You Never Leave LA/NYC

This song, "You Never Leave LA" by Teitur, gives me so many feels. It was the one that rekindled my love of Teitur's music after being turned off from it for 7 years. For some reason, I developed an irrational distaste for the song "Louis Louis" in 2006 after seeing his show in Chicago and lost interest for awhile. But now, whenever I hear "You Never Leave LA," I'm transported to two very different places:

First to Evanston, IL, in January of this year, where my friend T and I sat front row in the dim and intimate Space venue. We were seeing Teitur for old time's sake and were both hoping to hear only songs from his 2003 album, Poetry & Aeroplanes, which is one of my all-time favorite albums from any artist.

I distinctly remember that Teitur must've had a cold because his nose kept dripping, which was all too apparent from the front row. Gross? Maybe that's why it sticks out in my mind. The venue was too quiet, making it awkward to sing along, I thought, especially with our close proximity. The awkwardness was magnified by Teitur's quiet demeanor, a quality I used to find endearing at the height of my fandom. Not surprisingly, he only humored us with a handful of old songs we recognized; but while sitting at the piano, he did play a beautiful and melancholy tune that grabbed and held my attention. The very next day, I downloaded the rest of his music library to complete my collection, but I really only listen to the one song, "You Never Leave LA."

The next month, my friend E and I were in New York City during Fashion Week, preparing to head home after a far too short weekend of seeing absolutely no runway shows or celebrities besides Project Runway contestants and narrowly missing the blizzard of the year while still battling the elements of fat, wet snowflakes and bitter wind but having a blast nonetheless. I didn't want to go home yet and leave this city that I had fallen in love with despite everything; and as I sat in the airport, waiting for our flight that was miraculously not delayed, this song came to mind.

I boarded the plane, thought I'd said all my goodbyes
I bear no regrets, I'm only sorry how time flies
A man next to me, says the city is so shallow
Me I'm looking down, I see a city full of souls

And I can hardly wait
To see those lights again
A part of me remains
I'm forever changed
You're always almost there
It's a love and hate affair
I believe them when they say
You never leave LA

While trying to buckle down at work this morning, I put the song on and felt compelled to share it, especially with this season's Fashion Week coverage winding down and the recent 12th anniversary of 9/11. Even though the song is about Los Angeles, clear over on the other side of the country, the lyrics always remind me instead of New York City. I don't know if I'll ever go see another Teitur show again, but I'll definitely be back, NYC. Someday.

The Package Tour Adventures

Another two concerts down. This weekend, my friends E and T and I attended the Package Tour shows in Chicago and Minneapolis. I must say, I love when Chicago shows are not downtown. As much as I do love the downtown area of Chicago, I do not love dealing with rush hour traffic. Driving to the Allstate Arena seemed like it took no time at all, and we arrived much earlier than expected.

Although our wedge sandals are cute, T and I were both in pain by the end (or beginning) of the show.

Tickets for this show must've sold out relatively quickly because we were not able to get seats together, which made for a less enjoyable concert experience. Still, we each had pretty good spots, and it's hard not to have fun while watching this show.

Boyz II Men

98°

NKOTB

And then Vanilla Ice randomly showed up! He mostly promoted his show on HGTV and of course sang his one hit.

After the show, it was POURING and storming, and I was wandering around in it for way too long, trying to find the car. The parking lot had to be the least efficient setup ever, and I probably nearly hit 100 fans with the car before I collected my friends. I should've timed how long it took to drive from one side of the venue to the other in that madness. At least a half hour - probably closer to 45 minutes. And I'm not exaggerating.

Eventually, we made our way to the fence dividing where the buses were parked from the rest of the lot, and we parked with the handful of other cars that were waiting it out. A couple of the Boyz II Men guys came out, but we didn't get pictures with either them. After a few of the buses left, we were able to get a better view of what was going on, which was Drew and Nick from 98° playing bags (or cornhole for Ohioans) together. When they finished their game, they actually walked over to meet the fans along with Jeff, who strolled up a few minutes later. For some reason, I never recognize Jeff until he's right in front of me. Everyone was swarming Nick and Drew, so I got a pic with Jeff first after he walked right up to my friend T like he knew her and gave her a hug. It was an awesome and adorable moment. She had met him in Milwaukee, so either he did recognize her, or he was happy to see fans, who knows. 

