Lady Antebellum Concert

A couple weeks ago the hubby and I were driving back from Wilmington where we went to get a bridesmaid's dress for me for my best's friend's wedding (19 DAYS SAMMY SAM!) when I heard on our radio station to call in for concert tickets. Ryan was asleep in the passenger seat as I started steathily dialing again and again. Suddenly it started ringing. I slammed the phone into his chest and yelled, "TALK TO THEM! IT'S RINGING!"

 

My poor husband was so confused when he heard "Sorry, you're caller six. Try again." Especially since I yelled at him to hit redial. To my surprise it rung again and we were caller nine! We won!! To quote Ryan's whispers as he covered the mouthpiece, "What did we win??"

 

Tickets to see Lady Antebellum, Billy Currington and Kasey Musgraves in Raleigh!

 

Poor Ryan didn't even know how to answer the DJ when he asked, "Ryan, how do you spell country?" He didn't even know what station I was listening to (the same country one we ALWAYS listen to) so he turned to me and said, "Sweetie, tell them how we spell country." to which I saved his behind and yelled out "WRNS!"

 

Smooth.

This would be our first country concert so I was pretty excited, as was he. The lawn tickets arrived in the mail a week or two before and had a spot of glory on our fridge until the big day. Naturally it was sunny every day up until the concert. The Friday of the concert it turned gray and green and tornado warnings blasted across the radio. Naturally. Did I mention we had lawn seats in an outdoor ampitheatre?

 

The entire two hour drive to Raleigh the sky got darker and greener and the rain poured until we hit our exit. Magically the skies cleared and we trudged through the mud to the ampitheatre.

We rented chairs (since, um, we forgot to bring some) and staked out decent seats as the sun began to set. Fate was on our side as the rain stayed away the entire concert! Victory!

We had a gorgeous sunset happen behind us too as some awesome music happened in front.

My iphone didn't take the best pictures (and the quality on my 11 or so videos is so so) but we heard and saw just fine. All the acts were brilliant. Even Ryan agreed. Sometimes when you hear someone on the radio versus a concert you can tell a lot of editing is done in the studio but all three of these acts sounded exactly like they did on the radio, glorious!

I am such a dork for the panorama setting on my iPhone. I seriously need help. All three acts sang some songs you didn't expect as well. Kasey Musgraves sang some Miranda Lambert (and nailed it, it was the This Ain't My Mama's Broken Heart song), Billy Currington sang Blurred Lines and Friends in Low Places, and Lady A sang When I'm Gone (the cups song).

It did get a little chilly as the sun went down but we were prepared with hoodies thankfully. I felt bad for all the girls walking around in short gauzy sundresses but I am sure their beer kept them warm. At $11 a can (for bud light) it better!

Concerts used to be lit up by lighters. Now they are lit up by flashlights from smart phones. The enitre ampitheatre was GLOWING when Lady A asked us for some light. It was crazy!

 

All five of them got together and sang "Sittin on the dock of the bay" which was awesome. Especially when they got to the whistling part and no one could keep a straight face to listen into the microphone.

So yes, the show was fantastic, I heard (and maybe recorded) all my favorites and had a wonderful time with Ryan. We sang and danced and paid way too much for drinks and food but certainly worth it. Even sitting with our gas tank empty light on for an hour in the parking lot trying to get out was an adventure in itself!

 

I will try to upload a video or two.... we shall see!

 

 

Thursdayyyy

My husband will be home extremely late Friday night, actually Saturday morning really, and stay for two weeks. I AM SO EXCITED. I cannot wait to see him!!! Tomorrow night cannot come quick enough. Half an hour more at work now, swimming tonight, tv, phone call, sleep, work, bounce around in excitement after work, drive an hour then HUSBAND. (:

This week for the link up with Goodnight Moon I am going to go with a little Coldplay - Viva La Vida. It is the first concert Ryan and I ever went to together because... I won tickets on the radio! I was caller 14 or whatever it was, I was driving home from an audition and could not resist calling in. I was so excited I almost drove off Rhose Island Ave! That's why cell phone hands free laws are important :P



Coldplay is amazing to see in concert. They have tons of energy and each song is just so well done! The singing, the music, the effects... it is pretty sweet! They even had one stage in the audience about half way back on the right and other to the left on the lawn so tons of people got to be close!

