Sunday, July 04, 2004

 

So I've been in California the past 3 days and I had a lot of fun.

Wednesday my mom and I left and didn't get to California until 11 because of the fucking traffic we encountered on the way.

Thursday we got up at like noon and walked to the Denny's in the parking lot and had breakfast. Came back, showered, got dressed and then went and did some shopping. We went to Downtown Disney to return my mom's shirt and then went to Ikea to get some picture frames and look at beds because mine sucks. Their mattresses are so fucking soft. Swedes know how to make beds. Then we tried to decide where to eat. It was 8:15 when we left the store and rushed to my car and I decided I wanted Panda Express so I got on my Sidekick and tried looking up the nearest Panda Express and then getting directions to it and I was on the freeway going towards the Panda Express and somehow ended up in the exit only lane to get on 73 towards San Diego so I had to get off on the first exit I could and find some landmark where I could get directions from back to the hotel. And somehow I ended up at the South Coast Plaza mall which I know because there's a Paul Frank store there. So I got the address of the mall and then mapquested it back to the hotel and we FINALLY got back to the hotel in one piece after getting lost in LA for 15 mins. We drove around the vicinity of the hotel and I told my mom I wanted Chinese and that we were gonna stop at the first Chinese place I saw so I stopped at China Bistro and got some beef chow mein and my mom got chicken fried rice and then my keyless entry for my car decided to stop working so I decided that at 10 o clock at night I was gonna drive my ass to the grocery store and get new batteries. We stopped at Ralph's first but they didn't have the batteries I needed so we stopped at this Albertson's and they had it and I had to wait in line with this cashier who had all these questions about how Warped tour works. "So like, you guys are playing on all these different stages at once? How does THAT work?" Boo everyone had like beer and water and all I had were these two measly 3 volt batteries. Damn grocery stores for turning self-checkout off late at night.

When I got back to the car my mom was telling me how all these kids that were buying things at the grocery store were in a band or looked like they were in a band and I told her unless it was Jordan Pundik buying rubber bands from the Albertson's I didn't care. hahaha When we got back to the hotel I called the sleepy boy and was greeted with a "hey baby" which made me smile. My mom was trying to tell me how all these band kids were staying at our hotel and it turned out the Matches stayed right down the hall from us. haha The drummer was doing his laundry Thursday night and there were all these vans with trailers in the parking lot and the cops were there about a noise disturbancy complaint. I stayed up till 1am talking to sleepy kid and eating Chinese food.

There was a moose that broke loose and was running around somewhere in LA and I totally took a picture of the moose on the TV because how absurd is a moose running around in a neighborhood in the summertime? I got a crack out of it. And THEN! I found out that this exhibit that's been over in Europe for years that features human corpes that have been skinned and injected with plastic so you can see their insides. It's called Body Worlds and I'm totally going when I go to California again in 2 weeks.

Emily, you think you'd wanna go? If not I'm going solo. haha I can't miss this awesome opportunity.