Yeah, they're pretty short guys.

The Nick picture took some more effort. Nick's security guard, whom you can see over my shoulder, announced that they were only going to hang out for another 3 minutes. With less than a minute to spare, I touched Nick on the arm and got to tell him I was a big Sing-Off fan and that I had seen Pentatonix (winners of the last season) in concert earlier that year. He seemed pretty excited about that and said that they're amazing. I agreed, thanked him for the picture, and told him I couldn't wait for the next season. And that was about it. Nick took a couple more pictures with people and then was whisked away.

Since we were going to the next stop on the tour, our plan was to follow the buses up to Minneapolis. Finally at around 2 AM, they pulled out, and we tailed the bus we knew at least one of the Lachey brothers was on. T drove first and switched off with E as the sun was rising, and I struggled to stay awake the whole time. But let's face it, I did doze off for a bunch of minute-long naps along the way.

It was a little after 9 AM when we entered Minneapolis. We followed the bus to their hotel and waited around a little to see if anyone would come out. Someone probably did, but we missed it, because then the bus drove to the venue.

From there, we made the 20-minute drive to my husband's college friend's house to crash for a couple hours. Thank goodness for free room and board and an accommodating host. By 3 PM, we were showered, dressed, fed, and back at it in downtown Minneapolis. I'm always surprised by how little sleep someone can survive on. With only about 3 hours of sleep each, my friends seemed like they had a full night's rest; and on less than that, I was completely functional if not a little cranky.

We didn't have any band member sightings during the day, so we just killed time until the show started.

Woohoo, we got to sit together this time!

The show was so much more fun sitting by the girls than sitting alone. I really wished that I could join them at the Indianapolis show in 2 weeks, but that's not going to happen for me. After the show, we knew a little more what to expect as far as the timeline went, and we knew exactly which buses belonged to the guys we cared about most - 98°. Jeff came out to take a few pictures at one point, but otherwise, he was mostly hanging out with his family on his bus. Nick and Justin walked by us later in the night, but when I asked for pictures, Nick's security guard shot us down.

Most of the fans were stationed on another side of the venue, staking out the New Kids buses. We did migrate over there when T saw Donnie out, and she got a pic with him! Here's a tip - have your camera ready when a guy comes out. Donnie was trying to get through the line as quickly as possible, and he moved on almost immediately if someone's camera wasn't ready. A few minutes later, we headed back to the 98° buses only to find that T's wedge sandals that we had left there were stolen (she had changed into flip flops). Not only that, but all except for Jeff's bus had left. So that was two bummers in one. Shortly after that, the rest of the buses left, as did we.

Although it was an exhausting weekend, and I am undoubtedly getting too old for this stuff, I can't wait to do it again. And in 2 weeks, I get a more subdued version when we go see Backstreet Boys!! After that, I'll be done with tour life for awhile.

Summerfest and Fourth of July Weekend

This is going to be a long recap, so I'll start you off with an outfit picture of what I wore to work today.

Top: New York & Company; Skirt: Uniqlo; Shoes: Poetic License via shoo; Bracelet: Kate Spade

Well, my Summerfest adventures have ended for the year. The highlight had to be the day before the Package Tour show when my friends found and met all of 98 degrees, most of NKOTB, and Shawn from Boyz II Men. I was at home with Bridget, but I was able to pass on a tip I saw my ex-boyfriend post on Facebook, saying that the guys were bowling at Landmark. The girls hurried over there and got to meet and hang out with half of the Package Tour! They said all the 98 degrees guys were super nice, and that Joey from NKOTB was really funny.

The next night at the show, one of my friends saw a member of Boyz II Men's crew, whom she had befriended the night before. He ended up giving us upgraded tickets! From the lawn to section 2 we went. On top of that, we had purchased one 5th row seat to share among three of us, so we each got to experience part of the show close up, too. I even got some action - I touched Danny and Jon's hands as they ran by during "Tonight." Haha, it's the little things.

