Tour blog #6

Infinitus Day 3 (Saturday) - Not going to lie, this was another serious pool day. We spent the majority of the morning at the pool drinking daiquiris and going down the water slide with the Ministry of Magic guys and Erinn Lewis and Julie and Mark's girlfriend. I'm loosing track of what we did next (as again, the days are all blurring together) but I do remember that my sunburn on my forehead was so bad that I had to go buy a hat to wear just to sit in direct sunlight for a few more hours and not feel like my face was going to melt off. I'm not really a hat person, but I AM a I-like-having-a-face person, so I shelled out $25 for a floral sunhat. And I am going to the Bahamas in about a month, so a hat like that will probably be cool there. Right?

We ate lunch at this little Italian café and since the whole hotel area is Italy-themed, we were also serenaded by a man singing some sort of Italian operatic ballad from a balcony above us. My life is so weird.

That night was the ball, so we all got dressed up before heading over to the other hotel for the party. I wore this little denim dress (I bought it at the mall they held the ANTM auditions at, while waiting in line) with neon paint splatter marks all over it. It was strapless and rather short, so I was very concerned all night. About it falling off. It didn't though, which was a relief.

The ball was pretty fun. Matt and Alex were in charge of DJ-ing, so the music was (mostly) really great. Matt played "Voldemort Fangirl", to which I rolled my eyes at him and refused to dance because it felt weird, but later on in the night Alex played "Don't Unplug Me", where I'll admit I hammed it up when Luke and I jumped onstage and lip synced along well everyone rocked out on the dance floor. We are dorks.

My favorite part of the night was when they played that "from the window to the wall" song and everyone, nerds of all shape, size and color, got down and dirty in the name of Harry Potter. It was so, so funny. I love these people so much.

I don't want to complain too much about the rest of the night, but I will briefly recap what happened. After the ball was "Comedy NIght", the last of the wizard rock concerts and the one we were supposed to be headlining. The other bands played and a few comedians came up and did their thing, but they seriously underestimated the event on time so when it came time for the Parselmouths to play, they turned the lights on and said the show was over because we needed to get out of the room by 1:30 am. Fans started chanting "Parselmouths! Parselmouths!" but a woman got on a megaphone and said "We can't put them on! We'll be charged $5,000!"

So most people left. THEN, after arguing with the Infinitus coordinator for a while (and not being treated very fairly) they tried to make us play in the lobby, unplugged, which is not something I feel like doing after 1. being promised a stage and a sound system and 2. already losing my voice and trying to be easy on it. It didn't seem fair to play in a lobby, especially since there had just been an announcement saying we wouldn't be playing so more than half the people at the show had already gone to bed.

The whole situation was pretty disappointing, since every other band got to play just as they'd been promised and we felt incredibly pushed aside. Finally we compromised on having us play the Leaving Feast the next morning, which was actually really nice of them to let us do. I played the show on 3 hours of sleep (in my pajamas, to make a statement - I'm sorry, I'm a Slytherin through and through) and got a ton of twitter messages from sad fans who had early flights home that day and didn't get to see us play, but at least we got to have a show at all. So anyway, that was Infinitus.

Needless to say, I am very excited for LeakyCon, where I know things like this would never happen.

Infinitus Day 4 (Sunday) and the drive to Tavares - Like I said, we played the Leaving Feast this morning. They also gave Eia and I these little wrapped presents from Lush that were meant for the Infinitus volunteers, which was kind of cool. I like Lush stuff. Basically we played our show to a bunch of sleepy people eating breakfast, but got a bunch of them to come up and dance for our last song, Voldemort Fangirl. I was also really happy when a bunch of friends (including Luke, Ryan, Matt, Alex Carpenter and Eia's friends Tracy and Ginger) woke up early to come see us. I know that hardly ANYONE got more than 4 hours of sleep that night, so it really meant a lot to me that they were all there to support us. Lauren even came up and backed me up on guitar because I was nervous to play in front of that many people (many of which only were there for the food and didn't care about wizard rock). So, the moral of this story is that I have great friends.

After breakfast we hung out in the vendor room for awhile (next to the Starkid Potter people who had this outrageous line wrapped outside and around the corner for over an hour) and were able to sell a few more shirts/CDs/posters and talk to some fans. There were a lot of really sweet people who made sure to come to our show, so that made me pretty happy.

I also got to meet Darren Criss (the guy who plays Harry in AVPM) as we were all packing up. He's a nice guy. :)

After we were all pretty much done with Infinutus, we packed up our stuff and headed over to Citywalk one more time for lunch, and we all piled into Margaritaville. I got to spend a lot of time chatting with Frak (from Pottercast, and resident HP artist - he did the cover of the first ALL CAPS album and designed the lightning bolt tattoo I have on my foot) and Jake Niffler, which was nice. We had this ship wheel at the end of our table that actually turned, and every once in a while the lights would flash in the restaurant like we were in a storm, so Jake would pretend to steer us back to safety. Okay, it sounds really dorky now but I promise it was funny at the time.

Then we said our goodbyes and headed out. We were going back to Justin's parents' house for another night there, and after his mom made us a delicious dinner of chicken and salad and bread and sweet potatoes, I honestly fell asleep around 10pm watching a movie with Luke. It had been a long, long weekend.

Chipotle burritos: 14
Random road sign right now: RUGS! Unbelievable prices. Exit 87.

Tour blog #5

Infinitus Day 1 (Thursday) - Thursday felt like one of the longest days of my life. We had to get up early and head over to the hotel so Lauren and Matt could get to the Final Battle rehearsal (Eia and I were so glad we'd dropped out - not because we wouldn't have loved to help our friends, but because having that added stress on tour would have just been too, too much) and the rest of us parked the cars and hung out at the Royal Pacific hotel (where Infinitus was taking place) and met up with a bunch of our other friends who were just arriving at the conference.

