Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Guster

So We found out that Guster (one of our favorite bands) was coming to the House of Blues on the 5th. Jacob was dying to go, but money was a little tight so I kind of ruled it out. Than about 2 days before the show I had my Zune on shuffle and Either Way ( a song by Guster) came on. That's when I decided that we had to go. So I texted Jacob and asked him to get a sitter for Saturday night.

We headed up to Orlando around 5pm on Saturday. Stopped by Chick Fil-a for dinner and headed to Downtown Disney.

If you know me at all you than you know that I can never make a trip to Orlando without stopping by Ghirardelli for a shake. It's my favorite dessert. Well this time I was very disappointed again if you know me than you know that I do not like shakes made with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. There's a difference between them and the ones made with chocolate ice cream. Well this time our server decided to make my shake with vanilla ice cream and chocolate syrup. I noticed the difference right away and was not happy. It's a good thing that we were seeing one of my favorites bands or that may have ruined my whole night.

We got to Guster a little early and played a game of scrabble against each other on our phones (it was pretty sad. I think I need to study the dictionary) while we were waiting for the first band to start Jukebox The Ghost. If you've never heard of them you should check them out they were pretty good.

After they played a guy gave us his V.I.P. ticket for the balcony. We found a great spot up there to the left of the stage. A few songs in the singer invited a guess to come up on stage and draw a picture of Mickey Mouse holding a sword and a starfish with a halo on a chalk board that they had attached to the keyboard. I wanted to get a better shot so I moved to a different spot behind a group of people. One of the guys saw me and moved over I didn't want to get in there way so I stepped back and said "don't move for me. I'll just shoot around you." He said "NO, get up there. I'm a photographer so I know how hard it is to get a great shot." Than he practically forced me passed him. I would have been a little scared, but I was pretty sure him and his friends weren't into women. I took a few shots than moved over a little to try and get the stage from a different angle. The "photographer" saw me and pushed his friend who was in my way aside. Than he asked me if I wanted a picture of me with the band in the background I hesitated than prayed over my camera (it's new and it's my third child) under my breath then handed it over. He snapped a few shots during which his lady friend started talking to me (which was weird because I was trying to smile for the photo). She said "you let him take your equipment?" with a laugh. Than asked me "how much do you like Guster?" I responded " a lot." She came back with "show me." I was thinking what am I supposed to do a back flip? So I didn't say anything and just smiled at her. She repeated herself "show me in the picture." So I smiled really big and tried to look excited. She repeated herself one more time so I open my mouth in an excited manner and threw up my hands. She than asked me if I was there alone. I told her no that I was with my husband. She mumble something under her breath and showed her disappointed face to me. The "photographer" finished and handed me back my camera. I snapped a few more shots than told him thank you. He asked how the pictures he took turned out so I scrolled back through and found them. This is how they turned out.











I told him great and walked quickly back to our spot. Jacob wasn't there. Earlier I gave him my phone and asked him to get video while I took pictures. He had moved right beside the "photographer" friend. He looked a little stiff and he waved me over. He told me that the friend told him he could stand there. So I took a spot next to him. The friend saw me and shook my hand. A faster song came on the friend told Jacob to act excited. He said "if your gonna stand here you got to dance." He leaned a little on Jacob and tried to get him to dance. Jacob gave a fake smile and clapped his hands. I took a picture more pictures trying to hide behind my camera in hopes that he wouldn't ask me to dance. That didn't work, so I swayed a little and went back to the camera to try to look like was intent on getting that perfect shot. We brought some cds of Friends Of Giants to hand out after the show so I asked the friend if he wanted one. He was excited and took it. I asked if his friends wanted one too. He asked the lady friend (oh no. What did I do!). She turned around and spotted us with a confused look on her face she came over and up to me. "is this your band?" "No, it's my husbands (hint hint)." She asked "what do you play?" "Nothing." "you don't play anything?" Another disappointed look. "No." "Oh, what do you play?" directed at Jacob. "guitar and sing." "Oh." Than she turned around and walked away. We all went back to the show. The friend tried one more time to get us to dance. We did a weak sway and than pretended to be paying close attention to Guster. A few minutes later the friend turned to Jacob and said "I want you guys to leave now." We got out quick. The rest of the show we were both quiet and uncomfortable. When we got in the car I said "those people were weird." Jacob said "I know! I think they were swingers." "That's what I was thinking." Jacob told me how he was standing by the friend's spot while he was gone and when he returned Jacob moved out of his way but the friend grabbed him and forced him back into the spot telling "NO, stand here." I told him about my story and we both got creeped out. We came to the conclusion that they were sizing us up and judging the level of drunkenness we were to see if we would fit in with them. Now I'm so glad we don't get crazy drunk. Well that was our crazy night. Guster, by the way, was awesome!!! They were totally worth dealing with the creepy people. Here are some of the shots I took.




































Monday, February 7, 2011

A Weekend Getaway

So it's been 7 weeks since Ruby was born. Time to get away. We dropped the girls off at the grandparent's house and headed to the Intercontinental in Tampa.





















We checked into our room and headed out for a bike ride to Plato's Closet.
















Before we even got out of the parking lot I fell and hurt my knee.
In my defense I haven't been on a bike in 3+ years and I had my heavy purse on my shoulder that was throwing my balance off.














Anyway, we found a couple of shirts for Jacob and a few bags for me at Plato's Closet (love that place). When we were done there we headed to Westshore Mall for a little more shopping and dinner at one of our favorite restaurants P.F. Changs.










The Gasparilla parade had just finished so there were all kinds of pirates and drunks walking around. It made for an interesting night.








After a very yummy dinner we picked up some ice cream and rode our bikes back to our hotel where we rented the Social Network (very good movie) ate our ice cream and drank some yummy apple champagne we had received as a gift from our good friends Mel and Trevor back in May.



The next day we got up and headed to Panera one of our favorites places to eat breakfast. Than we took our bikes to Hyde Park and from there rode to Channelside and back.




















Almost every house we passed had some kind of decoration to celebrate Gasparilla. I never realized how big Gasparilla is to Tampa. I mean everywhere we looked there was a pirate or a skull and crossbones or a ship. This is a big holiday for Tampa and people go all out to celebrate it. It's kind of cool to think that our area has something unique to us. It makes me want to be more a part of it.

That about sums up our little getaway. Since having kids it the little things that make my life special. Like bikes rides with the most amazing man ever.