I'm happy because I'm stupid

I promised stories, and boy do I have them!

I've neglected writing this for three hours, so if it is choppy and lame, blame it on my sleepiness and lack of caring.

Righty-o!

I picked up the lovely Lindsey at around 3:30 and we set off from there.

About 10 minutes away from entering Pensacola, I look over to see my manager from work driving right next to us. He starts mouthing things to me like "Where are you going?" and when he doesn't understand what I mouth back, he tells me to call him. The next 3 minutes consist of him trying to tell us his phone number through hand signals. It was hilarious.

When we called him, he informed us of some commotion involving guns at the local mall. Even though it was nowhere near where we needed to be, we made a special trip to it anyway to check it out. Cop cars were scattered everywhere and we saw a news team running the backside of the mall where we later saw them interviewing someone. By the time we got there things had luckily died down.

We found the venue way easier than I did when I attended a show there in February. We had an hour to kill before we could actually enter the building, so that was spent teasing people and being ridiculous.

After we paid, we got the best spot in the place and we patiently waited for the first band.

I will not comment on the 2nd band. Lindsey will understand why.

The Morning Of played third. I enjoyed them much more in person than I did while listening to their Myspace. And I cannot help but love any band that gets sooo into their shows. Cute shit.

I forget the name of the band that went on next. Something like Breathe Carolina? Haha. I'm super cheesy at 4 AM.

Anyway. This is the part of the story where I sport some huge ass smile as I type it out.

I see him. I saw him around a couple times earlier, but now here he is, setting up a mic stand not 4 feet away from me. I go super dorky and yell out his name. At this, he responds with that familiar goofy grin and I ask if he remembers me. He says yes, blah blah, my mind shuts off, and he is right above me asking me how I've been. At my answer, he throws himself at me and I find myself in the most amazing hug I have ever received. As his arms are around me, he says into my ear "I am so glad that you came." and some other stuff that I either didn't make out or got lost along with my brain the second he touched me.

Then he shifted my hair out of the way to read my Decemberists pin. I told him that I've been wearing it for almost 4 years (which is false. It's only 3, but at that point numbers were just some odd concept that I had not grasped yet.). He then proceeded to tell me about these bracelets he's wearing until they just fall off, yada yada. I forget what happened after that until he started to walk away, looking at me. I motioned for him to return and I asked him if they were playing a certain song. He smiled and told me they were and I replied with "Thank you" and he left me as a complete puddle of nothingness as he winked at me and said something that I have since forgotten.

When he walked away, Lindsey told me that during our flirty conversation, every girl was basically shooting daggers at me. I honestly hadn't realized that there was anyone else in the room with us.

The band was incredible and so dead on. We were all dancing and yelling along to the lyrics. He would glance over at me occasionally and at one point he threw himself at me. Then they started my favorite song and during the chorus, (the part that he put the microphone in my face for last time) the "me and you forever" part, he points at me as he says "you." Haha.

Let it be known that I honestly hate gushing over a musician like this. It makes me feel scummy and silly. Of course those feelings are not strong enough to stop me. It's kind of cute anyway.

When they were clearing off their equipment, some girls were trying to talk to him and showering him with praise and he began thanking them and looked over at me as he said "I love you." This story seems so strange when typed. Oh man.

We made friends with two girls and chatted with them as we were waiting for The Secret Handshake to finish setting up. When Luis (the main guy) finally came onto the stage, I went absolutely crazy.

They were wonderful and so much fun. There was even more dancing and even more singing along throughout the set. He played everything that I wanted to hear and a confetti gun was brought out to start off the last song. :]

As the crowd dispersed, we headed toward the merch table where I picked up a Secret Handshake shirt (pictured below) and poster. We then went over to Luis who signed my poster and took a picture with me.

I had to speak to boy before we left, so we located him and when we approached he greeted me with "Hey, babe" as if I had suddenly entered this dream world where he and I were a couple.

He wrapped his arm around me where he once again expressed how happy he was that I was there and then proceeded to give me another glorious (but now sweat-drenched) hug. We talked about random things (once again, my mind fell out and some of the conversation was swept away with it) until I brought up the Harry Potter books and asked if he had finished them yet. He felt so guilty and as he began to explain his laziness and how bad he felt, he gently squeezed the back of my left arm. Then I pulled out my camera and as I tried to take a picture, he took the camera from my grasp and took two pictures (one of which I love but will not post unless begged. I was caught off guard and I look completely mad). More hugs were exchanged and we talked about their upcoming show in the area in October and I asked him for his personal Myspace page, etc. As we said our goodbyes (and he threw out "I love you"s left and right), his hand moved down my arm and our fingers were nearly touching as we parted ways.

We walked to the car, in awe about what had just happened. Then we found the nicest looking gas station and ended the night with an Icee and great conversation on the hour trip back home.

My goodness, what a night.

The amazing shirt (taken from the website):

The only problem with it is the lack of an apostrophe between the N and T in "don't."

Now it's 5:17 AM and I have seriously taken ages to post this. Baby girl needs sleep.

OH and my sister starts high school today. Love you, Taryn <3