haven't updated this in almost 4 months exactly. wow, how time flies when you're having fun, or not having fun. i think it just flies no matter what. things in my life have basically stayed the same, save for a few interesting things that have happened over the late-summer/fall time. those events shall be further elaborated on in the coming paragraphs...
got to go on an AMAZING roadtrip with my sister to 3 wonderful cities (well maybe not detroit) to see my loves RX BANDITS perform 3 nights in a row.
first city was toronto (a place i had never been before) it was definitely an experience. we arrive in town the day of the show at about 4:00pm and check in to our hotel. it was one of the more unique hotels i've ever stayed in, as it was a converted old mansion. charming is a good word to describe it.
we arrived hoping to get a parking space at the hotel ( for a ludicrous 20$ a day) and we got the LAST SPACE...and of course it's raining when we get to town, and the plan of walking around for it while before the show is foiled thanks to the fact that it is THUNDERING. gah gotta love my fear of storms. so after a quick rest we head out into the city. i had planned on taking the subway while in town, but we could not for the life of us find the subway station that was supposed to be right across the street from our hotel. with a time window slowly winding down ( we need to pick up the tickets for the show by 530 or something) we start off on foot. being that it has just rained, and it's the first week of august...it is HUMID as hell, and we have to walk like we have never walked before. we finally make it to Younge & Dundas square...the location of the tickets. after picking them up ( and a huge sigh of relief on my part) we start the process of trying to figure out how we are going to get to the venue. in the square, there is a subway...we go down and discover that we need CANADIAN money to purchase the daypass we need to use all public transportation. back up to the surface we go to look for a bank. one problem. being from the US, none of our bank cards were being accepted at random ATMs. and to get INTO THE ROOM where the normal ATMs are located, you need to swipe your bank card to be granted access. well. ours didn't work for those either. so with only american $$, we start walking. and walking. and walking. until we finally get to the venue (the opera house). the last thing i want to do after walking 3 sweaty miles is stand up for 3 hours at a show. so i found a place to lean, and tried to make the best of the opening bands. which, for the record, i have to say...DREDG IS THE WORST BAND I'VE EVER SEEN LIVE EVER. and i've seen a lot of bad bands. but damn, these guys take the cake. rx were awesome, of course :)
so after the show. which was pretty AMAZING ( all things considered) the only thing left to do is WALK back to the hotel (at 1200am, mind you). having to navigate streets we'd never been on before was a bit of a challenge, and yes we did see a crackhead lady jump out into oncoming traffic. we walked as fast as our tired legs would allow. we walked a total of 6.5 miles around the downtown toronto area that day. needless to say, i slept very well that night. :)
next morning...we depart toronto (after 0 attempts at any actual sight-seeing) and head down the highway toward detroit. while a beautiful drive, this was the most boring stretch of highway i've traveled in a while. being the passenger made it worse, i'd say.
this part of canada has NOTHING. the only excitement was the tunnel from canada to detroit...which i was only excited about for the experience (not for the fact that i was driving up on detroit). i was nervous, too. because who in their right mind wants to drive in a tunnel that is suspended UNDER the water?! we survived, though...and proceeded to the border crossing. our first attempt at using our newly acquired passports. nervous as F for what they might want to see (searching our car, blahblahblah whatever) it was a relief to see that the guy was pretty relaxed. he even joked around with us saying that we looked like the same person, and went so far as to show his co-worker our pictures and say they have never seen anything so similar before. haha kind of funny and unexpected. so once we navigate to the venue ( st. andrew's hall) we decide to take a walk and find some food before the show. as we're walking around, this creep-o of a homeless man comes up to us and we can't avoid talking to him. he goes along with his suave ploy to get money from us, and we have to say that we have no $$ even though we are both carrying purses. thankfully after a few awkward minutes we are able to walk away from him.
eating takes place at the hard rock cafe: detroit, which had decent food...it was just gross that the whole place allowed smoking inside. so that kind of ruined it for me. as for the show that night: there were a lot of "dude-brah's" at this particular show...which is never quite conducive for a good time. the first band, whom i have grown to love, as tall as lions, killed it at this show. as for DREDG... i couldn't and WOULDN'T sit through another terrible set by them, so we went downstairs and sat in this big empty bar. after the terrible-ness ended, we head upstairs for night #2 of RXB-great-ness. there was definitely a LOT more energy from the crowd/band this night, which made me have a better time. being right next to a giant stack of amps, was the only negative to the whole thing. i sure couldn't hear a dang thing after they were done. one great thing about this tour, was the fact that the guys had 3 drum sets set up on the stage. getting everyone involved in a few drum jams during the set was AMAZING.
the new songs are great live. still missing chris sheets energy in the live show...the rest of the guys definitely made up for his absence. it's crazy to think of how much has changed since when i first started going to see the guys live. down 2 members and crazy different music. but still the same energy that makes me such a huge fan. the show is over and we head to the merch table. i realize that one of the members of as tall as lions is actually a customer at MSM. craziness. so i approach him and he says he is from aurora. small world, i tell ya. after the show we head out of town to stay in the suburbs ( ann arbor to be exact). there's no way i would actually stay in this city. haha
staying in ann arbor was nice, the hotel was cheap and would end up being the nicest one we stayed in along the way. got a tshirt the night before which is my fav RXB shirt to date. AWESOME. we had to hit the road early today because the show in chicago started at a crazy-early 530pm. thankfully we were traveling back in time to central time so it was like an hour just came right back to us on the road which was kind of great timing, actually. so on the way into chicago, i was a bit intimidated due to the fact that i had heard how HORRIBLE the traffic is there. man, that was an understatement of the century. i don't know how people could deal with that everyday. it was like nothing i've ever seen before. so after it takes us like an hour to go 5 miles (or something close to that) we get off on our exit...which was pretty much impossible to find until the last minute (it was exit 5F or something weird). we find the place and get a FREE parking space right next to the venue. thank goodness. so after we sit in the car for a while, we head inside and eat at the Bottom Lounge restaurant...GOOD food.
