Thursday, July 29, 2010

Tour blog #8

Now that I am home, I am having a hard time finding the motivation to finishing typing up the remainder of tour in blog post form. It was such a fun activity while on the road (I would generally get my laptop out in the car and type away the hours it took to get from one city to the next) but here, I am already dealing with this weird post-tour culture shock (and not knowing what to do with myself because jumping right back into my normal rhythm feels wrong) so the prospect of reliving the days on the road has been tough.

But tonight I am going to my parents' house so we can leave early in the morning to drive 6 hours to Spokane (finally, something here at home that will feel normal xD), so I wanted to wrap up tour before my next adventure. So here I am.

Old Bridge, NJ - I had a blast at this show, in part because my and Eia's good friend Colin now lives on New Jersey and came to hang out with us at the show, but also because it was another night filled with awesome people at an awesome library. During the Parselmouth's song "Please Harry", Justin added something new to his bit; there is a part in the song where we threaten to poison Hedwig and he started screaming at us "Noooo! Nooo nooo! I don't think that's funny!" and stamping his feet, and I almost lost it right there in the middle of the song. He also started rubbing his "scar" when he came onstage, and I told him it was just his new membership to the Voldemort fanclub and that the whole scar-hurting thing would pass. We're such dorks.

Someone gave me the coolest necklace at this show! It's a little robot girl with a dangly body, and she's wearing a purple bow, just like my costume in the Don't Unplug Me video. I love it. Cannot even express my amazement at how wonderful people are.

Before I conclude the Old Bridge portion of this blog, I want to point out that as we were bringing our merch and equipment in, I noticed a display set up near the front called "Murder at Sea". Upon further inspection, I realized this was an entire collection of library books involving murder -- on a boat. I had no idea this was such a popular genre.

Also, the library had automatic doors; the kind that are made of glass and just slide open when you walk close enough to them. But this particular library had very low sensitivity automatic doors, because there were a few instances where I walked up to the door, stopped, felt dumb, waited, and then watched as the door slid slowly open at its leisure.

That night we went out to eat at this restaurant that Lauren's parent's swear by, and it was delicious, but the REAL treat that night was when Justin prank called Luke. So Luke finally got his phone replaced from the pool accident, and didn't have any of his old numbers programmed in yet. So Justin excused himself and "went to the bathroom", and then Luke's phone rang. It was a reporter from some NY newspaper, who wanted to do an interview with ALL CAPS the next day. He really had us going for awhile; I think Luke was on the phone for over 5 minutes. He said he'd been talking with Alan for weeks about this interview (for the record, we were SO mad at Alan for a little while there before we realized what was going on) and that they'd rented a room for us, and that they'd rented suits for us to wear… it wasn't until he started asking if we were vegan, or if we'd consider going vegan for the day for the sake of the interview, that Luke realized someone was messing with him. By this point Eia had realized what was going on and told me, and Matt could actually see Justin on the phone from where he was sitting - so all of us were just laughing our asses off, trying not to wreck the joke.

Well played, Justin. Well played.

Poughkeepsie, NY - Our very last show of tour! This show was awesome because I met a few people I'd only ever known online before that day (well, except you Alex/kira902k, since you swear we met at LeakyCon haha), and it was so great to finally be able to put a face to a name. I also met this lovely boy named James whom I have been emailing with that wants to design a dress for me. I think I am spoiled.

Anyway, the show was just as awesome as I would have expected our last show to be. During our last song, Don't Unplug Me, I noticed that not only was there some excellent dancing going on in the audience, but there was some SYNCHRONIZED excellent dancing going on in the audience. A bunch of people had choreographed a dance to the chorus of the song, secretly taught it to a bunch of people at the show, and started an ALL CAPS flashmob! I never even knew to make having a flashmob done in my honor a life goal of mine, but there you have it. Life goal, accomplished.

That night we said goodbye to Kathleen after the show and we were down to six. Then we drove back to Rhode Island, dropped off Justin at his house, and we were down to five.

Saturday - The next morning we went out for brunch with the whole gang (minus Kathleen) and then it was time to drop Eia off at the airport. We took her to Boston, said our goodbyes, and then we were down to four. Which was sad.

However, Matt, Lauren, Luke and I had so, so much fun together the next few days. That night we ordered spaghetti calzones in from Matt's favorite pizza place and they force-fed the first 4 episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Luke and I. I know the first seasons are cheesy and it gets better, but I was actually quite enjoying it and plan to finish the rest at some point, though it would be fun to continue watching it through with Luke. That night we may have started a Buffy drinking game to let off steam from tour, which ended in a hilarious night for everyone.

Sunday - The next morning we slept in, went to Matt's favorite wing place for lunch (because he knows how much I love my Wingzone here in Seattle) and then they took us around the Brown University campus a little bit (mainly the trendy street with fun shops, including their bookstore, an Urban outfitters, and a cute little candy store). Then we went to Matt's favorite little pub, drank a few too many drinks, had the greatest double date of our lives at a place called the Snuggery (seriously) and then went home for a night of video games and eventually packing up our merch for our flights the next day.

