The last few months have been the best of my entire life, and every time something happened I found myself thinking, “I really need to update my blog.” The trouble is that I’m lazy. Also, it seemed like whenever I would get back from a trip I would have just enough time to work 24/7 to save up enough money for my next trip. Whenever I wasn’t working, I was sleeping.
That said, I am currently sitting in a tiny, one bedroom apartment with my family waiting to leave Kansas forever and head back home to Virginia (yay!!!!!). I will be home by the end of the week. It hasn’t even had a chance to sink in yet. Anyway, I’ve decided it’s the perfect time to play catch up (I mean it, this time). It’s not gonna be very thorough. I’ll probably just hit the highlights, but here goes:
Dallas.
In June, we took a trip to see Fall Out Boy during their “Return-From-Hiatus” Tour. In short, it was awesome. The show was incredible. I hadn’t seen them since…2009 I think? When they were touring with Blink during their “Return-From-Hiatus” Tour (these damn bands and their drama). So yeah, if you ever get a chance to see Fall Out Boy live, I highly suggest you do it. They’re fabulous. Patrick came out to say hi afterwards and he’s basically just the nicest human in the world.
Me and Patrick Stump, 2013.
Anyway, that night we stayed in the nicest hotel in the history of the world so naturally me and my brother lurked around in the middle of the night ogling at the indoor pond and going up and down the 50+ floors in a glass elevator because we’re 5. The next morning I got to have breakfast with my dear friend Amanda that I knew when I went to high school in Texas and that was just so nice. I love getting to see old friends. Before we left, we stopped at Elm Street – the street where JFK was shot. You can’t be a Kennedy enthusiast and be in Dallas and not see it. That was my logic. All in all, it was pretty morbid… they’ve turned the School Book Depository into a museum and you can stand in the window that Oswald shot him from? Yeah, I didn’t do that. But I did stand on the grassy knoll and look at the street and had a chilling vision of actually being there and seeing him get shot and I burst into tears and couldn’t stop crying to save my life. It wasn’t necessarily a “good” experience, but it was moving and eye-opening and I’m glad I did it. All in all, it was an incredible roller coaster of a weekend and I made some wonderful memories with my mom and brother.
June/July 2013:
Jon Cozart, Joe Moses, Hank Green
A few weeks after that, I headed up to Idaho to visit my friend Leah. Idaho is hands down one of the most gorgeous places I’ve ever been – North Idaho anyway. I can’t speak for the rest of the state. Anyway, once I was in Idaho we road-tripped down to Portland for this year’s LeakyCon! Four whole days of getting to revel in nerdiness. It was awesome. I met so many people and made so many memories and sang so many songs and danced so many…dances. I also got a lil bit drunk and tried to hit on a gorgeous gay guy. I’ll never forget it.
I think maybe the best part about the road trip to Portland though was driving through Oregon. Talk about beauty. The Oregon Coast is somewhere everyone must go before they die, I mean it.
Oregon Coast
After Portland, the rest of my stay in Idaho was awesome. I got to hang out with all of Leah’s friends. Smoked some hookah, saw some movies, went to an amusement park and fell in love with a magician, the usual. Next summer, Leah’s coming out to Virginia and we’ll get to go on more adventures! Possibly LeakyCon Orlando? We’ll see. 🙂
July-August 2013:
I honestly can’t think of anything that happened during this period of time so I’m assuming it was one of those “work until I have money for my next trip” periods because September was AWESOME.
September 2013:
In September I finally got to do what I’d been waiting years to do… I got to go home and see my friends. I flew out to NC and stayed with my friend Taylor for a few days before we (along with her boyfriend Topher) drove up to Chicago for Riot Fest. Literally a carnival with bands playing everywhere. Taylor and I stayed up watching the entire first season of American Horror Story the night before, so we accidentally slept in Friday morning. After leaving late and driving 12 straight hours, we got to Chicago and checked into our hostel about an hour before Fall Out Boy went on (Yes, I got to see Fall Out Boy AGAIN, which was awesome because it was Chicago and I love seeing bands play in their hometowns). We explored Chicago on Saturday. First we walked down the street to Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower) and went all the way up to the Skydeck which stands 103 floors above Chicago.
Taylor and Myself, Skydeck Chicago, 2013
After this we went to Giordano’s for lunch which is a place one of my college friends took me to in Florida once and I fell in LOVE. Deep dish Chicago style pizza. Heavenly. Then I think we went back to our room and took a nap before we continued exploring. We went out to Cloud Gate and walked from there to The Field Museum, which was closed. Then we took a cab out to Riot Fest to see Taking Back Sunday and Blink-182. I got lucky and had my own body guard standing in front of me during Blink… that shit was insane. A few days later we heard that a few people were hospitalized and maybe one person died? I can’t remember… it was intense though. Even still, I’m glad I got to see them again. Favorite band since I was in elementary school!
Blink-182
Cloud Gate
It decided to rain cats and dogs the entirety of Sunday, so we spent the afternoon at The Field Museum. So many incredible things there: Sue, the most complete T-Rex fossil ever, mummies, you name it. You could probably spend days in there. Later that afternoon, we went back to Riot Fest but there weren’t really any other bands I wanted to see, plus it was muddy and I had gotten sick and my feet were wet and aching from walking so much and I was miserable so I headed back to the room while Tay and Toph stayed to see Brand New.
Sue
We left at around 5 AM the next morning because Topher had to work the next day. We drove through Gary, Indiana but we didn’t have time to track down Michael Jackson’s childhood home. We got to see the old steel mills and get a feel of the city though. We did, however, make time to stop in Point Pleasant, WV to see the Mothman Statue. We even poked around this hole in the wall museum that has props from the movie and old letters and manuscripts from the original story. It was pretty cool, although Point Pleasant itself is kind of… strange. It’s super tiny and all the people seem to do is sit outside and talk about the Mothman. It is their claim to fame, I guess. You can only expect that place to be strange considering the story it’s famous for. Anyway, still a really cool experience.
Mothman Statue, Point Pleasant, WV
After we got back, I spent the rest of my time in NC seeing all my friends and remembering how it feels to be me and to be surrounded by the people I love. I seriously have the most incredible people in my life and I don’t understand how I got to be so lucky.
October 2013:
That brings us to now. I’ve spent the majority of October working and getting ready to move. After 3 years, 2 of which have been spent living in the hell that is Kansas, I finally get to go home. My dad retired and he’s taking us back. I’m finally going to be where I belong. Where I grew up, just a hop, skip, and a jump away from my friends. I think I even get to get lunch with Taylor this Sunday since she’ll be in town (her boyfriend is from the same area as I am). I’m just in such a good place now. This year has had it’s lows, but the highs have made them seem so small. And the year isn’t even over yet.
TL;DR – Keep your head up. The sun always rises, you just have to survive the night.
little gingerella 