Most of the wizard rock was happening on Thursday, which was a little weird, but allowed all the bands to set up their merch in the concert room and get that part of the trip out of the way in one day. The "Classics" night show started at 4, and the "Pub Night" show was at 10, so we spent the majority of the day listening to wizard rock, hanging out at the merch table, signing things and finding time to make a quick run to Citywalk for Panda Express. At the very end of the show, Jason called us all up onstage for "California Dorks" and then Luke and I closed the show with "Don't Unplug Me", which I thought was really awesome. I know some people have a problem with music that's not wizard rock being played at a Harry Potter event, but I am really flattered so many people are embracing our other projects and like hearing what we're doing. :)

Infinitus Day 2 (Friday) - I'm not going to lie, this Harry Potter conference was probably the least Harry Pottery of any conference I have ever been to for me. The biggest problem was that so many people came to this event that we were all spread out between the three major Universal resort hotels. There were these sweet water taxis to take between the hotels and Citywalk, but it just took so much time to wait for them, so it was not very easy to just "run over to the hotel" for different programming. So I missed a lot of it. I spent a good portion of Friday at the Portofino hotel with Eia and with Ryan Seiler's girlfriend Julie, which was so, so nice after as much time as I've spent on the road and rushed from show to show. We ordered fancy drinks and chips and salsa ordered to our lawn chairs by the pool, and we swam, and got a bit of sun. In fact, I am currently more tan than I have ever been in my entire life, with a wicked sunburn right on my forehead/hairline area. But I don't care, it was so worth it! (I even put sunscreen in my hair to try to protect my scalp, but it burnt anyway. Rude.)

Eventually the boys came and met us as the pool, and we took a few trips down the water slide with Tyler Nicholas, Ryan, Luke, and Jason. When we just couldn't handle being out in the sun anymore, we headed back to Citywalk for lunch and then it was time for THE HARRY POTTER THEME PARK. Our passes were good starting at 2pm, so we headed into Islands of Adventure, walked straight through the Dr. Seuss and ancient mythology parts of the park, and found ourselves at Hogsmeade.

I honestly hadn't allowed myself to think about the theme park too much. I heard all the announcement years ago, yes, but I never looked at pictures or watched the behind the scenes specials or anything because I wanted to be surprised. Also, I was still kind of in shock that it exists at all, so I kind of pretended it wasn't real up until the moment I walked in.

And let me tell you, that was overwhelming. I know I sound like a huge dork right now, but Harry Potter has had such a huge part in the last 8 years of my life. From fanfiction (which I was very, very into) to wizard rock to even my involvement on YouTube, these books and this fandom has literally shaped me into the person I am today. I wouldn't play guitar, I wouldn't be touring, I wouldn't be on YouTube if it weren't for Harry Potter. So when I walked into that park and saw the Hogwarts Express pumping steam into the air, and saw Zonko's Joke shop bustling with people, and the shady wooden door of the Hogshead, and house banners waving in the breeze, and Hogwarts looming up above me - I won't deny it. I started crying. It was a short amount of crying, like a minute tops, but there were real tears in my eyes.

We only had a short amount of time in the park before we had to get back to the hotel to see the Final Battle (Lena's HP musical she's been working on all year, since I didn't clarify before) so all we had time to do was ride Hogwarts Forbidden Journey, which is the best ride in the park. Eia and I were with Monica and Chellie (the Short Sisters on YouTube) and the four of us spent SO MUCH TIME together in that line. Not only was the line outrageously long, but there were some maintenance issues so it was completely stopped for about 20 minutes. And Florida is HOT. But when we got inside, it was completely worth it. The first part of the ride is just walking through Hogwarts. You see the founders arguing with each other in their portraits on the wall, you walk through Dumbledore's office, you get scolded by the Fat Lady, and Ron makes it snow on you in line. So good.

I don't want to spoil the actual ride for anyone, but when we first got in the cars, I was holding hands with Eia and Monica, and none of us had ANY idea what to expect. The ride was amazing, and actually pretty scary (which surprised me - I was expecting something like the Disneyland storybook rides but it wasn't like that at all). It was completely worth the wait and so, so awesome.

We got back in time for the Final Battle and it was nice seeing our friends in the musical, since again I didn't really know what to expect. Fred was awesome as Ron, Andrew Slack had his Dumbledore accent down so perfectly it was scary, and Melissa Anelli stole the show as Neville's grandmother.

Then we rushed back because while we had tickets to the HP theme park in the afternoon, the evening was when we had the park actually to ourselves. First they put us in this big room which was kind of stupid - I understand they needed to clean up the park for us, but then spent an hour and a half of the time we had thought we paid for to be in the park watching promotional stuff about the park that we'd all already seen before. So that was kind of bad planning on their part. But then we finally finally got to go in, and it was SO AWESOME being in there without the rest of the general public.

They had tables of free food right in Hogsmeade and a DJ was set up playing music (which was honestly a little strange, since I doubt they listen to the Top 40 at the real Hogsmeade). But just walking around with all my wizard rock friends, eating pumpkin pasties, dancing to music with Hogwarts lit up at night, deciding whether we liked butterbeer better frozen or on tap - I think it's pretty easy to imagine how that felt.

Everything about this place was so magical. I know this park was built for everybody in the world, but being there with hundreds of other Harry Potter fandom people; seeing people you know sipping butterbeer and waiting in line at Dervish and Bang's… for one night, it felt like this park was built just for us. Even with all the problems that night, it was a completely surreal and wonderful experience.

We didn't have much time in the park honestly, since they were kicking us out at 2am, so we rode the Forbidden Journey again, skipped the Hippogryff ride because it looked like it was for younger kids, and then hit up the Dueling Dragons ride. It was a pretty sweet roller coaster where there are two tracks (the Hungarian Horntail and the Chinese Fireball) and they are intertwined with each other (with one reallt scary part where they look like they're going to collide). I was pretty impressed with that ride too, except the part where I was wearing flats and they made me hold them in my hands for the entire ride. Weird.