Yesterday should best be summed up in short phrases categoritized (is that a word?) by band.
Senses Fail - I missed them because I had to wait in line for 2 and a half hours. They played at 11:50 and we didn't get in until 1. I had to listen to them through the gate. I was so pissed off. They were one of the bands I really wanted to see.
NFG - Once we got in the gates I got a spot up front for NFG which I totally rocked out for. I got some kick ass pics of them. I've never been up front in all the 10+ times I've seen them so this definitely accomplished a goal of mine.
Coheed - Didn't go see them because they conflicted with HIPV and I'd rather see HIPV for the 1st time then see Coheed for the 5th or 6th time.
TBS - Couldn't really hear them because my mom and I were on the other side of the stage waiting for Yellowcard while they were playing. I didn't bother going to their signing because I've met them all before. I wanted them to have a YC/SOTY/NFG signing. BOO!
Anti-Flag - I couldn't see them because set times conflicted.
Bad Religion - I caught part of their set while I was eating some food.
Yellowcard - They closed the show and my mom and I left during "Ocean Ave" because we wanted to beat the traffic because we had a 6 hour drive ahead of us. I tossed a half filled Sierra Mist bottle at this chick who was on this guy's shoulders to get her down and then tossed this full bottle of cold Dasani water at this other bitch who was on some dude's shoulders. Both of them got down. Awesome. My mom almost got her ass kicked by starting fights with kids in the pit. Not cool.
Thursday - Caught them signing at the AP booth and gagged. I bit my tongue and didn't say anything.
SOTY - Couldn't see them due to the massive crowd of people so my mom and I went shopping and checked out all the booths.
Atmosphere - Caught some of his set. He's interesting. haha
The Sounds - are pretty good. I caught some of their set while i was buying some merch.
The Early November - had to skip on them due to time conflicts and me sacrificing a lot of bands for HIPV
IMA Robot - Their time conflicted with some other bands so I had to miss out.
Mae - Wasn't even at the fucking Warped tour! I don't know what's up with that. *edit* apparently they started TODAY in San Francisco. Mother fuckers.
The Matches - awesome
18v - I got in the pit during "I Don't Mind" and pushed my way up to the third row and tried to get a sing along and missed out but I still did some awesome screaming. I called Kyle during their set and he got me screaming. haha <33
HIPV - By far the best band at the Warped tour followed by NFG. They were so good and I think it was purely the crowd. This is the kind of crowd that should be filmed on a DVD. The kind that every band wishes they could have. It was like 30 kids screaming the words to every song. I started crying during "20 Below" and I have no reason why. I just got really emotional for some reason.
Saosin - I didn't even know they were supposed to be playing but I caught their set while I was waiting for HIPV to come on.
Best Interest - Definitely missed these kids because I had no idea what time they were playing and they were the whole fucking reason I came on the second day.
Skypark Drive - Shaun (sp?) I have no idea what time you guys played but I meant to check you out too.

Merch
I got a TBS shirt that looks like it could be the Skurvy skull on it
I got a SOTY shirt that's pink with the crest on the side and the number 17 on the back
I got the IMA Robot cd
I got the Matches CD
I got Fabi's sXe girls shirt
I got some NFG pins
a Warped 10 year anniversary shirt
a YC shirt
lots of free shit

I have sunburns really badly on my shoulders now because of yesterday. They hurt. :(

I had to drive 6 hours home by myself last night because my mom was laying down in the backseat dying because she was really sick. I kept falling asleep.

(PS It was really nice in California. It was cold and breezy and wonderful. All the kids that complained how "hot" it was should try bearing it in the AZ heat because I bet they'd all drop like flies.)

Thanks for 3am texts, for late night phone calls, for LJ posts about me, for making me feel this way, for being amazing. I can't wait until I'm in the midwest again. We'll be 1300 miles closer.

Today was spent mostly on mattress shopping which was accomplished in 30 mins. What took the longest was attempting (and failing) to drain my water bed. My dad was having trouble syphoning it and the only place that had water bed drain kit was closed. GRRR! We drove around forever trying to find a place so consequently I get to sleep on the couch tonight because I had no bed. YAY!

But since I have a new bed that means the Rainbow Brite sheets and Peanuts sheets can come back in style. wooo

Stupid Kevin Little for getting stuck in my head.

I'm sorry I was acting weird tonight. You pulled me out of it and proved to me that things are okay and that I can trust you and what we have. <3

The infamous table picture after the Milwaukee show
people - from the front going counter clockwise
me, Scott (who's not looking at the camera haha), Pete, Jeanae, person I don't know, Jim, Chris, Kate and Fabi
The sad thing is I know for a fact that 7 of those 9 people have LJ's. haha

Here are the pics from California that I've uploaded so far. Pics from Warped will be developed tomorrow and then uploaded. Photobucket is being retarded for me and won't let me upload anything. Anyone else having this issue?

Ashley bragged about her experience at 1:31 AM.

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