A worthy update
I had one of the best weekends ever. It was simple, it was fun, I laughed, I cried--I pretty much lived it all up.
I drove up to Ames, Iowa on Thursday afternoon to visit and stay with Abby for a weekend. It just so happened that her schedule lightened up enough for us to hang out for a long while at the same time Vienna Teng was to perform that Sunday. We had planned this for like, two months, so it was exciting to get everything together like that. Six hours from Lincoln and four rest stops later, I arrived in Ames. That was a looooooong drive for me, but luckily I had the Beatles, Across the Universe, some musicals, and various other light, positive rock to keep me from being grumpy from driving so much. Also luckily, I didn't get numb-butt from driving.
Anyhow, Thursday, we took it easy and sat around reading, playing DS, and watching some really bad 90s anime about a high school girl who is really an undercover cop that specializes in fighting with a yo-yo. Yeah I dunno either, but it was bleh. Good to make fun of, though, which is what Abby and I are known for.Yu Yu Hakusho stuff and then sleepy time.
Friday she had classes and things so after she was done with all that, I met up with her at the local comic book store (which is fekken awesome). I bought The Essential Ms. Marvel for a good price, as well as Zombie Fluxx (to play with my Monmouth friends), while she bought some Sandman stuff and manga, I think. We went home, ate some of what my dad cooked for us, aaaand honestly I can't really remember what else we did that night. Probably more gaming, I think Portal.
Saturday consisted of 7 hours of Dead Rising. She seriously watched me play that game for forever. When we got tired of watching me play Dead Rising, we got hungry so we went out to eat at a Mandarin restaurant. Holy cow, that place was awesome. The food was so flavorful, and the waiter was pretty cool and sociable. We went back home and rigged up a ghetto means to get her Xbox connected to Live, updated it, and even managed to get Netflix to work on there (so we watched South Park for a while).
Sunday was concert day. As with Saturday, we woke up kind of late (1 or 2ish for me, 4ish for her :3). Abby watched me play some Dead Rising until I beat it (what a stupid ending with stupid bosses). We worked for a bit and then headed off to see Vienna Teng, one of my favorite musical artists of all time. The concert was awesome. A band called Ellery opened for her and played about five or six songs. The singer reminded me of Sarah McLaughlin and Natalie Merchant, but with a country slant, while the guitar and piano were kind of spacey and light. Well they were pretty good, but Vienna took the cake. She showed us that she'd been playing around with a machine that recorded a section of music and could be activated whenever you push a certain button. So there were times (like in Last Snowfall) where she recorded herself singing a part of the song, saved it, recorded another part of the song, saved it, and whenever those parts came up later, she and two other 'Vienna's would be singing simultaneously, on beat. She did this with percussion and piano, seeing as how she didn't have any of her bandmates with her. Also, I didn't think she'd have audience participation, being the pianist she is, but she had the audience sing some simple parts together, clap along with the one a capella song, and even took requests. She seriously played most of the best songs from all four of her albums, from Blue Caravan to Augustine. I'll admit that I got very emotional when she played Gravity. Hearing that song live was an amazing experience for me.
Gravity is a song that has pulled me from depression on numerous occasions. I had decided long ago that I'd probably use that song in like, my wedding or something, or at the very least played at my funeral (happy :3). But it's a song that I can't exactly forget or take lightly. People feel connections to certain music, or feel inspired by some; I felt at peace with Vienna's music. And a few years ago, if you had known me and asked me about it all, I'd have told you "I don't ever expect to see Vienna play Gravity live. I can only imagine how awesome that'd be though." And there I was, front row on the right of the stage, listening to her play that song next to the one other person who has ever shared that song with me. I could not have asked for a more perfect memory (well I could, but I'm happy with what I got).
Anyhow, later that night we had McDonald's, watched South Park, and she played Kingdom Hearts for me so I'd understand all the hype and story and why she likes it so much. The next day I left at about 10:30am since she had class (again, Abby, curse your damn student). That's when I went to Monmouth in attempt to cut the trip time in half. I liked the idea of driving four hours to Monmouth then and two hours the next day.
Monmouth was great. Whereas I could feel at great comfort inside Abby's place the whole time and never really mind simply hanging out, I actually went around campus seeing people. I even ate din din at the horrible caf. I saw a bunch of people you folks probably don't even know or care about :3 but I saw them, and it was awesome. But what's really cool was that Neil mentioned something to me on the way to the caf, that my old crush and fellow improv performer Sarah was looking for me. So guys, think about it, I wasn't invisible! She really did notice me :3 Actually it was probably she misses decent improv people like Ryan and Kelsey and myself, but I can dream.
That night we watched Zombieland and ate some B-dubs. I love chicken way too much, man. They got these two new flavors that rock. Oh and Zombieland was still damn awesome. When we got back, we played Zombie Fluxx for 2-3 hilarious hours. The quote of the night goes to Alex Roling, who stated "I've never wanted to eat a baby so badly before!" I woke up the next day, played a bit of Fable 2 and then left. I'll be back Monmouth, you wait.
Anyhow, I know no one really reads LJ so much anymore :3 but I really don't want to ever forget the things that happened this weekend... Abby, Vienna, friends, movies, music, games... Sarah... :3 You know. But yeah. I feel a lot better about stuff now..
