Heck Yeah Summer!

I know this is a really stupid looking picture, but whatever. The point is, this picture is from.... ready?

Warped Tour!

That’s right folks, I went to my first Warped Tour this year! For those of you who don’t know what it is, it’s very simple: it’s a tour. With bands. The end. The girls and I have been planning on going together for an extremely long time now, but it didn’t quite end up working out that way. On the way up to Salt Lake, it was me, Brianna, Chanelle, her boyfriend Kelin, and my friend Carter. It was kind of a random thing to have Carter there, but he really wanted to get a ride up, so we were willing to tote him along.

We decided that we’d rather go up on Friday (the concert was on Saturday) than get up at like 5 am on Saturday to go, so everyone loaded up Chanelle’s van (which, by the way, is the only vehicle I ever want to take on a road trip again. It is AWESOME) after I got off work on Friday and headed on up! My dear sweet kind loving brother Keith and his equally fantastic wife Rachelle were gracious enough to allow me and my four friends stay in their house for the night. It was really kind of a last minute thing, so I really appreciate them putting up with us, despite my lack of planning. (:

The next day, the boys (Carter, Kelin, and Keith) stayed at the house while Rachelle, Brianna, Chanelle, and I headed for the Gateway to do some shopping, since Chanelle had never been there. We met up with Chelsea while shopping, and eventually were able to successfully kill a couple of hours before Warped Tour started at 11. When the time came, we all headed back to the house, said our goodbyes to our incredible hosts, and took the van to the fairgrounds. For some reason, we decided to park the van behind someone’s house that was offering parking for $7. I’m really not sure why we chose to park in a sketchy lookin back yard, when there was a perfectly good parking lot at the fairgrounds, and it only cost $5. Weird.

I wish I could literally relive the entire day for you. It was just so incredible! Some of the bands I ended up seeing (if you don’t recognize some or any of the following names, don’t feel bad) Hey Monday, Every Time I Die, Reel Big Fish, Fake Problems (more on that later), Riverboat Gamblers, Andrew W.K., The Cab, Mayday Parade (also more on that later), and probably a lot more. And in between shows, you could always walk around to the bands booths, buy their stuff, and possibly meet the band. Or if you were REALLY lucky, you and your friends would just be strollin around and have some guy come up to you and start talking ridiculously fast about why smoking sucks, then find out he works for the anti-smoking TRUTH campaign. He was funny. (: And after only a minute or five of our time, we ended up getting free shirts and suspenders!

So about Fake Problems. Recently, they’ve become one of my favorite bands. They just have a really unique sound, and the guy has a crazy sounding voice, but in a good way. They also wrote the song "Heck Yeah Summer", which this post is named. They have another one that's awesome and it's called "Life's A Drink, Get Thirsty!" Anyways, Chelsea, Brianna, and I were just walking around enjoying the essence of Warped Tour when I heard a familiar voice. Lo and behold, Fake Problems! I had no idea they were going to be there. So we went to their stage, and there were only like 20 other people there, if that. So we were very close to the stage. So close, in fact, that while I got some video footage of it on my phone, you can see in the video that the lead singer (Chris Farren I think is his name) like acknowledge the fact that I’m taking video and play it up. It’s sweet! So I just have this video of him pretty much singing to me. Meanwhile, there was a guy walking around selling their latest album for $5. I thought “well I’m just going to buy this eventually, where it’ll probably be like $10. Might as well get it now.” So I did. After their set was over, we went back to their tent/booth thing just to see what kind of shirts they had, and what did I find instead? Chris Farren and Derek Perry (bassist)! I asked them to please sign my CD, and they were very excited to do so. Then, looking around and seeing that there wasn’t really anyone else at all interested in meeting these fellows, I asked if they took pictures. They both smiled real big and said “Well yeah! We’d love to take a picture with you!” So Mr. Perry moved aside the assortment of shirts to let me behind the table and into the booth, and we got this sweet picture!

Seriously, those guys were so cool. I hope they're at Warped Tour next year.

This was the CD i had them sign. The album is It's Great To Be Alive.

MAN I love those guys! That made the entire trip for me. They were really sweet, too. And I’m just gonna say this, but I did not expect Chris Farren to be that hot. Judging from his voice, I thought he’d be just like this grubby middle-aged man. But he can’t be older than MAYBE his mid-twenties, and he was very clean shaven and attractive. The guy from The Cab, on the other hand—total opposite. He has a really sexy voice, but looks like a cross between Justin Timberlake and an Ewok. (The JT part isn’t really a compliment.)

