On Paper

There hasn't been much happening since I've last posted, same old with uni. I had a prac on Monday, and I saw my friend whom I haven't seen for ages, I think the only time that i see her is every fortnight in pracs. It was funny (not really the right word, but i will keep it there for the lack of a better word), we planned a day to watch The Hunger Games, but then I had to attend my grandma's funeral. We were going to reschedule for the week after, but it turned out that her grandma has also died. That was pretty spooky.
Pracs are so much better when you have someone to hang out with, we bond over our ignorance when it comes to conducting the pracs, and just making silly mistakes. Like for example, we had to examine the effects of osmosis using hard boiled eggs and syrup, to do that we had to put one egg in a water filled beaker, and one in a syrup filled beaker. So they had given us the eggs, still in it's shells, and no where in our prac manuals, did it say to peel the egg beforehand, and we just dumped the unpeeled eggs into the beakers. I wasn't sure, I kept thinking how would there be osmosis happening if there the shell on it, I'm pretty sure that egg shells are impermeable membranes. After a while, we decided that we had to peel the eggs first, luckily no one had seen our beakers! Another incident happened in the same prac class, when i thought a measuring cylinder was the waste basket, but alas it turned out to be someone's experiment! We always come running to one of the prac demonstrators, so I think he just thinks we're a little slow. On a side note, and I'm hoping that he will not somehow stumble across this blog or that someone from uni reads this but that is pretty unlikely, anywhoo one of my prac demonstrators is pretty good looking and a med student, I still gotta find out how old he is though, considering I'm older than the standard first year coming from year 12. Although it probably doesn't matter anyways, I don't want to turn into a crazy stalker, I already do that with my band guys and was close to stalking my chem tutor back then, because I thought she was really cool, and I aspired to be like her. So yeah, not a bad thing to look forward to in prac class, except for the fear that I'm going to screw up, but screwing up feels so much better when you have some one to do it with you.

Oh yeah I also had CPR and first aid training on Sunday, and a word of advice, try to get decent sleep the night before otherwise you'll be falling asleep when you should be listening. It wasn't too bad, but there wasn't that much practical stuff I had thought there would be. I did learn some things, but I knew other things, and I could easily search up info. Personally I do not think it was worth paying the $95 just so we can get our certificates. But yeah, it was pretty fun to learn to do CPR though, it was my first time, and it also made me realize i would probably fail if the person is a lot bigger than me. There is a lot of effort and strength involved in CPR. Also I found out that a girl named Rosa I had met back at orientation lived not too far from me, but I think of the different schedules, we never saw each other walking to Uni. She's pretty nice and a lot more forward than I am. We were talking about tv shows and how much I watch, and because she doesn't have internet, she's very deprived. She sort of invited herself to my house which I was fine with, I wished I had the courage to do that, I have trouble doing that with my own friends, well except maybe Mon. I was so excited, I got home and cleaned my room to make it look presentable. She didn't come over until late to grab some tv shows off me. Her housemate drove her along too, and I said it was okay for him to come in as well. They were high school friends, so I was pretty jealous. Anywho it was nice talking to them and having company, I gave some of the cake I made, because i was trying to finish it off. she said I should totally invite her over when I'm making food. Yeah I felt pretty happy, that i wasn't so awkward, but she made it easier because she's so friendly and comfortable. She was just casually going through my room and asking about my photos and band posters, hehe she said they all look kinda similar. Then she went through the scrapbook that my friends had made for me. It was pretty funny because she said Mon reminded her of her own friend. The guy friend didn't agree much, but when she showed some photos on facebook, and I said they have similar eyes and at certain angles, they look similar. She even took some photos of my photos just so she can show her friends. I thought that was pretty funny, and I just really admire how at ease she was being herself, especially if beforehand I probably had known her for a cumulative time of less than 2 hours. Also I had found out the guy was less than 18, and boy did that make me feel old! Previously, Rosa had thought i was straight from year 12, which I'm so happy when people think so, age is a sensitive topic for me. And we managed to convince the guy that I was also their age too, I'm still not sure if he knew we were lying or not. Then when we finished transferring the files, i told her to come over anytime, and I'm looking forward to it. I would really like to have a dinner party for the new friends I've made, just because I want to cook and bake dessert, and actually have people to eat it. Actually thinking of it now, maybe I might consider bringing up the idea of having a weekly housemate dinner.
Also this was the cake I mentioned previously, it was meant to say The Maine on it, but it is very hard to accurately sprinkle hundred 'n' thousands onto a limited working space. Because it was so hot, the icing was a lot softer than normal, and this type of frosting is meant to become harder if you don't use it straight away.

Oh yeah, this was a tweet I posted on the Sunday I went to see The Maine, after meeting them at the airport.

