Valencia at Ottobar

Last night, I saw Valencia at the Ottobar, and they were amazing. They were ten times better than when I saw them at Rams Head Live! with All Time Low. Plus, their new album just came out (which is awesome by the way) Tuesday, so they had tons of new material to play there.

The opening bands were pretty good too, including Sing it Loud, which I've known about for quite some time now (they put on a great performance); Single File, which had a great Indie Pop/Rock threesome sound (like VooDoo Blue); Cash Cash, which had catchy melodies but terrible song-writing; and North Col, which weren't on the tour but were twice as good as Cash Cash and gave all the money they made to cancer research. We met one of the promoters of Single File, so we got to really talk with the band and get autographs on their "No More Sad Face..." EP (which I recommend anyone who likes Pop/Rock to buy). Afterwards, like last time, we went to the Papermoon Diner, and had one of the best sandwiches of my life. It had chicken tenders smothered in mozzerela cheese and marinara sauce on top, on toasted white bread. I also learned to not eat late, because I feel sick now. Oh well, it was worth it. Reptilian Records was great that I saw before the show too, even though it didn't have exactly the kind of music that I liked.

By the way, Underoath just put their new LP, "Lost in the Sound of Separation," to stream on their MySpace, which is awesome. Much heavier than their last record, though.

Orioles vs. Yankees

Today, I went and spent my last day with my cousins at Oriole Park at Camden Yards downtown to see the Baltimore Orioles to play the New York Yankees. It was good game for the most part, but it was so scorching hot out! We tried to find shade, but really couldn't find any place good near the seats we already had. We got some good food, and had a good time. We had to leave at the top of the 8th inning because my cousins had to leave, but we knew the Yankees would win. But, even so, I got a $26 Orioles t-shirt with the old-fashioned bird on it which is sweet! I'm so stoked to wear it...

Captain Jim's Boat

Today, I went downtown again with my dad and brother and my cousins who were visiting this weekend to my dad's cousin's and boyfriend Jim's boat in Federal Hill. First, we passed the Fort McHenry bridge, and went to Bahama Mama's for lunch. While leaving the restaurant, we had an incident that wasn't pretty. My uncle Bob went to the back of the boat to check the water temperature, and fell in. We didn't think it was a big deal at first, considering my cousin's face when he told us didn't look very convincing, but then luckily he got back on the boat pretty quick, and we saw he soaking wet climbing up the ladder into the boat, we knew he fell in. It was actually really funny, but at the same time it was pretty serious considering Captain Jim said if he had gotten close enough to the rudder, if would've pulled him in. His phone broke, and everything in his wallet got wet including all of his credit cards, money, and driver's license. Even worse, he lost his shoes in the water and even though he didn't care about them, Jim turned the boat around and my dad dove in and got them with the boat hook. It was hilarious watching him half-naked extending his arms out to the water to get my uncle's shoes. Afterwards, most of us (not including me) docked the boat up to a water slide where people could swim. A bunch of hicks were there at the time smoking, while laughing at my dad going head-first down the water slide and begging my cousin Janet for drinks, too. After that, I got the steer the boat part of the way back to Federal Hill to dock (it was a lot harder than I thought!) and had chicken and beef spiedies for dinner. Pretty packed day for being on a boat! At least I got to crash on a bed and watch the Olympics while people were still up drinking and talking.

Body Worlds

Today, I went downtown to see the Body Worlds exhibit at the Maryland Science Center in the Inner Harbor. At first our plans almost got ruined because of my cousin being scared, but he just went around the harbor with my uncle for a little while we were checking out the exhibit. It was absolutely incredible. It was so creepy, yet so amazing. There were tons of preserved organs of the human body with descriptions, and actual whole bodies where you could see bones, muscles, and other parts. I learned so much, including things I didn't even want to know. I thought it was really cool how after them showing the exhibit of a smoker's lung compared to a non-smoker's lung, there was a box that you could drop your cigarette box in to start quitting. I recommend anyone over the age of 2 (there were some cryers in there) to check out that exhibit. Afterwards, after getting some pizza on Light Street, we saw this fire enthusiast who lit himself on fire, jumped a flaming jump rope while balancing on a bouncy ball, and escaping 2 straitjackets in less than 2 minutes while balancing on the ball again. I'm still trying to figure out if he was cooler than the Body Worlds exhibit or not! This was only the beginning of my busy weekend.

