Okay so continued from last post, let's see if I can knock a whole summary of this vacation out in one post.
Thursday night, by now its Friday morning, I get to Chelsea's house only to be greeted by some of my favorite new jersey natives. I grab a spot on the couch and eventually Fid gives in to Mikey's drunken pleas to watch Friday. By that time it is 2:30 in the morning, I'm running on pure adrenaline and just stoked as all hell to be in New Jersey with my friends, what the hell, lets watch Friday. A lot of catching up happened, jokes were made, some sleeping guy who's name sounded like omellette yelled at me, all of dillinger 4 got drunk dialed, basically it was a great morning. I went upstairs to inflate the aerobed chelsea had provided and when I came back down everyone had passed out in weird places and I heard someone throwing up... a lot. I went upstairs and tossed and turned a little but I think I slept okay, even if I didn't it didn't seem to matter because I was so relieved to be anywhere but home.
Friday I wake up and walk downstairs, Dirty work is already playing on the TV and I sit down on the couch and watch with them. It was nice to wake up and not have to actually do anything for a long time. I eventually took a shower and then everyone took a nap, I woke up Joe so we could go to foodswings but in hindsight I realize that I probably should have let him sleep and I was poorly mistaken as to when it actually opened (Sorry Joe!) I thought it closed at 5 when I think it actually opened at 5, basically I caused us to wander around brooklyn for 4 hours in the cold. Oh well I had fun. I was just happy to be there.
We ate at a mexican food place called san loco, I didn't really enjoy it because I am so spoiled on california's mexican food. Also I hadn't eaten since the night before and my stomach had no doubt shrunken to the size of a golfball. I couldn't even finish the food in front of me. After sitting in san loco for a while Kate and some of her friends met up with us, we walked to a record store that I forget the name of and ran into my friend Alex which was nice. I also am pretty sure we walked by a friend of mine I haven't seen in a few years but he was wearing headphones and I didn't want to chase him down the street to see if it was him. After the record store Kate and her friends went to a show across town to see the "thorns of life" the new blake and cometbus band. I really wanted to go but really didn't want to walk or carry my bag around for that long. It was supposedly an hour ride away.
Joe and I set our sites on getting some warm drinks, my vegan eagle eye spotted a place that had a sign inside that said "vegan cakes" so I made a beeline and dragged Joe with me. Luckily they had coffee too. I ended up getting some very sour apple cider and a slice of vegan caramel apple cheesecake. it was delicious but I couldn't finish it! Damn you golf ball stomach! After sitting there for a while we walked to a place called "dumont burger" which apparently had amazing milkshakes. We met up with Chris A., Crystal and Kelly Lynn there and they got food and let me eat as many fries as I wanted. Eventually Grivet found us and we made our way to the show, finally dumping our bags off in his trunk.
Death by Audio is a room, with another room behind it. It has a bathroom with a door that doesn't lock (and a new pillowfights sticker on the wall) and I want to say there was a back patio for smoking, or maybe a bar? I didn't explore too much but apparently we were right next to a river in brooklyn, which I couldn't see because there was some stupid factory in the way. Ohh also on the way to brooklyn we switched trains and I noticed people taking pictures of something behind me, I turn around and low and behold its the empire state building. I was a little excited but tried not to get all touristy... I didn't even take a picture. It was a great view tho, oh well.
We missed the first band Get bent, but slingshot dakota was amazing, even though the drummer had recently had some sort of back injury. Cheeky was awesome even tho Kate took a little too long to get back from the thorns of life show and they cut their set short. Gordan Gano's army was spectacular but they didn't play the 2 songs I wanted to hear and Lemuria was amazing as usual! At the end of their set they got a little encore and everyone was shouting out their songs so I shouted out "mechanical" and Alex looked at Sheena and said "she came from california" and what do you think they played? Its the best song to end a set with in my opinion anyway.
After the show we took in Shayla last minute and headed back to Hotel Astoria. I finally got to see with my eyes the famous star wars bathroom and Chris laughed at me the entire time as I squeeked and eeped and oohd and aahd. It was really impressive! We all settled in and I took a shower and then went to bed. It was a suprisingly warm night so I felt comfortable and good to finally not be carrying around a heavy coat. In the morning we woke up early and got brooklyn bagels. I have been told that new yorks bagels are the best bagels, but I never realized just how much better they are. They are fantastic.
