Lippy Stuff

Day 3 down, and ACL 2010 is over. Well, technically The Eagles are still playing, but three days in the sun, heat and ragweed and a lackluster lineup for this evening had us heading out the gates around 7:30pm. Oh, and I'm old. If you've paid attention to my previous posts you may be noticing a theme.

True confessions? Today was not awesome. The fact that my allergies were in overdrive certainly didn't help, but the lineup was disappointing. There were, however, a couple of surprises. We caught the last half of Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue. Wow, talk about energy. That guy can PLAY the trombone. We also caught Portugal: The Man, which was pretty darn good. Oh, and by caught I mean we laid down in the shade near the stage and snoozed a bit. Seriously, three days of this is exhausting. Not to mention the fact that we biked there and back each day.

My favorite show of the day was the White Rabbits. I picked up their latest album earlier this year and it quickly became one of my favorites. I was super stoked to see them on the ACL lineup, and they did not disappoint live. The only disappointment was the crowd's lack of enthusiasm, but I'll cut them some slack since it was Day 3 and an early show.

I'll be uploading pics this week (not tonight...tonight I drink a cocktail or two) and will share them once I have them up. And until next year, rock on!

Day 2 is over. Whew. I think I'm getting to old for this. Today's favs were Broken Bells, LCD Soundsystem, Temper Trap and MUSE. Matt and I saw Muse at ACL back in 2006 when they were lesser known and played a much smaller stage, and a thousand OMG's, it was the best show I've ever seen. Hands down. All I can say is if you ever get the chance to see them live DO IT. And while I know I said I would wait until after the weekend to post pics, I had to share one from the MUSE show because it was just that awesome.



I had to sacrifice the Deadmau5 show to get close for MUSE, and I have to say I think I missed a freaking awesome show. Sadness. And while I got some sweet shots of MUSE being so close (thank you, Mr. Stool), it was packed so tight I could hardly move. That kind of killed my MUSE buzz, because for me MUSE = DANCE!!! Such are the first world dilemmas of ACL.

And finally, weird incident of the day. I got hit on at the LCD Soundsystem show, and I'm pretty sure he was under 18. It's getting harder to tell these days. And that's the second reference to me being old. Anyhow, this dude's gaze was super intense. I felt like he was trying to bore a hole through my face with his laser stare, and at one point it kind of looked like he was leaning in to kiss me. Dude seriously needs to learn the difference between "sorry I bumped into you" and "I want to randomly hook up with you". It reminded me why I had to perfect the "back the hell up off me" vibe, or as my dad liked to say during my single days, I "intimidate men".

Being a woman at any festival type event is extra special when nature calls. Unless you can hold it all day (and if you can may I please have your super power?), you're going to have to break down and use one of those disgusting port-o-potties at some point. Here are a few things I've learned to help make that "experience" more bearable, as well as some other general festival going tips:

1. Take disinfecting wipes to clean off the toilet seat in the port-o-potties. Even if you don't sit, it will help you feel like you're picking up fewer cooties. You can also use them to clean off your hands. If you can't find a travel pack of them, take a few out of the big cannister, fold them up and put in a plastic baggie.

2. Toilet paper. Take it. You are almost certain to pick the port-o-pottie that has no toilet paper because pretty much none of them do.

3. Hand sanitizer. Need I say more?

4. If you wear contacts, take your glasses, a lenses case and solution. You never know when your eyes are going to crap out and reject your contact lenses, and you don't want to have to be led around by a seeing eye person the rest of the day.

5. Water bottle. Hydration is key to surviving any day out in the sun, so take a water bottle and refill often. It also saves you money on buying water every time you need a refill. Also, YAY! Save the planet!

6. Last, but certainly not least, SUNSCREEN. If you're going to be out in the sun all day it should go without saying that you need to put on sunscreen. Apply 30 minutes before going out in the sun, and reapply every couple of hours. Use SPF 30 or higher on your body, and I recommend Neutrogena Age Shield Face sunblock for the face.

