Taylor is the new Lizzie.

I went on a little road trip last weekend to embrace my inner 16 year old.



Yes... four friends and I, most of us over the age of 25, went to a Taylor Swift concert and in between songs about high school crushes and Jonas brothers, we talked nonstop about how we could all be her best friend. Seriously. Two of us are married, two of us are homeowners, and we can all relate perfectly to a song about being fifteen. That is the beauty of Taylor Swift.

[Confession: I spent my four hour car ride memorizing the lyrics to all of her songs. This activity replaced my usual road trip entertainment: impressing myself with my ability to remember songs from my youth. My proudest moment? I still know all the words to Gettin Jiggy Wit It.]

In case you never get the opportunity to make it to a Taylor Swift concert, I'll give you the rundown:

Taylor sings a song, making sure to punch the air with her fist and/or run her hand through her hair. You desperately wish you were her, so you strike a Taylor pose:



Taylor finishes song and, in awe, looks at the crowd:

and looks.


and looks.


I mean, we get it, Tiger Stadium is pretty impressive and there are a lot of people there.

(When I showed Yoni this picture, he noted pretty seriously that he's surprised there was no epistaxis among my friends and me, and then laughed gleefully at his exclusive little joke. This is why he wasn't invited.)

And Taylor looks on.

And on.

Seriously, this went on for at least two minutes.


I began to wonder what Ike was doing.

(That's about how I felt, too at this point, buddy.)

And when I was done Ike-dreaming, Taylor was still staring.



I would say by the end of the show, there were about 10 minutes total of combined staring.

(Scholarly Ike calculates that the staring:singing ratio was 1:12.)

But even with all of the awkward staring (and dancing...and arm thrusting...and attempts at conversation) we did enjoy ourselves. And if Taylor Swift and I had gone to high school together, I'm pretty sure we would have skipped through the halls together, holding hands and wearing sparkly dresses.




I can only hope we had as good of a time as this person, who must have a special place in their heart for the music of T Swizzle and just had to take a solo picture in front of the tour bus. Like I said, that's the beauty of Taylor Swift. We were all fifteen year old girls once.