Ahhh, the Holidays.....

So this year has been quite the change from last year. Last year around the holidays Taylor and I had just started dating, so celebrating the holidays apart from each other wasn't a big deal. Fast forward to this year and dividing up time during the holidays became and issue. In the past I was lucky enough to date someone from Lubbock and since I'm from Lamesa, we were able to see both families all in the same day! I've never been away from my family during the holidays....except for this past Thanksgiving.

Since Taylor is from Southlake, which is obviously more than an hour away from Lamesa, we decided that we would spend Thanksgivng with his family and then alternate every year. My first Thanksgiving away from my family was a little tougher than I thought it would be. I'm used to celebrating with at least 15 people (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents etc)and including me there were 5 of us at Taylor's.

On Thanksgiving morning, Taylor's mom was out running errands, Taylor and his dad were outside hanging Christmas lights and Taylor's brother was still asleep while I sat on their couch alone, watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. Tradition in my family is to watch the parade with my little cousins Katarina and Mickaela. As I sat there alone, I let my emotions get the best of me and I started to cry! I feel pretty silly about it now, but like I said, this was my first time away from my family.

For Christmas though, we are celebrating with my family Christmas Eve and then driving out early Christmas morning to Southlake. I'm not looking forward to the drive, but we really don't have much of a choice. We will spend New Year's with some friends in Dallas and then my present to Taylor for Christmas is Cotton Bowl tickets. Yay, go Tech!

So in closing, I'll leave you with some pictures of our silly cats who thought our Christmas tree was their own personal jungle gym. At first their climbing warranted adorable pictures to be taken but now my tree looks downright sad as they have damaged several of the limbs. There is much truth in the saying that cats are untrainable, but by golly Taylor and I have been trying to keep the kitties out of my Christmas tree!




And lastly, I can't forget about my sweet Coco....she's the good one! :)

It's October....really?

Wow, things have really been flying for me lately and I'm starting to wonder where all my time has gone! Working on the website is pretty much a full-time time job, on top of my full-time job at Tech. Between catching bands (for the site of course!) interviewing, attending events etc., etc., life has been pretty hectic lately.

One event we recently wrote about on the site was about Nightmare on 19th Street. For those of you not familiar, it's a Halloween "Scream" Park. It has 3 attractions and literally takes about an hour and a half to get through. I don't like haunted houses and I told Taylor that I didn't want to go. He basically made me go since it was something we were writing about on the site. His explanation went like this, "Jenn, it's like a rollercoaster, you can't write about it unless you ride it." Touche Taylor.....

So last Friday, I put my big girl panties on and Taylor, myself, Court, Logan and Ian went to Nightmare. They have people going through the attractions in small groups, so since Taylor was taking pictures for the site, he stayed a little behind us. I didn't like this at all because it meant that I had nobody to hold onto or hide behind. Well I say I didn't have anybody to hold on to, but I pretty much clung to Court and Logan for dear life. I don't like scary!

The three attractions were Clown Town (yeah another thing I don't like), Witch's Walk and Blood Moon Manor. There are people waiting behind every corner ready to jump out and scare the begeesus out of you and during the witch's walk (which is outside btw) There are people jumping out of bushes with running chainsaws. Like I said, I don't like scary.

At the end of the attractions, there is guy who works for Lubbock Online who takes pictures of reactions. Well now for your viewing pleasure here is the picture of me hanging on to Logan and Court! Again....I don't like scary!

P.S. Upon interviewing the Nightmare owners for the story, Taylor found out that they had to bust out a pee mop last week because someone literally peed themselves!

Update...

At midnight last night the Tech Emergency system called and cancelled classes and said only essential personnel had to report to work. This morning when I talked to my boss I found out I didn't have to go in today. YAY! No work for me and no school for Taylor!

The rain has stopped, but I'm not sure if we are expecting anymore. We will see...

Double Yowza...