Don't forget to enter my give away!!! Quite a few people entered yesterday which made me very excited. I will pick the winner tomorrow before I go to the airport to pick up my husband! GO Enter! Please (:

Another Thursday

Just another Thursday...

Work of course. Going to go grocery shopping. Watch Shark Week.

Except at work I realized our rent, due the 1st and usually Ryan's thing to drop off and with him leaving the 31st it slipped. So during my lunch break I raced home to write the check and drop it off during office hours. And of course my leasing lady Thelma, who has the buggest southern drawl you'd expect from a Thelma, said to me "Aww hunny, he's gone a long time isn't he?"

"Yes ma'am."

"Oh no worries sugah. You coulda dropped this off tomorrow. It's fine. And if you need anything at all you make sure you come in here and tell us, ok?"

Very sweet.

Grocery shopping, for one. Should be interesting. I haven't had to do that in a long time, I feel like I am going to waste so much food. Food I will cook and then not want a left over or not want to make all at once that will just spoil. I don't want to live on hot dogs, ramen noodles and sandwiches but it is a little bit tempting.

Shark Week, well it is keeping me sane at nights. I haven't cried since the day Ryan left, which I am grateful for. I am not a graceful crier. I become a snot machine who cannot breathe whose chin wrinkles awfully and then my entire face turns bright red. Not my best look. I end up blowing my nose for ages so I can breathe and then my skin dries out and my nose peels on the bottom for about a week afterward. Like right now.


Anyway...


I did get to talk to Ryan last night. He finally has a room, not his own, but his room. He gets no cell service in there and when he went outside to talk to me it was so windy I could barely hear him! Sadface. But we made it work. He had to finish six pages of homework before his study group before he could talk to me, talk about role reversal! When we met I was in college and always had things like that; homework and papers and reviews, and now it is him. Crazytown.

Now onto the random:

Another blogger posted about this website on her blog today called Makes Me Think (MMT). If was featured in an article that just had me slightly teary and very emotional.... yes at work! Like this one...

Today in downtown San Diego, I watched a blue collar Mexican man get harassed for being Mexican. It was a blatant act of discrimination. And the man actually began crying. As he left the office building, he took off his jacket. His t-shirt underneath read, “I love the USA!” MMT
(This one wrenched my heart)

Today, I interviewed a woman who is terminally ill. “So,” I tried to delicately ask, “What is it like to wake up every morning and know that you are dying?” “Well,” she responded, “What is it like to wake up every morning and pretend that you are not?” MMT
(True)

Today, as I walked away from the airport gate alone with my head held high and eyes beet red from crying, I knew at that moment what it meant to be a military wife. MMT
(Tooooo close to home)

I have been reading them all day today.

Plus entering blog contests... like this one at Allie Photography (great name!) She has 550 followers (lucky duck) so be sure to check her out!




Now for my link up Roller Coaster stole my song :P (Kidding). Well I had been planning on posting The War at Home by Josh Groban but I won't double post! Go to her awesome blog and listen to it, he wrote it in one day after visiting veterans at Walter Reed. Chills. During the concert last week I cried when he sang it! Hearing it live is nothing like it being on the CD.

So my pick this week is a song that seems to be on my radio any time I get in the car lately. I do love it, it must be a moonlight thing with me, but here is my pick for the week.



Link up with Goodnight Moon!

Swooooon Josh!

Of course a video from last night has to be for the Thursday Link Up!!





He performed this song, February Song, from the 'B' Stage, about four rows behind me!!! Love it love it love it!


Opening act ELEW, awesome.


Antoinette and I


Hey Josh!


Chattin with the crowd


Gosh I love my hubby for getting me this camera!


LOVE the lights


Oceano, can you spot the Josh sillouette?


"Hey, is that Budweiser??"


Stage


Drums!


Q & A from the crowd, "Time to open the box of chocolates and see where the nuts are!"


Singing Happy Birthday to someone, why didn't I think of that?!