Yeah, it was only till later that night, that we realized what it could have insinuated.


Love Squealer.

I'll Always Be Around

The rest of the mid semester break was spent hanging out with friends and bumming around home which is what i do best.
On Monday, I dropped Mon at the station in the morning, and went straight back home. I went on a twitter spree where I was searching up The Maine and what people were tweeting about them. I found out that they did go out after the concert to a club, and I was kicking myself for not knowing earlier, how awesome would it be to hanging out with them, though we would stick out like a sore thumb. In the afternoon, Mon sent me a message to say that sharline and Susan were coming over to her house. I made a very spontaneous decision to come and sleep over as well. It was a public holiday so public transport was horrible. There was some time to kill in the city before my train, I walked up swanston street, up to around Bourke street to see if i could spot The Maine. It was an incredible feeling that they were in Melbourne, a very comforting one. If only i had went up a little further to Chinatown and walked past Target or something, I would of seen them eating at Dragon Boat. Anywhoo, I made my way to Mon's house and it was very awesome to see Sharline and Susan again. It has been a while since I've seen them. We basically just hung out as usual, it took Mon and I the whole night to tell them our concert story, we kept getting interrupted or distracted. We walked sharline home so she could get stuff for sleeping over and saw her adorable rabbit Peta. As usual, we pigged out at dinner, with a family feast from Nandos, giant pizza, fried rice and calamari rings, there was a lot of food. The Nandos chips were nicer than usual and very satisfying. I love the feeling every time I eat Nandos, because it's what the band guys eat, and they love it. Somehow we ended up not watching a movie, which is pretty shocking, we have never not watched a movie at Mon's place. I guess we were too distracted. Mon has this massive blanket, and i got the idea that we should all take a photo underneath it like the grandparents in Willy Wonka. In execution, the photos looked nothing like that, but we had a lot of fun looking at the results. I was trying out the face detection function on my camera, it's pretty handy and better than waiting 10 seconds for the self timer. we kept having to move our faces around to make the camera detect our faces. It was pretty good at detecting Mon's face. Taking the photos was really fun! Then we built a blanket fort over the treadmill and made up names for us, I think I was Flobber, a name I'm not so fond of.   They invented an imaginary scene, while i went out to grab to something, that we were in hiding from a virus and we were trying to protect ourselves. Then of course I wanted to take some photos, and i told Mon to put her head on the floor which somehow lead to us making up a new song called "Put Your Head On The Floor" we have a voice and video recording of it. Oh I don't know what we were on, but it was seriously crazy and embarrassing, we even have a follow up single called "Sitting on a Chair".

The next morning, I headed over to Tom's house, and surprisingly it took about an hour to get there by public transport whereas driving would have only taken 15 minutes. There were already a few people there by the time I arrived. We started a game of monopoly, and it was going really slowly, having been to London, there are the few spots that I always want to buy, I was very happy to have landed and bought Oxford Street. It was so good catching up with everyone, sometimes I wish I was a bit closer to the whole Monash Pharm crew besides the select few, but with social retardness/awkwardness and the limited time we had together, what can you do? After lunch, we resumed the game, it was taking long, and I was kinda losing, so i wanted to combine with the girls and so the guys combined together, which was a bad thing, because one of the guys had a lot of money and property. It was amazing that we had lasted as long as we did, we had to pay so much rent, and eventually we did get bankrupt. That wasn't so fun. Tom drove us to all home/to the station afterwards, I showed Nug and Van "Put Your Head On The Floor", and they were laughing at it, I'm not too sure what they had thought of it, but it did get stuck in their heads, so I'm going to take that as a good sign.

On Thursday, I went laser tagging with the Latrobe crew, I haven't seen them in a while so that was good that we got a chance to meet up. It was also my first time laser tagging. It was a pretty scary experience, man those young teenage guys have such good aim, I kept getting shot and no idea where/who it was coming half the time! Overall, I didn't end up being the last person, and it was a fun experience! We had korean bbq for lunch and it was delicious. It was a buffet style and I ate quite a bit as usual! Then we went to artbox and got matching pacers, which was nice. Afterwards, we all went back into the city, they departed for State Library to study and I went home.

On Sunday, I met up with Yen, and we tried to stalk One Direction at crown. First I wanted to stop by Dragon Boat, just to see the table where The Maine had sat, i probably looked weird, standing outside staring in the general vicinity of the table, an Asian family was sitting there. I decided that one day I will go there and book that table. Boy there were a lot of 1D fans everywhere. People probably mistaken me as one too just because I was there, but i tried to look disinterested, not sure if it worked. I just love stalking celebrities, it's just so much fun! They had an afternoon performance, so we knew that they wouldn't around so we went off to harbour town to go window shopping, I wanted to find some blue boots i saw at Betts the other day. We went back to Crown, and the crowd increased! Although there still wasn't as many people as I thought there would of been. Yeah I was pretty much judging all the girls, it was very annoying because they kept screaming and it made us think that 1D has arrived, but I think it was for the cameras. There was the 1D merch van, which I admit was pretty cool, and wish that my bands something like that. Yen needed to get home and was tired of waiting for them, although it was a bummer that we missed by like 10mins. But i didn't mind, I wouldn't have to like to see the girls going crazy when they came out and Yen was worried about the fine she got for not having a validated ticket.

