wicker chair

glastonbury 2010 tickets selling out in a day is a tragedy. summer plans no longer involve the uk. trying to mend my broken heart.

heading back to the doctors in an hour or so. i feel like i'm there almost every day. why am i always blessed with being sick?!?! i need to start getting healthy!

i was supposed to be in austin, tx over the weekend for austin city limits. i should have booked my flight when i had the chance, definitely regretting it. i saw some pictures and videos from the weekend and it looked like so much fun.. except for all of the rain and mud. yeck! i would've been all set with my new wellies, though! my friend josh even called me during kings of leon's set. sounded great. was pretty bummed i was stuck being a customer's bitch all weekend instead. oh, well- there's always next time!

speaking of music festivals and texas.. i really, really want to be back in austin. this is probably my favorite picture taken during sxsw. a polaroid that captured a huge painting of daniel johnston's hi, how are you? album cover. it was painted on the side of a random building downtown. i'm itching for the next south by.

this post was obviously dedicated to my serious case of needing another music festival in my life, asap.
xoxo

ten minutes

and it's officially october. theee best month that exists. i'm so excited!

artprize has taken over grand rapids. it's a bit overwhelming, but amazing at the same time. for the past few years, i've felt that grand rapids has been dying out a bit.. maybe it is, i'm not sure.. but having artprize here makes me feel like the city might actually be growing and i like that feeling. anyways, every block and corner you turn, there's art in your face. so many art exhibits, so many people, and so much creativity. a few fashion shows here and there too, those have been exciting to go to. i haven't made it to see all of the exhibits yet, there are sooo much. however, i have a few pictures that i took with my phone (from the art exhibits i did go to), but like i've mentioned and posted before, blackberry doesn't have a great camera to take pictures with.

in love with this headdress, i vant!

i really, really wanted this little indian too - so good

one of my favorites. a huge moose sculpture made out of nails

the wizard of oz tree! another favorite (basically just because it's wizard of oz)

the lochness sea monster in the grand river

this one looked way more neat in person than it does in this picture. the way the shapes and the colors of the lights looked in the complete dark was really cool.

the massive table and chair set on top of the bridge

this one also looks more neat in person than it does in picture. it's of melted glass. the artist was still finishing it as i was taking the picture

my new wellies that i ordered the other day come in the mail tomorrow. so excited to recieve them! could possibly be the best way to start the first day of october. i'm real tired and hungry.

fyi - it's now officially october!!!!!!!1!!!!!11!one!!!!!
xoxo

sea within a sea

i'm sleepy. the kings of leon and glasvegas gig was earlier this week, on monday (the 22nd). jamie and i ventured our way out to detroit to catch it. SO GOOD. it was my second time seeing glasvegas, the first time was in august at lollapalooza. they're so great, especially live. there's something about them that i absolutely love and i don't know what it is. maybe it's their swagger. i'm not sure. either way, it's something that makes you want to watch and listen to them all day. i've seen kings so many times before and it seems that every show i go to theirs, they sound better every time. i don't know if i'd say my experience at the shows have gotten better or not, but i've definitely never had a dull moment seeing them. their shows are always fun and they always sound incredible.

ever since only by the night was released, it seems that the ed hardy and affliction shirt wearing crowd has found them. kind of bums me out. they deserve all of the recognition they've been getting and they deserve more and i'm so happy for them, but it'd be so nice being able to go to a show of theirs and not have bro-tools behind you scream requests for "sex on fire". it also sucks when caleb decides to speak and say, "i'm not good with speaking infront of a big crowd, but we want to say that it's weird for us to play in big venues and arenas.. we're definitely not an arena band. a couple years ago, we were a silly rock band playing infront of maybe 50 people and tonight there are 7,000 of you here. so we want to thank you for making this one of the best years of our lives." and have the same bro-tools interrupt him saying "shut up! then sing!!!! sex on fire!!!!" and then the bro-tools interupt ONCE again during the "we're not an arena band" part and say "I DON'T GET IT!!!!!!! WHAT?" - i mean, it's something i don't expect them to get. they were drunk, wearing ed hardy, only wanted to hear sex on fire, and probably just started listening to them ever since their favorite, alternative-rock radio station that plays hinder, nickelback, and papa roach started blowing up sex on fire and use somebody.. which was probably only a couple months ago.

anyways, besides the cool, frat boys making me want to punch them in the face, i had a wonderful time. shawn was there. we were really close, which was a nice change. i swooned all night. caleb and i definitely made eye contact for maybe a second (but seemed like five minutes), i of course swooned more. matt was playing guitar while smoking a cigarette, i was still swooning. then matt decided to play guitar with his mouth (though i think i've said swoon enough in this little paragraph, it needs to be said once more), i definitely swooned more. they played trani, ah-mazing! here are a couple pictures from my phone, blackberry is terrible.

