This Is Halloween

HAY GUYZ! So I'm really excited because it is OCTOBER and that means HALLOWEEN is coming up! My family (mostly my mom) was always super into Halloween growing up, and our house was always decorated with ghosts and ghouls. I already decorated my apartment similarly just on a lesser scale. I have pumpkin lights hanging outside and ghost lights hanging inside with a little skeleton sitting on the cabinet. Plus I have pumpkin spice candles and cinnamon apple oils for my warmer thing. I AM SO EXCITED! Also, I got to wear my boots the other day. They are seriously my favorite pair of shoes I've ever owned. I bought them last year and almost cried when I found them. Hahaha. Everything is awesome right now. (I just watched The Lego Movie with the kids I babysit tonight.)

The only thing I'm not excited about is that Neewollah, the big Halloween festival in Independence, KS every year, is not on the weekend that I thought it was this year. I'm really distraught, actually, because I had planned on going back for it as usual because my whole family comes back to celebrate. Plus there's parades, Halloween costumes, DOGS IN HALLOWEEN COSTUMES, cotton candy, corn dogs, and the CARNIVAL. UGH WHY CAN'T I GO THIS YEAR?! It's because I'm a musician in a band, and made prior commitments the weekend after when I THOUGHT Neewollah was this year, and is also the weekend that it ACTUALLY is. UGHHHHHHHHHHHH. Oh well, I guess. I'm still going home the weekend I thought that it was to hang out with my immediate family. AND MY DOG. Oh my GOSH I CAN'T WAIT TO SEE MY DOG. Bunker is the best. I always look forward to him running around the house and jumping on me and not leaving my side for the whole time I'm home again. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH. Plus he gets to sleep in my bed when I'm home. Except he hogs the bed. Bunker is a bed hog. I always shove him over, but somehow he always ends up right next to me, which is fine, but DANG, BUNK. GIVE ME SOME ROOM.

That's about all I have to write about right now. We have a show tomorrow night in Girard, and hopefully it doesn't rain since it's outdoors. That would be bad. Very, very bad. So fingers crossed it goes well! And then after the show, we're heading back to Kansas (not that we won't already be in Kansas) to see our families! AKA My parents and MY DOGGY!!!! AHHHHHHHH <3 at="" face.="" his="" i="" look="" mean="" p="">

Expect more pictures of him this weekend. YAY! Okay bye! 

A few things...

Okay so there's a few things going on that I'd like to write about.

First of all, last night Luke and I went to Tulsa to The Vanguard to see House of Heroes. HoH were amazing as always, but the thing that really bothered me was the way The Vanguard handled the show. There was next to no promotion whatsoever. There was an event page with three TBA local acts. We couldn't find any information on who was opening the show until we got there, and there wasn't ANYONE. Isn't that the venue's job to book locals on a show like that? Answer: IT IS. I was super pissed because 1. it meant that we had a good shot of opening up the show, but I didn't even TRY to get booked because I assumed they would have LOCAL TULSA BANDS on the show, and 2. because it meant there was a way smaller draw because of it. House of Heroes is probably the most solid band I've ever witnessed live. They put their heart and soul into the music they play on stage literally every time I see them. It's ridiculous how fantastic they are, and I feel like The Vanguard showed them so little respect with the way the show went it wasn't even funny. The good part was that literally everyone in that room was there for HoH. It was an insane show because EVERYONE cared, and was singing along. It was one of the most surreal experiences hearing all 50 or so kids in the room singing House of Heroes at the top of our lungs. I wish they could have had more people there to appreciate them, but whatever. They put on a GREAT show, and were able to play for over an hour. It was amazing. And since there were no openers, Colin opened the show with some excellent acoustic tunes, and ended his set with Mirrors by JT. So that was really sweet. We chatted with them afterwards, and it was just super cool. I love those guys!


The next thing I want to talk about is my will to get healthy! I started to watch my calorie intake and stay away from pop and fast food, and I've been working out regularly. I've lost 8 pounds since last week, and it's been amazing. I feel so much better, and I can fit in clothes I wasn't able to fit into before. I still have a ways to go, but I'm getting there, and this time I'm not giving up. I finally sucked it up and bought a scale, and now I have a way to track my results, so I can hold myself accountable. I AM SO EXCITED.

And finally, we recorded Gravity Hill. IT SOUNDS FREAKING AMAZING. I can't WAIT to share it! We're still trying to figure out how and when we'll release it, but hoping for sometime around the end of October. It is a creepy song anyway.

Okay well that's it for today.

TL;DR The Vanguard sucks, House of Heroes RULE, I'm getting healthy, and a new OCN song is coming.