That night I was so exhausted from the long day of pretending I lived in Harry's World that I skipped whatever hotel party was going on back at the Portofino and fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow. I think Eia and I both fell asleep that night with some Jay and SIlent Bob movie blasting on the TV in our hotel room.

Chipotle burritos: 14
Random road sign right now: Live Oak, 2 miles. (I hope this just is a sign for a tree, not an entire town called Live Oak.)

Tour blog #4

VIDCON, Day 2 - Conferences like this are always a total blur of a ton of super fun things jammed into a short amount of time, but I think I will stick with the bullet points format of describing what I did. Luke and I ended up missing some of the earlier morning talks and stuff because we wanted to take advantage of our awesome hotel room and actually sleep in while we had the option (because sleeping in is a rare mythical thing on tour) and finally rolled on down to the California level of the hotel around 11:30 or so. We spent a good amount of time at the DFTBA booth, hanging out with Todd and Caitlin and signing things, which was definitely fun.

- Hearing Dan Brown tell his YouTube story and learning about his pogostick meetup before YouTube gatherings were even a thing.

- Having lunch with Kayley and Rhett and Link, and meeting a guy named Nice Peter who had the same camera as me (in blue) and taught me how to use the slow motion feature.

- Taking slow motion footage of Kayley licking my elbow, and of us jumping on the bed in Kayley's hotel room with all our friends.

- Hanging in The Moist Factory, which is the hotel Kayley was sharing with Paige, Robyn Schneider and Karen Kavett. Not understanding why it's called the Moist Factory, and honestly, being okay with not knowing.

- Going to Pinkberry and getting frozen yogurt. Then filming an Apple Store vlog, because I am cliché and figured if there was any time to do one, it was at VidCon.

- Talking to the guys from Orabrush (the company that makes tongue cleaners that sponsored VidCon) and getting to wear the giant tongue suit costume for awhile. Licking Rhett and Link while in the costume. Vlogging in the costume.

- Jumping in the ball pit with Kris (bombsfadeaway).

- Leaving it up to Johnnydurham19 to order pizza for everyone, and having him get the most expensive pizza I've ever eaten in my life. This is why we should never trust the British. xD

- Seeing Autotune the News perform a live acoustic version of "Double Rainbow". Singing along with hundreds of other people in the huge ballroom.

- Dancing with Hank Green and Michael Buckley to DaveDays set.

- Going back up to the Penthouse Suite and meeting even more awesome people and trying to get in as much more hangout time as Luke and I could before having to turn in for the night. We were cursing our early flight as we left the party that night.

The whole experience was really, really awesome. I know we had to miss a few days of tour, and from what I've heard the shows were great (especially their Oklahoma show apparently) but I had so so so much fun at VidCon that it was totally worth it. I got to see so many friends I haven't seen in ages, and got to meet so many people I've only talked to online, and even though there were a ton of technical difficulties, everyone was there to have a blast and I really think we all did. I definitely hope VidCon becomes an annual or at least regular event, because I would probably keep going for the rest of my life. :)

Dallas, TX - Luke and I were very reluctant to leave VidCon, because it was such, such a good weekend. But the alarm was set for 6 AM, so we packed up our things, dragged ourselves from the hotel, and hopped in a cab to LAX. We had a flight to Dallas, which was fairly uneventful, but I managed to get a bit of sleeping done, which was nice. ROFLCOPTOUR picked us up at the Dallas Fort Worth airport and once I stepped outside, I remembered why my suitcase is full of shorts and tanktops. It is so, so hot down here.

Our show this night was at a club called the Prophet Bar, which was kind of cool, since we've played so many shows at libraries and places like that. It was a nice change of pace. The best part about this show, though (aside from the free drink tickets) was how many friends we had there. Adam Dubberly and his bandmate Kyle showed up, as well as Kim, my fellow blogger from our Lost reaction blog (The Pearl! I got to meet her for the first time!). Eia and I were super thrilled, however, that our friend Scarlette came. We all used to be really close, back around 2008, and neither of us have seen her in about 2 years. So that was lovely.

That night after the show we ate at this place where I got fancy grilled cheese and hashbrown casserole (no point to this, really, just wanted to note it down because that's the best thing I've ever gotten to order I think -- come on, hashbrown CASSEROLE?) and then we stayed at a Days Inn where our room literally felt like an ice box. Oh tour.

New Orleans, LA - We played a show at this swim and tennis club, and I know I keep saying this, but I think we met our most enthusiastic fans yet at this show. I believe it was the smallest show of tour in attendance numbers, but I had a blast anyway because everyone who came to see us was so fun. There were people who danced the entire night, and a little girl in a Luna Lovegood costume, and someone who brought us Jambalaya Mix (which was awesome [even though I doubt we'll have time to make it while on tour] ).

That night Matt hot-wired us this fancy fancy hotel called La Pavillon in New Orleans (which was such a huge upgrade from the Super 8 motels we've been staying in all month). This place had ornate arm chairs in the rooms and provided complimentary peanut butter and jelly sandwiches in the evening time. Not that I cared about the peanut butter, but I made myself a mean jelly sandwich.

We put our stuff in our rooms and headed out for a night on Bourbon Street. Bourbon Street is a pretty dirty, morally questionable place, but we had so much fun taking a break from being professional and just letting off a bit of steam. We got Hurricanes (a staple of the New Orleans night out) and hung out at The Olde Absinthe House and then checked out this pirate bar where there was a piano player that looked vaguely like Johnny Depp ala Captain Jack Sparrow. In New Orleans the police men ride on horses so we had to keep being careful not to step on poop in the street. It was a very interesting experience.

I hadn't been to New Orleans since Phoenix Rising back in 2007, so being there was a little sentimental for me as well as just being a totally awesome night.

