Sweet Catastrophe

Holy cow. This weekend was so much fun, I completely overlooked doing any real studying. Luckily, I think my Sociology quiz went off just fine, but my Lit Final Exam is a totally different story…

Unfortunately, while trying to do my final cramming for the essay, we got a new Lifehouse song, which sounds SO amazing. It could very well be my new favorite song. It’s hard to top Everything, but I think Broken (the new song) just might do it. So of course, I was way too distracted with that to let any real information sink in.

I think I did okay on the essay, enough b.s. to get the majority of the possible points on it. As for the multiple choice, ouch. I probably got about 2/3 of those. The questions were either I knew them, or I had absolutely no clue.

Phillip sits next to me. He’s in theatre too so he was out all weekend as well and I got the impression he had completely forgotten we were doing the final on our last class day. He and I were exchanging “holy crap” noises over some of those questions.

I won’t be taking summer semester as I had planned. I can’t get a loan for the summer and they want almost a grand for 2 classes. Sorry, but no. That’s okay though, that’s one less thing standing in the way of concert trips. I just have to do some scheduling changes though ’cause one of the classes I was taking this summer is a pre-requisite to a class I’m taking in the Fall. Bleh.

Catie and I just got tickets to go see Mika on June 16th in ATL baby! Woo!! It’s gonna be a complete blast, for real.

Forgive me. I meant to blog about so much this week, but that virus took hold and just had me out for the count. All better now so this was my week:

Last Sunday was utterly exhausting. I got to Lowe’s around 6:40am and our meeting was once again, useless. We covered the same topics we’ve covered at every other meeting. Once again there was a whole discussion at the end about how none of the things spoken about in the meeting really pertained to any of the people who bothered to show up, and once again, the same empty threats were made to those who are just begging for some sort of disciplinary action. Anyway, meeting ended a little after 8, I got some breakfast and came right back. It was after 6pm when I finally clocked out to go home. By that time, I was desperately anxious to get out of there and my feet were killing me. I’m starting to think it’s almost inhumane to have people working on concrete floors. Prolonged effects include, but aren’t limited to permanent back and leg pain, and even problems with the veins in your legs, wtf? Ouch.

Monday I only had my 9am class, so after that I showered and headed to Douglas. When I got to Granny’s, Mom was just giving Jesalyn a bottle for her nap, so I took over and we all quietly chatted and watched tv for about two hours while she slept on me =) *heart swells* We left there to take Roger to the Dr. Jesalyn was SO adorable. She was watching Dr. Morgan with an intensity, she looked so concerned. She was worried the Dr. was hurting her papa Roger. Ya see, she was in the hospital for almost a week with the Rota Virus (common for babies, but can be really intense), so right now she’s not really loving doctors. We left there, headed for Mom’s, but as we passed my grandmother’s we saw my aunt’s car so we knew we had to go back or be shunned. So we just ended up playing with Jesalyn there all day, which was fine =) We didn’t leave until 10, so I got a good solid day with my niece.

When we left, I wasn’t quite ready to hit the road yet, so I went home with Momma and ate with her and Roger. We started looking at some stuff online, and somehow ended up on ICanHasCheezburger and my mom and I looked at over 30 pages of lolcats… at first I thought I was boring her, so I decided to stop, but then when I got to the bottom of the page she’d say, “Do another one,” or, “One more…” we finally stopped ’cause she had been laughing so much her sides were hurting. It was great.

Tuesday I woke Ryan up at 6 to leave for Jacksonville. Apparently, he fell back asleep sitting upright on the couch, in the middle of tying his shoe. He only woke up when Jonathan came downstairs at 9, so he ended up not going to Jacksonville. So I woke up around lunch to Ryan peeking his head in =) So we went out and had lunch and started to dress shop for banquet. I took him home after the first store ’cause I don’t like to drag him clothes shopping and he got what he needed from the first store. After that, I stopped two more places that didn’t have anymore dresses before I gave in and went to the mall. See, the theatre banquet is formal, so I try to wait until the Proms here are over so I don’t have to pay Prom dress prices for a formal gown. One of the first gowns I tried on was the one. Dress shopping always goes that way, it’s either really fast, or long and tortuous. Well, the one I had was a size too small. No big, there were more out there. Of course though, the one in my size had a rip. It was a rip in the seam, fixable, but a rip no less. So I decided to check around more first, as this was only the first store I had really shopped in, and the stores in the mall usually have an overlap in some of their formal gowns. No go! Let me tell ya, there’s nothing like dress shopping to remind you of when you took that final fall from being a comfortable weight, to visibly chunky. Thanks mono. Thanks meds. Thanks metabolism. Grr. The only dresses I found that I would even consider liking were in Belk’s and they were still full price. I’m sorry, I’m not paying $200 for a dress that I don’t even feel pretty in. Screw that. So I went back to the first store, tired and anxious. I tried on the dress to make sure it really fit, and the rip actually wasn’t even noticeable, and damn I felt cute. Winner! So I took my half-price dress to the counter, finagled another 10% off for the rip and off I went!

