First 5 shows

If you've read the last post or keep up with me on Facebook, you know I'm currentlty on tour with One-Eyed Doll again. This time Mushroomhead is headlining.  The other awesome bands touring with us are Unsaid Fate and Ionia. Paulo's back as our driver, but we're losing him in CA :( Mike is back roadie-ing-ie-ing-ie-ing, sorry, got caught in a loop there. We also have an awesome new friend this tour, Vaughn! They just met him 3 days before tour and liked him so much they kidnapped him to take on tour. Crazy things about Vaughn; He used to live in Grand Rapids, MI and moved from there to TX around the same time I moved to CA. He also works at Starbucks. We have swapped many coffee-isms and work horror stories.

The first show was at the same venue we played at with Polkadot Cadaver. When they played before, the room and stage were sectioned off. This time it was all open. The room was huge but packed. I didn't see much because I got in late and because merch was to the side of the stage where I couldn't see. I did sneak away a few time to see Mushroomhead because I've only seen their show once before when they toured with OED. They have a great live performance. I love the water/light drums. During the last song a little boy, probably no older than 8 came out and played them. I REALLY wish I had gotten some video of it. I'm hoping when we're back out that way he gets to play again. At one point in the night I guy came over to the table staring at me intently. He said I looked just like his girlfriend. We have the same hair and same shaped face. He did a double take when he saw me because she was supposed to be in Canada. We had a bunch of VIPs that night, including our awesome friends Ally and Gwen. We also have a special new VIP exclusive treat! But you'll have to be a VIP to see/hear it :) Over all, once I finally got there and settled in, it was a good night.

The next show was in Merrium, KS. We were at this venue on the Otep tour. A girl came to the table early in the night to look around and show off her Committed shirt from last time. Later on she came to me in a zipped up hoodie and a story about how a drunk guy outside ripped her shirt/bra and luckily she had the hoodie or else she'd be topless. She was asking if I could give her a deal on a new shirt. Feeling bad about her situation, I did. Only to remember her from last time half way through. She came to me saying she models band shirts and was asking for a shirt in exchange for pictures of her in it later on. I told her she had to talk to Jr about it, and by the end of the night she had a free shirt. She also got "hurt" both this show and last. She had to be carried out and taken care of, but then later in the night she's suddenly completely fine walking around like nothing ever happened.

This show, my merch was set up next to the local opener, who were nice when we got there and made sure I had enough space. However, by the end of the night the area in front of them was filled with their obnoxious drunk friends. They kept setting their drinks on the other merch table and drunkenly stumbling unto it. I had to constantly watch to make sure they were't spilling anything on my stuff. There were so many people there just to get drunk. I saw a few peopleget escortted out because they were overly intoxicatec. I even saw a girl get escortted out because she decided to get topless during Mushroomhead. I went to the bathroom at one point and there was a girl helping her overly drunk friend use the bathroom. Coming out of the stall she fell, fell into the swinging door of another stall hitting her head, then the door swung back and hit her in the head again. She just sat there on the bathroom floor laughing about it.

There was also a guy that came over to my table and started looking through a book we sell of photos and the Dirty album lyrics. He started getting all weird and talking about how he was having flashbacks. He told me about how he did acid for 20 years but swore he wasn't on it then. Either way, it messed him up. Don't do drugs kids. Somehow we got to talking about California, and it turns out he used to live in the city I live in. I mentioned a few of the highways in the area and he flipped out. He was amazed I knew the places he was talking about and said that's how he knew I was genuine. He thanked me and awkwardly called me a "beautiful little girl" before finally leaving.

The show itself was a bit rough. Kim kept getting shocked because of bad grounding with the mic/guitar cables. It got so bad she had to cut the set short and even ended the last song halfway through. Coincidently, the venue was called "Aftershock."

We had one VIP, Jack, who was our VIP here before and in Iowa at the Polkadot show. Since him and his dad were the only ones, they did the VIP party during Mushroomhead so I didn't get to be there :( But it's all good :)

Awesome place we ate at after the show

The third show was in Salina, KS aka "Celine Dion", KS. We got there early enough that we reorganized a lot of the merch and sorted it into some new, non-broken tubs. The show itself was a good show despite a smaller crowd. Kim had a heckler in the back but the rest of the crowd shut him up pretty quickly. We had some awesome VIPs but the real party started after they left and we sat around making puns. This whole trip has been full of puns, but that night we just sat around having a pun off. We'd start with one topic and be on that for a while, then transition to another, and so on. It was a fun night, until we tried to leave and our windshield kept icing over. Stupid cold weather... :(

Waking up in Denver

The next day we were in Denver, CO. It was even colder. I think it was 6 degrees when we got there. We got there early, so Mike, Vaughn and I wandered around. We were looking for a place to grab some coffee and food when we ran into a girl named Ashley asking for 25¢ for coffee. She had some time to kill before going into work and no money until she got paid. She only asks for 25¢ because she feels like asking for a dollar is to much, but if she can get 4 people to give her a quarter, she has a dollar. She seemed nice so we invited her to breakfast with us and Vaughn bought her a coffee and bagel. We told her about OED and the concert that night. It turns out she's always wanted to learn the drums. We put her on the guestlist for the show that night in case she could make it after work, but we never saw her. Hopefully we encouraged her to start playing though.

