my moral standing is lying down

Ahahaha, I got laid off.

My last day is this coming Friday, though my boss let me know this past Friday. I went home a little early and told my roomies and quietly freaked out a little. Went to the gym. Then I relaxed because whatevs, I just had to figure out what I should do about it: look up California Unemployment, see if I'm eligible; look up jobs on Craigslist and other sites, start sending resumes out.

I did those things.

I can't even remember what the context was when I jokingly said "I should just move to Philly", but then the thought just got stuck in my mind. The more I thought about it, the more seriously appealing it became. Several weeks ago I'd decided that I was going to stay in LA for only another year before going back to NYC. Mostly because of Rich. So my thinking is: if I've got only a year to sow my wild wanderlust-oats, I need to make the best of it; if I was going to struggle with finding a job (for who knows how long) and maybe not be able to do things because of making only enough money to survive rather than go out and doing fun stuff, I'd rather spend a year doing that in a place I've never lived before, experiencing something completely new and different.

You probably think I'm crazy. I don't blame you; I kind of do, too. But I talked it out with a few people who've got good, rational heads on their shoulders, and I think this is actually going to work out.

I'll be going back to NYC first, for a couple of months, to work and save up some money for the cost of moving to Philly (rent/security/furniture/etc.) where I plan to live for about a year before returning. I'm ridiculously sad I'm going to miss all of the new friends I made here, though. And most especially, my two awesome roomies elipie and likeaglass. This past year just couldn't have been as fucking awesome as it was without them!

But I'm not gonna lie -- though it wasn't the motivating, or even the tipping factor -- it's a huge plus that Philly's only 2.5 hours away from Rich, and my family, and so many of my closest friends. (And also the NY Rangers.)

So here's the fun part: ROAD TRIP 2: EAST COAST BOOGALOO!

LOS ANGELES >> ALBUQUERQUE >> OKLAHOMA CITY >> ST LOUIS >> CHICAGO >> PITTSBURGH >> NYC

So... I'll be going to Disneyland on Friday with Rich. FUN TIMES, YES? If you have any ride recs, let me know. Basically have been told to ride anything with "mountain" in the name. =D Actually, I did go to Disneyland once before, when I was 17, but jeeeez that was a while ago and somehow I barely remember anything about it other than loving the Haunted Mansion and Space Mountain, and having a suuuuper fun time with Liz even though she dragged me on all the kiddie rides (she was 10 at the time).

So anyway... PARASAILING! In Marina Del Rey a few weeks ago. With likeaglass and another friend. elipie was supposed to be there but ahhhhh, the timing didn't work out too well. T_T

Hanging from a harness that falls into a seat shape, clipped onto a bar that hangs from a parachute... 800 feet in the air! It's a lot like skydiving once your parachute has opened. It's beautiful and relaxing and exhilarating. (Can something be relaxing and exhilarating at the same time?) It made me miss skydiving lots, though. But it was a lot cheaper since we had 2-for-1 groupons.

( Pics of FUN TIMES! (And seals!) )

Hmmmm. I wonder if I can come up with some sort of skydiving-related tattoo for myself. I'll have to ruminate on that one for a while.

Have I mentioned how much I love my team? Lately they've been at the top of the Eastern Conference, and often at the top of the entire league. And on top of that, they do things like tweet incriminating pics of each other for all their fans to see.

BEST. TEAM. EVER.

So what if it's for like 20 minutes, until the Blackhawks win against CBJ tonight? I'll take it. Besides, the hawks are my second team, so. =DDD

And then there's the whole GABY IS LEAGUE LEADER IN GOALS.

I love my teams. <3



Aaaaaand in other good awesomely awesome and amazingly amazing news, the wonderful cathybites is taking me to the WINTER CLASSIC ALUMNI GAME in Philly on Saturday so I can see Leetch play live for once in my fucking life! I CANNOT EXPRESS HOW ALSDJKFLASJFLASJFLDSJ EXCITED I AM FOR THIS. SO WHAT IF IT'S AN OLD-TIMERS' GAME?! I DON'T CARE. IT'S LEEEEEEETCHY!

