Wizard Rock Road Trip

Throughout my wizard rock adventures last week, I took a TON of video. I spent this entire weekend compiling the clips of the shows for the Wizrocklopedia's YouTube channel (check out the Whomp the House, Part Deux entries) and making a video of my vlogging adventures. Below is my account.



When I got home from Columbus, JP noticed that I had a huge rip in the ass of my jeans. I had been wearing them for two days and never noticed when it happened, so now I'm convinced that I was walking around like that for awhile. Whoops.

Post Wizard Rock Stress Disorder

A very serious condition that may include the following symptoms:

1) A feeling of disappointment when realizing the show is over alternating with periods of shit-eating grins when remembering how great it was
2) Scouring the internet to find more wizard rock shows to go to and justifying spending large amounts of money/backing out of plans made months ago to do so
3) Humming the song that's stuck in your head and realizing with a jolt that the person who sings it is sitting next to you in your living room
4) An urge to abandon your life and start driving toward the next Wizard rock show

I know that I tend to self-diagnose, but I really think I have this.

Seriously, this week in wizard rock was amazing. We had the Pittsburgh show on Tuesday, followed by a fairly impressive amount of partying at our place. After sleeping for about 4 or 5 hours, we woke up and hung out for a bit. The boys left to get to Columbus early, and I took off a few hours later.
When I got to the venue, I found the three of them outside the venue in the cold with a locked door behind them. No one had arrived to open the bar, and we had to wait about an hour and a half. Fans and the other band were all just standing around outside, definitely attracting some attention with the number of striped scarves in the crowd. The local Harry Potter group, a part of HP Ohio, bought us all pizza which I used to warm my hands up a bit. As soon as it was no longer warm, I ate it.

But of course it was worth the wait! Tom Riddle and Friends played, as well as Justin Finch-Fletchley and the Sugar Quills and The Whomping Willows. When I first arrived, I had told Matt how I needed to exchange the live CD of his from Wrockstock that I bought the night before because one track wouldn't play, and it was my favorite. Before his set, I tried to peek over his shoulder to see his set list, which he hid from sight while reassuring me that he would play my favorite song. With two songs left to go, he dedicated the song to me in thanks for giving them the best night of tour so far. Later on, the HP Ohio people gave me shit about how we had worn them out the night before, so they didn't want to go out partying again. Whoops.

Yay wizard rock!

Vlog, take 1

On Friday night, I decided to escape from my stressful week by driving out to Kathleen and Zack's new house, which happens to be in the middle of nowhere. I spent much of the trip video blogging in my car. This is my first shot at using video at all, really, so it's not that great. It also might be hard to see some of the text in this window, so you might want to actually go to youtube to watch it. Plus then you can read the creepy comment someone left on there.

I need to learn to edit my thoughts for sure, because this is 8 minutes long. Sorry. Kudos if you make it the whole way through.

4th of July

It has long been a tradition in our circle of friends to spend the 4th of July weekend at Silent Bob's parents' lakehouse, near Scranton. This year was easy, with the 4th on a Friday. I took Thursday off and left after work on Wednesday with Josh and his dog, Zehe. We left Pittsburgh at 8pm, and drove the 6 1/2 hours to the lake. I think I am getting too old to do that. It was exhausting and never-ending, especially since 80 has no lights toward the eastern part of the state. We arrived at 2:30am, and JP, Silent Bob, Brian, and Keiser were already there. The next night we were expecting 9 more people, and then 1 more on Friday, to make us 16 in total.