I drove up to Ames, Iowa on Thursday afternoon to visit and stay with Abby for a weekend. It just so happened that her schedule lightened up enough for us to hang out for a long while at the same time Vienna Teng was to perform that Sunday. We had planned this for like, two months, so it was exciting to get everything together like that. Six hours from Lincoln and four rest stops later, I arrived in Ames. That was a looooooong drive for me, but luckily I had the Beatles, Across the Universe, some musicals, and various other light, positive rock to keep me from being grumpy from driving so much. Also luckily, I didn't get numb-butt from driving.
Anyhow, Thursday, we took it easy and sat around reading, playing DS, and watching some really bad 90s anime about a high school girl who is really an undercover cop that specializes in fighting with a yo-yo. Yeah I dunno either, but it was bleh. Good to make fun of, though, which is what Abby and I are known for.Yu Yu Hakusho stuff and then sleepy time.
Friday she had classes and things so after she was done with all that, I met up with her at the local comic book store (which is fekken awesome). I bought The Essential Ms. Marvel for a good price, as well as Zombie Fluxx (to play with my Monmouth friends), while she bought some Sandman stuff and manga, I think. We went home, ate some of what my dad cooked for us, aaaand honestly I can't really remember what else we did that night. Probably more gaming, I think Portal.
Saturday consisted of 7 hours of Dead Rising. She seriously watched me play that game for forever. When we got tired of watching me play Dead Rising, we got hungry so we went out to eat at a Mandarin restaurant. Holy cow, that place was awesome. The food was so flavorful, and the waiter was pretty cool and sociable. We went back home and rigged up a ghetto means to get her Xbox connected to Live, updated it, and even managed to get Netflix to work on there (so we watched South Park for a while).
Sunday was concert day. As with Saturday, we woke up kind of late (1 or 2ish for me, 4ish for her :3). Abby watched me play some Dead Rising until I beat it (what a stupid ending with stupid bosses). We worked for a bit and then headed off to see Vienna Teng, one of my favorite musical artists of all time. The concert was awesome. A band called Ellery opened for her and played about five or six songs. The singer reminded me of Sarah McLaughlin and Natalie Merchant, but with a country slant, while the guitar and piano were kind of spacey and light. Well they were pretty good, but Vienna took the cake. She showed us that she'd been playing around with a machine that recorded a section of music and could be activated whenever you push a certain button. So there were times (like in Last Snowfall) where she recorded herself singing a part of the song, saved it, recorded another part of the song, saved it, and whenever those parts came up later, she and two other 'Vienna's would be singing simultaneously, on beat. She did this with percussion and piano, seeing as how she didn't have any of her bandmates with her. Also, I didn't think she'd have audience participation, being the pianist she is, but she had the audience sing some simple parts together, clap along with the one a capella song, and even took requests. She seriously played most of the best songs from all four of her albums, from Blue Caravan to Augustine. I'll admit that I got very emotional when she played Gravity. Hearing that song live was an amazing experience for me.
Gravity is a song that has pulled me from depression on numerous occasions. I had decided long ago that I'd probably use that song in like, my wedding or something, or at the very least played at my funeral (happy :3). But it's a song that I can't exactly forget or take lightly. People feel connections to certain music, or feel inspired by some; I felt at peace with Vienna's music. And a few years ago, if you had known me and asked me about it all, I'd have told you "I don't ever expect to see Vienna play Gravity live. I can only imagine how awesome that'd be though." And there I was, front row on the right of the stage, listening to her play that song next to the one other person who has ever shared that song with me. I could not have asked for a more perfect memory (well I could, but I'm happy with what I got).
Anyhow, later that night we had McDonald's, watched South Park, and she played Kingdom Hearts for me so I'd understand all the hype and story and why she likes it so much. The next day I left at about 10:30am since she had class (again, Abby, curse your damn student). That's when I went to Monmouth in attempt to cut the trip time in half. I liked the idea of driving four hours to Monmouth then and two hours the next day.
Monmouth was great. Whereas I could feel at great comfort inside Abby's place the whole time and never really mind simply hanging out, I actually went around campus seeing people. I even ate din din at the horrible caf. I saw a bunch of people you folks probably don't even know or care about :3 but I saw them, and it was awesome. But what's really cool was that Neil mentioned something to me on the way to the caf, that my old crush and fellow improv performer Sarah was looking for me. So guys, think about it, I wasn't invisible! She really did notice me :3 Actually it was probably she misses decent improv people like Ryan and Kelsey and myself, but I can dream.
That night we watched Zombieland and ate some B-dubs. I love chicken way too much, man. They got these two new flavors that rock. Oh and Zombieland was still damn awesome. When we got back, we played Zombie Fluxx for 2-3 hilarious hours. The quote of the night goes to Alex Roling, who stated "I've never wanted to eat a baby so badly before!" I woke up the next day, played a bit of Fable 2 and then left. I'll be back Monmouth, you wait.
Anyhow, I know no one really reads LJ so much anymore :3 but I really don't want to ever forget the things that happened this weekend... Abby, Vienna, friends, movies, music, games... Sarah... :3 You know. But yeah. I feel a lot better about stuff now..