Home Sweet Home

I LIVE IN A BETTER AND BIGGER PLACE NOW. WOOHOOOOOO. We moved everything over here the past couple of days, and holy wow. I am exhausted, sore, and sleepy, but this place looks SWEET. Maybe sometime I'll put up some pictures. HOPEFULLY.

Oh yeah, and I GRADUATED COLLEGE on Saturday! I am DONE WITH SCHOOL FOREVER. HALLELUJAH.

I'm wearing my Perry the Platypus shirt, and I went to Walmart tonight. While walking around the aisles I passed a child who was probably 3 or 4 and his mother. As I walked past them the little boy turned to his mom while pointing to my shirt "Mom!! Pewry...Pewry the Platypush!" It was seriously the cutest thing ever. Oh my gosh. Thanks, little child, for making me smile while doing my weekly grocery shopping.

Is that a challenge?!

I just read something on Facebook about #100HappyDays or something like that where you post something that makes you happy for 100 days. I can already tell you that's not going to happen. So what I will do is just post 100 things that make me happy whenever the eff I feel like it. I feel like it's important to remind myself of things that make me happy quite frequently because the world is kind of a scary place sometimes. So let's think positive!

1. Family - Pretty obvious.

2. Friends - Also pretty obvious.

3. Dogs - They're so full of love and fun, and are carefree. "Whoever said diamonds are a girl's best friend never had a dog." <--boom .="" p="">
4. Giraffes - I seriously can't look at a giraffe without feeling pure joy. They're so beautiful and awkward, and I. Love. Them.

5. Baby animals - Who doesn't love baby animals? If you don't love baby animals, you're kidding yourself.

6. Phineas and Ferb - That show is hilarious. The whole Perry the Platypus vs Doofenshmirtz thing is my favorite.

7. Disney - Walt Disney said, "Laughter is timeless, imagination has no age, and dreams are forever." It's my favorite quote, and I hold it dear in my heart. I love Disney. They taught me to never lose hope and to always dream big and that one day I will find my "Prince Charming" if I just believe. Spoiler alert--I did.

8. Summer - The heat, the long days, the warm nights, fireflies, NO SCHOOL. Yeah. It's great.

9. The Beatles - The perfect soundtrack to my life.

10. The beach - Feet in the sand, staring off at the ocean, feeling the mist on my face, and the smell of sunscreen.

That's all I'm doing for now. I'm laying in an awkward position and don't feel like continuing on at the moment.

To be continued... 

Adventures in New England

I forgot that I haven't updated this yet. Last week I took a random trip to the New England states with Kerosene Records to deliver some shirts to a church in Maryland. Long story short, big client, big order, short notice, FedEx is unreliable. So we drove it there ourselves. I shall tell my story in pictures.

Hitting the road with Luke, Josh, and Jerry the Giraffe! 19 hour road trip! 

 Luke is not thrilled to be in the car this long.

Hey St. Louis. Someday I'll stop and visit.

Jerry is STOKED to be on the road again.

So many jankalicious bathrooms. Hahaha.

 It snowed SO MUCH that we literally could not see 10 feet in front of us.

Seriously. Look at that.

 It's supposed to be SPRING.

Decided to make the trek to NYC since it was so close to Maryland already.

Times Squareeee

It's the Macy's building

Why are these out of order?

Empire State Building. --Side story. Luke asked "Is this the building that Donkey Kong climbed?" HAHAHAHAHA. Yes, Luke. Yes. That's who climbed it. 

Luke with Paul McCartney's guitar! 

Took another side trip to Philly on the way home. 

This is Josh.

VISITED GRACEEEEEEEEE. 

My favorite picture of me and +Luke DeWitt 

Stopped in Pittsburgh to see some of Josh's friends on our trip back home. Looks so pretty!

THE LIBERTY BELL! Why is this so out of order? JEEEEEZE. Also, for those of you that don't know, it was free to get inside to see it.

Luke at the Liberty Bell! I could fix the order, but I'm too lazy. 

Since this is my year of adventure, I decided I should probably go ahead and make the trip. It was basically free for me -- I just had to pay for my food -- so why not? 

That's all, folks. 

Tonight We Feel Alive

There is a very large majority of my friends that are in bands. It's kind of ridiculous, and I wish that I could share every single one of them with you. That would take like thirty three million years, though. So for now, I will just share the most recent release from some friends formerly from Somewhere South of Perfect. Their new project is called Glasshouse, and it rules. Here's a link to their music. You can download it fo' free. CHECK IT OUT, YO. 
http://www.noisetrade.com/glasshouse