In the past, we have had to leave the house at least once a day to go pick up beer and food. No one likes to leave the lake, so we decided to get everything ready ahead of time. This meant ordering 2 kegs and making a grocery list for 6 meals for 16 people. I was asked to put together the food list, and Josh and I volunteered to go get food on Thursday before everyone was there. The list included things like 7 loaves bread, 144 hot dogs, 12lbs of pork roast, 8 bottles BBQ sauce, etc., etc. We filled 3 carts with groceries, and the total was around $400. Not a bad deal at all. I kept the receipt to take a picture of, but it's actually too big if it's on the floor, and I didn't feel like hanging it on the wall, so I measured it. 75 inches. That's 6'3" long. It's a good thing I thought to sign up for their discount card - it saved us $50.
So we had pancakes, bacon, and fruit for breakfast on Friday, BBQ chicken, corn, and roasted potatoes for dinner; eggs, bacon, toast, and baked beans for breakfast on Saturday, and pulled pork and coleslaw for dinner. Planning, cooking, and cleaning for 16 is exhausting even with tons of help. I'm glad that JP and I do not have 14 children.

There is so much that I love about the lake that it's hard to pick my favorite thing. Afternoons of reading while there is hacky sack in the background?

Naps on the lawn?


Fireworks set off from our dock and the dock next door? (Which, by the way, rival any that I have seen, especially as you are close enough to have flaming ash rain down on you)


The fires and marshmallows and s'mores?

It might be the stars seen laying on the dock late at night. How many constellations do you know? We could pick out 4 - Ursa Major, Ursa Minor, Casseopoeia, and Orion (who can only be seen early since he is low on the horizon in summer).

When JP and I travel, we like to explore. Neither of us wants to spend days laying on a beach. We would much rather wander around an unknown city and eat at hole-in-the-wall restaurants. The lake is the only place that I go to just escape it all. As soon as I see it, there's just this feeling of peace and leaving everything else behind. We call it recess for adults - pure fun that lasts for days and you get to drink.

End of Chicago and Day One

I am home safe and I plan on blogging the whole trip, just a little at a time. Work is crazy after being off for 3 days, so the last thing I really wanted to do tonight was sit in front of the computer. But here is update #1, to be followed by more. And pictures, eventually.

So, on Friday the movers finally finished around 8 and Laura's friends Sheera, Libby, and Libby's boyfriend, Chris, came over. We ate Indian food on the floor of Laura's now empty apartment. It was actually pretty great. Sleeping on the floor was much less bad than I expected it to be, with the help of a yoga mat and a featherbed. We got off a little late the next day (11ish) and did some exciting things, like crossing the Mississippi. The highlight of Iowa was the convenience store, Kum 'n Go. I bought 6 lighters with their logo for all my smoker friends and a cheap leather wristband with skulls on it. It was awesome. We hightailed it out of there because there was a tornado warning and didn't want to be sucked up and then spit back out again. Shortly after that, we saw cows lying down. That means rain or tornadoes or something like that, so we were a little freaked. City girls don't do well in the middle of nowhere.

We managed to make it to the middle of Nebraska that day, and stopped in Kearney (pronounced carnie...like, guy that works at a carnival). We stayed at a Rodeway Inn that actually allowed pets and ordered pizza and chilled.

Speaking of pets...Ruby was a doll. She did puke once, but cat puke is something I'm well accustomed to, so no big.

Overall, good day. The 75 mph speed limit definitely helped things along, and relaxing in the hotel room (with free wi-fi!) after a day in the car was decadent.
Stay tuned for...Wyoming!

Things are not boding well.

Here's an entry I wrote yesterday, but just now got the chance to post:

Even though I am so far having a very excellent time with Laura and Eric, things haven’t exactly been going swimmingly.

Let’s start with my flight, where I was seated in the very last row. In front of me was a man and his 4 year old, and across the aisle from them was the mother and a 1 year old. Next to her was some girl who appeared to be my age and was immediately cooing over the baby next to her, talking in a baby voice. Ugh. The two children proceeded to scream for the entire flight, with the non-relation girl singing pat-a-cake for most of it. I’m not sure which I thought was worse – the screaming or the singing. It was a relief to leave the plane, though I did have to wait for the entire rest of the flight to “deplane” (the flight attendant’s word, not mine). Laura and Eric grabbed me without incident and we drove back into the city to get dinner at this really cute tapas restaurant. The tortilla was good, the patatas bravas not so much. The pulpo, shrimp, and calamares were excellent, as was the flan and café con leche. We retired to Laura’s entirely packed apartment and went to sleep.

