dear friend

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

so.

it turns out i have some really good friends.

thank you all. really. thank you.

you know who you are.

and to you, oh-so-many-miles-away friend … get over here. now.

methinks it’s time for a hug.

please and thank you.

xoxo,

me

 

Best. Night. Ever.

All smiles, originally uploaded by otherjackson5.

What else can I say but that?

Seriously, people. The night kicked ass in so many more ways than I can type here. You’d have to hear my stories in person so you can see me blush when I tell you that I touched Mikel Jollet of The Airborne Toxic Event.

Not once. Not twice. Not three times.

People. This is big.

I touched him at least a half dozen times.

And I liked it.

A lot.

I was over-the-moon excited for the concert and had no idea, NO IDEA, it could end up being as kick ass as it did. My friend Amy and I got there a little early, but not too early. There were a lot of people in front of us in line for the general admission show, so I figured we’d get a spot on the floor, maybe several rows back from the barrier. But when we got inside, we walked straight up to the stage and were behind only one row of people.

And then.

After the opening acts finished, several women left the show because they had come just to see MONA, which, by the way, also kicked ass and I got a drumstick from that show.

I moved up to the barrier.

Front and center.

Mikel Jollett of The Airborne Toxic Event was RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.

And not only that, but he walked up to the barrier right where I was standing and hopped up on it and used my shoulder to jump down in the crowd with us and then came back up to the wall right with me to get back up on stage. Then at the end he did a little high-five thing with several of us in the front.

I seriously needed that night.

Wow. Just wow.

It really did kick ass.

Side note: If only I had my real camera … but these fun, blurry shots are from my old iPhone … and while they don’t really do justice to how close I was to the band members, they are still fun in their own way. Hipstamatic pics add a little quirky surprise to each shot and I love them, even if the lighting was HORRIBLE in there. I was surprised how bad it was. Several times the band members were in total darkness. You couldn’t tell where anyone was on stage. It was so odd. I’d never seen anything like that in my life. But still, an amazing, amazing night and one I won’t soon forget.

tonight

I’ve posted this before but GAWD I LOVE IT SO MUCH and I’m seeing them tonight and the song just hurts to listen to even though I love it with every fiber of my being.

“You just have to see her. You just have to see her. You just have to see her. You just have to see her. You just have to see her, you know that she’ll break you in two.”

Such an emotional song. I hope they play it tonight.

And if they do, I just may lose it.

i’m going places

so the idea is this. soon-to-be divorced mom of three young boys finds herself wanting to live life to the fullest and to be, ohmygod, happy. so she comes up with this plan and thinks, hell, maybe others would want to follow along. why not a blog or a travel show (i didn’t say reality show. don’t go there) based on her journey as she figures it all out. seems so self-absorbed, right? ha. IT IS. it’s all about me. and it would be called “watch me as i go.” and you’d be hooked cause you want to do all the same things but you’re scared to admit it. so bah. here’s a little about how it goes and why i’m where i am and how the love in my heart makes me want to scream to the world … and why i refuse to take any bullshit. life’s too short. and i got places to see and things to do and dreams to chase and kids to raise. i got a life to live. to the fullest. let’s do this.

So it’s at that moment you throw your head back, your most honest, real, intimate laugh pouring from your entire body, that you realize …

… this is it.

I’m going to be OK.

How about this note to self:

I made the leap of faith and survived. I have healthy kids who are loud and energetic and annoying in every way and that’s good. I love music. I love good food. I make shit happen for me and others. I can hold onto relationships with people even when it seems impossible or insane. I can be funny or serious. I can bake a mean whoopie pie. I know how to have fun. For real. I take pictures of lovely things that I want to remember and share. I sniff books and magazines because I absolutely adore the smell of ink on paper. I’m going to travel and see new things. I am no spring chicken but I faced my fears and jumped off a 20-something-foot cliff into a canyon of ice-cold glacier water … and I didn’t die.

Yeah.

I am kinda kick ass.

And you can just watch me as I go.

So this is the deal. This is where we are. This is what we’ve become.

This is me.

This is me and you.

You are there. I am here.

We are still.

And you know, that’s OK.

Society makes us feel bad about ourselves with shitty advertising that makes us feel too fat, too ugly, too poor. We feel like we should live there, not here. Eat this, not that. And then take this pill to make it all better. We overthink things and then don’t think enough about things. We’re all over the damn place but we know where we want to be… but  barely ever know how to get there.

So how do we get there? How do we chase down the things we need to be happiest? How do we grab hold of them when they are right there in front of us, staring us down?

Sometimes we do. Sometimes we don’t.

And then.

Our peers make us feel like we shouldn’t brag too much when we do succeed or become happy about something that floated into our lives unexpectedly. But wait. We also shouldn’t let that damn little black raincloud follow us around if things are not going well. And shit. If the storm does hit? Well, take cover and keep your mouth shut. Nobody likes a whiner.

So what is it today?

Happy? Sad?

Smile? Frown?

How about this. Screw all of it. I’ve got a new mantra. A new happy place. I’m doing my best to toss all that worrying about what y’all think and want me to do and be and I’m going with it. I’m being me. And did I mention …

… I am kinda kick ass.

And you can just deal with it.

Of course, this is totally tongue-in-cheek. But it’s high freakin’ time we all felt kinda kick ass. Don’t you think?

So if you can take all this and not feel threatened, by all means, come along for the ride. If not, step aside, sweet thing. I’m on my way out.

so it turns out i’m always right …

… or so I like to tell myself.

But in this case, well, you know.

So, who had the passport, you ask?

(Ha, ha. I know there really are only two or three of you out there really reading this, and you already know how it turns out, but let’s be honest. I’m really writing this for me so I can remember the story when I’ve completely lost my mind, in, oh, about 6 months or so …)

Let’s just say my gut was right.

It turns out the man, the American who ran down the alleged wallet nabber? Well, I did know him. Or I had seen him before at least.

You see, I had been working backstage during our convention and this guy was the person we hired to help us find and book our talent for our show. I had stood next to him, said hi to him, smiled at him and hustled by him, oh, probably 20 times or more.

I knew his face was familiar!

So from what I gather, when he and his wife realized they had my passport, he looked on Facebook to find me, still not realizing I was an employee with the company he had been working with. He looked for my name and asked his son to send me a message through Facebook. I never got the message.

Meanwhile, I had told my boss, Jo Lynn, who I thought it was, and she tried calling him and we emailed him. But he was on a train to Paris, and wasn’t receiving emails right then.

But all ended well. He and his wife did the right thing after all, and I didn’t have to spend hundreds of dollars extra to take a train to Bern. I did, unfortunately, lose my money on the night I didn’t stay at the hotel in Paris and I had to buy another train ticket to replace the one I didn’t take the night before. Still, losing a couple hundred dollars was better than losing my mind.

Which I almost did.

But it made for a fun story, no?

Do you have no idea what the hell I’m talking about? Read Part 1, Part 2 and yes, Part 3 to get a clue.