"I'm spinning round the room in awe" ryan adams

Thursday, November 27, 2003

slow down pilgrim!

Six hundred miles and sixteen hours later, Aurora and I headed down to Norfolk to see a show and back. What else is new :-)
We made it out of Newark around 1 pm after our customary Wawa stop for caffeine. Cds in the car and directions in hand, we were ready to go. I thought Aurora had read the directions that I had written down and I said that we are good until Salisbury then we have to take some new roads and will need her help. So to me, the Bay Bridge is the huge ass bridge and tunnel across the Chesapeake, and to her, the Bay Bridge is another bridge that goes over the bay. SO she is taking me through these backroads and I figure its ok since she nows quick routes near her house. So we're talking, singing, having a good and we go over this bridge and into... ANAPOLIS! And me and my geography skills know that this isn't right, and conveniently we see a sign for a visitor center. We park across from the Ram's Head and go in and get a map - I am redoing my website and I will scan what we wrote on the map and post it up. We met the nicest visitor center guides, chatted, then left. We were only 125 miles off route of a 230 mile trip. Aurora felt bad, but I told her it was all apart of the adventure and we got the scenic route. So we head off onto Route 50 to meet up with 13 and it was the worst god forsaken highway ever. Too many stupid drivers, no cool places to stop, and just a damn tease in our destination to Norfolk. An hour after we left Anapolis, I realized that Mr. Patty McGee, Fecchino, and our ever favorite Ghegan were all playing at the Ram's Head that night. Damn us for not stopping in and saying hi! In Salisbury get onto 13 and desperately needed more caffeine and bathroom and sustenance. Royal Farms is now the worst place to stop on a trip ever. Usually the RF is the place to go after Fletcher's and any time I am hanging out with Jonasay in Maryland, but heeeelllll no, not anymore! Number one, no bathroom, number two...worst coffee in the world, and Aurora and I have had pretty bad road coffee. So I am grumbling about the lack of Wawa's as I cut across three lans of traffic and make a u-turn while Aurora is trying to balance our goods. Dammit, we pass a Wawa 2 minutes later. As well as a sign saying "Norfolk - 125 miles" Argh!! So in our usual fashion, I decide that speeding is the best way to get from point A to point B. As I am pushing the accelerator, we pass an "Oasis Car Wash." Perfect!! The LDE guys make fun of Aurora and I and our fondness for the GCB groove and they call them NOasis (and pretty much every other person who has played with them - whch pretty much includes all of our friends - agree), so we thought it was fitting and fate that we pass an Oasis. Then we pass a sign saying "Slow Down Pilgrim!" Best sign ever. And of course, they were right, my heart fluttered about 20 times everytime I passed a cop and was forced to go slightly above the speed limit. That was really going to put a hamper on our getting there faster. So we need food and gas and so we stopped for rejuvenation as quickly as possible. We stop at a the slowest Wendy's around, where I had an opportunity to check out my fatigue in a mirror. I then show Aurora the vein in my eye that becomes visible when I am stressed or tired or stessed AND tired. And the vein was big. I told her that should not happen, and it did. Dinner consisted of a Frosty and fries because that is the easiest thing to eat and drive. We get to the bridge and I nearly die of anxiety. I despise bridges, especially those that are halfway submerged and like 17 miles long. But soon after the bridge was Norfolk. About damn time! It looked like a cute city, but I wouldn't know because I was zipping around the streets. Usually when we take trips, I am the one who has to stop eighty times due to my insufficient bladder, but not this time. As we were tuning onto Chruch Street, Aurora informs me that she soon may not be able to have Graham's children. It was so clamly said, so I inquire why the change. She tells me because her bladder is slowly crushing her uterus. That was so damn funny I nearly swerved off the road! It was also in hour eight of our destination, so I think we were just delerius. We thought it was pretty damn sad that we had been in the car for more hours then we have slept lately. We drive past the venue and nearly died when we saw the live wrapped around the venue. Sigh. We park - only 4 bucks - we rule - and walk over to will call.
The Norva is an awesome venue. A slightly smaller Electric Factory with the feel of a House of Blues. We make our way to the side of the stage in the midst of a sold out show. Tristan Prettyman was the opener was good, though we weren't paying much attention to her. She had good stage presence and her songs were good, but the people around us were so chatty that it detracted from the show because we were too busy being annoyed by the irritating girls next to us. Graham Colton took the stage next with an electrifying performance. Such great energy and Turtle has a new guitar. Every time we see them, they keep evolving and becoming stronger in their use of talent and stage show. So great and the crowd was really receptive. And of course Aurora and I were screaming out the lyrics and just acting like the happy, tired, girls we were who were "waking up". I texted the setlist to myself so we would have it - All the World Tonight, Jessica, How Low, Cut, Cigarette, Champagne Supernova -> Killing Me, and Don't Give Up On Me. Afterwards we went back to the merch table to say hi where Turtle proceeded to tell Aurora he remembered her and then he stole my scarf. So we chatted about the new album and the recording and the upcoming tour and whatnot then left to see Jason Mraz. The show wasn't what I expected, but still stellar. He started off very mellow, then kicked it up a notch to an explosive encore. We spet half the evening trying to find a decent place to stand. Again, a complaint about the audience was its chattiness and constant movement. Seriously now, every two seconds people were coming or going, watch the damn show people! It was great to see Jason live but the best performance was still by GCB. We also missed a few Mraz songs because we were outside while Aurora smoked. So we decided to use that time wisely by calling Phil since we all have a long running GCB joke between us all. Aurora claimed that whenever she left a message on his vmail, it cuts her off. I didn't beleive her, so we call him, and everytime she takes the phone to say hi, his phone hates her and hangs up. Three times.
Show ends at 12:30 and we hit the road back to DE. All we want is a damn Wawa for again, gas, coffee, food, and bathroom. We knew one was 125 miles away in Salisbury, but we were hoping to find one closer. No luck. My eyes started burning around the 60th mile. Finally we stopped at the Wawa where we met the nicest Wawa people who inquired about our travels and we shared our love for Wawa with them and how it is a safehaven for us. They don;t understand how happy we were to be there. So after we left Salisbury, I was wide again and ready to go. Soon after we were at Aurora's place, then I headed back to Newark and rolled in around 5 am.
CDs listened to in the car: Ryan Montbleau - Begin, Tyler Hilton - EP, Jason Mraz - Mix CD, Pat McGee - Tin Angel solo show, STN Mix, Howie Day - Stop All the World Now, Green to Think - Sundays EP, Matt Nathanson - Beneath these Fireworks

