Phew! I am EXHAUSTED. I have had a very busy few weeks. I just got back from Chicago yesterday, and had to go right to class from it and take a quiz :( Definitely let me know my vacation was OVER! I had a great time though. The weather was beautiful when I got there. Jessica picked me up and we went to her apartment to drop my stuff off and Nick, her boyfriend was there working. His brother Mike was coming into town for the week-end and got there about a half hour after we arrived. We headed over to Trader Joe's and grabbed some supplies for breakfast and snacks. We made some delicious smoked gouda grilled cheese sandwiches with veggies and bing cherries. Me and Jess wanted to shop a little so the 4 of us went to some of the shops on Belmont. I got a cute ice cream necklace at Ragstock for $3! We went to Binny's and grabbed some drinks and headed back to the apartment. Then we played a few drinking games and headed out to a pre-lolla party. The cabbie was listening to Jamaican music and the warm night air was playing with my hair. It was a perfect night. We then headed over to a karaoke bar and I got to do a shotski.
Now, this bar had skis all over the walls and what they did was put holes into the ski and filled them with shot glasses. The employee lined us up in a row and held the ski, then tipped it so we could take the pineapple upside-down cake shot. It was delicious. So was the hurricane and "swamp water" I tried. We headed back to the apartment so we could be bright eyed and fresh for the next morning-Day 1 of the sold out music festival that is Lollapalooza!
Day 1 was full of good food, great weather, and awesome music. The first band we saw, Yellow Ostrich, had a wedding proposal on stage. She said yes, and that was probably the best week-end ever for them :)
Then we saw Dr. Dog, Sharon Van Etten, and Metric.
I saw the mess that is Die Antwoord while Jess got some grub, then we headed over to Passion Pit and on the way to the Shins we heard a bit of Dev. Because of the timing conflicts, I missed The Head and the Heart and also Band of Skulls :( While Jess stayed at M83 I went to go get some food, and when I was done with my burger and fries, we ventured over to get a good spot for the Black Keys. And boy was it a great spot. We were right up against the barricade. They put on an amazing show, and towards the end, the Bears pre-season game fireworks lit up the sky behind the stage.
Day 2 started out sweltering and sunny. Me, Jess and Nick went to the stage where Delta Spirit was performing and they put on an amazing show. I had never even heard of them, and the lead singer was funny as heck....but that's when it got bad. After Delta Spirit we started over to the other main stage and we realized A LOT of people were going the opposite way of us. We were wondering if we were missing out on some band that we'd never heard of or something.
Then we saw the horrible big screen that said "Weather Evacuation". So sad. Last year, at the Deadmau5 concert it was a torrential downpour and he still played, so I don't know why they decided to evacuate us this time, but whatever. So we grabbed some ponchos from the playstation tent and we took off. Jessica's friend Catherine lives a few blocks away so we decided to head over there and stay dry. We got there, but decided it would be a good idea to stop at the grocery store and buy some popsicles and other snacks. WRONG. BAD IDEA.
Sooo....we get to Jewel-Osco on Wabash and grab some vodka, popsicles, cheese, crackers, tortilla chips, and guacamole and as we're going downstairs to check out, we look outside and see debris flying 20 ft up in the air and trees bending. We just looked at each-other and continued to the checkout while people sat on the stairs, or anywhere they could go in the packed store. We checked out, put our ponchos on, and as we ran out, we were applauded with the occasional "They're crazy" comments. I could not see anything, I just looked down and ran for it all the way to 8th st. It was honestly so crazy we had to laugh. We must have looked ridiculous in our big ponchos, holding the hoods down and running full speed while looking down and running through what became a heavy stream of water in the roads and on the sidewalks. We finally made it and there had to be 2 inches of water in my grocery bags. We didn't care and headed on in. When Nick got in, he moved and a bunch of water sloshed onto the lobby tile floor and it was so loud and echoed, I had to laugh at the absurdity of what we just went through. But it wasn't over yet. We got upstairs and I asked Jessica's friend if I could borrow a dress so I could dry my clothes in her dryer. I changed into a black and white polka dot dress and Nick came out in a hot pink towel wrapped around his waist.
Catherine said she had a robe he could put on, and returned with a silky black and gold robe like the ones boxers wear. Needless to say, we called him silky for a while. We watched the news and looked outside at the rain, just waiting for it to let up while we ate mass amounts of popsicles and crackers & cheese.
When it finally stopped, we headed back out just in time for the headliners.
We headed over to Perry's to see Calvin Harris, then rushed over to Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was packed! So we saw some of that show and then went back over to Perry's for Santigold.
It was extremely entertaining and we had a very fun night. Mike, Nick's brother met up with us after the show and we went back to Catherine's again. Everyone then decided to get some Chinese Yum Yum..I kid you not. That was the name of the establishment. We all headed over to Catherine's friends loft which is actually one of Columbia's dorms and they are really nice! After we finished up, we went back to Jess' and crashed.
Sunday was definitely a fun day, if not my favorite.
We caught the shows of White Rabbits, Little Dragon, Sigur Ros, Of Monsters and Men, Florence + The Machine, Miike Snow, and to end out the festival, Justice. That was a packed house. We again went to Catherine's at the end of the night and just happened to get to her building at the same time she did which was perfect because her phone died and we couldn't get a hold of her. My phone had been up at her place since the night before too, so I'm glad me and Jess didn't get separated throughout day 3! After saying our goodbyes around 2am, we went back to Jess and Nick's apartment. I woke up the next morning and we left around 6:20 am so I could catch the Megabus, which is a great deal by the way. I did a round trip for $20 on a double decker bus with free wi-fi, chargers and fun people.
If anyone doesn't still know which job I ended up taking, it was the.....................Bed and Breakfast! I love it so far, and ever since I took the job, I have been getting calls from Aveda, The Hampton Inn, etc but I have to turn them down because they took too long to call me back and I already made a decision!
I painted the sign which was fun and years from now when I see it I will be able to tell people that I painted the sign...and the porch a little because some of the paint got on the bottom of my shoe :/ hahaha.
Finals are next week for my classes ending the 16th, then my whole family is heading to a town called Twin Lakes by Muskegon because my Grandparents rented a huge house for us all to hang out at from the 18th-25th. My official move-in date for my apartment at Abbott Place is the 23rd, but I will do it when I get back from Twin Lakes. It should be the same day that Megan, one of my roommates gets back from her internship on Mackinaw Island!!! Then on the 29th, Fall classes begin...YIKES!
