Monday, September 24, 2007

holycrapholycrapholycrap!

so, back in like 2001, 311 came on the Warped Tour, and when they were in SLC, someone stole their scooters that they were cruising around on. My friend Lindi's dad was a cop working there that day, and he found them and mentioned that his daughter was a big fan and their tour manager, Jim, as a thank you gave him his business card said that next time they were in town to call him and he'd get her back stage. Well, we (Lindi, Liz & I) tried to call him once when we were at a show in Vegas, but I think we waited too late in the night to call, because he never picked up his phone. Anyway, fast forward to today, I'm at the gym, and there is a guy there who always comments on my 311 shirts, today he came up and asked if I had made it to their concert this summer, which of course yes, I saw them twice..blah, blah, blah. Turns out he is the very same Jim tour manager guy. He gives me his business card and says that he's sure "they would like to meet you". FREAKING AWESOME!!!! Can you believe that? I do yoga with 311's tour manager! That is nuts. How rad is that? I was just thinking of all the concerts I've been to since Kyle Kerr introduced me to them in my Junior year after early morning swim practice, trying to tally it up for real, because I think I've been to see them 21 times, but honestly, I'm not sure. So here we go:
#1 August 7, 1997 Wolf Mountatin with Kirsten. Came home early from church history tour with my parents, was totally worth it. One of my shoes came off in the mosh pit and nice boys next to me parted the crowd to help me find it. I am hooked on the positive vibe and the amazing performance. (and SA's silly dance moves)
#2 October 13, 1999 (they only toured down under in 1998) Club DV8 with Liz. Jared had a friend who was going to buy us tickets that was sleeping on the street outside DV8 to get tickets to this amazing tiny club tour, but the cops came just as the ticket office was going to open and kicked people of the street, resulting in no one that had been there all night being able to get tickets. Somewhere in there Jared & I broke up and I started bidding on ebay for tickets in other states as well as bitching about it on their bulletin board. Being the fan appreciating band that they are, everyone who posted a complaint on the bulletin board got an email saying that they were sorry for the way things were handled, and if I would go down to X96, they had a pair of tickets for me, free of charge. In the meantime, I had made other arrangements to see them in Colorado....
#3 October 15, 1999 Aggie Theater, Fort Collins, CO with Greg. Don't ask. Not one of my better moments. But it was the first time I witnessed the beloved drum circle during Applied Science.
#4 December 31, 1999 The Forum, Los Angeles, CA opening for Red Hot Chili Peppers with Jared. Amazing concert, very dumb seats, very dumb boyfriend.
#5 April 1, 2000 Saltaire with Jimmy's Chicken Shack with Jared
#6 June 2, 2000 Saltaire with Incubus and Doug I think, I remember because it was Jared's birthday and we must have been broken up at the time.
#7 October 11, 2000 The Joint at Hard Rock, Las Vegas, NV can't remember who with.
#8 November 20, 2000 Saltaire with Jared location and company both equally stinky.
#9 July 7, 2001 Warped Tour, SLC Fairpark with Todd, also bad company.
#10 (kinda) September 11, 2001, went down to Vegas for the show with Greg, but terrorists had other plans, show rescheduled for...
#10 November 1, 2001 The Joint at Hard Rock, Las Vegas, NV with Liz and Lindi. This is when we tried to call Jim & get backstage, but we did meet Simon Rex from one of our favorite TV shows at the time, Jack & Jill. He was very nice albeit very drunk. It wasn't until later when I learned that he had done gay porn that I regretted shaking his hand.
#11 March 4, 2002 McKay Center in Orem with Hoobastank, my first time dragging Matt along, what a babe.
#12 August 13, 2002 Saltaire with Matt
#13 August 30, 2003 USANA with G. Love & Special Sauce with Matt
#14 June 25, 2004 USANA with The Roots with Matt
#15 August 16, 2007 USANA with Matisyahu with Alicia Warnock
#16 August 29, 2007 Seattle, WA at Marymoor Park with Matt
So apparently I have only seen them 16 times as opposed to my estimated 21. That is much less impressive. I will have to compare this list with my remaining ticket stubs and make sure I haven't overlooked anything.

Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Finally Well, Seattle, Birthday, Dorothy Died

Well, we got better just in time to take our family trip to Seattle. I have never been more grateful for our usually good health. Oh, and something else that hammered that point home, my awesome friend Kierstin somehow contacted Spinal Meningitis and freaked us all out by spending the weekend in the ER. When I heard she was in the hospital I googled meningitis, and started bawling because it is such a scary thing! I am so glad she is recovering, I love her to pieces, and just wish I could have been around more to help her, she's the type who is kind of hard to help, she's so busy and self-sufficient and can just do everything, I hope this helps her to learn to tone it down a bit, and accept help a bit more. (Kierstin, you'd better be reading this) I love her to pieces. Anyway, this trip started out as me being a brat & demanding to go to the 311 show on my birthday, and it escalated into a week long trip with Susie to the Emerald City. It was is so beautiful there! We really loved it. We flew to Portland on Tuesday night, Sawyer did really well on the plane, then we woke up the next morning and took a beautiful 3 hour Amtrak to Seattle. The hotel couldn't take us to the Amtrak station, so we called a cab who didn't show, and we thought we were going to miss the train until the cab that the hotel called for us came, just in the nick of time. If the train hadn't been running 7 minutes behind we seriously would not have made it, I was so pissed at the first cab company. We went to the Mariners game as soon as we arrived which was hilarious, Susie makes me laugh my freaking head off. Then Matt & I went to the 311 show at Marymoor park, which technically was like next door to our hotel, but it was HUGE, so walking to the show, while fun, was quite a trek. I absolutely HEART 311! Every time I go to a show (that was my 21st) I leave feeling rejuvenated, as corny as that sounds, it's like recharging my batteries. There is such a positive vibe and so many good memories. Jumping up and down with a bunch of strangers who all love 311 like I do, just feels so awesome. I know that Matt will mock me to scorn when he reads this, but that's what I love about it. I LOVE IT! The show with Alicia was way fun too, but we had seats, and I cannot do that ever again, GA is too much fun. Anyway, we also went on this cheesy touristy amphibious duck tour which turned out to be one of the highlights, way fun, Sawyer loved it, until she totally passed out on the way home. We took her back to the EMP and laid her down on the couch in the little kid area, and she slept for another hour while Matt & Susie wandered around a bit longer. That museum was pretty cool too, I never made it to the Science Fiction museum, that nerdyness was all Matt, but it was a really fun day. We shopped & spa-ed and shopped and ate out (gained most of my flu weight back, boo.) Sunday we went to a sacrament meeting and then took off to Bainbridge Island on the ferry. When we left church, Sawyer had a little freak out because she couldn't go to nursery, she's such a funny chick. She loves nursery! As soon as the closing song starts, she starts pulling at my hand saying, "bubbles, bubbles, nursey," so she wasn't happy at all when we headed out to the car instead, she literally was screaming her head off. Bainbridge was fun, kinda cute little shops and whatnot, but the architecture is what I really LOVED there. Unfortunately I am a tard and didn't take any pictures. We had to get up at 4:00 am yesterday to make our 6:10 flight, and we had moved to an airport hotel to be closer, but it was only a one room, so we put Sawyer to bed and she couldn't sleep until we turned out the lights, but she was being so stinking funny. Every time I'd tell her to lay down, she would, for like 10 seconds, then she'd get up and stick her head over the top of the crib and play peak a boo. Then she started squishing her face up against the mesh sides of the crib and making piggy faces, and we all LOST it laughing! She is such a silly goose.Oh! We also took Sawyer to the Children's Museum, it was pretty dated, kinda small, but she loved it of course, it was fun to have a day just for her.So then we got home and have been doing funeral stuff for Susie's aunt Dorothy the last two days, so it'll be nice to get back to normal for a couple of weeks...until my crazy girls trip to Phoenix on the 19th!!! Yeah! We also just booked a trip to San Diego for Sawyer's 2nd birthday which I am so excited about.