Blogger you've been good to me for the last 7 months, but honestly there's more going on over at Tumblr. Please don't take it personally.

By the way there's a sale at work...so if you need any tennis gear this is the place for you!




Other than that, it's been nice knowing you! I won't forget the time we've shared.

Hokay so there's the agenda:

Saturday: The Status at The Cobalt in Canoga Park. Yeah, I'm excited, and yeah, Canoga Park...wayy out in the boondocks, meaning we'll get home late as heck. Which is perfect considering I have to be up at like...oh 5am the next day maybe?

Sunday: 8am flight from Long Beach to Bostonnn! First time to the East Coast woop! [pensacola florida does not count]

Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday: Exploring Boston on my own part of the time while my mom is in meetings Tuesday and with my mom when she's free.

Wednesday: Flight in the late afternoon/early evening to New York City!

Thursday/Friday: Mild sightseeing in the city =) We don't plan on doing anything too extreme [i.e. statue of liberty] that would take too much time because we're only there for a couple days, but I think it'll be a nice little trip.

We fly home Saturday mid-morning. I have a feeling this will be quite the whirlwind of a trip!

I really really love this movie.


Once

I may have to watch it now. Or maybe Fight Club special features. It could really go either way...

I'm not sleeping well lately. It's really messing with me because I'm habitually waking up around 10:30 or 11 which is a good 2 hours or so after I normally wake up. I think I need a new mattress. Or some really really really good sleeping pills. But I think a mattress is a better option than drugs.


I just wanna sleep darn it!

Goodnight Sunrise - Leave the Ground

This video has finally seen the light of day. I edited it on a whim back at the beginning of July basically because I was bored. Didn't know if anything would ever come of it but editing makes me happy so there ya go. Dan was updating their Myspace today and voila...it is now on their page.

Check these guys out at myspace.com/goodnightsunrise.

That is all. =)

Not it's not...Dan has also been working really hard on getting these tour videos posted so you should watch those too:





And heyyy while I'm at it, go spend your money on their new EP, Stop, Drop, & Roll. The song in the live video compilation montage thing is on it as well as the songs in the tour videos. Well worth your money!

Okay, THAT is all.

I also need to buy running shoes. Before the end of summer I want to go for a run on the peninsula in the morning.

I really need to get my butt in gear and finish my study abroad application...more specificaly, the essay. Hmph. It's so hard to write a paper in the middle of summer though!!

In other news, I'm completely obsessed with This Providence right now.





2.5 weeks until The Status is back! They're playing in Canoga Park on Saturday the 12th, then bright and early on Sunday I leave for Boston!

One year ago today I was at The Roxy seeing Bidwell for the first time. At this point I've seen them something ridiculous like 17 times. I can't believe it's been a whole year. They are an awesome group of guys and their music is so awesome it's retarded. In a good way. Check them out at myspace.com/bidwell and if you ever have a chance to see them live take it...if you know what's good for you.

Today was a really nice day. Work was fine. Incredibly boring but there were no catastrophes in the snack bar. Only 2 and a half more weeks! After work Laura and I met Matty in Huntington because he's down with some friends for the week. Walked around a bit and out to the water. I'm also excited for an upcoming trip to the East Coast that just sprung up out of nowhere. My mom is going to Boston on business, so I'll go with her and we'll go to NYC too. I've never been to the right coast...should be fun!

This music video for Strawberry Swing is simply amazing!



And here's a little explanation of how they filmed it... crazy!

I took this picture at the Getty Museum a couple weeks ago. Something about it makes me really happy. It just feels so, I don't know, free.

In a perfect world...

We'd get paid to film music videos and would use live videos for networking. But the world isn't perfect, now is it?

This last year has felt different. It's as if there's a hole that has almost been filled by new experiences and new people, but there is a hole nonetheless. I think what's missing is travel. During 2007 and 2008 my family and I went to 13 Blue Angels airshows, meaning we were traveling, on average, every other month. I miss going places. I miss airplanes. I miss the excitement of stepping out of the airport or car into a place I'd never been before [even if it was as mundane as El Centro, CA]. I miss airshows and the thrill of feeling the power of the jet engines pulse through your chest. I miss the glimpses of Navy life on both the personal and official, governmental level. This time last year I would have been heading to Seattle in a couple of weeks, then Chicago a week or so after that.

I want to go back.



In August I'm going to Salinas with the Mannixes to see the Blue Angels for the first time since October. It will be strange to have Kevin on the ground with us now that he doesn't have the keys to the #1 jet. I have a feeling that, rather than appeasing my appetite, this airshow will only make me hungry for more. More planes [I like airplanes]... and more travel.


I want to go back

This looks goooood too...

This is completely mind-blowing. These people possess a level of musical/general genius that I can hardly fathom.

Sleep District needs to play a show again...like right now.



"The Lauras are here tonight!" haha. I feel special.

I woke up this morning not really expecting anything extraordinary of the day. Had plans to go to The District with Laura and Jen because The Bolts were playing some acoustic set and we try to make it to their local shows when we can. Amanda was going to try to come along too. Other than that, it was looking like a pretty ordinary, blah day. Well while we were parking Laura found something written somewhere I would never have expected it to be written. Made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside and if I were an emotional person I probably would have shed a tear or two. Something to definitely add to the previous blog. Hold on a sec...lemme collect myself...okay, moving on...we made it to the District Promenade or whatever and were waiting for The Bolts, and although I had seen Shanna's car while we were walking in, I didn't see any of the guys anywhere. Turns out there were two stages set up and this was some kind of Surfrider Foundation hosted event. Yep. The Bolts played on the other end of the Promenade. Oh well, we were able to say hi to Austin and Heath at least. By a stroke of really random, good luck, turns out Iglu & Hartly were playing today also. Incredibly unexpected and really weird because we had just listened to them in the car [yep Megan, you're successfully infusing me with those musical tidbits you throw out here and there]. It was cool to see them live...not what I expected. Very beachy vibe. After their set we headed over to the Marketplace to see Harry Potter [finally!]. I had heard mixed reviews about it, but I truly enjoyed this installment. I was pretty unhappy with the earlier films, but I thought this one really did the book justice. [Admittedly this could be somewhat related to the fact that I VAGUELY remember anything about this book, therefore I probably didn't notice when certain things were omitted...whatever]. So today ended up being a pretty good one, and I just finished it off with some breadsticks from Pat&Oscars. Basically if today had been the crappiest of all crap days those breadsticks would have made it an awesome day anyways. The end.






