Bank of America Really DOES Suck

Interesting. I include the words "Bank of America sucks" in the midst of a post about my weekend and suddenly my internet traffic increases by about 150%. Not a lot of love lost for this institution huh?

Hey look, there's even a twitter account: @BofA_FuckYou

Oh modern technology, how I adore you.

P.S. For anyone that actually cares, my debit card was actually found. Apparently I dropped it at my school's homecoming game. Not that it really matters because it's already been canceled but at least I know it's not in the hands of some creepy creeper.

What Goes Up...

... Must Come Down (Or, Things That Happened This Weekend).

1.) Food Poisoning. Or something. Something awful and horrible and it might be awhile before I can look at a hamburger the same way again.

2.) My friend Melissa flew in from Chicago to hang out for the weekend. I drove to LAX to pick her up (while still suffering from the food poisoning mentioned above) armed with an entire bottle of Pepto Bismol.

3.) Traffic in L.A. kicked my ass. Melissa's flight got in at 3:45. We didn't get back to my house until almost 8:00.

Dear 405 Freeway,

I hate you.

Love,

Shannon

4.) Melissa, being on Central Time and having just spent four hours on a plane and three hours in the car on the damn freeway, needed food. (My stomach was still attempting to tear it's way from my body, so I was good). We stopped at Sharkey's but the wait was 40 minutes so we decided it would be easier to just go through the In & Out drive thru.

5.) This was not a good idea. Enough said.

6.) The next night (after a day of "haha, oh wait, you mean my In & Out adventure isn't over yet?" fun) we went to the local Community College production of Rent. It was actually pretty awesome and I was pleasantly surprised. I had only ever seen the movie version of Rent and I wasn't huge fan. Needless to say, the stage production = BETTER. One of my sister's friends was in the ensemble and it was a lot of fun to see him up there kicking ass with the singing and whatnot.

7.) On Saturday we attended our Alma Mater's Homecoming Game. Our team won. Yay! (And quite handily too. 38-7). Afterward there was a Festival where they had food and drinks and games and such.

8.) It was our five year reunion so there were a handful of people from our class there. Hardly anyone recognized me. And I'm not super surprised. I didn't have a million friends while I was there and the friends I did have are all scattered around the country and probably not going to make it for a little dinky 5 Year Reunion. Also, I'm 40 lbs lighter and brunette now. I don't look the same. These are good things.

9.) We took a drive down to the coast and had dinner at Duke's in Malibu. The food was delicious and the sunset over the water was gorgeous.

10.) This is where I realized I lost my debit card.

11.) Bank of America sucks.

12.) On Sunday we drove down to Burbank and had lunch with a couple of Melissa's friends, then walked through IKEA and found ourselves wishing for an endless supply of money.

13.) We ended out the weekend on the couch, watching 50 First Dates and Pretty Woman (Commercial free! Thanks USA!) and snacking on Pinkberry yogurt.

14.) We got up at 5:00 this morning so Melissa could get back to the airport on time.

15.) It took me 2 hours to get home. Once again 405 Freeway, see the above note.

16.) Despite the title of this post and the food poisoning and the In & Out drive thru debacle and the lost debit card and the utter FAIL that is the 405 freeway, it was a good weekend.

MELISSA! MOVE BACK!!!

That is all.

What I Did Over My Summer Vacation Part III

Summer is freedom.

At least this is what eighteen years of summer vacations have indoctrinated into my soul. Remember that feeling? The countdown to the final week of school, the flurry of year-book signings and class parties and studying for final exams, the warmth of the sun welcoming you to three months of glorious nothingness? And I say this as someone who did in fact love school - those summer months were perfection personified.

I suppose it helps that when I was ten we moved to Southern California where we had the blessed option of spending entire weekends at the beach or playing outside all day in the usually not too warm sun. Of course, I admit, I was always more of an indoor girl and it was often a fight with my parents to get me to even go outside. (In my mind there was nothing more adventurous and stimulating than that tempting stack of library books I could consume so ravenously. Every Saturday we would have to take another trip to the local library just so I could get another stack of books. There were times when it was difficult to even find books I hadn't yet read I was devouring them so quickly.)

But that in itself was a freedom - to sit in an air conditioned house, curled up in my pajamas all day with a new book or playing Barbies with my sisters (or house or school or "The Floor is Lava" or any other myriad of games we could imagine). There were no worries, no bills or job to think about and stress over. It was simple. Nice. Easy.

Oh those were the days.

But even now, amidst stress and work hours and car payments and rent and grocery shopping and what-the-heck-ever, there are those moments - little perfect pinpricks of time when the sun is warm and the breeze is rustling through the trees and I close my eyes to a wash of honeysuckle and fresh cut grass floating through the air - when summer can still be perfection.

