#22 Wrestlemania

As always, I feel like I should start at the beginning here.

I'm only kind of a wrestling fan. Champ was when he was a kid and his best friend Chris was as well. Then they got older, Champ got out of it, and Chris just kept watching, scripted or not. The same way someone watches Days of Our Lives, is how Chris watches wrestling.

When I was still working shifts, Champ started watching so he could talk to Chris about it when I wasn't around. And then he was going to watch pay per views with his friend. After a while it started coming on when I was around, mostly just in between other shows. Now it's DVR'd and we fast forward through the boring parts. I like the drama and costumes and Chris and Champ like to talk about it. It's like Grey's Anatomy for me only with less whining.

When it was announced that Wrestlemania was coming to Atlanta, it was just sort of assumed the three of us would go. Chris has it on his bucket list and who better to go with than his three two friends who did actually follow along wit the storyline. So, because I'm awesome, I found out about the pre-sale party in the park and we went there to score tickets. Because Champ is awesome he scored even better tickets through work so we wound up sitting even closer than expected.



The kids in front of us wound up making the whole thing worthwhile. They cheered for all the "good" guys while we cheered for the "bad" (much to their shock). It was quite fantastic as a whole really.







All in all a great time. So there you go, crossing off #22.

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Mom is just awesome

My mom cracks me up.

I was on facebook, posting about going home for Easter, trying to find out who's around, what's going on and if there was anything I could be doing that wasn't spending the entire weekend at my mom's house. I don't have a ton of friends back home, so there's no raging social life when I get there, but I do have a few friends, and there's always some concert (given that Cage the Elephant came out of my town, there's always that next big thing waiting) to go to. I also asked about tattoos because my lil brother mentioned ideas for his first ink, and I want to be there when he does it.

Mom saw the post of course, and babbled on about random things about home. Another friend posted about getting ink together and a third mentioned that my friend Dustin (who did my first tattoo) might be in town doing ink again. I might have freaked out.

My mom sees this and responds back with "I know his mom, I'll ask her"

Got an email this morning from mom, forwarded from Jenny, Dustin's mom. Mom had emailed her to ask if Dustin was home 'doing tats' and that I wanted to know. Jenny came back to say no, he's starting a shop in St. Louis, but he does come home occasionally. She'll get me his number so I can call.

Seriously how adorable is that? My mom hates my tattoos, yet here she is trying to help me find my friend.

(I wish someone had been there to witness the conversation from when I told her how I knew Dustin. Eyes bugging out and everything.)

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#16

#16 on my 27 before 18 List was "make someone something special."

I've been working on this one for a while, trying to come up with something, until I realized that I'd done that. The panels I made for my best friends for Christmas totally fit that bill so I've crossed it off. Still working on a few other items, but consider it done.

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Early Morning Blues

Sometimes even the most sane of us do some crazy things.

I've been going through this quarter-life crisis of sorts (about five years late or so), realizing that I did so little crazy things when I was younger. So little. Part of it was fear, part of it was just not knowing, but a lot of it was me just not doing it. So here I am, at 27, finally starting to do things.

I assumed when I added 'see a concert in another city' to my 27 Things Before 28 list, I'd be flying to DC to see Boys Like Girls with Eye. Turns out that they are still working on that new album and thus, no concert tour yet. Or at least no where that isn't Brazil. (Seriously would be tempted if I knew anything about Brazil).

But all was not lost. My favorite member of BLG, Bryan Donahue, has spent his time off from touring working on a few songs of his own and eventually recorded and released them off under a solo gig/band thing, Early Morning Blues. So while he was mucking around it he managed to get his little band a show, in Rhode Island, just outside of Providence (think, near Brown University). I got excited about a month in advanced and looked at my work calendar. No traveling. A quick check of google maps said it was an hour and a half from where lil brother is living in Connecticut.

Josh (lil brother) was not as on board and plead that he might have to work, etc etc. About a week before the show he realized, nope, no work. Which meant he had Tuesday night off. In a moment of eagerness, I bought us tickets, offered to help pay for gas and demanded he pick me up so we could go see Bryan play.

Super excited, I tweeted off a message to Bryan and shockingly enough he retweeted my tweet and hit me back with a response (freaked out in the airport a little folks)



Cut to the concert. Fly up to CT, spend the day with brother, drive to the concert which is a little hole in the wall. As soon as we walk in, there's Bryan, chatting on his cell phone, looking adorable and real. A little while later the drummer shows up, hugs his best friend and then Josh and I realize that there are very few non-friends and family at the show. When Bryan is at his merch table, talking to an older woman (old enough to be say... a mom) I swallow my pride and wander over, looking at stuff.

The conversation goes like this:

Mom (turns out to be Bryan's mom): You should get something from this side of the table *points at Bryan's merch*
Me: Well I was planning on it. I came all the way from Georgia to see him so yeah.
Bryan: *looks up* You came from GA?
Me: Yup
Bryan: Oh hi! I'm Bryan *shakes my hand*
Me: I'm Katy
Mom: You came all the way from Georgia to see him play? That's great. He's excellent isn't he?
Me: yes, yes he is

Seriously. I thought this was the end of the night. But no it gets better.









Bryan's set was amazing. The whole lot of them were great. And he was great. Even with just four songs (yes I traveled that far for FOUR songs), he was awesome.

After I wander towards the merch table again where two other fan girls (and mom) are chatting him up. Josh is adamant that I'm "more important" because I came farther and when there's a chance to chat with the fan girls (Bry's run off) they ask me if I'm from Mass/RI and when I say no the next question is "Are you from GA?" So apparently I'm psuedo fan famous.

