.

"Nah, it was fine! It wasn't that bad." Ana reached for her cup but froze upon touching it. "Oh no, my tea went cold... I hate cold tea..." She pouted sadly.

"Don't be sad! We can go get another one if you want. It's my fault it got cold anyway." Deku suggested.

Ana was about to accept when a hand reached over her shoulder and grabbed her cup. Soon, the cup began to warm up and the water started to steam. Looking up, she saw the red and white-haired boy looking down on her. He offered a small smile before placing the mug back down.

"Is this good enough?" Ana nodded still mesmerized by the boy. "You don't have to be sad anymore then."

With that, Todoroki walked away leaving a gawking Ana behind. His cool but gentle demeanor completely enchanting the girl.

"Ana... Are you ok?" Uraraka broke whatever spell Ana was in.

"What? Oh, I'm fine. I think I just got my heart completely smashed to pieces by whoever the hell that was but I'm fine."

From then on out, it was girl talk. Tenya and Deku were chased out and were replaced by Mina and Tsuyu as the girls started gossiping about Todoroki and what they thought about him. He became Ana's secret crush and she would admire him from afar. They would occasionally talk but she didn't trust herself around him without some kind of restrain, especially since Todoroki wasn't a big fan of socializing and Ana had no concept of personal space. Either way, she would often ask him to heat up her tea when she forgets about it.

Toru Hagakure

Also during lunch, she was one of the girls that asked a lot of questions about Ana's grandma. She was way more energetic than Ana could ever imagine and they hit it off fairly quickly, even if Ana found it tough to talk to Toru.

"I'm sorry but I have to say this..." Ana stopped Toru mid-sentence. "I'm really sorry if I stare too much at you, it's just hard for me to understand you. I've lived my life reading peoples expressions and, well... You know what I'm getting at! So it's a bit hard for me to understand but I'm sure I'll get used to it. I'm sorry and please bear with me."

Toru was surprised but relieved. Ana was staring at her with such intense eyes she thought Ana was offended or something. Thankfully, Ana was just worried. When Toru asked why she read people like that, Ana explained that thanks to the nature of her quirk she tends to get closer than she should since she's so used to it and didn't want to make people uncomfortable so she learned how to know what people are feeling.

Toru was touched by her thoughtfulness and reassured the girl she'd tell her if anything bothered her. What excited her was how well Ana could read other people. The girls would often have fun during lunch where Ana would tell Toru what she guessed the conversations were about by reading lips and emotions and Toru would confirm it using her invisibility to get close and eaves-drop. Was it right to listen in on other peoples' conversations? No, but it was fun!

Minoru Mineta

He's not part of this universe. :)

Momo Yaoyorozu

Makes Ana a new uniform when she gets to class in her gym clothes after the bullying scene.

Momo noticed Ana in her gym clothes during class and as soon as it was over she called her classmate over to talk to her about it.

"Ana, I'm sorry about this but you can't hang around in your gym clothes. You need to wear your uniform properly, those are the rules..."

"Oh. Well, my uniform got soaked and I had to change... Honestly, I think I might burn it honestly."

Momo was ready to scold her classmate but Ana continued, explaining what happened at lunch. Momo was shocked there were students like that at U.A. but Ana reminded her of Bakugo. They agreed that judging people is hard. Momo felt guilty for calling out Ana after what happened. Taking a look around to make sure no one notices, the girl materializes a copy of the uniform and offers it to Ana.

"Oh, my God! Momo, you can't do that!" Ana whispered, also checking to make sure no one saw it.

"It's okay! I feel bad for what happened and for calling you out... I'm sorry so just take it."

"Are you sure?" Momo nodded with a smile. "Thank you, really... I'd go change but I've had enough of bathroom encounters for today."

They both laughed at that but Momo offered to go with her, just to make sure nothing happened. Ana noticed her concerned and told her about the fights she'd win, which Momo took as Ana being a troublemaker. Either way, both girls understood each other and both knew the other would have their back.

[MASTERLIST]

[pbwsports]

Is Tua Tagovailoa ready to become Miami's biggest star since Dan Marino?

Leaps into swimming pools. Emotional moments of jubilation. Tears of joy. Fifteen words delivered by NFL commissioner Roger Goodell -- "With the fifth pick in the 2020 NFL draft, the Miami Dolphins select Tua Tagovailoa" -- elicited all that plus a belief the moment will change the Dolphins' franchise forever.

Over the past month, there has been an innate buzz burgeoning nationally, but especially in South Florida, that can be summed up as a Tua frenzy. An 11-minute fan-generated YouTube video provides a visual.

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"Tua is far by himself -- never seen anything like this buzz from a draft pick here. There's no close second," said Dolphins color commentator and radio host Joe Rose, who played for the franchise alongside Pro Football Hall of Fame quarterback Dan Marino from 1983 to 1985. "We have a rock star here in Tua. This team has been in mediocrity for so long. It's lacked the Dan Marino star power, the Ricky Williams star power. Tua's the next guy in that group."

Despite the love, it's too early to crown Tagovailoa. He hasn't even played an NFL game. Tagovailoa's arrival is defined by hope and hype.

Even in his first month as a Dolphins quarterback, it is clear that if Tagovailoa lives up to expectations, he will be the face of South Florida sports for a while.

How will Tagovailoa manage the pressure, the buzz, overwhelming positivity, eventual negativity and everything that comes with being hailed as the next big thing in a city starving for its latest sports superstar?

"The great thing for Tua is Dan Marino retired 20 years ago," Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon said. "So it's not like he's following right behind a legend like Aaron Rodgers following Brett Favre or whoever follows Tom Brady. He just has to be himself. He can't be Dan Marino. Just be yourself and rely on the people around you."

'It's going to be Dolphins town'

A Mount Rushmore of athletes who have led South Florida pro teams probably starts with Marino and the Miami Heat's Dwyane Wade, but the initial expectations weren't as high with either legend.

Wade remembers it wasn't until after he led the Heat to their first championship in 2006 that he became the face of South Florida sports. He returned to Miami and hopped in his convertible with a buddy. Fans sighted him and rushed the car. He couldn't drive another block.

"I looked at my friend and said, 'Yo, this is different,'" Wade said. "I enjoyed it. But I knew it would never be normal in this city from that point on. I had to get used to being a celebrity. The perks were great, but the non-privacy was not so great."

"Wade County" was born and didn't slow down. His presence remains large in Miami, but since he retired following the 2018-19 season, there has been an active-superstar void.

Enter Tagovailoa.

"He's a hell of a player. Miami, especially at the QB position, really needs that. They need a leader. They need a player," Wade said. "To come in as a young player and win a game in the second half of a national championship game -- that shows some grit, that shows some balls. People have to really believe in you. Miami needs that. The Dolphins need that. Even though I'm a [Chicago] Bears fan, I was rooting for them to get him because Miami needs to get back to where the basketball program is."

Wade's advice to Tagovailoa centers on how to handle fame; the future Hall of Fame guard says he would often deal with anxiety when he left the house. He felt the need to always be on as D-Wade even when he wanted to just be Dwyane. Wade said even though he wasn't expected to "save the franchise," once he became a fan favorite, he had to "figure out how to enjoy what you worked hard for, but keep a level of sanity at the same time."

The last 5th overall pick to Miami did some cool things. Congrts @Tuaamann can’t wait to watch your journey.

3,032 people are talking about this

Wade is optimistic Tagovailoa will lift the Dolphins to a place they never reached while he was with the Heat.

"If the Dolphins get it going, it's going to be Dolphins town. We did as much to make it a basketball town as possible, and Miami Heat is there to stay. But let's not get it twisted: Florida is football. Once they get their s--- together, they are going to be big and bigger," Wade said. "But those Heat guys -- Bam [Adebayo], Tyler Herro -- are going to battle him for it. He's got to earn it.

"How you put yourself in that conversation is doing something great, something that people have never seen before, and obviously winning."

Marino was a 'rock star'

Tagovailoa passed his first test by eschewing his college No. 13 -- Marino's number in Miami. Instead, Tagovailoa is paving his own path by becoming the first Dolphins QB to wear No. 1.

"I understand No. 13 is retired, and it should be. Dan Marino, he's the GOAT. He's like the mayor out there, and I have much respect for him," Tagovailoa said. "I just want to have the opportunity to go out there and compete."

2020 NFL offseason

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Every quarterback who has arrived in Miami has been met with some mention of Marino, and Miami has started 21 quarterbacks since the Hall of Famer retired in 2000. The Dolphins haven't had a Pro Bowl QB since then, which marks the NFL's longest streak.

So while the expectations might seem unwieldy for a 22-year-old quarterback coming off a serious hip injury, this isn't just any NFL city. He's coming to a franchise that is thirsty for a star QB, and fans have been waiting on Tagovailoa for more than a year.

