The Good 'Ole Concert Days

I love going to concerts. It's as simple as that. I did not realize how spoiled I was when I lived in the bay area for 4 years having access to ANY and EVERY concert I could hope for.

Now living approximately 3 hours from any large city, my concert viewing has greatly decreased. Don't get me wrong, I am more than willing to travel for a band I love, however over the last few years bands are more commonly preforming on any day of the week...not just the weekends.

The closest concert venue we have is in Santa Barbara (1.5 hours south.) The venus not that big, so the performers that play there are either bands with one hit album, has beens, or Katy Perry since she's local.

We also have concerts once a year at the Paso Fair. If we are lucky they will have a band that we like (Weezer, STP, Velvet Revolver). This year they have yet to announce an act we would like to see...there is one more night free...let's hope it's not another country act.

Occasionally there will be a fluke...like when MGMT played in Avila last year. (I'm actually heading back to the Avila venue next month to see Sheryl Crow play for a fundraiser. Random, I know.)

I currently subscribe to all concert venue newsletters as well as all of the small bands I like HOPING they will play somewhere near by. I'm learning that it is also very common for smaller bands to play festivals...AKA multi day concerts. Most of these take place over a weekend, which is awesome except it's MULTI DAY.

I will painfully admit that I am TOO old to attend a 3 day concert. Ever since I turned 30 I have really felt the physical effects of getting older. Seriously. A simple weekend trip to SF/LA totally wipes me out. If I can't' take that, how could I survive a 3-day concert? Whatever happened to the 1 day concerts back in the 90's? KMEL Summer Jam? Kamp KOME? Anyone? Those concerts were SO AWESOME. Totally exhausting...but they were only 1 day so you had ample time to recover.

It really bums me out that 1 day concerts have now turned into these MULTI DAY 'festivals.' I'm sure most of you have heard of Coachella as well as Outside Lands. I name these two in particular because A) they both have bands I would love to see, and B) they are both in CA and I could possibly attend them...HOWEVER they take place over 3 days. 3 DAYS! Who has the time and money for a 3 day concert? Ok...so I know one person who has the resources, and that is my friend SA. I must say that I am totally pumped that I have at least one friend who is hard core enough to attend these awesome festivals...and that I get to live vicariously through her.

This weekend she will be going to Coachella for a second time. Read about her survival tips here...and read about her experience last year here.

New Blog for You

Greetings to my 7 friends who subscribe to this blog. I have the feeling that my other viewers are long gone as it has (sadly) been 2 months since I posted. Sigh. Blogging became so time consuming for me that I became more and more reluctant to sit down and write. It's supposed to be fun right? An enjoyable hobby? Hopefully it will start to feel that way to me again.

While I'm on this blogging hiatus I do have a new blog for you all to follow. My friend Christine has just joined the blogging world and has challenged herself to post everyday. Seriously! So add The Ravenous Mind to your reader right now. Don't forget to leave her some comments, as of now I look like a total stalker fan because I am the only one who has left any comments.

Note: Check back tomorrow. I'm working on a rant post.

Happy Town

Happy 2011!! What? January is almost over? Where did this month go? How have I not blogged in forever? I swear I keep thinking of things, but no writing has commenced. I don't know what the deal is...I'm lacking some serious motivation. I get some ideas from other blogs, but it doesn't help.

However...I HAD to blog about Oprah's show today regarding the happiest city in America. Did any of you happen to DVR it? I heard a few weeks ago that Jenny McCarthy was in town filming a segment for the show. I have no idea how I missed this opportunity to be riding my cruiser in the background of one of the shots. I would have totally blended in!

Oprah's site did not give me the code to embed the video, so here is the link.

Overall I think the segment was pretty good, but also pretty corny and not everything was 100% true. (If you have time, read the comments underneath the video. Most of them are spot on.)

A couple of observations:
1. We have a bike valet in town? Where is that?
2. I like how they interviewed 1 of the 5 black people we have living in town. Saying SLO is diverse is like saying Fortuna is diverse.
3. There are no jobs here...they did get that fact right. However even though she stated that the medium home price is $400k they did not mention how affordable that actually is for local residents.
4. I also thought it was interesting that Oprah asked how the crime was since my office got broken into about a month ago. (blog to follow).