In other news...I'm trying to make plans for something and I REALLY hope it works out. Especially after seeing that written there today.

So basically I've realized that my life has changed quite significantly in the last year. This might have seemed natural upon starting my first year of college, but living at home and commuting to a university that's less than 10 miles from my house really preempted any huge changes from happening. Instead this change started on July 12, 2008, when Amanda invited me to come along to Chain Reaction to see our childhood friends play a show with their band, The Bolts. I had never heard of this place, nor had I ever been to a concert before [not even one]. I had also never met this girl with the same name as me who happened to come with us. I'd definitely heard about her before and knew she did gymnastics with Natalie, but at that point she was just some random chick who stole my name. [Yeah, well, a year later we're Dolores/Laura#1 and #2, LauraBlonde and LauraBrown/The Lauras. Never would have seen that coming.] In the coming months we went to countless more concerts, thus contributing to my now fairly well-developed sense of direction [at least in SoCal...]. In October we decided to start a business of sorts [Listen&Love], and although we're not exactly making millions here, it does serve as a nice way to contribute to the music community while also fueling our mutual interest in video production/editing. Unexpectedly, through L&L we have made friends from all over the country, something I wouldn't trade for the world. [I have also met some really incredible people through CRU at school, and in the fall it will be interesting to see these relationships develop more.] Something I've been noticing more and more is the fact that the world really is shrinking and seems to implode a little every day. It is baffling to see how simultaneously expansive and interconnected the music industry is. But anyways, my life does not even remotely resemble what it looked like one year ago. If I had been asked back then what I thought the next year might hold I would NEVER have though I would be:

- a concert addict. let's just be honest here...however my show frequenting has significantly declined with the shrinking of my wallet. hey, I'm just more picky now ;)
[From absolutely zero concerts in my entire life to 86 in a year [over half of which were free. win!]]
- connected to some really awesome people across the country
- recognized as 1/2 of The Lauras anywhere from Sacramento to San Diego...not gonna lie, it's a little trippy sometimes
- willingly guest listed [no bribes necessary] to Warped Tour [and other shows which need not be mentioned so as to emphasize the excitingness of the fact that I was on the ataris' guest list]
- the survivor of a most excellent california adventure during which I...Slept on 2 couches / Stayed in a million + dollar house / Saw 17 friends / Met 15 people ...and 2 cats / Went to the Shine Drum Co / Ate Indian food for the first time / Threw plastic darts at a 7 year old / Watched 9 movies and 4 tv shows / Drove 1,500 miles, only filling up the tank 3 times
- On Twitter
- or Myspace for that matter... I had always regarded it as a cesspool of creepers and child abducters. I have yet to be creeped upon or abducted. Fingers crossed for another year of safety!
-



- Incredibly more open minded and willing to meet new people


In reality this list is much longer, but my brain is mush and incapable of recalling every detail of the last year which deserves to be mentioned. Maybe I'll add later. The long and the short of it is I've done some growing in the last year. A lot of growing. I'd like to say that for the most part I'm the same person, but in all honesty I know I've changed a lot as a result of all of the above. In a way I think I've become addicted to all this change.


I'll say right now that a year from today, if all goes as planned, my life is going to look even more different. I don't know, something about living in another country for 4 months just speaks change to me.

Last summer I joined a Facebook group called "The Tour de France Dominates My Month of July"...and it's true. The Tour started on Saturday, and I've watched it every day since then. I'm not really sure what I love so much about the Tour, whether it's the sheer intensity of a month long race through my favorite country in the world, the fact that I'm fortunate enough to have seen a few stages personally, or an inherent interest stemming from my parents' history with cycling. Whatever the reason, the Tour really does make me happy. This year is particularly interesting because Lance Armstrong is back after leaving the Tour for 4 years. [Side note: While there is much speculation and accusations of doping, I really can't believe that a man who came so close to death during his battle with cancer would ever willingly harm his body in such a way. And although I do not support the decisions he's made in his personal life, nobody's perfect.] I think I will always hold a certain amount of admiration for Lance based on the fact that his participation in the 2001 Tour was an inspiration for my dad, who was fighting his own cancer at the time [the same cancer Lance had], and ultimately led to my parents' decision to raise money for the Lance Armstrong Foundation, which led us to Austin, Texas so my parents could ride with Lance in the Ride for the Roses. In the summer of 2002 we found ourselves in Europe, where we were able to watch 3 stages of the Tour de France [including the final stage on the Champs Elysees in Paris]. Hopefully one day I'll make it to another stage...it really is a pretty amazing experience to find a spot to park yourself, wait for hours [meanwhile befriending the people around you- somehow we actually came into contact with a lot of Americans], and finally see a blur of colors pass you by, maybe catching a glimpse of the yellow jersey in the middle of the bunch. I guess for me the Tour is a symbol of hope. The riders clench the fleeting hope that they might have a chance to continue from one stage to the next. For the people of France, this hope lies in the long-standing tradition of a hellacious bike race through the heart of their country. For my family [and for countless others I'm sure] this hope lies in the message of perseverance conveyed by those men crazy enough to partake on a 21 day, 2,100 mile bike race.

viva le tour <3

Laura just brought a certain video to my attention which, quite frankly, makes me sick to my stomach [not just because of the erratic panning and jerkyness]. And the sad thing is this video is not alone in the world. There are others, many others, which similarly affect me in such a negative way. It really frustrates me when people who have access to high-quality cameras and equipment simply don't know how to use them and end up producing crappy videos which really only result in detracting from the music and bands they are trying to capture. I'm not suggesting that I have been thoroughly and rigorously trained in film and cinematography. But if you're going to film something and post it on the internet with both your name and a band's name plastered across the front of it...at least make it presentable?

I want this. Buy me a present?

In other news, frozen grapes are AWESOME! They're like little balls of watered-down, grape-flavored ice cream.

So I think I may have just discovered my new favorite TV show. Yes, as hard as it is to believe, this show might actually surpass Lost.


"I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant"


This show on TLC is quite possibly the most dramatic, riveting, and awe-inspiring show I've seen in a long while. It's about all these women who literally have no idea they're pregnant until they are in labor. This may sound insensitive, but it's freaking hilarious. In the past 2 hours I've seen 2 cases of toilet births and have heard such memorable quotes as:

""I looked down and I said, 'ohhh mammma, we're having another baby!'"

and

"Ma'am, you have another baby in there!"