Wednesday, November 26, 2003

some advice

Whenever I go away, I have a tendency to make sure my living space is clean, so when I come back all tired and wanting familiarity, I will have it all nice and organized. So since these next three days will more than likely not be spent much here, I cleaned up today. And I forgot to do my laundry until 1am.
When you do your laundry at 1 am make sure you don't wash your favorite burgandy sweater with everything else, because you will find burgandy sweater balls on your socks, underwear, and favorite pants that are pink. Not on all of your favorite pants, just the pink ones. And usually I will wash all of those things seperately so that they don't fight in the washer, but I only had a few things that needed to be clean.

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

brrrrr

I have no heat on in my apartment.

fifty four east main

Chris bought me a kit kat today. It was the highlight of my work evening.
We had a Rainbow meeting last night at Grottos, but it pretty much just turned into Charise, Max, Maryann, Raf, and I drinking and talking about people. And of course, I called Chris to see why he wasn't there and asked if he was sitting in his boxers, drinking a beer, and watching a DVD because Raf assumed he was. All he said was "tell them all I say 'my bad'". Haha, only Chris...
We're such a cool little family that it rocks that we are all working together in this whole record store endeavor. We've all become such good friends and our personalities mesh so well that Rainbow has really established an identity. Crazy times.

U of ND student missing

If you don't know already, I am attracted to abductions. Of course the most memorable was the Elizabeth Smart case and I followed that story from Day One all the way up to that CBS special ;-). Stumbled across this in the news this afternoon:

GRAND FORKS, North Dakota (AP) -- Hundreds of volunteers lined up Tuesday to join the search for a University of North Dakota student who has been missing since Saturday. Police believe she may have been abducted.

Dru Sjodin, a 22-year-old senior in graphic arts from Pequot Lakes, Minnesota, was last seen late Saturday afternoon, as she was leaving the Columbia Mall in Grand Forks where she worked.

Her mother, Linda Walker, said her daughter was talking to her boyfriend on her cell phone about 5 p.m. Saturday when her boyfriend heard her say, "Oh, my God." Walker said the phone then went dead.