"When I got down there, the Miami Dolphins were Dan Marino's town and team. It's still that way," former Dolphins great Ricky Williams said. "I was a running back, but no one has even come close to eclipsing the success that Dan had in Miami as a quarterback. Even more so than what I experienced, Tua has the potential to be a big part of what it means to be a Miami Dolphin for a long time."

Williams had a great run as the face of the Dolphins. Jason Taylor, Zach Thomas and Ryan Tannehill did, too. But none of them have the national pull Tagovailoa has now.

Tua Tagovailoa is a star in Miami already.

147 people are talking about this

Rose says he remembers the buzz around Marino being relatively subdued when he arrived. The Dolphins, coming off a Super Bowl XVII loss, were led by their "Killer B's" defense, and they selected Marino with the No. 27 overall pick when he fell to them in the 1983 draft.

By the end of his record-setting 1984 MVP season, Marino was a superstar.

"When we went to New York, I saw the phone calls we got in our hotel room. I saw what movie stars and celebrities came around. People wanted to be around this guy," Rose said. "We didn't have the media and social media that they do now, so it could be a lot more hidden. He was big stuff. He was a rock star."

Marino is the standard, but Tagovailoa doesn't have to reach that level to be remembered in Dolphins history. As Moon and Wade have stressed, he just has to focus on being himself.

Why D-Wade is looking to Tua to be the leader the Dolphins need

Dwyane Wade expresses his thoughts on the Dolphins drafting Tua Tagovailoa and gives some advice for playing in the city of Miami.

Work, gain respect, then build the brand

Moon knows all about highly anticipated arrivals. After five Grey Cup titles in the Canadian Football League, Moon signed with the Houston Oilers and became the NFL's highest-paid player in 1984.

With stars such as running back Earl Campbell and linebacker Robert Brazile already in Houston, Moon was conscious of veterans believing he was too full of himself. Moon's response was to work hard, including lifting weights with the offensive line.

"When people came in the building, I was already there. When people left, I was still there," Moon said. "Yeah, I had a lot of attention, but they saw my work ethic. When I got on the field, they started to see I could really play. What you're trying to do is gain respect, and I think Tua will get that, too, because of his work ethic."

Showing that work ethic and building camaraderie with teammates could prove to be more challenging for Tagovailoa this offseason with virtual meetings instead of in-person practices. But Tagovailoa has reached out to many of his Dolphins teammates via text messages and phone calls.

The other balance Tagovailoa will have to maintain is his unique marketability with Moon's advice "to go in there with your head down and work."

Tagovailoa, who signed a four-year, $30.3 million contract, has endorsement deals with Adidas, Hulu, Muscle Milk, Verizon, Wingstop, Gillette, Lowe's, Bose and Call of Duty. He recently signed a multiyear, exclusive memorabilia-and-collection deal with Fanatics. He also has a documentary in the works detailing his journey to the Dolphins.

Tua Tagovailoa taking photo with young Dolphins fan — Riley — who hopes he lands in Miami. Many other Dolphins fans do too.

60 people are talking about this

Agent Ryan Williams and Athletes First have handled Tagovailoa's marketing demands, and he has immediately become one of the NFL's most well-known young players. The people love the former Alabama quarterback, and that has shown up in the numbers. Tagovailoa is the top-selling NFL player in terms of overall merchandise sales since May 1 across the Fanatics network, which includes NFLshop.com and online team stores -- above Tampa Bay's Brady and Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow, the No. 1 overall draft pick.

Moon remembered advice he was given by his agent, Leigh Steinberg, who also represents Tagovailoa: to take things slow on building your brand and try to avoid reading the headlines or social media.

"I just want to make sure that he doesn't try to get too far ahead of himself. Football is what butters his bread," Moon said. "If he doesn't do well on the football field, everything else will go away. Knowing a bit about Tua, he'll be fine."

Tagovailoa showed humility throughout his college career. He has a connection to family and a desire to give back.

"I'm honored that the fans think so highly of me. But I haven't done anything, yet," Tagovailoa said. "What I did in college can't translate to the NFL. It's a clean slate. I've got to go out there and earn my respect and earn the trust from my teammates."

Thank you to @MiamiDolphins for making this dream come true for me and my family. It's in my heart to give back to the communities that have raised me. Plans are underway to start charitable outreach efforts in Hawaii, Alabama and Miami. Stay tuned, stay safe. Go fins! Blessed! https://twitter.com/MiamiDolphins/status/1260223696674881539 …

We have signed quarterback Tua Tagovailoa, defensive tackle Raekwon Davis, defensive end Curtis Weaver and long snapper Blake Ferguson.

2,754 people are talking about this

'The guys in that locker room'

The idea of becoming a star before even taking an NFL snap might be enough to make Dolphins coach Brian Flores' head spin. A champion of competition and team-first mentality, Flores probably doesn't care how many jerseys Tagovailoa sells as long as he produces on the field.

"The world will make you think that you're this superstar. And maybe you are, but it doesn't really matter," Flores said last November regarding any particular player's growing success. "The only thing that matters is the guys in that locker room."

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But there is an element of stardom Wade alluded to with which Flores probably will agree, and that's winning. The New England Patriotsbecame an NFL dynasty with a star quarterback because of their winning records and Super Bowl titles. The allure of Tagovailoa's star power will be embraced should the Dolphins become title contenders year in and year out.

Before worrying about the celebrity, the more timely concern revolves around when Tagovailoa will get on the field. Some argue he should be an immediate starter, while others suggest a redshirt 2020 season. The most likely result appears to be somewhere in the middle.

The Dolphins are in Year 2 of a dramatic rebuild, but Flores always wants to win. Quarterback Ryan Fitzpatrick, the veteran incumbent, has the upper hand in securing the starting role for several reasons, thanks to his comfort in offensive coordinator Chan Gailey's scheme, his success guiding the Dolphins in 2019 (to five wins), his leadership in the locker room and a lack of a true offseason.

But Tagovailoa is also eager to learn under Fitzpatrick, saying on draft day in April that he wants "to understand the kind of person he is ... nitpick him, ask him how he goes about preparing for a defense ... and just being able to question him."

Fitzpatrick vows to be Tagovailoa's "biggest cheerleader," but he won't hand him the starting job in 2020. Tagovailoa probably wouldn't want it any other way, because when football returns, he will get the opportunity to prove his worth.

Once Tagovailoa hits the field, the hope is he gets to become the greatest version of himself instead of being constantly compared to Marino. That weight is too heavy.

But becoming the long-term face of the Dolphins and South Florida sports? That's well within Tagovailoa's grasp. Source - ESPN

[killinboys]

I thought for #10DaysUntilLover I would post 10 things I’m excited for in the Lover Era

1. Meeting new friends! I met so many amazing people in the rep era, and I cannot wait to meet more. This fandom can be so beautiful sometimes, and I look forward to talking to you all every day.

2. Tour!! The rep tour was the most amazing experience, and I want to go back every day. My shows (especially Gillette n2) were the best days of my life. Meeting my friends and screaming every word to every song made my heart burst, I wish tour was here right now!!!

3. My friends meeting Taylor!!! Whether it’s called Lover’s Lounge, Lovers’ Lane, or my personal fave The Love Shack, I’m so excited to see everyone’s pics. I hope that my close friends ( @taylors-sneks Im talking to you) meet her!!!!!!!!!

4. Interviews!!!! I heard that Taylor’s going on some talk shows and I can’t wait. I missed this so much in the rep era I’m so ready for her to talk about the album.

5. Music videos!!!!! Taylor was filming one when she went live to talk about the deluxe editions, so we know at least one is coming! Music vids are a great way to find out the deeper meaning behind songs, and Taylor’s have always been jaw dropping.

6. The deluxe edition content!!!!!! Her diaries!!!! The OG all too well lyrics!!!! Do I have to say more?

7. Finally figuring out the Easter eggs!!!!!!! It’s been a long journey, and I’m so ready for things to make sense.

8. My friends getting noticed for the first time!!!!!!!! The era hasn’t even officially started, and Taylor has already noticed some of my friends for the first time @idonttrustnobodyswift @theoldpresleyisdead !!! I just know that this is the era some of the people who have been waiting forever get noticed, and I am so happy and excited already. Taylor if you’re reading this I’m talking about @fashionswift @thezoeofusswift and @stateofmox in particular.

9. Everything that comes with the fandom!!!!!!!!!! From the selfie nights to the we love Taylor chain posts, you all do so much to express inclusiveness. While there are moments where the fandom disappoints me (*ahem* last night *ahem*), overall this fandom has given me so much happiness and I hope we figure our shit out. We got this, we’re a strong family and if I didn’t believe in us I wouldn’t be writing this. Despite everything that has happened, I love you all so much. Thank you for being here for me.

10. And of course, the songs!!!!! I know that this album will be incredible, award winning, heart breaking, and beautiful all at the same time. I can’t wait to hear it and @taylorswift thank you again for everything you’ve given me.

