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

Sunday, July 10, 2005

jam packed fabulous weekend of fun in the nyc

Starting with Thursday…
Things have been in complete overdrive…too much to do, not enough time. I realized that when the first opportunity for me to actually get up to go to the restroom was at 4:30. Laura grabbed the keys before I did and I yelled at her, asking her what she was doing because there was no time for breaks. I was kidding of course. I think a conversation with both Chris and Jim that should have been 5 minutes lasted about 20 because I had to keep putting them both on hold and calling back. After work I met up with Maryellen and Gleeman at Tonic near Times Square. Honest to goodness every day after this work week I had to have something mindnumbing in my hand. I expected Chris and Amy to get to Hoboken near 11 pm, so we stayed till about 9:15 thinking we were ok. Watching guys in suits bob to music reminiscent of high school dances is very entertaining. We called it a night and trekked to Port Authority...through Times Square. I had a mini freak out on the sidewalk because of the masses of idiotic people with their maps and fanny packs standing in the middle of the sidewalks and intersections. Maybe another chapter in my book will be, “how to not piss people off when you’re a tourist”. We get on the bus and I get the call that Chris and Amy are in town and I am so not even close to Hoboken and we still had to get their parking pass. They were lucky enough to find parking a block away (has that happened, ever?!) so we unloaded their bags, hit up the grocery store, and grabbed some wine at the bodega. I was supposed to have off on Friday but decided to go in because there were many things to do before the weekend that had to get done. I was still in the mindset that I didn’t have work the next day because we took a blanket and some wine on the roof and hung out there sharing good conversation well into the night. After finishing off the bottle, we went back downstairs and crawled into bed. Chris and I stayed up even more talking and I think the last time I saw on my alarm clock was 3:30 AM. Ugh.

Friday morning was so gross – thick and rainy. I got to work a bit early and started my day with a half pot of coffee. I was racing the clock because I wanted to leave when Rich and Randy left, but that didn’t happen. Chris and Amy came up a little after 1 and met my coworkers and saw my office while I thought I was wrapping things up. I spent way too long trying to put together an itinerary because times kept changing. I felt awful, but at least we had magazines and they definitely occupied themselves with an umbrella. Our AIM was down, so Danielle and I passed notes…she’s too funny. I think Laura is permanently scarred after she walked out of her office as Chris squealed when an umbrella was pointed in the direction of his ass. It honestly was priceless and I saw it all happen in slow motion. Soon after we escaped and I can only wonder what will be said Monday morning in the office…

It was still gross out, but we headed down to the Lower East and SoHo to go shopping and eat anyway. I gave them a mini walking tour of the LES and my local hot spots. We were all starved so we figured we would wander till we found something. I don’t have many nyc food suggestions since the stuff I know is foreign take out, vegetarian/vegan, or super expensive and nice (work outings). We opted for Mexican and probably went to the worst Mexican place in NYC. It was…interesting. They gave us free flan. I never had flan before, nor will I ever have it again.

Afterwards we hit up the guitar shop on Ludlow and American Apparel before heading to Broadway. We were on the search for red Sauconies and rockstar clothing while dodging the raindrops. We were unsuccessful in finding the shoes, but successful in popping in random stores and finding crazy t-shirts and what we wouldn’t wear ever. Fun times. We were completely wet and gross so we headed to the PATH via Washington Park. Met up with Judy and headed to Hoboken to dry off and plan out the evening. Amy didn’t want to touch the subway pole, but she soon got over that well into Saturday.

We burnt CDs and checked out naked people on craigslist. Maryellen came over and we decided to order in Benny’s and grab a few more bottles of wine from the Bodega. We ate picnic style in my room and shared random stories of certain rock sparkles we know and September 11th. It was still so gross out and there wasn’t much going on in the ‘Boken aside from random bars and jukeboxes, we decided to stay in and play drinking games with wine. We played Asshole as the worst music videos ever played in the background on MTV hits. Ok, I am the worst when it comes to drinking games. I blame it on the lack of me playing them in college. Maryellen made a rule where we couldn’t say anyone’s name…I think we were all done for during that rule - we had Big Red/mansocks, Hoodie 1, Hoodie 2/Delaware, black shirt girl, and Boy. Around midnight we ended the game and said goodnight. I can’t remember where Chris disappeared to, but while he was gone, Amy and I skidded and slid on my hardwood floor hallway…knocking into walls and making many bruises. We then heard a loud bang from my room and Chris had totally knocked his head under one of my shelves, toppling everything to the ground. No worries…nothing broken and nothing bruised. I would have had to take that shelf down soon anyways, his noggin just did it for me. We went to bed around 1 saying how early it was and no sooner did I say how not tired I was I was completely knocked out.