I've also heard the story of a man and his fiance who were on the way to the hospital after the woman started having intense abdominal pains [aka..labor] and were pursued by the police, who proceeded to detain the husband while the wife found out she was pregnant and about to have a baby.

This show is INTENSE!

oooh back to the show...the husband just arrived at the hospital and has no idea that his wife just had twins...

Oh, hiiii Warped Tour! Nice to meet you. You're pretty awesome! Especially when you're free!

1: Chain Reaction. 10.08.08




2: Chain Reaction. 11.10.08




1+2=




Make sense? No? Lemme explain...


I'll back up a few months... 8, to be exact. Laura and I went to Chain on October 8 of last year to see Out Together, and Kris Roe happened to be headlining that night with an acoustic set. Pretty meaningless to me considering I have never listened to the Ataris and I had no clue who the heck this guy was. The night ended relatively uneventfully [though I do seem to remember Kevin/Nate/Cody left without saying goodbye...minor side-note].

Flash forward 1 month [almost exactly] to another night at Chain. This time we were seeing The Scenic for the first time. They had friended me on Myspace over the summer and after listening to them for a while I bought their CD on iTunes. I was hooked. Got Laura even more hooked. But they were from PA and we had no clue if we'd ever have a chance to see them live. Well that chance came in November. As soon as we saw their show at Chain listed in their tour dates we exchanged messages with them to see if they'd be interested in an L&L video [I just went through said messages, and now that we actually know them "We can get you on the guest list in exchange for your services but thats about it" has a whole new meaning... hah yeah they've corrupted my brain]. November 10 came around and we found ourselves at Chain somewhat confused because we had to figure out the guest list situation and weren't really sure which one of them to talk to because, well, we didn't really know who any of them were. We ended up talking to the drummer because we were pretty sure he was the one who had been responding to us. We did end up learning all of their names, and they convinced us to come to their show at the Knitting Factory later that week [how could we turn down the Laura discount?]. That night we began the tradition of In-N-Out with Shane and Jake. After the show we parted ways and planned to see them again when they flew out for the Warped Tour Battle of the Bands at the Key Club in December.



After their show in December we spent well over an hour saying goodbye to them at their hotel room across the street from In-N-Out on Sunset despite the fact that this was only the third time we'd seen them. We left with marriage proposals from Frank and a signed, special edition Rock Band 2 which was intended to be given away at a later date as part of a contest prize.

6 months later: They were finally headed back to California. Laura and I started planning a road trip in early to mid-May and we thought, with some luck, we might be able to match the end of it with The Scenic's potential NorCal show listed in their tour dates. It was all up in the air really...just a thought. Well it actually worked out and we saw them in Oakland. Before we could even say hi to them ourselves Jake ran over to us and we all partook in a beautiful reunion. It was poetic really. Ok maybe I'm exaggerating. Anyways, it was so good to see them again after far too much time separated by the US of A. We also got to meet their awesome new addition, Zach, from Arizona, who is equally spectacular and fantastic and quite dashing, in fact [in case he's reading this I am attempting to score myself some Zach points at the moment...did it work?]. We also met Margot, who in my opinion is a superwoman for braving a nation-wide tour with 5 boys. The day after that show we all [Lauras and Scenic] drove back down to SoCal for their show at Chain Reaction. Saw them again Friday at The Wire, went to Huntington on Saturday, and saw them one last time [...or so we thought] on Sunday at the Knitting Factory. We ended the evening at In-N-Out obviously [could I get a 4x4 animal style with fries and a MELK please?!]. Megan was able to meet up with us for that show, which was fortunate because it resulted in the founding of the United Kneetions- I truly sense great things for that organization. But we eventually had to say goodbye. And it was sad.

SYKE! Saw them again 5 days later. They were stinky and hungry after braving the sun and masses at Warped Tour in Pomona, so they wound up at Laura's house for showers and French toast. Shane had mentioned before that he might be able to get us on the guest list for Warped in Ventura on Sunday. Wait? What? Didn't catch that? I'll say it again...

Shane had mentioned before that he might be able to get us on the guest list for Warped in Ventura on Sunday.

Yeah, that's right. Didn't really think it was tooooooo great of a possibility though. But it was in the back of my mind. Well he brought it up again on Friday as they were leaving, and basically we said that if he could get us in, we'd be there. Umm. Hi. My name is Laura and at this point I had never been to Warped Tour before. Wellllll, Saturday he called to get my last name...and shortly thereafter we were guest listed. For Warped Tour. Oh, also, we were on The Ataris' guest list. Ah hahhhhhh... the circle is now complete. Remember this?



Yeah, it all makes sense now.



[is it just me, or is Kris wearing the same shirt in the Chain video that he wore at Warped? No...that would just be creepy...but it does kinda look similar]

So basically this was quite an amazing first experience at Warped Tour. It was free, The Scenic was there, we saw some really great bands and ran into a bunch of other friends, got to stand on main stage with Shane, Jake, Frank, and Zach during The Ataris' set...oh and as icing on the cake it was NOT hot. The end of the day was bittersweet though because we had to say goodbye for reals. There's a chance I might sink into a depression until they once again traverse the nation in their little trooper of a red GMC van with a trailer clad in Jonas Brothers.




Moral of the story: Scenic, I love you. And Shane, I owe you BIG TIME. Back massages times infinity probably. You guys are such awesome people and you're wayyyyy too good to us. Come back soon please! I miss you already!

welp, tomorrow is going to be a good day I think. thanks to shane laura and I are on the ataris' guestlist for warped tour. well this is new!

...road trip dolores style from irvine to santa ana to hanford to fresno to hanford to discovery bay to roseville to orangevale to roseville to carmichael to orangevale to loomis to sacramento to discovery bay to sacramento to discovery bay to oakland to carmichael to santa ana to irvine to santa ana to anaheim [to upland and hollywood too!]. Phew!

