Concert...and the Trouble I Went Through To Get There

Today was brilliant. I'm just throwing that out there to start off. It's my "Attention Grabber," if you will. I'm hoping it makes the rest of this post sound nearly as exciting as it really is. :D

I started off my day by staying up until 5am. You may be wondering why. Oddly enough, I'm wondering the same thing. I was pretty excited to have tickets to see Stellar Kart and Seventh Day Slumber. Kiros was supposed to be there, too. I didn't really know who they were, and they ended up not being there for some reason.

Crawled out of bed a little bit after 3:00 in the afternoon. I tried to see if a few more people wanted to come to the concert, but, having no such luck, resigned to the idea of going by myself. I was NOT going to miss this!! I got ready for work and shoved a pair of jeans and an overshirt into my (awesome) green backpack and bounced merrily out the door with a cup of yogurt in my hands.

I worked from 4:30 to 6:00, ran into the bathroom there and changed and pretty much floated out to my car. It was at this point that I realized that it was about 6:15, and I still had no idea where I was actually going or how long it would take to get there. Fortunately, high class restaurants offer free wi-fi. I sat in the parking lot of the KFC next door and Googled a map. 35 minutes. From my house. I was about twenty minutes further than that.

"Okay. I need... Oh. I need a comb. Badly." There was no comb in my car. Run to Wal-Mart. Left Wal-Mart with two combs (You never know when you'll need back-up) and a Monster (because this Wal-Mart apparently doesn't carry Rockstar. Ew.) at lightning speed at approximately 4:30.

Twenty minutes later...and I'm lost. By this time, I'm on the phone with Devon, and I'm sure she thought my complete and total lack of planning in the Navigation Department was hilarious. I land myself in some dinky little town next to a large, gold SUV. Their windows were down.

Me: Hey. Quick question.
Driver: Yo, what's up?
Me: What town am I in, and how do I get to Kansas City? o.O
Driver: Get behind me and follow us. We headed that way.

Normally, this screams "DANGER: This person is going to lead you to an empty field and leave you for dead." This time, though, they actually took me exactly where I needed to be. I found the highway and was on my way again.

Only to get lost a second time, about five minutes later. Time: 7:04. Place: Kansas City International Airport's Marriot Hotel. ...how did I get here!? I had no idea, but I ran inside anyway, past a huge bus that was unloading a bunch of luggage. All I could think was, "I really need to get into that lobby to the desk before all of them do..." I made it. Barely.

Me: I'm lost.
Clerk: Okay. Where are you headed.
Me: This address. -hands over concert ticket-
Clerk: -prints out directions- You're only about ten minutes away.
Lady Behind Me: It's only about 7:00 now. You can make it!
Me: -swift walk out the door-

Anyway, I got there at about 7:15. I was hugged by the lady (Ashley) who gave me the ticket. She then took me into the auditorium and...over to the VIP seating area. I pretty much died. Front row, just SL of the stage. Not that I sit during any concert.

Stellar Kart was amazing. Like...brilliant. There was fist-pumping, headbanging...pretty much everything I love in a concert. And they were funny. Like...really funny. :D Between sets, I hit up their stand in the lobby and got a poster (which I had them autograph) and an armband. Yes, I splurged a little...I'm not ashamed. Oh, and also, this:

This was incredibly cool. Like...it's my profile pic on Facebook. That's how cool I thought it was. :D Ashley came over and kinda told them how I'd gotten the tickets after my little "Oh my gosh, I'm ringing up Stellar Kart's groceries!" thing...which totally happened. I'm definitely a fan of their music, and by sheer chance, the lady buying the water for their concert was in my check-out line. You'd freak out a little bit, too, I bet! 

I also checked out Seventh Day Slumber's stand, but didn't plan ahead, so I couldn't get anything. 

Between sets, there was a give away of a few things. I got a Switchfoot's "Hello Hurricane" album. And then Seventh Day Slumber came on. I managed to snap a few pictures of them, but the lighting made it a little difficult to do without flash, but the lighting was so cool I didn't really want to use flash. Flash pretty much always ruins live performances...

Joseph Rojas had...a pretty much amazing testimony to give. It really reminded me a lot of ConsuME, which I miss. I miss being on-stage doing worship. Okay. I wasn't on-stage at this concert, but I was really, really close to it. 

That grey bar there marks the first step of the stage. I was really, really close to the whole concert. The concert was...a blast. A really big blessing, and something I needed badly. The way these tickets came about and how perfectly everything came together was really, really cool.