Paramore at Festival Pier at Penn's Landing

I'm still debating over whether or not this was the best show that I've ever seen, or this was the second best show I've ever seen, behind Fall Out Boy at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia, MD. Last night, I saw Paramore live with Jack's Mannequin, Phantom Planet, and The Paper Route at Festival Pier at Penn's Landing in Philadelphia, PA with my dad. Taking us practically 3 hours to get there from Baltimore, with almost an hour back-up at the Delaware Memorial Bridge junction, I can say that it was totally worth it. As soon as we got there, seeing tons of idiots walking miles out of their way to pay for parking, we stopped right near a Lukoil gas station and parked on the street for free, right next to a parking lot that wanted $20 for parking. What a deal. Plus, I got to hear the worst riddle I've ever heard from a bum. "What's the best nation there is?" "Uh, Kenya?" "No, a donation." Wow. Wonder what he wanted. Anyways, after waiting for 20 minutes in the line for the bathroom at the gas station, we were inside. The ticket guy didn't even check me. We missed The Paper Route, but I didn't care considering I checked them out on MySpace beforehand and didn't really like them anyways. We were starving, so we got the essential chicken tenders and fries, not as good as Merriweather's though. Before we knew it, Phantom Planet was on, and God did they put a good show on. Everyone was singing along to "California." If it wasn't for that song, they wouldn't be nearly as known as they would now. After Phantom Planet, we checked out Paramore's merchandise table, and I bought their new "yearbook," that showed tons of photos of the band, lyrics, tour dates, and tons of other cool stuff. Then Jack's Mannequin was on. I checked them out for a bit at the Vans Warped Tour a few weeks ago, but I barely knew them then. They put on a great show as well, they were one of the best opening acts I've ever seen. Their singer is great, especially at piano. Then, it was time for Paramore. After I saw them in Washington D.C. at the Bender Arena in American University with Jimmy Eat World, I couldn't wait to see them again. They changed up a lot of their songs, with really cool intros and outros to the songs. Some they even played acoustic. My dad got tons of awesome photos, including when their bassist Jeremy did a front-flip during "Pressure." They put on such a great show, I think it determined that they were my favorite band. Although I did make a truce with myself that because I was listening to so much Paramore before the show, that I would take a break from listening to them for a few weeks. After the show, my dad and I stopped at South Street to get a cheesesteak at South Street Steaks. They even gave us free fries because we had our ticket stubs with us. The best I've ever had. They were really friendly, too. Afterwards we walked back to the car, and I crashed until 2 am when were were finally at Cape May, NJ to stay with my cousins for the weekend. What an experience!

The Hint at the Ottobar

Last night, I saw The Hint at the Ottobar. It was my first time at the Ottobar, and I plan to go back there again soon. It was a great experience, especially because I discovered 4 great other bands that were touring with The Hint including Mercy Mercedes, Go Crash Audio, Lannen Fall, and Racing Kites. I got to know many of the different band members and got most of their autographs on their band's different tour posters they were selling at their merchandise tables. I can't wait to see Valencia later this month at the Ottobar again. After show, I went with my dad to the Paper Moon Diner and got onion rings (the best, I swear) and their "moo moo" quesadillas. Well I have to go, Colbert's on.

"3 IS TH3 MAGIC NUMB3R"

Last night, I saw 3 Rideshop's video premiere, "3 is th3 Magic Numb3r," at the Senator Theatre. It was great, I can't believe how good some of the skaters in Baltimore have gotten. Some people thought it was too short, but I think it was a good length overall. Matt Grube, who made the video, is definitely a good editor. Afterward, they threw out free stuff from the balcony of the Senator and I caught tons of stickers, a pair of socks, and a hat for my brother that he eventually sold to my friend Hugh along with his 3 Rideshop video that he had just bought. We walked from the Senator to Belvadere Square after that where my mom was, and then went to Planet Produce to see my old friend Ben there. We all got smoothies, but we made my friend Justin drink a shot of wheat grass just because. It was really funny watching him drink it. He hated it. We then while walking back to 3 Rideshop, not only did I get some Swedish Fish, I ran into my drum teacher, John. Small world, huh? Now all I need to do is find a place to put all these fucking stickers...

Time for Some Campaignin'

See how political I am?!

Hamsters

My brother just bought two new hamsters yesterday. They're specifically called Robo dwarf hamsters, or "Roborovski hamsters." They are the fastest and smallest hamsters of all hamsters supposedly, and they definitely show it. Yesterday, I opened their cage to fix one of their little "rooms" they have, and one (I think Danny's) jumped out and flew into (thank God) our laundry basket. I am now not allowed to open the cage ever again. They were actually pretty cool, I was distraught at first when my mom told me that there was going to be "an addition to the family" when I got home from drum lessons, because I thought that it was a python or some kind of snake, but I was mostly just surprised at the end that my mom allowed him to get a new pet in the first place. It was funny this morning, when I went to check on them and they were fighting over who got to run in the little wheel in the cage by one trying to "run away" from it in the wheel, and one trying to stop the wheel from going with its little claws. Luckily, I got them still for a few seconds to take some photos of them with my cell phone.

