Blue eyes and jazz and attitude

Last night was probably the most social interaction I've had in quite a few days.

The day started off with a visit to this giant cemetery downtown with the boyfriend. We pointed out funny last names and read all the interesting ones. The cemetery is actually really beautiful and not at all scary during the day.

Most of the time we sat on a stone bench in front of our favorite grave. It belonged to a girl who died at the age of 21. She died unexpectedly due to some illness I think.

After our cemetery stroll, we drove down the road to Krispy Kreme and bought as much as $4 could get us. That ended up being two doughnuts and a bottle of water. Chocolate and sprinkles for me and raspberry filled for him. After I watched him drive off, still wearing his Krispy Kreme hat, I went back home to change quickly and then drive back downtown to see two friends of mine preform a gig at some bar/cafe.

The gig was actually pretty cool. The place they were playing looked a bit sketchy on the outside, but on the inside it was quite comfy. I sat with some other friends and waited for the performance to start. As the night progressed, you could tell it was one of those bars that gets a lot of regulars. Everyone seemed to know each other. It started off with one of my friends' dad and his band playing. They're called Prose of Kahn, you should go check them out. I liked them a lot, but they were bit loud for such a tiny place. After they were through, we had some time to just talk and hang out because some technical difficulties were being met. Nothing really interesting happened. Just visiting with people I hadn't seen since school let out and trying to make eye contact with boys. Usual stuff.
My friends finally got everything working and started their set. They did an excellent job. One was singing and doing either bass or ukulele and the other beat boxed. They did a lot of covers including, Sweater Weather, Valerie, You & I, Time to Pretend, How to be a Heartbreaker, and others. They also did some ones that the singer had written, which were really cute. Altogether I had a lovely night out, and got to see some people I hadn't seen for a few weeks and that was really nice.

I also made a new 8tracks playlist dedicated to Bond. James Bond. I think it's quite nice and you can listen to it [here]

Song of the day- Shades of Cool by Lana Del Rey

..in the town of Chicago

The reason I haven't posted at all in the past week is because I've been in (if you hadn't guessed from the title) Chicago!

I stayed at the Hilton Chicago, which was the most gorgeous hotel I've ever been in. Chandeliers everywhere, giant ballrooms (they were closed off to the public though), and fountains. Absolutely beautiful. Our view form the room was a bit shit, but you could see a lot of tall buildings and at night they looked great all lit up.

Day 1- My sister was actually in Chicago at the same time we were. So we went to a place called Yolk and had lunch with her and her boyfriend.

After visiting with them, we slept for hours. When we woke up the sun was still out, so we went across the street to Grant Park and I took pictures of these funny leg statues.

Then we ate dinner at Giordano's, which our taxi driver said was the best Chicago-style pizza in town. Which ended up not being that great. Our waiter was a very interesting person though. I liked him a lot. Since his kids are all grown, he moves every 5 years to a new city just because he wants the experience. I forget all the places that he's already lived, but after Chicago he's going to Denver. He also worked 4 jobs, to keep up with expenses. After that, we walked to Millennium Park. By that time, it was already dark out. The park was absolutely stunning at night. Almost no tourists, just kids playing in the 'face fountains' and teenagers hanging out under the Bean. I loved it.

Our first day there also coincided with Spring Awakening, which is an EDM music festival in Chicago. All day I had seen girls walking around with flower crowns, bedazzled bras, furry boots, and neon everything, with hot guys in tow. Around the time we were walking back to the hotel, the festival ended, so it was just crowds of drugged up and tired teenagers everywhere. It was pretty cool actually.

Day 2- The next day, I went to the museum campus. That's where the Field Museum and the Shedd Aquarium are. The Field museum came first and it was very interesting. I went into an exhibit about the 1893 Chicago World's Fair and another about the history of life on our planet. Both very interesting. I have lots of pictures of weird animal skeletons on my camera now. Another thing I found, was a contraption called 'Mold-a-Rama' which is a machine that you put quarters into and it makes you a wax figure of something. The literally had one at every museum I went to. Of course I got one, because my Dad flipped out when we saw one. Apparently they had them around a lot when he was a kid and then he started getting all nostalgic. I got one of a blue Triceratops and he got a green Apatosaurus.