Swoon


More lighting love from the B Stage


Singing


Soulful singing :P


Back on the main stage


Lucky ducks chosen to go on stage, a couple married 19 years and two 'single' ladies all got wine. Except the 20 year old who got a glass of milk!


Encore - Play Me


Encore explaining there is no gospel choir this time for you Raise Me Up so we all better sing along


Encore


Bows


Bows


Thank you DC!


Perfect way to end the night!

Oops, Hello Blog!

So when your mother calls you and says, "Allie you haven't updated your blog since Friday. You are being a slacker blogger!" you know that you're a bit behind. Properly chastized indeed! So here I am filling you all in on the past few days so my mom doesn't drive down here from Jersey and ground me for a lacking of blogging!


Friday apparently was the last time I blogged... since then Ryan and I have been spending a lot of quality time together before he goes to school. He has leave so he has been doing a lot of errands around the house and such and nights and weekends we do as much as we can! Friday we dragged a whole bunch of neighbors out in front of our building. It was literall 105 degrees, even when the sun went down, but we had wine and beer and liquor flowing so it was a blast! The dogs were out, people were chatting, cigars may have been lit, we had so much fun.

Saturday we slept in (finally for me!) and then went with our neighbor Adam to the indoor shooting range. We had about a two hour wait and once we got in there it was BOILING. Apprarently the fan or the AC was not functioning, so we literally had sweat pouring off of us. Icky. I was so hot I honestly had a hard time aiming, I did much better in March when it was cold! :P

When we got home I made Ryan these amazing grilled cheese jalepeno sandwiches that I borrowed from another blogger and he liked it so much he asked me to make them for his going away party on Saturday! Done deal my love. I am also making cheesey cornbread ala secret family recipe since I love you so.

Sunday was church, IHOP (tradition!) and then we went and saw Friends with Benefits. Hilarious at times, predictable at others.

Monday we hung out at the apartment, watched season 6 of Weeds on Netflix, then went and finally regsitered me at our church. We'd been going since January but we thought we were leaving, now knowing we, well I, have 8 months left I might as well.

Yesterday we had a delicious steak dinner, curtosey of my husband and George Foreman. It was so nice out we decided to walk down the street to King St and get some ice cream at Pops. We sat down at the waterfront and enjoyed that. Going back Ryan realized he had never ridden the free trolley, so on we went!



We snagged a seat and Ryan had his arm around me and gave me a kiss on the cheek. The old lady behind us smacked his arm saying, "Stop that!" It was hilarious, she was joking around so it wasn't creepy I promise. I said, "I can't take him anywhere." to which Ryan looked quite affronted as the woman offered to call security! :P

We got off the trolley at our favorite bar Murphy's where they were having TRIVIA NIGHT. I was pretty stoked. I love pub trivia nights, even did one at my bachelorette day! We didn't win and ended up being out way too late for me (since I do have work in the mornings)so I was totally dragging today!

Tonight I am going to see JOSH GROBAN! So so so excited.

Tomorrow Ryan and I are going to Busch Gardens, gotta love places that let military in for free!

Notice how I am being upbeat? Trying not to panic that he is leaving in about four days? Yea... we'll pretend that is really working!

Ice Pops and Link Ups

After a rough night last night (hell a rough week!) this made my day...



That would be a gourmet popsicle. Seriously. At work today our building had a transportation survey, so basically if you filled out one sheet of paper about how you get to work, you get a free ice pop. Mine was Strawberry Ginger Lemonade. Seriously. It was the best ice pop I ever had in my life. Sitting by the fountain on my lunch break enjoying it in the sun.... bliss.



This song has been stuck in my head all day! I do love the Goo Goo Dolls. I saw them twice, once in concert with the Counting Crows and once at the 9:30 club in DC. They are so much fun to see live and have a ton of energy.




See that blue guitar pic on John Rzeznik's guitar?


Mine! I dropped my cell phone and lost the back of it, so as I am trying not to get crushed crawling on the ground (since the 9:30 club is first come first serve and standing only) trying to find the back to my phone I feel something hit me in the head... and I look down and I saw the pic! Super excited. I stood up and waved thanks and he totally waved back. Love it.

Stay With You is one of my favorites, so enjoy!

Link up with Goodnight Moon to join in the fun.