glasvegas

....doing what i do best, being a creep

only jamie, my sister.. and probably ally would laugh at this

kings of leon

xoxo

i've got your number

the other day, ally got the photos back from the manchester orchestra show. i'm missin' those guys, no one else i know shares the same amount of love for jack daniels as i do. here are some pictures from the night.

ally, myself, and ambrea

britainy showing chinchilla to jeremiah, j, and chris

aussie?

britainy and ally

britainy, chris, and ally

britainy and i creepin'

ally

xoxo

my daily routine

sleepz -> gettin' clean -> repeat (sometimes)

told by my leetle cat, he's the cutest.
xoxo

there is a light that never goes out

things have been going pretty well lately, minus working ALL of the time. well, i guess i don't mind it that much.. most of the time i really don't even consider it going to work, it's basically just meeting up and hanging out with friends AND it's pretty nice recieving steady paychecks with a good amount printed on them. it's just sometimes i wish every, single day wasn't spent being in the same place and listening to the same music. i hate routine.

i'm still in the process of figuring out where i want to move to at the end of november. i'm thinking and hoping my last week in grand rapids, michigan (for a little while at least) will be the week of thanksgiving. i'm deciding whether or not i want it to be in nashville, austin, or atlanta. i just know i want it to be more towards the south. i don't know how much longer i can handle freezing and brutal winters. i'm really easy to live with, i promise! - so someone help me find a serious roommate.. please!

we were slightly gutted at the croc sandals with fringe... really?

yesterday was my first day off from work in weeks it seems and it was wonderful. my friends were in town for their show last night, so ally, ambrea, and i ventured our way out to go watch and hang out. cage the elephant was SO GOOD. i was impressed. a couple of their songs gave me a pixies vibe, which made me enjoy their set even more. i saw them back at lollapalooza in august, and they did great, but the stage they played on had an awful sound- so it was nice being able to catch them on a stage with decent sound. manchester orchestra did really good too. their sound is great, i love how raw they sound. it was fun watching them. i enjoyed silversun pickups too. their set seemed forever long, but i wasn't complaining. besides, the girl bass player was absolutely adorable and had the cutest dress, tights, and t-strap flats on that i wanted to steal. however, about after 6 songs into their set, their songs started to sound the same.. but i still liked them nonetheless.

manchester orchestra

silversun pickups

after the show, ally, ambrea, and i met up with j, chris, jeremiah, and their friend christianna who we met earlier, all jammed into ally's car, and made a quick pit stop to a ghetto liquor store, then arrived back at ally, ambrea, ashley, brooke, and brittainy's place. it was definitely great being able to all just hang out for a little while. the night was full of good talks, good laughs, and cannonballs? if i can recall correctly? either way, the "cannonballs" definitely killed me. their bus call was 2am, so they had to leave fairly early to be on time, but it was a fun time while it lasted :). i didn't last much longer after they took off, straaaaight to bed.

i woke up this morning with a killer headache, no voice, and a huge "m" in blue permanant marker slapped across my forehead. ally, ambrea, and i got all cleaned up, ally and i dropped ambrea off at her job interview, then we all caught breakfast afterwards. on our way back, we spotted an ah-mazing garage sale and made what we thought would be a quick stop. our attention to all of the interesting tinkets (dragon switchblade knives, rubik's cube earrings, and tiger paintings) quickly got distracted by 2 of the cutest puppies ever! absolutely adorable! we were stuck at that garage sale for hours debating whether or not to buy them. they were going for $50 each, without having shots. ambrea wanted one and ally and i were going to go half and half on the other. i wanted to name it ziggy (fyi all of the animals i own, always have a z in the name.. and i suppose ziggy was inspired by david bowie too) and ally wanted to name it tenderloin. ziggy tenderloin. tenderloin ziggy. either way, the dog would have had a good first and middle name. we decided to put them down, go home, and put major thought into this debating process. we ended up venturing back out to the garage sale one last time, this time with ashley, and got her opinion. we, once again, were stuck debating for hours on if we could afford or have the time for 2 new puppies. we eventually decided against getting them :(. ashley had class, so we dropped her off and went to jimmy john's for subs. they put avacado spread on my sub, yeck! onya met up with us and then we thrifted for a bit. i got a new "boyfriend" blazer, new shoes, a new polaroid camera, and a new slip for all under $20. was slightly impressed with myself.

