Yay, 2008!
I guess this will be a good test to see if I remember everything I did this year. I'm probably going to cheat and check the YouTube videos I posted each month. I used to journal like crazy so it would be easy to go back and see what I did that way, but for some reason I stopped this year. That can be one of my New Year's resolutions... to start writing again. I have a feeling this note will be a work in progress and I'll see how much I actually remember over the next few minutes/hours/days.
January: The year started out pretty amazingly. I had a laid-back new year's eve with Nina and Mike and we just hung out. I was happy to be home. I posted the first video on our new YouTube collab channel, fiveawesomegirls, and it was the start of something really, well, awesome. I went to the first of many Sidewalk Cafe shows in NYC, which quickly became my favorite venue. Then I moved back to Etown where I started living with Suzanne, who is amazing. I hosted a Whomp the House party at my college and like three people showed up (and left halfway through it). And then I proceeded to become depressed and continued to hate school even though the roommate disaster of Fall 2007 was over. But I started guitar lessons with the Cullen, and that was fun.
February: I was challenged to rap in one of my fiveawesomegirls videos and John Green declared me the winner of the rap battle between Kristina and Hayley. I also tried to cheer myself up when I got upset by spending like $700 on a hard drive camcorder, tripod, and a DVD burner. It probably ended up being a really good idea though because I use it all the freaking time. Viv had a really fun wizard rock birthday party, which I performed at, and I got to spend a really fun weekend in State College, PA with some really awesome people. I'm pretty sure that weekend restored my faith in my friends when I'd been feeling pretty lonely through the second half of January. I also ate a ton of chocolate on camera for Valentine's Day, which I spent by myself, and got a stomach ache.
March: Spring break and this month started out with a trip to Ithaca to visit Lena and start planning the tour we decided to take as soon as we got out of school for the summer! I also chopped off almost all of my hair and it was freaking adorable. I'd been wanting to try short hair for a while and being depressed for a few months made me want to go crazy and change my appearance, so I held my breath and went for it. Nina and I also got to take an all expenses paid trip to Kansas for one of the most amazing weekends of my life so far. We played a wizard rock show at K-State with some of our best friends and it was definitely exactly what I needed. I've never been so upset for daylight savings time though... we literally watched an hour that we could've spent together disappear at 2am. And my a cappella group got suspended for the semester.
April: Bill Nye the Science Guy spoke at my college for Scholarship Day, which was pretty freaking cool. I spent most of this month recording my first solo CD, which was a really good experience. It ended up being a collection of the first songs I wrote on my own, so it wasn't exactly as great as I would've hoped, but I was proud of myself for getting it done. A lot of people were asking for me to release the songs, so I felt a little better about putting out music I wasn't 100% happy with because I was still figuring out how to write.
May: I had finals and they weren't too terrible... and I released my first solo CD, Devil's Snare! Once I got out of school for the summer, I spent like a week freaking out with final show booking and packing for the tour. A bunch of places were cancelling last-minute and that wasn't cool. Luckily it all ended up working out! Kristina flew in from Seattle, we picked up Lena in NY, and we left for the Accio Bodyguard Tour. We ended up hanging out with John Green when we passed through Indianapolis and eventually met up with Nina and the Ministry of Magic guys in Illinois, then we drove to Wrockstock together. I had a freaking amazing time at Wrockstock... I don't know how I managed to miss the first one. Everyone got closer and we spent a few days partying in cabins and taking boat rides and flying on a zipline in the woods and it was just so freaking fantastic. Leaving everybody (especially Kristina) was sad but Lena and I got to keep touring from there, and that was a blast.
June: We started out the month with my birthday in Orlando with Fred, Erin, Mandala, and the rest of the Florida kids. I celebrated turning 20 by hanging out with some beluga whales and penguins, which was freaking awesome. I felt like such a celebrity. The rest of the tour was really fun... Lena and I got to drive all over the eastern US eating at various Denny's and Ruby Tuesdays while playing some awesome shows and making new friends. Once I got home from tour, Nina and I spent the rest of the month recording our new CD, which we needed to be done with by July.