Saturday
I woke up early and headed into the kitchen to knock out some work and start my morning off with some Bright Eyes while cleaning. Amy and I watched some of Live 8 (unadulterated) while Chris slept in. Around 12:30 we left for the city with a stop at Mola Coffee en route. We PATHed it to Herald Square and shopped until meeting up with Judy…still no luck on the shoes, Amy and I stalked a guy in H&M till we realized he was hot accept for his face, and now I am on the lookout for a hot jacket for Chris. We met up with Judy and hopped on the 5 which should have been the A or the C to Columbia. We walked the campus and stopped in the bookstore. I found some more books that I want, so if you want to buy me a gift, you can give me: “Killing Yourself to Live”, “How Soon is Never”,
Amy found the book on the mole people in nyc and we decided that we are going to find them.

We went through a cathedral on Amsterdam and then to a deli for lunch before heading to Central Park. We walked through Harlem where someone called Judy a bitch because…well, we don’t know why. The four of us walked from the top of Central Park to the bottom of the Park with stops at the castle and fountain along the way. The ominous cloud following us opened up gave the park a nice summer shower with only a few claps of thunder and one lightning sighting. The bathrooms were foul, but thank god for napkins, antibacterial hand wash, and body spray. We took shelter in the castle and saw a secret agent man and a cute gay couple carrying orange flowers. Amy said she felt real delicate trekking across rocks and mud in flops and a skirt. Delicate is a great word to be added to our list of us being angels and precious. We saw a guy sitting on a rock in the middle of the river and people skating to hip hop. Oh how I love Central Park. We ended up on Fifth Ave and only made it a few blocks until we were fed up with the masses and hopped on the F to 14th Street Union Square bound.

Like typical Union square, the artisans and protestors were in full force. We were on the quest for coffee and to exchange Chris’s shirts at American Apparel. Broadway was closed off for a street fair and the many smells and sights were typical NYC and I loved it…so much life and excitement around. Well, I didn’t love when the scary guy looked right at me and said, “I wanna fuck you”. My mouth dropped and I looked behind me to see if he was actually looking at me or taking to someone else and we was standing there turned around looking right at me. Who does that!!?!??! In AA the girls followed Red Sox hat into the dressing room area. Amy had some sort of mark on her ankle and wanted to get it off…we had the various sorts of antibacterial covered, but not anything to wipe it with. I told her I may have a tampon in my bag somewhere and we all nearly hurt ourselves from laughter at the site of that and for grossing Red Sox hat boy out. While cleaning her ankle she missed him walk out, but the guy behind him who walked out was semi hot, but then we figured they may be together.

We went back to the coffee shop, after Chris navigated us the correct way, we went to on Friday for…um…caffeine concoctions. Our order wasn’t hard…we ordered everything from the menu: two vanilla lattes, a chai latte, and a mocha – all iced. First she was out of vanilla so it was going to be a hazelnut latte. We’re watching her make it and we are all quite accustomed to coffee shops and what goes in drink and I don’t think she was making it right… The she tried the chai latte and asked Amy how to make it. Amy then decided after watching the vanilla lattes being made to go with a mocha. Yeah, let’s just say that they were all espresso creations. They did have fun bendy straws though and you can never go wrong with a neon bendy straw.

