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Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Tour/VidCon Wrap-Up

The Situation and I flew from California to Ohio late last night, ending my three-week trip with The ConTour. He's since begun the drive home, which officially rewinds our relationship to "long-distance" status and leaves me alone in jetlagged shambles, not totally sure what day of the week it is. I think it's Wednesday, right? I'd check the upper right corner of my laptop, but I already confused myself that way earlier when I realized I'd forgotten to change the time zone setting. Whatever. I'm here, my bed is comfortable, and I'm willing to exchange knowing when it is for knowing where I am. It's good to be home.

So where did we leave off on the long-winded logs of my travels? Texas, I think. Yeah, we had a series of fun, pleasant and relatively uneventful shows in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Boulder, Colorado. After the first of these, we were lucky enough to meet up with the corresponding summer tours of some of our other friends-- we shared a common hotel with Lauren Fairweather and Matt Maggiacomo as well as Wheezywaiter's band, Driftless Pony Club. I was starting to feel a little coldish/fluish at this point so I didn't get to socialize as much as I'd have liked to, but I always savor the occasions when I get to see long-distance friends more than one time a week. It's almost like being a normal human. (Or how I imagine normal humandom would feel.) Later on in that same week, Alex Carpenter took me to the WORLD'S FIRST CHIPOTLE in Denver, where I had a delicious burrito bol next door to a medical marijuana dispensary. Consider my bucket list shorter.

But hey, if you think not-smoking-weed-in-Colorado is a cultural experience, wait until I tell you about not-gambling-in-Vegas! I'd never been to "Sin City" before, but it certainly was an experience. We used Hotwire to book our hotel from the road and therefore picked where we were staying based on price and rating rather than its name... and that, dear friends, is the story of how I slept at the Las Vegas Hooters. I still can't even type that without laughing out loud! Since I'm not old enough to gamble (an excuse I'm glad I could use because, frankly, gambling seems about as appealing to me as catching fire to a credit card), I spent most of my free time walking around the strip and hanging out in the hotel's pool. At one point, I found myself and some friends in a Hooter's hot tub in the middle of the night, alone but for one heavily-pierced twenty-something, and took it upon myself to educated the stranger on the Harry Potter fandom. After the basic name-exchanging and "Where are you from?"-ing, I declared, "We're in a cult. We're all from different places because we're in a cult." I mean, if you really think about it, is that even a lie?

We moved on from Hooters and drove straight to LA for VidCon. On the drive, I started to notice that my voice was sounding a little hoarse from all the singing, screaming and late nights of tour, but I'd never lost my voice before and so it never occurred to me to worry. I had one fun conversation with a favorite internet friend whom I'd never met IRL before, went to bed optimistic... and woke up entirely mute. And I mean totally incapable of producing any vocal sound whatsoever. I drank gallons of hot tea, I became a jittery cough drop junkie, skipped the first night's big concert in favor of a bath, and still nothing worked. The fates conspired against me and decided that I should lose my ability to talk for the two days out of the year when I most require a voice. LAME. My VidCon experience was made up mostly of mouthing "I've lost my voice-- I'm sorry!" to everyone I encountered, standing inches away from interesting people I admire but having to sigh and walk away, and sitting quietly in corners. Had I not just come off two of the most exciting weeks of my life, I would have been seriously disappointed. But as it was, VidCon was definitely not a highlight of my summer, but I was still too generally enthusiastic to be bummed.

I felt so sick and agitated with my throat that I snuck out quietly on Saturday night without saying goodbye to anyone and, OF COURSE, I regained my voice slowly over the course of Sunday afternoon. The timing would have been hilarious if it didn't suck so bad. Luckily, though, I had a few more days at my friends' house in LA to recuperate and relax. Kristina and I spent several hours conspiring about a project we're going to be conducting this year, so I left Echo Base in a mood good enough to undo the crappiness of my VidCon situation.

AND NOW HERE WE ARE. My flight went smoothly and I'm back home, totally disoriented but totally satisfied with my July. Let me know in the comments if you're one of the people I met at any of the tour stops (or one of the people I waved to/whispered at in the Hyatt!). I can't tell you how cool it is to put real-life faces to usernames I see on a daily basis. You guys are tops. Anyway, I'm sure I'm making less and less sense as this post goes along, so I'll leave it here. I hope you all have a lovely day. See you tomorrow!


Chipotle burritos this year: 15
Subscribers: 53,314
Nail color: Still that silver Sephora OPI

27 comments:

CeliaAnn said...

There's only been one time I ever lost my voice and that was at my first concert when I was nine. Oh, Jesse McCartney sure did make me scream.

I feel kinda stupid for being a little awkward at the Cleveland ConTour show. I really don't think i'm socially awkward...but the drop-out-of-conversation-mid-sentence-to-stare-at-cell-phone move is pointing in that direction. You're just too cool, Hayley. Too cool. It was good to see you!

Carrie said...

This makes me sad that you had a rough time at Vidcon! But I am excited to hear more about the project you and Kristina will be working on! You are making my August awesome by blogging every day :). My birthday is on the 9th... Just sayin :)
Anyway I'm glad your voice is feeling better and that you had grand time on tour!!!

Kenzly said...