July Our second full length CD, What About Myrtle? was released at Portus 2008! We played at the wizard rock concert on the first night of the conference, opening for the Mudbloods. This conference was relatively small but it was in an absolutely beautiful hotel in Dallas and we spent a few days with some of our best friends... and we made some new ones! Our room ended up being packed full of incredible people and even though everyone ended up sleeping on the floor or squished into a bed together or in a bathtub, it was a blast. I finally got to meet Jerry and almost shared an elevator with Jim Dale, the guy who does the Harry Potter audiobooks. I spent a lot of time hanging out in the smokers' oasis with a ton of people and having intense religious discussions. The second to last night, I woke up at like 5am with Alex in my room. Once Nina kicked him out, Justin called me to say that they got in early and I should get up to party with them. I went back to sleep until Matt was knocking on the door and after jumping out of bed to give him a flying tackle hug, I finally got back in bed and when I woke up the next morning, I couldn't remember for the life of me if any of those random fantastic encounters were a dream or not, haha. It was crazy. I also went on a vacation with my family to St. John and stayed in a gorgeous villa at the very top of the island that was nearly impossible to reach with the car we rented. And they had wireless internet, which kept me from getting vacation depression because I could still keep in touch with everyone.
August: Terminus in Chicago was probably one of the craziest weeks of my life. I just did so many crazy things and completely let go and just had an absolute blast. We packed the room at our Wrock Chicago performance and partied like rockstars. I was on two panels... the first was just about wizard rock in general with Matt, Alex, and Abby. It just constantly reminded me of how much I'm in love with this fandom and this community and it felt really great to be up there answering questions with the two guys who got me to where I am now. On 8/8/08, we hung out in the library with a ton of Nerdfighters, then moved to the park for an acoustic wizard rock show, then took over the Bean for the filming of The Beckoning of Lovely, then went to Reggie's for a concert and dance party with John and Hank Green. After the ball, which was freaking amazing, I got a cab with Nina, Kristina, Lena, Frak, and Adam at like 2am and all of the girls got tattoos. Mine hurt like a bitch but I freaking love it. That was just one of those weeks where I told myself I wouldn't hold back from anything and just let myself have as much fun as possible. By the time I went home, I felt like such a badass. For the last weeks of summer, I hung out with Nina and helped her record her solo CD. It was awesome. And I went back to Etown at the end of the month!
September: Junior year of college started... I moved into a suite with some pretty amazing people and I was just completely ecstatic to have a better living situation than I did before I started rooming with Suzanne. She's amazing. I found out pretty early that the mainstage this fall was Urinetown, which excited me because I couldn't wait to try out for another musical and I absolutely love this show. I wasn't expecting to get in because I didn't have much luck with any of the other theatre productions I've tried out for, but I got Soupy Sue and that pretty much made my life. I played at the NYC Wizard Rock Festival with Alex Carpenter, who played guitar with me. It was really fun and I missed everyone so it was freaking awesome getting to hang out with a bunch of my favorite people, even if I was too exhausted to make it back to PA for classes the next day. Oops.
October: I know rehearsals took over my life (in a good way), but I'm having trouble remembering what else I did this month, heh. I was sick for a few weeks because I was so busy and I had issues with finding time to eat and sleep. Nina and I spent a day working on our Jingle Spells 2 track which is probably my new favorite Myrtles song. I played a solo show at the Sidewalk Cafe with The Whomping Willows, Justin Finch-Fletchley that was really freaking amazing. Unfortunately, I couldn't go back to college that weekend being super happy because my car refused to take me back to college and, after a lot of freaking out and sobbing in my driveway, I was able to borrow my incredible sister's car and get back to school in time to miss Vocalign rehearsal but just barely make it to Urinetown rehearsal. Yay for stress that was probably worth it in the end because that show changed my life. I didn't do anything for Halloween because it was too close to tech week and I couldn't leave school, but I dressed up as a Captain Hammer groupie and sat all by myself in my room. Oh well.
