Sunday Fun Day -- Love is Gone

Concerts are some of my favorite times. Hard rock/heavy metal concerts. I love the energy. Going into an oversized room with a bunch of drunk, sweaty rock n rollers? Sounds like my kind of time. That being said, I don't always fall in love with opening bands. In fact, it's rare. It's not that I'm not musically open-minded, but it has to really stand out for me to remember a band, and want to purchase it. Yes, I'm going somewhere with this.

In 2010, we went to see Volbeat in Maryland. The show was awesome, but a little different for us because Volbeat's audience is comprised of a muuuch higher percent of ladies, and is much more relaxed. That really has nothing to do with this, but I figured I'd throw it out there. One of their openers really caught my ear, and I bought their cd within days of the show. They remind me of HIM in some ways. They don't sound the same, but they have kind of dark, deep undertones, and they have black eyeliner. Okay, they barely remind me of HIM, but listen to them and see what you think. Without further ado:

Dommin -- Love is Gone

What Was I Thinkin'?

So I've only done 3 posts, and I'm changing direction already. We used to travel all the time. Not so anymore. We still have places we want to go throughout the year, but they'll be so spread out that trying to blog about it would be pointless. I'm still going to add them in here and there though. I know I said this blog is going to be about tons of different things, but I had my little heart set on a lot of travel posts.

Now besides travel, my passion lies in shopping. Online, in-store, thrift shops, antique shops-I can't stop. I don't have to buy everything I see, it's just the looking that I love. Sometimes it inspires me to make something myself or make something old look new and different. It's a great feeling to turn something neglected into something loved once again. Hopefully I'll have more time for that this year.

I feel like I need to say this too: The past year and a half has been odd for me. I kind of got away from myself because I've been so busy. This is the start of a New Year and of me being me again, all the way. Part of that means dressing up, part means being money-conscious. I have put myself on a strict no-buy budget. Okay except for maybe once a month. And nothing big. (I'm not that strict unfortunately.) Hopefully it's going to help me learn to use what I have, and to part with what I don't want or use (but I just know I might want to wear it... for a few hours... 1 out of the next 365 days!). So for my last purchase for a good long while, I present- my new boots.

I haven't gotten them yet, but I have high hopes. They were on super-duper sale yesterday for only $12.00.  I had to do it, you see. There was never even an option.

Busy Bopper

New York was great! We had so much fun and so many experiences that I never expected to have. We stayed in NJ with a kind of far-off skyline view of the city (it was good enough for me). Day one included the drive up and staying in that night. We ate at the hotel's restaurant and settled in for a night of drinking. Who goes into a fancy hotel with two cases of beer? We do. That's how we roll. For some reason every morning I'd wake up around 6 something and, every time I went to the window to look out. There was an amazing view of the rising sun coupled with that skyline.
Day 2: THE BIG FOUR!
This was legendary for us. Not even just because of the bands that came together but because of being at Yankee Stadium with *52,325* of our party buddies. For being in the Bronx. For driving ourselves there (yeah I know, it wasn't bad...it's over the river and not even through the woods...but I still drove in New York..go me!). And for seeing the guy on the exit ramp with a house made out of palettes with beer cans and bottles lining the top as decoration.
Day 3: Yeah, we know what we're doing.
Not. We took the subway in and walked out of Madison Square Garden knowing exactly where we were and where we were going. Wait, no, that was all of the other tourists around us. We're the ones who looked left, then right, then picked right. We walked, saw a girl almost get hit by a cab, she cussed out the driver and banged on the hood. That's when I knew we were headed in the right direction. That's really all we did that day. Walked around, saw things, visited the Empire State Building (where I undoubtedly got some of my best trip pictures), went through Times Square, ate great pizza, and went from hot to rained on to freezing cold. Hopped the subway back and had a cozy night in again.
Day 4: That was fast.
We weren't quite sure what to do but I wanted to ride the ferry and Brad wanted to go to Wall Street. Problem solved. We ended up at the 9/11 Memorial (not actually going in, it opened the same week we went and there were no tickets available) to see where the towers stood and to visit the little gift shop/museum-ish place. Wow. That's all I can really say. So we left there and these people asked us for directions. Really? Now I know we may look like normal folks, but when we open our mouths (and especially Brad), you would know we're from much further down the coast. Funny thing is, we knew the answer because we are very good at paying attention to street signs. Then we went to Battery Park, strolled around, got hot dogs and ate next to the river, staring at the Statue of Liberty from afar. Oh...by the way, I thought it would be a good idea to buy a pretzel with cheese in the middle. It wasn't. Ew. On to Wall Street, the Bull, and wandering back to the lower end ferry. The end. From then on we were homeward bound. Of course instead of planning our time wisely (who does that, really? lame.), we just took our time but hurried up all day and left around 5pm instead of the 3-3:30 we had planned on. Five o'clock traffic leaving NJ? Fun stuff. We ended up home safe and sound sometime in the wee hours of Saturday morning with another trip under our belts and another two states marked off of our long list.

The Concrete Jungle

That's right! This coming Tuesday we'll be heading to the Big Apple, the City So Nice They Named it Twice, the City That Never Sleeps. We're heading there primarily to see The Big Four at Yankee Stadium! So far I have quite a list of things we want to see but we'll only be there for 4 days. I've been trying to find info online about thrift stores that might be within my budget but I'm having some difficulty. I'm still somewhat new to thrifting for clothes so it would be great to see what I could find in a city like this. Lucky for me Brad is a very patient shopping companion!

It's the Beginning of the End

The beginning? Expect travel, recipes, adventures into beginner's thrifting, bands, rants, raves, and sarcasm. Definitely sarcasm. Clothes probably. Makeup I'm sure.