Maybe someday I'll actually stop talking about Lost. I came across this video today, and I had to share. If you didn't watch the show, though, it probably won't make much sense!
August 30, 2010
August 29, 2010
My sister and I just got home from seeing Lifehouse at the Nebraska State Fair. It was awesome! Lifehouse has been my favorite band ever since my brother gave me a copy of No Name Face in 2001, so I was absolutely ecstatic when I learned they'd be playing at the fair. To top it off, the concert was free with a paid gate admission. We got early bird tickets, so it only cost us $6 each to go!
The concert was a blast. I was a little worried Lifehouse would be one of those bands that sounds totally different (read: terrible) live. Not the case! They were excellent. We arrived an hour before the show ... well, actually, let me back up. The concert was free with open seating, but you had to have a wristband that you picked up at the box office in order to get in. There were four types of wrist bands--blue, yellow, red, and green. You could enter the concert at the time allotted to your wristband--anywhere from 2 hours to 30 minutes before the concert. Because I had no idea how quickly the wristbands would go, I wanted to get to the fair early. We left Val's apartment just after 3; we got to the box office at 3:45 (thanks to the ridiculous parking and clueless parking attendants) and got red wristbands, which meant we could enter one hour prior to the show. That left us with over three hours to kill, and after wandering the fair for a while, we decided to leave and come back in time for the concert.
We got pizza, ice cream, and coffee at Hy-Vee and chilled at Val's for a while. When we got back to the fair, we were able to go right into the auditorium. I got a kick out of the people sitting around us ... the guy behind us who obviously wasn't a Lifehouse fan (when an All-American Rejects song came on before the show, he asked, "Is this Lifehouse?"); the teen girl who liked lead singer Jason Wade a little too much ("Seriously, you have no idea how awesome he is!"); the middle-aged woman who was totally into every song, and her husband who was just ... there; the guys next to me who took pictures through the entire show (I know I ended up in some of them ... including one time when I was belting out a song. Bet that one's attractive!) In the "random" category, I saw one of the pastors from my church walk in with his wife--and it wasn't one of the youth pastors! I told Val that his knowledge of Lifehouse probably started and ended with viewing a YouTube video where a youth group performed a skit set to "Everything." (Like this one, for example.)
The concert lasted about 90 minutes--no opening act, which I was totally fine with--and they played all their hits--"Hanging by a Moment" (which is, quite amusingly, called "Hanging by a Thread" on their Twitter page), "You and Me," "First Time"--and the two currently on the charts: "All In" and "Halfway Gone." Val was especially happy to hear her favorites, "Broken" and "Wrecking Ball." Unfortunately, while they were tracking with Val, they didn't play any of my favorites. But considering I own practically everything they've released, it wasn't like I didn't enjoy and sing along with the songs they did play! Skipping "Had Enough" was understandable, since it's a duet with Chris Daughtry. I'm still hoping they release that as a single--in light of Daughtry's popularity, I think it could be a hit (plus, it's a really good song!). Two of my other favorites, "Breathing" and "Everything" are old, and "Storm" isn't exactly a rocking anthem, so I can understand why they weren't played ... but I hope if I ever get the chance to see them again, they at least do "Everything." For me, that would make the concert complete. And I'd happily pay more than $6 to see them next time!
The concert was a blast. I was a little worried Lifehouse would be one of those bands that sounds totally different (read: terrible) live. Not the case! They were excellent. We arrived an hour before the show ... well, actually, let me back up. The concert was free with open seating, but you had to have a wristband that you picked up at the box office in order to get in. There were four types of wrist bands--blue, yellow, red, and green. You could enter the concert at the time allotted to your wristband--anywhere from 2 hours to 30 minutes before the concert. Because I had no idea how quickly the wristbands would go, I wanted to get to the fair early. We left Val's apartment just after 3; we got to the box office at 3:45 (thanks to the ridiculous parking and clueless parking attendants) and got red wristbands, which meant we could enter one hour prior to the show. That left us with over three hours to kill, and after wandering the fair for a while, we decided to leave and come back in time for the concert.