November: The month started out with tech week for Urinetown, which was single-handedly responsible for changing my opinion of college life and making me really freaking happy because I finally realized what I wanted to be doing. Unfortunately, I also realized that I didn't really have the time to do something like it again because my grades weren't doing so well and I'd been sick for at least a month. Regardless, I loved the hell out of every minute of it and made some amazing friends. Both weekends of shows went really well and I was just constantly reminded of how this decision and all of the work involved were so worth it. A bunch of my friends and family came to see the performances and I was so happy to finally be doing something here that made people I love want to come here for once. I was usually the one leaving campus as much as possible to do better things elsewhere and Urinetown completely changed that. Between the two show weekends, I went to a freaking awesome Nerdfighter gathering and played some music. John and Hank make my life and it was so great getting to see them again! Also, I met Katherine and she's just the coolest person ever. There were so many people who recognized me and I had a blast signing stuff and taking pictures and talking nerdy with everyone while I waited from the back of the line. At the end of the month, I went with Nina and Steph to see the Twilight movie (which I still love watching just so I can laugh at how awkward it is) and then we took a road trip to Cape May for a Myrtles show! It was really fun because we got a girly weekend away from school and the library got us this freaking huge hotel room that was basically a condo.
December: The Bryn Mawr Yule Ball was one of the most incredible events I've ever been a part of. I got to spend a weekend with some of my favorite people in the whole world and, despite the snow keeping a bunch of my friends at home, the audience was fantastic. This was another weekend that pretty much changed my life. Finals were stressful because I hadn't really made the time to do well in my classes, but I was really glad to finish them. One of the days at Etown before I went home, I had a shopping spree at Guitar Center because I did a promo for them on YouTube and it was basically like an early Christmas. I bought an acoustic bass that is basically sex solidified in an instrument and this crazy amp with all these fun effects for my electric guitar and a bunch of Christmas presents for people. It was definitely one of the coolest things that I've ever been allowed to do because of all my crazy internet hobbies. I went home after finals and completely redecorated my room at home, which was definitely necessary because it was a disaster. Matt and I officially got together and I went to the Boston Yule Ball with him, which was amazing. The holidays were great and Matt came over to visit me and play Zelda for Wii for a few days. I ended the month in Ohio with the rest of the fiveawesomegirls, where I ate obscene amounts of food and cookie dough and made really corny, scripted videos with some of my best friends.
Writing all of that took longer than necessary because you probably know all of this if you've kept up with fiveawesomegirls, but that's okay. 2008 was pretty intense and 2009 is already a fantastic year so I can't wait to see what else it has in store for me. Love you all!
January: The year started out pretty amazingly. I had a laid-back new year's eve with Nina and Mike and we just hung out. I was happy to be home. I posted the first video on our new YouTube collab channel, fiveawesomegirls, and it was the start of something really, well, awesome. I went to the first of many Sidewalk Cafe shows in NYC, which quickly became my favorite venue. Then I moved back to Etown where I started living with Suzanne, who is amazing. I hosted a Whomp the House party at my college and like three people showed up (and left halfway through it). And then I proceeded to become depressed and continued to hate school even though the roommate disaster of Fall 2007 was over. But I started guitar lessons with the Cullen, and that was fun.
February: I was challenged to rap in one of my fiveawesomegirls videos and John Green declared me the winner of the rap battle between Kristina and Hayley. I also tried to cheer myself up when I got upset by spending like $700 on a hard drive camcorder, tripod, and a DVD burner. It probably ended up being a really good idea though because I use it all the freaking time. Viv had a really fun wizard rock birthday party, which I performed at, and I got to spend a really fun weekend in State College, PA with some really awesome people. I'm pretty sure that weekend restored my faith in my friends when I'd been feeling pretty lonely through the second half of January. I also ate a ton of chocolate on camera for Valentine's Day, which I spent by myself, and got a stomach ache.
March: Spring break and this month started out with a trip to Ithaca to visit Lena and start planning the tour we decided to take as soon as we got out of school for the summer! I also chopped off almost all of my hair and it was freaking adorable. I'd been wanting to try short hair for a while and being depressed for a few months made me want to go crazy and change my appearance, so I held my breath and went for it. Nina and I also got to take an all expenses paid trip to Kansas for one of the most amazing weekends of my life so far. We played a wizard rock show at K-State with some of our best friends and it was definitely exactly what I needed. I've never been so upset for daylight savings time though... we literally watched an hour that we could've spent together disappear at 2am. And my a cappella group got suspended for the semester.