Today, the movers were supposed to arrive between 1 and 3. We headed out around 11 to run some errands (go to the bank, grab coffee, etc.)


On the walk home, we ran into this statue:


which I convinced Laura to molest with me.

We got home and Laura got a call around 1:15 to say that they’d be here closer to 3. Fine. Laura reminds them that she can only move until 5:45 and they reassure her that this won’t be a problem.

3:25 – Laura calls the company. They tell her they’ve been unexpectedly delayed by their former job and it will be at least a half an hour before they will be there.

4:25 – Laura calls the company. They tell her they are 15 minutes away.

5:15 – Laura calls the company. They tell her “there’s an accident” and that they will be there “soon”.

5:25 – Laura calls her landlord’s office to find out if she can still move out after 5:45. The girl tells her no. Laura presses her and the girl agrees, but only if Laura is willing to forfeit the $300 deposit she had to put down for the movers. Having no other options, Laura agrees.

5:45 – Laura calls the company. They tell her that the truck to get her stuff has been in an accident and that they have to wait to file a police report.

6:45 – The movers arrive. The boss guy goes over the contract with Laura. He has added fees for packing materials and a fuel surcharge that Laura was told was included. This adds several hundreds of dollars to the cost.

7:15 – Current time. Movers still moving, but nearly done. We’re all starving, not wanting to leave the apartment earlier since we had no idea when the movers would be here. Indian food later.

I'm leaving on a jet plane

Good news, though. I do know when I'll be back again.

My American roommate from Barcelona, Laura, has been going to grad school for her MSW in Chicago for the past 2 1/2 years. She has a summer internship, and then she's done! Cleverly, she arranged to have her internship in Portland, so that she and her boyfriend can stop doing the long distance thing and finally be together again. The bad news? Her boyfriend is going to a family reunion in Europe and won't be around to help her move.
Insert me. Tonight, I'm flying to Chicago, helping Laura with the movers tomorrow, packing up her car and cat, and driving off into the heart of America on Saturday. We're driving for three days, across parts unknown to me as an adult. Near as I can tell, this will be our route:


I am very much an East coast girl, so this will be strange for me. Nebraska? Wyoming? Idaho? All I know is this is a giant belt of red on political maps. Not many big cities, lots of prairie...Donny, I'm out of my element. Luckily, Laura lived in Kansas for several years (albeit in the one pocket of liberalness in the midst of Jerry Falwell land), so I'm counting on her to introduce me to the Midwest. The best part? Three uninterrupted days of Laura, which I haven't had since Barcelona, making it about five years. Last we saw each other was my wedding, where I was quite preoccupied. We have two years of catching up to do, with grad school and life taking a heavy toll on our time to talk, and I couldn't be more excited. I have five audiobooks for us, countless podcasts, and the 'Once More with Feeling' soundtrack. What else could we possibly need?

We'll get to Portland on Monday, and I have a red-eye booked for Tuesday night. The even better news is that I get to spend Tuesday in Portland with Laura, and Tim took the day off to come up and be with us! Tim Scott + Laura + a brand new city? Does life get better than that? So, I'll have a day in the city, dinner with them, and then I'm off to come home. It's a whirlwind trip for sure.

I'll have my laptop and camera (of course!), so I'll try to blog and upload pics as we go along. I don't know what the wi-fi situation will be like, but hopefully you'll hear from me at some point. If not, don't worry, I'll be back! Try not to have any big drama while I'm gone, hmm? I ask that of the world at large, because I'm not sure I'll have access to news and current events, let alone my little corner of the world (both real life and internet). I hope the whole Lexicon trial can wait these five days, because I'd hate to be totally out of the loop on that.