the "m" imprints on our faces, though i can't aim a camera to get my m'd forehead

best hat ever, it's ally's - peta would love me

ziggy tenderloin / tenderloin ziggy

these last couple of days was definitely in need. a break from work, a break from ghetto-fab customers, spending time with friends, and shopping. now i'm back at home, exhausted, eating mexican food, and listening to the whigs. heading off to bed to get some much needed sleep.

goodnight, xoxo.

completely brilliant

2.55 chanel bag - SO GOOD.
gimme!


xoxo

chicago round two

the week after the nate and casey's wedding, my family and i took a "family trip" to chicago. we walked every where, did tons of shopping, and did tons touristy stuff (i love doing touristy stuff even though i know chicago like the back of my hand). we took no trains, no cabs, no buses (except our way to chicago). i thought my legs were going to be missing the next morning, but to my surprise, i wasn't sore at all.. just very exhausted. i don't know how i managed, but i guess all of the walking during lollapalooza weekend paid off!

this dog was the bus owners' dog who broke free from it's leash

that's their home on wheels in the background, no jk

mom lookin' all informed n' wut not

in chicagoooo! my dad and i

this looks posed, but don't be fooled - i'm not that lame (really)

my seestor

they seriously have no idea how to read a map


pretty water

i wanted to kayak


creeeepy

next time i'm in chicago, i want to stay there!

we eat here every time we do a family trip to chicago

we lost my dad in nike town

on the search

still on the search..

had too much fun in nike town, that dad does not seem amused by my actions

my babe was too thick to straddle

nice butt though

i don't think the families or employees in the store were a fan of us

this guy- what a smooth operator

mr. smooth with his sunglasses down and winking

i need new shoes!

and new tights!

feelin' a bit awkward having our picture taken by a stranger, but we needed a sistor-pictor

indian!

me taking a picture of an indian sign, caused me to get left behind by my family hahaha

the city

i thought it was pretty..

prettiest sky

girl in numbered sweatshirt ruined my picture! get outta there!



my family

i thought this was pretty too..

hahaha

captured an awkward moment on the train, my mom had to sit next to a weird man

i don't think my dad was too amused with who he had to sit by either

my tights got worse as the day went on!

this laughter was brought on by the "penis game". we really know how to keep a silent train ride entertaining with seeing who will shout "penis" the loudest. i won. we're mature.

dr. pepper me, with a straw! please!

the end, xoxo

nate and casey's wedding

a couple weeks after lollapalooza was nate and casey's wedding and it was so beautiful and they both looked perfect. i've known nate for about three or four years now and just met casey about a year ago. it wasn't until about a few months ago that we actually started hanging out and she's now become one of my good friends. it's so nice seeing two close friends of yours really happy. i'm glad they've found one another and they definitely deserve one another. it's such a great feeling to see two people in love and wanting to spend the rest of their lives together. i can't wait to share that feeling with someone someday. matt huff came into town for the wedding and i'm so happy he did! he's one of my bestfriends and it's so hard having someone so close to you move states away. it's nice having an actual conversation face to face rather phone to phone or via internet. i miss him a lot a lot a lot. he brought a little lady friend, kat, with him to the wedding. he met her while living in pennsylvania. she's great! after the ceremony and dinner, we went to casey's parents house for the reception in their backyard. so many friends, so much fun. after, matt, kat, and i drove over to ihop and met up with more friends. isaiah was there! anne, brent, tim, sierra, dave, joelle, josh, and a few others were there too. i caught up with joelle a little, i haven't seen her since she's come back from england. such a good night. the night came to an end and i went home and slept forever.

casey singing nate a song at the beginning of the reception
matt and kat!

anne

anne and merrill

matt and asa

kat and i.. kind of

my new pennsylvania friend

kat, anne, and i

xoxo

lollapalooza

posting this a week late, no care. i love visiting chicago so much. it was a nice, little vaction.. and a wonderful weekend (despite the horrendous weather), but fun nonetheless. i never knew so many crazy things could happen in such a short period of time. now i'm back home again, off to being another busy bee and having no life while i slave away at work. i just looked at my work schedule for the next two weeks, what a big slap in the face! hello to having absolutely no life. i'll try to keep this post with as little text as possible and pictures from the weekend (though my camera is weak, most pictures are blurry, :/ and the rain made my camera even more weak).

