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.

Read more »

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.

Read more »

3 Cities: Boston!

The plan was to visit three cities in the year for fun and not for work. I've been a mountain of interesting places for work including Southern California, Seattle and Hamburg, but those weren't for fun and fun was the key here.

The trek to see Early Morning Blues all over continues and this time I got to see them in their hometown of Boston, MA. Heather, my friend from the DC area came with and we trekked from DC to Boston (after I started everything in California). We planned out for a weekend and got to Boston midday on Friday which meant we had most of the day to explore.

First things first we met up with Rana which involved a trip on the T (their bus/metro/train system) to her apartment. That's always an experience, but once you learn one metro map, the rest sort of fall together. Heather had a handle on DC and though it had been a while I could muster my way through the Paris Metro which wasn't even in English.

After dropping things off and changing at Rana's we headed out again, grabbing lunch at a local pizza place, the Penguin. Totally yummy and actually a pub run by British folks. It reminded me of of Manchester Arms in Atlanta, but they served pizza.

Then it was off to Newbury Street which was probably my number one goal. We walked from the Penguin there and had Rana laughing because she told us it wasn't far, "only a 30 minute walk." Heather and I both being from places where you just don't walk balked at her a little. We wound up walking which was really nice, getting to see a lot of Boston as we did, but it was quite the walk.

Newbury is home to Johnny Cupcakes which was one of my main targets. I love the story behind the shop and love the clothes that he sells. It's all very kitsch and cool. Danny from Early Morning Blues actually works there which is even cooler. I picked up a shirt with Hello Kitty as well as the Johnny Cupcake logo and Heather got a cute maroon one.



Victoria caught up with us and we wandered up and down Newbury, stopping in a thrift store where Heather found a loud Betsy Johnson shirt which had all of us laughing because really? That's Heather. The used CD/DVD store had a copy of the Boys Like Girls dvd for $6 which meant I picked it up. I have it on iTunes, but the case has a ton of really cool photos which I wanted to get my hands on and for half price I was more than willing.

There was another stop at Pinkberry of course to get a treat for the afternoon. Definitely delicious and totally worth the stop. It was fun to get it with my friends who don't live in Atlanta, but I always wind up tweeting with about it.

The last stop was for me, at the Converse store. Walking in the door I honestly felt like I'd walked home. I loved the clothes, everything looking like something I'd wear (boys clothes and girls). We went upstairs to look at shoes and I just sort of knew I'd end up with a pair, but instead of just grabbing a teal pair of chucks to match Meaghan's I found out they customize chucks. Turns out it was $20 to do one side of printing and by one side they mean a design on one side of either shoe, anything that can be done in a single print. It took us almost an hour but eventually both Heather and I designed customized high tops.





I feel like a total nerd, but I've never been so excited about a pair of shoes in my life.

We left Newbury and wandered towards Fenway, grabbing a few photos of the stadium as they got ready for the Red Sox Brewers game. It was fun to see all the people gearing up for the game. It's different than being around Turner Field in Atlanta which is huge and one of the only things in that area. There's a lot more surrounding Fenway.





Post Fenway we headed back to Rana's to rest for a while before going out for a late dinner and drinks with Cole, who is one of my brother's friends from high school (so one of my other little brothers). It was awesome to get to see him, introduce him to my friends as well.

I think I'm kind of in love with Boston. It's such an old city, something we don't have in Atlanta. (That's what happens when your city is burned to the ground in the Civil War, but even then we don't have the same sense about it. Atlanta doesn't keep old buildings like they do in Boston). I could definitely live there if it came down to it. I think I'd really enjoy it.

Read more »

12 Books

It's been the past few months for progress, and I've been chipping away at my 27 Things Before 28 List.

Number 5 was "Read 12 books." I actually thought this was going to be a big stretch because I haven't been making time for reading like I used to and I was reading some pretty heavy stuff earlier in the year, but it turns out I was able to get through them pretty quickly. Traveling for work and being stuck on an airplane seemed to help quite a bit with that. Here you are, the 12 I read list:

1. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)
2. The Girl who Played With Fire (Steig Larsson)
3. Can You Keep a Secret (Sophie Kinsella)
4. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest (Stieg Larsson)
5. The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins)
6. Catching Fire (Suzanne Collins)
7. Mockingjay (Suzanne Collins)
8. Keeping The Moon (Sarah Dessen)
9. This Lullaby (Sarah Dessen)
10. The Secret Circle: The Initiation (L.J. Smith)
11. The Secret Circle: The Captive (L.J. Smith)
12. The Secret Circle: The Power (L.J. Smith)

I've read another one since (my best buddy Jacki loaned me some trashy supernatural romance-type novels which I've read one and a half of and I think I left something out of that list. I feel like there was something between 9 and 10.