If you read this you deserve a medal. I can’t wait to freak out with you all for the next 10 days💗💗💗💗💗💗💗

[laughingupfromhell]

My Gillette Experience + Pre-Show M&G.  7.28.18 -- Extended Edition

I’m sorry this has taken so long to post, but it’s literally so hard to get my thoughts together because I’m still so overwhelmed by the fact that this even HAPPENED to me. I’d convinced myself it wasn’t in the cards, that Taylor didn’t know me, and that I needed to find a way to be okay with never meeting her. But then, IT HAPPENED. (I’m going to write the whole story from the time I got the DM and it’s going to be really long, so if you just want to read the Taylor part, I’ll write it in bold so you can skip to it easily. Just keep scrolling. I’m just posting the long version so I can look back on it whenever I want and never forget anything. I’ll post just the Taylor part individually too in case you don’t want to hunt for it.)

Friday, July 27th, I had the worst day at work. I work in a cafe, and the AC was out in the kitchen which made the entire place SO hot. Literally, it was 92 degrees in the building and we had the ovens on. I live in Florida, so it was disgusting and I felt so sick. We were shorthanded, I was stressed out about my flight, dealing with some pretty intense anxiety about meeting people I had never met before because I’m shy af, and just overall feeling kind of bleh despite being so excited for the concert the next day. I found out as I was on the way to the airport that my flight had been delayed nearly three hours and that set me into panic mode, because it would put me in Boston around 2 in the morning instead of 10pm. Eventually it got pushed back to only an hour delay, which made me feel a little better, and I passed the time in the airport just walking around the shops and scrolling tumblr. Jaime @cages-boxes-hunters-foxes texted me to tell me that one of my best friends Meredith @meredithswift had just met Taylor and I was SO excited for her because I’ve known how much she wanted this since we started talking in 2008. Jaime was like “you next!” and I was like “noooo, it’s not going to happen for me.” Taylor was intent on making me look like boo boo the fool.

Right before I boarded the plane, around 8pm, I took a selfie at the gate because I was bored and tagged Taylor in it on tumblr and said “I’m coming for you, Taylor!” I didn’t even know she was online, and she never liked the post, so I didn’t think anything of it after that.

 I boarded the plane, but there was a RIDICULOUS thunderstorm going on so we sat on the tarmac for nearly two hours, and I had been DMing back and forth with Jeannine @it-feels-like-a-perfect-night all day, so when I saw a notification on tumblr, I thought it was her...until I opened it and it said taylornation. All of my internal organs came flooding out of my ass in that moment and landed on the plane floor beneath me, not clickbait. I literally didn’t believe it was real for a whole hot ass minute because things like this do not happen to me and I was LITERALLY sitting on a plane about to go to Boston so WHAT WAS HAPPENING??? I open it, and they asked for all my information, and when the best time to call was. I was like????!!!? I’m LITERALLY SITTING ON A PLANE LESS THAN 24 HOURS BEFORE MY SHOW AND YOU WANT TO KNOW WHEN THE BEST TIME CALL IS???? YESTERDAY???? I ALREADY HAVE MY BAG CHECKED, I DON’T HAVE TIME TO BUY ANOTHER OUTFIT, I LOOK LIKE A RAT!!!! So obviously I said “I don’t land until midnight but anytime after that, thank you so much!” 

At this point I’m in such shock I literally have no reaction other than to stare unblinking at the seat in front of me and go into full body tremors. I’m pretty sure the girl next to be me on this flight thought I was scared of flying or something, because I was literally shaking so hard I could hear my teeth chattering together. My heart rate shot through the goddamn roof. If you don’t believe me, here is a helpful graph from my Fitbit. I hit 117 BPM from 58 BPM. I’m pretty sure that is indicative of an actual heart attack.

I didn’t know what to do, so I immediately texted my mom and I KNOW it says the message is confidential and you’re not supposed to tell anyone but I needed my mother to know that if her only child died mid-flight, it was taylor nation’s fault and to tell Taylor I loved her. It was VITAL. The southern jumped out -- I literally haven’t called her mama since I was 10, I don’t even know. 

I also told my friend Lindsey @lskbe because I once promised her she’d be one of the first to know if it was ever going to happen and she was a GEM even though she DIDN’T ANSWER ME RIGHT AWAY BUT ANYWAY!!!! (screenshot provided by her). She made me a playlist titled 7.28.18 on spotify and everything for the occasion because she is extra and I love her. 

 I spent the next 2 1/2 hours literally trying not to pee myself with anxiety and excitement because then of course I start thinking WHAT IF THEY FORGET TO CALL? What if it’s just merch? What if I’m boo boo the fool? What if this isn’t real life? Then we hit turbulence and my thoughts turn darker like WHAT IF THE PLANE CRASHES AND I DIE BEFORE I MEET HER? I literally had to make Jaime reassure me multiple times that turbulence wouldn’t make the plane crash and that I would survive. We love her logical brain. So obviously now that I’ve stopped panicking it’s time to take selfies to post later.

 I finally make it to Boston and at this point I think I’ve dissociated because I just can’t even think about it anymore. My brain was on overdrive and I didn’t even know how to process. It was either shut it down or shout it from a rooftop and I COULDN’T TAKE THAT RISK. 

I got to meet my sweet honeys @straightlinedownx and @heypay FINALLY and it’s up there in my top ten best moments of life. They’d just gotten home from Night 2 so they were pretty spent and it was 1:30 in the morning, so we all headed to bed, but if you thought I was sleeping, you’re WRONG because I was literally peeing every half hour because I was so nervous and excited. I was like a chihuahua I swear to god. I was talking to Brittany @messthatuwanted for most of the night trying not to be suspicious and I guess I did a pretty good job because she NEVER FOUND OUT until I wanted her to. Which is what her snake ass deserves tbh. I literally didn’t get to sleep until 4:30 in the morning and then I woke up at 6:45 am and was like...well they said they’d call me in the morning, and technically it is morning, so I should stay up. Clearly logical. Obviously. We love anxiety. I couldn’t turn the ringer on for my phone because I was sharing a room with people and I didn’t want to wake anyone up so going back to sleep was a risk I wasn’t willing to take. 

I spent most of the morning internally exploding, and I eventually told @heypay because I needed someone to tell me I was being crazy and that they would call and she did a very good job at this, so thank you Paige, you’re the love of my life. We were all laying around, relaxing, watching Lejla and Liana’s pet rabbit eat a salad, you know...typical things friends do, when I got a call from a NYC number and shit my pants. I got up from the floor so fast and ZOOMED to the kitchen and Paige followed after me and practically shoved me out of the apartment door so I could have some privacy lol. It was Sydney from Taylor Nation and she was a sweetie and asked how my flight was and and rambled on about delayed flights and I was like....I literally do not care, I’m so sorry, please tell me what I NEED TO KNOW WOMAN I AM DYING!!!! Eventually she cuts to the chase and is like “have you ever had an opportunity before?” And I was like um...hehe..it depends on what you mean by an opportunity because I REALLY JUST WANTED HER TO SAY THE WORDS and she was like “have you ever met taylor before?” and I was like NO!!! I HAVEN’T!!!! At this point I’m shaking so hard I had to lean against the wall for fear of falling down the stairs because THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING, HUH? Then she asks if I’m going to the show with anyone who hasn’t had an opportunity before and I said YES, my precious baby Emily @straightlinedownx. So she asks for Emily’s information and thank god I had checked her facebook to find out her birthday before just in case they asked (since they asked for mine) because IT WAS A STRESSFUL TIME. So she tells me I’ll get a DM within the hour letting us know when we’re verified and where we should pick up our envelope between 4 and 5 pm and I’m just saying thank you over and over and over again because WHAT ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO DO LIKE WTF IS EVEN HAPPENING RIGHT NOW!!!!!!! 

So in my head I had this beautiful thing planned for how I would tell Emily she’s meeting Taylor, but it turns out beautiful plans can’t happen when your brain is literally exploding, so instead of doing this elaborate thing where I filmed her reaction and everything, I just went over to where she was lying on the ground and kicked her. As friends do. She turns around and I’m like “Come. Here.” I was probably terrifying, I’m so sorry Emily, but I didn’t KNOW WHAT TO DO. So she follows me out to the kitchen and WHAT DO YOU SAY OTHER THAN WHAT IS HAPPENING???? SO I JUST SPIT IT OUT AND SAID “We’re meeting Taylor” and she deadass goes “No we’re not.” Just so casual.  And I’m like “We are. We’re meeting Taylor tonight. I got a DM on the plane and they just called me. I’m bringing you. We’re meeting Taylor.” AND THIS DUMB BICTH GOES “ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO BRING ME????” AND I’M LIKE “BICTH YES????? OF COURSE I DO???” And then she just kept doing this the rest of the day and it was my favorite thing. Here she is in Starbucks ten minutes after finding out. 

So we spent the rest of the day obsessing over make up and hair and we headed to the stadium around 2 PM because we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to meet up with people and buy merch etc. Here’s us waiting for our ride (photo credit to angel @iknowplacesclean and a big thank you for letting me stay at your apartment spur of the moment!!!)

