Always running out of time.
Wow, it's been a pretty eventful week, and it's been awhile since I last updated, so I figure it's about time to update the 'ol LJ.
I guess I'll rewind to Monday, which was the Jack's Mannequin/fun. concert at the Electric Factory in Philly. The show, overall, was AMAZING! I drove Shawn, Kelly, Jon, Noel, and Jeff to the show. Noel and Jon brought Subway sandwiches with them for the ride there, one of which was an Italian/Tuna sub, and was DELICIOUS! The ride there wasn't bad. Typical Philly rush hour traffic on I-95, but I remember the sunset was so beautiful that night, and it really gave me such a good feeling. On the way there, we had some fun talks and sung along to Jack's Mannequin.
We met Kiersten, Mike Murray, Alison, and her sister Brandy at the show. After standing outside waiting to get in, we scrambled inside and waited patiently for the show to begin. While we were waiting for the bands to begin, some douchey, spikey haired Jersey Shore rejects kept pushing Kelly and Alison, trying to get closer to the stage... and they wouldn't stop. I was really pissed off from the start, and it got the point where EVERYONE in our group was getting pissed off at them... even Mike if I recall haha. Eventually, after they kept pushing and pushing, Shawn turned around and FLIPPED SHIT on them. I think it really took them by suprise, and they sorta stopped... although I did hear them make a remark about "jumping this kid" (Shawn). I watched them closely for a few minutes after that, just waiting to swing if they tried to make a move towards him (I hate fighting, but I really would not have minded for these assholes). Me and Jeff were stuck behind them for all of Vedera, which really upset me to the point where I could barely enjoy their set... I thought we weren't going to be near any of our friends for the whole concert. But eventually they moved, and we were able to be a little closer to everyone. I did enjoy what I could of Vedera's set though... But I've yet to check out any of their recordings.
Then it came time for the band I was honestly most excited to see... FUN! It's been no secret that in the past year or so, I've become a super fan of Nate Ruess (lead singer of Fun.)'s old band, The Format. Their album "Dog Problems" really helped me look towards the bright side of things last year when I was having anxiety attacks and my deep depression was returning. Because of The Format, fun., his amazing lyrics, and the fact that his voice is absolutely incredible, Nate Ruess has pretty much become one of my biggest musical role models (that extremely high vocal part I do in the bridge of FiF's newest song "Miles"? Yeah, that's pretty much me wanting to be Nate haha). But the real question is... did fun. bring the... fun? =-P My god, yes they did. They sounded superb! I didn't hear one mistake or anything, and Nate was at the top of his game. They're all great musicians, and we even got to meet/hug 2 members of the band after the show (their drummer, whose name I don't know, and their acoustic guitarist/backup vocalist Emily Anne Moore, who I couldn't take my eyes off of for a pretty good part of fun's set 0=-D She's beautiful!). One funny thing that happened during fun's set was Shawn yelling out "SHE DOESN'T GET IT!" (which, for those who don't know, is a song by The Format, and one of my Top 3 favorite songs of all time). Nate gave a weird look, looked at the ground, and muttered something... which sounded like "nah dude"(Kiersten believes it was "not here"). We really weren't expecting them to play it, so it's something we can kinda just laugh about now haha.
