If you're a normal stranger who happens to talk to me, then you just became my friend. That's how i roll ;D

I'd do him

He just suggested 2 songs for me to check out after having to update my fb status about suggestions for new music. my heart fluttered as i read the comment he had left me. I know it's not a big deal really. Just a friend suggesting music. Listened to banana pancakes by jack Johnson...a very romantic song. Checked out the lyrics for seaside by the kooks. A bit romantic too. But man he's so damn good looking i just can't help myself in thinking "what if i truly ever do like this guy?" always thought he was so damn hot from the 8th grade till now. Just never really thought and emphasized it till now. He's tall, blonde, blue eyed, and is going to school in the US Army. Now tell me, doesn't that sound like yum ;D

The Reader

Just finished watching the movie "The Reader" w/ my bro Michael. It was very interesting & we both enjoyed it. Minus the sex/naked scenes but overall, a very touching story. Makes me think about the critical thinking English class i last took. Trying to find out the true meaning of the story.

Blogging on the go!

Setted up this blog to my phone so now i can update via cellular device...but only through SMS so 160 character limit...lets see how this goes...

And it leads me back here

I really do miss blogging sometimes...why don't I do it often? There's always much going on in my mind. While looking up the words "inspiration" & "aspiration" for their meanings, I stumbled onto this blog that talked about those two words. And of course, it made me trace the steps to here. So inspiration v.s. aspiration...I've always heard of inspiration (which I've applied that meaning to a certain hero of mine) but never aspiration. According to Wikipedia, aspiration can mean "hope" and "ambition"...doesn't that apply to inspiration as well? If I were to use aspiration, I'd use the hope meaning of it. I am ambitious but sometimes being that is so overrated and annoying....

This excerpt from the blog helps explain what I mean:

"We live in an “aspirational” society. Aspiration and ambition could be good things but often drive people crazy. Aspiration refers to material things you can possess. Inspiration refers to immaterial things you wish to be. When you choose “have” versus “be”, you set yourself up for disappointment and frustration. No matter how nicer car or bigger house you will buy, there will always be some better ones you could have and don’t. It’s the famous “greener lawn” stereotype and, as with many stereotypes, there is some truth to it."

That's how I feel about life in general. We have to chase after the things in life that makes us as individuals happy, not just things that show other people we're happy. Sometimes both intermingle within each other and it works out, but if not, what is the point of being able to have those materialistic things when the inside of an individual is not so pleasant as it seems on the outside?

Overall, I am just grateful that I am always looking at things from the outside perspective of it and not the inside.

OK, now I know why I don't blog as much...it takes forever to spill out serious deep thoughts ha ha.

My rediscovery...

So I have yet stumbled my way to this place. I think I should use it more often. Maybe I could get some stuff off my mind here and then get a good night's sleep...
The times they are changing...wait, isn't that a song? I think so but I can't think of the artist right now. As I was saying, times they are changing. It's already November. Oh time, please go alittle slower. My 20th birthday is near...too near and so not ready. Things are changing, but they are for the better. Nothing I've done so far is regrettable. Sadly, I think some people would want me to think that way, but they haven't broken through the wall that I've built up to replace the once fallen one. Hopefully, this wall stays up long enough until my next battle, which I know I will get through. I've learned that life is truely how I want it to be and it's the greatest feeling ever to know that :)

Flying solo

So I'm still buzzed from this show! the m&g was interesting. i was sad that my other jm buddies didn't get in tho :( it was kinda weird how we lined up like that when we were waiting for Andrew. i got to talk to him and tell him thanks for being an inspiration in my life and blah blah blah. HAHA the brick camera Steph made me use when i was like "no it looks too complicated!" and then Andrew says how its not and blah blah blah. then I pushed the off button lol. I still can't stop laughing at the whole drunk guy/beer thing! He was right next to us! and people kept looking at our side :p

 I really loved how Andrew told

a story before he played a song, especially the one about how one day he was sitting like he was a woman or something and his brother made fun of him so he wrote 21 & invincible...i think that was the song but the cutest story was the one about the song "walking by" and how he wrote it to impress his wife back in the day. oh and the one about some chick that he met at a bar one night after a show or something, telling him that "moon river" was "way out of his league" and everyone in the crowd booed and Andrew says something like "yea, that's what i thought!" I'm glad he played it tho. 

I loved all the cover songs!!! the "just like a woman" cover is amazing! i never heard of Bob Dylan's music before but i think Andrew did amazing on that song! i don't remember really but if anyone knows, was the extended intro to dark blue played? i think it was but i can't remember. i can't believe he played Katie(is it there there Katie now?)! it was soooo good. i didn't think he would come out since so many people were yelling "KONSTANTINE!!!" when most of us were yelling encore/Andrew. but the encore was amazing :) everything was!the Konstantine people didn't bother me too much but it was just funny to me to finally experience it in person :p

Dreams do come true after all...