 We met up with Steph ( @thesethingswillchange), Leyton, Jess ( @jtmaster13) , and Sammi (@slytherinraven13) and I got to tell them all what was happening and they were SO happy for us because they’re literal angels on earth.

 Once we made it to will call and gave them our names, THEY DIDN’T KNOW WHAT WE WERE TALKING ABOUT so I started to panic, naturally, but it was chill because they found it eventually and we immediately started taking pictures with the paper. Some nice lady offered to take one for us, bless her, because the struggle was so real. 

By this point I had told all of my friends but Jaime @cages-boxes-hunters-foxes and Brittany @messthatuwanted because I was planning on snaking them the way they snaked me when they met Taylor, and it brought me the greatest joy in life since they both thought I was incapable of it. Little did I know that Jaime was on her way to SURPRISE ME AT THE SHOW which was a MESS since I was in REP ROOM WHEN SHE WAS LOOKING FOR ME! But more on that later. So we met @ninetay89 at will call and we were all so excited for each other because honestly it’s what we all deserved and we just kind of hung out, waiting in line for the gates to open and that’s when Meredith @meredithswift came RUNNING towards me full force. Meredith and I met when we were 13 and 15. We were each others first online friends, and we became full blown stans together. She was the one that convinced me to make a taylor tumblr blog in the first place way back in 2010. We’d never, ever met before that moment and it was honestly one of the highlights of my entire life. I love her with my whole entire heart and it was one of the best hugs I’ve ever gotten. We didn’t let each other go for like 3 minutes. It was great. 

The gates finally open and me and Emily ZOOM up to the 100 level bathrooms to fix our make up because the humidity was KILLER and we were legitimately melting. Then we had to run back down the stairs to meet at the bottom of 129/30 and met up with @sunflowershealing and she was SO sweet! I’m so glad we got to meet! 

So a security guard comes up to us and tells us we’re actually supposed to meet at the TOP of 129, which isn’t what the paper said but it’s FINE, so we go up MORE stairs and it’s honestly beginning to feel like gym class now but it’s fine because I will do hours of cardio for Taylor Swift if need be. So we go up only to be told to go back down the stairs AGAIN because what is organization and they give us our wrist bands and we’re GOING TO REP ROOM BITCHES. 

Let me just say that I was chill literally the entire day. I was excited, yeah, but I wasn’t nervous or anything. Even when we got to Rep Room, I was totally fine. But when I saw the Rep Room doorway, I was jumping up and down like a five year old because how was this REAL LIFE? I never in a million years thought when Taylor shared the fact about Rep Room and showed us the inside that I would ever see it in PERSON. And here I was, walking through the arch??? SOUNDS FAKE. So we get in there, and there are three polaroid cameras sitting on a table next to the throne, but I wasn’t sure if we were allowed to touch them since I’ve heard that a lot of pre-show meet and greets weren’t allowed to do much in rep room. So Emily and I just kind of hang out next to them and hope for the go ahead, which Steph from Taylor Nation eventually gives us and then she has to help our dumb asses put film in them because we’re USELESS. But it’s fine. We take pictures on the throne first, and they came out so iconic honestly I will never take a better picture. 

Obviously I had to take a picture with the iconic rainbow dress.

My one singular complaint about the polaroid idea is that rep room is SO dark and it doesn’t really work well with the film. 

There was water, coke, diet coke, and sprite available to us, but not the booze or the cookies that were in previous rep rooms. Probably because it’s pre-show or because there wasn’t media that night, I’m not sure. Anyway, we’re able to mingle for about 8-10 minutes maybe? Maybe shorter than that, but Steph tells us to put the cameras up and line up. We were third from last to go in of about 5-6 groups. I’d say there were about 10-12 people in there. I’m pretty short, so  I couldn’t see Taylor when they opened the curtain to let the first group in, but I heard someone say “She’s wearing the purple Olivia shirt” and I was like...I literally hate her. Everyone keeps talking and I just wanted them all to shut UP so I could HEAR HER SPEAKING. Eventually, we’re a few groups from going in and I hear her laugh and that’s when it really started getting real. This was really happening. I was about to meet Taylor. Surprisingly, I managed to STILL hold it together. Right before we went in, “Type” by Todrick Hall comes on and I was screaming because I KNEW that would be her favorite song on Forbidden. 

So they open the curtain and she’s standing RIGHT there and she opens her arms so wide and goes “oh my god hiiiiii” and without hesitation I just go right into her arms and wrap her up so tight and said “Hi, I’m Megan!” and she starts laughing and goes “I know! I picked you last night, I see your posts all the time, I saw your selfie like I’m coming for you...and I was like I’m coming for you, I sent your post to TN and was like I need her, bring me her.” Literally I wish I could describe in detail the noise that came out of my mouth when she said I know, because it definitely wasn’t human. I was like “YOU KNOWWWWW???” But i literally growled it like some kind of rabid animal, I’m SO sorry, Taylor. That was the first time I lost my chill, which surprisingly only happened twice. 

As soon as she drops that bomb on me she turns to Emily to hug her which is what she DESERVES but I was so shook by what she said that I was leaning in for another hug but her back is to me now so I kind of halfway climbed her back I HATE MYSELF. Like my hand was gripping her shoulder and my other hand was pressed against her back and I had to physically talk myself off the ledge like BE COOL BITCH, BACK UP, DON’T BE WEIRD! So I just subtly slide my hands off of her and step back...only to embarrass myself further by stepping closer to Emily, aggressively rubbing her back and shouting “THIS IS EMILY! WE LOVE HER!!!!” Honestly what the fuck is wrong with me? She goes “Thank you guys so much for coming!” And I literally PANTED out “THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR INVITING ME!” Literally I was malfunctioning. I needed to be rebooted.

She turns back to both of us and shimmies her shoulders because she clearly wants me dead and goes “Sooooooooo....” and without hesitation I go “We need to talk about ‘Look What You Made Me Do’” and she’s like “okay, what do we need to talk about?” And then...I did it ladies. I literally told her I didn’t get the joke when it first came out, it flew right over my head and I thought she was being serious about the old taylor being dead and I was so worried about her that I threw up in a parking lot. She goes “Oh my god WHAT? That makes me so sad!” But she was laughing so hard, she threw her head back and covered her mouth, and for a split second I’m like DID I HURT HER FEELINGS??? DOES SHE THINK I HATE THE SONG??? So I was like “NO NO BUT I LOVED IT!” and she goes “You threw up!” And I’m like “BECAUSE I WAS WORRIED ABOUT YOU! I WAS LIKE IS SHE OKAY????” And she literally can’t stop laughing, she’s doing that stupid dolphin laugh she does and I literally wanted to smoosh her face between my hands because I adore her so much and she is so fucking cute and GOD I WANT TO DIE. So she goes “I was literally climbing out of a grave dressed as a zombie, you didn’t get how that was supposed to be funny???” And I was like “NO, I understood it was a joke when the video came out but for a whole week before I didn’t get the joke!” And she goes “Ohhhh, when the single dropped and you listened you were like WHAT IS WRONG WITH HER???” And she just kept laughing like honestly what the fuck is my life? I made Taylor Swift LAUGH? ME??? (Emily said everyone in the room was laughing, like the security at the door and everything I literally want to jump off a cliff.) So I was like “YES EXACTLY! I was like is she okay? I’m so worried about her, I need to know that she’s okay!” And she like...touched my arm and goes “But you’re okay now, right?” and made the most INTENSE eye contact like...if there is one thing I will say about meeting her, it’s that she keeps eye contact with you the WHOLE time and you know she’s hearing everything you say, she’s paying attention to every word and you KNOW she cares. And I’m like “yeah! I get the joke now, I get it, I swear!” And EMILY GOES “I don’t think she’s okay...” like honestly... drag me.

So I attempt to change the subject and the bitch CUTS ME OFF and leans in to me, looks down at me with this smirk on her face and goes “....do you need me to explain the joke to you?” like she was TEASING me, but I was being DRAGGED. I was like “NO, I get it now! I get it!” BUT SHE EXPLAINED IT ANYWAY. She explained that the whole concept of the line came from how people were saying Taylor Swift is over, she’s dead, and she was making fun of the whole cancellation culture that social media and media in general has, so she decided to just be like “Ohhhh, cause she’s deaaaaaad” (and she said it in the funniest, whiniest mocking voice I literally can’t stand her) to show them all how stupid they sounded when they said things like that. To paraphrase because I don’t remember exact wording, she said that’s really just the whole tone of the album, reputation, itself. That there are a lot of things that go into building a reputation, but that a reputation isn’t real, it’s a perception that can be formed by any number of things, true and false, but isn’t always based on what is actually happening. It’s fake, just like the old taylor being dead is fake, it’s a joke. I think the entire time she was saying this I kept repeating “No I get it, I get it” because I wanted to be sure she knew that I got it, but I think she really just wanted to explain it in general and I’m so glad she did, because I loved the insight. And then she goes “BUT IT’S SO FUNNY NOW because they’re like ‘What is she doing with the snakes? Why is she doing that? She’s so annoying!’ And I’m just like BECAUSE YOU TWEETED IT OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN EVERY SINGLE DAY! YOU’RE JUST MAD BECAUSE IT DOESN’T BOTHER ME ANYMORE!” And I shit you not, she was literally screaming this in my face, and acting like she was scrolling through her phone and laughing like...I was scared lmao. I just kept saying “I’m so proud of you, you just took it back, it’s what you deserve!” God, she’s so pretty when she laughs I can’t stop picturing it and hearing it and I don’t know where I could possibly go from here, I’ve peaked. 