In July I drove the eight hours to Mesa, Arizona to visit one of my best friends and her family. I’ve done this drive before but never by myself and let me tell you, it’s a completely different experience to do it alone. For one, it was completely and utterly boring. Mind-meldingly boring. I understand now why long distance truckers might go insane. Luckily, I had some music and the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book on CD to keep me entertained. I also stopped a lot more frequently than I might if I was with someone else. So yes, round trip it was sixteen hours of alone time and endless stretches of the same scenery and lots and lots of thinking (scary combination). But it was also sort of cathartic -  being out there on the road, with the windows down and the wind in my hair and the radio blasting. The freedom in that is intoxicating. It's easy to get lost in the possibility of going places and meeting new people and driving until the gas tank is empty. (Fortunately, considering the 120 degree temperatures, this did not actually happen). I had a map and a set destination and schedule but in those long stretches of alone, endless highway, it was nice to just get lost, even for a moment, in the fantasy of going somewhere completely new and being someone completely new - as if I had just packed a few belongings, jumped in the car and headed towards whatever direction felt right. Again, I didn't do this, but maybe someday.

Earlier that month I went up to SLO to visit my friend Wendy. We spent that Saturday in her boyfriend's car, driving up the coast with the top down, the wind in our hair, singing along in most cliche fashion to Katy Perry's "California Girls".  After spending some time shopping in Morro Bay and taking pictures of the Elephant Seals in Cambria we went hunting for tide pools and found all kinds of starfish and sea urchins and sea anemones. We were completely unprepared, in our skirts and flip flops, to go climbing and scrambling like little kids over rocks and boulders but we hardly even cared. As the sun began to dip lower into the Western Sky and the ocean stretched out into a deep purple horizon I was suddenly so enthralled by that moment in time. I was a kid again, playing freely and laughing and not wanting any of it to end.

Maybe it's just moments and maybe it's fleeting and maybe high tide eventually rolls in and washes it all away and sends you running for shore but why not enjoy the moment while it's there in hand? I don't want to regret letting anything slip away.

So. Summer of 2010, you've been blissful and beautiful and kind of awesome. I've breathed in deep and watched a sunset and been enlightened by the laughter of children. I've sunk my toes into the sands of the Pacific Shores, sipped smoothies and driven down the coast with the music too loud. I've danced with strangers in Chicago and danced in my underwear in the safety of my air conditioned house.  I've found new strengths and flailed with new friends and written words and shared words. I've drunk wine till I'm dizzy and listened to jazz on a warm night and talked on the phone until my ear was sore. I've traveled by plane, train and automobile and I have LOVED this summer.

Until next year.

It Gets Better

I know I've been posting a lot of videos this week but this needed to be done.

Random Randomness and Stuff

1. I still have one last post in my "What I Did Over My Summer Vacation" series. I have no excuses, I'm just being lazy. But it should be up by the end of the week.

2. Europe According to the United States - This makes me laugh. Unfortunately, as a country, we're self-absorbed enough that it probably IS all too true.

3. Carl Paladino = Douchebag.

4. For the fifth year in a row I will be participating in National Novel Writing Month. I have a vague idea about what I'll be writing about and I'm actually pretty excited about it because I feel all motivated and creative right now. Plus this year I have a friend who is also participating so hopefully we can be cheerleaders for each other. I'll probably have a lot more to say of this subject as that time draws near.

5. Prettiness. Enjoy.

Abed Delivers a Baby

Did you watch last week's episode of Community? Did you notice the entire storyline taking place in the background? Check out the video below if you missed it.

I Have Way Too Much Free Time

Watch the video, then click "Shoot the Bear" or "Don't Shoot the Bear." Have fun.

How do they do it? I don't know. The internet still confuses me. ;)

What I Did Over My Summer Vacation Part II

In August I flew to Chicago to visit my friend Melissa and attend the Lollapallooza music festival. The entire weekend was, without a doubt, one of my tip-top mountain top moments of the summer. It would be impossible for me to really talk about the whole thing without becoming a crazy rambling person. So... just a few notes.

1. There were somewhere upward of a hundred bands, musicians and groups that performed during these three days. We were able to see about twenty of these including: The National, The New Pornographers, Lady Gaga, Arcade Fire, Frightened Rabbit, B.o.B., Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes, Mumford & Sons, The Temper Trap, Matt and Kim, Green Day, Rogue Wave, Grizzly Bear, Switchfoot and Hockey (these are just the ones I can name off the top of my head). Anyone paying attention to some of my music playlists over the past year should know that all those names together were enough to throw me into fits of glee.

2. I don't like humidity. My hair specifically does not like humidity and I ended up having to wear it curly for almost the entire weekend.

3. I could have handled the humidity on it's own but couple that with being outside ALL DAY surrounded by thousands of people who are equally sweaty and sticky? Gross. At the end of each day, the moment we re-entered my friend's air-conditioned apartment it was all I could to not not throw myself into the shower weeping with joy.

