Here's the night, and it shines

I set out from school with a car full of bread. I mean FULL of bread. Having used all the space in the trunk, I loaded more boxes of Panera-donated baked goods into the back seat. It was for the Mae Community Outreach project me and a few other local Mae fans had been planning since August. We found out two days before that the band wasn't going to help us hand out the food, which left three of us to deal with a Beetle full of bread. Then the only guy on our team had to deal with something dumb that happened to his apartment and couldn't be there. Thankfully Renee brought a friend! But still, three girls carrying 60 pounds of bread equals not so successful. I managed to get lost on my way into Cambridge and drove around so much that my car fucked up again, and meanwhile (as Renee told me over the phone as I apologized profusely for my lateness) the band was trying to get out of Pennsylvania, where their van and trailer had been stolen the night before. So there might not even be a show.

I would've gone home, except I had this car full of bread. So I found the place, parked, and we set out. It was very lucky for our frail upper bodies that we ran into a college-age guy who was intrigued by our quest and agreed to help us out. The food was a tough sell, surprisingly. We walked around for a bit and when Noah had to leave, the rest of us took the food to the Commons via train. My friend Wanda met us there to help, but unfortunately there was no one to feed at the Commons either. We ended up taking the food to a church across the street, where there was apparently a service about to start. They were thrilled to have something to eat during fellowship and asked us to stay for the service. Everyone else was skeptical, but I hadn't been to church in a while so I thought it seemed like a good idea to stay, especially since we still weren't sure there would be a concert later. Wanda stayed with me.

It was an experience unlike any I'd had before. We began the service with a chant. Then we were invited to join in a spiritual dance... that is, the Electric Slide. I kid you not; we expressed our love for God by doing the Electric Slide in church. Then a black woman, the pastor, spoke about the events that brought her to the church and what a great impact dancing had had on her spiritual life. Even still, she said, dance is one of the most meaningful ways she worships God. After the sermon we took communion, passing the sacraments around a huge circle so that each person could offer the body and blood to the next person in line. I declined to sip the wine since about 40 people had sipped from the cup before me (at the beginning of the service they asked us not to greet one another with hugs because of swine flu o_o).

After the service I booked it back to the Middle East club in Cambridge, where Renee and her friend were holding a spot in line for me. The doors hadn't even opened yet. We were an hour behind schedule. But the band was on their way.

There was more standing and waiting to be done inside (luckily I had the stage to sit on). The opener, a local band, played three extra songs to kill time and we stood and waited some more.

Finally Mae and the others arrived! Jenny Owen Youngs played first. I wasn't too thrilled with her set, and it didn't help that I was already exhausted from walking around the city with all that bread for so long after hardly sleeping the night before. But Deas Vail - woah! Their set was great fun; I danced almost the entire time. And maybe the singer was kinda cute, too ^_~

Mae finally took the stage around 12:30. They only had an hour to play since the club had to kick us all out at 1:30, but the hour they played was epic! They poured so much heart into the set in spite of all they'd been through that day. You could tell they were tired. But you could also tell that delivering a great show was more important to them. And when it came down to it, without the 3-D videos and scratch-and-sniff CDs, Mae is still a group of great guys making great music. That's at the core of everything else.

After the show, I went to buy Deas Vail's CD and the guys thanked me for being so into their set. I was shocked they had noticed and even more shocked they recognized it was me. Then, as I was walking upstairs, two guys (one of whom played with Jenny) started talking to me. The other guy convinced me he usually plays with Mae when they're live but he didn't have a guitar since their stuff got stolen. I have not yet determined the truth of this statement; however, I couldn't find his name on any of their websites so I highly doubt he was telling the truth.

Shame because he seemed so nice at the time. We hung out for like fifteen minutes, during which he told me he wished he could make himself cry on command. This seemed like a pretty personal thing to share, so I trusted him. I should have realized he was a liar when he tried to convince some other girl Mae would be playing in her hometown in Florida in a couple weeks. I'll be he died laughing the minute I left... asshole.