April: Bill Nye the Science Guy spoke at my college for Scholarship Day, which was pretty freaking cool. I spent most of this month recording my first solo CD, which was a really good experience. It ended up being a collection of the first songs I wrote on my own, so it wasn't exactly as great as I would've hoped, but I was proud of myself for getting it done. A lot of people were asking for me to release the songs, so I felt a little better about putting out music I wasn't 100% happy with because I was still figuring out how to write.
May: I had finals and they weren't too terrible... and I released my first solo CD, Devil's Snare! Once I got out of school for the summer, I spent like a week freaking out with final show booking and packing for the tour. A bunch of places were cancelling last-minute and that wasn't cool. Luckily it all ended up working out! Kristina flew in from Seattle, we picked up Lena in NY, and we left for the Accio Bodyguard Tour. We ended up hanging out with John Green when we passed through Indianapolis and eventually met up with Nina and the Ministry of Magic guys in Illinois, then we drove to Wrockstock together. I had a freaking amazing time at Wrockstock... I don't know how I managed to miss the first one. Everyone got closer and we spent a few days partying in cabins and taking boat rides and flying on a zipline in the woods and it was just so freaking fantastic. Leaving everybody (especially Kristina) was sad but Lena and I got to keep touring from there, and that was a blast.
June: We started out the month with my birthday in Orlando with Fred, Erin, Mandala, and the rest of the Florida kids. I celebrated turning 20 by hanging out with some beluga whales and penguins, which was freaking awesome. I felt like such a celebrity. The rest of the tour was really fun... Lena and I got to drive all over the eastern US eating at various Denny's and Ruby Tuesdays while playing some awesome shows and making new friends. Once I got home from tour, Nina and I spent the rest of the month recording our new CD, which we needed to be done with by July.
July Our second full length CD, What About Myrtle? was released at Portus 2008! We played at the wizard rock concert on the first night of the conference, opening for the Mudbloods. This conference was relatively small but it was in an absolutely beautiful hotel in Dallas and we spent a few days with some of our best friends... and we made some new ones! Our room ended up being packed full of incredible people and even though everyone ended up sleeping on the floor or squished into a bed together or in a bathtub, it was a blast. I finally got to meet Jerry and almost shared an elevator with Jim Dale, the guy who does the Harry Potter audiobooks. I spent a lot of time hanging out in the smokers' oasis with a ton of people and having intense religious discussions. The second to last night, I woke up at like 5am with Alex in my room. Once Nina kicked him out, Justin called me to say that they got in early and I should get up to party with them. I went back to sleep until Matt was knocking on the door and after jumping out of bed to give him a flying tackle hug, I finally got back in bed and when I woke up the next morning, I couldn't remember for the life of me if any of those random fantastic encounters were a dream or not, haha. It was crazy. I also went on a vacation with my family to St. John and stayed in a gorgeous villa at the very top of the island that was nearly impossible to reach with the car we rented. And they had wireless internet, which kept me from getting vacation depression because I could still keep in touch with everyone.
August: Terminus in Chicago was probably one of the craziest weeks of my life. I just did so many crazy things and completely let go and just had an absolute blast. We packed the room at our Wrock Chicago performance and partied like rockstars. I was on two panels... the first was just about wizard rock in general with Matt, Alex, and Abby. It just constantly reminded me of how much I'm in love with this fandom and this community and it felt really great to be up there answering questions with the two guys who got me to where I am now. On 8/8/08, we hung out in the library with a ton of Nerdfighters, then moved to the park for an acoustic wizard rock show, then took over the Bean for the filming of The Beckoning of Lovely, then went to Reggie's for a concert and dance party with John and Hank Green. After the ball, which was freaking amazing, I got a cab with Nina, Kristina, Lena, Frak, and Adam at like 2am and all of the girls got tattoos. Mine hurt like a bitch but I freaking love it. That was just one of those weeks where I told myself I wouldn't hold back from anything and just let myself have as much fun as possible. By the time I went home, I felt like such a badass. For the last weeks of summer, I hung out with Nina and helped her record her solo CD. It was awesome. And I went back to Etown at the end of the month!