After that, I went to the Shedd Aquarium. Now, normally aquariums are some of my favorite places on Earth. However, when I got there, I was unaware of the fact that day was freaking 'family day' so the entire places was swamped with little kids and their parents. I tried to make it through the main parts of the aquarium, but it just got so awful that instead I went straight to the jellyfish room. That was much quieter. After staring at those for a bit, I went on to look at Beluga wales, sharks, penguins, eels, various colorful fish, etc. The absolute highlight of the entire thing was the Stingray touch tank. I was there for a good half an hour just petting Stingrays. They're so cute and friendly and slimy. I love-love-loved it.

On our way back, we ran into a humungous crowd that had all gathered in a field to watch the World Cup. It was really cool. People brought flags, painted their faces, dressed in the appropriate colors, and someone even brought a grill. The game was US vs. Ghana and it was being played on this huge jumbo-tron screen. I didn't stay to watch, but once I got back to my hotel then I did for a bit. The last thing we did was go to this awesome diner, that I must recommend to anyone going to Chicago, called Eleven City Diner.

Day 3- This entire day was basically spent at the Chicago Art Institute. It was a lovely place, and I got a new journal, some mini Andy Warhol notebooks in the gift shop, a postcard with [this] Magritte painting on it, a copy of 'Alice in Tumblr-land', some Andy Warhol quote pencils, and a 'C'est Ne Une Pipe' pin. The latter two are for the best friend. Unfortunately the photography, architecture, and print galleries were being renovated so I had to miss out on those, and I stumbled into an exhibit entitled 'Clown Torture', so I left the Institute with a sour taste in my mouth and a phobia of clowns. I also got barked at by a security guard for sitting in the wrong place. I don't think I'll be going to an art museum for quite some time. I think the only calming moment I had at that place was the Impressionist gallery, which was absolutely wonderful.

After that we walked next door to Millennium Park again because I insisted on seeing it in the daylight. It did not disappoint.

Then we made a decision to go to Skydeck, which was cool but not really cool. Definitely nice seeing the city from over 100 stories up. Very peaceful and a great photo-op. Once I actually got into one of those skydeck box things, I didn't really have the time to enjoy it because the line was so demanding and the woman next to me just HAD to take one of those corny jumping pictures (3 times?!?) and then her friend had to as well. I mostly sat against a wall in between a group of teenagers from some European country and an old Asian man. Great day amiright?

Day 4- My last full day in the city it rained like crazy all morning. We got a taxi to the Museum of Science and Industry and I was pumped. The only reason I was going was to see their new Walt Disney archives exhibit. The museum itself was pretty cool though. The main lobby/gift shop part is actually underground, and that's where you have to go first. The Disney exhibit was something you had to buy a timed ticket for, so went went and saw an IMAX movie about butterflies (at my mother's request). It was shown on this spherical screen, which was way cool. After that, we went into this interactive exhibit about storms and weather. It literally looked like the dream mansion of a mad scientist. There were crazy color reflections, this cloud vortex, a giant electricity conductor, hot air balloons, it was crazy. We meandered and messed around with stuff in there until it was our turn for the Disney archives. The guy at the entrance asked what my favorite Disney movie was. At first I paused and went "That's a really hard question." he laughed and I finally answered Peter Pan. He said he'd heard that a few times today and let me in. Then I started contemplating that question and immediately regretted my answer. I love Alice in Wonderland, Mary Poppins, and Cinderella all so much more than Peter Pan. Regardless, that exhibit was beautiful. It was divided up into parts. Walt's life and career, the process of making animated movies, about various movies, and then Disneyland. I tried to soak up as much as possible and I took pictures of almost everything I could. They had clips from certain movies playing as well. At the very end there was a guy teaching people how to draw Mickey Mouse's face. I got my mom to go into that with me and I think our Mickey's turned out pretty nicely. We stopped and talked to this guy named Kyle, who was doing photo orders for the exhibit. He was really young and pretty cute. He'd only been working there 2 months and it was only his second job ever. His first was at a doggy day care. Kyle you adorable human being.