Eventually it came time for the band most people were looking forward to, Jack's Mannequin! I honestly love this band, and I think Andrew McMahon is an incredible dude for everything he's been through. They played such a great set, mostly everything I wanted to hear... but I do wish they had played "Miss Delaney" and "American Love". They played a couple songs I wasn't familiar with, and also a U2 cover (which I feel like was the lowpoint of their set... definitely could've done without that imo), but there really was no unbearable moments in their set. They closed with "La La Lie", which is one of my favorites, and in the middle of the song, Andrew decided that he wanted to crowdsurf! Being that we were really close to the stage, I can now say I got to touch Andrew McMahon... TWICE! Pretty awesome haha. I was very pleased with Jack's =)
After the show, we hung around the venue for a little while. I bought a Jack's Mannequin tour shirt, and then we went outfront to talk to our buds Joe Freebird and Brian Ossip (from Nobody Yet), who weren't at the show, but stood outside handing out fliers. At some point while we were talking, a creepy homeless guy decided to walk over, and then he walked away. We then said something about how we told him "no" earlier on and that's why he kept walking, to which he then decided to come BACK over to us and stand in the middle of our circle... "NOW I KNOW YA'LL DIDN'T SAY NOTHIN' SMART OVER HERE" is what he said. Joe and Brian saved it pretty quick, saying "nah, we were just talking about the show". So here we are in a circle, with this homeless guy standing in the middle acting offended. Out of nowhere, he pulls out... not a knife... Not a gun... But a fucking CELLPHONE. It was the most random thing ever, and thankfully Joe just broke the awkwardness and said "well, nice show guys, see ya later!" and with that we left. Somehow, on the way back to my car, I lost the shirt I had purchased... $20 down the drain, and an awesome shirt. =( I was REALLY upset about it for the rest of the night, and even into the next day. Since my hours have been cut at work, I really don't have the room to be wasting money, and the fact that I wasted $20 on basically NOTHING really bummed me out. :|
After the show, me, Shawn, Kelly, Jon, Noel, and Jeff all went out to eat at the Great American Diner on Street Road. On the way there, we called Christopher Sarachilli on the phone and sang him happy birthday (happy birday Big Papa <3)! We had a pretty awesome waiter at the diner, he seemed really chill. I got a salad as usual, which was very yummy. We conversed about the show, and I know the topic of Formspring came up alot as well haha. Overall the show/night was one of the best nights I've had so far this year, and probably one of my favorite concerts of all time. <3
The next couple days were, for the most part, pretty uneventful. I focused on working out as much as I could... most days I burned about 2500 calories in one day (granted, that was usually done in 3 different trips to the gym). It's getting to the point where anytime I see somebody I haven't seen in 2 or 3 months gives me a comment about my weight. I still feel a little awkward, but I'm getting used to it, and it does make me feel good haha. I'm proud to say that right now my weight loss total is at about 140... I'm aiming to make it 170-180 by the summertime. I'm fitting into shirts and pants I haven't been able to fit in since 6th grade... and it feels damn good. =D
On Thursday night, I went to the midnight showing of the new Alice in Wonderland movie at Neshaminy Mall. Me and Shawn ALMOST didn't go, because being an idiot, I didn't even think to try and get tickets ahead of time... but Shawn saved the day and found a way to buy tickets online. Me and Shawn met up with Jeff, Kelly, Mike Madeja, Danielle, Serena, and Lisa at the theater. The movie itself was great, I really enjoyed it. I really love how Tim Burton always puts a unique, dark spin on his remakes of movies. I got pretty submerged in the storyline, which to me is usually a sign of a good movie.
After the movie, we all went out to eat at the Golden Eagle diner on Route 13 in Bristol. I really liked it there, and could definitely get used to going there more often. The food was good, and the people who worked there were pretty cool for putting up with a bunch of kids eating there at 3am haha.
Friday night was very... eventful, but I'm obviously not going to go into detail about it out of respect for the people who were involved. I am glad that I was there to help out for a serious matter when it was needed most though.
Last night (Saturday), I went to see Good Old War at the Mandell Theater at Drexel with Shawn, Alison, her sister, and her mom. We got there pretty early, so we ended up just kinda waiting around the theater for the doors to open. Keith Goodwin (the lead singer of Good Old War) was in the other room talking to someone, and Alison was freaking out about him ;-) haha. When the doors eventually opened, we made sure we got good seats... and oh boy we did. FRONT ROW! There were about 4 acts on before Good Old War, who were all on "Mad Dragon Records", which is Drexel's indie record label. 3 of them were acoustic acts, and one of them was a super indie band called The Swimmers. They were all really talented... But when it came time for Good Old War, everyone in the first 3 rows or so pretty much said "screw seats", and we all got right up to the stage.
Good Old War put on an AMAZING show. They have such a unique style, and I honestly dug every song they played. Their guitarist amazes me with what he can do. After the show, I got a Good Old War t-shirt (which I'm wearing while I type this), and me, Shawn, and Alison stood around awkwardly waiting to talk to Keith Goodwin. Eventually, we got to talk to him for about a minute, but it was worth it. He's a really cool and chill dude. The ride home was very relaxing, we listened to Radio 104.5 and talked about music most of the ride. I had a great time, and I wanna thank Alison and her family for inviting us :)
That brings us to today, where I'm writing this. Oh wait... there's something I left out, and it happened at work today. I'm only talking about... ONE OF THE MOST AWKWARD MOMENTS I'VE EVER HAD AT MY WORK. EVER.