I chatted with them for a while, had someone else introduce me as the girl from GA and Bryan grinning about it again. Still, no real face time with him, but it's okay, I'm having fun. Josh meanwhile is chatting up the guitarist, Danny, over at the bar. Danny's stoked about being complimented and when Josh explains that he's there with his sister who came from GA, Danny freaks.

The story goes that the EMB guys (or at least Danny and Bryan) were together when Bryan got my tweet and it went very much like "holy shit some chic is coming from GA to see me play" and then there were high fives.

Danny came over to us later after Josh came back and Josh was like this is her! My sister and Danny practically tackled me with hugs and love and adoration. "You coming means so much to us."

By this time it's getting late, still no real face time with Bryan but he's outside grabbing a cigarette and the other fan girls are very much like "tell him goodbye." So I stopped told him I had to head out and he reaches for me immediately, giving me a big hug. "So glad you came, it means so much to me." I got him to sign his Venture Guitars flyer and got a picture with him as well.


(look at him grinning!)

After we wound up chatting in a group that was mostly me and him chatting with people listening in. I got to meet his brother who was just stoked that I came that far (and I figure out was the guy staring at me half the night. Awkward). Best of all Bryan says "You're a story I'm going to tell for the rest of my life. I do my first solo gig and a girl comes all the way from GA to see me play." He hinted on a tour with EMB, hopefully coming through GA. I promised to be there with everyone I knew if he came (still waiting).


So scratch off #9 "Go see a concert in another city" Done and done.

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Music on Repeat

I've had my new ipod stuck in my ears since the day I managed to get music on it. I used the old one quite a bit but there's something bulky about it that kept me from using it all the time like I use the new gold nano. When I have to walk the 900 steps from my car to my office? I shoot through three songs or so. When I'm sitting at my desk, fighting off another afternoon slump, I've got the volume cranked up to keep me awake and functioning.

Even more so now that I've started traveling for work all the time. I've got the thing shoved in my ears through the airport (step, step, step) on the bus to the car and then back again. Not to mention the battery life and play times I crank out while on the flight.

Funny thing? It took me weeks to actually put music on the sucker. Months even. Of course, that's not all my fault. There was the computer fiasco and the fact that none of my music was on a computer, but it was all on the old and dying old Ipod. At first all I got on the sucker was 141 songs, which included the Boys Like Girls Love Drunk album, some random Glee tracks (I don't even like that show) and the Cranberries album. Like the Cranberries album with "Zombie" on it. Yes. That one.

Now I've got it fully loaded with all my favorites, but I keep skipping back to the same tracks and I sort of love what it's been saying of me lately to be repeating this music over and over again.

Boys Like Girls - yes the Love Drunk album, but I've got the old stuff on there too. I realize that I'm obsessing about these boys, but their talent continues to blow me away.

I read all this talk about Taylor Swift and just how damn talented she is, which is all fine and dandy if you like you're music all breathy and sounding the same over and over again. Everyone talks about how she writes her music and she's only 19 or so. Everyone (ok maybe just him) talks about Justin Bieber doing the same thing, but I'm of the belief that he just sort of tosses some words out there and Usher makes it work.

I give you "Thunder" by Boys Like Girls. Martin claims in their DVD that this is the first song the band put together as a band. He says he wrote the song at 18, and it came together once Paul joined the band (which was about a year later). You can tell he wrote it without a lead guitarist to work with because it is very heavy on his acoustic. Compare that to "Love Story" which was Taylor's later work and tell me what's better. That's right. He still plays this song at shows, mostly just him and a guitar until the end and it's epic. Talk about a song straight from the heart.

Martin also swears he's been writing music since he was a kid, like seven. He's always been writing his own songs. We're not giving him huge props though are we? We just sort of expect it.

"Go" has given me ideas for new tattoos, including having "believe your body can mend" on my arm in some way (though in script up my side is tempting as well). It just screams to the part of me that's been through so much with my own skin. If you watch the end of the video I linked he explains the song, how it came from losing a friend, about getting out of something that's holding you back. He's gone through a lot himself, drugs, hurting himself and he's made it through and wants others to as well.

Of course, the rest of their catalog is fantastic. Everything is worth listening too, especially the tracks that make you want to get up and dance.

The Summer Set - I can't remember how I found out about these guys but I blame one of my internet friends because I feel like that's where it might have come from. Either way, I'm sort of in love with their catchy tunes. I forced them on a friend, Dave, and though I could almost feel him rolling his eyes through AIM (he's been doing that to me for 9+ years so at this point I'm used to it), he did admit that he found himself tapping his feet with it.

It's a bit angst-ridden, just like BLG, but at the same time it's peppy and fun to dance to in your cube while you're losing your mind in the afternoon doldrum.

My current favorite is Sing it Out, which sadly I couldn't even tell you what it's about but I know I love the way it sounds. "Count it out on the kick drum 3, 4,"

Something Corporate - I know they've essentially disbanded, but I'v never really stopped listening to them. I go in waves sometimes, focusing only the music done by the group or I'll be exclusively listening to Andrew McMahon's side project Jack's Mannequin, but I'm always going back to the sound of his voice.

I got to see them in concert a few months back and was just floored. They call themselves "piano rock" and really, that's what they are. The focal instrument was a piano. And when Andrew wasn't banging on it he was climbing on it. It's the kind of music that gives you chills and fills you up until you might burst.

"She Paints Me Blue" is must. Andrew wrote it while sitting in a parking lot in Atlanta, and the sky opened up. It really did start raining on him.

Check it out and let me know what you think, I'd love to know.

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