A friend got a ticket and a +1 (me!) to the taping of Patrick Stump on the Mark Hoppus show on Fuse this morning! So I got to see him perform This City and Run Dry (X Heart X Fingers) live for the cameras. It airs on Friday 11/25 and I think you probably can't see me in the crowd (god, I really hope not) because I was sort of behind a taller girl, but you might catch a glimpse of me and my friend in the beginning when Mark Hoppus introduces the show/guest.

The interview portion was cool and pretty funny, and it was kind of awesome to see how these things are run, behind-the-scenes.

Aaaand I'll be at Webster Hall for his show tonight, which I'm suuuuper psyched about because he's playing at the Studio stage, not the main stage, so capacity is like, 300!!! TINY VENUES ARE THE BESTBESTBEST!

LOOK AT HIS ADORABLE GLASSES <333



I also got a pic with him on Katie's DSLR but ugh, my face looks horrible so it's just for me and my memories.

Because of this photo of Spencer Smith's stupid, smiley, squishy face THAT I WANT TO BITE, and his hair that I WANT TO RUN MY HANDS THROUGH AND MESS UP SO BADLY.



ETA: DOWNLOAD LINKS:
- P!ATD iTunes Live EP, which I haven't even had time to listen to yet!
- Mercenary, released on the Batman: Arkham City Soundtrack
- Ready To Go (Take 40 Live Lounge Acoustic), with all the fan cheering at the beginning cut out, of course

BRENDON. AND PATRICK.

WHY ARE THEY SO CUUUUUUUUUUTE? AND DORKY? SO DORKY. UGH.

So, they announced yesterday that PStump will be one of the opening acts for Panic! on their fall tour. I'm definitely going to at least the Philly show; I'm considering the DC show if I can find anyone to put me up there. I'm excited because Patrick stump is adorable and I'm actually really excited to see him live, though you know I'm really wishing that Pete would be there too.

Still, I'm.... not sure how I feel about all of this, musically. PStump's solo music is reeeeeeeally Not My Thing. Neither is Fall Out Boy's... or The Black Cards', so really I've just screwed myself (or my ears) over by thinking that Pete and Patrick are the most adorable musicians I don't actually like.

I think I need to go to more metal concerts to make up for this extreme loss of hardcore cred, y/y/MFY?

Well, you know, when I get back to NYC.

OFF TO THE AIRPORT IN FIVE HOURS OMFG. I MAY BE BEGINNING TO FEEL LIKE I'M ABOUT TO GET ON A SCARY ROLLER COASTER RIDE.

Go vote in my poll. I NEED YOUR OPINION.

JUST caught up on fskip=180 and YAY I've got, like, three or four new Brendon/Spencer fics to read (also the next chapter in freece's Captive Prince) and am SUPER EXCITED ABOUT THIS!!! I've... sort of been flailing about and reading random Pete/Patrick fics, but I miss my daily dose of Spencer. I haven't quite made it over to read the latest round of BBB yet, though, so there's that waiting for me too.

To be fair, I've actually been away from the comp a lot in the last week or so. I now have less than a week left in NYC before going to Indonesia for six weeks, and I'm not freaking out or anything, but I'm sort of feeling like I'm going to miss ALL THE THINGS here while I'm away.

Also, the money situation really isn't the best, but whatever, I'm just going to have to sort of just plough through the next couple of months and hope the other side will be an improvement.

Going to see Warrior tonight. T-HARD, I STILL LOVE YOU. I'm so happy there's a preview showing tonight so I didn't have to go to the midnight showing on Thursday to see it before my flight to Indonesia leaves on Friday morning. THOUGH I WOULD HAVE DONE IT. FOR TOM.


Aaaaaand I'm going to leave you with this. Because while I'm not a huge Patrick Stump fan, HIS FACE HERE IS THE MOST ADORABLE THING AND I CAN'T STOP WATCHING IT. If I have to suffer, you do too. <3333

I always end up meeting the coolest people waiting on line, or even just next to me in the crowd, etc. And somehow I'm not shy about starting up a conversation with strangers at a concert like I am pretty much EVERYWHERE ELSE. starsparkle333 suggested that it's because we're all there for the same reason/same interest, but I'm still super shy about chatting up strangers even at CONS, with fangirls, ffs!