I had to leave right after Seventh Day Slumber finished playing, because it was about 10:30 already, and I was afraid of getting lost on the way home. Which I did. I ended up on the other side of Liberty, Missouri. Twice. The 35 minute drive took two hours.

Today was awesome. Thanks, Ashley, for the tickets, and thanks to Stellar Kart and SDS for being there and just being awesome in general! God bless! :D

Most. Epic. Day. ...just sayin'.

So, earlier today, I posted "Today is pretty much the best day ever" as my Facebook status. Now, I'm here to tell you why.

Okay, so the last few days of my life have been a little bit stressful. Not gonna lie. Between money, missing friends from Branson, and just general little things that tend to cause small amounts of stress, as well as being surrounded by people who are stressed, I've been kinda moody. Not really moody. Just kinda "If I could get away with hitting you..." moody.

Today, though, was good. Nope. It was great. No, no, no. Fantastic. ...y'know what? Pick a positive adjective, and it was that. :D I woke up this morning and stared groggily around my disaster of a room before calling a few pawn shops. See, I've been trying to get rid of my PS2 for some time now. The problem is, pawn shops don't take them, because they're basically obsolete... Fortunately, I discovered the local GameStop. Sure, they really don't give you much, but it's more than the pawn shops.

Then I went to work. I thought I was going to be late, because I left GameStop at 11:41, and I had to be at work at 12:00, and it's about a twenty minute drive, and I still had to change when I got there. I got there and clocked in at exactly 12:00. It was beautiful. I cried many tears of joy. Not really.

Then, (and this is where it gets good) this lady came through my check-out lane. She was buying some stuff for "this concert we're doing." Of course, I love music. I love concerts.

Me: Yeah, what concert?
Lady: Stellar Kart and Seventh Day Slumber at Rock of KC.
Me: -bouncing- Oh my goooosh! I love them! I didn't know they were coming!
Lady: You didn't?
Me: No! It's tomorrow night?
Lady: Yep. You should come.
Me: I'm pretty sure I'm working.
Lady: Well, you should still put it on Facebook and let people know it's happening.
Me: Okay! I will!
Lady: I'll grab you a flyer and bring it back in.

Okay. Lady leaves. Five minutes later, she comes back with a flyer. "Here's the flyer. Oh, and here's two tickets in case you can make it." Pretty sure my jaw hit the floor. Yep.

Then I realized...I worked. :( But I asked a manager, and a schedule change was made, and tomorrow night I'm going to see Stellar Kart and Seventh Day Slumber and I'm so freakin' happy!!

I spent the next three hours of my shift in a state of ecstasy. Oh, yeah. It was pretty fantastic.

Yeah. That was my day. :D :D :D

Libraries and Assassination (Unrelated Topics, FYI)

Libraries are my favorite. Seriously.

I know a lot of people find stacks upon stacks of books to be completely boring, but I have to disagree. Sometimes, I have a pre-set subject I want to kinda research and look into, but not today. Oh, no. Today is the day of "Let's Go to the Library and Grab Whatever Looks Fun." So that's kinda what I did.

Thus far (and I still have more than an hour left to peruse), I've picked up The Amityville Horror, Handwriting Analysis, The Complete Spanish Grammar Review, Multicultural Cookbook for Students, Why Do Men Have Nipples: Hundreds of Questions You'd Only Ask a Doctor After Your Third Martini (which I picked up just because one of my roommates saw the book on Amazon and thought it was hilarious and almost ordered it), and a few pretty random DVDs.

At the moment, it looks like I might be learning how to prepare a dish for a Mexican family in a haunted house while wearing nothing but underwear. o.O The best part is, I'm still not done finding books. It's just gonna get more interesting! Hehe...

In other news, last night it was announced that Osama bin Laden has been killed. There was a huge gathering in New York at the site of the WTC when the news was given to us. Following is my thoughts:

I refuse to celebrate the death of any man. I find it cruel and unwarranted, regardless of the crimes he committed, masterminded, and was involved with. I find the celebration of death to be barbaric and infantile, and you can pretty much quote me on that. That said, I can rejoice, however, that justice has finally been done, albeit ten years later, for the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. I'm relieved to know that he, himself, is no longer a threat to us or to anyone else in the world, despite the fact that I'd have preferred to have him captured and imprisoned for life.

Ezekiel 33:11 - "As I live, declares the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live."

Okay. I'm done writing. There are at least twenty more shelves I haven't so much as glanced at! Buh-bye!! :D