A Midsummer Night’s Blog

I’m writing you on a summer afternoon in Nashville. All the idealistic markers of a perfect day are presenting themselves right now in this moment. I mean, we’re talking chirping birds, blinding sunshine, a just-the-right-amount breeze.. There’s the distant sound of power washing from someone else’s deck and my feet are up on the patio table. I just ate a really awesome sandwich. Such a simple, good day. And so I just wanted to say hi.

I go back on the road tonight and this weekend we’ll play in Greensboro, Knoxville, and Louisville. And I guess I should just tell you up front that playing shows on this tour is the best time I’ve ever had onstage. The crowds we’ve been playing for have been so unbelievable.. The kind of crowds that jump up and down the entire show, making our view from the stage look like a giant ocean of dancing, jumping people. These are the kinds of crowds that sing the words louder and more passionately than I ever could’ve imagined. And to have a show that includes ballerinas and fireworks and entire scenery changes.. it’s thrilling for me. My band and I have already come away with memories to last a lifetime, and it’s not even halfway done yet! The other night, we were playing our first of two shows at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Massachusetts. I’m all the way at the end of the stadium, playing “Fearless”, and I swear as soon as I sang the words “With you I’d dance in a storm in my best dress, fearless”… I felt a drop of rain hit me. Then there was another one, then there was another. And then it turned into an absolute downpour. Everyone is soaking wet. And at this point in the show, about halfway through our set, this fear came over me that everyone was going to leave the concert. I tried to push it way back into the back of my mind and just kept playing, and to my surprise, the strangest thing happened. No one left. Instead, this ocean of people in front of us just started dancing even more, screaming even louder… And that night I actually got to dance in a storm with them. In my best dress. I’ll never forget it.

Blog post continued below.

Sometimes I get scared that there’s got to be some balance to the way things work in the universe– like you pay for good days by then having bad days, you pay for joy with pain.. Like if you have the most perfect week ever, watch out! It’s about to get really awful! Some sort of minor or major tragedy is bound to strike! I hope that’s not the way it all goes down. I really hope not. Because this has been a really beautiful summer so far. Lately, I’ve been writing a LOT. Like, all of a sudden, everything I’ve wanted to say, express, or just let out for the past several months has just recently become a song. I’m really excited about that. It’s a freeing feeling when all of a sudden one day, you’re able to verbalize exactly how you feel in a verse, chorus, verse, bridge, chorus pattern.

Hey so… thank you so much for the Teen Choice Award nominations!! Six whole nominations! Thank you. I’ll be there this year and it will be my first time attending the TCA’s!!! Thank you!

I want to thank you for the happiness I’ve felt so far this summer. I’ve learned to never take happiness for granted. It’s the most precious, rare feeling. This summer, for me, it comes from you.. driving to the shows with “Speak Now” painted on your car windows or simply singing along when “Story of Us” comes on the radio. It comes from you, standing up in the last rows or the front ones, having taken the time to know every word I’ll sing that night… Oh, and it also comes from an entire stadium that not only stuck with me through the rain, but celebrated it. Mostly it’s from all the times you’ve made me feel like we’re in this together. I hope you have a wonderful July 4th weekend and I hope you have a bunch of simply wonderful days this summer.

Taylor

Country star Taylor Swift had an amazing, wonderful and perfect year of 2009, as she seems to have won every important award for her music with the hit album “Fearless”, but she needed some rest and took the whole month off before kicking ass at the Grammy Awards at the end of the month.

Taylor wrote a super sweet message on her MySpace blog titled “Thank You January”, where she also posted some beautiful mostly black and white pictures she took with her new camera (more photos below).

Thank you January.

Thank you January. I have had this month off. I have walked on snow-covered grass and discovered new coffee shops and laughed hysterically with friends about things that probably weren’t technically funny. I’ve written songs on napkins and sat at a giant table with my whole family on my mother’s birthday, all of us in one place for the first time in too long. I’ve gotten to take what has happened to me and process it to my full capability, and celebrate it the way it deserved to be celebrated. I’ve made new music. I’ve gone over the memories and jumped up and down with my producer and floated around with nothing on my schedule other than just appreciating what my life has somehow turned into. So thank you for giving me so much to be thankful for this January. Thank you beyond what I know how to say.

I got a new camera. Do you want to see some pictures?

lovelovelove
-T-

Taylor Swift MySpace Photos Below

Monday, December 07, 2009
I love winter.

I’m laying on the couch, wearing fuzzy red and white socks. In my peripheral vision is a giant, lit up Christmas tree. This is my favorite time of year. Hands down.

I just got back to Nashville this morning after being in LA all week. Today I was out and about and in the studio all day, and when I drove home, I saw this strip of restaurants on Main Street in my hometown.. I’ve driven that road and seen those restaurants four billion times since we moved here almost six years ago. Somehow they’ve never looked as perfect and welcoming as they did tonight. It was Sunday night and there were cars jammed into every last parking spot available. I could see the smoke billowing out of fireplace chimneys into cold winter air. It’s the holidays. People are coming together and going out for dinner and something about seeing that just stuck with me. I love everything about this time of year, but mostly the way that people find ways to be with the ones they love. And I love sweaters. Everyone is wearing sweaters right now.

I was talking to my producer, Nathan, today about everything that’s happened this year. We were being nostalgic and going back to this time four years ago, three years ago, two years ago.. Now this year. We just.. can’t believe it. Earlier this week, he had a last-minute-get-over-here-right-now-and-celebrate party at his house, because the news had just broken: We were nominated for 8 Grammy’s. I remember calling him and hearing the screaming voices of the drummer and the bass player and the mixers and publishers who helped put this album together. He put me on speakerphone, and we all screamed together. I couldn’t stop saying “I love you” to them, just like I can’t stop saying “I love you” to you. Part of me can’t fully wrap my mind around the idea that this sort of thing could happen to me. At the end of the phone call, I said to them “Please, never forget tonight. This night is a gift we never thought we’d get.” and then, of course, “I love you so much!!!”

I’m about to be in New York City at Christmas time. I’m playing the Z100 Jingle Ball (never played it before. SO excited!!) and probably spending some time just wandering around looking up at the sparkly store displays and stuff. And counting down to my birthday. I’m only a teenager for another week! I’m starting to practice saying “Twenty” when people ask me how old I am. Weird. Cool? I guess it’s inevitable, so.. Awesome!

Thank you again for everything you guys have done to make all of these magical things happen to me. Please drive safely when you’re out shopping. I hope you have an awesome holiday season. Again, I love you!

lovelovelove
-T-

Currently listening:
She Wolf
By Shakira

Source: Taylor Myspace Blog