The boys are coming back to town on Friday November 9th. They are playing The Fillmore in San Francisco. You can get tickets here. Enter your email in this little box to get a free download and a chance to win 2 tickets to any show on the tour. Hope to see you there!!!

Viva Las Vegas

Long time no chat! I've been horrible about this blog since I moved. Speaking of my move, let me give you the rundown. I was going to move the weekend of my birthday but the weather had a different plan. After almost no rain all winter, it poured that weekend but I managed to get in by the 1st of February. I live with Lindsey and Kenny in Cotati. the commute sucks only because the mileage that tacks on so quick now. It takes me about 30 minutes to get to work and I always miss the traffic. It's different having roommates and I'm not super fond of having animals but all is good.
Work on the other hand has been a bit more crazy. Nicole (who has worked there as long as me) left at the end of January. Jessica (the girl who works part time) suggested a guy named Leo. He was great but unfortunately got an amazing job offer after about two weeks with us. Next was a guy named Charlie. I can usually get along with just about anyone but there was something about this kid that just wouldn't jive. After about a month+ we were again looking for someone new. Now we have Nancy and she is great. It's only been a week but I can tell this is going to work. Her whole attitude and approach is so much better.
I was lucky enough to go to Vegas at the end of April!!! I went with Katie for about 3 days. We got a really great deal on the flight and hotel so it didn't eat up my entire savings ;) We flew first thing in the morning and spent the first day mostly checking out all the casinos including the new Aria center and the Cosmopolitan. Gorgeous!! The first night we went to this club called LAX. It was a lot of fun mostly because I didn't spend a dime on drinks. Again all the places are just visually stunning and people watching is always fun. That first day I think I was up for 22 hours. The next day was a big day for me because we had purchased tickets to see The Beatles LOVE by Cirque Du Soleil. It was one of the greatest live shows I've seen. You don't even need to be a huge fan of The Beatles to really appreciate it. After the show we went to a club called The Bank which was also very cool but the dance floor was a bit small. I know I'm a bit spoiled living here in California but the smoking indoors thing really started to get to me in this club. It was packed tight on the dance floor and some chick lights up right next to me. What little air I had was soon overtaken by cigarette smoke. Bummer... Overall it was a great trip and the weather couldn't have been better. I'm not a big party girl so Vegas isn't my scene but it is still a lot of fun to indulge once in a while.
My favorite thing to share of all is the music so I have to tell you about the MUTEMATH show Matt and I went to February 7th. OMG, these guys put on a show! It was my first time at the Regency Ballroom. That place was the perfect size, big enough but still felt pretty intimate. MuteMath played the entire new album along with old favorites from the first two. The lighting on the stage was brilliant,  they ventured into the audience a few times with confetti and had an illuminated air mattress for crowd surfing. See some great clips of all of the above HERE!
I've seen some good stuff so far this year: Yellow Ostrich at Bottom of the Hill, White Rabbits at The Independent... The other night I saw Delta Spirit. It's been a while and man I've missed them. Their live show just gets better and better. I miss the days when they were playing small places like Bottom of the Hill but they definitely deserved their sold out show at The Fillmore. Friday I will get to see PAPA and Milo Greene at the Rickshaw Stop and then Harriet at Brick and Mortar on Saturday. Cory Chisel will be coming around at the beginning of August but no word on Dawes.
So there are the highlights of the first half of 2012. I'll try and update you again before 2013.

Cue The Music

Happy almost weekend everyone!
I'm bored tonight. Crystal is in Vegas for the week...jealous...and I don't have much money to go out and spend. I had to smog my car and pay registration yesterday so I'm spending whether I like it or not. I did have a $20 off coupon that took some of the sting out of smoging the car.
I can't believe it's already the 11th. How is time moving sooo fast?!? July ended pretty shitty for me. Two concerts got messed up for me by means beyond my control. I didn't/couldn't go to either one. Needless to say I was pretty heartbroken, especially missing Matt Costa. We did have the kids (Dillon & Stevie) up from the bay area for two weeks. They had a good time while they were here. Dillon went to Ramp Rats almost everyday and spent a lot of time with his friends. Stevie was content to spend time at home with us which was nice since we don't see her nearly as often. One of the days we spent at the Sonoma County Fair. I met up with everyone after I got off work. It was a bracelet day and even Travis was big enough to enjoy the rides. He was the cutest flipping thing.