Afterwards we went to the CGBG’s corner to take pictures of the walk sign. I seriously have been trying to get a picture of that traffic sign since February so now I finally have it. I also got a picture of the club since it may not be there much longer L. We hopped on the 6 and ended up at the WTC site to look around and head to the South Street Seaport and Pier 17 Pavilion to look around. We took pictures of the Brooklyn coast and then tried to find the pedestrian walkway to the Brooklyn Bridge without the help of one police officer. The views from the Brooklyn Bride were awesome and it fel so good to be so out in the open and above it all. Amy streaked across Manhattan since the wind kept blowing her skirt up, so naturally she violated everyone as she walked between the two boroughs.

We made it to Grimaldi’s and didn’t stand outside for too long before going in and ordering a large pepperoni and mushroom pizza. There is a Grimaldi’s in Hoboken as well, but its just not the same as being smooshed against strangers amidst the hustle and bustle. We almost polished off two pies, then headed to the dock to take pictures of Manhattan from the Brooklyn side. Next up, Coney Island via the F train.

We were in an interesting car…complete with a guy who was very animated while using his phone, a family half asleep across from us, a family with boys showing off on the poles, and a guy with cool socks immersed in his head phones. Amy made friends with the little girl sitting next to her, though her mom snatched her away once she felt up Amy. Once the interesting people left we ran from train to train at the stops trying to find more interesting people. We almost saw a fight, but we did end up in the front car and stood right in the front window and watched the train approached Americana at it’s finest – Coney Island.

We walked all around and absorbed everything around us, I absolutely love it there. The Cyclone is the oldest wooden roller coaster in America. The warning signs were so outdated – no beepers or walkmans…that should read no cell phones or ipods. Chris and I love coasters and wanted the front, but after waiting for quite a while, we opted for the last cart. It was great, we whipped around and screamed and got lifted from our seats. Afterwards we trekked it to the beach until we heard the sounds of a…rock concert…? We see lights flash across the buildings and hoof it towards the tunes. We hopped a fence, passed the tour bus, and stood on a railing and held onto the chain link fence to see Def Leopard perform their encore. It was completely crazy, fantastic, and sounded amazing. We met up afterwards with Amy and Judy who were chilling by the bus…passing many older woman with cutoffs and men with mullets – gotta love it.

We caught the train back to Brooklyn then hung out at Judy’s for a bit. Anna and crew picked up cheesecake so we had some of that and watched Napoleon. I don’t think I put so much bad stuff into my body in one day ever. One the train back to Manhattan a really drunk guy left his phone on the train. We tried to get his attention and he acknowledged us then ignored us, so we took pictures on his cell phone. I’ll make sure he gets it this week. On the way from the metro to the PATH, Chris and I talked about what will happen in ten years if our rock star dreams fade away. I’ve had this on my mind since last weekend (see Live 8 blog). There are always options, but its so hard to stray away from what you know if you don’t succeed.

The PATH back to Hoboken was on the drunk train. Amy said she now understands why I don’t feel like I fit in haha. When we emerged back to NJ at 4:30 AM, we saw a hooker – so gross. Chris and Amy decided to drive back to MD since it was early, he’s used to it, and there will be no traffic. We said our goodbyes and they made it home in about 3 hours. And now its Sunday and I am spending it catching up on the news, emails, LDE media stuff, and apartment hunting. I had the greatest weekend since I have been here and it was wonderful. I love hanging out in the city and seeing so much that it has to offer and am so fortunate that I have friends that also enjoy adventures and discovering. And after Rand McNalleying all of our trips, we walked 12 miles yesterday.

The Sunday after live 8 – Newark and Honestly

On Sunday I met up with my mom and we went to Philly because it was such a great day out. We had some time to kill, so we went to Newark so I could visit Max and Rob – I didn’t know that they would be working, but it’s a summer Sunday at Rainbow, what would change ever? On my list to buy was the new Ryan Adams, Better than Ezra, and and old Ben Folds CD. I walk in and it felt like home. I love my store, it’s the best thing that has ever happened to me. Rainbow is deserving of its own post, but it seriously is the most important entity in my life, more so than riding ever was, more so than relationships, more so than my family aside from my mom. Rob, Max, and I caught up, and I perused the store. Rob took me to the back to show me the newest Rainbow adventure and Max showed me his new toy on a Sunday afternoon. Some things will never ever ever change and I love it. Some old customers were there and I said hi. I checked out with only one thing on my list, the new Ryan Adams, used instead of new – score!, a book on the rise and fall of fm rock radio, an old letters to cleo album on vinyl, and a heavy heart.