On Tuesday morning, the volunteers were given identification badges and assigned to teams, then bused to an area east of the city to search for Sjodin.

"I was up all night, because I've just been itching to get out and do this," said Jerrod Arneson, one of the searchers. "You never think something like this would happen here, and when it does, you want to do something."

The search was concentrated on an area around Fisher, Minnesota, east of Grand Forks, where police had traced a call from Sjodin's cell phone.

Police said Sjodin's red car, a two-door Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme, was found in a Columbia Mall parking lot. Lt. Dennis Eggebraaten said a package that Sjodin apparently bought at the mall was inside the car.

"There was no sign of a struggle that we could determine," he said.

Police were investigating calls to Sjodin at the Victoria's Secret store where she worked. They said she had received at least one call from a man she did not know, who asked for her by name.

Jean Ann Bienek, the store's manager, declined to comment, citing store policy.

Authorities said Sjodin's roommate notified police at about 9:30 p.m. Saturday, after Sjodin failed to show up for work at her second job in a bar.

Her family is offering a $20,000 reward.

Sunday, November 23, 2003

no way november will see our goodbye

I am so stuffed from early Thanksgiving dinner!!
The past few years have always found us having a big Thanksgiving dinner at someone's house, and this year, Andy fell victim to hosting the festivities. I went to my first group Thanksgiving four years ago with Michelle at Tim's place over at 365 and its been tradition since. The Holiday dinner the girls hosted at 5208 two years ago was insanity. Always great to have homecooked food, good wine, and friends all gather together.
I worked in the morning and thankfully Charise covered the rest of my shift so I could pick up Karen then head to Andy's. We watched the Eagles game and devoured Nina's dip. There is a reason that they don't let this girl come unless she brings her Mexican concoction with her! ;-) We ate a huge dinner downstairs while watching this Extreme Challenge game on Spike TV. Oh my gosh, the best tv show EVER. No where else but on Spike can you find crazy physical challenges being dubbed over in snarky and crude english. And where else do you have to carry a golden orb (a painted voleyball) while getting slammed in the face with a ball. Or a guy in a peanut suit leaping over a muddy pond to get from plank to plank. So damn funny. Then the end of Rush Hour, followed by the Simpsons. Quality Sunday TV programming to coincide with the thanksgiving dinner.
Karen and I were quite impressed with Andy's new place, though Tim claims that it wasn't Andy's control of the decorating. Crazy how in a few years we go from a place that had a sausage nailed to the wall to now a house with a sailboat on the coffee table and a spice rack. Its ok though, the empty Miller Lite case remains the same. :-) Getting older doesn't necessarily mean growing up.

blue and gold and won all over

Yeah! Blue Hen Foot ball takes the conference!! I was listening in to the game via WVUD and just love our commentators, they're hilarious. You should listen, too ;-)
But we won and now it's time to take the division.

Villanova wasn't quite happy. We have a huge rivalry with 'Nova which always leads to chaos in the end. Their cheerleaders were easy targets the last time I saw the two face off, but UD never goes for blood!

Auto plows into crowd after UD win
4 hurt outside Villanova Stadium

By DOUG LESMERISES
Staff reporter
11/23/2003

VILLANOVA, Pa. -- Four people were injured after the University of Delaware football game Saturday night when a car drove through a crowd of about 100 football players, family and friends outside the locker room at Villanova Stadium, police said.

Villanova Athletic Director Vince Nicastro said his team's chaplain, the Rev. Bernard Lazor, was behind the wheel of the green Ford Taurus after it stopped at the end of a 25-foot wide driveway on the south side of the stadium where the crowd had gathered. However, Radnor Township police did not identify the driver and no arrests were made late Saturday.

Several witnesses said people "went down like dominoes" while the driver, traveling about 30 mph, honked the horn but never stopped.

One end of the driveway opens into a lot where the Delaware team buses were parked during the game. The Taurus was traveling in the opposite direction, which comes to a dead end at stairs and a wheelchair ramp. Two other cars were parked along the driveway after the game.

"We weren't there to get hit," said Debbie Edwards of Wallingford, Pa., the mother of Delaware center Chris Edwards, who was not hurt. "We were there to greet the players coming out. Everyone was talking and no one was paying attention and, all of a sudden, this car just headed down there. People were under the tires, on top of the hood. I would have been under the tire if my friend hadn't pushed me out of the way."