I'm living vicariously through NPR tonight and listening to sets from Newport Folk Festival. This Middle Brother set is killing me in the best way possible. I want to travel and see these things live so badly. Music saves me everyday so I feel lucky to be in CA where live music is prevalent. Those festivals and the Daytrotter Barnstormer tour are brilliant events that I'm going to need to attend at least once. Lollapalooza was last weekend, Austin City Limits is coming up and Outside Lands is this weekend. I feel very lucky to be going to Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival this year. Unlike all the previously mentioned, Hardly Strictly is free and has an amazing line-up to boot! No word on Dawes being there but I still think it's possible if they back M.Ward like a week longer. ;) I've been wishing those boys would come back to Northern CA and then they announced a tour that begins and ends here! It's a co-headlining thing with Blitzen Trapper which is kind of a bummer but I refuse to complain. I'm still shocked that they are kicking it off in Petaluma, seriously Petaluma! Anyone who wants to go with is absolutely invited. I bought tickets for the Petaluma show and the SF show. I am super excited! My Delta Spirit boys have been on the down-low recording some new stuff. They are all of a sudden hitting a bunch of these festivals and bringing some of those new tunes. I'm hearing new album buzz for February and couldn't be happier. This is a new song called "Empty House" that they performed at Lolla. I like!


So I'm going to try and go concert crazy since I feel like I've been slacking. You should come with, because they are good times!
Enjoy the rest of this foggy summer. I'm curious to see how the harvest pans out around here. Hopefully we get some hot August nights pretty soon...

Hello 2011

Hello new year! Sorry that I let things go for so long. The last little bit of 2010 absolutely flew by and being sooo busy didn't help things. Where do I start?!...the beginning seems like a good place...short & sweet

November:

Consisted mostly of work, babysitting and promoting the Dawes show. I got super lucky and got free tickets for working so hard on promotional stuff. The Romany Rye were supposed to open the show but their van broke down and they didn't make it. :( But I did find this little gem on The Romany Rye's tumblr...

The show was AMAZING and I'm seriously considering seeing Dawes again in February. Thanksgiving was nice with the family. Last but not least, I rented the trailer on the DuVander Ranch. Affordable and all mine, no roommates!

December:

A fantastic Delta Spirit show (The Fling opened),

family drama, and spending money like crazy on my new place and on Christmas. I went from my little bedroom to a full house. I need so much stuff. That got put on the back burner the closer Christmas came.  Work was so busy! I was totally impressed by the generosity of our customers though. I got all kinds of candy, wine and Starbucks gift cards. Thanks again everyone! I got some overtime but had no time to shop for Christmas. It doesn't help that I'm a horrible shopper and got sick a few days before Christmas. I whipped it out though, and we had a really nice weekend at my parents. Uncle John, Sandra and Aunt Regina all came over. Dillon got some rockin' stuff and I got a lot of things for my new place. John built the new computer that I am thoroughly enjoying since my place doesn't have internet. Hopefully that will change soon.

So now here we are in 2011. Pretty exciting but hard to believe. Time is absolutely flying. I'm hoping to have a Housewarming/Birthday party on Sat the 22nd. Your all invited! Today is Ashley's birthday though. She is out, while I watch my crazy nephew Travis. OMG he is getting so big and we are definitely getting into the terrible two's. It's so much fun though ;) Here he is on the new bike he got for Christmas.

Here's to a happy and exciting new year!

Updated

Do you like the new layout?! I was up late last night but I think it came out good. Not too heavy and bulky like the other one felt sometimes. Ok, now I just sound like a nerd.

So my boys' new album dropped! It is so amazing. There are subtleties in this album that you have to listen for and when you know stories about the guys and that it was recorded right down the highway...so cool. Ok, now I really sound like a nerd! The next day was their show in SF. Lindsey had to bail on me (I really have no idea why people like to cancel on me on the last minute of a Delta Spirit show.) but I took Ashley. The openers were good but you just can't compete with Delta Spirit. The audience was lovin' it, which made the boys play harder, so all around the show was awesome.

