Nickelback is pretty good live.

So last night was the Nickelback concert, but I was too tired to blog about it when I got home and I was lazy all day today too (today as in the 12th, because it will say 13th on the blogsince it's after midnight, as it has also been in my last few posts). I slept until 1:00 in the afternoon, mostly because I was on the opposite side of my alarm clock so I didn't ever see what time it was. But the thing is, I actually went to bed around 2 which is an hour earlier than usual.

But the concert was really good. It also featured Saving Abel, Papa Roach, and Hinder, which were all okay but not very exciting. There was a drunk lady in front of us who I am very surprised never fell, as she was standing on a hill, drink in one had, cigarette in the other, and dancing all over the place. And during Papa Roach, there was a bald guy up farther who was headbanging and just generally having a number-one-fan time. Then when Nickelback finally came on, I was finally more excited because I knew more of their songs and everyone stood up and it got dark outside and they had sweet pyrotechnics and stuff. At one point, Chad Kroeger did a little Justin Timberlake impersonation, and he sang "I've got friends in low places" and of course all the regular hits.

I also ran into a girl on the rowing team, so it was cool to see someone I didn't expect to see. The rest of the people that Andrea and I sat with were people from my high school who I didn't ever talk to very much so it was a little awkward but it turned out alright. They kind of just ignored me, but I don't blame them at all.

Now on to some bad news. Andrea told me that her parents are getting divorced. Apparently her dad has been hooked on painkillers for quite a while, and her mom said he could either go to rehab or she would get a divorce. Alaska was the last straw, Andrea said she could barely stand him during the trip, and that was her special make-a-wish trip. So he moved out, and if they are getting divorced, her mom would most likely not be able to afford their house anymore so they are probably going to move. Honestly, Andrea is one of the strongest people I know, but I never realized it because she is so normal. She deals with so much, yet she is able to put up with it all and take it at face value. She has a blood disorder, which at one point the doctor's thought could possibly be leukemia, but thankfully it wasn't. And last year her cat died. And now she's going through this ordeal. I would be on the verge of crying all the time if I were her. In fact, just thinking about it makes me tear up even though it's not my life. She is one of my best friends and sometimes I feel like I neglect her. But I hope I can support her in the right way and that she will turn to God when she needs Him.

On a different note, I found out today that we have a new rowing coach. In the email, there was a bio of him, some workouts to do, and a schedule of all the regattas for the year. On the positive side, he looks really organized, but then he also seems very tough and competitive. Of course that's what most people want, but I don't know what to think about him yet. All I know is that I'm extremely out of shape, and I am going to be very busy when school starts and if he is going to improve our program I hope it doesn't take up even more time than I was planning for. Regardless, I am excited for recruiting and getting a varsity jacket and hopefully becoming closer to everyone and of course for the rowing itself.

Song of the Day: Alan Lastufka/Tom Milsom--Can't (I always think of this song when they play the little Disney jingle leading into commercial breaks on Disney channel and it's kinda frustrating haha)

Yesterday, today, tomorrow (and parenthetical statements).

Yesterday I went to the mall with the clan minus Bambi, who had to go back to school early for band camp. I even dressed up a little. Like usual I didn't buy anything. Except for a cinnamon bun from Cinnabon. I always seem to spend money on food. And I almost bought Paper Towns because they actually had it but I couldn't bring myself to spend $17.99, so I think I'll just wait for the paperback. I also wanted to buy sunglasses, and since I was wearing my contacts I could try them on for once, but I didn't find the perfect pair. Claire's had a lot of glasses, even fake clear ones with no prescription, and one pair especially reminded me of classic nerfighter glasses. I really like glasses. I am just not one to think I can pull them off if they are too out there.

But when we were pretty much done looking around, we sat in one of the loungy areas and just talked. Mostly about boys and about Bambi. We all feel like she is more distant from us lately, but we don't want to turn in into a repeat of the Priscilla situation and build it up in our heads to be more than it is. Let's face it--she has more friends than us and a more serious boyfriend. But we also know that she is good at hiding things and making us believe there is nothing wrong. So maybe there is nothing wrong.

Later, I watched a bit of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire" hosted for a limited time by Regis Philbin like old times. When I was in fourth grade my whole family used to gather around and watch that show together, and that's how we found out I needed glasses. I had always kind of secretly wanted glasses. And I thought it would be cool to have a retainer. That in itself should showcase my nerdiness. But I couldn't read the questions when everyone else could, so my parents took me in to get my eyes checked and I got my first pair of glasses. Oh the nostalgia.

Partway through the show, a magnificient storm started, kind of like the one earlier in the summer. I watched it through the window while my mom worried that a chair or something would fly through and blow up the house in my face. Thunderstorms are really fascinating and beautiful in a somewhat twisted way. Even my blog layout has to do with a thunderstorm. I seem to be drawn to water. I mean, swimming, rowing, and this might be stretching it--ice skating (frozen water!) Water is so simple yet so amazing. Speaking of swimming, I should do that sometime. And I want to go to the zoo.

Today I went to the doctor's to get a Hepatitis shot (2 of 3, I think), and I ended up getting a whole checkup where they weighed me (my brother and I weigh the same!) and checked my height, they pricked my finger, which still hurts a tiny bit, I had to pee in a cup and as usual they told me I need to drink more water (ironic how I like water, but not drinking it), and my arm is sore from the shot, which has a Snoopy band-aid on it. Of course, there was lots of waiting in the room for the doctor, so I passed the time by doing the picture search in the Highlights magazine like I did when I was a young'un. Then I stole two suckers when we were done.