Ahhh, forget it – so much to write about Rainbow wonderfulness so I will do it in entirely different post. Raf and I have been emailing back and forth since I last was at the store and he told me that he was leaving Rainbow…after eleven years. He’s been with Rainbow since he was 18. I left. Charise left. Rob is leaving at the end of July…The only one left of our era from the day we opened the doors in our new location is Max. But there has always been the sense of us never really leaving. We all kinda of figured it will always be there and things with develop, but never really change. With Raf leaving, I thought nothing could make it worse…until Rob told me…that…the store is changing hands. (editors note: I just wrote that line and the first tear fell…writing my real blog about this is going to hurt like hell) He told me who and why and when and we just stood there staring at each other. It was kinda like when you have a near death experience and your life flashes before your eyes…it was like that, but everything from May 2001 flashed.

Before I could say anything, Rob said it perfectly: “Now there really is no where to turn back to”.

Still shocked, I went to the movies with my mom and we saw Bewitched. When I was younger, I was addicted to Nick and Nite and sitcoms from the fifties and sixties…Dobie Gillis, Bewitched, I Dream of Jeannie, Patty Duke, Leave it to Beaver…all of them – so I was stoked for this movie. Though it got ho-hum reviews, I enjoyed it, and I adore Will Ferrell. For dinner, we went to a Wilmington sub shop then dropped me off at Morita’s to head up with him and Judy to Asbury Park.

Naturally we stopped at Wawa for coffee and Wawa water. I sat in the front and played DJ with my ipod. I busted out some Hootie. I don’t want to hear it because you all sang along. We stopped at a rest stop and Morita left the keys in the car so I moved his car. He came back and I yelled at him for leaving the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition because we are precious and could have been stolen! Despite what they may say, I am an awesome navigator. We got to the club without being shot.

We were supposed to be guest listed, but weren’t. When Morita says we are here for Honestly, the door guy said that they already played. What!?! Both the band’s site and the venue’s site couldn’t have been wrong! But they were. And we missed the damn band. We go outside and meet up with them and talk for about a half hour. We heard what could have been gun shots and Matt and Justin immediately ducked and covered their head – too funny. Judy and I were soooo waiting for Chris to get Justin’s number. He had so many opportunities too though, since Justin told Chris that he was guest listed for life and that he can just call or email before the show. Chris later said that he didn’t because he knew that Judy and I would react. So instead of seeing them live, we listened to the CD on the way back to Hoboken.

Live 8

Live 8 was a major disappointment.

I’ll start you off with Tanya’s blog of Thursday and Friday of last week :-) (yank!):
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The past few days have been great. Thursday I went up to NYC/Hoboken to hang out with Miranda. Greyhound got me there for only $12, which is so sweet. While I was waiting for the bus, I caught up with Christie on the phone.