Call it done and scratch it off.

Read more »

Love Will Never Die

Number 14 on my 27 Before 28 List was 'wrist tattoo' as in get my wrist tattoo that I had planned.

In April after having waited a year since the last one I decided it was time. I knew what I wanted, where and I had an idea for the font for the writing.



"Love will never die," is a line from a camp song at the camp I counselor at. The song, "Love Is" is by far my favorite at camp and the best of all the songs we sing. It's one of the most popular and as far as I'm concerned it isn't camp until we've sung this song at the top of our lungs.

Not only that it's good advice for life.

Around here, I should explain camp. Camp Kudzu is a camp that does week long sessions for kids with Type 1 diabetes. I started on a whim with nothing to do in the summer after college and I wound up getting completely hooked. This year will be my sixth session and I swore that after five I would get the tattoo. I did it!

#14 done.

Read more »

#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.

Read more »

#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.

Read more »

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.

Read more »

Checking Things Off the List

Well not completely checking them off but making progress.

I said 12 books before 28, and so far I'm three books in (I just finished another last night).

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Stieg Larsson)
I jumped on the hype and got these books for cheap with a coupon from Borders (I've stopped opening those emails to cut down on my spending) and of course got sucked in. I'm quite enamored by the Lisbeth character, though for the obvious reasons. Social pariahs always catch my eye, plus I still have a fantasy of being a Trinity-Level hacker as well as being okay to be tattooed in obvious places. The book is full of suspense and parts of the ending just blew my mind.

(The Swedish movie is also quite good and I'm very much looking forward to Rooney Mara in the American version.)

The Girl Who Played with Fire (Stieg Larsson)
Book two of the series starts off a little slower, but towards the end builds in ways that are barely imaginable. It focuses on the troubled and difficult (but lovable in her own right) heroine and her past. By the end I was breathing heavily and far too eager to turn each page.

(Book three - The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest - is on deck, but Champ was reading it first so I had to wait for him to finish. He's done, but I'd started another book and around and around it goes. I finished the other book last night, so I should start the third tonight.)

Can You Keep a Secret (Sophie Kinsella)
This was a little cheesy and I hate counting but I finished the second book before Champ finished the third of the "Girl Who" series and I was left searching through my Kindle for what to pick up that would take less than a week to read. By the end though I was rather sucked in, enjoying the cute story of what happens when you accidentally share all your secrets with a total stranger, who, of course, finds his way back into your life. It's adorable, but lame and nothing more than a beach read. Or a read between two other books read.

Progress has been made. I'm at 3/12 and if I keep having to travel for work I'll keep making progress.

Read more »

27 Things Before 28

I finished my first list!

Don't mock the fact that I'm really, really excited about this. Remember this list? I did mine even though my birthday was a few months ago. (If you're interested Elsie just posted her 28 before 29 list). So here's mine:



Since it's probably near impossible to read my handwriting even if you click through I'll type it out neatly here for you to read through. (I will never be one of those neat handwriting types. I won "best handwriting" as a superlative in middle school and almost cried because I knew it was a complete lie. Even at 12 my handwriting was just as horrible.)

27 Things Before 28
1. Finish writing my book
2. Re-design my blog (and become a real blogger)
3. 30/30/30 Challenge
4. Start (and maintain) a book club
5. read 12 books
6. Get a new camera
7. learn to sew
8. Finish my wedding scrapbook
9. Go see a concert in another city
10. Visit 3 cities. FOR FUN
11. See Boys Like Girls. Twice.
12. Finish 2 mini books
13. photo shoot with my friends
14. wrist tattoo
15. design my back tattoo
16. Make someone something special
17. Throw a killer bridal shower
18. Visit Meag, Dave, Bob and Aly in NYC
19. Get settled in the new house
20. train to row
21. Plan a getaway with Champ
22. Wrestlemania (I already have tickets)
23. Get good with photoshop
24. Tattoo photo shoot
25. Plan a killer dinner party
26. Go dancing
27. visit my family

Now it's just a matter of crossing things off before August 22, 2011.

Read more »