At my work, when the line starts to get really long, the person on the main register calls a code on the speaker, and someone is expected to come up to the back-up register and start ringing people up. Well, I wasn't doing anything at the moment, so I figured "eh, what the heck?", so I hopped on the register. Once I got up to the register, I did notice 2 cute girls in line, and of course one of them caught me looking at them. I then said "this register is open, I can ring someone up over here". Of course, the first people to come over to the line is those 2 girls. Being me, I obviously started to get nervous as it was. She put the product down. It was, of all things... Vagisil. "Whatever you do, DON'T look at her weird or anything", I told myself. I scanned it, and said the total to her. She then said it... "Umm... it's not for me"... DUDE...
WHAT. THE. FUCK. DO. I. SAY. TO. THAT.???????????
Oh, I obviously say the dumbest thing that could pop into my head. "Oh, I know its not for you"... Great Jim, make it even weirder. No wait, her reply did that: "How do YOU know it's not for me?". After that, my face pretty much went bright red and I just chuckled and tried to avoid talking. I wanted to pretty much go hide in a rabbit hole. They both left, chuckling to themselves. Awesome! I love creeping people out! :|
So, that's pretty much what I've been up to in the past week or so. Life has been going pretty okay for me I guess. I've recently started some new mini hobbies, too. I've been starting to play my sister's Nintendo DS a little bit, and started replaying Super Mario 64DS (which is still one of my favorite games ever). My family now gets free HBO/Encore/Cinemax channels, so I've been starting to watch movies alot more frequently, which is very enjoyable. Also, Kelly got me into a Manga series book called "Negima" which I really really like. The storyline is so interesting and some of the stuff that happens is just so... awkward, and I totally love the humor. It feels really good to be reading again, even if it isn't like huge novels or w/e. Between all those things, I almost feel like... it's restoring a part of my youth that I've been missing for a few years now, and it feels nice.
I mean, you never want to feel too old... because we're always running out of time. =)
I guess I'll rewind to Monday, which was the Jack's Mannequin/fun. concert at the Electric Factory in Philly. The show, overall, was AMAZING! I drove Shawn, Kelly, Jon, Noel, and Jeff to the show. Noel and Jon brought Subway sandwiches with them for the ride there, one of which was an Italian/Tuna sub, and was DELICIOUS! The ride there wasn't bad. Typical Philly rush hour traffic on I-95, but I remember the sunset was so beautiful that night, and it really gave me such a good feeling. On the way there, we had some fun talks and sung along to Jack's Mannequin.
We met Kiersten, Mike Murray, Alison, and her sister Brandy at the show. After standing outside waiting to get in, we scrambled inside and waited patiently for the show to begin. While we were waiting for the bands to begin, some douchey, spikey haired Jersey Shore rejects kept pushing Kelly and Alison, trying to get closer to the stage... and they wouldn't stop. I was really pissed off from the start, and it got the point where EVERYONE in our group was getting pissed off at them... even Mike if I recall haha. Eventually, after they kept pushing and pushing, Shawn turned around and FLIPPED SHIT on them. I think it really took them by suprise, and they sorta stopped... although I did hear them make a remark about "jumping this kid" (Shawn). I watched them closely for a few minutes after that, just waiting to swing if they tried to make a move towards him (I hate fighting, but I really would not have minded for these assholes). Me and Jeff were stuck behind them for all of Vedera, which really upset me to the point where I could barely enjoy their set... I thought we weren't going to be near any of our friends for the whole concert. But eventually they moved, and we were able to be a little closer to everyone. I did enjoy what I could of Vedera's set though... But I've yet to check out any of their recordings.
