The Post With No Clever Name

I can't think of a title to fit today's post. Not one that's been done before.

Lately I've not quite been myself. Not because of being sick or anything. More because of certain situations. It seems anymore life is just falling into pitfall after pitfall for me. The latest one I can't seem to get out of. I feel like it's pulling me away to becoming someone else that I don't want to be. It's been bringing me down emotionally for sure, but even physically - I can hardly sleep at night because it's been invading my dreams. I've been a bit of a wreck until yesterday.

Last night I got to talk to PJ/ for a few hours. He's one of those friends you know you're blessed to have - the ones who inspire you to be a better person. We stayed up half the night on MSN like we always used to. For a while, everything was how it always was. After we said goodnight around 3 in the morning, I lay awake thinking for a while.

I'm sick of lying. Sick of feeling nervous. Sick of all the drama.
So I've made up my mind that I'm not going back to it all this time. I want to be the way I used to be a year ago where nothing could ever bring me down and I didn't have any cares. And so far today, it's gone pretty well I'd say.

Forget And Not Slow Down came in the mail the other day. I'll post a review for you guys in a few days.

Here's To Peace, Love, & Escaping
~Lola

If You Were A Beautiful Sound In The Echoes All Around, Then I'd Be Your Harmony <3

So, today I've decided to blog again. Mostly about Owl City.

The 23 year old's music has stolen my heart and the top 5 most played songs on my Zune. Well, no, first is still So Simple by Stacie Oricco, and I still don't know how that's possible. But, anyway, Owl City is my new obsession and I've added Adam Young (Owl City's super-shy real-life alter ego) to the list of the stalked with John Warne and Matt Thiessen (and to a lesser extent, James Marsden). Anyway, all the sugar-sweet technopop music's gotten to my head, and in my head, therefore I have created a little piano video to his song "Vanilla Twilight". If anybody comments on this asking for it, I'll gladly send you the video. I don't feel like posting it simply because it's too personal. From it, you would discover that my favorite hoodie is orange, I have really small hands, I wear dark nail polish, and my hair is brown. And the fact that I have a piano at my house. And that I can't play the piano worth a penny.

In other news...there isn't really any other news. Life's just going at it's normal pace. Christmas will soon be here. I'd better start shopping. Black Friday may be the start for some people, but I prefer it to be my deadline. It's already 43 outside during the day. Perfect weather for fingerless gloves.

Forget And Not Slow Down has shipped as of yesterday morning. I can't wait for the moment of joyous rapture as I tear open the cellophane wrapping. It will be glorious. I got the poster pre-order option. With my name on it. That should be nice to hang up somewhere prominent.

Well, I'd better get back to my somewhat boring day.

Here's To Peace, Love, & Citrus Constellations
~Lola

When It Rains, It Pours, But When It Doesn't...

"drought n. 1. A long period of abnormally low rainfall, especially one that adversely affects growing or living conditions"

Let's be literal for just a minute.
Drought is when it doesn't rain for a long time. Crops go bad, the flowers die, grass goes brown, and things get a thin film of dust. We're currently in one. The corn already got harvested around here, most of the flowers in the garden are already dead, and the grass going brown just means I won't have to mow it for a while. The dust, I must say, can be quite annoying. I keep thinking that maybe I should write "Wash Me" on the back window of the car. Maybe some nice person will lend me $5 so it can go through one of those automatic fluoride wash places that make your car smell like toothpaste.

But the point is, it's a drought. It's a gradual thing that isn't good, but life adjusts around it.

Now, they don't expect this drought to last much longer. They expect rain every day next week. They already predict flash flood warnings. The farmers let out a sigh of relief, my mom can sleep at night knowing her mums will survive, the grass will have one last breath of green before fall, everybody who will get stuck behind me in traffic couldn't be happier, and I can't wait to fall asleep listening to the sound of the rain hitting the rooftops. Even if it floods, our town happens to be on a hill, so the most that will happen is a little water will be running down the streets.

Point is, floods happen overnight and life can't adjust fast enough to keep up. When it rains, it pours.

Let's be figurative now.

Lately, for me at least, life's been a really long drought. Things have been going slowly downhill, but life's been adjusting to it.
But that's just not how life works, is it?
Seemingly out of nowhere, as of five days ago, the rain of life has begun to fall and it hasn't stopped yet. The raindrops hit the ground accompanied by the soft echo of adventure. Some things happening aren't exactly appreciated, but they're outnumbered by the outrageous number of happy occurrences. When it rains, it pours, it really does, and it's brought me back to life again.

Now if only the real rain would fall already. I'm about ready for everything else to come back to life too.

Here's To Peace, Love, & Listening To The Rain Fall
~Lola

Road Trip..Again

Thankfully not a long one. Just to my grandparents' for a while. That was nice, I suppose. I never know what to say to them, so mostly I don't say anything.

On the way home, however, I had the chance to go to Chicago again.