Another tale of woe for Derry the punchbuggy

When I drove back to school last week, Derry the punchbuggy made it all the way to the off-ramp without giving me any trouble. Then he started doing that thing that he did a few weeks ago that we supposedly got fixed. When I press on the gas, he makes a gut-wrenching sound as if I'd asked him to go from 0 to 100 in no time flat, but just sort of sits there without accelerating at all... or even continuing to drive at the speed I was driving before his little epileptic fit.

We found our way to one of the few spaces available on campus, but upon getting out of the car, I was promptly assaulted by some super-ninja stingered insect. Didn't see the thing. Didn't do anything to provoke it. I just wanted my laptop out of the trunk. I've never had an allergic reaction to a bee sting until now, and wow; it really sucks. Don't try it at home, okay? I walked around with an ice pack for two days and felt like such a little wuss.

Derry made it home okay this weekend, so we didn't take him to the shop. Big mistake. Coming back, I hadn't even made it as far as the city, which is about halfway between home and school, when he had another seizure. Smack dab in the middle of some of the worst towns in our area. Afraid of pulling over and getting shot, I kept driving until I hit town. My parents had to come retrieve me and take me back to school.

Now I am here without a car, which wouldn't be so bad if A) I hadn't just paid $89 to join a gym off campus, B) I didn't need to go to the store to replace my deodorant, which inexplicably disappeared from my drawer over the weekend, and C) I had something to give Mama Swede for her birthday. As it stands I am presentless, deodorantless, and losing money while gaining weight. I'll bet little Derry never realized how important he was. I sure didn't. I'm sorry, old buddy. Get better quick so we can go puttering around town again. Love, Amandasaurus.

Magical Musical Road Trip Extravaganza pt. 1

What a weekend! It's going to take more than one post to chronicle the epicness of our magical musical road trip extravaganza. So I shall begin with the road trip, and after that we'll move on to the magic and the music. Sound good? Good.

While driving through the lovely state of PA, we amused ourselves by trying to pronounce the silly names on the exit signs. Or rather, I amused both of us, as Joanna is a Pennsylvania native and already knew how to say it right. Here are a few that I couldn't resist sharing, absent some of the best because we just weren't quick enough with the camera.



We've got Fogelsville, home of the old fogeys; we've got Kutztown, which is full of puking Germans; we've got Viktorkrumsville, which I'm sure Hermione would be thrilled to visit; we've got Hell and Bethlehem sharing a stoop; we've got the home of the singing cow. Sorry about the lack of photo evidence of such gems as Lackawanna University (I imagine all the students there wake up in the morning, think about going to class, and decide they just don't wanna) and the fruity Mexican town of Avoca(do). Also missing is the utterly unpronounceable "Schuyllkill." Two syllables. Swear to god. But my favorite of all is the creative misspelling of "Wisconsin" in the center of the collage. I thought we were in PA...?

Love, Miss Rex

Detailed accounts of music, magic and madness at A Dustland Fairytale!

Music: "If anyone ever wrote a love song, it was Jon Foreman." Read more
Magic: "I barely had enough time to tell Tim that I think he's one of the greatest bassists mankind has ever seen, not to mention that when you say something in that amount of time it doesn't exactly come across as sincere..." Read more
Madness: Coming soon!

Note: the new Dustland Fairytale is a little quirky. After clicking the link, click on "Entries" and it should go right to the post you want!

We are heffalumps!

Some days I just lie on my bed and laugh and wonder what the hell is wrong with me. Today is one of those days. I feel like I've been awake since... oh, wait, I HAVE been awake since 7:30. That explains it. I got up early to take my car to Firestone to see if they could figure out why it starts screaming and flashing lights at me every time I drive it. Jen was kind enough to come along and drive me back, though of course, not without a pit stop at good ol' sketchball, greasy-walled Denny's for breakfast. Well, in the end it turned out that Firestone wasn't sure what was going on with my car, so they made up some bull and sent us to Mobil, where the mechanic proceeded to make fun of the Firestone guys for screwing around and completely misdiagnosing the problem. Long story short.... I'm just hoping I'll have a Derry to drive home tomorrow night.