Hattiesburg, MS - Our Hattiesburg show was probably our smallest show of tour yet, but we met a lot of really great people there. We played in this little library that we pretty much took over with our show, and there were a lot of really little kids at the show. That's not actually as common as you would think with wizard rock. The mercy table was a bit back from where the actual show part was taking place, so while the other bands were on, I found a copy of the comic book version of Coraline and got through about half of it before the show was over.

After the show we went to this great restaurant that looked like someone's house from the outside, and I got a sandwich called the Fatty McFat. It was basically just a buffalo style chicken sandwich, but I was pretty proud of myself for ordering something called the Fatty McFat.

DAY OFF (driving to Florida) - I honestly don't even remember anything significant about this day. We got up, we drove to Florida, and then we stayed at Justin's parents' house. She made us dinner. I slept on a pull-out couch bed. I've got nothing else for this day. Hahah.

Random street sign right now: Construction zone; speeding fines doubled.
Chipotle burritos: 14

Tour blog #3

This begins the Southern California/VidCon portion of my tour blog. Can't even begin to explain how much fun I had this whole weekend.

Santa Monica, CA - This show was so awesome. We got to the library, and we had this sweet stage and a long room of seating, and lots and lots of awesome people. The highlight of this show for me was meeting Tyler Oakley, who is one of my favorite YouTubers of all time. We had such a fun night hanging out with him; he was pretty much exactly the same in person as he is in his videos and I love it when you meet people and they're like that. I also got to meet Kaleb Nation, another YouTuber I like (though I discovered him more recently) and he took a lot of footage of our show. I want to take a moment to point out the awesomeness of my friends on YouTube - neither of these boys have read any Harry Potter whatsoever, but they both came to see me and support all of our music. I am so thankful to have amazing people like that in my life.

I think the show went really well, and we met some cool fans that were going to be at VidCon that weekend, which was fun. After the show we went out to TGIFridays (the one I always went to with Luke and Jason when I came down to LA to visit) and had a really great time hanging out with Tyler. Also, the boys were all ordering beers and making fun of me for getting a girly drink (a pomegranate margarita shaker or something) and I finally shut them up by drinking it directly from the shaker. Mostly because I couldn't get the lid off to pour anymore in my cup, but also because it made me look like a badass. Hahaa.

DAY OFF - I will admit, this day was a seriously lazy day. We had stayed the night at Echo Base (Jason and Alex's house in LA, the one Luke used to live in with them) and this was the point at which ROFLCOPTOUR continued on through the southwest and Luke and I stayed behind for VidCon. I think everyone left the house around 9, whereas Luke and I didn't even get out of bed until about noon. It was so nice, after nearly two weeks of incredibly early mornings. Continuing with laziness, we had a pizza delivered to the house and then waited for Kaleb to come pick us up to take us to the pre-VidCon partners meeting.

We didn't really know what to expect at the meeting, and when we got there, it really wasn't much. Basically we got nametags, and free YouTube shirts (awesome!) and got to hang out and mingle and meet friends and YouTubers before EVERYONE showed up to the hotel the next day. It was nice; we found Kayley, and Tyler again, and Adam (whataboutadam) and Stephen (3sixty5days) and Johnny (johnnydurham19) and Paige (hopeonatenspeed) and loads and loads of other people I was excited to see. I also got to finally meet Tessa (meekakitty) and had a surreal moment when William (theWillofDC) came up to me and said "You probably don't know who I am, but I watch your videos". What.

We hung out a bit longer, but didn't have a hotel that night so we had to leave kind of early. Kaleb drove us back home (with another new friend, Robyn Schneider) which, for a car ride, was actually very eventful. First we couldn't get out of the parking garage and Robyn almost got arrested or something for trying to jump out of the car and steal one from the incoming traffic machine. Then we finally found the old ticket, high-tailed it out of there, and then had a close call where Kaleb thought it would be a good idea to ignore a red light - which I wont get into because I don't want to embarrass him (Kaleb, haha) but decided to include it because it became a joke that he was trying to sabotage tour and kill ALL CAPS.

That night, Luke and I got Panda Express and spent the evening watching other humans makes fools of themselves in the gameshow Wipeout. Pretty romantic date night for ALL CAPS, if you ask me.

VIDCON, Day 1 - Luke and I had the love Quinn Rossi drive us to the Hyatt this morning (how we managed to get back and forth from Echo Base and the Hyatt 3 times without getting a cab is beyond me) and we got to the hotel at about 9. First we checked into our awesome room, and then Monica Carr (who is amazing) got us our registration materials so we didn't have to wait in the long iine.

I'm really trying hard to remember everything we did this first day in what order, but it's all blending together so I think I may just switch gears and list highlights.

- Meeting/getting to spend time with so many great people like Rhett and Link, WheezyWaiter, Caitlin and Todd and Kris at the DFTBA booth, Tyler and Adam and Johnny and Paige and Kayley and Tom and Caitlin Hill and Olga and SupaDupaFlyGirl and Strawburry17 and WhatTheBuck and WinterSpringPro and Mitchell Davis and Woody Tondorf of Elevator Show and Shane Dawson and iJustine and mememolly and MysteryGuitarMan and so, so many more people.

- Meeting ShayCarl and having him tell me I looked just like this girl he knew in high school - when I asked if she was nice, he said "No, a total bitch." Thanks Shay. Haha.

- The Dailybooth photobooth. They had this booth set up with costumes and props and you could get pictures taken and printed out instantly for free and I think EVERYONE abused this privilege this weekend.

- Seeing John and Hank speak on stage and feeling overwhelming proud of them for everything they've accomplished in the last 3 years.

- Being interviewed by Molly for Rocketboom.

- Knowing it was totally socially acceptable to have your phone out to tweet no matter what was happening.

- Seeing everyone from the UK that I hadn't seen since last summer.