i had a sandwich called "kickass grilled cheese" and it lived up to that. cheese bacon and all kinds of yum stuff. really good vibes in that place. i would love to go back. as for the show: as tall as lions = AWESOME again that night. we went upstairs to the deck on top of the club for the entire dredg set...and i was actually starting to learn some of the songs even though i had only seen them the one time....i could barely hear still and i was singing along making fun of them. fun timez. haha i wish i could remember the lyrics that i actually learned....classic. we head back downstairs for RXB and it was pretty nice. the layout of the stage left something to be desired. huge hanging amps blocking half of the stage, so that if you were on the right or left side you couldn't see the stage in its entirety.
ah well. it was a kickass show, and i had a lot of fun. double yay to the fact that i got to see dave davison (from maps & atlases) in the crowd...and he actually recognized me from the cast spells show a week before! awesome. :) so as we're leaving the show...with a new as tall as lions cd in tow the only disappointment that i have is not getting to see ANY of the rx guys during the entire roadtrip. as much as i appreciate them, i just wanted to let them know personally. so the next time this (hopefully) happens, that will be my priority. but it sure was a fun ride. drove to the hotel (in crappy suburbs, because downtown chicago hotels are uber expensive) and this place was the epitome of crap. the photos online sure as hell did nothing but make it out to be something it definitely WASN'T. the place smelled like the chlorine from a pool ( and there wasn't even a pool there), our door was basically impossible to open/close without losing your shit trying to open/close it. we brewed a pot of coffee in the coffee maker when we got there just to try to make the room smell remotely better. (it didn't help) and sleep came difficult to me that night. it was just gross. in the morning, after taking a shower in a place i would normally not set foot in, we found out the culprit for the nasty smell. carpet cleaning solution. this guy was saturating the entire front lobby carpet with this shit. i was so glad to walk out of those doors, knowing i never had to go back inside.
the ride home that day: we decided to try and sight-see a bit before we got on the highway. got word that along the lakeshore there were some sand dunes and a state park. so we decided to check that out, seeing how much we love the sand dunes in michigan. first of all, let me say that this park cost 10$ just to get inside. and once we were in, i saw one sand dune, and the beach was disgusting. along the shore it was lined with smog-producing smokestacks and just all kinds of industry.
we immediately got back in the car and started the drive home. the only highlight about the ride home was the fact that the entire way was turnpike. expensive turnpike. hahaha (sarcasm!) once we got home, an hour later i left to go see another of my favorite bands, portugal. the man.
such a good week.
about 6 weeks past that time, i take another roadtrip adventure with my sister. this time we are enroute to indianapolis. another city that i have never been. we are going to see reverend peyton's big damn band open up for the legendary ZZTOP. if you can believe that. :D so we head down the day of the show, and get there early enough to rest a bit at the hotel first, and then head downtown for some food/walking around and the show. we eat at this little bar on the peninsula of this weird intersection...and i had the best quesadilla i've ever had. SO GOOD. we head across the street for some starbucks and encounter this man.
he had the craziest head of hair ever. he could have been one of those models for like hair club for men or something like that. next to starbucks, there was this cute little store called "silver in the city" i decided to get something as a sort of a memoir for the trip. it's the cutest little stuffed thing. i don't really know how else to describe it. as for the show. we get seats in row #13 in a theater setting. which is pretty dang good, if you ask me.
rev peyton takes the stage and everyone is shocked. haha i don't think anyone knew what to expect (except the few who know and love the rev) but i was screaming my head off and trying to fight the urge to just stand up in the crowd. after their set, we go out and try to talk to them...i get my photo taken with them, which is the best thing EVER. i love those guys.
as for ZZTOP it's amazing to see such huge rock and roll stars in the flesh, and also to see how rockin' they are for such old guys. hahaha :) it was such a good show, i'm so glad we were able to pull off taking the trip. the next day we had time to just kind of walk around the city, and i must say i REALLY like indy. it's a nice place, with lots to do in the downtown area (something that cleveland leaves to be desired) we start out by walking along the canal front. which is just cool because it's a nice place to take a stroll or bike ride. we stumble upon the Indiana Museum, so we decide to take a look. it was pretty interesting, and worth the time. across town we then walk to this mall area where we find a PF changs, so we eat there. it was good, and of course a trip there is not complete without the great wall of chocolate cake.
mmMm we then head over to this huge monument thing that is in the middle of downtown, walk around there a bit and then head back for the car. this was a fun trip, i want to have more things like this happen that's for sure.
things otherwise have been mediocre. living in creston sure doesn't do much to help such things. my cousin kelly moved back to the area which is so awesome. work is...well, work. there's a lot of drama going on there right now, which i am trying to stay out of as much as possible. that's all i really want to say about that.
as for my attitude as of late...i think i've been feeling pretty good. i am just ready for some things to get changing. i really want to move out of here, but it's not in the cards right now. i just don't have enough money to support myself/pay all the bills i have. that's depressing. i've never owed more money than i do right at this moment. it's really kind of scary to think about that. here's to working on that this next year. as for myself personally, i am really just about over the "single life". haha i never thought i would say that, but i've been single since what, 2004? 2003? HAH i don't even remember it's been that long. i think i just miss having a "partner in crime" or something. i hope that changes sooner rather than later. :)
i think this is a sufficient update.
not that anyone is reading, of course...