We all ate our bagels on the way to asbury park. I managed to actually finish mine (it took a while, it was a pretty large bagel) and I felt good about eating once again. The car ride there was very scenic and relaxing. It was raining and I always feel really good when it rains, except when I'm the one driving. We finally get to Asbury park after an hour and a half and immediately upon arriving I realize I have left my tickets in my backpack at Hotel Astoria. I immediately upon realizing this lose my shit and start crying uncontrollably. Oh me!
Everyone tries to calm me down and I panic and try to find tickets to the very sold out last Ergs shows, the matinee seems to be a breeze but the night show seems impossible to find tickets to. Mikey says they should have the names of everyone who bought tickets on a list and I try that, they don't. Jeff says not to worry they will figure out a way but I still worry. I bugged the lady at the door several times trying to pull up a confirmation on my PDA, and trying to get her to let me in until finally Melissa says she has a laptop and we can use that and show her. This calms me down some until we find out she didn't bring it today. I immediately lose my shit again, the woman Jennifer gives me a giant hug and says "just come in sweetie" I'm sure she was having a hard day dealing with tons of kids with no tickets, so I can't imagine me crying made her day any better but regardless she was my hero, my angel of mercy. She even gave me a drink ticket so I could get a drink and calm down and she told me not to worry about the night show cause she would be at the door.
Now that I am inside, and feeling much much better, and that everyone of my internet friends has seen me cry I can relax and have fun! The first show was awesome, The Jurks were pretty good, I had never heard them before, hunchback was amazing and played all the songs I wanted to hear and the Ergs were just mind blowingly good. They pulled out a bunch of songs I had never heard them play before and I was so happy to be there witnessing it all.
In between the shows Bill Florio (food hero) took me, Joe, and Larry to a vegan place called Kaya's Kitchen. It was really awesome that I was in a foreign land and found 3 meat eaters nice enough to eat pricey vegan food with me. I was very happy. I spent $30 just on food for myself, it was a little insane but so worth it. I got a fake philly cheesesteak and some chocolate cake. YUM! After food Bill dropped us back off in Asbury and we hung out in the cold and rain for a long time until we finally decided "enough of this shit, lets go to a gay bar."
Georgie's was a nice warm little bar, there were pictures of shirtless Justin Timberlake, David Beckham, (any my favorite) Josh Hartnett on the wall. Hubba Hubba. We took over a small corner of the bar, and probably annoyed the hell out of all the non-hetero's trying to get their gay on. I believe Chris A. and a few others got hit on, which is pretty awesome. After saying hi to even more people who were showing up for the show and becoming dry and warm we decided to head back to the show. Phrank let a bunch of people pile into his minivan and then we got in line... where we just got cold and wet again.
The last show was amazing. Lemuria killed me, Hunchback killed Jeff, and the Ergs killed a drumset. I was so glad I made it in, I was so happy to be in a room full of my friends, and I was so honored to be a part of it. The ergs have only been my favorite band for a year and a half, but I'm thankful I got to know them as well as I did, and that I got to be a part of it. I cried a little after they were done, and I hugged about thirty people. It was really beautiful that everyone was hugging everyone, they brought so many people together, and meant so much to all of us. This is getting cheesy so I'm going to cut it off.
After the show a bunch of us sweaty kids piled into Chris's car to head back to queens. We stopped for gas at the same station as Christian and the Johns. It was nice to get another goodby in! It was 5am already, Joe, Jon & Mark headed across a parking lot to get food while I stayed with Chris. After we realized they were taking a while we drove over there to flash the lights and honk the horn to no avail. Eventually Chris got out of the car and got them, Joe & Jon ran to the front of the building to steal a bundle of New York Times to pass out at the lost locker combo show. I have learned to not ask questions when it comes to their motives. We finally got back to the house and almost died waiting to get inside, it was THAT cold. Everyone just sort of passed out.
Sunday I got up early enough to take the first shower so that I wouldn't hold anyone up. We got more brooklyn bagels and headed over to the Cake Shop. I wanted to eat all the cake right away but decided to wait until I actually had an appetitte so I wouldn't have to carry it around nursing it all afternoon.
to be continued!
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