She turned to Emily then, and I’m not going to share what happened there because it’s Emily’s story to tell, but I’m literally so happy that she gave her the love she deserves. The moment they shared touched me so much. 

When she looked like she was stepping into position for a photo, I suddenly flashed back to everything my friends who had met her already told me -- that if you stop talking, the M&G will end, but if you keep talking, so will she, so I sort of side stepped and started talking to her about how I’ve dealt with some pretty toxic relationships in the past couple years, and how it breaks my heart to think she’s ever felt the same way as I have in those moments of vulnerability and hurt, but that I was so thankful for songs like Dear John and Better Man because it made me feel less alone. And she goes “it’s always nice to know that you’re not alone in feeling the way you do, I totally get it. But that’s why we’re all here, isn’t it? That’s why we come to a stadium and we sing and dance and cry (we said cry at the same time, what kind of shared brain bullshit?) with each other, because we understand each other. We have that connection.” 

From there it got a little personal for me, and I want to keep that for myself, but she gave me the biggest, tightest hug and said some of the sweetest things anyone has ever said to me and I’ve never felt more loved in my entire life than I did in those few minutes in a room with her. She said “I love you sooo much” and I said I loved her too, and then she asked what we wanted to do for a picture and Emily goes “I wanna do a smoosh...” because she’s the cutest person that has ever BREATHED and Taylor looked so confused so we both said at the same time (at the suggestion of Paige) “Can we do a Taylor face sandwich?” and she got so excited and was like “YEAH, I’ll smoosh your faces to mine!” So we got in position for that I knew I grabbed onto her, but I didn’t actually know what part of her I grabbed, I think I was reaching for her hand forgetting that her hand was on my face LOL. 

Anyway, we got our picture, she told us she loves us and hopes we have fun at the show and that she was so happy we were there and Emily manages AT THE LAST SECOND to go “CAN YOU PLAY COME BACK BE HERE.....please” and I’m like “Yeah, like....tonight.” And I felt so bad because I know I sounded so forceful and I DIDN’T MEAN TO. And she goes “Well, I can’t tonight because I promised someone else I’d play a different song, but I promise I will play it at a show soon, I know how much you guys want that one, I promise.” And we thanked her and told her we loved her and took our autograph and our dignity and got the hell out. 

I remember I was shaking when I came out of rep room, but I wasn’t freaking out really. I was still pretty chill. Chiller than I expected to be. We got about halfway back to her seats and I screamed “WHAT DID SHE SAY???” because for about five minutes, I blacked out completely. It was such a whirlwind of emotion that I don’t think I’ll ever be able to feel again. When we got back to our seats, the sweet angel that is Steph came over to me and asked how it went and I managed to get out “I said Hi, I’m Megan and...and....and...” and then I completely LOST MY SHIT and started SOBBING in Steph’s arms. I literally could not process that she KNEW WHO I WAS! I’M A LITERAL GARBAGE CAN! WHY DID SHE KNOW ME??? WHY DID SHE LOOK AT ME LIKE THAT? WHY DID SHE LAUGH SO MUCH? I COULDN’T PROCESS!

Steph: Meg, Taylor wanted to meet you, how do you feel?  

 The sobbing didn’t last long and I recovered just in time to meet my sweet baby Lauren @iknowplaces13 which I was SO EXCITED FOR! She was so happy for me and such an angel BUT THIS WASNT THE END OF THE ANGELS because JAIME APPEARS OUT OF THIN AIR TO SURPRISE ME (even though Dani @screamedsooloud ruined the surprise by accident but it’s FINE) and at this point, I still haven’t told Jaime that I met Taylor and I’m squirming trying to get out of the vice like hug she’s giving me so i can pull up my sleeve and show her my wristband LOL. Eventually she lets me BREATHE and I yank my sleeve up and go “SURPRISE, Snake!” and she literally is the blinking man gif, just no actually expression, raises her eyebrows, looks down at it and back at me and just goes “....when?” and then LAUNCHES herself at me because she is the sweetest, purest bean on the planet and was so genuinely happy for me. She’s listened to me cry about how I was sure this would never happen for so long and she kept telling me she was sure it would happen in Tampa and it was SO fun to outsnake her for once. I started telling her the story and every time I’d tell her something new, she’d tackle me again, it was so PURE. I love her with my entire heart.  Here’s a picture after I’ve cried all my eyeliner off. 

And then I snaked Brittany @messthatuwanted for snaking me because it’s what she deserved: 

The show was obviously amazing and we had great seats near the B stage and were able to make it to barricade, which was such a highlight to an already amazing night. I danced so much and sang at the top of my lungs and had a full on breakdown during long live that Emily the angel had to hold me through because I literally could not cope. Just full on sobbing for half the song. I had so much fun with Emily, Steph, Jess, Sammi, Leyton, Lejla, Sarah, Paige, and everyone else I spent time with this weekend. I’m forever grateful to Taylor for bringing so many amazing people into my life, I don’t deserve any of you and I can’t wait to reunite with 99 percent of the people I met at Gillette in Nashville. 

I quite literally had the time of my life with you, @taylorswift. Thank you so much for loving me like I love you, thank you for loving my friends and for bringing them into my life. I’ll never forget you as long as I live.

[swiftdec13]

Meeting Taylor 7/27/2018

Ok... Get ready for a WILD ride.

Flashback to May 25, 2018. I flew to Denver to see Taylor with my best friend. He moved across the country after high school and we always make sure that we see a show wherever he is living at the time (he moves around a lot) and where I am, which is always Upstate, NY because I’m a homebody!!!

SO, this is where life started to take a downhill for me. Before getting on the plane, I had a panic attack and I wasn’t even sure if I was going to make it to Denver. I kept reminding myself, it’s for Taylor, you have to go, it’s for Taylor. I was SO sick the entire time in Denver from anxiety. On show night, we found out that our seats were right at the barricade that Taylor was going to walk through and naturally, I was balling my eyes out, I could NOT believe that I was going to be THAT close to Taylor. I have seen Taylor live 8 times altogether throughout the years and NEVER have I EVER been able to be standing within an arms reach of her!!!! 

The show was rough. As I mentioned before, I was feeling SO sick. At one point I legit thought I was going to have to get security to help me out BUT I kept telling myself, you are NOT missing the chance of being able to grab Taylor’s hand, NO WAY NOT HAPPENING. So it was time for her to walk through the crowd and Mitch got mine and his reaction on tape, which was actually really hysterical so I posted it on Tumblr in hopes that Taylor would see it because seriously ya’ll it was priceless. 

So, fast forward to June 15. I was laying in bed minding my own business, reblogging my posts as per usual and ALL OF A SUDDEN, my Tumblr starts BLOWING up. Taylor had liked the video of Mitch and I... not only that, she straight up LURKED me and liked 7 things, including a selfie and I DIED. I called Mitchel and was BALLING, I’m pretty sure that he thought an emergency was happening but once I told him, we were both FREAKING out, we couldn’t believe it. Taylor and I have been mutuals for like 4 years and this was the first time she properly noticed me and I was living a dream. 

Alright, fast forward again to the beginning of July. I was sitting in the movies with Mitch while he was visiting and my entire body started shaking for no reason. I could not calm it down for the life of me. It continued to shake all night and I felt SO sick. The next morning, the 4th of July actually, I told my Mom for the first time that I thought I was suffering from an anxiety breakdown. We went to on call wondering if maybe it was dehydration but, everything checked out normal. I called my Dr. straight away and the office was closed for 5 days straight. For 5 days, I laid on my couch, sicker than I have ever been in my entire life. So nauseous, my body shaking off and on, it was literal hell. I finally got to the Dr’s. and explained to her that I believed I was suffering from major anxiety that just popped up and overtook me. She agreed and I started to see a therapist and began medicine. Ok, the first night on the medicine, I about DIED, I was so sick, getting sick in the trash can, with a non stop shaking body and I was so scared. I called my Aunt and cried and told her I needed to go to the hospital. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t move, I just wanted to die. My Aunt came over the next day and we sat down with my Mom trying to figure out what to do and I went to stay with my Aunt for a week because she has been through something similar. That week, was the scariest week of my life. I couldn’t go out in public, I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t sleep. I felt nauseous 24/7 and all I did was cry. 