Tomorrow I am going to a Nickelback concert. Not my favorite band in the world (*is still resentful of missing DCFC*) but I am still excited about it. Maybe I will dress up again and wear some old earrings that I went through and organized earlier.

Song of the day: Oliver Boyd and the Remembralls--Flash Bang Done
(although I am listening to Regina Spektor's myspace at the moment and I may just have to stay up later than I planned so I can listen to the whole thing.)

Neopets, balancing, and rhetorical questions.

Recently I've gotten over 10 million neopoints on neopets. woot! Is that sad, actually, that I'm 18 and I am still saving up for the same avatar that I decided I wanted like 2 years ago? Probably. But they have good games! And I quite enjoy my nerd life, thank you very much.

I didn't have anything else planned to write about than that, I just thought it was something worth noting. But since I am here with a pretty empty white box to fill, I should probably come up with a whole blog. I guess I need to practice writing about anything and everything so that when BEDA comes around next year, I'll be ready.

Ummm, tomorrow I'm going to the chiropractor. That's exciting, right? Okay, it's not. Oh yeah, I also recently figured out that the Brotherhood 2.0 intro song was from Death Cab for Cutie (I am still mad about not being able to see them in concert because of rowing) so I "completed my album" on itunes, even though it re-downloaded 2 songs I already had. I also decided to get the rest of the Coldplay album, since I like a lot of songs on it already.

Speaking of music, most of the time when I listen to stuff on the computer (music or videos or whatever), I use headphones so as not to disturb the other people in my house. But the headphones on our family computer only work in the left ear, and I think being used to listening to stuff in only one ear has made me more comfortable with listening to my ipod in my left ear than my right, when I am only listening in one ear so I can still hear other stuff going on around me. Is that weird? I think I have asked 3 rhetorical questions in this post already. But to get back on topic, I don't like being unbalanced. Yet I also like having a sense of familiarity that comes with knowing something is mine or my way. I always thought it would be cool to be ambidextrous. And I don't think I've ever excelled in any one thing most because I don't know what I like the most, so I don't want to give anything up and become worse at the other things and then find out I really don't like the one thing I chose less than something else. Does that make sense? Oops, that makes 4. But it makes sense in my head. I wish I had more articulate thoughts. This seems to be a good place to cutt off this post.

Song of the day: Kings of Leon--Sex on Fire

Meandering thoughts of early August...

So tomorrow I'm going to see Harry Potter for the 3rd time. I totally forgot to mention one of the things I was disappointed in was the cutting of the Dursley scene at the beginning, but obviously you can't have everything.

Recently I was invited on facebook by a fellow rower to go skydiving. I wasn't sure, but then I thought, I really really do want to go. But I knew my parents might not be able to handle the worry, they could barely stand to think about my brother going parasailing in Florida, and that's nothing compared to this. So I didn't tell them about it, but my brother saw me looking at the page and he was all "you are going skydiving! I want to go skydiving soooo bad!" and I was like "I was invited to go, but it's the same day as the family reunion :(" So maybe we could go together someday when I have $200 to spare. In fact, Indigo found out that skydiving has a lower fatality rate than childirth!

On the topic of death (sorry about the morbid segue), today my grandpa on my mom's side would have turned 90 if he was still alive. So my mom took my grandma out to lunch and to visit his grave, and I went along and had some crappy chocolate chip pancakes and jumbo sausages. The cemetary he is at is really big and most of the gravestones are little rectangles on the ground so if you don't go there often it's hard to find and the grass grows over the edges and it's really kind of sad. But we brought a little American flag to stick in the ground there since he was a veteran of World War II. I never knew either of my grandfathers, they both died before I was born, and the only other "close" relative of mine that's died was my grandma on my dad's side when I was 6 or 7. Since I was so little it didn't really register as much I guess, so it's hard for me to think about death since I've never experienced the death of someone really close firsthand. I don't really know where I ws going with this, just that I can't imagine what it's like to be old like my grandma and all her friends are dying off, and it must be really sad.

On a happier note, someone talked to me on facebook the other day and it pretty much made my whole summer. Whatever the motive, I can't stop thinking about him and it's driving me crazy, so I'm trying to be rational about it, but I just have this feeling inside me that makes it hard to sit still. So yeah.

In other news, my aunt decided she's going to take me to Florida for a week. I'm not sure what to feel about this yet, because it was sort of sprung on me quite fast and it's just going to be us two and I'm not sure what we're going to do, but I feel like we should visit my other aunt who lives in Florida at some point because she would be really upset if she found out I was so close and didn't see her. And when I get back, I'm only going to have 5 days until I go back to school. I'm 18, I shouldn't feel so upset about going away for a week, but I feel like I'm going to cry when I go and when I come home and then when I go back to school again. But I guess that's just a part of me that I have to learn to live with or get over it. I just don't take change well when it's forced on me. I will also miss Andrea's birthday while I'm gone, so I guess I'll send her a postcard and maybe get her a souvenir even though she's been there before. I really wanted to go to Florida next summer for the opening of the Harry Potter theme park and convention and movie and stuff, but maybe I still will be able to, or maybe I wouldn't have been able to anyways.

Song of the day: Metric--Gimme Sympathy (I'm obsessed with this right now, hopefully it doesn't get old if I listen to it too much!)