The States of the Union

When I was younger and living all over the country, my mother would keep track of all the states that we went to. Since our family lived on the East Coast and we lived somewhere in the middle (Texas, Michigan, South Dakota) and we were a young not-so-well-off family, we would drive to visit everyone. Because of this and a New England road trip that JP and I took in 2001, I have been to 40 of the 50 states. Here's what I'm missing:

Iowa
Oklahoma
North Dakota
Washington
Oregon
Idaho
Utah
Arizona
Alaska
Hawaii

But good news! At the end of this month, I am flying to Chicago to help Laura move to Portland, OR. So we are jumping in her car, and driving across this great country of ours. I'll fly home from Portland when we're done. Along the way, I'll pick up 4 new states! Iowa, Utah, Idaho, and Oregon. We'll get out of the car, do a little dance, and I can claim those states as my own. I definitely plan to make it to Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, and Arizona in my lifetime, but I'm going to have to go out of my way to go to North Dakota and Oklahoma. It seems silly to go either of those places just to say I've been there, but then again, can I really die happy knowing I've been to 48 of the states?
Where have/haven't you been? Is there anyone who's hit all 50? I know my father has, but he's the only one I know of. Are you close? Does anyone else have this as a goal?

Amsterdam

It has been about 5 1/2 years since I've been to Amsterdam. I spent 4 crazy days there at the end of October 2002. Recently, my mother forced me to go through some old things at her house and I found a notebook in which I had pasted in parts of the tourist guide that we found amusing. So Laura (and Evita, wherever you are), this is for you.

Prostitution
If you visit one of the women, we would like to remind you, they are not always women. Don't take pictures of the women, it might get you in trouble. Outside on the streets, don't shout or use bad language towards these women. Show some respect. In case you have any problem with a girl or a pimp, don't hesitate to ask a policeman/woman, we know why you're here and you can hardly surprise us anymore.

Strippenkaart (ticket for public transport)
Make sure that your ticket is valid.
Your ticket is only valid after it has been stamped. This can be done by the driver or the conductor. In trams without a conductor, you should stamp your ticket yourself in one of the yellow stamp machines. Fold the 'strippenkaart' at the correct number or strips and insert it into the machine. You must calculate the number of zones you will be travelling in/through yourself. When having the 'strippenkaart' stamped, only the last strip of the number of strips required must be stamped. The strip or strips before should remain unstamped. It's compulsory to be in possession of a valid ticket throughout the journey.

Needless to say, we were not in any state to be calculating zones and stamping our tickets ourselves, so we took taxis or walked the whole time.

The Privileged Few

Today I went into the office because I had to turn in my time card in order to be paid. I was disappointed to see that my boss, friend, and smoking partner wasn't in. So I decided to just stay a half day and then go back another day this week for a half day so that I could see her. JP had already taken the car from the bus stop, but I didn't mind because today is absolutely gorgeous. Like, 60 and cloudy with occasional bursts of sun. Lovely.

So the bus stop we use is in Edgewood, the same neighborhood we live in. Edgewood is approximately .9 square miles and has a population of about 3,300 people. I'm guessing that 3,290 of them have money. It's a nice neighborhood. We have one of the best elementary schools in the state less than a block away from us, and we also host the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf.

Anyways. So I'm walking the 15 minutes or so home and just bopping along to my iPod. I go to cross the main drag, Edgewood Avenue, at a stop sign. This is directly across from the School for the Deaf. This slightly-older-than-middle-aged man jumps out into the street wearing his bright yellow vest and "stops" the nonexistent traffic for me. Then I need to cross a somewhat large driveway immediately after this. He once again throws himself in harm's way to let me cross. I smile and thank him. Not one block farther down, I come to the "big" intersection in Edgewood. It is equipped with a pedestrian cycle no matter what time of day (which is infuriating when driving around midnight or so). Another crossing guard. He literally stops the traffic from going through the green light so that I can cross the street. Seriously? I'm not a kindergartener! I can wait! It's cool! But, alas, here in Edgewood, my 1% local tax is allowing me to cross when I see fit. No need to worry about the lights. It's all about me.