OK, FAST FORWARD AGAIN, so now I’m like 2 weeks into my medicine and the Dr. said about 10 days things should start improving but you don’t see full effects until about week 6. SO, I still feel nauseous daily and my appetite is just starting to return. It’s still difficult to go out in public and my hands pretty much shake non stop, which is really annoying. I keep making myself go out every day because I know that it will be beneficial. SO, it’s a week before the Gillette shows and I had tickets to all three nights. I knew that there was NO WAY IN HELL I was going to be able to go with how sick I’ve been. I called Mitch and sadly told him that I had to call everything off, and when I say sadly, I mean, SADLY. I was so depressed. That weekend is all that I was looking forward too all summer and I wasn’t strong enough to go. Mitch being the great friend that he is only cared about my health so he understood completely. 

FAST FORWARD to Tuesday, July 24th. I was leaving my therapist appointment and ALL OF A SUDDEN, around 12:30 in the afternoon, I have a DM from Taylor Nation. SO, I try to remain as calm as possible, because, anxiety, and I called Mitchel and staying calm didn’t work out so well. I was SO sick waiting for that phone call. Around 6:45 in the evening, I got a phone call from a New York caller and I FREAKIN’ REJECTED THE CALL BY ACCIDENT. I called back over and over and left a voicemail and talk about SICK. I couldn’t sleep the entire night, and my stupid body was shaking again, and I thought that was my one chance to meet Taylor and I freakin’ BLEW IT.

SO, the next morning, Wednesday, sick as shit again, I just prayed to GOD that they called me back. A little after 11 in the afternoon, I got a call again from a New York number and it was Taylor Nation and PHEW thank you LORD. SO I gave her all of my information and she was super nice. Later that day everything was confirmed for meeting Taylor Friday and WOW what a DREAM. 

Now the nerves set in. I had no idea how I was going to survive this trip. The night before, Thursday, I was a nervous wreck. I was so sick, legit like leaning over toilet dying and I was so scared. I was just praying that somehow I could myself together because I could NOT miss this opportunity. The next morning, I was feeling pretty calm and I was READY TO MEET TAYLOR SWIFT. I picked Mitch up around 8 am and we set off to Massachusetts. As the day went on, my anxiety started popping up here and there but it was manageable, I just kept reminding myself that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I’ve been waiting 12 years for and my stupid anxiety was NOT going to ruin it for me.

So we had to pick up the meet and greet paper at will call between 4-5 pm on Friday. This is when the nerves really started kicking in because other people were waiting for the paper too and it just wasn’t coming and we were all freaking out. FINALLY the paper came closer to 5. So, we went through security and the paper said to ask the guards for help. I went up to a group of security guards and they kept telling me, were told there was no meet and greets for this show, where did you get this paper? I was trying to explain and the guy TOOK MY PAPER AND WALKED AWAY and I wanted to DIE. He came back and goes yea, no meet and greets, after using his walkie talkie, So, I SNATCHED THAT PAPER SO QUICK AND SAID, I’LL FIND IT MYSELF THANK YOU!!!!!

I’m FREAKING out at this point because neither Mitchel or myself know where to go or what to do and we had 20 mins. at this point to get there. I ran into amazing Tumblr people who literally ran around the stadium trying to help me. I’ll be forever grateful to that group of girls because not only did they help us find the meeting spot, they stayed with us the entire time until we went backstage reassuring me that everything would be ok. At this point, the stadium is legit SPINNING and Mitch just kept telling me to breathe and take a minute to myself.

We finally get backstage and I CANNOT BELIEVE that I’m standing inside of the REP ROOM. There was polaroid cameras that we got to use and water and sodas for us. I’m not sure how long we were in there before meeting Taylor but, it felt like a lifetime and I was slowly sinking ship. FINALLY it’s time to start lining up to meet Taylor. Mitch and I were called second. We had talked in the car about what we wanted to say, etc. and keep in mind that originally I wanted to ask Taylor to sing Change, I’ve been posting it on Tumblr for months, but I told Mitch to forget about it because I was like, she never will. Before going into REP ROOM I ran into another Tumblr Swiftie and Taylor had told her the night before that she was thinking about singing Change for Friday night and I ABOUT DIED CRYING BEFORE EVEN GOING IN TO MEET TAYLOR. I COULDN’T BELIEVE??? DID SHE SEE MY POSTS??? HOW WAS MY LUCK FALLING INTO PLACE LIKE THAT??? THIS NEVER HAPPENS IN MY LIFE.

SO, it’s our turn to go in. I pushed Mitch in first because I was legit SCARED LOL. Mitch walked in and I followed closely behind and Taylor goes, oh heyyyyy, like she knew us forever. She hugged Mitchel and then hugged me. She goes, look at you guys, you look so good, I love the snake vibes you have going on!!!! Mitchel goes, WOW you’re so tall!!!! Are you wearing heels??? Taylor laughed and was like I know right, I am so tall, but yes, I’m also wearing heels. Mitch then proceeded to remind me to give Taylor the snake ring that I had for her, mind you I have yet to say anything because I was just IN SHOCK. She is so beautiful, and WOW like in person she’s not even real??? So, I hand her the ring and she puts it on and says oh my gosh thank you so much!!!!! SO there was like an awkward silence and finally I turn to Mitch and I go, I’m going to start crying, and I turn back to Taylor and I am full on UGLY CRYING SOBBING at this point. She was looking me in the eye, like she genuinely cared about what I had to say, and I said, I’m having a really hard summer and I just wanted to thank you for wanting to meet me. Taylor goes, aw of course, and I said, I just sit and listen to Change and I know that things will get better, your music helps me so much. Taylor’s eyes, I can’t even explain her facial expression like she genuinely felt my pain and cared so much. She hugged me and she was like I’m so sorry that you’re having a hard summer, I hate hard summers. Then when she let go she goes, would you like me to sing that song for you tonight? I was like yes thank you so much... she was like yea? That would be good? I haven’t played it in like 8 years but I can make it happen. I’m still full on sobbing guys. 

She goes should we take a picture?? So we walked over to the picture spot and Mitch goes, what side Britt, and Taylor laughed and goes, yea get your good side girl. At this point I’m so zoned out, I couldn’t even remember what I did for the picture. I don’t even remember Taylor’s head leaning on mine hahaha. SO, after the picture, Taylor hugged Mitch again and then came over to me hugged me for SO LONG GUYS. Like, legit I start sobbing again over her shoulder and she was like, I hope that your summer gets better because you don’t deserve this. It will get better, because these things will change, right? and I said right... and still full on sobbing. So we said bye and I said thank you, and I honestly can’t remember what I last said. I just remember I heard Taylor like sigh, a sigh like oh my gosh, poor girl, LOL. I never even once said I love you and you mean so much to me??? What’s wrong with me!!!!

ANYWAYS, flash forward to the show. At this point, I’m really losing steam. I can feel my body so tense and so nervous and the nausea started to return but I kept telling myself, you need to make it to the surprise song, there’s NO WAY you can miss this. So, FINALLY it’s that time. I had NO idea that Taylor was going to legit CALL ME OUT ON STAGE and basically dedicate Change to me but I was full on SOBBING AGAIN. I looked around the stadium and felt like 60,000 people were telling me to keep fighting because these things will change and I can’t even describe the feeling that went through my body.

There are NO words to express how grateful I am that Taylor did all of this for me. I don’t know what I did to deserve this all but, it was worth the 12 years of standing on the sidelines wishing for that moment. I still have a long battle to fight but I’m never giving up because these things will change, can you feel it now? Thank you so much, @taylorswift this night meant SO much to me. I love you!!!

[alltoojenna]

Hi @taylorswift I just wanted to tell you a little bit of how much you mean to me. I have terrible memory so i can’t remember the first time i ever listened to you but what i do remember was when i was in 2nd grade my best friend at the time and I sang ‘Our Song’ for the school talent show. That song has been one of my absolute favorites, i don’t know why but it has always been there with me. In 7th grade my best friend at that time and I sang ‘Ours’ which we were planning on singing another song but i convinced her to change it because i just really wanted to sing ‘Ours’, again i don’t know why but i just loved the song. In 2013 at a restaurant on my birthday i got a card from my grandparents and i opened, 2 tickets fell out. Instead of reading the card i looked at them and immediately started crying. Everyone was staring at me but i obviously didn’t care at that moment. I was so happy to see you at Gillette for the first time ever. To this day it’s still one of the best days of my life. I had amazing seats even though i couldn’t really see for most of the concert because I’m short and there were tall people in front of me.... i still had the time of my life with you. I tried everything to see you on the 1989 tour but it just wasn’t working out and i cried the night you were at Gillette because i just wanted to be there. And now i tried everything to see you in 2018. I happened to be talking to my cousin, who i go watch his little baby almost every Thursday, he said ‘hey if your dad won’t bring you i will’. So i turned to my mom and i was like oh my god I’m seeing Taylor again. I honestly thought i never was gonna see you again, i was partly okay with it but at the same time i was like no i need to see her at least one more time. I’m just so excited and happy to be able to sing at the top of my lungs and dance like no one is watching. Even if we don’t meet during this era i know i will meet you another time that will hopefully be soon! I’m just ready to have the time of my life again!!! i love you so much more than you will ever know. You make me so happy. I was going through a hard couple of months of not having any friends to talk to or that wanted to talk to me and having to put my dog down. But now that it’s slowly starting to hit me that I’m seeing you again and listening to your music is helping so much. I just wanna thank you for everything. See you soon T💛💛 @taylornation find me at Gillette night 3 section 129 row 12 seats 1-2!!!