- The show. Holy crap, the show the first night at VidCon was awesome. It went Molly Lewis, Tom Milsom, Alex Day, Hank, Rhett and Link, and then ALL CAPS, and I think everyone performed really, really well. Highlights were Tom rocking his entire set even though he lost his voice, Alex throwing glitter confetti into the audience, Molly's cover of Bad Romance for her sound check song, and the very best part of the entire weekend for me personally (and probably Luke too) was during our very last song (Don't Unplug Me) we had pretty much every single one of our friends run on stage and dance behind us for the entirety of the song.

There were probably 30+ people behind us on stage, and 600-700 people in the audience, and I'm really glad we got to share that moment with so many of our friends. Being in a wizard rock band, I have played a ton of shows in my life, but I am not sure anything quite compares to the show we played at VidCon.

- Disappointingly short dance party after the show that was still fun anyway.

- We went up to the Penthouse toward the end of the night (which was a room that didn't really belong to anybody in particular, as the Hyatt gifted it ambiguously to "VidCon", so you were bound to find people up there but were never quite sure who) and got to chat with a bunch of different people before finally calling it a night and going to bed.

Okay, this has gotten long enough. VidCon Day 2 to follow shortly.

Random road sign right now: Millard, 1 Mile (Exit 19)
Chipotle burritos: 14

Tour blog #2

It's actually amazing how difficult it is to find time off to blog about tour. The only time spent not playing shows or sleeping (for far too little) in crappy hotels is spent driving, or attempting to sleep in the car. And call me lazy, but getting out my laptop and making a huge production of getting the charger and plugging it into our car's fancy powerstrip thing while on the road is a bit too much effort for the amount of energy I have at this point.

I've gotten into a rhythm where I pretty much have to save all my energy for the 45 minutes or so I spend on stage each night, and the rest of the time I am conserving. Ha. I had some issues with vocal nodes about a year and a half ago, and I have been kind of stressed out that I am going to accidentally make them come back on this tour. It's not even really the singing every day that's the worst part; it's the talking in the car, the shouting over loud music in clubs and at conferences, and the sheer amount of talking I've been doing to fans and friends. Which sucks, because I love talking to people. So it's been hard. But I am drinking lots of tea (I hate tea) and trying not to talk much except for at shows, so we'll see how it goes.

Seattle, WA - It was so nice to be back in Seattle! After driving across the country on unfamiliar freeways, it was nice to be around roads I knew for a couple of days. We played at this country club type place that was fairly close to my house, but in a neighborhood I'd never been in before. All of our friends came to the show, like roommate Justin, Ariana and her boyfriend, other friend Justin, Liz, Kayley, etc. I also had my pseudo stand-in family; Carol, Carrie and Chrysta (some of the people who went to Mexico with me back in February, family friends) because my real family couldn't be there. After the show we had a party at mine and Eia's house that included Wingzone (my favorite!) and a long game of Apples to Apples.

4th of July (Day Off) - This was a much needed day off. We all slept in, and then the girls plus Kayley left the boys at home and went shopping! The focus was new bathing suits, and it took pretty much the whole day to make this happen for everyone. It was kind of fun to ditch the boys for an afternoon as well.

This evening was the 4th of July, and while we had every intention of going outside and finding a good spot to watch the fireworks over Lake Union (Gasworks park was out of control - thousands of people and the Presidents of the United States of America were playing a live show, mere miles from my house) we ended up just watching the fireworks on TV in my living room. In lawn chairs. Indoors.

I was pretty okay with how we ended up spending the evening.

Portland, OR - The Portland show was a really good show. We played in this fun room that kind of looked like a miniature Great Hall, and had another great turnout. The thing that made me the happiest, though, was that my dad and my brother drove down to see it. Our schedule worked out so crappily in Seattle - my whole family was in North Dakota until the 4th of July, and we played Seattle on the 3rd, so they didn't get to see me perform. It meant a lot to me that they drove three hours to see me the next day then, knowing they'd be just driving 3 hours home right after. Kayley also came down with her mom to be able to make it to a second show, which was nice of her.

The weirdest part about this Portland show - okay, wait. Let me stop myself. There were actually two incredibly weird parts about this show. I will tell them to you in order.

Weird part 1: My dad and Nick stopped at a rest area on their way down to the show, and of all the places in the world to run into old friends, they ran into some people we used to spend a lot of time with when I was younger. My dad's friend Rob and his daughter Mackenzie were on their way down to Portland for Mackenzie's basketball tournament or something, and my dad managed to convince them to use the extra half hour they had to stop in and catch the first 20 minutes or so of my show. So that was awesome. I haven't seen them in probably over 5 years.

Weird part 2: Literally three minutes before I had to go onstage to do the fiveawesomegirls segment of our show and then immediately go right into the ALL CAPS set, I was standing in the back talking to my dad and Kayley's mom (in a crowded room indoors mind you) when suddenly I had this excruciating pain in my left ankle. I looked down and there was A GIANT BEE ON ME. I swatted it away, but it was too late. There was a stinger poking out of my leg, and I had to get my dad to pull it out, and then I freaked out for a few minutes before going on stage and doing the show anyway. All the while my ankle was swelling up and throbbing and I couldn't decide if I wanted to cry or if I was being a total rockstar about it.

Milpitas, CA - The venue for this show was a big auditorium style room with a stage, so upon walking in we already knew it was going to be great. This was also the show of presents, it seemed, as I walked away from it with pictures, a new die, cookies, pumpkin bread, a funky green and orange stress ball, a large collection of Grateful Dead music, and these amazing clay models someone made of everyone on tour. The only disappointing part of this show was that Meghan and Shawna (strawburry17 and Nanalew) were supposed to be coming, and Meghan's car broke down. But we would be meeting them in just a few days at VidCon so it was alright.

Arbitrary place to stop blogging - my writeup about VidCon is next!