So tell me...what did you think of the video? Did it look like the happiest city in America to you?

Tasty

Last year for my birthday a group of my friends joined me in going wine tasting for my birthday. It has almost been a year since the day, but I FINALLY finished the video montage!

Wine Tasting

Deck the Tree!

Sorry I have been slacking with the photos this month. I'm starting to feel like Christmas is kicking my butt!! I'm normally on the top of my game, and I think I've been on track with everything...I just think I'm trying to do too much this month. My cookies have been baked for weeks, as well as the Christmas music CDs I made for my co-workers. However there are just a few more handmade gifts that I'm working on that I might have to finish in the car on our way up to Fortuna! There has just been a lot going on and I'm actually looking forward to January for when things will start slowing down.
After some serious harassment from Mrs. Hotlanta I have delivered a photo for her (and you). I will try to post again before we leave town this week, but I'm not guaranteeing anything!

Online Album: Atlanta

I know I've been a bit of a blog slacker this week, but it's not like I'm sitting here on the couch doing nothing. In fact, I just wrote comments and shared the first photo album from my trip to Atlanta. I know most of you are on my photo mailing list, but for those of you who are not, click here to view the album.

Enjoy!

Day 25: Sweet Weekend

We had an action packed weekend that consisted of spending 10 hours at the Happiest Place on Earth and then having little Gigi melt our hearts. Needless to say it was a perfect weekend.

I have a lot more photos to share...hopefully they will get uploaded soon!

Day 24: Bucks

The day after Thanksgiving John and I headed to North County to drive some of his work properties. I think we might have driven 15? Whatever the number was it took all day. One of the best homes John took me to was a HUGE vacation home in Morro Bay. It.was.amazing.

Now I know I didn't take these photos today, but how could I not share them? This shot is from the views in the living room:

Day 23: Beauty #2

It was not my intention to post back to back sunset posts, but after you see the following photos I don't think you will blame me.

John first sent me this photo on his way home from work:Isn't is gorgeous? Once I got his photo I went outside and took a few myself.
I also wanted to see what it would like with my hipstomatic app. I thought it turned out pretty neat.What is crazy is that I left work 5 minutes after taking these photos and the pink was completely gone from the sky.

Day 22: Beauty

So technically I didn't take this photo, but John took it yesterday on his drive home from work. I'm kind of bummed I didn't get to see it in person, but this photo is the next best thing, right?

Day 21: Toss it

What do you do when you don't want to cook another meal before thanksgiving? Go out for pizza of course! As John says...the day before thanksgiving is like the second Superbowl for pizza joints.

The inside of my fave pizza place Woodstalks.

Day 20: Prep

Stuffing?
Check.

Day 19: Newbie

San Luis has yet another coffee shop in town...Kreuzberg Cafe. John and I decided to check it out this weekend and it was pretty good. The atmosphere is really cool with lots of lounging furniture, cool artwork, upside down lamps as lights, and books to buy or swap. It reminds me of a place that would be in San Francisco or Seattle. Hopefully it will have a long life in SLO!

Day 18: Wave

This past Saturday John and I headed to Pismo to one of our favorite breakfast places. After we stuffed our faces we walked down to the beach to check out the surfers. There were quite a few guys out there, with minimal waves. It also had just rained so I was excited there were still some clouds in the sky.

Day 17: LIVESTRONG

On Friday I received my totally awesome new iPhone 4 cover. Check it out!Lance tweeted a twitpic of this cover months ago, and of course they were not for sale to the public. A few months ago I emailed LIVESTRONG and asked them if the cover was going to be sold. I received a general message back saying it wasn't for sale. Dang.

However a week after later LIVESTRONG put the phone cover on the market! I was so excited that I bought it THAT day, but I had to wait a month for it to ship. The flags represent the different countries of the cyclists that are on team Radio Shack, and the 28 represents the 28 million people who are currently living with cancer.

Day 16: Can I help you?

I brought my co-worker Cheryl a hat from The Varsity as a souvenir from Atlanta. I think she is ready to take your order...what do you think?

