concert review: MCR & Blink 182

So, I went to a concert last month. It was super fun, and therefore deserves a post. I am just really behind on blogging. In sum:

I went with my great friends Robyn and Megan.


It was not the best live show I've ever been to, but I still had a blast because I was with my besties. However, I probably won't be going to a Blink 182 concert again (Oh, yea, by the way - the bands were Blink 182 and My Chemical Romance). Because even though Travis killed it on the drums (it sounded like no animal with less than 8 arms could have done all that crazy stuff), and even though their songs were catchy as ever, they have a REALLY VULGAR stage act. Like, tasteless. I shouldn't have been shocked, because Meg, who had been to their shows before tried to warn me. "Uh, Tami, are you sure? Blink kind of... swears a lot at concerts."
"Meh! That's ok. I don't listen to lyrics that much anyways."

The problem is, you really don't get a sense of how crude they are when you buy their music edited - which I do. And having it blared through an awesomely loud sound system doesn't really give you much of a choice in how much you notice. So, their act was an eye-opening experience. Yikes. It was also a little bit sad, because aging rock stars with receding hairlines are depressing. (I'm sorry, Mark Hoppus. But you seriously are going bald.)

But now, we will talk about My *cough cough secret husbands* Chemical Romance. They are who I really went to see. They are those tiny, tiny blue and purple lights on stage wayyyyy behind me:


I had assumed that Blink and MCR would be co-headlining, and would each take turns as the main attractions. Instead MCR opened and did a short, 45-minute set. Wahhhhh. Their sound system and stage set up wasn't as cool as Blink's, since they weren't the headliners - but they still sounded amazing. They are one of my favorite bands, and they didn't disappoint. I would do it all over again to see them perform. Their music is so personal and piercing. It tears my little heart out and I love it. They played a beautiful rock set full of my faves including Helena, I'm not Okay, Cancer, Na Na Na, and their arrangements were slightly different and more dramatic and instrumental than their studio albums. It was very theatrical.

In short, we had a great time. Also, we saw lots of people with fascinatingly ugly hair. Like this young lad:



I felt his hair needed to be documented, but I was torn between getting close enough to snap a good picture without being noticed, or getting too close and risking getting poked with his spikes if I angered him.

Dear Autumn,

You are a great season. One of my favorites. Bright yellow leaves, the introduction to the holiday season, and feeling so cozy in my car with the heater blasting - all of those are fabulous. However, I wish that you would last longer - or how about you stick around all the way through til Spring? You lasted only a week or two this year, you fickle minx.

Here's the thing. Your little sister, Winter, is heinous. I hate her more than the Grinch hated Christmas. In fact, I sort of turn into the Grinch once Christmas passes, and the snow and sleet and ice are left behind but are no longer nostalgic and festive. They're just cold. Painfully so, especially once I've moved down to Idaho. And then I start to lose my mind a little bit, and-oh-my-gosh-it's-April-why-is-it-still-snowing....ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh


Please, see what you can do about it.
Love, Tami

Dog Shenanigans

My poor baby dog, Lady, got an unintentional bikini wax last week.

So, she (the dog) has this habit of running into my room and skedaddling under my bed for fun. She's sassy, and probably does it because she knows she doesn't have free range yet throughout the house. To avoid getting caught and thrown out of my room, she army crawls to the exact middle underneath the bed, so that I can't grab her. Earlier this month, I had placed some of those glue-board spider traps under there (which by the way, I find so rewarding to look at because once they've caught and killed some huge ugly spiders, they leave them on display for me to laugh at). I heard a pitiful whimpering noise coming from under my bed, so I leaned down to look. Lady had gotten a glue board stuck on one of her paws and one stuck on her butt. In a frenzied panic, she somehow managed to yank the one on her paw off, but she shot out from under my bed with the second glue board still stuck to one of her furry little butt cheeks.

I enlisted my mom's help, and we tried to think of a way to get it off as painlessly as possible. We decided on the 'band-aid method' - tear it off really quickly and be done with it. The glue on those sons-of-guns are very thick and very sticky, so as I held her and my mom yanked it off, the glue board came away with pretty much all of the loose fur from Lady's booty. It didn't result in any bald spots, thank goodness, but I could tell it was not the most pleasant thing she had ever experienced.

She has not gone under my bed since.