Random road sign right now: Carmel - 1 mile (exit 177)
Chipotle burritos: 14

Tour blog #1

Alright. I am on day 7 of tour and I haven't blogged yet. But it honestly hasn't been a lack of determination or interest - it's been entirely a lack of time. We've only had 2 days off in this amount of time (one of which was spent almost entirely driving), and it seriously has felt like one incredibly long day rather than a series of days.

We've been pretty much just playing shows, driving, sleeping, driving, playing shows, driving, repeat.

But it's been so fun!

I flew in to Boston, where Lauren and Matt picked up Luke and I, and then we headed back to their place in Rhode Island. It was pretty late, so we chatted while Lauren made buttons and sewed bear pouches for their Armoured Bearcub dropcards, while Luke passed out on the couch. Then they made me an awesome air mattress bed with multiple Harry Potter themed blankets. I wouldn't expect any less.

The next morning while I continued to sleep, they went and picked up the rental cars that would be our new homes for the next month. Then it was en route to Justin's house to get him and Kathleen (our merch girl).

Hamden, CT - We had our first show here, with Mike Lombardo opening for us. Hayley was with him as well, and it was awesome to see her. I was blown away by how many people came to this first show. I think the final number was something around 160 people at the show, and the venue itself was awesome too, as it was a real music club place. It was my first time playing a Parselmouth show as the main guitar player, and also the first ALL CAPS show Luke and I ever played, so I was pretty nervous considering. It's funny, because I very rarely get nervous about performing, but there was so much new about this first show that I felt a ton of pressure. But it went well. People seemed to really enjoy the new Parselmouths songs I played, and I couldn't even believe how many people were singing along to the ALL CAPS set. People were singing so loud I could barely hear myself singing, and one time I even accidentally started singing the Owl City lyrics to Lumos Flies because I saw a girl in the front row mouthing them. Oops!

That night we had to go pick Eia up at the Newark airport, and then we stayed the night at Lauren's parents' house. The next morning was spent eating wonderful bagels and then piling in the car for our first show with the entire group.

Morgantown, WV - We were expecting this show to be pretty small, but the turnout was great! I think there were 30-40 people crowded into the library by the time we started. Hayley was still traveling along with us for a few days (until we got to Akron) so we made use of the fact that we had 3/5 of the fiveawesomegirls in attendance and filmed a bunch of stuff with the audience involved.

This was our first hotel night. Not much to report there, expect that we all realized we were going to get very used to staying in hotels.

Akron, OH - This show was gigantic! We played in this huge auditorium in a library in Akron, and there were just so many people filling all the seats. This was definitely the biggest show we'd played yet, and I think Luke and I took over 30 pictures with people over the course of just this one night. I think one of my favorite parts of touring is meeting so many awesome people in all of the different cities. I feel like I have had so many great little conversations with people, almost like my twitter @replies and YouTube comments are coming to life. It's been neat. Also I got the audience to do the wave. It made me happy, haha.

This concluded the hayleyghoover portion of our tour; after going to her flagship Chipotle with her, we had to say our goodbyes and leave her in Ohio. Then it was another long night of driving.

St. Louis, MO - We played a show in the basement of a church, and again, had way more people in attendance than we expected. There were some very, very enthusiastic fans at this show, and I had a really great time hanging out with everyone here. It's funny, now, what things I remember about each show. I know these happened really recently, but we've played a LOT of shows and they're all starting to blur together in my mind. But I do particularly remember that at this show, there was a birthday cake with dinosaurs on it, and someone made us a huge dish of pasta. I ate two plates of the pasta. Mmmm. Tour is good.

This night we got to stay at our friend Monica's house, which was nice. She made us some amazing salsa and we all had a laptop party while Luke played video games with her two little sons.

Manhattan, KS - Even though we just played a show at this same venue a few months ago, it was super, super fun to play here again. K-State University is amazing and the woman who organizes our shows here (Karin) is just wonderful. Also, we met up with Alex, Jason and Steph who are currently on The Next Great Adventure (our rival tour that's currently going in the opposite direction from us) (actually they're some of my best friends and it was really great to see them). The show was awesome and everyone performed really well. Jason taught his Skyway Flyer set to Luke and I in about 10 minutes so we ended up doing that with him, which was fun (albeit a little stressful; I wrote a lyric or two on my hand in sharpie, haha). I think this show still holds the record for the furthest distance a fan drove to see us, which was this family who traveled TEN HOURS. So awesome. I don't think my Mom would have EVER driven me ten hours to see a band I liked. And I have a great Mom. But still, she would have laughed in my face I think.

Denver, CO - This library was awesome. We played in this little triangle shaped room, and people brought us cookies! Also, I forgot to mention, the day before this show Lauren taught Eia how to play ukelele in the car, so after literally one day of practice, Eia decided to give it a go, and I think it went really well! Eia is a small person so I think she looks really cute playing a ukelele. After the show, we had another really long night of driving. Night driving sucks.

Cody, WY - This show was another one that we were expecting to be very big. I remember before we got there Matt told us, "12 people have RSVP'd for our Cody show. 7 of them were us." But we got there and I think there at least 30-40 people at this show too! Everyone was really enthusiastic and having a great time too, so honestly, that's what matters in having a fun show. Thankfully after the show we didn't have to drive far; we just got a hotel right there in Cody and actually got to go to bed at a normal time for once.

Yellowstone Day Off - We finally, finally got a day off! We did have to spend most of it driving (getting from Cody, WY to Coeur d'Alene, ID in one day) but we got to take our time doing so, and spent the afternoon perusing Yellowstone. We got to see Old Faithful, and the Paint Pots, and experienced a traffic jam caused by Bison being on the road. It was a really relaxing, fun day getting to be tourists with everyone else on tour. I think it was my favorite day so far.