The rest of my week went to the virus pretty much up until I had to work Friday night. Luckily it was a very smooth night, and I didn’t feel as bad as I expected to, mostly just tired because I had less than a full meal in my stomach from Wednesday on.

I’ll write about Saturday, the banquet, and the after-fun shortly. Right now, I desperately need hangover food.

Yeah, so that virus I’ve been freaking out about getting? I’ve got it. It hit yesterday a little before lunch. For a long time I was just feeling nauseated, hoping maybe breakfast just wasn’t settling right, but by the time I made it back from my later classes, after running around in the heat, I was done. I spent more time in the bathroom yesterday than I have collectively in probably 3 months. I only puked twice, and that was after Ryan made it home so I got a little sympathy. I haven’t eaten anything since 10:30 yesterday morning, and have barely drank anything 1) because I don’t really want to, and 2) I’m terrified of feeding the virus. Been there, done that…so of course everything aches like a mofo ’cause my muscles are slowly becoming dehydrated. I talked to my mom when she got out of work late last night and she helped me figure out what to take because the Pepto is what finally pushed me to puke and I remembered last time I got really sick (and had to go to the fucking emergency room) it was Pepto that had me vomiting. Really sucks. Apparently everyone I know gets sick off from Pepto, but up until this last time, I LOVED it. So anyway, Ryan went out and got me some Dramamine. I was feeling much better for a while. Not so much sick, but just achey and not good, but I just woke up a little while ago and discovered my temperature had spiked and all the stomach cramps were back. So here I am, waiting for the Dramamine to knock me back out ’cause otherwise I feel more pukey when I’m lying down.

So please send your good vibes to my tummy, ’cause as I’ve stated before, I cannot handle nausea. I’m a big baby. I’ve been crying, no joke.

I’m in love with it….

Wow, I seriously have SO much respect for Roger Ebert right now. Read this with his thoughts on just how much he cares about how the media will portray him during his illness.

As I’m listening to the new single (that we weren’t told was coming…thanks guys) I think it’s finally time to unleash my Lifehouse love on the blogosphere!

Lifehouse. Lifehouse is my favorite band. I’ll never forget when I discovered them. Just a few months before they hit the radio, my boyfriend at the time found the song “Storm” by a band called Blyss. I was hooked.

Fast forward a few months to Hanging by a Moment’s release. My friend Jeffrey and I fell in love with it immediately. We’d listen to the radio on the phone together constantly and bug 95.7 to death with requests for it. I got the cd the first chance I got the week it came out and I remember taking my walkman with me just so I could listen to it all immediately. I knew Jason Wade’s voice sounded really familiar, but they were a brand new band so I wasn’t really looking for a connection. It wasn’t until I ended up with Storm and Hanging by a Moment back to back on a mix cd I made that I realized it was the same person, and with a little internet digging, I finally found out that I was right!

Concerts were pretty much out of the question when I was still living with my dad. But the summer before my senior year of high school, I spent some time in LaGrange with one of my best friends at the time. One night she called me to talk about our plans and she asked how excited I’d be if I could go see Lifehouse in concert, knowing that I’d probably piss my pants since they had been my favorite band since day 1. Turned out, they were playing Aquafina On The Bricks in Atlanta during my stay with her….for THREE BUCKS! So on July 11, 2003 I made it to my first Lifehouse concert.

I’ve since been to 7 other shows, met the band, even had contact in a way that some fans can only dream of. I’ve definitely not had the ultimate experience that some of my fellow Lifehos have had, but my experiences haven’t been anything to scoff at.

Did you catch the nickname there? Mmhmmm, I’m also the original Lifeho. No, it has nothing to do with groupies or whatever. It’s a funny play on words that occurred during one of my exciting Lifehouse experiences and it was adapted into a term of endearment for us super fans. We’re not obsessed. We’re dedicated.