Early Monday morning, I flew back to the Gold Coast, and boy did i not want to be back! I don't like it up here, I don't like this lonely feeling, and I feel there is very little keeping me here. Okay I guess doing dentistry is a big thing, but I would feel more at home if i was actually doing dentistry subjects, not the foundation health subjects. All i want to do is stay home, go on the internet and sleep, the amount of time I spend at uni is shocking, and the old me from 2 years ago would be frowning shaking her head. The life up here is definitely not for me, I sweat way too much from the weather, even when its marginally cold. There are little friends that I barely see due to the massive lecture theatres and different timetables. And most of the time I'm not in the mood to socialize. The only thing that is pulling me through is my music, a world where I don't feel so alone and disconnected, a comforting place. Although I started going through post concert depression a couple of days ago, and desperately wanting The Maine to come back, I've just been getting all these The Maine feelings, and it's upsetting because I feel like I don't have many to turn to. Everyone's so distance, at least back in Melbourne, it was comforting to know that my friends are close to me. I got a postcard from Susan on Tuesday, and that my day infinitely better. Also I got my first blood test on wednesday! I was so nervous the whole time before. The lady who did a general health check up because I was a new patient, measured my heart rate and she said it was quite high. She asked if I was fit and did any exercise? I said i was okay and walked to uni, I also explained that I was just really nervous because i was getting my first blood test done. At least my blood pressure is normal, although I would have like it to be lower. The blood test was okay, but i felt very queasy about the fact that blood was coming out of me. the whole procedure was okay, just don't like the needle prick but then who does? Yeah I thought I would be confident that I was able to donate blood after having done the blood test, but now i'm not so sure if i could last through a whole session. That made me a little sad, I've always wanted to give blood.

Love Squealer.

I'll Burn This House Down

Is anyone else starting to think I won't be posting about my Soundwave adventure at all? Mhmmm, me too, maybe I'll just post up some photos and quick summary of the day soonish (which was awesome and still resonates in my mind, as with all my other concerts). But this post is going to be about Sunday where I went to This Time Next Year, The Maine, Taking Back Sunday and New Found Glory, and it was a magical day indeed where everything that happened exceeded our expectations, and brought out our inner (not so inner) fan girl.

The whole thing would have started on Saturday, where I picked up Monisha from the station and went for a bit of shopping to buy things for our care package for The Maine. First off was Highpoint, initially i was trying to find chocolate covered pretzels for John, but while in the centre we kept forgetting what we actually came there for. We hit target to find some but then got distracted by the easter egg sale where everything was 30% off, so we bought some mini Lindt bunnies. Then I showed Mon this really cool lolly store called Happy Lab, for those who haven't been, they sell lollies in lab equipment as containers, such as flasks and test-tubes. The lollies are grouped by colour and chocolate, this makes the whole store look very appealing and awesome. We wanted to buy the whole store for them! In the end, we settled on three jelly-bean-filled test tubes, it looked so cool! There were so many times when we were tempted to keep them for ourselves! Next we went to the ABC store because i wanted to get them a copy of Angry Boys, I thought it would have been $20, but to my pleasant surprise, it was only $10!! Such a bargain! It was very crowded at Highpoint, we were trying to weave our way through the crowd because we needed to go to our next stop before it closes. Next, I drove to a $2 store in Footscray to buy some souvenirs and hopefully find that pack of stick-on mustaches I bought for my 19th bday party. There was this car plate that read "Don't kiss me" and i thought it was very relevant to to John, and pushed for it to be bought. Others things that we bought were some kangeroos/koalas plushies, an Australian flag cape. Then we went to Coles/Safeway to buy Australian food, namely tim tams and vegemite. In the evening we went to Easter mass, which went on longer than i thought it would. By the time it finished, we were really hungry! Thanh came over as well, and amazingly she was able to sleepover too! We had dinner and i started to make my Raspberry and White Chocolate cookies. It was very fun having friends over, so many random/weird conversations and a bucketload of laughs! I only wanted to make the cookies to give as part of the care package, although I was doubtful they would actually eat it because you know it could be poisonous. I accidentally slighty burnt a batch of cookies, it baked so quickly in the oven, but i did have batch that turned out nicely. Afterwards, we played Disney Monopoly but the game was going nowhere because we couldn't build any properties. I had to finish off sewing the eyes on the beanies, and I'm semi proud of them, there is a lot of room for improvement. We assembled the care package into an awesome Australia bag we bought that we are so proud of. Unfortunately we forgot to take photos of the things we bought, so that was a bummer. The whole thing came together nicely and yes we were proud of it!