Thursday night, Miranda and I hung out in Hoboken. We met up with Maryellen so she could get some dinner and borrow flip flops for her bleeding feet. (Girl shoes really are ridiculous- why aren't they ever comfortable AND cute?) We also went to Ben & Jerry's and saw some guy eating an entire Vermonster. I had to walk past him quickly because if he puked, I didn't want to see or hear it. I apparently took Philly with me, because once while we were out walking there was almost a gang fight, and later on, a group of guys were trying to get our attention to talk to us: "Hey, ladies! Yo! Up in front!" Needless to say we kept walking without responding.
Friday I slept in and took the PATH to NYC. I went around a lot of stores on 5th and 6th Ave.. I almost died in CVS. I was walking down an aisle, and right after I walked past a stack of Pepsi cases that was taller than me, the whole pile crashed down exactly where I had just been. Eventually, I met up with Miranda at her office (right by the Empire State Bldg.), and she was able to leave a bit early. We went to Teany (Moby's restaurant) for dinner. Its all vegetarian and they have lots of tea, so since Miranda and I are both vegetarian tea-lovers, it was great. Then we went and did some shopping on Broadway. I got an awesome plaid skirt in H&M for only $3.15 (with tax.) Last time I was in NYC, I got my plaid pants for really cheap at H&M. I see a pattern forming...
We both admitted that we are dorks because we always think of Felicity when we see a Dean & Deluca.
It started to rain, and we were spent, so we went back to Hoboken and watched 13 Going on 30 and Spanglish. We swapped music! I got Coldplay X&Y, Ben Folds' Rockin' the Suburbs, Murder by Death, and Johnathan Rice. Miranda got the Garden State Soundtrack, The Get Up Kids, and The New Amsterdams. We did not have any tickle fights in our underwear. Judy came over later, and we all crashed.
Saturday we went to Chris Morita's Live8 party. Maryellen drove, and Judy, Miranda, and I were there too. We got there at 1, and the party started at 12, but Chris wasn't there. So, we called him, found out he had made a run, and decided to wait for him to get back before approaching the house, since we didn't know anyone else there at the time. To pass the time, we took a picture of the 4 of us with all of the booze. We had stopped at an incredible liquor store on the way. They seriously had EVERYTHING, and it was supermarket-sized. We all got girly drinks, because we are girls.
The party was fun. Chris kept hassling me to play beer pong, so I finally did, because he said I could play it with my wine coolers. (Usually beer is just fine, but not on top of 2 wine coolers in my belly.) Miranda and I were teammates, and we lost terribly.
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And my version: :-)

Tanya, Judy, Maryellen and I drove down to Cindy’s for her and Morita’s Live 8 party. Coffee and bagels in hand, it was crucial that our breakfast be accompanied by old school Green to Think. Maryellen and I sang our favorite parts loud and it was fun. We got stuck in traffic and danced for the onlookers. Because we are all girls and full of coffee, we had to stop at the first rest stop that we passed. As we were looking at the map seeing how far places are from us, Tanya spotted Josh from Omnisoul. How funny, I called him over and we chatted for a bit, then headed our respective ways towards a TV showing Live 8.

The food and drinks were plentiful at Cindy’s…which was a good and bad thing. We all congregated in the basement around the 13 inch tv and on fold out chairs as opposed to the massive tv in front of the large couch because…well, I don’t know why…maybe because of the beer pong table downstairs. Oh yeah, that was it. We tried watching Live 8 but it was continuously interrupted by the stupid MTV VJs. There was not one damn performance aired in its entirety…and each band only got 20 minutes! To make it interesting, I said that everytime that we see Bono we should drink. We also saw the Vonage commercial (wooo wooo woo woo woooo) and the snapping commercial during every commercial break.

Bored by Live 8, we busted out the beer pong. Morita and I versus Cindy and Moses…we held our own, but totally lost. At this point, I couldn’t feel my face and it was 2 pm. Obviously I do and say stupid things when I can’t feel my face, so I told everyone how Snoop could be my boyfriend if he wanted to be. We may have followed that up with going outside and I know I went on a rant about something but I totally can’t remember what. I wasn’t obliterated, just giddy. I remember us all yelling at the TV multiple times. Tanya and I played beer pong and totally lost again…I think we needed our happy dance from the night we played at Derek’s old apartment. Morita lost his shoes.

Morita also passed out on the floor and when he woke up I said that he should try to ride the fire truck. A kiddie fire truck. He got in and I pushed and no one got hurt. I got in, he pushed me around, and I fly out and fall on my ass. I also tried the green inch worm, but there was no riding that thing. Next up, the spring horse. It was tempting us all afternoon, but after the 63rd time hearing the vonage commercial, it was time to ride that pony! Oh I got on and yippie tie yie yayed (as did Judy). Fourteen years of formal riding leads to my drunk ass bouncing on a spring horse.

Judy and I owned at beer pong annihilating all of our opponents. It was all about the love tap. We dubbed ourselves “Queens of the Beer Pong”. Original, I know. Tanya and Maryellen had left by then, leaving the wine coolers that none of us drink, so we used them. Uggghhhh…I swear I just had no more room for booze! The neon orange sugary cocktails just weren’t sitting well with us, nor for our losing opponents at the end of the game.