Saturday night, we saw John Mayer with Phillip Phillips as an opener. Earlier in the day, we did a lap around town to see if we could spot any buses. We noticed some at the Intercontinental; and as I parked, a small entourage of people hurried from the hotel onto the bus. One of them was a tall man in a white T-shirt and sunglasses - it was freakin' John Mayer! Although there were only a few fans around, and we had hopped out of the car just in time, he did not stop to take any pictures. And then we realized hours later that Katy Perry was probably walking right next to him, but we didn't even notice. D'OH!

The concert itself was just OK for me. I did think it was cute how Phillip Phillips was so nervous. And John Mayer left a couple of his huge hits off of the set list, so none of us were very familiar with most of the music. He did play two of my favorite songs from the one album of his I own, Continuum, so I was happy about that. His dedication to Katy Perry (not my video) during the show was very sweet, too.

As for the food, I definitely lived it up on Saturday with mini donuts (soooooooooooo good - a must have from now on), the Barrie burger from AJ Bombers (bacon cheeseburger with peanut butter - also really good), and cheese curds from Saz's (a classic).

Besides Summerfest and hanging out with friends on the 4th of July, my weekend also consisted of going to the water park in town with my mom and Bridget and working on the house more. The water park was great, and Bridget was loving life; but the house stuff...not so much. Sunday seemed to be crisis after crisis. First, our toilet kept running, which was the least of our problems; hubs fixed that with one quick trip to Home Depot. Then, our freezer stopped working, so I had to empty everything out, clean behind and underneath the fridge, and put just the popsicles back in, hoping they'd freeze. Hours later, they were still slushy, and we came to the conclusion that we'd either have to buy a new appliance or have someone come in and try to repair it. The basement project of the weekend was staining and polyurethane-ing doors, but the polyurethane that we had done earlier in the week had pooled up under the doors and dried weird, so hubs had to sand and redo them. Sigh. Then, I took over and stained some of the trim, so hopefully nothing happens to those pieces. Also, I was keeping laundry going, and I knocked a light bulb off the shelf in the process and broke that. The good news is, that forced me to clean the kitchen and laundry room. Poor Bridget was starved for attention with us dealing with this stuff, and was super hyper all day. With all that going on, yesterday felt like the longest day, and we were all glad when it came to an end. We did get our Maine trip booked finally, so there's that.

Some other related unfortunate news for me is that I won't be able to make Comic Con this year. Besides the fact that I would be dropping hundreds of dollars to meet a bunch of celebs, which we can't really afford right now, our Maine trip also conflicts with it. I'm a little bummed about missing out on the Weasley twins, but at least I got to meet Tom Felton last year. I would've been much more heartbroken had I missed that.

After all that, I'm pretty much exhausted, and coffee only helped a little today. Bridget's been waking us up at 6:00 or earlier (4:45 today), so that's been fun. Maybe it's time for a later bedtime for that one. Thankfully, our freezer seems to be working again, so hopefully that's the end of that.

This should be a pretty low-key week, and then next weekend, I have my last two Package Tour shows!

Comfort and Fun

Here's the Style Imitating Art piece for this week.

Top: J.Crew Factory; Tank Top: Old Navy; Jeans: New York & Company; Shoes: Kohl's; Necklace: old; Bracelet: Kate Spade; Bag: Michael Kors via TJ Maxx

I was all about comfort on Friday, when I wore this, having stayed out late to see Fun at Summerfest the night before. Great show, by the way. From recalling Heidi's review of the show she went to last year, I was mostly excited to experience the charisma of Nate, the lead singer. He did not disappoint. He was energetic and happy and just in awe of the crowd. This was the first date of their summer tour, and Nate mentioned how it was their biggest show yet. I was wondering whether they'd be jaded at this point with all the fame, but from where I sat wayyyy in the back (thank goodness for those big screens), he seemed just as gracious as what I had read about. Definitely read Heidi's review from last year - she explains it better than I do.

One funny part was when Jack talked about how much he loved the cheese curds and Nate referred to Milwaukee as "the good land." Haha. I kept thinking back to how I met Jack briefly when Steel Train opened up for Hanson in '09 and how far he's come since then - now headlining huge shows and dating Lena Dunham. Pretty amazing!

October 2009 - with Daniel and Jack from Steel Train

Even the opening acts, Family of the Year and Walk the Moon were pretty good. I ended up downloading both their albums after the show. Actually, I meant to only download Walk the Moon's, but I got the two bands mixed up, so now I have both. Since then, I've been listening to Walk the Moon's album on repeat, and I learned that they'll be back in Milwaukee in the fall. I probably won't be able to go, but it's good to know just in case.

