Birthday Just Kept Getting Better

I'm a pretty big fan of continuing to celebrate my birthday long after the actual day and this year it proved to be an entire week of celebrating.

My birthday was on Monday the 22nd, like in my post and of course it was a really great day. Tuesday was a standard day, nothing too eventful going on other than enjoying some down time with Champ and avoiding the gym like the plague.

Wednesday right before lunch my friend at work Amy messages me on our work instant messenger and asks if I had plans for that night and if I liked Guster (the band) at all. I jumped out of my seat because, yes sure who went to college in the early 2000s and didn't like Guster, but I knew what she was asking about. Guster is touring with Jack's Mannequin and they were playing in Atlanta. Amy had gotten tickets through work and had thought they were for Saturday. Finding out they were for Wednesday messed things up, plus she didn't really know either band. I of course jumped on the tickets and drug Champ and David James with me. (More on the concert in a later post.)



Thursday Champ and I hurried from work, fought traffic and the Atlanta Marta transit system to get downtown for Cirque du Soleil. (I am, again, infinitely jealous of people who live in cities with public transit system that work properly and don't have 18 minutes between trains during rush hour) We were late which was upsetting and didn't get to our seats until after the first act, but it turns out our seats were front row center. I almost died a little. I've never been close enough to really see costumes or make up or anything. Dralion is an amazing to show to go with that and probably now one of my favorites. Champ gets mad props for that one, mad props. I'm going to have to start planning his birthday celebration months in advance to live up to it.

Friday we headed back to Kentucky to visit my parents for the weekend. We had a few others things going on (like a baby shower for family friends), but squeezed some birthday celebrating in there. Home isn't the best place in the world, but it's always interesting to go back. I'm still on the fence about my parents selling the house they live in now (where I had my wedding reception), but it's a good move for them. I love the house, but it's too big for two people.

Last but not least, my birthday gift from Heather finally showed up over the weekend for me to get on Sunday when we got home from Kentucky. She got me an official Venture Guitars t-shirt. They make custom guitars (and is co-owned by Bryan Donahue, personal hero). I've wanted this shirt for forever but hadn't gotten it for myself. So I was very stoked.

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Recapping 27 Before 28

Okay, so I didn't do a good job. I did a good job in trying to live, in experiencing new things, but I didn't do a good job getting through my 27 Things Before 28 list.

Let's go through what I did at least somewhat accomplish:

2. Re-design blog and become a real blogger
I didn't end up redesigning my blog, but I think I have been blogging far more regularly, especially after Meaghan found time to blog as well. (She's good, as always, at keeping me on task). I've also been running a Cage the Elephant tumblr. It's something.

5. Read 12 books
I actually got through well more than 12, and accomplished this earlier in the year. I was pretty darn proud to be honest.

6. Get a new camera
The idea had been to save and get a DSLR, which didn't happen. I'm still thinking it could if I could get better about saving money for longer and not having to spend it on getting my or Champ's car fixed. I did get a new old camera though, which counts in a way.

It's my mom's Pentax that uses REAL film. It's in dire need of a tune up though. Hoping to get it into Wolf Camera soon.

9. Go see a concert in another city
This one I did back in March when I went up to Providence to see Early Morning Blues play the first time. I've been to another city two other times now (Boston) to see them play again. I think I can cross it off three times?

10. Visit 3 cities for fun!
Sadly I only got to one city for fun. But for work I did get to see Seattle, the surrounding Los Angles area, Frankfort (Germany), Gainsville, Texas and a few more. It's been interesting to say the least

11. See Boys Like Girls twice
Alright, this didn't work out as planned. My band's hiatus through the winter lasted through the summer as well (and is still on going), but I'm counting the three times of seeing Early Morning Blues as following them enough.

14. Wrist tattoo
I had it in my head to get my tattoo, which I finally did. I got to show it off at camp while I was there and got a lot of compliments on it. Everyone loved it.

15. Design back tatto
Okay so i didn't really design my tattoo outside of some research, but at this point it should be noted that I did get another tattoo, which might not have been the intent, but it's still really cool and something accomplished.

16. Make someone something special
My Christmas gifts for my friends definitely counted as this. I also made Bryan more than one bracelet as thank yous and I adore you gifts.

18. Visit Meag, Dave, Bob and Ally in NYC
I didn't accomplish this and it's possibly my biggest fail. I let Dave leave NYC (though he's headed back to that area soon) but Meag and Ally are moving too. Not sure if Ally will go back, but Meag definitely won't. Sheesh.

22. Wrestlemania
This was easy because we already had tickets to go, but I have to admit it was a ton of fun.

Only 9 completed. That's just sad. Oh well. There's always next year right? I'll start on another list soon enough.

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Music on Repeat

There's been loads of new music headed my way and I think I'm due and update for what's on repeat on the iPod these days.

The Cab

The Cab has been around for quite a while, long enough that the release date between their old album and the one that came out 8/23 was too long for anyone to wait. I, luckily, jumped on the band wagon way after the fact and only had a few months between getting more than one track off Whisper Wars and the release of Symphony Soldier.

That said, SS was totally worth any wait. I picked up a pre order last week so I got the download the night the CD came out (my birthday night!) and I haven't stopped listening to it since. Every single track is good and I haven't said that about an album since the Boys Like Girls Love Drunk album and before that it was probably the last Matchbox Twenty Album. It's high praise.