Monday (going home) - This was a sad, mildly disorienting day. I got so used to being around everyone on that tour so much, it was hard to let go of that and know that getting on my plane was taking me back to my home, to my very different life, to a place where I spend a lot more time by myself. It was especially hard saying goodbye to Luke, since I spent the most time with him this past month.

On my flight home I tried to read, I watched a bit of that Jennifer Anniston Bounty Hunter movie (bleh) but mostly I thought about the future. I thought about what being done with college means for me, and what I want to accomplish for myself, and what I already have accomplished for myself. I am so thankful to have had the amazing experience that tour was, and I think it came at the perfect time in my life. I really feel like I can accomplish anything right now. So let's hope I'm right.


This is the end of my tour blog series. I'm home now, life is slowly starting to get back to normal - but I doubt my life will ever truly be normal. As if to prove that, I am happy to announce I am going to try my best at BEDA this August. I'm not actually as insanely busy in August as I seem to be the rest of the year, so now seems like a good time to try it again. I hope you'll join me as I attempt to make blogging my priority again! See you on August 1st.

Thank you thank you thank you.

Chipotle burritos: 15
Last google search: "jo rowling"

15 comments:

Jack said...

I'm so glad to hear that you're doing BEDA! I'll being looking forward to your wonderful prose.

Andrew said...

I think I will attempt BEDA as well, seems like a good challenge, thanks for reminding me.

Robb said...

Googling BEDA gives me a websites about the EU and a support group for binge eating...please don't move to europe and try to stay away from eating disorders :)

Everything else will be be awesome because you having tons of awesome people supporting you

Crystal said...

I'm excited to (potentially) read your blog every day for a month! I love your blog. ^_^

The Vagabond said...

So happy and excited that you're doing BEDA!! I love your blog! : )

Jessamyn said...

I love BEDA. It guarantees that I can see other people blog! My first year doing it through, and I almost forgot about it, so thanks for that! It's got to be making you crazy not knowing where things are going, but in the end there is about a 98.267% chance you'll be happy and well off.

Alex Dahlberry said...

:D I'm happy we managed to create and complete one of your life goals with the flash mob. I just had my goal of being mentioned in your blog checked off, so I think we're even.

Unless you let me be your merch girl on your next tour. I'm still up for that. :P

Oh, and I really disliked Season 1 of Buffy, but I'm finishing the last TV season tonight, and I love it so much I plan on reading season 8 and 9 in comic book form (Joss Whedon draws/writes them, I believe).

And, yay BEDA! I'm doing it too. :D

-alex

Erin said...

Oh my goodness! I'm a high school student, and I spent a month at Brown University earlier this summer for their Summer@Brown program... I wish I had been there when you were there! I know exactly the places you mentioned... it would have been the most fun thing in the world to see you guys there XD

Azucena Paloma Garza Garza said...

Yay! With you and Hayley doing BEDA, I'll have a guaranteed highlight everyday for a month. Your blig is awesome, Kristina.

I know how hard it is to say good-bye. Cheer up and think about the next Avatar series! Or something else xD hugs!

Azucena Paloma Garza Garza said...

And by "blig" I meant blog, haha.

Megha Patel said...

Yay! I'm super happy you're going to be doing BEDA!

I loved hearing about your tour experience and actually getting to go to one of your shows! It was so much fun. I was in the Decatur, Ga one. I kept coming up to you and Luke (probably like five times :/ ) because I forgot to get things signed by you and all this other stuff. Sorry if I was bothering you! But I had a ton of fun.

I'm sure you can do anything because you've already done such amazing things! You truly are awesome and I'm glad tour was so fun! :D

Anonymous said...

Hey! Just wanted to say I was at the NJ show and it was sooooo good. I have never been to a wrock show before and my expectations were pretty low, I actually thought it would be acoustic guitars, no mics, really laid back... which it so was not. I mean, we blew the roof off of that library.
Also, I was really excited to be there because I have never met a Nerfighter in real life before and it was really cool to be in a room full of Nerdfighters... people just like me... it really really meant a lot to me. I will DEFINITLY be going to a show next time around too. Anyway, I just wanted to say awesome show and thanks!

Stephanie said...

The Duck & Bunny is the cutest place in Providence!! I go to RISD...Brown's neighbor :) Also the hole-in-the-wall burrito places on Thayer Street are far better than any Chipotle...but I heard they're opening one there this fall so we'll see how that competition goes xD

seurat2 said...

Looking forward to your BEDA, and to finding out what's next in your life now that school and tour are over. I know it will be something awesome.

KaraDawlish said...

HAHAHHAHHAHHAHAAAA That was sooooooo unbelievably great. You have no idea. i think that was wonderful for everyone. I left to pick up my friend from the train station before the show, i get back and freaking THE WHOLE AUDIENCE was doing our dance out in the parking lot. I had like 8 people stay at my house after the show, so i thought it would be amazing for US to do it. but they got the whole crowd to learn it. it was just a beautiful time <3 i mean your flailing arms and gaping face when you saw us. teehee. that was kind of great. trying to get lukes attention, while he's over there dancing. You were psyched out of your mind, and he really didn't seem to give =P Great great great greaaat show! i CAN NOT wait to see you guys on tour again sometime soon. I had SO much fun <3