So yesterday in my effort to regain lost quicktime components, thereby restoring my ability to import HD video, I idiotically erased everything on my computer. That includes an outline I had made of Laura's and my road trip...so now I'm going to try to remember everything off the top of my head...here we go:

Friday: June 12, 2009

We left Laura's house Friday morning around 11:15 and it only took about 4 hours to get to Hanford. Tami and Kevin fed us yummy pizza from Dominos. I learned that you can order pizza online, and with Dominos you can follow every step of the process...from the order being received to the delivery man [identified by name and everything] reaching your door. Dominos has pizza down to a science. Friday night we drove 35 minutes to Kuppajoe in Fresno because Bidwell happened to be playing. The security guard there wears a turban and is somewhat creepy. Josiah threw bugs at us. Ok maybe not at us but he threw them in the air to show that they could fly [which, in fact, they could not]. We got back to the Mannixes around 1:30 and I was completely exhausted. Good night's sleep on their comfy couch =)



Saturday: June 13, 2009

Woke up on Saturday and had breakfast. Tami made eggs and bacon and Kevin hovered behind her the whole time to make sure she didn't burn the house down. Their guest bathroom has a REALLY nice shower head. I think we left at about 1 or 2 to drive to the Delta. The Benjamins wouldn't be there until 5, but there's not much to do in Hanford so we just decided to start driving. Made it to Discovery Bay by like 3 or 3:30. I wasn't sure if we were at the right house because I had never been there before, so I called my dad just to double check. I swear he was a secret agent in another life because he led me to the back door where a key was hidden under the cover of an electrical outlet. So that was fortunate because we could then proceed to unpack the car...and then take pictures of the pretty house. When Steve and Sheri got there Steve was disappointed in our unhealthy road trip food [what were we supposed to pack? vegetables? no. cereal and bagels are much better options]. He also stole our grocery bags, which was inconvenient the next day when we had to decide where to put all of our food. When Cody got home from work he showed up with like 6 other guys - 5 of whom he had just met. Seriously, he didn't even know all of their names. We all went out on the boat for a while. Cody and one of his friends wakeboarded then a few of them wake surfed. I miss wake surfing. Wish I had a chance to get back out on the water while we were there but it just didn't happen. Steve made us steak for dinner and it was delicious. After dinner I had a chance to catch up with Cody. We hadn't seen each other in 2 years and he was under the impression that I was just the same as I was when he saw me shortly after I graduated from high school. Hah. We found out we have a lot of the same musical tastes.















Sunday: June 14, 2009



We woke up around 10 on Sunday and everyone else was gone. Reeses Puffs cereal for breakfast...yesssss. Left the Delta at like, hmmm sometime...don't exactly remember.
But we checked into our hotel in Roseville at 3:15, unpacked the car, got in touch with Matty, and headed to Club Retro. Bidwell had some intense light rigs set up that they were testing out. Heard Beauty Queen like 3 times. Confetti testing...pointless sweeping. Then we decided we were hungry so we drove up the street to Subway and bought a couple of sandwiches for Matty and us. The show was pretty darn cool. Lots of screaming children in masquerade masks, confetti, streamers, balloons, lights, people with video cameras, etc. etc. At some point we met Rian Flynn and he explained the genesis of ib'ish and the fact that he also speaks Arabic and another much more complicated modified version of English. Megan and Bidwell had a photoshoot in the girls' bathroom. There IS such a thing as too much Crunk. Back to hotel.



Monday: June 15, 2009

[Free breakfast...YES!] We didn't really have a plan for Monday aside from checking out of our hotel by 11. We thought maybe we'd find a park or something or go hiking...yeah really we had no idea what to do. Sooo...Matty became our activities director. We went to his apartment after checking out, where we met some friends of Goodnight Sunrise from Washington. We also met Dustin...Matty's brother's girlfriend's 7 year old son who is freaking amazing. Major plastic dart battle which resulted in The Lauras stealing Dustin's storage box top shield. We won, in my opinion, no matter how many imaginary shields Dustin created for himself. I think we might need to schedule a rematch at some point though. After World War III was over, Matty, Laura and I headed to Club Retro for Bidwell's scheduled photo shoot. Turns out the shoot wasn't happening, so we met Matty's friend Lord Beardacus for lunch at Pasta Pomodoro down the street a ways. We sat at the perfect table for watching people blatantly ignore a stop sign. I will forever be self-conscious about making a full and complete stop. Then it was time for Matty to return his borrowed drum kit [which was used by Katy Perry on American Idol] so we went back to Retro to collect that and take it back to the Shine factory in Loomis. We got to see Third Eye Blind's snare and a bunch of other kits in the making, including Mattys...which should be done soon I think. Then we followed Matty and Beardy to the mall and walked around for a while. Thennnn we followed them to Gary's house in downtown Sacramento. Gary has an awesome cat named Eggplant. We watched Cable Guy then decided we needed to go see The Hangover. We went to this really awesome dome movie theater that was freaking HUGE. One of the coolest theaters I've ever been in I think. After the movie we dropped Matty and Gary back off downtown then drove back to the Delta for the night.

Tuesday: June 16, 2009

We had kind of planned on going to San Francisco on Tuesday, but when we got back to Disco Bay in the wee hours of the morning we discovered that the neighbor's internet wasn't working. It was still being a butthead in the morning so we really had no way of finding a good bart station or researching the ferry that leaves from Vallejo that Beardy had mentioned. So we spent the better part of the late morning/early afternoon lying on the dock making friends with a duck. With nothing else to do we decided we'd seek out a Juice it Up that was 15-20 miles away, but right when we got in the car Matty called and next thing we knew we were driving back to Sac. Back at Gary's we saw Tasha from Palm Springs again because she was recording with Matty and Beardy over the next couple of days. While Matty and Tasha were going over songs in Gary's guitar room, Gary, Laura, Beardy and I decided to get Indian food. We spent a large portion of the experience asking Laura for her thoughts on the subject, seeing as how she's part Chinese, which is basically full Chinese, which means she's pretty much from China, which is on the same continent as India, which means she's sort of Indian herself =P. Indian food is GOOD! Can't wait to try some again =). Then we went back to Gary's and watched part of Hot Rod...but partially through the movie Laura, Gary, and I decided to walk to frozen yogurt. On the way there we had an in-depth discussion about how ridiculous it is when fro-yo places have non-dairy only in flavors like pineapple. People who don't eat dairy are a very small percentage of the population, and people who like pineapple fro-yo are even more rare. Wouldn'tcha know that when we get to the frozen yogurt place the only non-dairy option they have for Gary is pineapple. Laura and I didn't really want anything so we left empty handed. Back at Gary's Hot Rod had started over. We didn't really get to watch the movie the first time it played so we caught more of it the second time around. Beardy came over a while later. Then Matty left with Tasha and her friends, so the 4 of us started watching Big Trouble in Little China. What a funny, corny, ridiculous movie. Afterwards...back to the Delta [yeah, we did a lot of driving].