Sunday was the day of the concert, but i really wanted to go meet them at the airport beforehand, so we set off in the morning to the airport, I'm so glad that the airport is so close to home! Also i made some crepes with yogurt and peaches for breakfast, i still can't make perfectly circular crepes. Although it doesn't matter too much when i fold them in quarters. I knew that The Maine will probably not take a really early flight from Sydney, so we took our time getting to the airport. From twitter searching, I thought that they would arrive at 10.35, but after checking both Qantus and Virgin terminals, we didn't see any signs of them. It was a little disheartening but I still had hope, they had to come sometime. The next flight arrival was from Jetstar but they weren't on that flight either, but i didn't expect to be, they don't usually fly Jetstar. There was another group of girls who we remembered from last time. Mon spotted one of the girls running out of the terminal, so I ran after her to the Virgin Blue baggage claim. Sure enough, when i got there, it didn't take long to see that they were all standing there, being awesome (okay it was just normal standing waiting for their baggage but it's THE MAINE!). There were also Taking Back Sunday and New Found Glory on the same flight. I called Monisha, and i may have sounded a little aggressive and demanding on the phone. Waiting for Mon to come over was pretty agonizing, I was just standing there staring at them. Finally she ran over, and we got so so excited! It was a little awkward about how we would approach them, they seemed a little sleepy and out of it. Jared, Garrett and Kennedy were standing together so I quietly said hello, and gave Kennedy the car package, explaining all the things we had in them. I didn't want to keep them long so we asked for quick photos, and was quite apologetic. But they were super nice, and friendly despite being tired and everything. Then we went up to John to say hello and that we got a care package for them. I asked him a little about easter in America, and it was a very weird conversation not relating to their music at all, but a conversation nonetheless. Again we took some photos and let them be.

Not wanting to leave yet, we kinda just lingered behind them, in our defence they were going to the same place that we were getting picked up. We sat across the road from them and "subtly" taking photos, the group of girls before were actually with them on the other side, but they kinda awkwardly just stood on the outskirts of the group, not really knowing what to do. It was the best view of them, and we weren't interrupting them or anything or bothering them. I like to think that we are respectful fans, not like a lot of those crazy fan-girls (no offence). There were a lot of amazing photo opportunities, and Kennedy was actually looking through the bag! Yes, we felt so proud. Before when they were waiting outside the terminal, Kennedy actually pulled out one of the beanies, but I think he got a bit distracted to put it on, Mon tried to shout "Put it on" but it just came out as a slightly louder talking volume because of the nerves and it's a little embarrassing, so he didn't hear it. Kennedy gave one of the cookies to a tech guy, and he seemed think it was alright, he wasn't spitting it out or anything. The vans came to pick them up, and they slowly loaded all their equipment. When they were all done, we saw a hand reach over to our window on the side that we could see, and someone has actually put up the car plate!!!!! We started going so spastic and crazy, it took us a while to came down. That made so happy, and we didn't care about anything else! A lady standing near us, gave us weird looks, but we were beyond caring, that was such an amazing moment for us. Then just as they were leaving, my dad pulled up, it was such perfect timing. We we on such a high after that happened.

When we arrived the venue, it was surprising to see that not many people were in line. It was going to a long wait ahead of us and we were getting really hungry. It sucks that Festival Hall is not right in the city, it means access to food and toilets are limited and a lot more walking is involved. The whole wait wasn't too bad, but closer to the starting time, a lot of people starting forming lines on the other side, and some people pushed in, which made us really mad, because it was unfair. There were no security to control the lines, only near the door opening time, that they came out and pushed everyone to the wall, but of course they weren't there earlier to see that people had pushed in, arghh so frustrating! Finally made it into the venue, and they made us sit on the floor first, a random security guard chucked some lollies at us, and we thought that was really funny! When This Time Next Year came on, everyone ran to the barrier, i had no clue what was happening, Mon managed to secure a barrier spot but i was behind her, view wasn't too bad, but i couldn't see too much of the other side of the stage. I really enjoyed TTNY, their set was engaging, energetic and very fun! Although i felt a little sorry for them as I don't think many people would have known their music, but they seemed so appreciative and happy to be playing in Australia. They were very thankful towards New Found Glory who helped them a lot in their music producing process and getting them out to Australia. I wish I had knew their songs but i did my best to get into it and look interested, smiling and bopping along. The lead singer was super cool on stage, he did those epic high leg splitting air jumps, making them look so effortless in those tight skinny jeans. Later Monisha told me that the girl next to her was the girl who had photo-bombed my photo with Nick Santino from the sidewave concert. It's getting to a point where we are going to a lot of concerts and seeing the same people. Yeah i don't like her too much, I'm still annoyed that someone would purposely photobomb, just plain rude! People just seem to lose their basic social niceties at concerts, and that just pushes my buttons.