It was at The Independent and I had never been there before. Nice place, good sound, good size but the parking was absolutely horrible. There are no parking lots around so it's all street parking, and on that street it's always full. I parked like 4-5 blocks away but it was worth it.
My next concert isn't until October but hopefully that changes!
What else, what else...?
Oh yes...the weather has been pretty rockin' I've done one river trip and one pool party. It's finally summer and I love it.
My co-worker Nicole gave her 2-weeks on Monday so if your looking for a job we're hiring. I think it would be cool to hire a guy just to balance the crew out and so I can make him move the heavy stuff ;) just kidding. Anyone will do because I will be working extra hours if we don't get someone before she's gone.
I guess that's all I really wanted to share this evening.  Kind of boring but that's my life these days...got to save up to get out, ya know?! Anyways, happy Father's Day to all the dads on Sunday.

Change is in the air

It's probably not the best time to be starting this (11:20pm) but now is when I know for sure I'm going to have the time! I have been so busy this week. It started on Monday with an amazing concert with Delta Spirit!!! It could have gone bad because around 1pm, the person that was supposed to go with me decided to bail. I really lucked out when I called my other buddy and she was totally available. It didn't rain the whole drive there and we got awesome parking for FREE. It's almost impossible in SF but I have managed a couple of times now. Anyways, we got there a little early and stayed warm in the car. We could hear everyone doing sound checks. Christina and I joke about opening a venue together so we were scoping out the place for things we liked and didn't like. The bands were getting food as everyone was coming in. I decided not to say hi for whatever reason. I always think how weird it must feel to have total strangers coming up to you and knowing all kinds of info about you, and saying how in love with you/your band they are. I guess it must not be that bad (unless the fan is a total creeper) because what is a concert without the screaming fans right? Wow, I keep going on little tangents. I will try to refrain.... The first act was a singer/songwriter with just an acoustic guitar. He called himself Elephant Micah. It was hard to really hear and enjoy what he was doing. Everyone was so amped and he was so mellow. I could totally see him in some little coffee shop like Aromas. The second act was We Barbarians.

Now a little fun trivia, We Barbarians are neighbors to Delta Spirit (when they are actually home) so naturally friends too. This little stint that Delta Spirit has been doing has been lacking Sean Walker. The lead singer of We Barbarians has been filling in, and doing a good job I might add. I sure do miss Walker though and have a bad feeling that he has taken off for good. I guess we'll find out when the album gets released on June 8th. But I digress... Finally, Delta Spirit took the stage. I can't tell you how awesome it is to see these people live in person. Besides being completely infatuated with Matt Vasquez

They opened with the familiar and great "Bleeding Bells." A lot of the other stuff was off the new album. A lot of that I have heard quite a bit already so I was singing along to some of the new stuff ;) They even did "Motivation" which was a huge treat! They were all just busting with energy and seemed to be really excited to play their new stuff. So, so much fun!
And that was just Monday...ha this is going to be longer than I though. It's now midnight and I've moved to my bed. Time springs forward in two hours and I'm going to loose another hour of sleep. Oh man...

Thursday I drove Ashley, Travis and myself to San Leandro/Oakland to meet with my grandparents for lunch and to go to the Oakland Zoo. I was so excited to take Travis to the zoo! I haven't been to the Oakland Zoo in a really long time and it was nice to see my grandparents as well. They live in Oakdale (near Modesto) so we don't get out to see them as much as we all would like. Travis slept the entire way there! He NEVER does that so I knew we were off to a really good start. I found the restaurant real easily and we got there on time. The zoo was fun. Pretty typical lions, tigers and bears...but seriously the little sun bear was sooo cute. He was rolling around on his back and playing on this little platform. We saw bats and lemurs, flamingos, and monkeys of all sorts. It ended with a little train ride, Travis' first train ride. Travis did so good the entire day. He got a little cranky around dinner time but that was expected. Then it was time to say goodbye and head home. Traffic was rough between Berkeley and Richmond basically, and Travis cried about 75% of the way home. I think he was just overly tired. It all worked out and I would totally do it again.
While we were gone I had gotten a call from my Aunt. When I called her the next day she told me a position at her store had opened up and asked if I wanted to come in. She owns the UPS store in Healdsburg. I am so thankful to be getting a job again. I go in first thing Monday morning. Wish me luck!
And finally, I am going camping next weekend with Crystal, Anthony and a few other people. It's a place in or near Duncans Mills. I think it will be fun. They are heading out Thursday but because of my new job I'll be going on Friday. So, things are really chugging along around here, thank god. Hopefully with some money coming in now I can do more fun stuff like camping, concerts, and fix my car and save for my own place. Geez, wouldn't that be awesome! That's another late night.