We played pool afterwards and I got super lucky despite my left hand playing, though I was responsible for every game we lost. I talked with Dave and Janene while the foosball game was going on because I know I absolutely suck at that. Afterwards, two decks of cards were busted out and Asshole began. Apparently I am the slowest shuffler known to the game, thus I was forced to drink a lot. And I also lost a lot, I had strategy and bad luck. Morita is going to hate me. He got up and disappeared. Since I was the Asshole, I had to go and check on him…getting sick in the bathroom (blame the wine coolers mixed with his good beer) and we decided the find our beds for the evening.

Judy and I took two of the couches in one of the living rooms as Chris slept on the floor on the air mattress in between us. We were talking about the next day (we were going to see Honestly at Asbury Park) and our plans. To fill you in… Morita is really into Honestly and its great, we all are and we give him props to bringing them in our lives, but its funny because he’ll go disappear in their green rooms and get us guestlisted, so we taunt him saying that he does naughty things with them and say he has a boy crush on the band, though it’s all in good clean fun. So the three of us are talking about the band and Chris busts out with, “man, I HAVE to get Justin’s number”. There was a slight pause, then Judy and I ROARED with laughter. He so didn’t mean it in a scandalous way, but of course that is how we took it. And on that note, we went to bed.

Rockstar visits and LDE in Hartford (end of June)

The guys were out of the office and the first phone call I got from Rich was about how my management company caused an uproar in Cincy. Too funny. Details can’t be written publicly, but nonetheless, it was a good way to start the day. Craziness as usual ensued pretty much nonstop. Apparently it was “call Miranda on her cell while she is at work day” – I got calls from my mom, Tom, and John while trying to finish up everything for the weekend. Thanks guys :-P.

As I was nearing my sprint towards the end of the day, John Faye called to say he was out of the studio and on the way to my work. He met my coworkers and waited as I closed everything up. We walked through the city as I caught him up on our mutual friends and he shared with me his adventures in the class that he is teaching. We hailed a cab and headed over to check out Omnisoul in the recording studios. They’re hardcore working at Avatar for about 13 hours a day barely seeing sunlight. Trust me, it will be so well worth it. It was great seeing them again and while they are creating their magic. They introduced us to their production team and its evident that they are all working very well together – this album is going to be incredible. Shawn showed me his new guitar, wrong color and all. Honey blonde is not orange. Jamie has finger cymbals at home in NJ…time to send an intern! They were trying to create a sequence for an intro to a song and Derek and Greg had it in their heads, but couldn’t recreate it. Jamie was rocking out with the various sounds and on the keys trying, but to no avail. I also learned their secret term for the factor of work put into something for the outcome.

After our extended visit, John and I hit up a Thai place in Hells Kitchen and chatted about IKE’s album release. So much mirandaband excitement is coming up, strap in kids. We tried to meet up with JJ in the studios (he is recording as well) but we ran late. Dan had also texted saying he was coming into town, so the plan was to ride to the train station with John, meet up with Judy, and see Dan when he came in.

Judy and I said our hellos to Dan and Sarah then headed back to the ‘Boken since Saturday was going to be a long day and we had baking to do. I was telling her of my crazy week and we totally got turned around in Manhattan and walked 15 minutes out of our way. When finally in Hoboken, we were followed by a creepy guy who wanted to go home with us and I almost got hit by a car…a few times.

We put on one of the movie channels, brought out the laptop to exchange music, and busted out the baking gear. See, I can’t really cook, but I can bake…kinda. The eggs may have been bad, but I told Judy they would be fine because anything bad in them will just be baked off. I also almost caught the paper towels on fire and left the butter melting on the stove and came back to a sticky yellow mess on the stove top. Naturally we had to taste everything before packing it away and everything tasted ok.

In the morning we had some time to kell before picking up the car so we made these coffee milkshake blended things from Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf while watching “Along Came Polly” on tv. While Judy was in the shower, Phil called telling me that he has no pants. This statement first caught me off guard, as if I need to know that he doesn’t have pants with him…until he said they were near Delaware and needed a place to buy pants.

