Friday, May 21, 2010
Lucky.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Charleston
(I'm #32. I think this was just before I attacked the player in pink facing this way. She didn't have shoulder pads on, so I figured she would be an easy target)
I look big and tough, right? Wish I played that way! =)
Our first game Friday was at 6PM, so Derek took the day off and we left first thing in the morning and headed straight to Isle Of Palms.
Arden didn't really love playing in the sand. She thought it was OK until she noticed it was sticking to her hand. She does not like her hands to be dirty.
Later I tried to get her to dig in the wet sand and this is how she felt about it:
"Daddy! get this off of my hand!"
This child was FEARLESS in the water. She loved running into the water and loved the waves crashing on her. She did not like to be held (hand or body) in the water, so she fell a couple of times and waves crashed in her face but she didn't mind too much (unlike in the bath tub!). It was really funny watching her walk because even in one inch of water she couldn't walk straight. Guess the water got her off balance.
This is the best picture I have of Arden and me at the beach. Maybe *someone* is trying to tell me something ;). Oh well maybe next time.
On Saturday, I had a game at 7AM. Derek and Arden slept in. After the game, I met them for breakfast at our amazing hotel free hot breakfast(I'm actually being serious). We had some time before our next game, so we headed to downtown Charleston.
Arden had fun playing in the park
and of course had to spend time playing in the fountain. The way she loves water is a bit scary. I need to get her into swim lessons pronto!
I just love this silly face.
One of Arden's other favorite thing to do is sit down. Really. Anytime she finds a ledge or small seat, she must try it out. At home, she loves sitting on the window sill. We were walking in Charleston and passed this brick wall and ledge, so she HAD to sit on it.
Then I told her it was time to go, so she came to give me a kiss goodbye and went back to her new seat.
(forgive me for letting my child go out with hair like this. I know it always looks crazy, but in my defense, I fixed it before leaving the hotel, then while downtown, it was misting the whole time)
In our hotel room, she spent most of the time in the kitchen with the cabinets open, sitting in them.
Our team didn't win any games (it's not about winning, it's about having fun- I have to keep repeating that to myself), but we had a great time. Arden made new friends at the rink (with some family members of the opposing team). She even wanted them to hold her. My clingy, shy child- this is shocking!
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
The Trainette
.....Concerts Continued
So about a week after meeting Train in Raleigh, I decided Knoxville would be my next Train stop (gosh I'm so funny) and I had a friend on board with the road trip and excited to go.
I chose Knoxville because it was the next closest tour stop and it was on a weekend. I thought long and hard about choosing Paris so I could also visit my friend, but I couldn't find a flight under $1000 and $900 was my limit. I sent Pat a message, refreshing his memory about the pictures he now owns because you know they meet lots of fans at meet and greets and radio promos etc. I told him I wanted to take him up on his offer for the Knoxville show. He asked me how many tickets I wanted, and of course I had to mess with him, so I told him I needed 16 and that we were bringing a party bus.
A few days later, Friend #1 backs out. I asked Friend #2 who also loves Train. She says yes! A few days later, she backs out. This is a great example of the type of friends I have (minus my two BFF's who happen to live in Florida and France). Very flaky and lame. Derek would've loved to go, but someone had to watch Arden =)
Clarisa loves Train and had been telling me for weeks prior to the show that she REALLY wanted to go to a Train concert. I figured this would be a good time to surprise her. I wasn't going to tell her until we got there and I thought I would just let her see the sign at the Theater that says "Train tonight" but I couldn't wait, so I told her an hour before we left. She was beside herself.
We packed up, stopped at Trader Joe's for some snacks and were on our way. The four hour drive wasn't bad. We had to go the scenic, winding road route because of the rock slide that closed I-40.
The small part of Knoxville that we saw was beautiful! We got there, grabbed some dinner and walked over to the Theatre.
I went up to the ticket booth and give them my name and ID for will call. DUN DUN DUN. "There are no tickets in your name. Could they be under another name?" huh?!?! WHAT?!?! I should mention that before this happened, little worrier Clarisa kept saying, "what if he didn't leave you tickets? What are we going to do?!? What if he forgot?"
I calmly leave the window, tell Clarisa to BREATHE (She's saying, "Oh great! Our night is ruined! What are we going to do??") and I sent Pat a message. He responds and says there are two tickets and passes for me at will call and that he's sending his tour manager up. OH boy. Someone's in trouble. He puts the ladies in their place and they apologize profusely saying my tickets were in the wrong spot.
Finally we were good to go and totally excited about our VIP passes. I thought maybe I'd get some, but you never know. After we calmed down, we looked at our tickets and they were for the THIRD row center!!! Again, I figured they would be for up in the balcony. Silly me.
Butch of course was great, and this time, when he covered "Rich Girl" Pat came on stage with a fake mustache to sing with him. Please excuse all the movement. I couldn't help but dance =)
Train has a song called "She's On Fire" and he brings a few girls (he tries to get the young ones) on stage to sing with him.
