Tour, clothes, and more about my favorite security guard.

Stress for being about to leave for tour aside, I've been having an awesome week.

I'm a freak who loves organizing my life by to-do lists and being able to cross things off, one after another, and there has been plenty of that this week. I started packing for tour early so my floor is covered with all these different piles. There's the "electronics and cables" pile, the "travel sized funthings I bought at Target this week" pile, the "decide which books to bring because you can't bring seven, Kristina" pile, the "don't forget to bring me because you need me for your shows" pile, and then the pile of clothes I'm sorting through and deciding which to bring.

The problem with packing for a month is that you have to bring clothes you like enough not to get sick of them after a few weeks, but also not clothes you like SO much that you'll be disappointed if you ARE sick of them once you're home. I had this trouble in London last summer; I still feel a mild aversion to most of the clothes I had with me there because they were all I had to pick from for two whole months.

Then there's the trouble of having to decide what I want to wear to VidCon, or the Infinitus Ball, or to the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, this far in advance.

I am such a girl. This is such a girly post. I am going to talk about something that's not clothes now.

So recently I made friends with Kaleb Nation (seriously the best name on the planet) from YouTube and he found out that I don't watch the Shaytards. And he said to me, "I can't believe you don't watch the Shaytards!"

So I subscribed. And it's only been about a week of following this wonderful family's lives but I am completely hooked. I honestly feel like I've been missing out on some huge YouTube family gathering of sorts. Like I'm a black sheep of the YouTube community because I don't already know everything about Shay and his wife and kids.


It feels weird in my house right now. PJ is moving out in a few days, which sucks because she's been my favorite female roommate thus far (aside from Eia obviously). After she's gone, Justin is actually going to be taking her old room and some new guy is going to move in downstairs. So everyone is packing this week.

Yesterday I went tubing down the Cedar River with a bunch of my friends, and the water level was higher than ususal, so I did a lot more arm-paddling than I anticipated. I'm sore in places I didn't even know could get sore, like my upper-side-ribcage area. There was one spot on the river where my tube got caught momentarily on a branch and the current knocked me into the absolutely freezing water -- my friends Colin and Justin had the pleasure of seeing it happen (because they were slightly ahead of me) and they said the look of pure shock on my face was one of the funniest things they'd ever seen. Jerks.

Anyway, it was a nice way to spend one of my last afternoons in Seattle. It's kind of funny. For the last four years, Seattle has felt more like a landing station, or like home base, than it ever really felt like home. The entire time I was in college I felt like the time I spent in Seattle was sort of just my down time between adventures - I never had that real connection I felt in high school, when I was working on musicals and sang in choir and all those things I used to do.

But things have been really great here lately. Seattle really does feel like home to me right now, and even though tour is going to be Amazing with a capital A, I am feeling a slight hesitance to leave all of the new friends I've made and opportunities I have in front of me.

Those things will still be here for me when I get home though, and this summer is going to be so great. VidCon, Infinitus, going to the Harry Potter theme park, spending all summer with my best friend, some of my favorite wizard rock people, checking a few more states off my list of places I've never been... I'm feeling super lucky right about now.

Today I felt really guilty - remember the adorable old man who works as the security guard at my bank? He now smiles super, super wide every time I go to deposit a check and says, "It's really great to see you again." That means he remembers me, and likes it when I stop in. I felt so bad, knowing it would be over a month until I'd be back, I actually told him today that I was leaving. He was opening the door for me on my way out and he goes, "See you soon! Always a pleasure!" ...and I couldn't just leave.

So I said, "I'm going away for a little while on a trip. I'll be back in a month though, I promise." I instantly felt dumb, like, "Hey security guard man, you wont get to open the door for me for a whole month, how will you survive?"

But he frowned a little and said, "Aww, that's a shame. Well, have a really great trip. I'll see you when you get back!"

I love him. It's strange, because all we've ever really said to each other are very generic standard pleasantries, but I think seeing each other every few weeks brightens his day as much as it brightens mine. The world is a weird place. I wonder if he has other favorite bank-goers. I hope so, he's a nice old man who deserves to be smiled at.

I'm going to try really hard to keep up with blogging while I am on tour. I am saying this here, right now, so that I feel guilty later when I'm on the road and the temptation is there to not blog about my experiences. Oh future Kristina, I will not allow you to be lazy!



Last google search: octopus with coconut shell
Chipotle burritos: 12