is persona non-grata.
I’ve been avoiding her- deliberately so, relentlessly so, for the last couple months.
I don’t visit her twitter daily, like I used to. Or her Instagram. I don’t even listen to her music, except on those occasions when I hear it on the radio.
That changes, tonight.
It’s 10 days until her concert. It’s 10 days… of waiting. Of anticipation. Of fondness and excitement and, eventually, climax.
It’s 10 days until I see her in person.
Which means, of course, nothing. I don’t know her, yet. She’s a figure to me. An image. A voice. An idol. A soundtrack and a ghost.
And a lullaby.
But she’s not a person, except for those few months after one of her concerts. Then, she becomes real.
All too real.
I will never forget that moment when I first saw her. I was dumbfounded into shocked disbelief and stunned disarray. I didn’t move from my seat. I couldn’t. That wasn’t because, mostly, those seats in the United Center are just too damn cramped for a 6’ 3” man (mostly), but because it was her. It was my love (well, one of them, I mean Emma (Emily Jean) Stone was of course my number #1 back then, as she is now (of course)), and she was there, popping up through the floor, guitar in hand, ready to entertain.
Ready to entertain me.
And so it began.
And it hasn’t stopped since.
It’s Taylor, Taylor Swift- Taylor Alison Swift- in concert, yet again.
I can hardly believe it… but here it is. It seems like it was just the other day when I saw her on the Red tour, and that isn’t because I re-watched some videos I recorded of it over the weekend.
No, it seems like it was yesterday because I don’t get to see her very often.
In fact, I don’t get to see her at all.
Why? I dunno. Ask HER. I mean, not me. HER.
Whatevs.
The point here is that it’s gonna happen. Me. And her. And my sister. And 50,000 screaming, obsessed Swifties. All in unison, at Soldier Field.
It’s gonna be huge. It’s gonna fuel stories and fantasies- and albums- for years. For decades. It’s going to climax what we have, together. What we feel and what we know to be true.
It’s gonna be glorious.
It’s going to be one for the history books- the most important concert of her career. The most important concert for the most important and popular pop star ever.
The past 100 years of pop culture all comes to a head next weekend. There, it reaches its apex. Its destiny.
Its hour of greatness.
I can’t wait.
Can you?