...and did I mention how many lovely, lovely fellow bandom fangirls I met and chatted and squeed with yesterday? ILU GUYS! <333

In any case, some guy ordered too much pizza and offered my group the extra slices (which was awesome because other than a jamba juice at 2pm, that would be all I would eat until 11pm). And then I made two friends waiting in line. One SKYDIVES as like, a serious hobby -- like, she goes every weekend or something and packs her own chute and dives alone (not tandem) and she's like, I COULD TEACH YOU HOW TO PACK, YOU CAN COME DIVE WITH ME (in Michigan). We were sort of going on about how awesome it is and basically the other girls with us looked at us like we're nuts. If I'm in/near SF again I'm going to Lodi and diving again for $100, no matter what.

The other friend I made took this photo that's making the rounds; she's a pretty big fan of Panic and bandom-related bands like TAI and Empires and such; we bonded over previous concert experiences and also claiming our spots in the third row when we were let in, making a much-needed beer run even though the crowd was already ridiculous, and being surrounded by 15-year old girls. UGH. While I'll make an exception for a few Panic shows, I'd really rather stick to metal shows in the future.

The Black Cards were cute -- because PETE WENTZ IS TINY AND ADORABLE AND HAS THE CUTEST SMILE (second only to Spencer Smith's). But I'm not a huge fan of his music and it seems I never will be. Neon Trees were... good? The crowd was actually the rowdiest for them? Or, it seemed that way because I'd gotten to the barrier by the time Panic played and so I didn't have to fight for ground so much anymore. The singer is sort of fascinating to watch, but I'm just not a fan of their music. He does remind me a lot of a former coworker of mine, which amuses me to no end.

Then Panic came out and the first time Brendon ran over to our side, I thiiiiiink he may possibly have recognized me because of my glasses?! He complimented them on Wednesday when I MET HIM AND ZACK IN CENTRAL PARK. And then I got into this conversation with Zack about whether my glasses were Not Real a la the Matrix. =DDDDDDDD

As concerts go, Panic's show really isn't my idea of a good concert. I think there are just too many 15-year old girls for me to be able to get into it... also the lack of, you know, hard rock/metal sound... but I've pretty much started thinking of concerts as paying to see canon performed live. And that works for me. =D

Seeing Panic partially cover Personal Jesus also works for me.

In celebration of Spencer's birthday today, Brendon dedicated Always to him because -- in Brendon's own words -- "he's a sexy bastard". Spencer ran out in front of the stage to, you know, be serenaded and open his arms to Brendon's metaphorical embrace. The whole thing was sweet, including when the crowd sang "Happy Birthday" to Spencer and Brendon was amused and happy about it, and just. There was really just so much happy there. SO MANY SPENCER SMILES. I wish I'd been able to capture them all but Spencer is just too far away for my lack of zoom. =(

AND THEN PETE WENTZ JOINED THEM ON STAGE TO PLAY IWSNT AND IT WAS BEYOND ADORABLE TO SEE DALLON SHOWING PETE THE PROPER FINGERING WHEN PETE DIDN'T KNOW IT.

Yes, I said proper fingering.

But my favorite part (besides all of Spencer's parts... and maybe also a few of Pete Wentz's parts -- oh yeah, did I mention I got to touch his hipbone one of the times he dove into the crowd?), was seeing Brendon's spazzy dancing. I love it to death. <3333

Hip-swivel, just for Spencer:


WE KNOW WHERE HIS HAND REALLY IS, RIGHT:



This video is SO FUCKING WORTH KEEPING. I think I may have re-watched it like FIVE MILLION TIMES in the last hour.

So here, if you want to save it too, you can dl it:

http://www.mediafire.com/?dsi2d797kyuhuqe
[credit: crazybutsound]