just kidding, i have a story.. and this will be a LOT of text considering i love going into detail when i tell stories. for everyone's information, jamie and i can definitely hold our own for being little girls. for jamie being 100 pounds and i being 110 pounds, both of us having no fighting background (minus the time i punched a girl in the face during a soccer game, but that doesn't count), and for both of us being pretty friendly/easy to get along with, i don't understand how we got away with what we did on saturday night (or sunday morning). saturday night, we both to the vip/artist hard rock hotel after party. band of skulls and passion pit (so good) were playing a small show for the small gathering of people inside. we met up with my friend dave (whom i haven't seen in over a year). the band he tour manages played lollapalooza, so he was in town for the whole weekend as well. it was so nice seeing and catching up with him again. he gave me my artist/vip badge to get into the after party and an artist wristband for backstage at the festival. he happened managing getting jamie a artist/vip badge for the after party as well. after catching up with him for a bit and hanging out with some friends that night, he and his band left to go back to their hotel. the after party ended at 2am (shortly after dave left). so jamie, myself, a couple of the guys from manchester orchestra, and a couple of their friends decided to head down to a bar about a block away from the hard rock hotel to grab a few drinks and hang out for a bit. we all were having fun, had good talks, good laughs. j and i sat outside exchanging conversations for a while. eventually the good talks, good times, and good laughts had to come to an end. we all left and went back to the places we were staying at. jamz and i got to the train station to take the red line back to caty's (my friend's place we were staying at for the weekend), when all of a sudden a group of 5 people (2 girls, 3 guys) asked us if we had a dollar. we told them we really need to catch our train before it took off, we then started walking to our gate. that pissed them off. they cornered us and one of the guys pretended to have a gun in his hand, put it up his shirt, and up to my head. they obviously thought i was some dumb and naive girl who would fall for something so ridiculous when it was completely clear it was his hand in the shape of a gun (wuuut up WAAANKSTA!). so jamz and i tried walking away and got out of their little "circle" we were trapped in. that pissed them off even more. they then pushed jamie and tried mugging and jumping us. jamie fell to the ground while they had a hold on both of our purses. the bitch broke my fucking purse strap! MY. FUCKING. PURSE. STRAP! (yes, i'm seriously pissed about that purse strap). i was then free and shimmied my way under the gate. i thought jamie was behind me, but i looked back and she was still on the ground with them on top of her and going after her! her arms with her purse broke free somehow, and she launched her purse over the gate to me so i could hang on to it. the security guard FINALLY decided to run out and save us before we died. the wanksters ran away (keep in mind- WITH MY PURSE STRAP) and everything was over with. i don't know how jamie and i managed to escape 3 guys and 2 girls (all of which were twice the size of us, if not, larger), without any injuries! (well jamie and a cut on her hand and a bruise and i have a bruise on my hip.. but still). let alone, us escape without them taking anything away from us! except my fucking purse strap! what a HUGE FAIL beyond their half! i bet they didn't go back home to their "gangster" friends the next day and brag to them about mugging two, tiny, white girls and only coming out with a damn purse strap.

long story short(...er): getting mugged/jumped (if you can even call it that) was scary while it was happening, but completely hilarious afterwards. we couldn't stop laughing. the security guard looked a bit puzzled while she was walking us down to the gate when she saw us in tears of laughter. picturing it over and over in my head just gets funnier and funnier. we all looked so pathetic. the fact that jamie and i managed to slide outselves out of such a dilemma blows my mind.. and imagining the "pre-teen wannabes" (jamie's insulting term to the group trying to mug us.. yes, she really called them pre-teen wannabes during the mugging process. why? i don't know, she was drunk and thought it was the most insulting thing to call a group of people) reaction when they realized they only ran off witha purse strap out of both of us, makes it even more laughable. it might not sound as funny to someone reading this, unless you really knew jamie and i and our personalities. however, i am thankful that god was watching over us both during that time.. because we seriously could have had it so much worse than my purse strap missing. we could both be in the hospital! with no money to our names! thank you god, i love you.

_______________________________________________________
so in memory to my purse strap, i wrote a little speech/obituary:

R.I.P.

my poor, little, black purse. you were barely ever used and you looked very nice with all of my summer dresses. you were small, but you held a lot of the stuff i carried around. you were the cause of most of my compliments i've ever recieved on some of my outfits. lucky magazine even complimented you when they took my picture for my "street style" at the festival. you were just a baby, about 1 month and a half old. you were on sale when i bought you, but you looked like a million bucks $$$$$.

you're lying next to computer right now, just chillin', lookin' at me, lookin' very pathetic and sad that you remain strapless. that strap was your companion and you did treat it well with such kindness and respect. i'm very sorry that you had to go through so much physical abuse on saturday night (or sunday morning). i never would've expected such a thing and i was a terrible mother to have something so awful happen to you. i'm deeply sorry. all we have to do is thank god that those rude people who terrorized you that morning, didn't completely steal you away from me. i'd be lost without you (and the stuff you held for me, including my phone, camera, 26 dollars and some odd cents, my id, my artist badge for lollapalooza, my train/cta tickets, and bobby pins).