[swiftie-sketch]

Taylor, Hi there!!!

You might not know me, but my name is Coryn, and I can’t even begin to describe how much your music helped me this year.

It was my last year of high school, and you’d think it would be great, and awesome, and tons of fun, but nah, not for me, anyways.

You see, there was a guy that I had liked and who liked me too, but he wasn’t satisfied with the pace at which our relationship (which wasn’t really even a relationship to even with) was going, and boy was he mad when I told him I wasn’t interested in him that way anymore. He tore one of my best friends in the world away from me by telling her vicious lies about me, and then those lies spread around the school. Classmates that I didn’t even know, hated me; they started calling me “the psycho ex” even though I had done nothing wrong.

Then he and his friends started to harass me and my friends through horribly berating text messages. When one of those messages triggered a panic attack in a Target parking lot, my mother decided that enough was enough, and the text situation was dealt with by the principal. But that didn’t stop the rumors. And it didn’t stop him from destroying my reputation. I lost a lot of friends by the time the school year ended.

I used to be someone who would walk through the hallways with confidence, smiling at people and having them smile back at me. But in the snap of a finger, I was suddenly one of the most hated people in the school. It put me in the worst state I’ve ever been in, mentally.

Until Reputation was released, that is.

When I listened to your album, I finally felt relief, I felt that somebody understood what I was going through. I realized that I wasn’t alone, despite how horribly lonely the situation may have felt.

From that point on, whenever the bullying and the lies started to get to me, all I had to do was play your music, and I was me again. Reputation made me feel powerful, like I could do anything. And it made me realize that I am NOT defined by other people’s opinions of me, especially not opinions based in vengefulness and lies. After all, “if a man talks shit, then I owe him nothing!”

I never really understood what it meant when people said that an album or an artist saved them, but now I do. And it’s all thanks to you that I’m okay again. I will be forever grateful for what you’ve done for me.

That was kind of depressing, so let’s end on a happy note, shall we? I’d like to share with you, hands down, my absolute favorite memory. And it just so happens to involve you!

Three years ago, you played Gillette Stadium on July 25th. It also just so happened to be my 15th birthday that day. My amazing aunt was able to get tickets to the show, a complete surprise! Your concert was the first one I’d ever been to, and my gosh was it incredible. Everyone around me was jumping up and down and dancing and singing along, but I was just standing there, hands over my heart in total awe as I looked up at you from the floor.

And then, you started to sing Fifteen. As you came around on the moving platform, you waved to me, just as the chorus began (if you don’t remember, that’s okay, it was a split second thing three years ago after all!).

Can I just say: Best. Birthday. Ever!!

And now, I’m going to see you again, on your Reputation Tour, three days after my 18th birthday!! I can’t wait, I already know it’s going to be even more spectacular than the last time I saw you!!

I would love to meet you, and be able to thank you, in person, for how much you’ve helped and guided me this year, and give you one of my paintings of course!! Or maybe two!

From the bottom on my heart, thank you. All the love in the world,

Coryn (and my cat, Bella) ❤️❤️❤️

@taylorswift @taylornation

[liskantope]

Since I dissented from one particular criticism of the recent controversial Gillette ad in my previous post, I’ll go ahead and summarize my full opinion on the ad.

The one-sentence version is that I don’t see why people are quite so up-in-arms about it as they are, because it mostly... doesn’t seem all that contentious?

I guess a lot of the vitriol in the backlash comes from the fact that what in some sense is a political issue is being inserted (with an obvious side taken) into the advertising of a product that shouldn’t have anything to do with culture wars. I’m neutral on this aspect of the controversy, since I have no real knowledge or opinion on how and when companies should take political sides.

The commercial is about toxic masculinity, which I understand to mean certain behaviors traditionally associated with masculinity that are harmful but still encouraged or normalized for men in our culture. I have no real problem with this concept. At times I’ve felt uncomfortable with the particular terminology, and I’ve seen criticisms of the term here on Tumblr that I remember feeling sympathetic to on a philosophical level (but can’t clearly recall now). But I have no problem with feminists pointing out that there are a bunch of traditionally masculine behaviors that society has enforced in men but which are very harmful and should be pushed back against. I explained in that other post why I’m fine with putting the primary onus on men for doing the pushing back. In principle, of course, it makes sense to classify certain traditionally society-enforced feminine behaviors/attitudes as harmful and proclaiming that they should be discouraged and it’s primarily up to women to do the discouraging. But there’s a difference: these bad behaviors/attitudes might be things like being overly passive and not taking initiative and being less self-reliant, which tend to be detrimental to the person doing them rather than directly harmful to others, and not in quite such a poisonous way as to be called “toxic”. “Adverse femininity” or something, maybe?

One potential major exception to that is a type of poisonous bullying behavior that is generally associated with female culture (but which I don’t understand well enough to really put forth a thesis on its causes or to what extent society enforces it as a female gender role). Here I do object to the Gillette commercial, because it quickly lists “bullying”, and I don’t think it’s at all fair to imply that bullying in general is a masculine thing -- some of the most vicious bullying I hear of happens among girls or women. And I suspect that cross-gender bullying is relatively rare.

The Gillette ad doesn’t portray men in general as drooling neanderthals who all love fighting and raping and objectifying women. It spends a good portion of its time showing clips of men standing up and fighting against those things. At the very least, to my viewing, it portrays men on average in a less offensively stereotyped and insulting light than a lot of TV (especially sitcoms) does, although I suppose that’s not a very high bar to surpass.

I do have one major issue with the ad. I really don’t like the blatant implication that some opposition movement to bad traditionally-male behaviors suddenly began with the Me Too movement. Pushback to male cultural norms of physical aggression, objectification of women, insensitivity, scoffing at emotions, making fun of other men for acting “like a girl”, etc. has been going on for as long as social progressivism has. I grew up exposed to guy friends being willing to show some affection and talk about feelings (however limited compared to girls); I’m not sure that my father did. The Me Too movement, on the other hand, kicked off in late 2017 as a response to the revelations about Harvey Weinstein. I’m afraid that, little more than a year later, people are already turning it into what became of the 99% movement or the women’s march and broadening the objectives to include anything in a vague umbrella of issues -- in this case, women’s grievances against how men treat them.

In fact, the Me Too movement, while being specifically about drawing attention to sexual harassment and violence suffered by women at the hands of powerful men (with a secondary level concerning these behaviors on the part of ordinary men), was not somehow the dawn of societal concern over this issue. I watched an emphasis on harassment and rape strengthen gradually over my whole adult life so that in the few years before Me Too it was huge (at least in the media and in liberal circles, which is where the Me Too movement lives today). Me Too was simply a watershed moment in that evolution initiated by a very well-timed hashtag. I’m afraid that younger generations, for instance our children, are going to learn about the Me Too movement that happened in the late 2010′s and come away with a notion that there was no widespread concern over sexual harassment and violence (or any of the harmful things done by men to women!) until that time, much in the same way that I once had the vague idea that the Civil Rights movement in America wasn’t really a thing until the March on Washington in 1963. And for Gillette to imply that we men didn’t wake up to any of the crappy ways men traditionally treat women until a year and a quarter ago is, well, quite annoying.

[heyitskylie13]

My Journey to Try to Meet Tay

So, I put together this thread on Twitter not long before my first Rep Tour date (Columbus, OH 7.7.18) and it got quite a bit of attention in the Swiftie fandom (as of right now, I believe the original thread is up to 113 retweets and 242 likes, which is A LOT for little old me). I am trying to get @taylorswift & @taylornation to see it, and maybe...just maybe....this story can finally get its happy ending before I am finished with my rep tour dates. I figured in order to increase my chances of getting it seen, I’d write it all out here on tumblr as well, and maybe some of you very sweet fellow swifties will reblog, tag Tay, etc. I’d truly appreciate it. My next show is Atlanta Night 2, and then I will be in Nashville as well.  Here we go, an overview of all of the times I have gone out hoping to meet @taylorswift: 

1) 2007 - Country Concert Festival Fort Loramie, OH - I was 15 years old, and Taylor was the earliest act of the day and only had like a 30 minute set. I begged my parents to let me go with my boyfriend at the time just to see her play. There were only like 3 people in the crowd who knew her songs! I’d been following her Myspace (LOL) so I knew already that she loved interacting with her fans, and I waited by her tour bus opposite side of a gate for over an hour before a security guard eventually told me that she was not going to be coming over, that I was pathetic for waiting so long, and that I need to leave. I started crying, and my boyfriend made us go. 