Songs to check out
Vegas Skies - This song is amazing. Breathtaking even and the reason I liked the band in the first place.
Bad - this is the new single off the new album. Tons of fun

Ghost Thrower

I've talked about Ghost Thrower before because I've seen them twice now with Early Morning Blues, but I haven't chatted about them too much. I picked up their CD/t-shirt bundle last week (early birthday present to myself was all this music) and I must say, it's awesome. Loud and kinda angry, but it's still really well put together. Proof that an entire genre of music isn't dead or over commercialized.

Songs to check out
The EP only has five songs on it all of which are great, but I love the lyrics for I Never Damned You .

Taylor Locke and The Roughs

I came across Taylor Locke and The Roughs mostly by chance (and a year after the fact). Champ and I were watching old episodes of "The O.C." and there's an entire episode about going to a Rooney concert. I loved that when I saw it because I got into Rooney about a year before their first album because they were randomly on MTV2 at some point and the lead singer was in Princess Diaries. Complicated I know. I looked up their website while we were watching the show, just curious what they were up to, if they were touring and saw a news update for Taylor (the guitarist) and his new band's tour. I was a little surprised to see that but started researching and fell in love.

I can't explain properly what kind of sound they have. It's a lot like Rooney minus the synth, but there's something else tossed in there that's not Rooney and more...Death Cab for Cutie? Whatever it's all good.

I picked up one of the albums on iTunes and ordered a physical copy of the second. It was fun getting it (on my birthday!) because it came in this hand addressed envelope. That always makes me smile for some reason.

Songs to check out
Jennifer - first song I heard and I was in love.
Reach for the Sky

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Ringing in 28

For all my complaining it actually turned out to be a pretty decent birthday.

Champ, being the doll that he is, planned a gathering for friends for Saturday night prior to my birthday (since Monday night outings never really work). I was stoked to get to see my friends, and the big surprise being Jesse and Chris who made the trek up from Savannah. Jesse pointed out that she hadn't missed a birthday in five years so she wasn't about to start now.

We gathered at one place, but didn't want to wait two hours for a big table so wound up walking a few blocks (which is unheard of in Atlanta) to my favorite restaurant anyway, Taqueria Del Sol. I hadn't been to that location yet (but all the others at this rate) and as always it was excellent (even if the Howell Mill location is the best). We had a big crew there for food, lots of laughs and more. It's always great to be at a big table full of fun people and eat good food. Or maybe that's the Italian in me.

After dinner it was back to the original plan, Brick Store for drinks. We stayed there the rest of the night, chatting, telling stories and me watching all my friend groups converse. It was nice, really nice.

Monday was the big day and I drug work friends out to lunch with me which was also nice. It was fun to see them all in the same place since we're starting to scatter (either new buildings / different jobs / etc).

Since it was the big day, Champ and I made a plan to grab dinner on the way home from work, trying out another new sushi place (they closed our favorite!). This one might have moved to the top because, when I say A+ I mean A+. Excellent food, great service and by 7 we were walking into the house again. Of course that's where it got interesting.

As I'm letting myself into the house holding the mail in one hand and fighting with the door in the other, Champ comes up to me holding out his phone saying it's for me. "Who is it?" I ask, but he just says it's for me and goes to take the mail away. I don't want that because the new CD I ordered is in the stack to I'm half distracted with him taking the mail when I pick up the phone.

"Hello?"
"Happy birthday!"
"Well thanks, who's this?"
"It's Bryan."
"Who?"
"Bryan."

About then, the accent comes through and I realized I've got Bryan Donahue (lead singer of my favorite band and personal hero) on the line. I asked how he got the number and he explained that Champ emailed him and asked him to call on my birthday and for some reason Bryan actually agreed to that. I was a little flabbergasted but we managed to chat about his tattoo sketch, the last EMB show (which he swears wasn't that good but he's too hard on himself) and the big BLG anniversary. It was so weird and so chill and I need to talk on the phone more because I think I'm really awkward.

Champ followed that up with tickets to see Dralion, the Cirque Du Soliel show in town for a just a few days and a fun card. Not that he had to get me anything after the call, but yeah he did anyway.

I am a very, very lucky girl, with great friends, so many who wished me a happy day either in person or online via twitter and facebook. Sometimes I forget, but it was a good way to remember.

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A Fast Approaching Birthday

I got to say, I'm not looking forward to this birthday.

I've been making jokes for a the past few months that this one and the next one are the last two I'm celebrating because, well who wants to be 30 anyway? Not me. That sounds like I need to start being an adult, to have a kid or something and none of that I want right now.

Doesn't help that I don't look or feel like I'm 28. Not to mention I feel like there's still so much left for me to do that turning 30 puts a damper on it. Hell turning 28 feels like it's putting a damper on it. I look at my friends and I see how much they've done, how far they've come and I feel like I'm nowhere. Years sliding by without me doing anything about it.

It's a little depressing. I only really feel like I started living in the past few months and even then I'm not doing nearly enough.

I've always been horrid at living in the moment, but this is getting a little ridiculous.

Add to that that I really don't want to turn 28. It's just depressing me. And I have too many things on my 27 things before 28 list (though I'm counting seeing Early Morning Blues as #12 since Boys Like Girls didn't go on tour this summer. Next year...). I'm going to roll a few things over, like some of the small projects and the tattoo design, but it's hard that I didn't accomplish everything I wanted to.

Still, as far as years go, it was a decent one. There was a lot of living going on, a lot of love and meeting people that mean so much to me now. I just wish that this was year 23 or 25 not 27.

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