Day 15: Crack

I went to my chiropractor today as my lower back has been bothering me for quite awhile. This is not the first time it has bothered me either. A few months ago so I was going in and getting it adjusted...however it would only last a week and then it would start hurting again. I eventually stopped going because the vertebrae wasn't staying in place. The pain did go away, but now it is back. Nice.

Here is the waiting room...the thing to the left of the door is a pillow display.)

I am very thankful I went in as I immediately felt the release of tightness once he adjusted it, however I was already sore like a half hour after. I am really hoping it stays into place. The Dr. gave me some exercises to strengthen the muscles around the area, so I've got to start doing them. He had also given me some for my upper back and they have totally helped. Let's hope it works!

Day 14: Plum

A few months ago I bought a GAP coupon on Groupon. I thought it would be no prob to use the coupon in 3 months because I always go to the GAP...right? Nope. I had yet to even go to the GAP over the last few months and my coupon expired on Friday! I panicked and told John we had to go use it ASAP. I still couldn't that it had been at least 6 months since I had been to the GAP. (This is very unusual since my entire wardrobe normally consists of 95% GAP.)

Have any of you been to the GAP recently? If so, have you noticed anything particular about their prices? Maybe that they are EXTREMELY high?? Every sweater, (including turtlenecks), were all around $50, business pants were $65, and plain white t-shirts were $15. Seriously! When did all of their prices get jacked up? I am still completely appalled. Who would pay $15 for a plain t-shirt when you can get the same shirt at F21 for $3? What happened to my fave reasonably priced clothing store? Am I getting that cheap or are their prices way too high?

Regardless of my sticker shock, I did buy this SUPER cute bag! What do you think? I am all about purses with adjustable straps now days that am walking a lot more...and it being plum? It was meant to be.

Day 13: Red and Gold

Sorry for the delay in yesterday’s post…I really had no time. On Saturday we decided last minute to buy tickets to the 49er football game on Sunday. How could we pass that up when we were going to be landing in San Francisco at 11:45am? We were slightly hesitant, as we didn’t know how tired we were going to be, but we decided to bite the bullet as we wouldn’t have another opportunity like this for the rest of the season.

It was really sad saying good by to Rebekkah and the girls. We had such a great visit with them that I didn’t want it to end. Rebekkah really is the hostess of all hostesses!

Overall our flight was pretty bad. We found out when we got there that we would not be sitting next to each other. I’m not sure how that happened as we bought our tickets at the same time. When I was given the chance to chose my seats there were only 10 to choose from. When did all the other passengers get to choose their seats? As far as I know, the airline did not allow for pre-online boarding. It’s bad enough when you have to sit by one person you don’t know, but two? John had this really tall guy next to him who was in his area…granted the dude didn’t have a choice, but still that stinks. I had two younger guys next to me which was fine, except I had two little boys behind me who were totally rambunctious. They were SO loud and constantly kicking my seat and playing with the table. I was happy that the dad was at least trying to make them behave, but it didn’t seem to make a difference. I could not get any sleep because of the kids and John wasn’t able to sleep much either. Unfortunately this resulted in us being pretty tired for the rest of the day and the game. However we were still able to have fun.The 9ers really aren’t that good this year and it was not an easy game to watch. (WAY too many penalties). We decided to leave early to avoid the traffic and the game went into overtime and the 9ers did win, so that is good.

One more photo of the sky on our way home. It was gorgeous!Now back to reality. How much longer do we have until Thanksgiving break?

Day 12: FO

Saturday was our last day in Hotlanta. We didn't do too much...did a little shopping, ran a couple of errands, got the girls photos taken with Santa, and ate some more good food.

The night ended with a dessert stop at The Varsity for their famous Frozen Orange AKA FO. We were introduced to The Varsity and their awesome FO last year and I must admit I was worried I wasn't going to get one this trip, but low and behold the BEST HOSTESS EVER pulled through 10 hours before we were to leave the state. Here is my gigantic FO and it was even BETTER than I remembered.

Here is an added photo bonus for you...the mandatory group photo we had taken before going into the Aquarium.

And.................the group shot from last year. (I am impressed they have changed the background image).