Tonight is the First Night

Although I didn't take many pictures, I have to say something about the Hanson show I went to in St. Louis last weekend and then steal all my friends' pictures to show you.

It was my first time in Missouri, so I was pretty excited to see the arch. Side note: my husband had no idea what the arch was. The boy needs to get out more.

Us at the arch at about 1 in the morning after the show (stolen from Facebook)

The show was at a wine festival, and we arrived at our hotel a couple hours before Hanson's set began, giving us plenty of time to get ready and socialize with some fan friends staying in the same hotel. A little after 9, we walked over to the festival, bought some drink tickets, and sampled some adult beverages.

Us four (stolen from Facebook/Instagram)

The whole group (stolen from Facebook/Instagram)

We each only had a couple samples and weren't able to use up our tickets before we migrated over to the stage to claim some spots. We had about first and second row on the far left side, which was pretty great for showing up so close to show time. Thank goodness for wine and beer distracting people, haha. Unfortunately, that also made for a somewhat annoying crowd. The problem with Hanson fans (and maybe other fandoms as well?) is that some of us feel entitled. A girl behind my friend was trying to get in front of us "to take a picture" and said that the men standing in front didn't deserve to be there because they weren't fans. Well, it doesn't really matter if they are or not - they were there first, as my friend pointed out. And then the girl called her a B. Whatever. That's just what you get to look forward to if you get a good spot at a Hanson show. Stand in the back to avoid drama.

K was the only one with a real camera, so she got the best pictures.

This one's mine.

Also mine - I just like this one because Isaac and Zac are both smiling.

Besides the crowd, the show was great! Isaac seemed a little over it, but Zac and Taylor looked like they were having fun. My three friends and I tried to guess the set list, like we did for the Iowa show last year, and I tied for first again! They played the singles, of course, four new songs, a couple surprises, and a cover ("Oh! Darling" by the Beatles - video below).

By the way, Hanson's new album Anthem comes out this coming Tuesday, June 18! Go pick it up! I love what I've heard from it already, especially "Tonight," which I took a lyric from for the post title. And there's an Isaac song on this album!! Woohoo! OK, I'm done. /teenybopper

More Miggs Please

I meant to post about the concert my friends and I went to on my birthday in detail, but I just haven't gotten around to it. So I'll just sum it up by saying it was awesome, the guys in Miggs are incredibly sweet to their fans and incredibly fun and entertaining, and thank goodness for that hotel room before and after the show.

Here's what the four of us girls wore:

And T's cute outerwear:

During the show before we moved to front row: There were tables, and no one was standing by the stage. A couple songs in, I asked the security guy if we could go up there, and he said it was fine.

View from front row:

Crowd picture their tour manager, Jensen, took during the show:

My video: Look for a shoutout from Don at about the 30-second mark (sorry for the vertical video).

E's video of the same song, where you can see me dancing like an idiot a couple times: We actually befriended the fan standing next to me, who was probably super annoyed with me when I stepped right in front of her at one point in this video.

Us girls with the Miggs fellas:

My 30th birthday was definitely one to be remembered! Thanks for making it awesome, ladies and also Don, Walker, John, Michael, and of course Jensen for putting me on the list! I can't wait to see them again in April. They're on tour starting next month, and I highly recommend you go see a show if they'll be in your area.

Journey

Source

Last night, my friends and I attended the Journey show at the Bradley Center in Milwaukee. We had nosebleed seats by choice and just sat back and enjoyed the music. I knew maybe half the songs (I didn't know any of their newer stuff), and I knew all the words to maybe seven of them. But it was a good show. It's a bummer that Steve Perry hasn't been with the band for awhile, but Arnel Pineda was an entertaining front man.

The people at the show were actually just as amusing as the show itself. There were fans of all ages, and some of the fans our age were dressed in 80s throwback garb like leg warmers and side ponytails. And then there were the original Journey fans with the fluffy hair and tight clothing. And then there were the drunk ones. Oh my gosh, there was a girl in the front row of our section who was so out of it that she was throwing popcorn over the rail on the people below, and then eating the rest of the popcorn she dropped off of her seat, cleavage, and ledge under the railing (groooooooosss!).