We met up with Anna at the PATH and destinated to Newark to pick up our rental car. Well, with a few steps in between. We had to walk to the PATH, take the PATH to Newark Penn Station, take a train to the Airport, then pick up our car. Or so we thought. We get to the train station and this bitchy lady who was totally out of it sold us tickets for a train that was soon departing (and should have known it would have left before we got there). We kept asking her if we would be able to make it as the tickets were printing out, and she kept saying yes. We had our tickets in hand and RAN to the train gate…straight out of a movie haha. And we miss our train. So we took a bus instead through the heart of Newark.

We got hit on many times walking to the rental car place:
“hey girls, wanna hang out tonight?” “nooo thanks, not tonight” “not EVER!”

We got a super sexy silver grand am…but…could it be…? I saw something underneath the rearview mirror…a STAFF STICKER! Oh how perfect! Oh we’ll show that sticker how we roll and that there will be fun to be had. Oh and since this starts the travel part of the road journal…someone said that if I were to write about certain things, I would have to use pseudonyms. And there was also a comment of “whats happens in this car, stays in this car”.

Before destinating to Connecticut we went to our usual Dunkin Donuts for caffeine. Why did I order a large? What possessed me to order the massive size? Who knows, but within an hour I was in the fetal position in the co-pilot seat. We sat in traffic but rocked out to mix cds and my fabulous ipod. I played the most random things…such as Avril and Kelly…along with Coolio and Outkast. We did listen to our Honestly song at least four times. Half the trip was spent talking about the Virginia trip and we remembered how Jay almost his eye when a pine cone flew in the car and hit his face. Ok, maybe it wasn’t a pine cone, but it sure wasn’t an apple like he said it was. Sorry Jay, but that was really funny. I think I hyperventilated from laughing so much.

My favorite part of driving up north is riding past the sailboats on the Connecticut coast. I thought we would pass them so for much of our coast drive, I hung out the window waiting for the boats, but they never came. We were not too far away from the venue when we turned into a rest stop and changed. Too funny, we were there for about a half hour as we changed into night clothes, did something to our hair, and put on makeup. We had the whole shelf covered with girly stuff and each one of us borrowed something from the other. We have a picture, but Angela has it I think.

We got to the venue totally on our own since Mapquest sucked and there were detours. Judy went the wrong way down a road, but that’s ok since our car said that we were from Maine. We met up with Morgan and proceeded into the empty room and played catch up with the guys. Phil and I planned more into our rock takeover.

The Brickyard was also host of Sausage Fest 2005. Chris mentioned that once the band went on stage, the girls were left wide open for the taking. We took that challenge by grabbing a table right up front so that the creepies wouldn’t see that we weren’t there to socialize.

We got the usuals...I needed cash back at CVS that morning so I needed to buy something…bubbles are always fun, so I got a six pack. Obviously there were put to use during In the Water. Laid by James was thrown in for good measure. I went to the hip hop room with Johnnie and Donnie during the set break and Johnnie tried to teach me how to dance. Phil bought me drinks and Rusty got the best dressed award.

Another half hour long Two Step. I had time to go to the bathroom twice, visit the hip hop room, and walk around the venue. ADD at its finest. I would much rather have less Two Step and more LDE. We did get the pleasure of having Phil use a milk crate as aux percussion. We did hear a new song, Fingerprints which reminded me of something though I can't recall it now. Birmingham was more put together and dynamic since the last time I heard it live.

After the show I helped them carry equipment downstairs while talking to Doug, Johnnie, and Phil. They never cease to make fun of me, and Doug is always up to enlightening me on his observations. I cringe when I think of what may be said in the van, especially since Johnnie seems to remember everything I have ever said since I met him Jan. 15th -either he has a really good memory, or people talk! There are no secrets in rock. And of course Phil tells me the same thing that he has for the past three years…of course, maybe there are some secrets in rock! Some things never ever change.

We stopped at a the only rest stop open in Connecticut to get sustenance. Anna and Angela crashed in the back and Judy and I kept ourselves awake by listening to CDs over and over again because we were too tired to change them. Got back to Hoboken and searched for parking forever. Finally got to bed around 6:30 AM.