Anywho moving on, after TTNY it was The Maine's turn. It was really amazing because Pat, Kennedy and Garrett went out on stage to do their own sound check instead of just having their tech guys doing it for them. We got a little more viewing time of them and that is always a bonus. Garrett was so funny, making weird noises into the microphone, and generally just being quite random, but we all loved it. He was very cool and intriguing to watch. Then they were ready to perform and it got very exciting! They all came out on stage and started their set. I don't remember all the songs they sung but there were quite a few, more than I had expected them to play. Kennedy was very cute smiling at that crowd. Garrett was as usual moving around the stage and doing erratic movements. I didn't much of a view of Jared though, it would have been nice to see his epic guitar skills. The crowd was very disappointing because not many had moved around that much, even the people who were there for them, I don't mean to sound judgmental, but I wish the crowd moved around a lot more just so we actually looked interested in the songs they were playing. John was just breath-taking, he kept running his hand through his hair, because there was this little wasp of hair that would fly outwards when he moved his head. Overall he didn't talk too much, but then we found out later that he was sick and had vomited about 4 times before playing. Garrett was so funny when he caught someone out for texting during their set. It hurts me too see people like that because i want everyone to get into their set, so it means a higher chance of them coming back if they have a bigger fan base. I feel so embarrassed. Otherwise the songs they played were amazing, they changed a little of the guitar part in "we'll all be" and added little lyrics from a Taking Back Sunday song if I wasn't imagining that in head (That happened with ARTTM as well i think, they incorporated some other song lyrics into their own). It was sad when their set was over, I didn't want them to leave.

We moved out of the mosh for TBS and NFG. While going out i kept bumping into this guy-first i would bump into him and instead of changing directions i would just keep bumping into him, I apologized though, i wasn't sure at what i was actually doing. The people seemed a little annoyed that we were trying to get past. Finally we made it out, and decided to go down to the bar, it was very hot and crowded and smelly. We saw this guy who looked like he was from TTNY, and he was alone so we wanted to stand near him. Up close and after inspection of a photo from my camera, we saw that it wasn't actually him and it was a random, but they had similiar faces, hairstyles, clothes, glasses, it was uncanny.
We waited around for Taking Back Sunday to come. The venue was very crowded by this stage, a lot more crowded than for Counter Revolution! When they came on it was so good. I started listening to TBS back in high school but only recently gotten back into their music, they started off with El Paso, which had a bit of screamo vocal in them, but it is a really good and different sounding song. Adam, the lead singer, was amazing because his leg was broken and he was on crutches on stage. While he was pretty much immobile, I thought his stage presence was commanding and entertaining. His voice was awesome to listen to, and the things he would say were just funny and made us fall in love with his voice. With a lot of the songs, i didn't know the all the words but the chorus was pretty clear to me. It was pretty good to be at the back of the venue because then no one can hear my awful singing except maybe Monisha who was right next to me. I belted out the lines i knew and it felt very liberating. Their set was around an hour long.
After their set, we stood at the sides, where we could see one of the exits, we saw that the tech guys were packing up The Maine's equipment, and it made us really sad because we thought that they were going to leave then. But I kept my hopes up, while Monisha on the hand, oh typical Mon were getting upset that they most likely left. I said that we don't know what is happening, and suggested to move away from the door which may or may not confirm out fears.

Next up was New Found Glory, and they were one of the first pop puck bands I got into, so they reminded of my youthful days. Oh my, it was unbelievable to see them live and while i didn't know all the lyrics to their songs, i belted out the ones that i did know. They played some of my favourite NFG songs, so i was pretty happy with that. Right before their set, they played the Universal studios music which is played at the beginning of movies, and that made Mon and I laugh. Their set was around an hour as well, i was dancing and singing along, I was pretty happy. It brought some young memories, so that was nice. I loved how the lead singer would move across the entire width of the stage (granted Adam wasn't able to do that, and John doesn't move to the sides that much on stage) but he got the end "near" me and that me a little more excited. The end of their set was sad because it meant the concert was over.