We got pizza, ice cream, and coffee at Hy-Vee and chilled at Val's for a while. When we got back to the fair, we were able to go right into the auditorium. I got a kick out of the people sitting around us ... the guy behind us who obviously wasn't a Lifehouse fan (when an All-American Rejects song came on before the show, he asked, "Is this Lifehouse?"); the teen girl who liked lead singer Jason Wade a little too much ("Seriously, you have no idea how awesome he is!"); the middle-aged woman who was totally into every song, and her husband who was just ... there; the guys next to me who took pictures through the entire show (I know I ended up in some of them ... including one time when I was belting out a song. Bet that one's attractive!) In the "random" category, I saw one of the pastors from my church walk in with his wife--and it wasn't one of the youth pastors! I told Val that his knowledge of Lifehouse probably started and ended with viewing a YouTube video where a youth group performed a skit set to "Everything." (Like this one, for example.)
The concert lasted about 90 minutes--no opening act, which I was totally fine with--and they played all their hits--"Hanging by a Moment" (which is, quite amusingly, called "Hanging by a Thread" on their Twitter page), "You and Me," "First Time"--and the two currently on the charts: "All In" and "Halfway Gone." Val was especially happy to hear her favorites, "Broken" and "Wrecking Ball." Unfortunately, while they were tracking with Val, they didn't play any of my favorites. But considering I own practically everything they've released, it wasn't like I didn't enjoy and sing along with the songs they did play! Skipping "Had Enough" was understandable, since it's a duet with Chris Daughtry. I'm still hoping they release that as a single--in light of Daughtry's popularity, I think it could be a hit (plus, it's a really good song!). Two of my other favorites, "Breathing" and "Everything" are old, and "Storm" isn't exactly a rocking anthem, so I can understand why they weren't played ... but I hope if I ever get the chance to see them again, they at least do "Everything." For me, that would make the concert complete. And I'd happily pay more than $6 to see them next time!
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| Our "ridiculously excited to be at a Lifehouse concert" faces. |
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| The band--I think they're playing "All In." |
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| Our "is Lifehouse really playing 40 yards away from us?" faces. |
August 17, 2010
I'll start blogging again. I promise. I never finished blogging about our big pricelining trip, I have a book review to write, and I need to tell you all about my birthday weekend. But all that will have to come later, as I'm in the middle of moving! I'll tell you all about the house once I'm moved in, of course. And school started today, so I'll have things to say about that. For now, though, know that I'm still out there, and I'll be back to the blog soon!
August 6, 2010
So the Newsboys released their new album last month. I liked them back in the day, but I was never a super fan. Take Me To Your Leader came out my freshman year of high school, and while I enjoyed the album (especially "Breakfast" and the title track), I can't even remember what most of the songs sound like. I did buy--and liked--Adoration, but I never listened to it that much. Then, when Amazon was having one of their $5 mp3 album sales, I got In the Hands of God; it's been on my iPod since then ... and I think I've skipped it every time it's come up! (Side note: This month, over 1,000 albums are $5. Insane!)
Contrast that with my beloved dc Talk. I could sing every line of every song on Free At Last--in fact, I still listen to it on a semi-regular basis. The only two dc Talk albums I don't own are their first two. If they were still releasing new material, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
I was, needless to say, intrigued when I learned Michael Tait would be joining the Newsboys. I didn't really think about how Tait would affect the Newsboys' sound ... I just hoped that TobyMac and the Newsboys might go on tour together and pull out a little old school dc Talk! (Which sort of happened--see it here on YouTube.) My friend Kensy got the album soon after it came out, and she loved it. I still wasn't sure, though--I just haven't been excited about the Newsboys lately. Then I heard "Born Again" on the radio ... and it sounded so dc Talk-ish that I couldn't resist! I downloaded the whole album; now I can't stop listening to it! A lot of Amazon reviewers have been complaining that the album doesn't sound like the Newsboys. That's true--and I like it for precisely that reason!
