MMYYYYY VACATION!!

I'm so excited to write this because my vacation was AMAZING. I mean, usually I use vacations to relax but I was all over the place.

From Friday (heh heh heh, you guys were in school!) to Sunday, I was on Long Island with my whole entire mom's side of the family. It was a lot of fun because I got to meet my uncle's new(ish) girlfriend and we got to catch up a lot.

I went to the mall with Lauren to visit Julie at the mall, because she works at this hair care place next to Journey's. We "snuck" in (because we wanted to surprise her... when I told my mom that she was like, "Why wouldn't you be allowed into the store?") and I stuck my head out from the shelf and she was talking with her mom and a girl she works with, saw me, and was all, "YOU'RE A LIFESAVER!" She asked her mom for a five minute break and was gone for twenty minutes.

Then on Wednesday, Lauren and I went to Jeepers with her little brother (but we totally had a lot more fun than he did) and then we had to go to Miller's. Nick (Lauren's little brother) was told he had to stay with us, but he was really bothering us that day so we ran around, hid, and played secret agents.

Friday was Lauren's "party", which wasn't really a party because everyone bailed out. It turned out just being Julie, Lauren, Christine, Tricia and I sitting in Lauren's basement, listening to music, questioning each other's beliefs and leaving voice mails on Jake Fisch's phone, who decided he wasn't going to pick up. ("Hello? ...Yeah? Oh, what's up? ...Hey, that's cool man. Listen, I gotta go though so... bye. Oh. LEAVE A MESSAAAGEEE!") Julie and I slept over at Lauren's and we were trying to watch Moulin Rouge on the DVD player in the basement, but it's kind of crappy and picked up on the scratches. So we just kind of talked until three in the morning and fell asleep on the pull out couch.

SUNDAY WAS THE BEST NIGHT EVER!!! On December 15th; Brand New, Thrice and MeWithoutYou were supposed to be at the Washington Ave. Armory for a show. The show got canceled because a snowdrift sort of... collapsed onto the roof (or, as Jesse Lacey said at the show, "So we were supposed to be here... but the sky decided it was going to fall or something).

The show was rescheduled for last night and please understand--Brand New has been in my top favorite bands for the past three years and they never come around here, even though they're from Long Island. Thrice and MeWithoutYou couldn't come because Thrice is doing a headlining tour with Circa Survive (Gabs: haha, you probably have no idea who these bands are) and I'm pretty sure MeWithoutYou is touring with Say Anything(?).

So... Sybris and Men Women and Children decided to follow along for the one night "tour". Sybris kind of sucked. They were like Paramore but everything sounded the same, the singer was terrible, and the only thing somewhat decent about the band was their drummer.

Men Women and Children own a (somewhat small because I only have so much to go around) piece of my heart. They were setting up and they kept sticking neon lights on the edge of their stuff. One of the drum's had one, the singer/synth man (there were two, but one of them didn't sing) had a pink one on his synthesizer... but the singer's was the best of all. His mic stand had a neon green light plastered on it. They started in with a song and I found out yesterday they changed the chorus from "A-E-I-O-U Nothing" to "A-E-I-O-U... swearwordIwon'ttypeouthere YOU!" They had so much energy and were so good live. Their music was like synthy hard rock with catchy lyrics and dancy tunes. The crowd was moving and they even added in a little, "Hey. So guys, everyone has to move. Because we need to make this a frickin' party before Brand New comes out."

Brand New had the coolest stage presence ever. Jesse Lacey (he's my hero and the lead singer) was a bit weird in the begining because everyone else in the band were all over the place and we was just kind of stalking around, low to the ground. He warmed up a bit after the fifth song and half the time, I wanted to cry because it was so beautiful (I know, I know... Brand New and beautiful in the same description) because I've wanted to see them for so long and their lyrics kind of saved my life from some pretty scary things. I really connect to them so somtimes singing "Jesus Christ", "Play Crack The Sky", "Okay, I Believe You But My Tommy Gun Sure Don't" and "Deggrasur" with 5,000 other people can really get you emotional, especially when you can connect with his devilish lyrics and perfect interludes.

Their encore started with the guitarist just on stage, playing a three minute, perfect solo and then everyone else came on, Jesse and he traded guitars and they wound up having three guys with guitar sticks on there by the end (there were eight people on stage). One of them was their actual drummer, the other drummer just had two congos, two cymbals and a snare and there was a guys standing next to him who would play the cymbals with him and hit his sticks together to make a clapping sort of sound. The one who would do the clapping sound, at the very end, sprinted across the stage and into the drummer's kit--knocking him over. The drummer had a small amount of time to crack up, pick himself off the ground and finish his drums.

I loved every second of it and would love to do it over again... even with the raping of the vocal cords.