Clarisa was the first one chosen. She got a special "Trainette" shirt and sang with Train and I got it all on video. I loaded it onto You tube, but it was very choppy so I'm trying again and it's giving me a hard time, so I'll add the link later.
Butch joined Train on stage again and they sang "Dance The Night Away"
After the show, we head to our 'secret area' and wait. and wait. A group of people with special passes get to meet the band first. (They paid $175 for that special lanyard, so I guess it's OK if I wait a little longer. Oh and I hear the security guy tell them they only get to have one thing signed and one picture. I guess that means I'm in the cool group. It's late and we're tired and these two older women behind me are telling me about ALL the times they've seen Train and they always try to meet them were from NC too. Then Train comes out, and Pat comes over to me and hugs me and was asking what happened with the tickets, then starts telling Clarisa that I'm an old school fan etc. Meanwhile the ladies that were just bragging about all their shows were picking their jaws off the floor. Yeah, they didn't realize they were just talking to Pat's best friend (OK maybe that's a little exaggeration).
Did I mention that Train follows me on Twitter? That's right. In Knoxville he says "you know, you are the only fan that I actually follow, and the stuff you say is SO funny!" He said there are a couple of fans that begged him on twitter to follow them so he did, but they are kind of annoying so he ignores them, but me? He's actually replied to my tweets and I didn't ask him to follow me.. woot woot. I don't talk about stupid things on twitter, like "OK I'm going to the bathroom" etc. I just tweet random -usually funny- thoughts, and Pat. Monahan. Loves. It.
He also offered me tickets for their show this summer, opening up for John Mayer.
OK, I'll get off my high horse now. I just can't help it. I have met a lot of bands partially due to being a record label rep and doing promotions/sell merch at shows and no one comes close to the personality Pat has. HE is so good to fans, has great stage presence, is genuine and isn't afraid to make fun of himself. John Mayer on the other hand. heh. Even when he was a nobody, playing VERY small venues he had an attitude. Total ego. Nickelback too. And Jakob Dylan. Actually he's just rude to male fans.
Pat also doesn't drink or smoke and he's not a 'sleazy' rockstar. Major points.
This was Clarisa's first concert ever. Pretty darn lucky if you ask me =)
I chose Knoxville because it was the next closest tour stop and it was on a weekend. I thought long and hard about choosing Paris so I could also visit my friend, but I couldn't find a flight under $1000 and $900 was my limit. I sent Pat a message, refreshing his memory about the pictures he now owns because you know they meet lots of fans at meet and greets and radio promos etc. I told him I wanted to take him up on his offer for the Knoxville show. He asked me how many tickets I wanted, and of course I had to mess with him, so I told him I needed 16 and that we were bringing a party bus.
A few days later, Friend #1 backs out. I asked Friend #2 who also loves Train. She says yes! A few days later, she backs out. This is a great example of the type of friends I have (minus my two BFF's who happen to live in Florida and France). Very flaky and lame. Derek would've loved to go, but someone had to watch Arden =)
Clarisa loves Train and had been telling me for weeks prior to the show that she REALLY wanted to go to a Train concert. I figured this would be a good time to surprise her. I wasn't going to tell her until we got there and I thought I would just let her see the sign at the Theater that says "Train tonight" but I couldn't wait, so I told her an hour before we left. She was beside herself.
We packed up, stopped at Trader Joe's for some snacks and were on our way. The four hour drive wasn't bad. We had to go the scenic, winding road route because of the rock slide that closed I-40.
The small part of Knoxville that we saw was beautiful! We got there, grabbed some dinner and walked over to the Theatre.
I went up to the ticket booth and give them my name and ID for will call. DUN DUN DUN. "There are no tickets in your name. Could they be under another name?" huh?!?! WHAT?!?! I should mention that before this happened, little worrier Clarisa kept saying, "what if he didn't leave you tickets? What are we going to do?!? What if he forgot?"
I calmly leave the window, tell Clarisa to BREATHE (She's saying, "Oh great! Our night is ruined! What are we going to do??") and I sent Pat a message. He responds and says there are two tickets and passes for me at will call and that he's sending his tour manager up. OH boy. Someone's in trouble. He puts the ladies in their place and they apologize profusely saying my tickets were in the wrong spot.
Finally we were good to go and totally excited about our VIP passes. I thought maybe I'd get some, but you never know. After we calmed down, we looked at our tickets and they were for the THIRD row center!!! Again, I figured they would be for up in the balcony. Silly me.
Butch of course was great, and this time, when he covered "Rich Girl" Pat came on stage with a fake mustache to sing with him. Please excuse all the movement. I couldn't help but dance =)
Train has a song called "She's On Fire" and he brings a few girls (he tries to get the young ones) on stage to sing with him.
Clarisa was the first one chosen. She got a special "Trainette" shirt and sang with Train and I got it all on video. I loaded it onto You tube, but it was very choppy so I'm trying again and it's giving me a hard time, so I'll add the link later.