Hope these tips help you like they've helped me. Have fun out there!

Well, day 1 of ACL Fest is over, and I decided that tomorrow I will be bringing a stool for me to stand on so I can actually see the stage. What stool, you may ask? Why this one:

Let me tell you, being short sucks, and being short at a concert kind of makes you wonder why the heck you forked over so much money to stare at the back of people's heads. Hopefully this should help me get my money's worth.

My favs of the day were Spoon (AWESOME!), The Black Keys, and Miike Snow. I could have used a dance partner for the Miike Snow show (Andrea T???). I'll post pictures at the end of the weekend. Although Matt had to take most of the pics today since, as previously mentioned, I couldn't see squat.

I caught Matt experimenting with accessories. I'm not sure if polka dots are really him, though.

It's hard to believe it's only been three weeks since we said goodbye to Abi. It feels exponentially longer than that. It's impossible to put into words how her loss has impacted me. Believe me, I've tried. There's just this nagging, lonely emptiness; an emptiness I didn't see coming, that hit me like a freight train barreling down the tracks. I'm not sure what I expected this to feel like. I honestly didn't really allow myself to think about it. I couldn't. If I had there would have been no way I could have made such an impossible decision, one that needed to be made for her.

These three weeks without her have shown me a lot about myself. She made me a better person. Maybe to some that seems silly, but loving her and taking care of her opened my heart. In many ways I'd say she saved me from myself, forced me to keep my heart open in times when I could have easily sealed it off. She got me out of bed in those time when I felt like I couldn't go on. I'm so thankful I had her in my life.

Now it's time to move on. Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have this ache in my heart for her for a long time. That's just how it goes when you open your heart to love. But Matt and I are ready to experience that happy puppy love again, and we can't stand the emptiness in our house when we come home from work every day. No, no dog will ever replace Abi; it would be impossible to do that and we would never try. However, we're ready to hear the pitter-patter of puppy claws in our house again, so we hope to be sharing pictures of our new family member sometime in the near future. Stay tuned.

After everything we'd been through last week Matt and I needed to escape the emptiness of our house, so we packed up and headed to a nearby state park for a spontaneous camping trip Friday night. We arrived at the park after dark and took the first, most secluded spot we could find. Little did we know that our "secluded" spot was two spots over from Loud and Stupid.

Matt had recently acquired a 2-person camping hammock, a hammock made from parachute material and designed to sleep 2. We decided that the cool evening would be the perfect time to try it out. After setting that and its special mosquito net up, we settled into our hammock to relax. We chatted for a while and must have drifted off (in spite of Loud and Stupid over there), because the next thing I knew Matt sat straight up, which is quite a feat in a hammock, and screamed "What the hell!" I instantly bolted awake, trying to figure out what was going on. Suddenly I felt something moving underneath the hammock, and heard growling just to the left of my head. I freaked out. Which made Matt freak out even more.

What happened next is both funny and terrifying. Imagine the two of us, taco-ed up in a hammock, Matt whipping his windmill arms trying to hit whatever it was that was "attacking" us while I screamed at the top of my lungs, swinging my arms with equal furry. We're both blind and unable to reach our glasses or a flashlight. All the while something is growling at us from the dark and moving around under our hammock. Additionally, I'm thinking in my head, "Hey, I'm screaming like I'm being murdered and NOBODY is coming to see if we're OK. We are screwed." At just about that point Loud calls out to his dog to "get over here". Jack-ass left his dog off leash in the middle of the night and he'd wandered over to our site, presumably to sniff out the armadillo we'd seen earlier. I'm sure this incident lasted only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. I have never felt such an intense fear in my entire life.

It took us both a good hour to fall back asleep, what with all the adrenaline coursing through our veins. That and the fact that every sound we heard now felt like a threat to our humanity. I still feel a bit traumatized from the whole experience even though I know we were never in any real danger. Fear that intense tends to leave a mark on you. I'm a bit nervous about our next camping experience, and I can promise you there will be no scary stories around the campfire.