Contrast that with my beloved dc Talk. I could sing every line of every song on Free At Last--in fact, I still listen to it on a semi-regular basis. The only two dc Talk albums I don't own are their first two. If they were still releasing new material, I'd buy it in a heartbeat.
I was, needless to say, intrigued when I learned Michael Tait would be joining the Newsboys. I didn't really think about how Tait would affect the Newsboys' sound ... I just hoped that TobyMac and the Newsboys might go on tour together and pull out a little old school dc Talk! (Which sort of happened--see it here on YouTube.) My friend Kensy got the album soon after it came out, and she loved it. I still wasn't sure, though--I just haven't been excited about the Newsboys lately. Then I heard "Born Again" on the radio ... and it sounded so dc Talk-ish that I couldn't resist! I downloaded the whole album; now I can't stop listening to it! A lot of Amazon reviewers have been complaining that the album doesn't sound like the Newsboys. That's true--and I like it for precisely that reason!
August 1, 2010
We were without internet access at our last hotel, so I wrote this on Friday but didn't have the opportunity to post until tonight.
For what we did on day three, see Blendy’s blog!
This morning, we got up at 9 and readied ourselves to leave. I booked our hotel—$48 for a room at the Extended Stay America in Copley, Ohio. This was our worst deal yet, as regular price is $70. Also, this is our worst hotel yet, but I’ll get to that later.
After filling the car and driving through Krsipy Kreme, we headed off for Butler, Pennsylvania, the location of the nearest Ross store. Val and I visited Ross in Oregon last summer, and I was looking forward to more great clothing deals. Unfortunately … we never found the store! Google Maps let us down :-(. So we continued on our way to Copley (which is near Akron).
As we pulled up to the hotel, I thought, “Uh, oh.” It just looked, well, not very nice. My hesitation continued as we stepped into the lobby and were greeted by the scent of cigarette smoke. We checked in, headed to the car, and lugged our stuff up to the second floor. We entered our room—and realized it hadn’t been cleaned yet! I called the front desk, and the girl asked us to return for a new room. So we lugged all our stuff downstairs and then back up again. In retrospect, I should have checked out the room before bringing everything in. To top it all off, internet access costs $5—so we decided to pass on that for the night. The room itself isn’t so bad—we have lots more space than we had at the Microtel in Erie—but I’m just pretty unimpressed with the whole experience so far.
Tonight, we got together with my college friend, Holly. Our hotel just happened to be literally two minutes from her apartment! We went our for supper at Swensons, a drive-in restaurant. This was—by far—the highlight of my day! You know how at Sonic the car-hops sometimes wear skates? Well, at Swensons, the car-hops RUN. As in, when they see your lights on (which is how you signal you need help), they run towards your car, full steam ahead. It was absolutely hilarious watching them!
Now we’re back at the hotel. I’m trying to steal the wi-fi signal from the Raddison across the street so we can watch some Veronica Mars, but it’s not working very well. We’ll need to leave for the wedding around 10:30—I’m looking forward to sleeping in!
For what we did on day three, see Blendy’s blog!
This morning, we got up at 9 and readied ourselves to leave. I booked our hotel—$48 for a room at the Extended Stay America in Copley, Ohio. This was our worst deal yet, as regular price is $70. Also, this is our worst hotel yet, but I’ll get to that later.
After filling the car and driving through Krsipy Kreme, we headed off for Butler, Pennsylvania, the location of the nearest Ross store. Val and I visited Ross in Oregon last summer, and I was looking forward to more great clothing deals. Unfortunately … we never found the store! Google Maps let us down :-(. So we continued on our way to Copley (which is near Akron).
As we pulled up to the hotel, I thought, “Uh, oh.” It just looked, well, not very nice. My hesitation continued as we stepped into the lobby and were greeted by the scent of cigarette smoke. We checked in, headed to the car, and lugged our stuff up to the second floor. We entered our room—and realized it hadn’t been cleaned yet! I called the front desk, and the girl asked us to return for a new room. So we lugged all our stuff downstairs and then back up again. In retrospect, I should have checked out the room before bringing everything in. To top it all off, internet access costs $5—so we decided to pass on that for the night. The room itself isn’t so bad—we have lots more space than we had at the Microtel in Erie—but I’m just pretty unimpressed with the whole experience so far.