i promise, when i encounter those sonz'a bitchez (or in jamie's terms, "pre-teen wannabes"), i'll yell at them for stealing your strap.. and then running off with it and NOT returning it. they obviously DON'T know their manners.. but i do have to say, you did a very good job holding up and not falling apart during the "mugging process" you went through.. sale purses are the best! ps- i love you.
________________________________________

now, back to the festival. i had tons of fun. i saw almost every band i wanted to, exept for white lies, friendly fires, and living things (i was devestated). went back out to the last night of the hard rock hotel after party on sunday night/last night of lollapalooza. ra ra riot and chairlift were playing. it offered us so many great opportunities for people watching. though the free berry vodka drinks were a fail, the weekend was sooo good!

overall, lollapalooza = train rides train rides train rides. music. friends. no sleep. catching up. meeting new, wonderful people. almost getting mugged to death at the train station, then laughing hysterically about it. swooning over kings of leon (of course). karen o. yeah yeah yeahs, brilliant. lykke li. lou reed! jack and cokes. hard rock hotel. free beer. lucky magazine taking my photo for a summer festival street style thing. good talks. good laughs. walking waaay too much. spotting CHUCK BASS and VANESSA aka ed westwick and jessica szohr. leather jackets. melting to death in the sun and heat. drowning in the pouring rain and mud puddles. after parties. getting attacked by caty's cat. my knee high/thigh high stockings dilemma. mexican food!

// friday // on our way there, shawn and kristen

hahaha donald and wade // the virgins

crystal castles + horrible weather

FLEET FOXES! ah-mazing!

peter bjorn and john + a tow zone sign, i somehow managed getting stuck behind that sign every time i was at citi

kings of leon started late, so i decided to take a picture of the lighted buildings

kings of leon, oh boy!

just my two babez, thinkin' about me or somethin'

CREEPIEST statue in a garden... ever!

train ride to jordi's

that was bigger than it looks in the photo

waiting for jordi to get home, jamz reading

// saturday // animal collective's dj set, very disappointing

chairlift

arctic monkeys! (aka, how many times can you spot alexa chung?)

no age

GLASVEGAS!

santigold

LYKKE LI!

sweet bald head, man!

free ray ban cupcakes! i hate the frosting, so i gave it to jamie

yeah yeah yeahs! SO GOOD. karen o, what a babe!

this is the taxi we got stuck in for over 40 minutes because our driver was lost in his own city. his windows also didn't roll up or down, so this is jamie rolling up her window

we noticed this sign by the train on my birthday last year and couldn't stop laughing, we still couldn't

we laughed even harder when we came to the conclusion of this is how jamie looked when the "muggers" pushed her down

//sunday// bat for lashes!

kaiser chiefs

passion pit - passion pit + passion pit's keyboardist

dan auerbach!

LOU. REED. i was in love. he opened with sweet jane! and played dirty blvd!

mstrkrft

band of horses. so good!

jane's addiction's little helicopter light circling the sky, it looked so cool

the end, xoxo

pictures from cornerstone

i didn't take many photos from cornerstone and i wish i would have. the other photos i took are on nate mavis' phone. it was such a fun week and so many funny things happened that i wish i would have captured, but i suppose these will have to do for now!

sitting back and watching the boys set up my tent.

...and my air mattress



copeland

adam vass got his rat-tail hair wrapped

i was crushin' hard on the man in the hot-shorts, ow ow!

nate1 lurking nate2 in a calendar

bradley hathaway

me trying to cover my face to avoid photo, seconds late- watching mewithoutyou

some girl randomly getting dreads in her hair during the skies revolt

the skies revolt

the outcome of rain + dirt roads, photo courtesy of nate's phone

my very "clean" hair, photo courtesy of nate's phone

dan

casey was really thrilled about the rainy weather


that's all he did all week


still thrilled

my feet, thank you mud

casey's feet

jarred

"give me all your money, or i WILL shoot.."

the skies revolt next to weezer in a magazine, weird


nate bragging

sierra showing off her favorite band

dave

casey and nate


sierra

steve keeping us entertained on our way home

xoxo

hello, michigan

cornerstone was great up until it down poured at the end of the week, which resulted in me almost drowning in my tent. i left sunday night (the 28th) to meet up with a friends band in lansing. i hitched a ride to the festival, which was in illinois, with them. i thought the ride would be a bit awkward considering i only know one of the guys and met the rest of the band only once, but the ride went pretty well. we happened to get lost for two hours (thanks to gps) and finally arrived to the festival early monday morning. i later met up with the skies revolt, the band i was doing merch for the week of cornerstone. we got our camping spot and set our things up. i failed miserably at setting up my tent, so i let the boys do it. once everything was set up, i caught up on z's for a few hours.