So I bought 2 tickets for me and my friend Sarah to Jack's Mannequin/The Fray concert 2 days before the concert date (7.29.09). I really wasn't planning on going b/c I had a final the next day for my Anthropology class. Well, I said to myself, "Eff it!, I'm effin going! I have waited for 3 yrs so I am gonna go this time for sure!" So I paid for 2 Terrace seat tickets and waited until the big day. That day could not come any slower ok lol. So earlier that day, I had almost got in an accident while going onto the on ramp to the 215 north on my way to school. The guy in front of me hit the guy who had stopped abruptly in front of him. The sound was awful. I swerved slightly and didn’t brake hard so I was fine. I was about to cry but I had to focus on driving. So when I got on campus, I called my mother to tell her what happened and cried. I even said “I don’t want to go to the concert anymore!” She reassured me that everything was okay so I headed to class. I had a final for Health Sci. and a class (anthro. :p) that ended at 2:50pm. While in Anthro. I couldn’t sit still and I was texting these girls (Ashlee & Alex) I met on JM.ORG that wanted to form a group to meet the one and only Andrew McMahon after the Jack’s set that night.

So Sarah met me in Perris/Moval around 3pm so I didn’t have to backtrack and then we headed off to Irvine. Traffic on the 91 westbound could not be any better that day! Just our luck! We got lost after the 133 to the 405fwy then to the 5fwy but we made it after being lost for only 10 min :) So got to the Verizon Wireless Amphitheater at like 4:30pm and they didn’t allow people to park until 5pm. So what to do? I kept driving until we hit some Jack in the Box and chilled at the parking lot until it was time. Got there at 4:55pm and got front row parking. Sweet stuff! Got in the line and I was texting to see if the girl Alex (the only one I kept in touch with) was here yet. We just kept texting to see if we see each other but it wasn’t working out. While waiting in the line, I hear my fav. band of all time, Jack’s Mannequin practicing for their set. They were playing “Swim” :) So I keep texting Alex to see where she is at and sure enough she was only a few feet ahead of us so we go and cut in front of her. Hehe. I then officially met Alex in person and her friend Andrew (only 16 yrs. old!) and the lived in Irvine so that was cool. They were so much younger than me and Sarah (actually in the end, almost everyone was younger than us!)

So we are waiting and talking, getting to know each other and stuff. We were way up in the front so we got in pretty quick! The amphitheater was amazing! So we still had 1 hr to kill but me & Sarah just sat in our seats. Alex and Andrew had lawn seats but they weren’t even that far from us :p haha. So we are in our seats texting the number on the screen and our messages were appearing on it too. Fun stuff to kill the time haha. I kept texting I LOVE JACK’S MANNEQUIN :p 7:00pm came and the opening act came on which was the band Vedera. They were pretty good. We sat by the speakers but they weren’t that good sounding.

And then after their set was over, the crew began setting up for Jack’s. I screamed, but not out loud ;p When these guys starting rolling out Andrew’s piano, I was so excited and Sarah told me to calm down :p Jack’s Mannequin then came out & I screamed so loud for them, but it seemed like I was the only one that did since most were The Fray fans and the other JM* fans were mostly in the pit :p. Andrew started off saying hello to the OC, that he was glad he was home (he’s from Dana Point, CA), and that it was his dream to play at the amphitheater ever since he started playing shows in smaller venues in the OC back in his younger days. I then screamed again :p The first song played was “Dark Blue” (from their first album, Everything in Transit ‘05) <3 the best effin song ever! The lights for the show were awesome! I loved the part where all the blue lights went all crazy when he sang “and then the water reached the west coast and took the power lines, the power lines. And it was me and you, and a whole town underwater. It was nothing we could do.” SO AWESOME!!!! =D Alex & I kept texting each other “AHHH!!!”

Jack’s then played “Spinning” which is one of my favs from the new album, The Glass Passenger. Then came the song “Crashin’” (TGP), another fav. The very positive “Swim” (TGP) comes on and gosh, so touching! And then came “I’m Ready” (EIT), oh man that song played live is AMAZING!!! I loved how he said the whole talking part in the song “I wake up to find it’s another 4-aspirin morning and I dive in. I put on the same clothes I wore yesterday, when did society decide that we had to change and wash a t-shirt after every individual use: if it’s not dirty, I’m gonna FUCKING (he added it!) wear it!...” I cheered for that! :) Next was the song “Bruised” (EIT)…loved it! Then Andrew said something about friends and started to play “La La Lie” (EIT). I don’t remember what song it was after, but Andrew made fun of Bobby always trying to do “some shit” like him and told Bobby to do it for the audience. Then Bobby does his “shit”, which he says “whoop whoop!” and then Andrew or Bobby told us to give them a “whoop whoop!” I did for sure! The next song played was “Rescued” (EIT), a personal summer feeling song for me <3 When “The Mixed Tape” (EIT) started playing, Andrew started jumping around the stage and stuff and then jammed on his piano part when it came…I wished I was in pit so bad! “Bloodshot” (TGP) was the best! The lights kept flashing red at the audience when Andrew sang the word “bloodshot”.