This is Fake Problems performing. If you can see Chris Farren's face up close, he looks just like my friend Keith. It's awesome. (:

We had predetermined that we were going to leave after Mayday Parade performed at 6, because a couple of people in our group needed to get home ASAP for various reasons. That story is a good one… Mayday Parade was one of the most popular bands at Warped Tour, so I’m really not sure why they didn’t get the main stage. Anyways, I sacrificed seeing Anarbor just so I could get to the stage that Mayday Parade would play on like half an hour early. First mistake. I got a liiiiiittle too close to the front, so I had the entire weight of everyone behind me shoving me into the people in front of me when the band came out. That was awesome and all, but also quite stressful. At one point, the lead singer said that he would give a high-five to any crowd surfers who made it to the front. That created a frenzy of people jumping on top of the crowd, most of them bashing me in the head/face with their nasty concert feet. At one point, some guy tried to pick me up and throw me on top of the crowd but I wasn’t havin any of that nonsense. After the first song, Brianna and I just had to move back. We ended up somewhere in the middle of the crowd which ended up not being too bad. Other than the whole “do I have a black eye from that one?” thing, the concert was pretty rad. Everyone was singing along and being awesome… man I love Mayday Parade. (:

We did leave after them, which ended up sucking for me, because Dropkick Murphys was at like 8, and they ended up being a sick concert. They did “Shipping Up to Boston” and “The Dirty Glass”, which are two of my favorite songs by them. Also, they allowed some fans to get up on the stage with the band at one point, two of which were my friends Chasen and Jod. But still, we had a fun drive home, which Chelsea came on this time. (:

Conclusion: Warped Tour is definitely something to look forward to next summer.

P.S. I move next week. Whoo!

Only in a small town would you see a repairman using a tractor to deliver your refrigerator. Good grief.

Fly.

It’s common knowledge that certain songs remind different people of particular events, time periods, other people, feelings, relationships, whatever. It never ceases to amaze me at what kinds of things a certain song can dredge up from the deepest corners of my mind and soul. Examples:

1: Any song from “A Muppet Christmas Carol” will send me hurling back in time until I land on my couch on 307 E. 14^th St. on Christmas Eve, getting pumped for the next morning. It has been proven that if I don’t watch that movie at least once during the month of December, I literally will not get into the Christmas Spirit. At. All.

2: “The Hotel Song” by Regina Spektor will always and forever remind me of Carley and Chelsea singing that song on every single softball trip we ever went on as freshmen. For some reason, they latched onto that song like it was candy, invented dance moves and everything to go with it, and sang it on every trip. I had that song memorized before I ever even heard the version done by Regina Spektor herself.

3: “My Life Would Suck Without You” will, in my mind, always belong to Rhees. This Kelly Clarkson single was released during the first EdNet class I had with him, and he sang it pretty much every single day. What a guy.

4: “The Longer the Waiting” by Josh Turner, “Kiss Me Thru The Phone” by Soulja Boy Tell ‘Em (don’t judge, please), and “Vanilla Twilight” by Owl City were the three most prominent songs in a long-distance relationship that I had a while ago. Whenever one of these sneak up on me when I’m not expecting it, I tend to start thinking about the person with whom I had this relationship, which is never, ever a good thing for me to do in excess. So every time I hear one of these songs, I usually have to skip it if I can because they tend to bum me out for obvious reasons.

5: “Paper Planes” by M.I.A. was the favorite song of the summer of 2008. That was the last summer that Ashley, Nikiah and I were together. Nikiah moved that fall, and Ashley and I kind of had a falling out the following summer of 2009. Ever since then, nothing has ever been the same. But that summer, the three of us were together constantly. And one of our favorite activities was to drive my big green Dodge Dakota around town and blast this song, attempting to sing along, even though we didn’t know what most of the words were even saying. To this day, I can’t sing along with this song without doing the hand motions that Ashley and I invented.

Moving on: my inspiration for this blog is to be blamed on Sugar Ray. A few days ago, I was just messin around on iTunes and found “Fly” by Sugar Ray. All I had to do was think about the chorus in that song, and I was taken back. For some reason, whenever I hear this song I get this image of me sitting on the floor of the girls’ bedroom in Lumberton playing with Barbie dolls while Sarah’s radio was on. Basically, “Fly” by Sugar Ray is the song of the ‘90s for me. You’d think it’d be something by the Backstreet Boys or Ricky Martin or the Spice Girls or Britney Spears or N’Sync or any number of other overplayed pop artists of the ‘90s that would be engrained into my tiny 6-year-old brain for the rest of my life. But no, it was that one song. I’m pretty sure I even remember the music video.