Wednesday: June 17, 2009

We took our time getting ready and packed up on Wednesday because we had nothing to do other than drive to Oakland for The Scenic's show at The Metro. On Tuesday night Cody texted me a warning that he and his friends would be at the Delta house on Wednesday night drinking and partying, so we wanted to pack everything up in case we found someplace else to stay that night. The Delta would have been fine... but noisy, and we had to make a long drive home on Thursday. We got to Oakland about an hour early and killed time exploring Jack London Square and getting an early dinner at Subway. Then it was time for our beautiful reunion with The Scenic. We hadn't seen them since December...far too long! Jake ran up to us before we even had a chance to say hi to anybody. I love those guys so much. After the show we made the first obligatory trip to In-N-Out. Meanwhile I had been in touch with Matty via Beardy [Matty's phone died on Tuesday] because we were really not interested in driving back to a house full of drunk 19year-olds [who sound like 14-year olds when they get together]. Fortunately Matty was willing to take us in, so after In-N-Out and loading out and such we drove back to Sacramento [wow, for the 4th time]. Watched part of Into the Wild with Matty [ironic because we had just been in Jack London Square] then came to terms with our exhaustion and went to sleep.

Thursday: June 18, 2009

On Thursday morning Matty's brother Mike made everyone French toast for breakfast, which we ate while we watched SNL: Best of Mike Meyers. I would have been perfectly happy staying there all day watching movies and battling Dustin, but we had to get home if we wanted to make it to The Scenic's show at Chain that night. I think we finally left around 12:30 or 1. We filled up the gas tank before getting on the freeway, and I was determined to make it all the way home on one tank. If it weren't for the ridge route I think we might have done it, but we had to stop for gas about 20 miles from home. So close!!! [But if you ask Zach, he'll tell you we made it all the way]. I went home for no more than 45 minutes just to shower and collect myself a bit, then headed back to Laura's, and off to Chain we went!

The next three days were mostly about catching some good hang-time with The Scenic...Upland on Friday, Huntington Beach on Saturday, then LA on Sunday [with Megan! =)]. Rode in Megan's car to In-N-Out so we could hear the other new GNSR songs [shhhh...don't tell them! =P], then after the 4th trip to In-N-Out [4x4 animal style with fries and a MELK please!] we finally had to say goodbye =(. I hate saying goodbye. It sucks having friends who are only in town for a few days then leave for another six months.

This road trip was pretty much amazing and coming home to The Scenic was a great way to end things. I definitely wasn't ready to come home. I feel so complacent. I just want to be out traveling and experiencing the world.

In 7 days we:
- Slept on 2 couches
- Stayed in a million+ dollar house
- Saw 17 friends
- Met 14 people and 2 cats
- Went to the Shine drum factory
- Ate Indian food for the first time
- Watched 8 movies [if you count Hot Rod twice]
- Drove 1,500 miles [and only filled my car up like 3 times]
- Followed our own schedule and went wherever the wind happened to take us

...When can we do this again?

So today I get to work and Suzie informs me that a man was arrested at the club this afternoon. Apparently a woman who lives nearby called the police because her boyfriend was abusing her. When they showed up I guess he ran through the parking lot of the tennis club, entered the club nonchalantly, and sat on the patio watching people play tennis for like half an hour. Suzie had spoken with the policemen in the parking lot and they told her to keep an eye out for someone wearing a red baseball hat. Well this guy fit the description, so she called 911, they showed up, ran outside, and arrested him. And now I'm here alone. Well almost alone. It's me and two 70 year old men pretty much. One of whom is asleep in his apartment, while the other does crunches in the weight room. Dang. Last week there was nearly an all-out brawl, this week there was an arrest. What's going on?

And in Montana there's a shooter on the loose. The world is falling apart around me as my own world implodes with the pressure of finals starting on Monday. Gahh I can't take it!

Today Amanda and I went on a scavenger hunt. Well actually I dragged Amanda on a scavenger hunt with me. I had to find the price-per-unit for every single item I'm going to purchase while working in the snack bar this summer. It was a ridiculous waste of precious time I could have used for studying. We spent about 2 hours in Costco and Ralphs going through my list of food products. Let's just say I'm not happy with my boss for making me do this when I told him this week was busy for me and I had finals coming up. Seriously on the brink of hyperventilating because I don't know how I'm possibly going to learn everything I need to know for history/art history by Monday. I need infinite energy and more hours in the day! Slash the ability to concentrate on studying [I say as I waste more time blogging...go me]

In other news...got my car's oil changed today. 1 step closer to road trip! I need to have my dad carefully inspect the tires to make sure they're up to the 868 mile challenge. Also my phone is dying a slow death. The OK button used to intermittently decide not to work, then my phone started sporadically turning off. Now the OK button doesn't work at all and it still shuts off by itself. Fortunately I have a warranty so I'll hopefully get a new phone next week sometime.

1 week from today it will be summer and I will be exponentially more happy with my life.

Now, back to writing a modern version of The Little Mermaid in French. Oofta!

Totally forgot another exciting event from last week! On Thursday after Sleep District's set at the Westminster Mall we were outside of a video game place at the mall and we randomly met a guy from an Australian hardcore band. Jon really liked his accent haha. Thought he was joking about it at first. They're out here recording with someone London knows. He mentioned they're playing in Newport somewhere and we all said "Hogue Barmichaels?"

...we know everything about where we live...

scratch that...Matty can't help us. Time to do a little kayaking!