While we waited for Journey to go on, I told my friends how about my novel was going for NaNoWriMo, and they gave me some really good plot ideas that I'm excited to write about. I'm at 26,429 words, so more than halfway there! After a few days of catching up, I'm only a couple hundreds words behind the daily word target now. So yeah, it's coming along!

Here's what I wore to work before the show:

Pants and Scarf: New York & Company;
Cardigan: H&M

And here's what I wore to the show:

Blazer: Rock & Republic (Kohl's); T-shirt: American Apparel; Jeans and Bracelets: New York & Company;
Boots: Steve Madden; Guitar Necklace: Forever 21?; Clutch: Fred Boutique

I got this blazer for a steal at about $20 after coupons and Kohl's Cash. Good thing, too, because it's getting very mixed reviews on the website. Apparently, the studs fall off pretty easily, which looks like might've already happened from the picture above. I still think it's a pretty cool blazer.

Oh yeah, I would be remiss not to say happy 32nd birthday to Isaac Hanson today!

One Night in Chicago

Three events in one night - that's my kind of night! That's what I love about Chicago — there's always something cool and exciting going on. We started off Thursday night at Point A, the eDrop-Off headquarters, then went to Point B, Park West theater, and finally over to Point C, Joe's Bar. Conveniently enough, they were all within a two-mile drive of each other. Unfortunately, that meant we had to find parking three different times, which was a frustrating task.

First, we checked out Christian Siriano's trunk show at eDrop-Off. My friend K and I were a little apprehensive upon entering the building with so many chic people in attendance. For some reason, I was a lot more nervous about meeting Christian than I was when I met Rami back in March. A very attractive male waiter put us somewhat at ease as he came by to offer us drinks. We then dubbed him Prince Charming. He was just that good looking. Unfortunately, I neglected to get a picture of him. Here's what I did manage to get photos of:

Affordable accessories table with Payless shoes

I spotted some impressive footwear throughout the night, but this is the only pair I got a picture of.

The crowd

I was trying to get a picture of Christian, but actually these girls look familiar for some reason.
Bloggers maybe? You can also kind of see Christian's boyfriend, musician and artist
 Brad Walsh, in the background.

Not a good photograph, but this is one of Christian's amazing pieces from his collection.

Me with the designer himself! He was a really nice guy.

I didn't purchase anything this time, but I definitely intend to visit his shop when I'm in New York in February. I would also like to get a pair of his shoes at Payless sometime. Maybe I'll buy a pair for the trip because where else am I going to wear 4+-inch heels? Actually, these bow flats are really cute, too, but Payless shoes never seem to fit me. The 10s are too small, and the 11s are too big. Oh well, sorry, moving on!

With a little time to spare, we begrudgingly left our hottie waiter behind and headed for Destination #2. That six-way intersection that you can see on the map on the way to Park West became the bane of my existence. I don't know how many times I drove through there trying to find parking, but it ended up taking us about 20 minutes to find a spot. Even then, it was a reserved spot that required a special sticker on your car; but at that point, I was over it, and we were already 15 minutes late for the Miggs set.

It was the second time that night that I was able to say "I'm on the list" — first since we RSVPed for the trunk show, and second since Don from Miggs graciously got us in to the Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers show to watch the Miggs set before we left for the Ingram Hill show at Joe's Bar. I felt pretty VIP all night.

We ended up catching the last half of their half-hour set, and then I introduced K to Don and John and chatted with them for a few minutes before we had to get going.

Our last stop of the night was to Joe's Bar for the Whiskey Jam. I'm not into country music in the least, but each artist's set was only about five songs long, so it was tolerable. On the flip side, that also meant that Ingram Hill only got to play five songs, but we enjoyed it while it lasted.

After that, we stopped by the merch table for K to buy the CD of theirs she was missing, waved bye to Justin (lead singer), and headed home.

By the way, Chicago friends and readers, can you tell me what this neighborhood(s) was called? We really liked this area of Chicago, but we couldn't pinpoint exactly what area we were in. Like I was telling my friend, if it's not the House of Blues, I have no idea where I am, which is pretty sad considering how many times I've been to the city in my life. The particular area had tons of good shopping, though. We may have to make a trip back sometime.