We made our way ourselves, trying to find the back entrance to see if we could meet The Maine. We stood in the middle parking area, and saw a group of people at the corner of the road, before them there was a security guard who told the people to move the other way, of course some people had sneaked through the security guard and even the barriers that was blocking the back road from entry of the public. When i saw the tips of Jared's head, we bolted over there, and sure enough The Maine, except John because he was sick, was there hanging with the crowd. There was quite a bit of people hanging around, so it made it a little hard for us to reach them. Everytime that we could get closer to them, they would move to another spot. It was pretty funny, but i liked how close we were to them, their presence is very cool. I loved watching them interacting with the fans, they are very nice, engaging and friendly, trying to address everyone all the while incorporating their little character quirks that made me melt a little inside. Finally we got to Kennedy, we asked them about our care package, he said he didn't like cookies himself but had taken a bite and made sure the rest were eaten, We talked a little about vegemite, and how he stole the Australian flag cape which was meant for John; easter eggs which he had eaten the caramel egg, and various other things about the care package (it sucks that we didn't take a photo beforehand  of the things in the care package). We actually got to talk for a while and it was such a casual and comfortable conversation, no awkwardness at all, and it was beautiful to be looking at his face. Then we asked for photos and he signed our CD booklets.

Next up was Garrett, I had previously given him the CD booklets to sign, and he was holding them up to see who they were. We said it was ours, and then talked with him. We also asked about the care package, and the koala beanies that I had knitted them. He said they all tried it on, and I was really happy. He asked if Pat had a beanie on him, by just yelling "Hey Pat! You have a beanie?" to which Pat responded with a clueless expression and "What?". I thought that interaction was very funny. Garrett was interesting to watch he would get pretty distracted by the fans all trying to talk to him. When I took a photo for Mon, he first got distracted by someone and he looked in their direction, then we had to take another photo. He was holding a shark puppet a fan had gotten him, and was making really funny expression or it could have just been his face. He said that John had thrown up 4 times before he went on and was surprised that he even came out, some girls behind us said that it was be awesome to throw up on stage. Garrett rebutted and said it's awful and proceeded to do a reenactment about the time it had happened to him. It was hilarious to witness.

Then we talked to Pat, who was so gorgeous, I think we also asked about the care package but my memory is a little fuzzy about that. We asked for photos, and my camera flashes 2 times for the photo, and Pat kept moving away after the first flash, it happened twice, it was so funny. Finally on the third time he stayed for the flashes and we finally got the photo.

Afterwards, we tried to look for Jared, but then we realized he had already went back inside. It was a little sad because Mon hadn't had a photo with him yet. The lead singer from New Found Glory and some other members of NFG and TBS came out, and did some signings and photos, i thought it was really nice for them to do that. They are pretty big in terms of the pop punk scene and yet they are such genuine and awesome dudes. The lead singer of NFG was pretty funny, he did a bad Australian accent, and sang a couple of lines from Friends over You, and boy did that sound amazing up close even though it was really short and he was joking around. Then we saw some of the band members and tech guys moving out and getting ready to leave inside their vans. We spotted Jared but was too scared to ask him to come over. I think eventually we got one of the TBS guys to pull him over. We got our booklets signed and took photos. It was very nice of him to come over when he was just getting into the van, I'm sure their manager would have been on them.

When the van pulled away, Garrett did a spark sign and it was pretty cool. We tried to run after the van and after 2 blocks we gave up.

We had noodles for dinner in the city, and chose the restaurant based on the fact that they had photos on their menu. When we got home, i thought it was weird that my Mum was still awake, it was nearly 2am. I later realized that she must have gotten up to prepare us food because we're usually hungry when we get home from concerts. I felt pretty bad. Oh i love my parents, gosh if i was a parent to a kid like me, he/she would have either get judged or abandoned or oppressed by me. Well needless to say, Sunday was a very incredible day indeed.

Love Squealer.

EDIT: We took photos with Pat then Garrett, my memory's a little fuzzy. I would change it in the actual post but meh. 

i can make up my own verse.