I think my iTunes library currently holds just under 250 Lifehouse tracks. I have every song we have a recording of, including their songs as Blyss, and the FKA songs. I own a genuine copy of Diff’s Lucky Day–their Blyss album, and there were only 1,000 copies produced. I own three copies of the T.E.A. ep, Bryce’s other band (Lifehouse bassist) I own a copy of the exclusive Stanley Climbfall DVD, and I went to 15 stores the day the Everything DVD was released to find it. I even got up at 9am on a flippin Saturday to go to Best Buy for the release of Lifehouse’s cover of “Silent Night” on the Reward Zone Sweet Tracks cd release that month. I’ve got guitar pics, setlists, pictures and signed stuff galore. I’m a ‘Lifer’ on THE fan forum. The official site’s mb is ridiculous. We Lifehouse fans are like the CIA. If it’s out there, we’ll find it. In fact, last summer the guys were copy/pasting the tour lists Kristi compiled to the official website.

And now here I am. The new single was released on the radio in California today and instead of doing my homework or even writing this blog post all at once, I can’t concentrate because I’m listening to the song on repeat, talking to some of my Lifehos about it, and discussing it on the forum. Ahhhh!

New album is supposed to hit in June. They’re touring with Goo Goo Dolls right now. Go see them!

EDIT 4/25: They announced today that the working date for the album release is June 26th! Two months!!!! Can I just have some tour dates now?

Last count I heard was 42,000 acres burned in Waycross, Ga. I can’t imagine what the smoke is like over there, ’cause it’s plenty thick here in Valdosta. It’s gettin rough. Due to allergies (I’m assuming, and hoping) I woke up with a sore throat and an achey chest. So of course I eventually ended up outside at the Garden Center registers. It was all going fine until the wind started dying down and the smoke really started settling in. So finally I called up front and asked to be switched out because the smoke was really starting to get to me. I’ve been out there in unbearable weather only to reply, “No, I’m fine” when they’d call and ask if I needed to switch out, so I assumed the fact that I was pleading to go in would hold a little weight and they’d realize I really needed to come in. Nah. I was finally relieved about 30 minutes before I was to leave anyway…almost two hours after I started requesting to come in and was told it’d be a minute every time…that really got me going. My throat is on fire now and my chest feels like I have a bowling ball on it.

I’ve got to be at work from 7am-6 pm tomorrow and I’m just not feelin’ it. It’s been an exhausting day and I had already decided to take a sleeping pill after eating and showering, but now I don’t even know if I have the energy to eat and shower. I just wanna sleep. *Yawn* Mmmm, smoke-filled lungs.

Ohhh, I almost forgot–Dad called today and said he expects I’ll have the car within the next month. I’m dying to get this car, for real.

Zach Braff asked me to promote his new movie, ’cause ya know, we’re tight like that. So go see his movie May 11th. K? Thanks. I need him to keep loving me.

Has anyone not yet heard the voice mail Alec Baldwin left for his 11 year old daughter? Hear it here.

And for if it weren’t authentic, I don’t believe his publicist would be speaking on the matter:

Hours after a verbally abusive voicemail message he left to his 11-year-old daughter was made public, Alec Baldwin’s publicist released the following statement to the TV show Extra: “In the best interest of the child, Alec will do what the mother is pathologically incapable of doing … keeping his mouth shut and obeying the court order. The mother and her lawyer leaked this sealed material in violation of a court order. Although Alec acknowledges that he should have used different language in parenting his child, everyone who knows him privately knows what he has been put through for the past six years.”

I hit imdb.com to jog someone’s memory on Alec and found people on the imdb message board defending him, “So yes, I acknowledge the fact that Alec Baldwin lost his temper, but then on the other hand, he may have had a very good reason to do so.” Really now? Come on! They keep talking about how maybe she’s really spoiled and deserved it and how 11 year olds are more mature these days, etc. PLEASE! SHE’S ELEVEN! Maybe they’re more mature these days, but they’re still in a very emotionally developmental stage, and very impressionable. She’s still at an age where something like this could very well scar her for life. Hell, some of the things said would probably still have a big impact on me today coming from a stranger, much less my own father!

Good god; maybe she had the phone off ’cause she knew what kind of abusive conversation was to come!