Anyway, I was just thinking about that song and how it can somehow force my entire childhood’s worth of memories into four minutes and fifty-three seconds, and it seemed like a good thing to share. Now for feedback: what songs remind you of particular events? Stages in your life? Holidays? Relationships? Please, share. (:

Decisions decisions.

I wish I knew what to do with myself. As of right now, I am an undeclared major. Brianna is a science major, Chelsea is a psychology major, Carley is majoring in something to do with humanities/service or something like that… I don’t think Chanelle has a declared major yet. But still! My point is, I am way too indecisive. Let’s take a journey throughout my past “dream careers”, shall we? I’ll go in chronological order, assuming I can remember all of them.

The first profession I remember wanting to pursue was to be a kindergarten teacher. But that was around the time when I was actually in kindergarten, and I thought we were the bomb dot com. Fast forward about thirteen years, and I can’t stand any children that I have no direct connection to. For instance: offspring of family members, younger siblings of friends, kids in my ward, my own kids [eventually]… that’s about it. Other than that, I pretty much don’t dig kids.

Next, I wanted to do nothing but be a marine biologist. But that was before I knew exactly what “biologist” even meant. I just saw “Zeus and Roxanne” and decided that all I wanted to do with my life was play with dolphins. It was a good idea at the time, but then a certain sibling of mine who shall remain nameless (I’ll let you all stew in the guilt of wondering if it was you) told me that when you’re a marine biologist, you have to dissect dolphins. That was the end of that dream.

I did have a brief phase when I wanted to be a car mechanic. That was also my Mustang obsession phase, so I think we can see the connection there.

Another short commitment to plans was when I wanted to be a radio DJ. I still think that’d be freaking sweet, and I would have a hard time saying no if the opportunity was literally thrown in my face. But I don’t have a whole lot of motivation to go out of my way to pursue that particular career.

A few years ago, I began weighing the options that psychology would give me. I considered being a school counselor/therapist, child psychologist, and the most recent version was Marriage & Family Counseling. That was actually very recently, to the point where I’m already signed up to take Psychology 1110 at school, and it is my top choice to major in. (Psychology, that is.)

Unfortunately, my own relationship problems kind of shut down most of my hopes of being able to fix other peoples’ relation issues in a professional setting. Ah well. A few weeks ago, I began wondering what it would be like to open and own my own coffee shop. Yes, I did just make a post about how sick I am of my job, but that’s not my point. I just love the idea of owning my own shop, but I don’t know how realistic it would be. For one, I don’t drink coffee, so I wouldn’t be much good in being able to judge how good my own products would be. For another, a certain parent of mine who shall remain nameless pointed out that a huge majority of restaurants fail within the first two years. Plus, I would have to get a business degree, which I’m not sure I’d have a whole lot of motivation to do.

And that leads us to now, where I am wondering what kind of schooling it would take to become a makeup artist. Yes, I know that’s cliché for a teenage girl to say, but whatever. It struck me today while I was watching “America’s Next Top Model” and “What Not to Wear” with Chelsea that all I ever look at when I watch TV and movie is the makeup on the people on there. I mean, my favorite part of “WNtW” is when Carmendie gets to transform people with makeup. A common misconception by people, especially those who believe that they don’t want to cover up their “real selves” is that makeup does just that: cover up who you are. But the truth is, makeup is not made to change the way you look. It is designed to enhance the natural beauty that you already have. It only begins to hurt your image when you abuse it, like wearing way too much eyeliner or foundation or whatever. See? I guarantee no one could care about this nearly as much as I do, but that’s because I really like it. So as of this moment right now, my “dream job” is to be a makeup artist on some kind of show, be it a sitcom, reality show, game show, the news, etc. I like the idea of being able to bring out someone’s beauty that they already have, and I’ve already had some experience with friends. Shoot, I’m practically already a professional! Now, my only problem is to figure out a major to fit this dream career, and to see if I can stick out this drive until I know for sure if I really want to it or not… /:

Long time coming.