This is super delayed, but somehow i never found the time to sit down and finish off my concert posts. Life get in the way (this line reminds me of an episode of modern family, where Phil goes "Life gets in the way", and then he asks Luke "Did i say 'life' or 'wife?" to which Luke responds "Nah you're fine, dad", it's a funny scene, i'm just not explaining it properly)  despite my thinking that i would have heaps of spare time. Okay so on Thursday 1st March, the A Rocket to The Moon w/The Summer Set and The Dangerous Summer and The ready set sidewave was on at the Hi Fi. Monisha over at her blog also wrote a post about this day here and is probably more entertaining and succinct than mine is, so feel free to navigate there. This day was extra special because Chris from Dashboard Confessional had a special intimate acoustic concert at Fitzroy park, he announced the day before at his concert, which made me super eager. He said it was going to be in the afternoon which is a pretty vague time frame and i had things to do in the morning so i couldn't spend all day waiting. Firstly I visited my Monash Pharm crew, whom i haven't seen in a while or been at that place for ages. The cafeteria place has totally changed with all this new and modern furniture. It was cool to spend some time with Van, because I hardly ever get to see her, and it was fun listening in to some lectures and imagining this could have been me if I didn't make the decision to move to Latrobe. The whole time at Monash, I was pretty anxious because I was scared that Chris would have already done the concert and I missed it. I thought I was pretty smart by searching the live twitter search for key words such as fitzroy park and dashboard confessional, and constantly refreshing the results. It was sad to leave Monash but i wanted to get a head start on lining up for the ARTTM concert. I think i got to the Hi Fi at around 2.30, and there was only a group ahead of me. I didn't like them so much because they littered and seemed a little rude. Then a girl came up to line behind me and her name was Katrina, and we talked for a bit about the other side shows she's been to, and luckily the conversations wasn't so awkward at all. But I'm somewhat guarded when it comes to meeting new people, but then again, everyone is, so yeah i'm not anything special. The girls in front spotted Justin and Halvo across the road, although i couldn't see them, at that time i was alone so i didn't want to move in case I lose my spot. Then when we spotted Nick from ARTTM across the road, I had Kat with me, and we asked the girl in front of us to look after our spot. There were some girls who were in front of us talking to Nick too. Well i basically said a line and it was something along the lines of a zoo. But yeah i just liked being close to him and taking in his aura, i can't he's a couple years older but seems so much wiser and mature. We took some photos and went back in line.

Damn those girls for intentionally photo-bombing, how rude! They were also the girls who were in front of me. 

As soon as Monisha came, I rushed off to Fitzroy Gardens hoping that I didn't miss the acoustic concert. When i got there, i had walked past the Hilton and saw Bert from The Used outside smoking with a group of friends. They looked quite intimidating so I was so scared to go up to them, apparently i've heard that Bert is a really nice person. And I also found out that YMAS were staying there but unfortunately didn't get a chance to see them. When I got to the gardens, i saw some people who looked like they were waiting for Chris as well, so that gave me hope. To stall time, I walked around the gardens because i've never been and always had the intention of going. It is a stunning garden, very scenic and tranquil, i wished i had my dslr on me. After some time, finally Chris came out and i rushed over to him along with the other people. We sat on the ground, and it was so perfect. This was such an amazing experience, and again Chris was so commanding, genuine and fricking awesome. Again he took song requests, oh my it was so wonderful to hear his voice and backing guitar with no interruptions or distortions, and boy is his voice so perfect. He played for an over an hour, which was more than I could ask for. I didn't like being by myself, but i sort of knew some one who was a mutual friend, but she also had her own group of friends as well. She tool a photo for me and I got my album signed. He wrote my name and doubled check the spelling, I told him it ended in 'y' and because i was pretty nervous i kinda said it unconvincingly. He was like, are you sure? you don't sound sure, and he laughed. Yes not much of a conversation, and i couldn't express how much he means to me, but every moment of interaction with him is special and important to me. 

Well I got pretty flustered and euphoric after that, trying to hurry myself back to the Hi Fi. I was pretty awesome walking in the vicinity of the hotel where a lot of the bands were staying at, I knew the guys were band guys but I didn't recognize them, which was a shame. Susan and Monisha were waiting in line when i arrived, Monisha told me that she met Halvo and Justin, John, Joey and Dave, from ARTTM, The Summer Set and The Cab respectively. I was pretty happy for her but a little sad that i didn't get a chance to see them too, however Chris was worth it. I had some of Susan's bread which was nice, and because i haven't eaten much all day. They gave me a little keepsake scrapbook they had put together, and it was so funny and nostalgic looking back at the photos, and all the weird things we do. Sadly when doors opened Susan had to leave, and it would be the last time that i would ever see her, just kidding, but it feels like ages since I've seen her. There weren't that many people in line and when we got into the venue it was so empty compared to previous to other concerts we have been to, i think the management made a mistake by making it over 18, they would have sold a lot more tickets with the under 18 crowd. It was good for us because we got barrier and we had space to breath, not having people invading our personal space. I just hoped the bands didn't think too much about it.
The first band that came on was The Dangerous Summer, at first we weren't sure who they were, I thought they were Australian but then they didn't sound much like one. They were pretty good even though i didn't know any of their songs. I'm glad they had some fans supporting them, and i was trying to look as interested as I could. The small crowd didn't distract from putting on a good set, and I felt sorry for them because they pretty knew that a lot of people were there for TSS or ARTTM or TRS. I liked watching the drummer, he looked like he was having a blast! Sorry about the bad photos, i will never stop complaining about the red lights in concerts, always ruins your photos.

During one of their sets, Chris Lilley came backstage with some of the TSS, which was pretty random. It was pretty cool to see him though, i loved his tv shows. 