After realizing the museum store had no Disney stuff at all and staring at a fro-yo serving robot, we left the museum and went to Hard Rock Cafe. I ate, admired the memorabilia, people watched because they were having some business people networking event, and then left to go back to the hotel. I watched the fog and rain, and slept.

That sums up my 4 day vacation to Chicago. After that we drove 5 hours to Kentucky for my Uncle's wedding (which was beautiful and I wanted to cry from the cuteness). We stayed for a few days for that and to see family. I got to meet some really cool family members that I had never met before, got lots of hugs from family friends who hadn't seen me since I was like 7, and spent some serious bonding time with my sister. But now I am back home, and must adjust to normal life. I've already spent today sleeping until 12, watching Netflix for hours, and seeing the boyfriend, so I think I'm doing fine.

*I'll add more pictures later, I don't have them ready at the moment.

Song of the day- [Peace Frog] by The Doors

P.S. Am I the only one who thinks Lana's 'Shades of Cool' sounds very James Bond-esque? I would love for her to do the intro for the next one, she'd make a perfect Bond girl.

Got Out of Cape Cod Last Night

Last night was a very special night.

It was the night that three of my friends and I had each splurged 60 dollars to see Vampire Weekend in concert. Our deep love for Ezra Koenig would be heard from our joyful screams coming from the stranger filled pit.
We drove downtown to the outdoor venue a lot later than I had hoped. Gates opened at 6:30 and Ellie's dad didn't understand why the heck we would want to stand in line for an hour prior. It actually made me really uncomfortable getting there after people were already let in because I get to every concert early. If I'm paying 60 bucks I want to be able to see Ezra's face in detail, okay? But despite our later arrival, we still got pretty good spots. As soon as I got a good look around the venue, I could only think of one thing. That it literally looked like my Tumblr had come to life. Flower crowns, floral print, knee socks, combat boots, sheer tops, crops tops, EVERYWHERE. I felt incredibly under dressed. But I still think I rocked my DIY Ezra Koenig shirt, store-bought side-crocheted shorts, and converse. As soon as we got through the merch line, we went to grab and protect our spots in the pit. I felt really cool holding up my wristband and having some tough looking guy say 'go ahead'. That is, until Maggie ran into a pole on our way in.
We stood there for about an hour just making jokes and listening to the weird conversations that other people were having. We also ran into our 7th grade science teacher, which was interesting. She gave us hugs and high fives and then left. Overall, it was an amazing concert experience. The crowd was super loose and into the band, the sky was clear and there was a slight breeze that just made everything feel great, and the band was super nice and preformed wonderfully. The opening band was The Cults and they were really awesome as well. I was really pleased how everything turned out.

A random group of boys we spotted and dubbed 'The Floral Gang'

Leaving the venue we ran into a bunch of people from school, including Maggie's sworn enemy. She was pissed off because he was at a Vampire Weekend concert and wearing an MGMT shirt, which means he has good music taste. Don't you just hate it when sucky people have good taste in things?
I feel like I have so much more to say about this concert, but my brain is wearing thin from lack of sleep. So I'll leave you with these things;

I found this cute thing on a walk with the boyfriend earlier:

And I just finished watching the Jimmy Fallon episode with Jack White. He's such an amazing person and musical genius oh my gosh. Here are the links to his performance:

[Just One Drink & Lazaretto]

//Song of the day- Walcott by Vampire Weekend

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Once Upon a Dream~

Today is the first day in a while that I haven't felt great.