So the Lubbock Mayor just decared Lubbock in a state of emergency. We have gotten almost 8 inches of rain in less than a 24 hour period and we are expected to get at least 2 more inches through the night. Apparently, Lubbock has never received this much rain in a 24 hour period....ever! They are calling this the 100 year flood.

All Lubbock schools have cancelled classes for tomorrow. Well almost all Lubbock schools, as per usual, Tech officials are making students/faculty/employees (bleh that includes me) boat to campus tomorrow. Luckily, I only live about 4 blocks from campus so I won't have far to drive. Well, let's just say Taylor doesn't have that far to drive me! :)

Yowza....

So I've been quite the busy bee lately. Between working full time during the day, catching local bands and interviewing them, promoting the site via facebook and myspace, I haven't had much time for anything else....except Tech Football, I gotta make time for that!

Taylor and I have had a blast so far and we're nearing a month that we've been up and running. Taylor has been just as busy as I have between school, his job at O.L.L.I. and working on getting promos for giveaways for our readers. We have high hopes for the site, so hopefully we'll gain more readership and be able to reach some goals that we've set for ourselves.

So with that said, please keep me in your thoughts because at times all of this can be overwhelming. I've found myself having minor anxiety issues knowing that people are out there reading and critiquing my articles. I know it's just something I'll eventually have to get over.

One story I recently wrote is about an Austin based soul band (T-Bird and The Breaks) competing for a spot to play ACL in just a few weeks. If you haven't checked out the story, I highly advise you to check out the band and vote for them in the competition. Voting closes this Friday. The bass player (Cody) for the band is from Lubbock and also happens to be my friend Kenny's little brother. They even have a couple of videos on youtube that show a bit of their stage show. They are pretty awesome, so be sure and check them out when you have a chance, and vote, vote, vote :)

A new addition!

Wow, well first it was a new adventure (as in the post below) and now it's a new addition! As of yesterday, Taylor and I were able to take home our new kitty, a pretty calico cat that we've decided to name C.C. Several weeks ago, a woman that works in Admissions found 5 kittens that someone "dumped" near Buffalo Springs. Being an animal lover, she snatched them up and began nursing them back to health. They were so young that they had to be bottle fed and Dana woke up every 3-4 hours for weeks just to feed them! C.C. is adapting pretty well to her new siblings. She's hissed at Coco and Tupac a couple of times, but she's still super curious about them, as they are about her. I think she's going to fit in just fine and due to the fact she never really had a "cat-mama" she's really imprinted on humans and Taylor and I are confident that she's going to be a great lap cat!

And yes, Tupac is standing on his hind legs trying to look in! :)

The Dark Knight....

So last night (this morning really!) Taylor and I met up with Courtney and Logan to watch The Dark Knight at Movies 16 for 12:10 showing. The movie was being shown on 6 screens around town at various times after midnight and luckily we managed to snag 4 tickets for the last available showing before they all sold out. The last time I went to a midnight showing, Jeralyn, Courtney, Vanessa and I went to see Sex and The City and I paid for it the next day. Not this time I swore, I was taking a nap before the movie!

So we get to the movie theater at 10:50 and we wait in line for almost an hour before they let us in. What's really random though is while in line, we end up directly behind a couple who looked extremely familiar. I called the guy by his name and he was who I thought he was. The guy graduated and ran around in the same crowd with my Aunt Doris back in Lamesa. I pretty much shared a room with her growing up, so I always looked at her yearbooks/scrapbooks all the time, so I always knew who her friends were. This guy hadn't really seen me since I was a kid, so I'm sure he was a little freaked out that I remembered him. So for your viewing pleasure, I posted what I looked like as a kid (probably how he remembered me) compared to now. Yowza, what a change right??? I did however replace my Curious George with Curious Coco!

As for the movie, it was definitely worth the hour wait in line. It was eerie though watching Heath Ledger's performance knowing that he's no longer with us anymore. He was definitely an extremely talented individual and it saddens me that this was his last completed movie. It will definitely be interesting to see The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus with three actors (Johnny Depp, Colin Farrell and Jude Law) playing the role that Heath Ledger never completed. I highly recommend catching this movie, it is a little dark, but Ledger's portrayal of the Joker is something that is a must see. Have a great weekend!!!