I feel like just highlighting the shows leaves out a ton of the finer points of tour, which includes the hours and hours spent in the car, the hilarious gas station stops, the silly things purchased in various cities (like our big-eyed stuffed animal tour pets) and all the restaurants we've eaten at. One thing I love about touring with Matt is that he doesn't eat fast food, so we've been completely skipping the McDonald's, the Dairy Queen's, the Wendy's, the Arby's of America. This is great because 1. it's way healthier for everyone and 2. we get to experience a lot of really fun little cafes and grills and diners. Maybe this is just because of how much I love food, but I think the stops for food at fun places have been some of my favorite parts of tour.

Anyway, things have been crazy and hectic and busy, but I am loving my summer and the experiences I get to have right now.

Last google search: I am typing this in the car so I don't have internet, so I'll tell you instead that we just passed Exit 74, Labree Rd.
Chipotle burritos: 13

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

Washer Toss (and important life changing things).

This is the first post from the OtHeR SiDe!

Things have been busy since I graduated. Friday was my actual graduation ceremony, which was held in the atrium of my school's architecture building. It was so casual - I mean, that's what I get for only going to my departmental convocation and not the big student body graduation - I never even wore a cap and gown. But I'm okay with that.

We all dressed up, ate cake and drank wine, and listened to some of the CHID professors give speeches. Then they called up the 55 of us graduating from my department in some nondescript order, we got these little certificates and a CHID pint glass, shook hands with all of the professors from the department (though everyone was hugging the ones who'd made an impact in their time at UW - for me that was only 3 people) and then they read these little blurbs we'd written about ourselves a few weeks back. I don't know why, but I was so, so nervous as I waited in line to have them call my name, because I couldn't remember what I'd written about myself. I mean, I should have known I could trust myself to not embarrass myself in front of the few hundred people sitting in the audience, and that if I'd been given the task to sit down and pen something that would be read aloud while I stood helplessly on a stage, I wouldn't let myself down. But I was sweating. But I went up there, fingers crossed secretly behind my back, and one of my favorite professors Terry (a guy who looks like a black haired Sawyer from Lost) read from a sheet that I was a transfer student, enjoyed CHID because it let me be who I wanted to be, loved to travel and wanted to some day write young adult fiction, and was starting out my post-collegiate life touring with my band. Not bad, Kristina. Not bad.

And that was it.

I had my parents and my brother there, which was all I needed. It was a nice time. That night I went out to the bar with my friends, which was necessary. I had a really, really great night, and actually made a few new friends while I was out. My roommate Justin has this friend Millie he always talks about, and even though we've lived together for nearly 2 years, I'd never actually met the elusive Millie. But she came out with us and she was a lovely (real) person.
The only downside to meeting her is that it quashed my theory that Justin actually just has a lot of imaginary female friends he pretends to hang out with. Kind of disappointing actually; it was hilarious to imagine he was just sitting in his car for a few hours when he was "meeting Millie for lunch" or something. Haha. I'm a terrible person.

The next morning I went to the eye doctor, got some sweet new glasses, and then headed back to my parents' house for the graduation party they were throwing for me. I had such a good time at the party. It was a really nice mix of family, friends from high school, friends from the present, and people from my dad's work. My mom outdid herself (like usual) with a bunch of amazing food, people gave me presents (awesoooome) and my parents brought out this super funny game called "Washer Toss". The funny part is not the game itself - it's pretty much like horseshoes, only safer. The funny part is that it's called washer toss, and the point of the game is essentially that you're tossing washers at a goal on the opposite side. Cheap entertainment.

So anyway, we played that for most of the day. I was terrible when I was playing with my friends, but later on in the day after they'd all gone home and it was me and my dad against my uncle Dale and our family friend Carrie, I was doing pretty awesome. I doubt my friends will ever believe me.

I was really grateful that day for how many wonderful people I have in my life. I had relatives there from another state, people from my dad's work who really only know me through the things he's told them about me, and friends from high school I haven't seen in ages. Brittany was there too, which meant a lot to me. I'm proud to have finished college (and I got above a 3.0 too, so impressed with myself!) but I think I'm more proud to have such amazing friends and family.

Since then I've been trying to strike a balance between enjoying my now permanent state of "summer break" and also scrambling to get ready for tour. This means all day games days with friends on Sunday, three different trips to Target for various trip/packing items, spending hours rolling tshirts, and multiple movie parties in my brand new footie pajamas.

Also, I am trying to finish Avatar: The Last Airbender before I leave for tour because the movie comes out on July 2nd, which is during my time on the road. I only have the 92 minute series finale left and I am a little emotional about it.
I'm not really the type of person just to love something because it's popular or because my friends love it - I actually, legitimately have a really strong emotional attachment to this show and these characters. It's like, a complete fluke of nature that this show was aired on Nickelodeon and targeted toward kids -I've seen actual animé written for adults that have less substance than Avatar. I love it.

So as I am typing this I just got a phone call from Mike Lombardo, and upon answering I hear, (in a distinctly female voice) "KRISTIN HORNER!"
It was of course Hayley Hoover (who just can't let the malt liquor video go) asking me to do a hugely inconvenient, annoying, ridiculous favor for her. Typical. (I'm totally kidding).
Before she hung up she said (and I quote): "Tell your blog readers how I am great."

I have agreed to partake in way too many projects between now and when I leave for tour, which is a little concerning, but I guess I'm never the type to just take a week off. I can sleep when I'm dead. And hopefully these projects should be leading to some really awesome videos to post before tour, when it's possible I may be kind of MIA for a few weeks.

So things are good. Kristinaland is rich and thriving.

Last google search: Ke$ha outfits (OoooOooOoo why was I searching this? xD)
Chipotle burritos: 12

Last blog post as a college student.

This is my last blog entry as a college student.

Unless something goes terribly wrong between now and when grades are posted, everything written on here from now until the end of time will be written by a college grad. That feels kind of nice to think about.

That said, though, my roommate PJ and I are going absolutely insane about this final exam we have today. We have very, very different modes of studying. I keep rewriting my notes over and over, condensing them down as much as I can each time. I turned 11 pages into 7, and then turned those 7 into 5 last night. Now I have 5 pages of actual notes I can't compress anymore, and about 6 1/2 hours left to study them.