So far it's been great! There was this great little Brazilian restaurant where they served a bunch of rare foods at a salad bar and then endless various types of rotisserie meat. But they had endless cunapes as well, which was good because I was planning on having to make them tomorrow night. Now I'm off the hook.

The hotel I'm at is 5-star. Right off the Magnificent Mile. So that's fun. I think I'll take a walk down there tonight.

Life's still not very exciting. Just figured you needed an update though.

Here's to Peace, Love & Road Trips,
~ Lola

I'm Going To Make An Entire Post About Relient K

Come on, you know I can do it without even trying. But, I won't. I'll just share a little about Relient K and more about my life, since that's what blogs are supposed to be about, right?

So, today I reached a new level of happy. I called it Relient K Happy. Why? Cause it was brought about by this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PSQ6JALkZs

and the track list, and the "I Don't Need A Soul (To Hold)" lyrics. The world is such a happy place today. But, as promised, this post will not be all about Relient K.

See, I got the song from my friend Ike, who I hadn't heard from in over a year and a half. It was so unexpectedly pleasant to hear from him again, but it wasn't how I expected. See, I met him as "ikethespecial" on an Animal Crossing site. He and I talked about Relient K mostly, and he was probably one of my nicest friends on there. But then he left...
Well today I get followed on Twitter by "relientike" Suspicious? Quite. Being the person who always speaks her mind, I simply asked him flat-out if he was ikethespecial. He said he was, but (here's the surprising part) he only added me because my username has "relientk" in it. He doesn't even remember that we were ever friends! Not that he meant it rudely or anything, but it looks as if we'll be starting at ground zero in this friendship...

Speaking of friends, I lost one a few days ago. He was one of my best friends too. See, this is how it goes in my world. I have PJ/, who you all remember from the post I put out on his birthday. He's my random, funny, sweetheart of a friend who I consider closest. Then I have Rhett, who is older than me, and probably the smartest person I know. He's really accepting, a bit sarcastic, but totally the sort of friend everybody would want. And then there was Roux. He was...just like me. Everything I needed, he was there for. We laughed, we cried, we watched chick flicks and bashed boys when they broke our hearts...until two days ago. That was the day he left. Left for Nevada, told me we couldn't be friends anymore - swore it hurt him worse than it hurt me. I cried. Alot. But let's not go there. Why? Because, as Matt Thiessen puts it,

"The sun still burns the shadows out, and there's nothing to complain about now"

So, I'm going to take his other advice, and forget about all this and keep on going. Why, because I've got PJ/ and Rhett on one hand, and on the other I have my new friend who, for all practical purposes, has friendship amnesia. The world's still spinning, and Relient K's new CD comes out in 45 days.

That's alot to be happy about!

Here's to Peace, Love & Being Relient K Happy
~Lola

P.S. Did you notice Relient K was mentioned in each topic? I guess I failed at not making the entire post about Relient K. ha ha

I Guess I Really Should Update

Right? I mean it's been, what, 18 days? In blog-terms, that's pretty much a lifetime.
There's just not been anything interesting to blog about. So this is going to be really boring. I apologize.

- I pre-ordered TFK's new CD and so should you.
http://tfk.skyroo.com/se/view/music/index.html

- Jon Schneck has taken to Rubik's Cube-ing to pass the time since the paper toss tournament was ended by MatTy. New podcast of said cubing might make you laugh. It made me laugh for sure.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zni7ovRgIxg

- I've taken up knitting. No, I'm not 80. It's actually sorta relaxing and maybe even fun. I'm working on a special Christmas present for my best friend. It should turn out pretty sweet if I can get it to him. That's the hard part. haha

- Speaking of friends, remember back to how my birthday was most likely the last time I'd see alot of my friends? For a while, I thought that might've been wrong. But it wasn't. I told my friends I wasn't going back to dance this year and even the one who knows me better than probably anyone else in real life won't speak to me anymore. I keep telling myself I don't care, but deep down I do, I just don't want to think about it.

- I got my hair cut. I have bangs now. But they need straightening since my perm experiment made them look somewhat ridiculous. But straightened they look pretty okay, I think. The rest of my hair is just shorter.

- I went to a Demi Lovato concert last night. I know, I know, kid music. Pop. Everything I don't listen to. But I didn't really go for me, see, my brother is convinced that he's going to marry Demi someday since she is his age and all. So we went to the state fair and I took him to the Demi concert. We had pretty good seats right up by the front, so that was fun. I mean, concerts are fun no matter who they are, right? I did like it and my brother says he'll send me her songs for Zunii. I hope he remembers to do that...

I told you I haven't been up to much, and I really was telling the truth...but I guess that's just how summer is sometimes. Soon enough, fall will come, and then winter. Well, no, I take that back. The days until September 8th seem to be dragging. So it's not soon, but fall will come eventually. haha

Well, anyway, I've rambled too long for now.

Here's to Peace, Love & Rubik's Cubes That Look Like Daisies
~Lola

So I Really Need To Stop Procrastinating...