So this was actually a pretty good week despite the fact that I was on the brink of a panic attack when I realized how much school stuff is looming in my near future. Monday was Memorial Day and a much needed break from class. Although I spent most of the day "working" on my history paper it was still a nice day off. It felt so nice, in fact, that I decided to take Tuesday off as well. Tuesday afternoon I checked L&L email and what I had anticipated to be some kind of spam mail congratulating me on winning millions actually turned out to be Chance from The Kinzie Affair. He told us that he'd been following our work for a while and that his brother is in A Bird A Sparrow and he's talked to Dan about us before. This is only the second time a band has come to us asking for videos, and although we had sort of decided that we'd try to charge bands who specifically sought us out, we can't charge these guys because we filmed both Goodnight Sunrise and ABAS for free. Hmph. Hopefully one day we can make money off of this. After emailing Chance back, Laura and I met London to pick up tickets for the HOB show on the 5th, and when I said that I was hungry he started listing off all the places to eat nearby...but he failed to mention that there was an In-N-Out 2 minutes away. A vanilla shake and an order of fries later, we decided to make a trip to Costco to check out the various GPS options because we're going to need that for our road trip and for our lives in general. We also saw that Costco sells Disneyland passes, hmmmmm...Laura definitely needs a Disneyland pass.... We walked around a bit more, saw HD Flipcams taunting us from a high shelf, then decided to head to Chain to buy our tickets for Thursday's show. We ended up back at Chain a few hours later to pass out GNSR business cards [we're slowly making a dent in our box of 500] and saw the Down for the Count guys while we were there. Finally got the Kyle story from Nate. Wednesday was somewhat uneventful aside from a near fist-fight at work...kind of a blah day. Thursday I had to meet my insane boss at 9am to go over summer stuff, then that night Laura, Katie, and I went to Sleep District's Hot Topic show and Eye Alaska/Lydia at Chain. Hadn't seen EA since December and I think there's a chance I'm loosing interest in them. I definitely prefer their older songs to what they've written for the new record. Saw Down for the Count again because they're everywhere. Well, not everywhere, just always at Chain. Delicious dinner of French toast at Dennys with Megan and the Sleep District boys and Jon looks funny when he runs. Last night I went to the CRU end of the year bonfire at CDM and dragged Laura with me. She was finally able to get rid of the wood that had been sitting in her trunk for 2 months. But before the beach we went to Costco again and bought a GPS and a Disneyland pass for Laura. Whee! The bonfire was fun. There were some people who I hadn't seen since last quarter so it was nice to talk to them again. The boys decided it would be a stellar idea to jump over the blazing fire pit. We ended up leaving about 15 minutes before the beach closed and put the Magellan to good use: she successfully got us from CDM to Chain so we could once again do some serious business cardage. I like her so far. This might be the beginnings of a beautiful friendship.

So yep...need to power through these next two weeks and get school over with. For the most part everything is all lined up for the road trip. Just need to get my car in for an oil change and I'm still waiting to hear from Matty to see if he's found a place for us to stay Sat/Sun in Sac.


June 12 June 12 June 12 June 12.......

it should be noted that I still haven't really started this essay...

So before I dive into this history essay in which I must decide whether or not the Holocaust was planned [I'm leaning towards not, but we'll see what my final decision is once I actually take the time to contemplate this] I think it's time to consider the fact that last week was relatively exciting. First of all, I applied to study abroad on Tuesday. YAY! Hopefully on January 14, 2010, I will be boarding a plane to London. I'll spend a couple of days there, then head to Cannes for a 2-week orientation, then up to Paris for a semester at the Sorbonne. It all seems so surreal and intangible at this point, but I have all the necessary documents that I need to complete and it really looks like this is all coming together. On Wednesday I found out that I will have a job this summer...THANK GOODNESS. So most of the money I make in the snack bar will go towards studying abroad. Mmmm, yeah, this is exciting enough to blog about: Thursday I chopped all of my hair off and I couldn't be happier. Seriously can't even remember what I looked like with long annoying hair. On Friday Danielle and I presented our French oral final thingy and it went pretty well I think. Glad that's over. This summer my plan is to watch French movies and listen to French music so I don't forget everything by the time fall quarter rolls around. Friday afternoon my family and I drove up to Hanford to see the Mannixes and hear Kevin's stories from Qatar which are too top-secret I guess to be conveyed over the phone. While I was there I finalized plans for Laura and me to stay with them one night during our road trip =D. Everything is really coming together as far as that's concerned too! Without even planning this AT ALL it's looking like we're going to see 2 Bidwell shows, The Bigger Lights, AND The Scenic while we're traversing central/northern California. Pretty awesome. The plan so far, so it's well-documented:

Friday, June 12
Bidwell in Fresno, Hanford overnight

Saturday, June 13
The Bigger Lights in Orangevale, Sacramento area overnight

Sunday, June 14
Bidwell in Orangevale...video shoot, masquerade thing, Sacramento area overnight

Monday and Tuesday, June 15th and 16th
Staying with Cody at the Delta...wheee watersports!

Wednesday, June 17
The Scenic in Oakland, Delta overnight [?]

Thursday, June 18
Caravaning back down to Anaheim with The Scenic for their show at Chain...going to be a looonng day for sure. Van + trailer = 55 mph = SLOW.



Oh man I am wayyy excited. Just have to get through 4 days of classes this week, a paper due Monday, 5 days of classes next week, then 3 finals and I'm freeeee! [like the weight's gone off my shoulders]

Bahahaha my 17 year old brother wrote this for my mom for Mothers' Day

A Condensed History of Mother’s Day, but like super super condensed, and slightly fabricated, ok so a lot fabricated

Mother’s day apparently was not always to be centered on the mother, so consider yourself lucky that I am still willing to bend to rules and for one day of the year treat you as the most important person out there (God can share his thrown for one day).
In the early history similarities to mother’s day came in the form of the Egyptian prayer to a female Goddess, Isis. I think I see a resemblance between the Goddess (to the left) and yourself, in holding the belief that the staff in her hand is actually a tennis racket turned sideways.
Later on there was some more worshipping of female gods by the Romans and Asians, mostly boring. However, the celebrations of Rhea, supposedly the mother of Gods such as Zeus, became so rowdy and wild that they were eventually banned or discouraged.
The human aspect of celebrating mother’s is a more recent thing that came about with more boring events that probably aren’t significant at all, at least I assume that because I wasn’t willing to read all of it. This is why I decided to come up with a real reason for mother’s day.
At the beginning of the first century (just before birth of Jesus which started us off on our counting of the years to see how much longer our crazy civilization will last) Mary and Joseph had a terrible feud. One day Mary was suffering from terrible nausea due to her pregnancy, which she had not yet told Joseph about. She was probably too stunned by the fact that she had met an angel which told her that she would be giving birth to the son of God, and even though the dad would never be around and she’d be doing all the work, he would still be the most important person in the child’s life (as you can see, Mary was the very first housewife). In order to get Joseph out of the house (yes they were living together even though they weren’t married, it was economically ideal for during this time the stock market wasn’t doing so well and the economy was down the toilet) she convinced him that he must go out and pick her flowers, a giant bouquet, to prove his love to her, or else she would not be sure if she could marry him. Of course Mary knew that she would marry him anyway because she wasn’t about to take care of the most important baby ever by herself. But Joseph believed her anyway, and went out to pick her the most potent smelling flowers in their region. When he finally came back, Mary had built up the courage to tell her about her pregnancy. Obviously Joseph found it hard to believe that Mary could be carrying the son of God and instead believed in the much more reasonable, unfaithful, explanation. He was furious, and Mary was scared that he might leave her. As a final wish before he left, Mary asked him to smell the flowers that he had picked for her. Joseph did, but unaware that Mary had put a charm (I would have said curse, but that has too much of a negative feeling) on the flowers. With the charm inhaled by Joseph, Mary was assured that he would never leave her, for now Joseph was compelled for at least one day a year, no matter where he was, Joseph had to come back to visit Mary, the mother of Jesus, bringing her flowers and praise. This insurance was very useful to Mary, who then realized that she should use it on Jesus as well, her son, so that he, too, would have to come back at least once a year to bring her flowers and praise. If this was not done by either, the husband or son, then each would feel an enormous, unmatchable guilt, which is why, after forgetting to bring his mother flowers one year, Jesus forced himself into exile and wandered the desert for 40 days, being constantly haunted by the devil who constantly reminded him of all the things he had done besides bring his mother flowers. All of this use of the charmed flowers however had caused Mary, herself, to inhale some of the flower’s powerful odor, locking her to the same fate as her husband and son, which is why daughters also have an obligation (although joyous obligation) to bring her mother flowers as well.
There you have it, the completely factual history of mother’s days in the eyes of your son (who better is there to trust with facts such as these?). And after reading this hopefully you can take comfort in the fact that no matter how far away me or your daughter get from home, we will always return for at least (keyword: at least) one day of the year to bring you flowers and treat you like a Goddess. Oh, and happy mother’s day!