Some fans stood by in tears while at least two injured people were taken away by ambulances and Delaware's football equipment was being loaded into a truck several feet away. Student trainer Jen Jones, 22 and a senior at UD, said the crowd was mostly Delaware fans.

"After all of our games, the fans come by to see us and congratulate the players and say hi to the team," Jones said. "It all happened very fast. He just plowed through. There was no brakelights - nothing. You didn't even hear the horn until it was too late."

Brian Honeycutt, 37, of Newark, said he was nearly hit. He said he then ran alongside the car after it went through the crowd, yelling at the driver to stop. He said he saw the driver staring straight ahead with his hands on top of the steering wheel.

Many of the Delaware players were either speaking in a postgame news conference or still getting dressed in the locker room as the car came through. Quarterback Andy Hall said he heard someone run into the locker room yelling, "Get a doctor out here."

"I don't know what's going on, but people just got run over," Hall said. "It was a lot of our families. The football game is irrelevant right now. It's totally irrelevant."

Delaware won the game 20-17 to win the Atlantic 10 Conference championship.

University of Delaware administrators could not be reached for comment.

According to Villanova's football media guide, Lazor has been a priest for 50 years and is an assistant professor of religious studies at the university.

the comm girls show newark whats up, or not

I was going to spend my Saturday night finishing my NYU essay, scanning pictures, watching a movie, and catching up on sleep. Yeah, that didn't happen.
I was already in my pajamas and writing diligently away on my computer when I heard from Brittany saying that Whitney was visiting us from DC. Change of plans!
The last time I saw Whitney was when we all sat together at graduation. So odd where time takes us and how quickly time goes by. Seems like just yesterday where we were all at the TV station rolling over in laughter at the mockery that was the Daily Rewind. So cool though that we can all hang out and have a good time as if we were still around.
Let's see where everyoneis now... Everyone being our core tv posse, because since we devulged our life into that damn endeavor, we ended up being such good friends, which is odd because we have all always said that if it wasn't for the hell that was STN we all probably wouldn't have gotten to know each other. Nothing brings people closer than editing for 10 hours straight at 4 am, cursing the consistent broken equipment, and realizing that we were the only ones taking ourselves seriously - oh wait, we didn't do that. Well, I am here still at Rainbow and putting off anymore hardcore job search since I am hopefully going to grad school in the fall. Karen is still searching and working at Cafe Gelato in the meantime. Whitney is at American in the film program getting her masters. Anne is heading off to Australia for a bit to travel and find a random job there. Fisher is living at home in Silver Spring, unfortunately there is no Grottos there, so no idea where he is working, but its not anything related to our degree or television. And of course, Jen, Brittany, and Aurora are still at UD. Ok, that is the end of my nostalgia, let the good times begin...!
So Brittany, Jen, and I head to Kate's to meet up with Whitney and Liz for a night of drinking and dancing - which beats writing an essay any day! Premium malt beverages were consumed as well as finishing off Whitneys beer as we passed it back and forth. Whitney and I take pride in the fact that since we don't go to U of D anymore we can act like fools with our dancing since we don't see these people on a continuous basis like Jen and Brittany. So we bust out the 80's groove. Ew!! And the guys there are like hawks! They don't dance and they just stare at their prey waiting for the perfect time to launch. Don't be creepy!! It's ok though since we are all pretty strong and don't allow ourselves to be victims of the creepiness. Do not break our girl circle because we will laugh at you and make fun of you and think of you as a lesser man.
We left shortly after midnight then headed to 123 to meet up with Andy and the frisbee party. They had an unusual amount of large stuffed and blow up animals in their living room. Mass quantities of pink stuff was consumed and the incredible hulk gloves were busted out. Liz then proceed to make sweet love to the blow up monkey. Valente made an appearance, why do we call him Valente instead of Mike, how did that begin!? We were all piled onto the couch analyzing certain behaviors and debating the name of Whitney and Valente's love child.
Ha! Intercourse Hellllllloooooo!!!!! So when we got to the party, Mike Sansom was playing his guitar with a mass sing-a-long. We found it odd that we knew the words until Andy reminded us of the frisbee band, Intercourse Hello. As soon as we heard that, we (Whitney, Jen, and I) shouted out how you say the name. Can you beleive that was three years ago?! Party Warehouse was definitely a highlight of STN in retrospect.
Last night was great and I wish I had more of the entertaining details since we were pretty much laughing our asses off the entire night.