Then it came time for the band I was honestly most excited to see... FUN! It's been no secret that in the past year or so, I've become a super fan of Nate Ruess (lead singer of Fun.)'s old band, The Format. Their album "Dog Problems" really helped me look towards the bright side of things last year when I was having anxiety attacks and my deep depression was returning. Because of The Format, fun., his amazing lyrics, and the fact that his voice is absolutely incredible, Nate Ruess has pretty much become one of my biggest musical role models (that extremely high vocal part I do in the bridge of FiF's newest song "Miles"? Yeah, that's pretty much me wanting to be Nate haha). But the real question is... did fun. bring the... fun? =-P My god, yes they did. They sounded superb! I didn't hear one mistake or anything, and Nate was at the top of his game. They're all great musicians, and we even got to meet/hug 2 members of the band after the show (their drummer, whose name I don't know, and their acoustic guitarist/backup vocalist Emily Anne Moore, who I couldn't take my eyes off of for a pretty good part of fun's set 0=-D She's beautiful!). One funny thing that happened during fun's set was Shawn yelling out "SHE DOESN'T GET IT!" (which, for those who don't know, is a song by The Format, and one of my Top 3 favorite songs of all time). Nate gave a weird look, looked at the ground, and muttered something... which sounded like "nah dude"(Kiersten believes it was "not here"). We really weren't expecting them to play it, so it's something we can kinda just laugh about now haha.
Eventually it came time for the band most people were looking forward to, Jack's Mannequin! I honestly love this band, and I think Andrew McMahon is an incredible dude for everything he's been through. They played such a great set, mostly everything I wanted to hear... but I do wish they had played "Miss Delaney" and "American Love". They played a couple songs I wasn't familiar with, and also a U2 cover (which I feel like was the lowpoint of their set... definitely could've done without that imo), but there really was no unbearable moments in their set. They closed with "La La Lie", which is one of my favorites, and in the middle of the song, Andrew decided that he wanted to crowdsurf! Being that we were really close to the stage, I can now say I got to touch Andrew McMahon... TWICE! Pretty awesome haha. I was very pleased with Jack's =)
After the show, we hung around the venue for a little while. I bought a Jack's Mannequin tour shirt, and then we went outfront to talk to our buds Joe Freebird and Brian Ossip (from Nobody Yet), who weren't at the show, but stood outside handing out fliers. At some point while we were talking, a creepy homeless guy decided to walk over, and then he walked away. We then said something about how we told him "no" earlier on and that's why he kept walking, to which he then decided to come BACK over to us and stand in the middle of our circle... "NOW I KNOW YA'LL DIDN'T SAY NOTHIN' SMART OVER HERE" is what he said. Joe and Brian saved it pretty quick, saying "nah, we were just talking about the show". So here we are in a circle, with this homeless guy standing in the middle acting offended. Out of nowhere, he pulls out... not a knife... Not a gun... But a fucking CELLPHONE. It was the most random thing ever, and thankfully Joe just broke the awkwardness and said "well, nice show guys, see ya later!" and with that we left. Somehow, on the way back to my car, I lost the shirt I had purchased... $20 down the drain, and an awesome shirt. =( I was REALLY upset about it for the rest of the night, and even into the next day. Since my hours have been cut at work, I really don't have the room to be wasting money, and the fact that I wasted $20 on basically NOTHING really bummed me out. :|
After the show, me, Shawn, Kelly, Jon, Noel, and Jeff all went out to eat at the Great American Diner on Street Road. On the way there, we called Christopher Sarachilli on the phone and sang him happy birthday (happy birday Big Papa <3)! We had a pretty awesome waiter at the diner, he seemed really chill. I got a salad as usual, which was very yummy. We conversed about the show, and I know the topic of Formspring came up alot as well haha. Overall the show/night was one of the best nights I've had so far this year, and probably one of my favorite concerts of all time. <3
The next couple days were, for the most part, pretty uneventful. I focused on working out as much as I could... most days I burned about 2500 calories in one day (granted, that was usually done in 3 different trips to the gym). It's getting to the point where anytime I see somebody I haven't seen in 2 or 3 months gives me a comment about my weight. I still feel a little awkward, but I'm getting used to it, and it does make me feel good haha. I'm proud to say that right now my weight loss total is at about 140... I'm aiming to make it 170-180 by the summertime. I'm fitting into shirts and pants I haven't been able to fit in since 6th grade... and it feels damn good. =D
On Thursday night, I went to the midnight showing of the new Alice in Wonderland movie at Neshaminy Mall. Me and Shawn ALMOST didn't go, because being an idiot, I didn't even think to try and get tickets ahead of time... but Shawn saved the day and found a way to buy tickets online. Me and Shawn met up with Jeff, Kelly, Mike Madeja, Danielle, Serena, and Lisa at the theater. The movie itself was great, I really enjoyed it. I really love how Tim Burton always puts a unique, dark spin on his remakes of movies. I got pretty submerged in the storyline, which to me is usually a sign of a good movie.