the week was amazing and tons of fun. i love camping (minus waking up to hundreds of people each morning) and the fact i had my own tent for the week was a definite plus. i got to see and hang out with a lot of friends i don't see too often. i also met tons of new people who were really nice and wonderful. the line-up for cornerstone is never really exciting to me, but i was really psyched on being able to watch mewithoutyou again, and to watch david bazan. i was also really excited on being able to finally catch dignan live- they were great. i had the chance to watch some of my friends bands play, which i was also happy about- la dispute, bradley hathaway, the rocketboys. friday-saturday was constant rain. absolutely terrible. it'd be nice if cornerstone had gravel roads instead of dirt roads, nothing is worse than losing your shoes in 6 inch deep mud-slush! i basically even ruined my favorite pair of moccasin boots! :/

i got home late sunday night, took the best shower of my life, and went to bed. i worked monday morning, then headed out to holland in the evening to meet up with josh and watch his band, the rocketboys. they played at lemonjello's. they're seriously so talented and always put on such a good show. they're currently on tour promoting a 2009 tour ep, which includes a few new songs from their full-length, 20,000 ghosts, that's to be released in september. so if they're playing a show near your city, check 'em out and pick up the ep!

www.myspace.com/rocketboys

xoxo

sunburned cheeks

on tuesday i went to grand haven with merrill, walked the pier, played frisbee, laughed tons, walked too much, got sunburned, people watching, saw tons of tool's dancing to lady gaga and doing the "stanky leg" (terrible), and swam. we headed back to the beach yesterday, but instead of just the two of us, casey came along! we went to a more secluded area with less people and lots of dunes. we walked the dunes, hiked in the woods, got more sunbrned, laughed lots, walked a lot, had tons of sing alongs, met funny little kids, climbed trees, swam, connected our rafts and drifted off in the lake, talked a lot, read magazines, and played frisbee. i love merrill and casey, they're great.

later yesterday evening i ate a quick dinner and made my way downtown to see my wonderful friend, brian, and his band play. person l did so great- i was impressed. i was thinking it'd be more poppy like the starting line, considering it's kenny vasoli's new band, but it didn't sound anything close. i made it to the venue, picked brian up and he went to the gas station with me. we made it back just in time before he had to set up- perfect timing. ally, brooke, and ashley biked to the venue and met up with me. we waited for ace enders to finish his set and for everyone to load out. from there, the girls biked back to their place and i took the boys from person l (plus kenny's girlfriend and myself of course), to the grand coney. we all ate and went back to brooke and ashley's place. person l ended up crashing there over night. brian and i went for a long walk early in the morning and happened to get lost. i don't know how i managed to get us lost in my own city, but we eventually found our way back to our destination. i said my goodbyes, walked to my car, took off for home, and slept. i was exhausted.

sup, i'm a tool!

casey

merrill

me, failing miserably

the best, little kid took this picture for us, i loved him

merrill showing off infront of all of the old people and little kids

casey


...must've been my pose for the day

merrill hangin'

that's all for now.
xoxo

i do have proof

that the statement "polaroids make everyone look better" is absolutely TRUE! check it out for yourself, man. i'll eventually post more photos from the tennessee/sxsw roadtrip when i decide to be unlazy.

told'ja polaroids make ya turn into a big babe ;)!

however, to update on my very much interesting life, i finally have a job.. after five months of being unemployed. i'm currently a customers bitch at forever21. i also help ghetto-fab, club-going, hussies find the perfect outfit to look more slutified. it's not half bad though- the whole getting paid thing for stuff i don't mind and/or enjoy is nice. example, listening to music (which most of it is actually good or decent). talking, a lot. looking at clothes. helping customer's fashion dilemmas. styling. plus, on top of that, i get to work with a few close friends and i'm making more friends while working (which is great, i need more legit friends in the grand rapids area- let alone in michigan). it's hard having your closest friends scattered around the country. now, back to the music part- like i said, most of it isn't bad at all (though, it is annoying hearing lots of remixes), here is a list of bands/artists that i get to listen to while folding denim: the clash, the stones, white lies, lykke li, yeah yeah yeahs, peter bjorn and john, band of skulls, passion pit, phoenix, animal collective, little boots, la roux, yelle, and cut copy. how-ev-er! unfortunately, with the good definitely comes the bad/annoying: metro station, demi lovato, neyo, rihanna, and beyonce. i enjoy when customers ask me for my opinions or to help them find outfits. it's a good feeling when someone asks you for advice and they actually listen to it. i know it's only retail and forever21 (which blows), and almost a huge nothing for what i want to do career wise (styling and design- eventually), but i'm learning new things that will become helpful for what i do want to do career wise. for instance, it's easier eyeing out materials, piecing things together, getting ideas, realizing peoples wants, personal style, and what not. so i'll take it! trust me, i don't want to sell $5.50 tees for a living.

