St. Louis > Chicago

...well, as far as concert venues and attitudes go.

Ash, Mael' and I went and spent our whole day on Saturday at First Midwest Bank Amphitheater. If you visit that link, you'll see a header that has excited, exuberant fans in a crowd...that must be a stock photo, because their concert venue bites it; no one that would go there would come close to that level of excited. We went to their Warped Tour (I missed STL's and Ash n' Mael' had such a good time in STL that they wanted to go again), which we all agree now, was a silly idea. None of us had good sleep; Ash running on 10 hours collectively between 2 days, Mael' not a lot, and me, 2 hours between 2 days. I think I had the most fun in the car on the way there and back.

Best performance of the day was hands down, Pierce The Veil (to me, anyway).

(This pic is relatively close to what the setup looked like in Chi-town.)



(Be advised: This is a snippet vid and it is terrible quality.)

I follow Alkaline Trio on Twitter (take a hike if you don't like Alkaline Trio) and read that they were signing autographs at 3 PM, so I decided to see why there was a not a massive crowd in line to get autographs from the boys. Apparently they weren't signing until later in the day (when PTV was playing) and it wouldn't even be the whole band...just Dan Andriano. Disappointed. Also, tell me why they always play at the very end of the day? Everyone is tired as fuck around 3-4ish and pretty much always (no matter what venue) has a drive ahead of them...lame. All in all, Warped Tour in Chicago wasn't a complete fail. Pierce The Veil was good and the road trip was fun. I mean, minus your crazy/itchy-dick drivers Chicago, you're still alright with me.

Friday night (Yes, I'm tarentino-ing this update) Nick, Cory, Josh and I went and saw Dinner For Schmucks.

I thought the movie was good-ish. I thought it was going to be funnier than it was, but still worth the money spent to see it. I was surprised though, because Steve Carrell was the funniest character in the movie and ususally Paul Rudd's comedic-sarcasm always wins me over; not to mention, he's sexy as hell.

My days have been catered courtesy of insomnia for the past few days, so I'm off to walk around the house 5,000 times, watch every movie that I have and everything on my TiVo until I fall asleep...for an hour or so. Woah!

Days Go By

ello' followers!

Lots has been going on since the last time I updated here and that's pretty much why I haven't updated in forevs. My sister, Mael' and I went to Chicago for a week at the end of June - July 3rd (much needed vacation) and had a blast. Our friend Kevin (as mentioned in previous entries) just moved there to be a hairstylist, so we went to visit him and do the tourist thing. All of us bought City Passes, which get you into to all kinds of museums and shows. I had such a great time, I wish I was back there. Also, I miss my friend Kevin very much.

(for more sweet Chi-town pics, click here!)

In other news, last weekend Gaga and Modest Mouse were in town (not together, but on the same epic night). Ash and I are so head over heels for both that we didn't buy tickets to either, to be fair to both parties (...ok, or we didn't have money for either). However, to not completely miss out, Ash and I drove downtown to check out the Gaga fashions and everyone dressed up in her honer. There were girls that had big rock candy sticks, boys dressed in only police tape, and definitely lots of gals donning soda cans in their locks. Unfortunately, these creative individualists were barked at by an infamous hate group from this area. However I quickly remembered a tweet that Gaga posted earlier that morning to her followers that made me feel better; it read:

"I would like to make my little monster fans aware of a protest being held outside the Monsterball in St.Louis tonight. Although we have had protesters before, as well as fundamentalists at the show, this group of protesters are hate criminals and preach using lewd and violent language and imagery that I wish I protect you all from. Their message is of hatred and divisiveness, but inside at the Monsterball we preach love and unity. My request to all little monsters and public authorites is to pay these hate criminals no mind. Do not interact with them, or try to fight, Do not respond to any of their provocation. Don't waste your words, or feelings, no matter what you hear or see you are more fortunate and blessed than they are, and in your heart just pray for them. Although I respect and do not judge anyone for their personal views on any politics or religion, this group in particular to me, is violent and dangerous I wanted to make my fans aware of my views on how to approach, or rather not approach, these kinds of hate activists. Be inspired to ignore their ignorant message, and feel gratitude in your heart that you are not burdened or addicted to hate, as they are. X"

At that point, Ash and I both agreed that it was only making us depressed gawking at Gaga-goers and not being able to participate in the show, so we decided to head back to Illinois.

Today Nick became an Uncle! It was a relatively easy birth for Danielle (Nick's sis) and she was smothered in the love of all the relatives and friends present for the arrival of the little angel. I'll update more when the momma posts pics of the local celebrity and Dani gets back on her feet!

Where has Stefoni been?

Hey kiddies -
So I guess it's safe to say that I'm not very good about updating this...I'm working on it. Since Valentines day, not too much has been going on; just the day to day nonsense that is my life. One cool guy thing that happened is that Nick, Cory, Kevin and I went to Chicago!Chicago was fantastic. We left on a Thursday night and arrived in Chicago at about 1 AM on Friday morning. That day, we walked all over Magnificent Mile (there is a two story XXI...have mercy!), got Starbucks like 2 million times and just soaked up the atmosphere that is Chicago.
We go so lucky that the weather was sunny almost the whole time that we were there. I mean, it was definitely frigid, but still lovely as ever. Since we weren't very 100% familiar with the train/bus system in Chicago...we got lost a lot and ended up walking....a lot. Speaking of the trains, some of the stops were beautiful. Towards the end of the trip, we really started to get the hang of navigating the train systems. I like Chicago. We did lots of touristy things...Went to Gino's East, tried to get into the Sears Tower, went to Chinatown and Greek Town. It was a blast. We're supposed to be going back this summer - and even more awesome, we'll be there during Taste of Chicago!

In other news, life has been pretty good lately. Even though I'm not in a relationship, life still hasn't sucked too hard. Being around my friends, crafting, designing and just finding the humor in everyday life keeps me going. Work has been really trying lately - especially with the new Health Care law passing (I'm for it...99.9% of my office is against it) - but I'm keeping a positive demeanor about it and keep reminding myself that the great thing about America is that we're all welcome to have our own opinion.

This is ending abruptly, but it's Friday...gots to go <3
Stefoni