you can't stop us now

so it's been a little while since our last post, but we've just been super busy getting ready, in between working and other obligations. but the day is finally here, we leave tomorrow! bright and early! actually, i will be leaving in about 7.5 hours from now. tomorrow we drive down to logan airport in boston, to catch a 4:20 flight to vegas. everything is packed and ready to go. all i'm working on right now is getting all my music situated (between my phone, my ipod and my tablet, i'm bringing as much music as i possibly can.)

as a somewhat side note, i wanted to post some maps that show the difference between i-40 and route 66, because we're gonna try to remain as loyal to the original 66 as possible. mary highlighted our route in our atlas, but just so we have another copy on the blog. all of the maps are from this website, which also breaks it down by city/area, which is extremely helpful.

Arizona Original 66

New Mexico Original 66

Texas Original 66

Oklahoma Original 66

here is another website that shows the route pretty well. also, this site has exact turn-by-turn directions for staying true to the original 66.

this post has been a ramble, and it's because i'm too damn tired to think. but in 24 hours we will have officially landed in las vegas, so i guess being tired will just have to wait!

--ashley

Two Weeks

So, needless to say we're getting excited. 

We're at the point where it's close enough to feel real 

but it still hasn't entirely sunk in that it's happening
It's crazy how quickly this year flew by.


Anyways!

 We're quickly collecting all of the stuff on our list.

Weeding out the stuff we can buy when we land 

and some kind of random stuff we don't want to forget.
We want to bring back a lot of souvenirs so it's becoming a balance of 

stuff we need vs stuff we will want

which is hard to determine at this point.
I cannot wait to check out some of the cool little shops and artists

I am personally looking forward to finding some unique jewelry

and handmade pottery

and I know the girls want to get some sand from the desert

I am also excited about all the photos we're going to take

We've gone on lots of road trips before 

And we always have the intention of documenting everything

but it seems to never really happen. 

All of us have an affinity for photography

but it seems when we are in the actual moment

the experience takes precedence to the documentation

This time, we are going to try and record as much of this as possible

That was kind of the idea behind making a blog.

Kind of a unified place to upload all of our best photos at the end of each day

I'm looking forward to that whole process, too

Reviewing everything and sharing that as we go along

It's all so close, now

We just have to get through these next two weeks without our heads exploding

>.<

it's the freakin weekend, baby

the following ramble is somewhat delayed. but a couple of weeks ago, we went to the bookstore and purchased a couple of books to help us prepare for the trip.

okay, we didn't purchase all of them. only a couple. but we thumbed thru all of these. i think our favorite one was the one that listed good places to eat in major cities around the country *eyebrow waggle*. we didn't buy that one tho. we decided to stay a bit more practical, and got an atlas instead.

yeah, those are the ones we purchased. this photo is TOTALLY CANDID, NOT POSED AT ALL ahaha.

yesterday julie and i went shopping, i got a few nice new clothes for the trip, and a really cute mini backpack to carry around with me while walking random places.

something that i think might come in handy for later is a timezone map, so, yeah... here:

arizona will be the same timezone as nevada, because it's a rebel and doesn't participate in dst. so we will be driving thru 3 timezones, and will have flown in from/back to the fourth.

something else i wanted to post about is the hanson day weekend schedule of events. we will not be participating in the bowling, or any of the members dinners.

friday: will be driving in from amarillo. the driving distance is 366 miles, which, according to google, will take us about 5 1/2 hours. we will want to leave early this day, because we wanted to stop at pops along the way if there's time (their website says they start serving lunch at 10:30 am). so if we leave around 7 am, we will get to pops around 11 am. then take an hour for lunch, and get to tulsa around 1:30. check-in for hanson day in tulsa goes from 10 am - 5 pm. but we'll probably check in to the hotel first. the photos are the first event, going from 1 pm - 4 pm, at cain's ballroom. after that is the lectures, also at cain's, from 5 pm - 8:15 pm. next is the movie screening, at the circle cinema, at 10:30 pm.

saturday: not much happening this day. can spend the morning exploring tulsa a little. state of the band is from 4 pm - 6 pm at cain's. after that is the concert, at cain's, from 8 pm - 10 pm (doors open at 7). then after the show it's the *after party* (and after the party it's the *hotel lobby*), which goes from 11 pm - 1 am (doors at 10:30) at cain's.