Cape May, NJ

So I just got back from my trip to Cape May, New Jersey to visit my relatives at my aunt and uncle's beach house, and there were some interesting parts of it that I would like to share. Well first off, the water was freezing. I went kayaking with my cousin James and thought I was gonna freeze over from the water splashing into the kayak. We made it without tipping though, which my dad and my cousin Jake didn't. That gave me a good laugh. I had refused to go with my dad in the first place, so I guess switching dads is good for something. I discovered the Clean & Clear Morning Burst face wash in the bathroom of the beach house, which blew my mind. It read on the bottle that it wakes you up, so I thought I'd try it for myself. Oh my god. It actually made me feel that way. I couldn't keep my eyes shut. Literally. Plus, it cleansed my face well. =] Well, back to the trip away from my rambling, I saw the new movie Step Brothers and just like Hancock, it was only okay. Wasn't too funny, but wasn't too far fetched. Although with this movie, there was no extremely beautiful woman that you were looking at the whole time to distract you from how stupid the plot was, instead there was a guy distracting us by checking on us every 20 minutes to make sure we weren't resting our feet on the chairs in front of us. I guess in the long run it was good because I finally got my craving of Swedish Fish in the theater.
I ordered a new drum kit which my aunt was wanting to give me for my birthday in February my last day there. It's really nice, and I picked out some good cymbals as well. Now I have something to actually look forward to. I'm really excited for it to get here.

Camping Trip to Ricketts Glen State Park

I don't go camping very often, but whenever I do, it is with my dad and very interesting. This time, we went to Ricketts Glen State Park in Benton, PA for 2 nights. The first night, as usual, we forgot something that in this case was a grill for the top of the fire pit, and pads for the sleeping bags for my cousins that forgot to charge their air pump for their air mattress. Pretty lousy set-up for an air mattress if you ask me. Anyway, we made a quick stop at the Red Rock Country Store about 5 minutes down the road from the state park, making it perfect for this occasion. The rest of the night we spent cooking chicken, beef, and pork spedies on the fire pit which took much longer than we thought, forcing us to eat late at 9 pm. While calmly eating dinner, my uncle Bob went to adjust our lantern, touching the glass of it by accident, giving him a third-degree burn. This made him let off a very loud scream, but we really didn't make a big deal of it of course because it was a burn for Christ's sake. However, this made one of the park rangers come up to our campsite. He said that were talking very loudly during the park's "quiet hours" and disturbing the other campers. He wanted us to behave better by showing "common courtesy" as he called it, even though my uncle had already had explained to him that he had just gotten burned by our lantern. He warned us (verbally) that if there were any more problems with us that we would be thrown out of the park. This pissed me off, so when (at least I thought) he walked away from our campsite I made fun of him of his term of "common courtesy" while lecturing us. What I didn't realize is that it would come to bite me in the ass much later.

The next day, after being woken up by an unusually full bladder at 8:30 in the morning, we cooked a pound of bacon and left for Knobles Family Fun Park in Elkton, PA. There, I faced one of my worst fears. Heights. Everybody else was riding it so I had no one to talk to while I was waiting and I knew my grandma had already ridden it, so my dad thought that I should start getting over my fears by riding it. It was simply called the "Knobles Scenic Skyline," which was definitely a good name for it considering when I went on it I felt like I was on a different planet far off the ground. What didn't help too was my dad turning around to my cousin and aunt and uncle to take photos of them with his camera phone, shaking the car and almost giving me a heart attack. All I could think about is getting off and touching ground. I guess I learned to never to something like that ever again. Then, after almost fainting from the thrill of the skyline ride and having a concussion from tubing with my father at the water park, we left Knobles.

When we got back to our campsite around 9 pm, we cooked and ate sausages. Afterwards, talking amongst ourselves, guess who showed up. Ranger Rick. Or as we called him, "Ranger Dick." Not very clever I know, okay? He told us that alcohol was prohibited at the park and made us dump out all of our open cans and my aunt Nancy's homemade wine from our cousin Tom. He gave my uncle Bob a (this time written) warning stating that we disobeyed the park's rules and got in trouble by a ranger. This was such bullshit because we all knew that most of the other campers were drinking beer at their campsites and he had just come to pick on us from the night before when we weren't showing "common courtesy." I won't write a letter, but I'm sure someone will. So after being scolded once again by Ranger Dick and having my uncle's buzz killed, I had a nice and cold, sleepless night in the last night of the tent. With another awakening from a full bladder, we got ready for our hike down the trail through the waterfalls of Ricketts Glen. It was very tough, but I think in the long run, it was a good challenge. Like my friend Chelsea's tattoo says, "What doesn't kill me only makes me stronger." I guess that's what the hike was kind of like. The only bad times of it were when my uncle almost broke his hip falling on the rocks of one of the waterfall and my dad twisting his ankle every few miles. This hike was four fucking miles by the way. So after having a stressed coccyx and having the best sandwich of my life that my dad made, I finally got to relax on the drive home from the state park. God knows I'm not going back there to camp again... That was just a few of my many stories of camping.

Oh, and during the week I saw Hancock at the Sayre Theatre. Just an okay movie. Just okay. Charlize Theron was in it, though. =D