xoxo

high and dry

i definitely can't keep up with this thing, i'm falling way behind. it has come to my surprise that updating a blog is way harder than i thought it'd be. who knew? i think it's just the fact that my life isn't that interesting to where i should feel the need to always update. maybe i will start updating this thing once a month.

xoxo

goodbye sxsw, hello michigan

(THIS WILL BE THE LONGEST POST OF MY LIFE)

i'm finally back home from sxsw and i already want to be back in either austin or nashville. i just looked at the weather for the rest of the week in michigan and frick my life. i definitely need the austin weather to invade my life again. jamie and i left saturday night (technically it'd be morning time) at 5am. we drove 16 hours straight. finally we decided to pull over into some janky parking lot of a restaurant and passed out for a few hours. we woke back up early in the morning, finished the last part of our ride, and arrived to her place at noon today. i never thought i'd be so happy to take a real shower in my life, i finally smell good.

the whole week during sxsw, our home was jamie's car, parked in a parking ramp on 12th and trinity. it wasn't bad at all, actually. we woke up every morning (if we ever fell asleep), drove to the nearest walmart parking lot, and took our "showers" there, which was just washing our hair and brushing our teeth. thank god we're both not anywhere close to being high maintenance, otherwise i'm sure our whole week would've been hell. we got a hotel the first night we arrived in austin, just because i happened to spend half of that first day in an emergency room. the only rough part about sxsw on my behalf was my eating. i barely ate anything and lived off of ten blueberry cereal bars and a few crackers.

last sunday: left michigan @8:30am and drove down to nashville to catch the ryan adams & the cardinals show. so good, they were wonderful live. we stayed the night at jaclyn's house, one of isaiah's friends that was willing to put up with jamie and i for the night. she was awesome.

last monday: we spent the whole day in nashville. met up with isaiah and he showed us all around town. i think i know nashville like the back of my hand now, i love that city and miss isaiah tons. we all went to a cafe and ate, ran into some of isaiah's friends and met them. later that evening, jamie and i left for memphis and stayed in some janky hotel. two mexican men drove into the parking lot and saw us unloading our bags into our room. they decided it'd be appropriate to park their car infront of our room and lurk through our windows for a bit. creepy. while we were sleeping, a man kept walking by our room talking loudly on his cell phone while smoking a blunt. memphis is classy!

tuesday: we hung out in memphis for st. patrick's day. the city was full of interesting characters. we met an old guy dressed as elvis, he was a toothless wonder.. but very nice nontheless. he walked by us while we were stopped on the sidewalk trying to figure out where to go next. he stopped, looked at us, and spit some game at us, "i'm trying to decide which one of you is more beautiful.. is'sa tie!" then strutted off like he was somethin'. we couldn't stop laughing, so we found him a few minutes later and asked if he wanted to be part of our video we were making of our trip to austin. he agreed, showed off, and did a couple of elvis poses. he even sang me the hound dog song. a group of people even gathered around to watch the show, it was the funniest moment ever. as we were leaving memphis, we randomly ran into ryan adams on the streets. so random, but he was cool. we finally took off for austin and arrived at 6am.

wednesday: the first day of sxsw and i spent half of it in the ER. my sickness from my "long month journey of being sick" decided to kick up a notch and get even worse. how wonderful. i have an awesome polaroid of me looking absolutely miserable, an awesome wall-e band-aid to show off when i wear a dress or shorts, and an awesome hospital wristband for proof. we got to our hotel, cleaned up, took showers, then i crashed from all the medicine i was on. later that night we headed back out to go downtown, hung out for a bit, met up with some friends, saw a friends show, then went back to bed.

the rest of sxsw went pretty amazing. thursday-saturday/sunday morning was basically the same thing, minus the hospital part. met up with some friends, caught a lot of sun, ran into some friends i didn't think were going to be there, laughed a lot, saw amazing bands, watched a few friends shows, met tons of new people, and enjoyed the warm weather.

+'s: drinking lonestar in jamie's car on top of a parking garage while watching the black lips perform (definitely one of the best moments). seeing and hanging out with tons of friends. meeting new people. dance parties. running into ryan adams randomly on the streets in memphis. hula hooping every morning. laughing 24/7. free gigs. good bands. new states/new cities. sun. free beer. free jack and cokes. walking. good talks. purevolume party. 114 havanna st (of course).