I've been M.I.A.

Whew, where to begin….it’s been awhile since I’ve posted anything so here’s a rundown as to what I’ve been up to. In January my family and I celebrated the 70th birthday of my favorite man in the whole world. My Papaw has been such an amazing influence in my life and even though his exterior suggests that he may be somewhat of a gruff, he’s very much quite the opposite. Here’s to many more birthdays Papaw!

February was a month chock full of music. I ventured to Ft. Worth at the beginning of the month to catch a Bob Schneider show at The Aardvark. If you remember, I was originally supposed to catch his New Year’s show in Austin but fell ill and was unable to attend. The show was awesome of course and I look forward to seeing him again in the future.

February and the first couple of weeks of March were packed full with Mr. Tonight and Adam West shows. My friend Adam Pompili was the rhythm guitar player for 80's cover band Mr. Tonight (I say was, and I’ll explain a little later!) and he was also the Adam in the Adam West Band. My other friend Logan West was the West part of the band. They apparently derived their name from Adam West as in the old school Batman Adam West. My weekends and some weeknights were spent watching Mr. Tonight and dancing to 80’s hits such as Sunglasses at Night, I Love Rock N’ Roll and Come On Eileen. During Adam West shows, I wowed (I use that term loosely!) everyone with my vast knowledge of every single song they played, much to Adam and Logan’s chagrin I was the designated “whoo” starter. You see when half the bar was busy talking, as soon as they heard me “whoo” they new that was their cue to start clapping for my homies!

The first couple of weeks of March were somewhat sad ones as this brought the end to Adam’s stay in Lubbock. Adam left Lubbock to pursue a career in the music business. He moved out to Hollywood, CA in order to attend the Musician’s Institute. Because of his departure, this meant that there had to be a going away party, or in Adam’s case; parties. The last Mr. Tonight show with Adam was quite fun with the band closing out the show with an awesome rendition of “Freebird” all the while performing on the tabletops at Rocky’s. My friends and I even went so far as to dress straight up 80’s style in commemoration of Adam’s last show. The last Adam West show about a week later was a surprise going away party complete with ice cream cake, presents and balloons. Also in town for the weekend was Suleika who came out to catch her first and last Adam West show.

So this is part 1 of what's been going on with me, soon enough I'll post part 2 complete with a summary of my California trip complete with fun pictures!

The real truth about cats & dogs

Coco now has a bff. Poor Cokes has been an only child/doggie pretty much most of her life. Coco came into my life in June of 2004 and she was raised with Scout (my first Lab) for a short time before Scout’s Daddy and I parted ways. He kept Scout and I kept Coco. After the break-up, Coco began scratching herself to the point she made herself bleed. I took her to the vet and the first thing the vet asked me was if Coco had been under any kind of stress. Poor Cokes was depressed which was why she was hurting herself! I felt bad that she was missing Scout, but I really couldn’t afford to get another friend for her. As you can see here, pretty much the only friends she had were human. She looks thrilled doesn't she?

After Scout, Coco was never really around any other animals. Then Coco met Mr. Bojangles the cat. Coco had never seen a cat before in her life and wanted nothing more than for Mr. Bojangles to play with her. Mr. Bojangles however had a bad experience with a male yellow lab and he wanted nothing more than to escape the Cokes. Coco and Mr. Bojangles were forced to be together for a whole weekend because of bad weather and Mr. Bojangles never left the top of the fridge. Coco sat in front the fridge and just looked up at him the whole time crying. I felt so bad because I knew that all she wanted was for Mr. Bojangles to be her friend! After that meeting, Coco was never around Mr. Bojangles again. Poor forlorn Coco.