sunday: hop jam!!! located in the brady arts district, the doors open at 3 pm, and the concerts start at 5 pm. bring an id!! other than that, nothing going on, so we can spend the morning exploring tulsa again.

as a side note, here is the post from last year's hanson day, which recommends some good stores and restaurants in tulsa. i haven't yet seen a similar list for this year, so last year's will certainly do. there is also this site, which also has some great info on tulsa.

that's all i've got for now!! --ashley

i believe the term is fanson.

i feel like making an entirely unnecessary master post about my hanson obsession. firstly, here is a screencap of my hanson library on itunes:

yep. 8 of those songs are different versions of mmmbop. like i said, this post is entirely unnecessary.

i have more tshirts and hoodies and other various memorabilia than i care to count. but, here's my car:

i have been to 10 hanson concerts (THIS IS ACTUALLY NOT A LOT FOR AN AVERAGE FANSON AND I AM ASHAMED, BUT THERE'S NOT MUCH I CAN DO ABOUT IT CUZ I'M POOR AND LIVE IN THE MOST ISOLATED CORNER OF THE US, DON'T JUDGE ME):

July 20th, 2004 - Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom - Hampton Beach, NH - Underneath Tour

          -my first hanson concert! beautiful venue, one of my favorites. we wore rainbow pants and helicopter hats. yep, that happened. unfortunately, there is no photographic evidence.

    

August 22nd, 2004 - State Theatre - Portland, ME - Underneath Tour

          -at which we camped outside the night before, had eggs thrown at us, and generally had a blast. we wore the rainbow pants and copter hats here as well.

November 5th, 2005 - Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom - Hampton Beach, NH - Live and Electric Tour

April 26th, 2008 - Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom - Hampton Beach, NH - The Walk Tour

July 23rd, 2010 - Cape Cod Melody Tent - Hyannis, MA - Shout It Out Tour

          -amazing venue, and our first hanson concert on our own/without parental figures with us. also, first time we met and got signatures from them after the show. but it rained on us - hard. like, typhoon rain. it was crazy. so yeahh, by the end of the night we looked like major crap.

July 24th, 2010 - South Shore Music Circus - Cohasset, MA - Shout It Out Tour

          -also was an awesome venue, and again got signatures after the show. both this venue and the last had a rotating stage in the center of all the seats, which made it so everyone had a great view. 2 favorite venues for sure.

October 7th, 2011 - Calvin Theater - Northampton, MA - The Musical Ride Tour

October 11th, 2011 - State Theatre - Portland, ME - The Musical Ride Tour

          -technically only half a show - the boys were sick and couldn't finish the set. but it still counts, dammit. also, this is the one where julie got a meet & greet/reporter pass. lucky bitch.

May 5th, 2013 - Cain's Ballroom - Tulsa, OK - 2013 MOE

          -our first MOE, and our first time in tulsa! we had a blast. this was a trip that changed my life, and this is what we are recreating again this year.

August 31st, 2013 - House of Blues - Boston, MA - Anthem World Tour

as a side note, here is a good website for future reference regarding past hanson concerts. (tells you the setlist of each show, and gives you stats as to how many times you've heard each song)

julie and i got matching hanson tattoos in april of 2010. this is an old photo of mine, because right now it really needs a touch up:

also in 2010, i splurged and got the platinum package for shout it out's release. these packages came with a one-of-a-kind painting, done by a member of the band, signed and numbered as part of a collection. the reason i purchased this package ($800!!!) was only because i wanted one of those paintings. i didn't much care about the rest of it. i have painting # 102/113. it was done by zac, and it's everything i've ever wanted. i just got it framed a couple years ago. here's a really crappy cell phone-quality photo of it, in all it's glory:

here's a close up of the camera:

the other night mary and julie and i were browsing thru the "113 paintings" book, which shows all the paintings in the collection. every few pages there is a photo collage of the band doing the actual painting on these. we realized for the first time that my painting is shown in-progress 4 times in the book. which is amazing.

the 4th photo of the painting in progress is a little less obvious...

i know what you're thinking - this looks nothing like my painting! well, my painting has a lot of layers in it. mary was observant enough to notice that the bottom-most layer is actually the painting in this photo. here's some proof:

the areas in the red circles correspond to the following areas in my painting:

 zac obviously put a lot of time and effort into my painting, and i am so grateful ^_^

so that hopefully sums up my love for hanson. borderline unhealthy? sure. but that's really the only way to properly love something that's important to you; passionately.

--ashley