Last weekend was Ignite in Chicago. I've been stalling blogging about it because there's so much to say...I guess I'll just start at the beginning and when I get to the end, I'll stop.

So I love Chicago. Just for the record. I intend to live there someday. Not sure if I will, but I really hope to. Anyway, the trip there was fun. After checking into the hotel around 11 in the morning, we got pizza at Giordano's. Oh I forgot to say the car got a flat tire. It got fixed though during lunch. Anyway, we left straight from the pizza restaurant to the concert. We missed the first few bands, but we didn't know of them, so it worked out that we got to the baseball stadium just as Fireflight started their set.

After Fireflight came Disciple; I'm not very into music that loud, so I went to wait in a 30-minute line to meet Fireflight.

After that came Matthew West. Not my style either.

Then came Mark Schultz. I regret to say that I like him a whole lot less after seeing him live. He had no...no passion for what he was playing and looked extremely bored the whole time. And you had to pay if you wanted to meet him. Needless to say, I wasn't paying a penny to meet him, even though I used to love his music.

After him came Jeremy Camp. Still not quite my style, but he was very good and afterwards, when I met him, he was extremely nice.

Then came TobyMac. His show was quite flashy, but very entertaining. We had to leave early though, since his show ran later than scheduled.

The second day was the one I was more interested in. We got the stadium as Tenth Avenue North was just doing their sound check. I got to meet some of the bands that had played earlier that day, simply because they looked so sad sitting at their table, Sharpies in hand, with nobody wanting to meet them. They were very nice though.

After Tenth Avenue North, I went up to the front to go see KJ-52. He was definitely fun to hear. Afterwards, my amazing brother had waited in line the entire show for me to meet KJ since the lines were nearly 100 people long before the end of the rapper's set. So I got to meet KJ, but only for about 30 seconds and when my brother tried to get a picture of me with him, the two annoying girls ahead of us jumped in right in front of me. I did happen to get a really cool picture of him though.

After KJ came BarlowGirl. I'm really sorry to anyone out there who loves them, but BarlowGirl is one of those bands I just can't stand. My brother got to meet them, but I didn't even pay attention to their set.

After BarlowGirl came Family Force 5. Now, my relationship with their music is a bit love/hate. Sometimes I love it, but most of the time, it gets on my nerves. They're still 6th on my list of favorite bands though, and luckily, that day I was in the "love" mode. They're very into the show of it all, but they're also very good at what they do, so it was a great set, and I really liked it! My brother was once again amazing (and he hates them anyway haha) so he waited at the beginning of their line for me. I think it might have been the most exciting [non-Relient K] moment of the entire trip when I finally got to the table to meet them. For this one, I do have a picture. Well, sorta.

They didn't allow pictures with the band, so I had to take a picture of the band. [fangirl moment] See?? That's Chappy right across that table!!! :DDD[/moment] I got Dance or Die signed. The strange security guard person wearing a suit and tie tried to make them sign the back. I flipped it over when he wasn't looking so they signed the front.

During all this waiting in line and getting CD's signed by FF5, I missed the first two songs of Skillet. Fortunately, that's all I missed. Their show was quite amazing and I loved it! They sang pretty much all the best songs from Comatose (besides "Falling Inside The Black"...) and both their new songs. I wanted to pre-order their CD, but by the time I reached their booth they'd sold out of pre-order cards. I guess that's what the internet's for.

After Skillet, came the undisputed best part of the entire weekend - Relient K! Forgive the unusually frequent use of exclamation points throughout this paragraph. They started off the show with one of my favorite songs, "Chapstick, Chapped Lips, and Things Like Chemistry" They played some of what I consider their best songs, like "There Was No Thief" and "I Need You" Unfortunately, they only played one of their new songs, "Forget And Not Slow Down", which I gladly know all the words to, thanks to Matt Thiessen posting the official ones! I was right up near the front of the stage for their show and it was amazing! I got 29 pictures of the band, and if anybody leaves a comment asking for it, I'd be glad to send the link to the album.

They didn't meet the fans, so I didn't get my drawing signed, or my FiveScore cover signed, or my Mmhmm cover signed, or my hat signed, or anything signed for that matter. I was also going to do the big reveal of the first picture of me ever on this blog thing, but I didn't even get a picture with them, so that didn't pan out. Guess you'll just have to wait to know what I look like until I finally do get a picture with John Warne...

After Relient K came Third Day. They're not my favorite band (that would be Relient K) but they are pretty good. We had to leave halfway through their show though since we only were staying the one night in the hotel, and had to drive home straight from the concert. The whole trip home, I spent texting my best friend which was fun. I think I'm finally getting faster with the whole "qwerty keypad" thing. Not as fast as I can type on Lappy, but maybe someday. haha

So that's the update. It was an amazing weekend, and I highly recommend you see the following bands live: Relient K, Skillet, Family Force 5, TobyMac, and KJ-52.

Here's to Peace, Love & Chicago-Style Pizza.

~Lola