so i left town on december 17th and didn't get back until january 4th. i have a really tiny mailbox, and when i opened it, it was pretty much filled to the max with everyone's beautiful cards!

thanks everyone for putting time and money into these cards! it was a great holiday season!

i know. i'm not old, but i always thought i was a pretty young fan (i was 9), and finding out that kids a lot younger than me like them is totally odd! makes me feel really old.

i'm gonna go ike on this one. he isn't afraid to tell people that he doesn't agree with them, and i think communication is the most important part of all kinds of relationships, especially work relationships. he's also goofy and seems to be a fun guy.

i've been sooooo busy with the end of the semester, so i'll just be sending mine out tomorrow. i apologize if some of you international gals don't get yours before christmas!

i love getting things in the mail! this is so much fun!

Best and Worst Celebrity Names of 2008

It's a really fun survey! It helps that Monroe and Shepherd are on the list.

that's pretty fantastic. i would love to see them dressed up as clowns during a show. haha.

I'm a professional writing major, so i'm definitely a writer. I'm actually taking a class right now called Writing Children's Literature and it's totally informative about how to break into the field. It's really difficult. Our final assignment is two have two completed publishable manuscripts by the end of the semester. I'm working on a YA novel right now, but it's totally not even close to being called a novel. I have a problem with getting all of the words out that I'm thinking. I know where I want the story to go, but can't ever get it there.

Anyway, once I actually get going on that I'd love to get some feedback! Everyone's free to email me their stuff if they want! I once aspired to be an editor. :) (just use my hnet e-mail: melanieb1988@hanson.net)

i currently have two pet rats, wendy and peaches. they really are the sweetest things ever! wendy is learning how to jump, and since we live in an apartment, i'm afraid she's going to jump off the couch and get out. the first problem is that anyone in our building would probably try and kill her, and the second is that our neighbor has a pet cat.

i think it's the best idea ever! i don't even know any other hanson fans, but if i buy myself something, i'm totally getting it wrapped.

and in the newsletter, at the bottom of the picture it says "for illustrative purposes only" so i don't know if that's what it really looks like.

isaac wrote "to melanie" on my CD jacket at my m&g (he was the first one to sign, and asked me if i wanted him to write my name at the top) and then taylor wrote "rock on!"

my freshman year i roomed with my best friend. worst. mistake. ever. we're still friends now, but we got into so many fights i can't even tell you. we just didn't have enough space, ya know?

i transferred to a new school for my sophomore year and lived with 5 other girls that i didn't know. eventually they all ganged up on me because i was the "new girl". they got on my case for one dirty dish when one of them never did any of their dishes and left the dishes of mine they used to rot in the sink. and when i say "got on my case" i mean left me a note that said: "f--- you for not cleaning the dish!" it was dumb. one girl hated my boyfriend so badly that she wouldn't let him spend the night when she and i didn't even sleep in the same room in the apartment. (2 bedrooms 2 baths and one common room for 6 of us.) there was also only a standard size fridge for 6 of us to share, and there was never any room for anything.

second semester turned out better because we settled our differences. (though my boyfriend still wasn't able to stay over. and the girl wonders why i don't want to have lunch with her this year!) we still didn't have enough room, and i was emotionally scarred. it was bad.

now i live off campus with my boyfriend in an apartment, and it couldn't be better! he's so much neater (and nicer) than living with girls!

haha these are all so fun and cute! there are so many december babies in here!

here is my random hanson-related current fact:

my b-day is march 12, 1988, and i have a mole in the same spot on my chin as taylor. i went through a phase where i thought we were twins separated at birth born 5 years (and 2 days) apart. my mom promised me that she would remember if she gave birth to twins, but i still thought i could have been an original hanson and adopted.

i was weird.

another random fact. i'm at work and just carded a guy who was buying cigars whose birthday is march 14, 1988. weird!

i'm going to go with my m&g in lancaster may '08. it was time for the picture, and taylor grabbed me around the waist and pulled me to where the group was standing.

i don't really remember anything else about that day.

i think that would be pretty annoying, too, however, it is a good way to get someone's attention.

it's not everyday zac singles out a fan in a video FUTY. lol.

I totally agree that that website is bogus. But at least Hanson was nominated for something. That means they're getting recognized somewhere.

Which categories were they nominated for?

i'm not vegetarian or vegan, but my brother was for a few years, but then stopped. (you'd have to know my brother. he's undecided like that.) i remember my mom made him a tofurkey for thanksgiving the year he was vegan, and it was really gross. i don't have a problem eating meat, and i just stay away from the stories of how the meat is prepared/packaged. i don't know what we would do with all of the cows if they weren't used for meat/dairy....

i work with a woman who is vegetarian and she is raising her children as vegetarians. do you plan on raising your kids vegetarian/vegan? (i think her philosophy is basically "i'm not cooking two different things for dinner, so you eat what i make or you don't eat!")

i think it's totally cool that you all have so much discipline, but i do have a question. those of you who are vegetarians who are trying to become vegans: what does that mean? do you feel being vegetarian isn't enough? i feel like many of you worded it strangely, like you're upset with yourself that you're "only" vegetarians.

I applied for summer session, but I haven't heard anything yet. They probably haven't started interviewing for it yet. I did get a phone call from a girl a few months ago who wanted to know what session I had applied for because it wasn't on my application, and before she hung up she said, "I look forward to talking with you," so I don't know what that means.

The questions were pretty deep, but I tried to keep my answers short and simple. I also wished I had known about them before Hanson introduced me because I feel like that's sort of a lame reason to apply for an internship. Haha.

At this point I feel kind of bad for applying because if I get it I don't think I'll be able to take it. I can't afford to not have a paying job all summer. Oh well.

My sister was born on my mom's 27th birthday on February 27th.

My dad was struck by lightning while golfing.

all of the upcoming walks are posted on takethewalk.net

it starts at 2 from the venue. all of the upcoming walk times are on takethewalk.net.

I've seen reporters mess up the spelling of "Mmmbop" more times than I can count, but most of the time it's just adding or removing an "m" or two. I have never seen it used quite like the reporter did in the most recent article in the news section.

Link to article

Did anyone else's jaw just drop?

"Mmm, Bop!"

And he didn't use it just once.... He spelled it wrong 4 times! (At least he was consistent.) Otherwise, it was a very nice article.

i'm interested. e-mail me at melanieb1988@yahoo.com. i'm part of the "fans since '97" group, but i've only been a member of h.net for 1 year. my mom wouldn't let me be die-hard when i was 10. haha.

you know, i was talking to my boyfriend about this, and we decided that it would be possible to at least get news attention if everyone who is a member of hanson.net voted for him in the "other" section of the ballot.

it would be funny, but i would never do it during such an important election year.

I saw someone post about having 2 Lancaster tickets for sale a few days ago, but now I can't find the thread.

Did you sell those tickets already? If not, I'd be interested in buying one of them. 

Thanks!