I have a giant yellow-ish bruise below my knee that I can't stop staring at.

He put his arm around me in Rite Aid and then told me he loved me in the parking lot later on.

I like hanging out with guys so much more than other girls. With some exceptions of course.

Lana Del Rey  is comforting my soul.

Dane Dehaan

I despise sounding overly pretentious.

I've developed a Bob Dylan obsession lately

My thoughts are so scattered at the moment. I just can't seem to keep my mind on one thing at a time.
My weekend started off when we got out early after exams and I went to go see The Fault in Our Stars with some friends. I absolutely love that book and John Green had insisted that the movie was excellent, so I had some pretty high expectations going in to that theater packed full of girls (and dragged along boyfriends that were secretly excited too).
The movie lived up to my expectations wonderfully. I had brought watermelon Sour Patch Kids and tissues to help me through my tears. Of course everybody was sobbing by the time the credits rolled up, which I thought was really nice. Not because people were sad, I'm not heartless, but because everyone in the theater was feeling the same thing at the same time and about the same thing. I thought that was a cool feeling. I wonder how many people were part of the nerdfighter community. But seriously, if you haven't gotten to see The Fault in Our Stars yet, please get off the computer and drive to your local movie theater and purchase tickets immediately.

After we got out of the movie, I purchased this little pug webkinz and named it Augustus.
I have a weakness for cute stuffed animals.

Today I went to the local pizza place with some friends to celebrate one of their birthdays. His birthday was two months ago, but who's keeping track? I really wanted it to be a nice time, but there were two girls there that I didn't know and they kind of threw the whole vibe off for me. They ended up creating an awkward division in the group. So I spent most of the time talking to my boyfriend and another friend of mine because the three of us were stuck on the other side of the table. One of the girls was the first to leave and then I found out later that the other girl tried to say goodbye to me, but I was turned around talking to my boyfriend. Apparently nobody wanted to actually alert me of this, including my boyfriend. That left me feeling guilty and upset. Guilty because the girl was trying to be nice and say goodbye, while I brushed her off without knowing it and upset because nobody wanted to tell me what was going on. After the two of them left, I still felt like shit and so did the boyfriend, so we both left and walked up to Rite Aid. I bought myself a Twix and him a Snickers, because those are his favorite.
Once we got back, only two people were left. One of them being Ellie, so she and I walked to her house from there. On our way to her house we found an ice cream truck, which we were both overly excited about. Ice cream trucks are a kind of symbol of childhood, in a way. I don't know a single person that doesn't get excited over them. This one was weird because it was completely pink, and run by a group of college-age looking kids. The girl who handed me my frozen lemonade had some sort of accent. Maybe Ukrainian or Russian? Either way it was cool.
When we turned to continue our trek back to the house, we spotted a lonely looking boy trying to sell homemade lemonade. I couldn't just ignore him, especially since he had witnessed us buying ice cream from somebody else. So I walked over, bought a 50 cent cup of lemonade and told him to keep the dollar. That made me feel a bit better actually. He smiled and thanked me a bunch.

After I got home, I lied on the couch and continued my binge watch of Orange is the New Black. As one does. The only thing I haven't achieved this weekend that I really wanted to, is see Maleficent. I'm a total sucker for anything Disney and this movie looks magical, dark, and has Angelina Jolie in it. So naturally I'm dying to go see it. It literally pains me inside that I haven't seen it yet.

* All pictures are form tumblr and credit goes to their respective owners

Beach Trippin' ✌

I was given a long weekend, so naturally I went to the beach.

Best friend in tow, we drove for two hours on Friday with the coast in our sights. I made her watch 'Cry Baby' (a John Waters film with Johnny Depp in it) on the drive down. She didn't like it as much as I thought she would, but she still liked it enough. After seeing it a few times the weirdness of the movie doesn't affect me as much anymore, but of course it was her first time watching so she was definitely weirded out. 