-'s: hearing a rumor that kings of leon had a secret show at sxsw and having it turn out to be ABSOLUTELY FALSE! not eating one real meal in seven days. missing paul's all that sparkles party for iamsound records. missing perez hilton's party with paul. missing little boots doing a duet with kid cudi. missing kanye, kid cudi, daniel johnston, and echo & the bunnymen perform. getting creeped on by ONLY creepy guys, thugs, and over 40 year old men (why?). not running into zooey deschanel, paul rudd, OR seth rogen once during sxsw.. though! i was standing next to drew barrymore at the purevolume party.

however, on the total upside- i did get asked to see metallica play friday night with some man named spencer! HE WAS A REAL CATCH!!! he was roughly aged in the mid 40's, had a nice sunburn that looked like it felt really great, height ran between 5'3-5'5, his hair was brushed back and swamped in gel, had a very thick southern accent, wore red-yellow tinted-lens oakley sunglasses, and had a couple of missing teeth. AND YEP! TOTALLY GOT HIS DIGITS!

i'm too lazy to upload some photos. i will post them later.
i'm going to watch tons of movies now.


XOXO

one week of danger

the virgins performed on jimmy fallon tonight and it was ah-mazing! yesterday i went back to see the doctors with my mom :/.. they might as well diagnose me with "YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!" next time i step foot in there. afterwards, my mom and i went shopping to get the little things i need before i leave for the sxsw/tennessee trip. i think i have everything covered besides a swimsuit top. i also need to find something sparkly for paul's "all that sparkles" party on thursday night. his record label, iamsound, is throwing a party.. which, if it hasn't clicked by the title of the party, is basically all sparkles. i also picked up some reese's peanut butter cups because they were on sale. $1 for a pack of 8?! WHO ARE WE KIDDING, HERE?! seriously, who could pass that up? so i got three packs and i'm almost already finished with them all. i will regret this once my metabolism slows down someday. we picked up pizza for dinner and rented role models. no matter how many times i see that movie, it will always be funny. perhaps it's because i went to school with nerds who were exactly like those sword fighting nerds in the movie. besides, paul rudd is a BABE!

oh yeah, and i'm an idiot and got a twitter. shoot me.
actually, it explains why i got one on my page.

www.twitter.com/thebriannac

this is where i will be in a week! :D in high of 70 degree weather!

xoxo

i need a life

FACT: i just lurked martha stewart's twitter. (that statement sounds awkwardly disturbing), but back to the point- martha. stewart. indeed. has. a. twitter! who knew!? she kind of seems like a bitch. after lurking into three pages, i finally thought to myself "what the frick am i doing!?" and quickly x'd out. my god, the life i live. so much fun!

anyways, quick update on my life seeing how i haven't done so in quite some time. march 9th will mark one whole, entire, sad, and long, straight month of me being sick! i know i've been complaining about it a lot, but if you were in my position, i'm positive you'd be doing the same. it's the worst feeling constantly feeling absolutely miserable and having your face look as if you were just beat by chris brown (yes, i'm serious). my self-esteem is completely shot right now. i wouldn't wish this upon anyone, ever! i'm in the worst pain and i look terrible. i really hope i will be better before that one month mark hits, if not, then at least by the time i leave for sxsw. being sick for a month means that i haven't been out of the house much. obviously because i feel miserable, but like i said, my self-esteem and confidence is at an all time low. i don't want to be the annoying complainer if i do go out. however, i have taken a couple chances on getting out during the past month, one of them being last night:

last night was wonderful. bianca was back in grand rapids from new york, seeing how her and dave are following the let's get happy tour (nevershoutnever!, the honorary title, the bigger lights, and the scene aesthetic) for a week. dave manages nsn! so he and bianca got me a pass and on the list to come out to the show to hang out for the night. it was just what i needed. i've been locked in the house for so long! the show ended up being sold out (800+ people), i was so happy for every band- especially nsn!, it was his first headlining tour.

some of the +'s of the night include: seeing bianca and being able to hang out with her for the night. spending time with many of the other people i met during the night. seeing adam and being able to catch up with him for a bit. the HUGE buffet of food that the venue set up for the bands backstage, that fed me some of the best tortillas i've ever consumed along with the beer they supplied. good talks. dancing and singing with b. getting out of the house. fresh air!

a couple -'s: my feet feeling numb after wearing my boots for only a few hours (i'm pathetic). me parking only three blocks away from the venue, just so i wouldn't have to pay for parking, and almost ended up freezing to death walking because i'm an idiot living in michigan who a) wears a dress and tights when it's only SEVEN DEGREES outside and b) doesn't own a winter jacket.

in the end, i had tons of fun and i can't wait to be allllll better so i can have the chance to go out more than three times a month. i also can't wait to leave for texas in a few weeks :)!

XOXO

my heart is currently taken

BY THIS LITTLE CHARMER:

xoxo

GET IN MY LIFE

xoxo