After the movie, we all went out to eat at the Golden Eagle diner on Route 13 in Bristol. I really liked it there, and could definitely get used to going there more often. The food was good, and the people who worked there were pretty cool for putting up with a bunch of kids eating there at 3am haha.
Friday night was very... eventful, but I'm obviously not going to go into detail about it out of respect for the people who were involved. I am glad that I was there to help out for a serious matter when it was needed most though.
Last night (Saturday), I went to see Good Old War at the Mandell Theater at Drexel with Shawn, Alison, her sister, and her mom. We got there pretty early, so we ended up just kinda waiting around the theater for the doors to open. Keith Goodwin (the lead singer of Good Old War) was in the other room talking to someone, and Alison was freaking out about him ;-) haha. When the doors eventually opened, we made sure we got good seats... and oh boy we did. FRONT ROW! There were about 4 acts on before Good Old War, who were all on "Mad Dragon Records", which is Drexel's indie record label. 3 of them were acoustic acts, and one of them was a super indie band called The Swimmers. They were all really talented... But when it came time for Good Old War, everyone in the first 3 rows or so pretty much said "screw seats", and we all got right up to the stage.
Good Old War put on an AMAZING show. They have such a unique style, and I honestly dug every song they played. Their guitarist amazes me with what he can do. After the show, I got a Good Old War t-shirt (which I'm wearing while I type this), and me, Shawn, and Alison stood around awkwardly waiting to talk to Keith Goodwin. Eventually, we got to talk to him for about a minute, but it was worth it. He's a really cool and chill dude. The ride home was very relaxing, we listened to Radio 104.5 and talked about music most of the ride. I had a great time, and I wanna thank Alison and her family for inviting us :)
That brings us to today, where I'm writing this. Oh wait... there's something I left out, and it happened at work today. I'm only talking about... ONE OF THE MOST AWKWARD MOMENTS I'VE EVER HAD AT MY WORK. EVER.
At my work, when the line starts to get really long, the person on the main register calls a code on the speaker, and someone is expected to come up to the back-up register and start ringing people up. Well, I wasn't doing anything at the moment, so I figured "eh, what the heck?", so I hopped on the register. Once I got up to the register, I did notice 2 cute girls in line, and of course one of them caught me looking at them. I then said "this register is open, I can ring someone up over here". Of course, the first people to come over to the line is those 2 girls. Being me, I obviously started to get nervous as it was. She put the product down. It was, of all things... Vagisil. "Whatever you do, DON'T look at her weird or anything", I told myself. I scanned it, and said the total to her. She then said it... "Umm... it's not for me"... DUDE...
WHAT. THE. FUCK. DO. I. SAY. TO. THAT.???????????
Oh, I obviously say the dumbest thing that could pop into my head. "Oh, I know its not for you"... Great Jim, make it even weirder. No wait, her reply did that: "How do YOU know it's not for me?". After that, my face pretty much went bright red and I just chuckled and tried to avoid talking. I wanted to pretty much go hide in a rabbit hole. They both left, chuckling to themselves. Awesome! I love creeping people out! :|
So, that's pretty much what I've been up to in the past week or so. Life has been going pretty okay for me I guess. I've recently started some new mini hobbies, too. I've been starting to play my sister's Nintendo DS a little bit, and started replaying Super Mario 64DS (which is still one of my favorite games ever). My family now gets free HBO/Encore/Cinemax channels, so I've been starting to watch movies alot more frequently, which is very enjoyable. Also, Kelly got me into a Manga series book called "Negima" which I really really like. The storyline is so interesting and some of the stuff that happens is just so... awkward, and I totally love the humor. It feels really good to be reading again, even if it isn't like huge novels or w/e. Between all those things, I almost feel like... it's restoring a part of my youth that I've been missing for a few years now, and it feels nice.
I mean, you never want to feel too old... because we're always running out of time. =)
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