Once we got there, it was too late to really go anywhere so the two of us ended up playing Cranium for an hour. Which was much more entertaining than last time, when I tried to play with my mom and my grandma. At least my competition actually knew who Radiohead was this time. After that, she revealed to me that she had never been to Olive Garden before. So naturally, we headed to Olive Garden because if you have not tasted their breadsticks, you have not lived. Also, we got an extremely attractive waiter with tattoo sleeves and a stylish haircut. I believe his name was Dustin. Once we got home, we organized a Skype/Cards Against Humanity session with our guy friends. That whole experience lasted until around 12:30-1 AM. Then I continued to Skype with the boyfriend until around 2. All in all, it was a fantastic use of Skype. 

Saturday we had originally planned to hit up the beach but we ended up being too tired and unwilling to get our hair full of sand. So, as a teenage girls do, we went to the mall instead. It proved to be your usual shopping trip until we came across Elsa and Olaf. Yes, as in the characters from Frozen. The mall was doing a "take your picture with Queen Elsa and Olaf!" type thing. There was a freakishly long line of disheveled parents and their 5 year olds waiting to get their picture taken. The girl dressed up as Elsa was gorgeous and the dress was perfection. Olaf was a different story..... 

 Is that not terrifying?? One boy started sobbing when they tried to get him to stand next to the poor snowman. We stood and watched this whole fiasco for quite a bit. Splitting our attention between that and Frozen playing in the eyebrow salon next door.

Later that evening we went to my Aunt's house to celebrate my cousins birthday. I was excited to meet his new girlfriend who he'd been keeping a secret from us for a while, or at least tried to. Last time I was staying at their house I got back late and heard them both in his bedroom while his parents were out. Anyways, she was short and adorable and a total geek. I think they'll make a wonderful couple. She's also a gender studies major, which was very cool. The whole family visit was especially interesting actually. Due to lack of coordination, there ended up being six cakes. Most of them were

really good so there was no complaining. 

After the socializing died down a bit, Ellie (the best friend) and I walked from the house down to the neighborhood dock. It was during sunset, so it was absolutely gorgeous. We caught some small crabs and sat in my uncle's boat for a little while. The whole thing was so peaceful. 

When we got back to my grandma's, we decided to walk down to the pool. Since my grandma lives right near a large marsh, her neighborhood is always littered with frogs at night. We spotted quite a few on our way to the pool. Once we got there, the water was super warm and felt great against the chilly night air. I waded into the pool to waist deep and just stood there with my hoodie lifted up, while Ellie swam around for a bit. Due to lack of street lights, you could see the stars and planets in the sky. It was lovely. Cars can't really be heard from the pool either, which was also nice. We stayed out until the water started cooling down

Sunday (today) we finally ended up going to the beach. It wasn't hot enough to actually swim or lay out, so we just let the waves wash up onto our feet. The best part of the beach was this small group of people sitting close to the water. Let's go through the people that made up this group:

Joint Guy- My favorite person of the day. He was smoking a joint and doing some sort of spiritual dance. He didn't pay to much attention to the others. At one point he came into the water and continued his spiritual dance. Then he bent down to place his hands in the water for a bit. The last we saw of him was when he left to walk down the edge of the water and swayed the whole way to whatever music was in his head. 

Guitar Girl- A girl I mistook for a guy at first. She had her guitar with her and looked very happy. Talked to a heavily tattooed girl the entire time. 

Loincloth dude- That's basically it. He wore some sort of loincloth over a black speedo the majority of the time. 

They also had some sort of african drum with them as well. They were playing it when we got there. 

After our beach endeavor, we got lunch and headed home. We watched one of my favorite movies, Whip It, the entire way back. Now I'm home and I've been listening to the Whip It soundtrack this entire time. I've also decided to change my blog title to one of the Roller Derby names that I came up with in the car. I'm pretty proud of it. 

Happy June 1st everybody.