For the past two years, I have been one of those obnoxious people that hear someone else complaining about their job, then I'd jump in and say "Ha! Sucks for you! My job is the bomb dot com!" However, the magic of being a barista in a small town has slowly, but surely been wearing off over time. Ever since I began working full-time again (well, as full time as I can get, considering the hours), I've started to realize how much I would rather be home sleeping. Or eating. Or running. Or doing anything other than working. It's not that I don't like the people I work with (they're really actually pretty cool), and I still like what I do, and I've always hated European tourists that don't speak English, so that can't be the difference... I don't know. I wonder if I'm just impatient to move and just go to school full time. I'm getting pretty antsy.

I think part of my problem is that I have an awful lot of pet peeves that are making work a very stressful place for me to be. As some of you may know, I'm a very irritable person. Some of my work pet peeves are:

--When the door to the pastry case gets left open.
--When the steampots don't get rinsed out right away.
--When there are espresso grounds left all over the counter.
--Seeing coffee drips on the cupboard doors.
--When people expect me to wait on them, when there is a sign above the register clearly stating "ORDER HERE."
--Having to bus tables. That is not my job.
--Customers who don't speak English, and refuse to even try.
--Dishwater that has food floaties in it. Gross.
--Annoying music.

I really do have issues with getting irate very easily. But oh well... what can ya do? Only like 5 or 6 more weeks, then I get to go to college and blow all the money I have worked so hard for. Yay.

Big fan.

For the past several months, two of my friends have been embarking on an adventure called---making a band. These two friends then collected another friend of mine, so now there are three band members, and this band happens to be called...

Is that abusing my former power as Student Body Public Relations officer and the use of the school marquee? Perhaps. But it was worth it, because that is my favorite band! These guys are really talented, and I love to just chill with them whenever they have a "jam session." However, due to certain circumstances, their fame and glory will have to be postponed for approximatly two years. But let me tell you what, they're gonne be sooooomethin else when they come home. Here's to Member This Day. (:

(This is only the two original members of the band. The third one is currently in Michigan, and will be there for the next month. Bleh.)

I love you guys. (:

Chupacabra fiiiiiiight!!!

I know, I know, I KNOW I suck at blogging! But you see... I'm extremely lazy, and have been ultra busy the past... however long it's been since I posted last. And while I do feel bad about not telling y'all about my awesome sauce senior trip, and also about graduation (which the majority of people who read this blog actually attended)... I'm afraid i feel disinclined to fill you in now. Sorry, but like I said... I'm kind of a bum. /:

In other news! I got my laptop, finally. Thanks to everyone who sent me dollars for graduation, because that's what paid for this feller. It's so cute though! Let's take a look, shall we?

See? Cute things. (: Anyways, I've been playin with it pretty much every spare second I have. But really, can you blame me?

Anyways, I s'pose I'll give you an update while I'm at this blogging thing. Like I said, I graduated last month, so I'm kinda just chillin for the time being. Well... not entirely. I'm still working at the little coffee shop that I've been at since two summers ago. As of last Friday, I am now the longest standing employee there. /: Yikes. I'm pretty much working every day, with a few exceptions throughout the summer that allow me to have vacation/college orientation/dentist appointments/dates. Yes, brothers, dates. I'm eighteen, get over it. (;

I'll be moving/headed to college in August, by the way. I got lucky and was able to coerce--I mean work it out with a girl in my ward to room with me at school so I don't have to be with a random stranger. However, I have found out the names of the other two girls that will be living in our apartment, and I've never met either one of them. /: Ah well, it's an adventure, right? I'm really excited to go to school, though. As of now, my classes are as follows:

--French 1010 (I am really, really excited for this class...!)
--Math 1010 (Not so much this one.)
--University Studies 1000 (It's a required freshman course)
--Psychology 1110 Lifespan Development
--Library Media (Also a required freshman course. It's mostly online.)

I was in Art 1050, which is an Introduction to Photography class and I was SO pumped for it! Buuuut I had like 18 credit hours... a full load is 15. /: And since I am an undeclared major trying to decide between Psychology and potentially French, I figured I should probably keep those classes. And it'd be a bad idea to drop math, so there went photography. ): Ah well... perhaps I'll take it another year. One of the main reasons I wanted to take it in that particular time slot anyways was so that I could be in a class with someone I knew, because my friend Matt is in there.

Well folks, that's about all I've got for the time being. I think I might be better about blogging now that I have a fun new toy to blog on, but we'll see how that actually goes.