2) 2008 - Country Concert Festival Fort Loramie, OH - Taylor got invited back! A slightly later slot, but it was on Sunday which a lot of people don’t stick around for (the festival actually has since cut the day entirely). My high school bestie and I were there though with a poster baring Tay’s lyrics and screaming every word to the songs she played. I don’t have photos of our posters because some drunk girl stepped on it after we had accidentally dropped it and ended up ripping it pretty bad. We waited by the buses after her set for quite awhile before we were eventually told by security that she had to catch a flight to NY or something and wouldn’t be coming out.

3) 2009 - Defying Gravity Tour - Taylor was opening for Keith Urban and a group of my friends and I got tickets to just to see her! I got to meet Mama Swift for the first time, but didn’t meet Tay. I wasn’t really surprised because there were so many of us in our group, and this was before her headlining days so we didn’t even really know if there’d be a chance or not.

4) 2009 - CMT Awards Nashville, TN - I bought tickets when it was announced that Taylor would be performing, and drove to Nashville from Ohio (with my older sisters accompanying me because I was only 17 haha). I got to meet a lot of celebrities actually outside of the venue beforehand, but not Taylor, and my phone also died before the show so I didn’t get any photos. 

5) 2009 - Fearless Tour Columbus, OH - Nothing crazy happened this day, really, but it marked the beginning of Natalie and my’s ongoing Taylor concert bond! Taylor also came this close to us during “Hey Stephen” and touched my hand as she was walking back to the stage! 

6) 2009 - Fearless Tour Indianapolis, IN - A random guy-friend of mine ended up with an extra floor ticket to the show and invited me so of course I said yes! I saw Mama Swift again, and she actually remembered me and “all my jean skirt, cowboy hat friends” from Cincinnati (the keith urban show!) -- I was shocked, and she is so sweet that she upgraded us from our back-of-floor seats to the pit! 

7) 2010 - Fearless Tour Cincinnati, OH - My friend and I arrived to the venue at like 10 A.M. the day of the show, and we brought a scrapbook we had made for Taylor. It ended up raining and still we stood outside (trying to protect our book lol) for nearly five hours across from the tour buses/loading area. Eventually someone from Tay’s team came out and gave us pit passes and took the book promising to get it to Taylor. I still have no idea if she ever saw it. 

8) 2013 - The 13 Hour Meet & Greet Nashville, TN - This is the hardest day to talk about of them all...We came from Ohio and walked around the event ALL DAY (totaled about 10 hours) trying to be picked by Taylor’s team members and we watched fans meet Taylor all day from this close to us. We never were picked, and eventually we left/gave up once they announced the last meet & greet wristbands had been handed out. It was honestly heartbreaking because this event had our hopes up so high, but Taylor is truly an angel for meeting SO many people that day, and I don’t fault her at all. Plus, we did get to enjoy a free acoustic set!! 

9) 2011 - CMA Fest Nashville, TN - At an event this big, we truly didn’t expect to meet Taylor, but we still had an incredible time supporting her as a CLOSING act of the festival!! 

10) 2011 - Speak Now Tour Indianapolis, IN - We had SOOO many glowsticks haha but it worked somewhat! Taylor’s team came up to us in our literal nosebleed seats and gave us pit passes! It was an amazing experience, but we still didn’t get to meet Taylor. 

11) 2011 - Speak Now Tour Cleveland, OH - This concert was the VERY NEXT NIGHT from the previous entry in this story! Two out of three of us (Natalie and I of course) made a back-to-back trip from Indianapolis to our hometown (2 hours each way) and then to Cleveland immediately (4 hours each way) to see Taylor again in our same get-up from the night before. We had floor seats this time, and there were these two precious little girls in front of us who kept standing on the chairs in order to see and getting scolded by security. It was breaking my heart that them (or their parents who kept trying to hold them but they were heavy as like seven year olds) couldn’t truly enjoy the concert. Since we knew what the setlist would do, we told the family about Taylor’s “b-stage” songs she’d sing later closer to us. I saw Andrea and told her what was going on, and she said I looked familiar haha I gave her a brief overview of shows I’d been to and when we’d met and she said, “so of course, you’ve met Taylor” or something along those lines and I truthfully said “no I haven’t.” She had me go get the family and brought all of us into the sound-stage/b-stage private area for Taylor’s set there and for the rest of the show. The family was so excited and when Taylor came down from the stage, she hugged those little girls on her way out to the crowd and when she was hugging these other girls in front of us, she extended her arm to half-hug us at the same time. I CRIED A LOT.

12) 2013 - Red Tour Columbus, OH - At this point, we tried to up our costume game lol we went for the “22″ music video look. We were pretty happy with it! We didn’t get noticed by anyone for anything at this show, though. Nothing crazy happened, but as always any night at a Taylor Swift show is magical and memorable <3 

13) 2015 - 1989 Tour Louisville, KY - OOOO Lucky #13 ;) This really was a lucky show. We went to the @taylornation booth and they were impressed by how many shows we’d each gone to, and when I told them all about my Master’s Degree Thesis (I wrote it entirely on Taylor just a few months prior, and had just earned my graduate degree about a month before this show!). They were really intrigued by this and kept asking for all sorts of details lol when we left the booth, we barely made it far away before one of the girls from TN was chasing us down. My heart was beating SO FAST. She asked if we’d like to enjoy Taylor from the pit that night instead of our ticketed upper-level seats. OF COURSE! We didn’t get offered Loft ‘89 that night, unfortunately, which once we’d been upgraded we didn’t expect. Although, some girls nearby us did get upgraded and then later given Loft as well. Props to them! This was still one of my favorite show experiences and memories, especially because I heard the “Clean” speech for the first time and I REALLY needed it at this time in my life. A lot of tears were shed. 

14) 2015 - 1989 Tour Gillette Stadium, MA - We won tickets to this!! Couldn’t believe it. Four of us got to go, and we drove TWELVE HOURS (it actually ended up being like 14 after traffic and stops etc haha) to go to this. This was one of the costume get-ups I am the most proud of. When we got to the TN booth, there weren’t any of Taylor’s team working it (I guess it was stadium employees taking pics idk). We did our best to stand out during the show, but we didn’t get to meet Taylor. I actually heard that there may not have even been a Loft that night, but there had been at the previous night Gillette show.

15) 2015 - 1989 Tour Columbus, OH - We loved our outfits for this, we were BAD BLOOD AF!! We didn’t get noticed in any way this night, though. Taylor was still amazing as per usual and it was my last time seeing the 1989 Tour. We did, however, cry on the drive home feeling defeated yet again....

16) 2018 - Reputation Stadium Tour Columbus, OH - Just recently added this one because I’m one show into the Rep Tour and have still not met Tay. My first show of the rep tour required me to drive 6 hours from Nashville (I moved here in 2016), but I was so excited that the drive there flew by! I’ve really been working hard to get noticed on social media this era (as you’ve seen everything above wasn’t working for me). I thought maybe this twitter thread was finally enough to get attention from Taylor/TN, so I honestly got my hopes up more than I should’ve about getting a DM for pre-show. I’m still not totally sure what was going on, but it seemed that there wasn’t as many pre-show DM’s as usual and maybe the process is changing (or the holiday impacted it idk still really). Not that I thought I was a shoe-in or anything for a pre-show M&G, but the situation did make me feel like my shot of meeting Taylor now was definitely low. We were absolutely in AWE of every aspect of this show, though, let me tell you. I wasn’t disappointed in any way by Taylor’s production. Wow. Just wow. We also were unexpectedly right next to one of the B-stages so Taylor was so close during that part of the show! I cried my eyes out to the “Long Live” & “New Year’s Day” mash-up because of my new long live tattoo and because NYD has significance to me and my relationship. Unfortunately, I ended up feeling AWFUL like a majority of the show though (like sick) and it got worse about halfway through.I spent a lot of time trying not to throw up or miss any of Taylor performing, and I toughed it out, but it wasn’t the way I wanted to experience the show. I ended up having to sprint past everyone with Natalie’s help to make it to a bathroom and throw up and I felt awful our whole hour drive back to Natalie’s house. It’s honestly probably good I didn’t get picked for post-show rep room because of how bad I felt! ANYWAY I’m still sad it didn’t happen for me, but I am hopeful that it wasn’t the right time and my time with Taylor is still coming.

CONCLUSION: I am not in anyway ungrateful for the @taylorswift experiences I have had thus far. I know I have gotten more from Andrea and @taylornation than many have. Some people haven’t even gotten to see Taylor live! I know that, BUT my DREAM since before section #1 here has been to meet Taylor and thank her in person for everything she’s helped me get through. So if it’s possible in anyway to make this happen so I can tell her that, show her my tattoos she’s inspired, tell her about my thesis, etc....it’d mean the world to me.