Butch joined Train on stage again and they sang "Dance The Night Away"
After the show, we head to our 'secret area' and wait. and wait. A group of people with special passes get to meet the band first. (They paid $175 for that special lanyard, so I guess it's OK if I wait a little longer. Oh and I hear the security guy tell them they only get to have one thing signed and one picture. I guess that means I'm in the cool group. It's late and we're tired and these two older women behind me are telling me about ALL the times they've seen Train and they always try to meet them were from NC too. Then Train comes out, and Pat comes over to me and hugs me and was asking what happened with the tickets, then starts telling Clarisa that I'm an old school fan etc. Meanwhile the ladies that were just bragging about all their shows were picking their jaws off the floor. Yeah, they didn't realize they were just talking to Pat's best friend (OK maybe that's a little exaggeration).
Did I mention that Train follows me on Twitter? That's right. In Knoxville he says "you know, you are the only fan that I actually follow, and the stuff you say is SO funny!" He said there are a couple of fans that begged him on twitter to follow them so he did, but they are kind of annoying so he ignores them, but me? He's actually replied to my tweets and I didn't ask him to follow me.. woot woot. I don't talk about stupid things on twitter, like "OK I'm going to the bathroom" etc. I just tweet random -usually funny- thoughts, and Pat. Monahan. Loves. It.
He also offered me tickets for their show this summer, opening up for John Mayer.
OK, I'll get off my high horse now. I just can't help it. I have met a lot of bands partially due to being a record label rep and doing promotions/sell merch at shows and no one comes close to the personality Pat has. HE is so good to fans, has great stage presence, is genuine and isn't afraid to make fun of himself. John Mayer on the other hand. heh. Even when he was a nobody, playing VERY small venues he had an attitude. Total ego. Nickelback too. And Jakob Dylan. Actually he's just rude to male fans.
Pat also doesn't drink or smoke and he's not a 'sleazy' rockstar. Major points.
This was Clarisa's first concert ever. Pretty darn lucky if you ask me =)
Saturday, May 8, 2010
Concerts
here: (in Raleigh)
well actually the sign is wrong. We saw Train and Butch Walker & the Black Widows. Butch Walker is an important element.
We actually saw them another show on the tour, but that one's not important because I didn't meet anyone special. ha. Just Kidding. Any Train show is special... I mean they've only been one of my three favorite bands since I was 15.
Also at the tender age of 15 (valentine's day to be exact) I went to an Eve6 concert and fell in love with the opening band, Marvelous3. Best. Live. Show. EVER. I met the lead singer that night:
(I know, I know- can we say AWKWARD teenager!!!! I'm glad the picture is blown out so you can't see the braces. It's bad enough with the ski jacket and gold chain with a soccer ball on it. oh boy.)
Marvelous3 broke up to get out of their crummy record contract and the lead singer went the solo path. Enter Butch Walker. He's very talented, does a lot of producing for well known people, but I really love M3's music more. Butch still puts on a great live show (ask Taylor Swift-she thinks he's the best and he performed with her on the Grammy's!)
So the opportunity to see two of my favorite bands on tour together...what more could I ask for?!
YES!!!!
Seeing them perform together!!!! HEAVEN!!!!! During Train's encore, Pat came out with this perfect airbrushed shirt of himself and sunglasses on, singing Britney Spears "Toxic" and Butch joined him. They make the song actually sound good.
Train is an absolutely amazing band. They are very entertaining, and even Derek says If you don't know them or really care for them, you would love them live!
They have a song called "Superman" and fans always brings something Superman related to throw on stage when they sing this song and if it's clothing, Pat will put it on.
My Train ride started here:
(again-it's OK to laugh...I laugh too) My awesome sister and I went to see train in July 1999 and we got there super early so we could be front and center stage (general admission). The band was doing sound check, and Pat came out, headed to the bus and saw us, so he jumped off the deck and yelled, "what are you doing here?!?" (in a happy, nice way). I met him a couple more times in NC and saw them perform in NYC when I lived there. Then, I moved back, and in 2007, while on his solo tour, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to help promote his solo album (I guess I did a horrible job because despite "Her Eyes" being a big hit, the album only sold 55,000 copies) and got VIP passes to his show and of course met him again.
Sooo this lovely evening in Raleigh, I was lucky enough to meet him again. He kept looking at me like he was trying to figure something out, then says you look really familiar. I was armed with my old pictures from all my previous meetings, and whipped them out to show him. He loved them and he now loves me. Hey, I can't help it.
After a few minutes of chatting, he proceeded to tell everyone around how awesome I was and that he couldn't believe I was a fan from the beginning and still around. He begged me for the pictures, then told me he would give me tickets to any show anywhere I wanted. Then some other fans wanted a picture with him and Butch Walker walks over. We were talking to Butch and Pat turned around and starts saying "Krystin is a cool girl, man" and he leaves the group of fans he was talking to and comes back over to us and so two of my favorite musicians EVER were talking about me. What an amazing moment. (totally kicking myself in the butt for not getting a picture with both of them together. grr) All of the other fans around were jealous and giving dirty looks. I don't blame them, I would have been jealous too.
In the rain:
The excitement doesn't end here,
To be continued...
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