Love, Andrew

P.S. Admittedly I have no flowers for you, which left me with immense guilt forcing me to take time out of my day to research the history of mother’s day in order to achieve a higher understanding of this glorious day.

Wow I'm really on a roll with the blogging lately... So I'm pretty sure I had a dream that Out Together's Myspace got a severe face-lift and was transformed into a shrine of sorts to Kevin. Cody and Nathan were suspiciously absent from all photos/about me and the background was a huge picture of Kevin's face. I should double check to make sure this didn't really happen...

I have a midterm tomorrow. Er...today. Yeah, I've studied. Met with Hallie twice this week and we reviewed and brainstormed and such. I should probably be studying more right now, but I really don't feel like it. So I'm listening to a song that doesn't even really exist, and have been for probably the last 45 minutes or so. It's just so addicting. Found some awesome time-lapse videos via Brendan from Valencia's blog. That successfully wasted about 10 minutes. Earlier today I wasted a lot of time organizing my flickr account so that was quite an accomplishment and a superb way to avoid studying. I tried to declare my major again today, but they were about to close for an hour over lunch. So then I thought I'd be proactive and schedule an appointment for tomorrow, but they are closed right after my last class and don't open again for an hour. Sooooo I'll walk in for advising on Monday. I swear they really don't want me to declare and the e-mails they've sent indicating it is imperative that I declare before the end of the quarter are all part of some elaborate hoax.

This is so cool!!!! Especially since Paris is at the end =]

Pixel's Revenge timelapse showreel from David Coiffier on Vimeo.

So I was going through old pictures on Friday and came across allll of our pictures from 2006-2008 with the Blue Angels. What an amazing experience. I'm so glad that was a part of my life. Basically, our family friend [my babysitter's husband from when I was 14 months old or so] is in the Navy, and in November of 2006 he became the commander of the Blue Angels. Thus began a pretty crazy 2 years during which my family and I traveled all over the country to watch him fly that little blue jet. I probably traveled more in that year than I have in my entire life. Let's see how much I can remember from each show...[these dates are rough estimates haha but the weekends are right...just not sure exactly when we got there and when we left]

Pensacola FL - November 9-13, 2006

This was the change of command and the first time we'd seen the Mannixes in I don't even know how long. It was the last show of the 2006 season, so Kevin was just observing and it was interesting to watch him and the other new team members carefully analyze the show, knowing that at the end of the weekend this would be in their hands. On Sunday morning we had brunch at the hotel where the Mannixes had been living until they could move into their house on base when the current commander moved out. Kevin was trying to write his speech for the change of command while surrounded by people and and the craziness of brunch. First time we saw Kevin in his flight suit haha



The change of command was really really cool. It was in the museum on base so before the ceremony we walked around and grabbed some lunch. The ceremony itself was pretty amazing. Midshipmen [is that even the right term??] lined the balcony above the area where we were sitting and some really important admiral gave a speech. Wish I remembered who he was...he's probably really influential to our country.



After the change of command we went to the Officers' Club for the end-of-season party which was a combination of the 2006 team and the 2007 team. The O Club was a really cool old building rich with history and character.



Oh I can't leave out the hotel we stayed in while we were there. It was GORGEOUS. 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, a full kitchen and a living room/dining room. And an AMAZING view...




El Centro, CA - March 9-11, 2007

I have to say that if it weren't for the Blue Angels, I probably would have NEVER been to beautiful El Centro, CA. There's not much to say about El Centro other than it is freaking hot and a desert. What a classy, classy place. Haha. This was Kevin's very first show as commander after spending the winter training at the air "field" [not even station or base or anything, just "field" it's that small and secluded]. It was really strange to see Kevin, our friend, marching down the runway like I'd seen so many times before when we used to watch the airshow at MCAS El Toro when I was young. Even stranger to see him get in the plane and fly away.



Seattle, WA - August 2-7 [roughly], 2007

I LOVE SEATTLE. What a beautiful city. Granted, I've really only been there during the summer when it is sunny and gorgeous, so let's just say it made a very good first impression. This was the first time we could do some sightseeing in addition to the airshow, so we walked around the city, went to Pike Place Market, went to the Space Needle, and even drove up to Anacortes to go whale watching.



We saw the airshow from 3 vantage points in Seattle: First from Genessee Park along the water's edge, then from the Blues Cruise on Lake Washington [THAT'S the way to do it], and also from the stadium seating at centerpoint [I THINK? I'm pretty sure we did]. We also took the ferry to Bainbridge Island with Kevin and Tammy and got ice cream =]

San Francisco, CA - October 5-7, 2007

I LOVE SAN FRANCISCO! We went to Alcatraz, went shopping in the huge mall they have where the Nordstroms is like 25 stories tall with circular escalators, I wished we stayed at the Argonaut with everybody else because that hotel is really awesome, but we were within moderate walking distance so it wasn't too bad. Saw the show first from Alcatraz and then from a seating area near Hook Pier. Party at the aquarium on Pier 39 on Saturday night. We ALMOST could have seen the show from the pier if we had been able to stay for Sunday's show. Turns out this was the last time they ever let non-team members and crew out there =\



Pensacola Round 2 - November 9-12, 2007



This trip to Pensacola was much more low-key now that Kevin was the commander and we didn't have a change-of-command and related festivities to go to. We took a red-eye on Thursday night and got to Pensacola at like 7:45 AM, after which we drove straight to the on-base hotel, cleaned ourselves up a bit, and went to the base commander's house for breakfast with the Blue Angels and other Navy people. Then Friday afternoon we watched the practice show. Saturday and Sunday - real shows. This trip is a little hazy. OH! No show on Sunday, Sunday we had brunch at the Mannix's aaaand I got a migrane. great. Really good baked french toast. It was amazing.