I procrastinated a lot today, but since I was awake for so long, I still somehow got a lot done. I finished the promo poster I promised to make for the environmental club's symposium event, and I must say I am very pleased with it. It's really colorful, thus, eye-catching; and when you're trying to attract kids to symposium events, you need to be eye-catching.


You know you totally want to go to that event now. ^_~

I also revised my Fair Trade PSA script and made up a storyboard for that, which was time-consuming and, frankly, not as helpful as it's cracked up to be, as I can already see the shots in my head when I write up the script. Well, I guess it was a learning experience. I learned that next time I'll just do the production plan.

I'm off to the Prancing Pony now to see whether Evan remembered writers' group tonight. I've got a chapter I've been dying to post, but not before screening it. So y'all better hope he's there.

edit: He wasn't there. I know, I know. Break out the Kleenex.

Quote of the night:
Me: Paul, I want a fucking dragon.
Paul: Yes, dear.

Hell is a never-ending traffic jam

Coming back to school, I left myself 20 extra minutes to get there so I wouldn't be late for my 8:00 shift at the writing center. I was making good time; not my best, but pretty good. I was going to be on time, probably even a little bit early. And then I hit exit 32, and quite suddenly the car in front of me came to a complete stop. I slammed on the brakes and the two jars of jam Mama Swede insisted on giving me went flying. This was around 7:15. By the time I hit exit 34, it was 8:15. Yes, that's right: one hour, and I traveled a grand total of two exits. I mean, by the time I got out of this thing, I just wanted to break something. Fortunately my car and my self were not on my list of things I would enjoy breaking, so don't worry. This is not going to be one of Those Stories. But I felt sort of bad about how angry I was sitting in the traffic jam from hell when I saw the cause of it. Just before exit 34, they had closed down two lanes and there were at least half a dozen cop cars along with a whole bunch of other vehicles. The scene was complete with flashing lights and flares, causing the pavement to glitter threateningly with broken glass. Then I came to the accident. One car looked like the top had been ripped off it and the other one was on its side. It didn't look good for whoever had been in those cars; that's all I can say.

Well, I made it to my shift, forty minutes late. Which sucks because now I can't get paid for those forty minutes, and I really need the money if we're going to drive to Cali this summer. Ironic that I would still want to drive 3000 miles out there and 3000 miles back after seeing those cars own each other and after witnessing my own hardcore frustration at bad traffic situations. Buuuut the Pacific beckons.... and how can I refuse?

Boston

Some people from my poetry class went into Boston tonight to see Seamus Heaney's reading. The guys who introduced him were not that exciting, probs just because they rambled. One of them read a translation he did of a poem about Abraham and Isaac, but it went on for EVER and didn't even sound like poetry - it sounded like he was just reading straight out of the Bible. Heaney was pretty good, though - and funny when he was in between poems. I'll admit I was kind of sleepy and didn't retain a lot, but I remember one phrase, vividly: "fire spores." I think it was in relation to a volcano, but I can't think of any other context; just that the pairing of words was so unexpected and absolutely PERFECT in every way.

Driving in Boston sucks. The confusion, the construction, the homicidal drivers.... It's really stressful. Then again, I get stressed whenever I drive somewhere unfamiliar, and the scenario could have been worse. I'm not in any hurry to repeat it though, especially since I filled my gas tank this morning and it's already got 70 miles on it. On the way home, I added another person to my carload, and searching through my iPod, he found Five Iron Frenzy and was totally happy and we listened to it. He made me turn it up really loud (which is how I like to listen to music anyway, but out of respect for other passengers I usually don't unless I'm alone) and we sang along. It was grand. And THEN we listened to the Pokemon theme song even louder, and sang along even louder, and it was a deeply satisfying bonding experience.

When we got back on campus, I had to park in Woodland, which is always unfortunate. It's even more unfortunate when you get back to your room, decide to try and be productive by fixing that essay, and come to the horrifying realization that "that essay" is in a manila folder on the top of your car..... In Woodland. >_<