4. Cicadas are creepy. And loud. But kind of perfect.

5. Say what you will about her, Lady Gaga puts on a pretty damn good show.

6. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes are one part sixties-throwback, two parts pure love. I fell in love with this band when I first heard “Home” on Community and that song still fills me with lovely fits of joy. And now I think I know why.  Of all the bands I saw that weekend they were the one that seemed to best exemplify the spirit of a music festival. And I do believe that the organizers underestimated the size of the crowd they could draw because we ended up packed in with a couple thousand sweaty fans into a too small venue. (Other than the Lady Gaga concert it was the most "crowded" I felt all weekend). But somehow it just became part of the experience.

And at the end of the show, it was obvious that the crowd didn’t want it to be over and the band ended up coming back out for an encore (the only time I saw this happen over the weekend with a band that wasn’t headlining). The lead singer asked everyone to sit down and miracle of miracles people found a way to do so. He then walked out into the crowd and sang the song “Brother.” It was moving and lovely and for a moment I could almost imagine that it was forty years ago and we were in the middle of the Summer of Love at Woodstock. 

7. It rained on Saturday morning, which made for some pretty muddy conditions. Honestly, I wasn't too horrifed by it through because it felt like a nice respite from the heat (plus it made for thinner crowds) Unfortunately, the clouds burned off fairly early and we were once again left with suffocating humidity and and sweaty crowds of Lollapalooza revelers.

8. Another favorite Lollapallooza moment came at the very end. Arcade Fire closed out Sunday night and it was, for lack of a better term, epic. I can’t imagine another band being more suited for the moment. Arcade Fire already has a grand quality about them with their seven members switching off violin, cello, guitar, drum, keyboard (and on and on) playing duties. When they’re on stage they exude an energy that is completely infectious. Although, I have a feeling that the crowd of thousands they were playing for contributed to the energy on that field. It was the end of three long, hot and tiring days and yet for that hour we all seemed to gather the energy to dance and sway and scream the lyrics together. They last song played at the end of their encore was "Wake Up" and it was absolutely beautiful. Hearing thousands of people belt out in unison the "Oh-ooohs" with crazy abandon was nothing short of breathtaking. And as luck would have it I found a YouTube video of the moment. 



9. I love Chicago. Not that I would ever live there because again - Humidity + My hair = Frightening. But it really is a lovely city. The Thursday before Lollapalooza Melisa and I took the entire day to walk around the city, find some good food and hit up Sprinkles for some yummy cupcakes (yeah, I live in L.A. but it took a trip to Chicago for me to have my first Sprinkles cupcakes).

Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of the city is that it actually has a dependent and useful transportation system. Sounds like a weird thing to love right? But it lends to an unmistakable energy about the city - rumblings of different train lines, the footsteps and chatter of commuters walking to work, blaring taxi horns...  there's life in all that.

Each day we took the train into the city and spent the commute listening to music and watching episodes of Community on our iPhones (and I would choose this over an hours worth of freeway traffic in a heartbeat.) And each night, after an exhausting day of walking and standing around, there was nothing like the relief of sliding into those vinyl train seats and curling up to enjoy the ride home. Saturday may have been my favorite night because we were on the 12:30 am train and most of our riding companions were fellow Lollapallooza-goers or drunk bar crawlers. As you might imagine, this lead to some highly entertaining antics. And lots of singing.

10. Each night of Lollapalooza closes out with dueling headliners. Friday it was Lady Gaga/The Strokes, Saturday it was Green Day/Phoenix, and Sunday it was Arcade Fire/Soundgarden. The acts would play until 10:00 at which time the entire park would spill out onto the streets of Chicago. I'm almost positive that the regular citizens of the city did not much appreciate having tens of thousands of crazy drunk people screaming and singing down the streets. But for me? It pretty much cemented this weekend as one of the most epically beautiful ever.

The last night, after the final strains of Arcade Fire's "Wake Up" drifted off into the night, we directed our achy and tired feet toward the exits. We were sweaty and sticky and covered in beer and mud but we were exhilarated after three days of music and fun and laughter. As we moved with the crowd onto the streets I even half wondered if we would even make it the twelve or so blocks back to the train station (I had been on my feet so long that they were actually swollen in pain). There was a sense of bittersweet melancholy as we walked away from the park for the last time but even blocks away we could still hear the swell of people singing the "Oh-Oh's" chorus of "Wake Up." Maybe it's cheesy but at that moment I felt a sense of camaraderie with these strangers and I knew that I would never forget that moment or the entire three days preceding.

Thanks for the memories Lollapalooza 2010.

My Whole Brain is Crying

This just in: I apparently do not have the same taste in television as the majority of the American viewing public. Actually, I'm sorry, this is not news. Also, the Nielsen Company can kiss my ass.

But I'm not bitter or anything.

Sigh. It breaks my heart that Community doesn't get better ratings. (And if it gets canceled at any near point in time expect devastation from me). This past weeks episode was so perfect and included the following scene which had me CRYING with laughter. I have since watched this about thirty-five times and I laugh every single time. Donald Glover is a comedic genius and Abed, Annie and Troy need to have more story lines together.



WATCH THIS SHOW PEOPLE. DO IT.