September: Junior year of college started... I moved into a suite with some pretty amazing people and I was just completely ecstatic to have a better living situation than I did before I started rooming with Suzanne. She's amazing. I found out pretty early that the mainstage this fall was Urinetown, which excited me because I couldn't wait to try out for another musical and I absolutely love this show. I wasn't expecting to get in because I didn't have much luck with any of the other theatre productions I've tried out for, but I got Soupy Sue and that pretty much made my life. I played at the NYC Wizard Rock Festival with Alex Carpenter, who played guitar with me. It was really fun and I missed everyone so it was freaking awesome getting to hang out with a bunch of my favorite people, even if I was too exhausted to make it back to PA for classes the next day. Oops.
October: I know rehearsals took over my life (in a good way), but I'm having trouble remembering what else I did this month, heh. I was sick for a few weeks because I was so busy and I had issues with finding time to eat and sleep. Nina and I spent a day working on our Jingle Spells 2 track which is probably my new favorite Myrtles song. I played a solo show at the Sidewalk Cafe with The Whomping Willows, Justin Finch-Fletchley that was really freaking amazing. Unfortunately, I couldn't go back to college that weekend being super happy because my car refused to take me back to college and, after a lot of freaking out and sobbing in my driveway, I was able to borrow my incredible sister's car and get back to school in time to miss Vocalign rehearsal but just barely make it to Urinetown rehearsal. Yay for stress that was probably worth it in the end because that show changed my life. I didn't do anything for Halloween because it was too close to tech week and I couldn't leave school, but I dressed up as a Captain Hammer groupie and sat all by myself in my room. Oh well.
November: The month started out with tech week for Urinetown, which was single-handedly responsible for changing my opinion of college life and making me really freaking happy because I finally realized what I wanted to be doing. Unfortunately, I also realized that I didn't really have the time to do something like it again because my grades weren't doing so well and I'd been sick for at least a month. Regardless, I loved the hell out of every minute of it and made some amazing friends. Both weekends of shows went really well and I was just constantly reminded of how this decision and all of the work involved were so worth it. A bunch of my friends and family came to see the performances and I was so happy to finally be doing something here that made people I love want to come here for once. I was usually the one leaving campus as much as possible to do better things elsewhere and Urinetown completely changed that. Between the two show weekends, I went to a freaking awesome Nerdfighter gathering and played some music. John and Hank make my life and it was so great getting to see them again! Also, I met Katherine and she's just the coolest person ever. There were so many people who recognized me and I had a blast signing stuff and taking pictures and talking nerdy with everyone while I waited from the back of the line. At the end of the month, I went with Nina and Steph to see the Twilight movie (which I still love watching just so I can laugh at how awkward it is) and then we took a road trip to Cape May for a Myrtles show! It was really fun because we got a girly weekend away from school and the library got us this freaking huge hotel room that was basically a condo.
December: The Bryn Mawr Yule Ball was one of the most incredible events I've ever been a part of. I got to spend a weekend with some of my favorite people in the whole world and, despite the snow keeping a bunch of my friends at home, the audience was fantastic. This was another weekend that pretty much changed my life. Finals were stressful because I hadn't really made the time to do well in my classes, but I was really glad to finish them. One of the days at Etown before I went home, I had a shopping spree at Guitar Center because I did a promo for them on YouTube and it was basically like an early Christmas. I bought an acoustic bass that is basically sex solidified in an instrument and this crazy amp with all these fun effects for my electric guitar and a bunch of Christmas presents for people. It was definitely one of the coolest things that I've ever been allowed to do because of all my crazy internet hobbies. I went home after finals and completely redecorated my room at home, which was definitely necessary because it was a disaster. Matt and I officially got together and I went to the Boston Yule Ball with him, which was amazing. The holidays were great and Matt came over to visit me and play Zelda for Wii for a few days. I ended the month in Ohio with the rest of the fiveawesomegirls, where I ate obscene amounts of food and cookie dough and made really corny, scripted videos with some of my best friends.
Writing all of that took longer than necessary because you probably know all of this if you've kept up with fiveawesomegirls, but that's okay. 2008 was pretty intense and 2009 is already a fantastic year so I can't wait to see what else it has in store for me. Love you all!