PJ's method is to constantly complain to me about how stupid this class is, and cheer every time she sees me not studying. I think her plan is to draw cats on the final. Luckily for her, she's a neurobio major with a fantastic GPA who doesn't really need this class to pass. I do.

Though, she's so frazzled that this morning when she was making her coffee and eggs, she poured her sweet and low on the eggs rather than in her mug. That was pretty hilarious.

Also, it doesn't help that yesterday was totally sunny t-shirt weather, and I'm looking out the window right now and it's just absolutely pouring outside. If that rain doesn't let up by the time we have to walk to school for our test, I'm going to be very, very upset.


A few hours have passed since I started typing this, and it has stopped raining. That is a good sign. I've perused my notes a bit more, but in my half-studying, I remembered a conversation I had with my friend Justin last night and wanted to share it with you:

Him: So I was looking at these vaporizers, which humidify the -
Me: Wait, so this isn't about a gun that turns people into vapor?
Him: …no.
Me: This story just got way less exciting.


I was trying to find ways to procrastinate studying this morning so I started playing little games with google search. I wanted to see how quickly different people came up when searching for their names.

For instance... You have to type in "Kristina H" for my full name to come up at all, but once you have "Kristina H", I am the 4th most searched Kristina H on Google.

I tried Luke Conard next.. You have to get to "Luke Co", and then he's the fourth one listed.

Next I went for Lauren Fairweather. I got to "Lauren F" and she was the 10th person listed.

For Alan Lastufka I had to type "Alan Las" but then he was 1, 5 and 10.

I tried Alex Carpenter and had to type "Alex Car" before he showed up as 9th.

I thought maybe this was because he has such a common name, but then I tried Alex Day, and he was the first person listed after typing "Alex D".

Jason Munday was 2nd after typing in "Jason Mun"

Hayley Hoover was 6th after just typing "Hayley H".

The most surprising one, I thought, was that Kayley Hyde was the 2nd person listed after just typing in "Kayley". I guess she wins. :)

So, I don't really know what this tells me. Maybe it's just an indication that my friends and I dominate Google searches, but I'm inclined to believe I should probably just get back to studying because this doesn't mean anything. It was just fun to play around with.

Now I have 4 1/2 more hours until my exam, and I am a nervous wreck, but I can't believe how soon it will all be over. This time tomorrow homework will only be a distant memory.

Wish me luck!

Last google search: "chid uw" (I can never remember what the website for my department is xD)
Chipotle burritos: 12

Jerry Springer vs. Clifford

A few days ago I went to the dentist, and as I have told you before, they have TVs in each of the rooms for patients to watch while getting their teeth cleaned. First I sat down and no one handed me the remote for a little while, and I started to get concerned they weren't going to let me utilize this great privilege this time.

But then finally, about 10 minutes into my checkup, the nurse says, "Oh do you want to watch TV?"

Oh, no, I'm great just staring here at your chin from a weird side angle, pretending you're not actually using a scrape-y thing to torture my gums. Of course I want to watch TV.

But then I faced my second challenge. Finding something good to watch on daytime television. Last time I went to the dentist, I lucked out, because the Price is Right was on, and it took up pretty much the majority of the time I was sitting in the dentist's chair. But at 11 o'clock in the morning on a Wednesday? Nothing is on. Nothing.

Finally, I stumbled on two channels that weren't showing the news or religious speakers. Clifford the Big Red Dog and Jerry Springer.

Now, I don't know about you guys, but given those options, I would watch Clifford any day. But for some reason, sitting in that chair, my nurse and dentist hovering over me, being 22 years old… I just couldn't do it. I felt like they would judge me so much. THEY didn't know there was nothing else on. They would just think this 22 year old girl, out of a whole range of channels, chose to watch Clifford. After talking to them at the reception desk about almost being through with college.

So I watched Jerry Springer. I'm ashamed to admit it. And I am only telling you this (because its embarrassing) because I want you to walk away with the take-home message here. If I could go back and do it again (which I cant, because as of Wednesday when I graduate I no longer have health insurance; thanks America) I would watch Clifford. Because whatever! I'll watch what I want! Even if it makes my dentist think I am some underdeveloped child-girl who still enjoys shouting "no, Clifford, Emily Elizabeth went over there!" at the TV, then so be it. It's better than watching Jerry Springer. Because now my dentist probably thinks I have a dysfunctional relationship and an anger problem. Or something.

Speaking of health insurance, I have been cramming as many doctor appointments in before graduation as I possibly can. Today I am going to see the eye doctor, and hopefully get new glasses, because I've had the same pair for 7-8 years. I have no idea about anything intelligent concerning insurance after I graduate, so that's another scary thing on my plate as soon as they hand me my diploma. Also paying off student loans, thinking about money… why was I excited to graduate again?

This weekend feels like the calm before the storm. Friday was my very last day of classes (maybe ever) and next Wednesday I have my only final exam. I still need to write an artist's statement to my thesis and turn that in, and then I am essentially finished. I'm not sure how it feels yet, really. This quarter has been so odd ( doing one off-campus internship, and a thesis class that met infrequently, as well as my cinema class I hated and didn't go to a lot) so I don't feel like "being done with school" is really going to sink in for awhile. Maybe not even until next fall when I don't have to go back.

I'm excited. And nervous. Tour always felt so far away because I had to "graduate first", and that's a huge unwieldy obstacle to stand in the way of other plans. But now it's only about three weeks away, and I feel like I still have so much to do.

Oh by the way, camping last weekend was a blast, and I'm working on a video about the experience (though slowly, since my to-do list this week is just absurd).

It felt good to update this blog today. I really need to keep writing during these crazy times. I know I'll just regret it later if I don't.

Last google search: petticoat junction
Chipotle burritos: 11