loud noises

"You're not dressed very gangster."

With a skeptic look on my face, I glanced at Phil as I settled into the passenger's seat of his car. "Do you think I own anything that is gangster?" I asked. (I grew up in the suburbs of Des Moines, Iowa and now live in Lawrence, Kansas; a town best described as hipster).

"I've seen you wear one or two things," he replied.

I didn't end up changing so I was wearing my Gap shorts (What? it was really hot!) and pink cardigan to the Bone Thugs 'N' Harmony concert last night. If I wasn't going to come close to "gangster" why even try? "Polar opposite" seemed more hilarious anyway.

After dinner, we made our way to The Granada. Phil has been a "Bone" fan for awhile and had mentioned earlier in the week that he wanted to go. I didn't realize until the next day that he wanted me to go with him. He was going to buy tickets, so why not? I don't go to enough concerts and we had no plans anyway.

On Friday, Lawrence.com's Twitter account was giving away tickets. Thanks to Wikipedia, I was able to answer a trivia question and win two tickets. (I may be reviving my Twitter contest winning streak I started two years ago. I won tickets for a country concert at The Granada and Mat Kearney tickets at The Beaumont Club as well as some free food. Most recently I wont VIP seats at The Dole Institute's lecture with Bob Woodward; a lecture that was my perfect mix of geekdom. Politics AND Journalism. Swoon.)

Lonely Hearts Club opened and for not being much of a rap fan, I enjoyed their performance. They also had various other (local, I think) rappers including Steddy P w G-Train (I only know this because of The Granada's website, for serious).

By the time Bone Thugs 'n' Harmony started there was more smoke inside The Granada then I had experienced since Lawrence's smoking ban in '04. But when the performers themselves aren't abiding by city rules, I don't think you can expect to control the habits of 1,000 or so fans.

I don't think I moved through the whole first song. During the openers, it was impossible not to move a bit to the beat. But this? This was LOUD. Not only could I feel the speakers, there was enough sound for my ear drum to be pulsing continuously.

After three songs, Phil motioned and we moved from the front area of the venue and went all the way behind the bar, close to the doors. Phil was disappointed that the acoustics were so bad. It did not need to be that loud and the feedback was bad. I was glad it wasn't just me. We stayed for a few more minutes but Phil decided we didn't need to stay.

Dressing for the Occasion

There comes a time in your life where everyone you know is getting married. Sometimes you get invited, sometimes you're a bridesmaid and sometimes you're the maid of honor! And sometimes you even get to plan the wedding because your fabulous friend you miss terribly is in Japan. Just so happens, this is all relevant for me this year.

First up, I'm a bridesmaid for my friend Lindsey. The other bridesmaids (maybe co-maids-of-honor?!) are her sisters so I'm very honored to be in this wedding. Lindsey and Phil were engaged July 2007, asked me to be in the wedding in November '07 and we were fitted for dresses in May 2008, a whole year before their big day. The dresses are now in so the next time I'm in Des Moines I can try on this fabulous dress:










I will be attending two weddings in June; on the 20th in Kansas City and on the 27th another Des Moines wedding.

On July 31st, in the dead heat of a Kansas summer, I will be the maid of honor for my friend Megan who is currently living in Japan. She and her fiance (actually, they're married in Japan!) will be back for two weeks and will have their states' wedding in Lawrence. As the maid of honor, she wants me to stand out *cringe* so I will be wearing navy and the other bridesmaids will wear candy pink. Here is our dress:





I'm actually helping out with some of the leg work here in town since Megan and Nathan are living in Japan! I'm very excited to be a part of the wedding and to have a hand its fruition. (I <3 event planning!)

Overall, the next 5 months will be a blast! Definitely no bridezillas! Now I just need to find a date! A fun one, preferably!

In other fun news, I was lounging this morning watching music videos (CMT + VH1)and Kelly Clarkson's "Life Would Suck Without You" video came on. I had heard the song and thought it was good but the video is hilarious. I had also been hearing her new cd was good so I headed over to KC's myspace to see if there were other songs from her album (there weren't) but I was happily distracted by her concert list. As I perused the list, I remembered she never did shows in the midwest because she apparently does not get good concert attendance. Then I noticed the Ohio State Fair: that's midwest-ish. I then got WAY TOO excited when I saw she would be at the Iowa State Fair. The ISF is another post in itself but I immediately headed to the concert line up for the fair and (thankfully!) August 22 is a Saturday and I prayed to the concert gods my ISF buddy, Ashley, would be excited as I was about KC's concert. I urgently texted her: ALERT: ISF CONCERT LINEUP HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED. As I expected, moments later, she called me for the info. I started my story from the beginning and as soon as I said Kelly Clarkson, I knew that's the show we'd be going to: Ashley was as excited as me! (Obviously, we're good friends!) Tickets go on sale April 11; and this time, we're going to get some damn good seats!