I am so excited that you are doing VEDA! For a while in june/july i was worried you were getting bored of us :( now i have something small to look forward to before i go to bed! Although you wont be touring, i hope your August is as nice as your july. Also, i am glad you are feeling better, I get strep throat a lot more then should be possible and loose my voice every time. It seriously sucks and its hard to shake the feeling that you look like an idiot to every person you come across.

Melody said...

This is another comment in which I am happy I met you. Even though you were mute. I love you, and hugging you made MY bucket list shorter.

homeontheburrow said...

Ooh ooh I got to hug you lots at Leaky, while you still had your voice!
Glad your July was so much fun. I know you missed out on stuff in the past.
Any chance you'll come east and stay with us again? Maybe around the holidays?
Love you.

Unknown said...

Ooh VidCon is definitely among the worst times to lose your voice! :( I lost my voice the day of an audition once.

At least you could talk in New Orleans! I was extremely surprised to see you there, which can maybe explain my awkwardness. I know there aren't many YouTube/nerdfighter/5AG fans here, so it really is special when one of my role models just drops by. So thanks for that and please come back soon!

Anonymous said...

Man, your July was probably better than all the highlights of my 2011 combined so far. Maybe. I'm sure a lot of good things have happened to me, but I would love to be you for a month.

Catherine C said...

Despite the VidCon-voice-gone suckiness, glad you had a fun time on tour with your friends! My July consisted of having money to travel, eating away that money, and not being able to travel. :/ (Thank you for inspiring me to go to Chipotle btw! I LOVE IT) Maybe August will be better! Hope you can swing back into normal life soon. :) I know it's always a challenge after being away. Looking forward to more blogs!

Manar said...

Well, I gave you an awkward hello in Dallas! :)

It really sucks that you lost your voice, but I'm glad that it didn't dampen your overall vacationing experience. :D Seeing friends is always fantastic.

SM said...

I keep reading everyone's blogs/ watching their vlogs about the ConTour and VidCon, it makes me sad I that I live in Australia. I am definitely coming to America next year!
It sucks that you lost your voice but it still sounds like you had a great month though :D

Kennedy Lane said...

I said hi to you at LeakyCon. Well not so much 'Hi' as 'HayleyGHoover in the house!' Frankly I think we were both embarassed. :S

Kennedy Lane said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nameless said...

I don't think I've ever lost my voice. I've come near to it from seeing mumford and sons I think, but that only lasted an hour or so.
I'm in England so I didn't physically say hello to you but "HI!". I would say I'm waving at my computer but that's just a step to far and would also be a bit of a fib. Although I am grateful it's a fib, I'm not sure my laptop would be inclined to wave back.
Looking forward to your blog today :) do you have a pottermore name yet?

Nicci Weasley said...

Aaahahah! That's hilarious, that you stayed at Hooters Las Vegas!
I feel so bad for you about you losing your voice though :( That just doesn't seem fair!

What project, what project??? Can't wait to find out what you guys are up to!

Stefan said...

super excited to hear you and kristina are upto something.

Mayrose said...

I talked to you in Austin while we were all waiting for the scary people who gave us candy to finish!

nerdygwen said...

Oh,sorry you lost your voice! That's terrible. But I'm glad you had fun on the rest of the ConTour!
I saw you at the Cleveland ConTour show and saw you here and there at LeakyCon.It's always a pleasure to talk to you Hayley!

Izzy said...

Same as my twin, Gwen, I saw you at the Cleveland ConTour stop and a bit at LeakyCon. It's always fun to chat with you!
I don't think I've ever completely lost my voice. Sure there have been nights when I came home sounding like a chain-smoker, but nothing too serious.

Jodi Butler said...

I met you very briefly at LeakyCon. Mike had gone to get a copy of The Alchemist for me and we chatted. It was definitely a highlight for me. :)

I was very close to losing my voice after LeakyCon, but luckily I just ended up croaky instead of mute.

I can't wait to hear more about this secret project of yours and Kristinia's!

Bryce said...

I'm Bryce, and I met you in Oklahoma City.

SiriuslyLoony7 said...

Dear Hayley,
It's really a shame that you lost your voice so unconveniently at VidCon. But I wanted to let you know that it still made me very happy just to say hi to you at the mall food court and the DFTBA booth :) Like I said, I felt like I was talking to Tinkerbell! You're magical, Hayley ;)
Also, since I returned from VidCon, I got all 4 of my wisdom teeth removed. Since you recently parted with yours, I was wondering if you have any food recommendations? And I'm a fellow runner, so I was wondering how long you waited before you went for a run again?
Keep staying awesome, Hayley.
<3, SiriuslyLoony7/Becky

Alex Dahlberry said...

Ah I'm sorry about the crappy timing of the whole voice-losing thing.
Still, it sounds like touring was amazing.
I was at the stop in LA, I didn't really get the chance to talk to you, because i was being rushed out by my friend's parents, but I'm pretty sure I waved hello, and I THINK you recognized me? xD
Same as leakycon. never really got the chance to say hi,but definitely smiled and made eye contact a few times. I think.
Sigh sigh.

=]

-alex

Alessandra said...

I met you at the Vegas stop! I was the one who couldn't work her own camera and embarrassed herself in front of her grandmother.

The Hooters story is the best thing I've heard in a long, long time though.

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