Next up was The Summer Set, I always wanted to see Jess, the drummer from TSS, in person because she looks so pretty. Indeed in real life she is really pretty and a killer with the drums as well. John was weird with his cork hat and Hawaiian shirt, but that's what make us like him even more. Brian's voice sounded so much better live, more tolerable if you like. They were awesome live, and at least i knew some of the songs that sang.

While waiting for ARTTM to set up, Blake and Sierra from Versaemerge came into the venue at the back, with fear of losing our spots, we didn't want to leave and ask for a photo. Jess also came out and talked with them and some fans. It felt so awesome to have all these band people under one roof, when else would we get this opportunity being so far from America.

While the tech guys were setting up for The Ready Set, I mistakenly thought that one of the tech guys was the main guy of The Ready Set. I thought he changed his hair and looked a lot better, turns out it wasn't him. How embarrassing. Albeit the tech guy was pretty good looking and i think a halfie. I also haven't heard any of TRS's songs, but damn his songs are so fricken catchy! I liked his energy and movement around the stage.

Finally it was time for ARTTM, and boy it was really anticipated! They were amazing live, I love their songs! As usual, i just laughed at everything they were saying. There was a guy who kept shouting "Dakota" which is one of their songs, and Nick would always reply, we'll get there. It was pretty funny but Nick might have gotten annoyed. For one of their songs, Brian, John and Stephen came to help them sing. They were so cute up there together and acting all friendly and whatnot. I love how the bands so close and get along so well. It was wonderful seeing them perform, and I was happy during their set, until Nick said they had time for one more song, at this point the set would have been 30 mins long. I was so shocked at their short set and frankly a little disappointed, but if you're going to headline, at least make a set list longer than your supporting bands. But obviously I couldn't be too mad at them, they finally played Dakota which sounded so good and worth waiting till the last song!

So yeah the concert was pretty good, and afterwards I really wanted to rush over to Billboards to see if we could see the guys in KIGH. I felt pretty high and happy afterwards, and plus I love walking around the city at night, it's best feeling! Unfortunately we didn't see anyone, well I admit i didn't specifically know what they look like, but we did see some band guys but we couldn't recognize them. We made our way back to the Hi Fi, and we spotted Nick and Justin (?) standing outside, and we were about to go and ask for a photo, but the rest of the band and TSS and some other girls were joining them, which meant we lost our window of opportunity. Unsure of what to do next, we let them walk past us, while trying to remain as calm as possible. And then we proceeded to follow them at a distance. To not seem so freaky, I pretended to be on the phone with Susan, coming up with a whole fake conversation. We followed to the rooftop bar, we were outside for a couple of minutes contemplating our next move. when we saw some girls who went to the concert follow them in, we went in too. First we went to this weird dark restaurants with little booths, and it was very scary in there. After a round of the place with no signs of them, we left to this dance room where there was a lot of smoke everywhere. At this stage i was feeling very scared and so very out of place. We made our way up the stairs into another bar but they weren't there either and the further we went up the stairs. We got to one of the landings when we heard some voices, it was Jess from TSS and someone else, we quickly pretended to be looking at the rooftop cinema poster. There was also an ad for burgers and we were pretty hungry. So to justify our stalking, we are just innocent people looking for food. When we made to the roof top bar, sure enough they were there. And we were continually feeling more out of place. we let down our hair in the hopes of looking different. Then we tried to find the burger place but weren't successful. This guy comes up to us, and says if we needed any help because we looked a little lost. We told him we were looking for the burger place but he didn't know either, he was from brisbane and covering Soundwave for a music magazine, i thought that was a pretty cool job. He said to maybe ask the security guard, and to join him later (yeah he was a little drunk) but he seemed cool, and easy to talk to so there wasn't much awkwardness. Every time moments like that happens, I feel a little accomplished. So we asked the security guard, and he said it closed 3 hours, by this time it was 12, and we felt so betrayed by the poster, because it said opened til late, and 9pm is not late at all. We settled on lemon, lime and bitters drink, and found a table so we could see the band people. It felt awesome to be in their presence, as much as I wanted to go up to them and be a part of the group, i know that in a million years that wouldn't happen. Nonetheless, it was an enjoyable time hanging out and chatting with Monisha, almost forgetting that they were there. In the end, most of them started leaving, and we thought we should leave too. On the way down, we wrote lies on the burger place poster where it said opened til late, that made us laugh so much! When we were outside, we saw Nick and this other girl, and yes followed them again, they got to Bourke street where they met some tech guys, and then Nick made his way back to his hotel. We walked to the town hall where we got picked up by my dad.

So that was the Thursday, Monisha did a much better job at writing about the day, and my memory is getting fuzzy, it's the old age, i hate to admit.

Love Squealer.