The next song played was a Something Corporate (Andrew’s former band) cover song called “Watch the Sky”. It was amazing and the piano part is just so AHHH!!! There are just no words to describe it!!!! That song has inspired me in so many ways, so I felt lucky enough to have heard it played live <3 and then, “The Resolution” (TGP)…which wasn’t the last song! The last song Jack’s ended the night with was Tom Petty’s “American Girl”, another cover song. Andrew told the crowd to stand up and dance. Not many did at first, but I did for sure. Then, everyone did :) it was amazing! I’ve seen videos on YouTube of Jack’s covering that song, but it was so good actually being there! And he got all crazy with his piano! Standing on it and jumping off. His signature style <3 I was hoping for their cover of MGMT’s “Kids”, but it’s all good. I was sad that their set was over so soon. The people began setting up for the final set, The Fray. Alex then texts me to meet her by the merch area, so me and Sarah left our seats to find her.

So we found each other but had to walk up the big hill of the amphitheater (again), across the other side, and down the hill again to meet up with other JM.ORG fans. One problem, we didn’t have permission to get down to the pit area because of our seating. Only pit ticket people were allowed. EPIC FAIL we thought. Well, the security guy was not looking and I said, “You guys, lets go!” and ran down the stairs and then down to where the VIP area was. Of course we were not allowed in and we couldn’t find the others. But then we turned around and see Ashlee and the others. We got so pumped and excited to have actually made it! But there was another problem, no one from the band was gonna come out of that VIP area. Alex: “We’re so close but yet so far!!!!” LOL. I saw Bobby and I got so excited to be so close! Well, “The Hobbit” security guy really hated us and told us to leave the perimeter. We didn’t care what he was saying the whole time…haha. We weren’t even doing anything bad/disrespectful either. Just meeting each other and stuff. So we are there waiting and then we were yelling “Bobby!” a million times only to get an awkward wave from him…haha. Then the one and only bassist player of Jack’s, Dr. J. comes out with a cup of beer in his hand! We all then hovered over him, asked him to sign our tickets/stuff, and posed to take some pics. Well, he was a funny creeper! He pretended to choke Ashlee, tried to eat some girl’s ticket & saying “MmMm this looks delicious!”, saying something about being 34 yrs old and didn’t something something, wrote “666” on Andrew C.’s shirt, and made fun of me of being short when I was posing to take a pic with him. So I said “Thanks for making fun of me being short!”, but he gave me a hug and said “Aww I didn’t mean it!” <3 his drunkenness was hilarious! Oh and he made fun of Alex of being “all decked” out in Jack’s stuff, she had the shirt, jacket, bag, and almost everything!

I think Robert was the one who was trying to get Andrew to come out to meet us and stuff…he tried really hard by calling the manager and telling the guy about our situation. Well, the moment finally came and we all ran and left Dr. J. all alone…how sad. I said the Stephanie, “Aww how sad, we left Dr. J. all alone!” Stephanie: “Aww I know huh”. Then we turn back to meeting Andrew! Haha. There was still a barricade separating him from us but it’s ok because Andrew was so sweet and asked us “Are you all the JM.ORG fans?” I think ALL of us: “YES WE ARE!!!” =D. Andrew then tells us to send his love on JM.ORG for the love and support. So sweet!!! He was signing Ashlee’s cds and stuff and I felt so lame that I had forgotten mine in my car! After he signed my ticket, I said to him “This is my first concert of yours!” Andrew: “That’s so nice! I’m glad!” Me: “You did an awesome job tonight!!!!”

He smiles his biggest smile (there’s a pic to prove it!) and says in the sweetest voice, “Oh thank you so much!” AHHHH!!! My life is complete!!!! So all of us JM.ORG-ers got all of our crap signed/photos taken while “The Hobbit” kept telling us to hurry it up and blah blah blah. Then we took a group photo with Andrew :) it was the best!

We then moved out of the VIP area and Andrew waved goodbye to all us fans. I gave him one last hug <3 we then screamed, hugged each other, and took another group photo expressing that our mission of meeting Andrew McMahon was complete! So we all said goodbye to each other exchanging our info and stuff. Since we were busy meeting Andrew, we missed almost the entire Fray set which was sad. Sarah & I could have stayed but we didn’t want to hit traffic so we bounced outta there ASAP! We made a stop to the merch booth but I didn’t get anything. We bumped into Ashlee (she’s from Utah), her sis, & Stephanie too so we walked with them out. We said our last goodbyes and left. Sarah was in love with some red car and we ended the night with taking pics of it :p haha. the drive home was easy. We listened to Jack’s and talked about Andrew almost the whole way home. Sorry Sarah! Lol. I got home exactly at 12am. Amazing! I couldn’t even go to sleep that night, I had to force myself :p I was still pumped, couldn’t believe that I got to meet my hero Andrew McMahon at my first ever Jack’s concert, and the amazing people that I met and have become friends with. It was sure a night to remember!!!!

Now I am friends with most of the people I met that night and we’re keeping in touch by Facebook :) We are like one big group from SoCal (except Ashlee, but she comes out here a lot) and said we all will definitely be attending another Jack’s show in the near future and rocking out in the pit all together!