Before I even introduce myself I want to point out that I've got the feeling I need to point out at least for my pride that I put this off until I ran out of lives on Candy Crush Soda Saga. That shouldn't be relevant to anybody aside from my pride, but it's important to me to point it out. As you can tell, it's a matter of stalling.
Introduction
Hello, all. My name is Kelley. I've always kind of described myself as somebody with a sort of allergy to Taylor Swift. It was primarily due to the period of time that I would go into some type of convulsion whenever I would hear her music, but there was a time before that where I just wasn't all that excited about her music. Would we use a word like "hate?" No, I don't think so, but we wouldn't use anything in the category of "fondness" either.
I like to tell stories of my cat when I think about "early" Taylor Swift. Well, I put that in quotations because we're not talking /Tim MaGraw/ era, but more like 2010-ish. Maybe? I don't really know. It was when /You Belong With Me/ was big. I would turn it off every time it came on the radio. Then there was one time I was in the tub and my cat came flying (running, you literalist) into the bathroom. Snarkingly, I go "What, is Taylor Swift on the radio?" so I went to investigate what his issue was, and sure enough, that song was on the radio. It caused pure entertainment. The other was when we made our big move to Pittsburgh. I had everything packed up and all I had left was taking him in the carrier into the truck so we could hit the road. Obviously cats are not fond of being in carriers, etc. So we're walking out the door and I start singing that song. For whatever reason he didn't make any noise when I sang that. And the funny part is I only knew like 2 lines in the whole song. Naturally, I got sick of this and the novelty wore off with Patrick (my cat) and it was a flurry of me trying to find a way for him to have some TS to listen to, of course to no avail because why would I have that kind of luck?
At that point it became kind of a running joke that Patrick had a crush on Taylor / loved her music / etc and so forth and what have you. Then came the convulsive era when my cousin made me a cd that was a plethora of various Taylor Swift songs. Now, even at this point I want to stress there wasn't necessarily a loathing process going on. The song /Mean/ practically defines my life and I can admit that, I think it was something about voice pitch that just hit a nerve physiologically with me. I don't know. I've had several bouts to deal with what is going on with me in that department (the TS dept, and also the now neurological dept as well) to decide if my problem is her, her songs, her voice, her song topics, her videos, etc. I literally went on an extensive research investigation. I even purchased the CD / RED/ as a prototype. I went on this rant once about how she is a creative genius with the exception of one single music video that rubbed me the wrong way. As it probably sounds, my results were inconclusive. There's something there, but my "struggle" if you want to call it that has always been a matter of how interesting is it, etc. Then there's the obvious argument of "who am I to judge" and what thought of mine holds water since I've never known her personally or met her or anything to that effect.
So I've kind of just put my feelings of either negative or positive on hold until I have any reasoning that holds water. I recently (sometime this year, not within the last week or two) had a chat with a cousin of mine looking for tickets to the 1989 world tour at the Georgia Dome in October. I volunteered to go along for several reasons but the top reasons did not include "I want to see TS in concert" ... ultimately started with "I want to go on vacation" "I have plenty of PTO" etc. Anyways, I got a little side tracked. The bottom line is we are going to see Taylor Swift in the 1989 World Tour stop at the Georgia Dome in ATL this October. I guess that's where this whole blog series comes into play. I've decided to log my experience leading up to the big event and probably some of the experience following. If anything, so I can decide if I will ever define myself as a "Swifty." ...just using that phrase makes me shiver a little bit, so we'll see what happens.
Part 1 9/23/15
At this point I've completed the following actions: Ticket for concert purchased, Plane ticket purchased, 1989 on iTunes purchased. I'm starting to get excited because a long vacation different from my annual vacations to Michigan feels like just what I need. I'm a bit nervous about the flight, the fees, and the best way to get to and from the airport (do I want to park at the airport or get a ride, do I want to have to depend on somebody else, etc.) Now that it's getting to be less than a month away, I'm starting to worry about what to pack, what to leave, do I board Patrick or let him stay home, what would be better to take vs. just buy there, and so on.
I've gotten myself acclimated to the music on the 1989 album. For the most part it's catchy, but my skeptical ear does have its issue. But I have decided that there's more to this whole trip than just the music. There's the theatrics, which I've always been very impressed with in music videos, and the 60 minutes documentary (episode? what would you call it?) said "Taylor isn't a part of Big Machine Records, Taylor Swift IS Big Machine Records" and I've yet to find any fault in that statement. She's a go-getter who sticks to her values and beliefs and (allegedly, I only say that because I haven't read up on it I just heard it from somebody else) fights for the little guy.
I'm also very motivated to get my cousin and I into "Loft 89" which I guess you actually get to meet Taylor and spend time with her or something. I'm going to kind of make this a goal I suppose which means I'll have to start exhausting my creativity for ideas to ...win?... this experience.
Last year was "Summer of Kelley" and today I'm going to claim that since today is the day of the equinox this year I'm going to celebrate "Autumn of Kelley." Overall, I'm optimistic. Part of me thinks that my conclusion will be that Taylor brings that out in people...but I'm not ready to admit that QUITE yet.
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