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| We had a double bed ... but I enjoyed sitting in the recliner. |
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| The room had a kitchenette ... it would have been perfect for a longer stay. |
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| Holly drove us by LeBron James' house. |
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| Holly and me. We hadn't seen each other in six years! |
July 28, 2010
"Life doesn't always turn out the way you plan." While You Were Sleeping
Today certainly didn't turn out the way I planned. First of all, I didn't get up on time ... a fact that Blendy so kindly recorded on her blog. Then I had a few issues reserving our hotel room. Namely, I didn't want to pay what it was going to cost to stay in Canada ... so we changed our plans and booked a room in Erie, Pennsylvania. (A little different than Canada; I know!) Turns out that while we both wanted to see Niagara Falls and say we'd been through Canada, we were okay with staying in the good old USA. We have our room for two nights, and tomorrow we'll just explore the area. We'll definitely go to New York, as I've never been there before, and it's not so far from Erie. Don't know what we'll do there, but I've never been in New York before, so we can't be this close and not go!
Our trip was quite uneventful--which is good! Five hours and one crazy-expensive Ohio toll road later we arrived in Erie. Tonight's price: $50. Regular price: $89. So this deal isn't quite as good as last night's. Also, our room reminds us of a hospital. It's the Pepto-Bismol pink decor.
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| Unfortunately, we only have one bed. |
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| My favorite part of the room--a window seat! |
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| Steph enjoys the Papa John's pizza--we can't get it at home. |
July 27, 2010
Blendy and I are Pricelining our way out East. What that means is we're reserving all our hotels using Priceline.com's "Name Your Own Price" feature. Today's deal: $35 for a room at the Baymont Inn & Suites in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Regular price: $84.15.
Our trip began at 8 a.m. with a stop at our local coffee shop. It was all smooth sailing until we were about 40 miles from Kalamazoo. Then I glanced down and saw the low tire light was on ... dun, Dun, DUN! (I was going to link to last year's Oregon Trail blogs, as we had tire troubles then, too ... but after rereading all of them, I see that I didn't mention our leaky tire at all! Oh, well ... here's the link, anyway.) We pulled off at a closed rest area and checked the tires. They all seemed fine and had the appropriate amount of pressure, so we continued on our way. I'm very thankful that didn't happen as we were flying through the Chicago area!
After arriving at our hotel, we relaxed, watched a couple episodes of Veronica Mars, and headed to bed--we each had our own queen bed!
Our plan is to head to Canada tomorrow, visit Niagara Falls on Thursday, and end up in Akron, Ohio, on Friday. Then Saturday we'll go to college roommate Jodi's wedding and end up at college roommate Jen's apartment on Saturday night.
Blendy has also been blogging about this trip ... so you should check it out!
Our trip began at 8 a.m. with a stop at our local coffee shop. It was all smooth sailing until we were about 40 miles from Kalamazoo. Then I glanced down and saw the low tire light was on ... dun, Dun, DUN! (I was going to link to last year's Oregon Trail blogs, as we had tire troubles then, too ... but after rereading all of them, I see that I didn't mention our leaky tire at all! Oh, well ... here's the link, anyway.) We pulled off at a closed rest area and checked the tires. They all seemed fine and had the appropriate amount of pressure, so we continued on our way. I'm very thankful that didn't happen as we were flying through the Chicago area!
After arriving at our hotel, we relaxed, watched a couple episodes of Veronica Mars, and headed to bed--we each had our own queen bed!
Our plan is to head to Canada tomorrow, visit Niagara Falls on Thursday, and end up in Akron, Ohio, on Friday. Then Saturday we'll go to college roommate Jodi's wedding and end up at college roommate Jen's apartment on Saturday night.
Blendy has also been blogging about this trip ... so you should check it out!
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