El Centro Round 2 - March 7-9, 2008

El Centro. Again. Twice in 2 years. Haha. This time we stayed on base which was really convenient because we could walk from our condo to the Mannixes and didn't have to worry about driving to the airshow and dealing with all the common-folk. =P Michele and Dominic came this time. This was actually a really nice weekend. Good food. Good people. Relaxing.



Sacramento, CA - March 14-16, 2008

First time to the state capital. YES! We got to Sac-town on Thursday night. Stayed in El..something... Ellll... Just kidding, El nothing. Rancho Cordova. We rode in the caravan to the show on Saturday. It was freaking awesome. They shut down the freeway and we had a police escort and everything. The Blue Angels drive themselves to the show-site, and they drive so close together and have their flashers on so they have to use hand signals to let each other know when they are breaking. I figure they can handle it, seeing as how they fly jet airplanes like 16 inches apart from each other. It was FREEZING!! This is me, huddling next to my dad for warmth after the show on Friday, or Saturday... either way it was cold:



Haha I remember there was some kind of paper emergency, like they had run out of the paper they use to print the 8-man photos or something and one of the guys [Nate maybe?] didn't know what to do. Pretty much their hotel was across the street from an Office Depot. Kevin was like...hellooo?? Haha. Yeah I'm not sure why I remember that. On Saturday night we met my Aunt and Uncle in Old Town Sacramento [er is that what it's called??] for dinner because they drove up from Modesto to see the show with us.

Seattle Round 2 - August 1-4, 2008

I LOVE SEATTLE AGAIN! This time we didn't have as much sightseeing and exploring time because we weren't there for as long. We saw the show from the Space Needle, from the Blues Cruise, and from centerpoint. On Saturday night we went to the Sea Fair party and had to spend the day shopping for clothes to wear because we didn't plan on going when we were packing. Sunday we were able to go to the Mariners' game and sit in the owner's box. No big deal.



My dad and brother left earlier than my mom and I did, so on Sunday night my mom and I had dinner with Kevin, Tammy, and Nate and Mark because Tammy made them tag along when she found out they didn't have anything to do. Then on Monday we went to the Seahawks' practice.



Yeah. Would never have done that if it weren't for Kevin and his rockstar job.

Chicago, IL - August 14-17, 2008

First time to chi-town! It was awesome. Such a great city. My mom and I flew out ahead of my dad and brother, so on Thursday we watched them plan out their show, and on Friday we rented beach cruisers and went for a bike ride along the lake so we could watch the practice show. This may have actually been the same day, I'm not sure anymore. Actually this was definitely Thursday. Friday we watched the show from the John Hancock tower, Saturday from a boat on Lake Michigan, and Sunday from centerpoint. Oh on Friday night was our epic tour of Chicago with Kevin driving and my brother attempting to lead him to various filming locations for The Dark Night. Same night Eye Alaska played in Chicago...I was determined to see them, but that definitely didn't happen haha. On Saturday night we went to a party for the airshow, which is when I met Sean D. Tucker. I guess he liked me because one of the first things he said to me was that he was going to get me flying. Just a little background...this is Sean:



Uhmmm. OKAY! Not going to argue with that!! Then on Sunday night we went to dinner at a famous pizza place in downtown Chicago with the rest of the Blue Angels. Then we went to the BEAN! I was really excited about that.



MCAS Miramar, CA - October 3-5, 2008

My parents went out to this show ahead of me, and my brother didn't even go, so I drove out after class on Friday. Used my feminine charms to get myself and my car onto the base and find the VIP seating section. The marines respond well to me. Or to my VIP pass. Could be either one, I didn't bother asking. I had e-mailed Sean's son, Eric beforehand to see if we could set up a little ride-along, but they ended up being too busy this weekend, so we were shooting for the next weekend in San Francisco. One of the nights we went to a sushi restaurant in San Diego with Kevin, Tammy, their friend Alicia from Visalia, and some other friends of theirs. This trip is really hazy, which doesn't make sense because it was one of the more recent ones. Hm.



San Francisco Round 2 - October 10-12, 2008

Another great trip to San Francisco. We definitely didn't pack right because we ended up going to Gap and buying a bunch of warm clothing haha. Oh! Rick and Nancy Nelson came with us for this trip! And their nephew Brett met up with us because he's going to school in San Francisco. We went to Alcatraz with the Nelsons, Brett, and Tammy, Laura, Zahn, Bethany I think, and ahhh I'm blanking on her name but she was really nice and had a son and a daughter and her son looks JUST like his dad. This is sad. When did my memory get so bad? LARISSA! I remembered the morning after writing this. Go me. Anyways, the show was great again from Alcatraz and the planes were closer than they were the last year I think. I love airplanes. On Friday I flew with Eric Tucker. I don't even know how to describe this. It was incredible.



Just remembered randomly that it was on the flight home from San Fran that I met Blake and we realized that he knows my cousin because they both go to SLO AND after I got home I found out he knows a lot of my friends from cru. Smallll world.

This was my last show. Kind of bittersweet. We hope to go to maybe one or two shows this year with the Mannixes, and it will be interesting to have Kevin on the ground with us while the jets fly overhead. Kevin is boring again and doesn't wear a blue flightsuit anymore.



PHEW! That's it! I'm sure I've forgotten TONS but this is all I can remember at the moment. I'm exhausted from writing way too many essays this weekend...hm why I chose to write a long blog like this I may never know. Maybe I'll remember more later and add on...


Basically, this was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. We used the Blue Angels as an excuse to to have mini-reunions with the Mannixes, and in the process we were able to see parts of the country we may otherwise have never visited. I will forever be grateful for this opportunity, and I think a part of me will always miss being a Blue Angels 'groupie' ...errr... devotee =P


Rewind please?