Enter Tupac the cat. Yes Tupac, as in gangsta rap Tupac! Tupac was only 7 months old when he met Coco and although he was initially afraid of Coco, they have become the best of friends. I think the difference between ol’ Mr. Bojangles and Tupac is that Tupac was still pretty much a kitten and hadn’t been traumatized like poor Mr. Bo. The two of them like to chase each other and Tupac loves swatting at Coco’s face and tail. They are absolutely hilarious to watch and it makes me happy that my sweetheart now has a best friend.

Now for your viewing pleasure, here are a few pics of Coco and her BFF! And fyi, his Daddy is nice enough to let me entertain myself by dressing him up!

Pics from left to right: 1. Yes, that is a tie that Tupac is sporting, he's quite dapper isn't he? 2. Coco in her Easter Pearls 3. Side view of Tupac in his "Fargo" hat 4. Coco incognito 5. Front view of the "Fargo" hat 5. The Cokes caught in the act of yawning, oh how I love these two!

Keep your day job...

It’s proven, kids and adults alike are scared of clowns. This article proves it! I was a child of the 80’s, which was around the time birthday parties at McDonald’s were the IN thing to do, (well at least in my small town!) During this time “The Bozo Show” was also really popular, (I’ll get into that later!) and I watched that show on a regular basis. I’ve never necessarily been afraid of clowns, except for that evil clown from Poltergeist that hid under the kid’s bed. As a kid I happened upon someone in my family watching that movie and it just so happened that I walked into the room during the clown scene. What’s even creepier is someone gave me a clown that looked almost exactly like the one in the movie that my Mom had sitting in a wicker chair in my room. After I saw that movie I got rid of that thing. I mean really, who buys this thing for a kid!

In Lamesa if you had a party at McDonalds, one of the perks was you were entitled to the services of having a “happy” McDonald’s employee don the 1 clown costume that all employees shared. As a teenager, my Aunt Doris worked at McDonalds and wore said costume on more than one occasion. As you can imagine, she made a kid or two cry…why?? Because kids are afraid of clowns!

Now onto the Bozo Show. Bozo was one of the meanest clowns on T.V., now if you are a huge Bozo fan, then don’t read this paragraph. As a kid, I dreamed about attending the Bozo show solely to play the Grand Prize Game. I TOTALLY imagined myself throwing that ping pong ball all the way into the last bucket and having Cookie bring out a shiny new bike just for me. The truth is Bozo always made that damn game look so easy and kids rarely ever won that shiny new bike. Thanks a lot Bozo….for NOTHING! If you remember, at the end of the show Bozo always told Cookie that he could lead the parade with the “special” baton if he competed in a task and won against Bozo. As expected, Cookie NEVER won and NEVER got to lead the parade. However, on one glorious day Bozo screwed up the task and alas, Cookie won! As a kid I remember looking at Bozo’s face like, whoopsies I screwed that one up and there was nothing that Bozo could do to redeem himself because the crowd was ecstatic that Cookie won! In your face Bozo!!

Ever heard of Insane Clown Posse? Now I love music of all kinds, but Insane Clown Posse absolutely weirded me out. Yes it’s nice to have a gimic, but to paint your face like a clown? Already been done yo, anyone remember that little band who goes by the name of Kiss? I mean do you really think the rap/rock community is going to listen to a couple of white guys who paint their face like clowns (which as stated people generally dislike!) and attempt to rap? At least Eminem got it right….

Clowns have also been the focus of movies, mostly movies that scare the beegeesus out of people like Stephen King’s It, Poltergeist and Killer Clowns from Outer Space. I once knew of a bachelor party where the best man told the groom-to-be that he was taking care of the “entertainment.” Little did the groom-to-be know that the entertainment he had arranged was a clown named “Sparkles.” Suffice to say the groom-to-be was not amused. I however thought it was the best idea…EVER!

So what exactly have we learned today? Kids and adults HATE clowns! So if you are thinking of a profession where you can make some extra money on the side, go mow a lawn or clean a house. Besides, balloon making is a dying art anyway….