The show that night was good. There was a big crowd and they seemed really into it. We had 3 awesome VIPs, Brandon (who makes tea and is an Emily Autumn fan) and Andrew from the last time we were in Denver as well as a newbie Sean. After the VIP party we stoppoed at a little local diner for food. We ended up befriending the 2 guys in the booth behind us. At the VIP party that night Kim called us Celine Dion and the Michael Boltons. Someone told them that was our band name and one of them was like "I've heard of you guys! No, seriously! I'm not just saying that!" It was funny. The other guy did something with acupuncture and Eastern medicine. Kim had a good time talking to him. We invited them to hang out on our bus for a little bit which they thought was super cool. The one left his acupuncture kit on our bus though, so now we have to mail it back to him.

The next show was in Colorado Springs, CO. We stopped at a really good Indian buffet on the way. I'd mention it, except they poisoned Mike. Seriously. He made us all a mango lassi, except Mike. He was really weird about Mike not getting one. Later he told Mike he'd make him a cherry lassi. Mike ended up SO sick that night. He threw up a few times and spent the night after load in sleeping.

There were a LOT of drunk people at this show, plus many that were probably on a few other things. I was tucked way back in a corner, but luckily Sean and Brandon from the night before were there again, and they were my bodyguards. Unfortunately, Brandon parked on a street that used to, key word USED to, have no parking signs. His car was towed anyway and he spent a lot of the VIP party trying to figure out getting it back :( We gave him a ride home and hopefully it all worked out for him. If you're reading this, let me know!

And now doors are opening so I'll have to catch you up some other time :)

Beginning of tour

Tour got off to a bit of a rough start. Got up at 5 am, got ready, and headed to the airport. Went to check in at 6:45, learned they stopped checking bags for my flight at 6:40. I called someone over and they told me there was nothing they could do. Had to pay $75 to switch to a flight leaving at noon.

Got through security with no problems, dispite the fact that I have bright red hair and probably looked like I was going to cry the whole time. One of the guys working asked me about the shirt I was wearing. It was a shirt of a band that some guys I went to high school with are in. He told me about how they have a lot of famous people come though. Apparently Carlos Santana came through not that long ago.

Got to my gate, and tried to find something to do for 4 1/2 hours until boarding. Wandered around to see if I could get some coffee or breakfast, since I hadn't planned on the extra hours. Every place had super long lines and a regular cup of coffee was almost $3. I decided to head back to the gate and wait. Luckily the airport had wi-fi as long as you watch an ad every half hour so I could catch up on a few things and waste sometime. It's really hard though when you're tired, just sitting around, but can't sleep/nap.

Around 9:30 I tried for food/coffee again. Ther were more places open and the lines were a lot shorter. I still ended up paying $6 for a coffee (with grounds in the bottom) and muffin. I guess that's not too far off from what you'd pay at a place like Starbucks.

Less then 10 minutes before we were supposed to board they announced a gate change. Whenwe were supposed to be boasrding they announced that boarding was delayed 15 minutes. 20 minutes later I gave up and ran to the bathroom. When I got back I saw that boarding was changed to 12 and take off to 12:30. Boarding FINALLY started at 12:10. While waiting I did see an awesome lady wearing purple shoes, purple pants, a purple sweater, carrying a purple bag.

They finally called my boarding group and I got in line to board. They scanned my ticket and it beeped. I thought maybe, once again, I had been selected for a random search. Nope, they just took my printed ticket and gave me a more official looking one. I was also for some reason moved from seat 14A to 11A.

I really wish I had thought to get my camera out because the view while taking off was awesome. First we flew out over the ocean. At one point yuou couldn't see anything but water. Then we turn and headed back east. I could see the Hollywood sign, Griffith Park, the Americana, roughly where I lived. It was cool seeing the landscape turn from all city, to suddenly mountians and no buildings.

Finally, several hours later I arrived in St. Louis. When I turned my phone on I had a text from Jr. They were stuck at the venue and couldn't come get me :( I ended up having to take a taxi. After all of that I finally made it! I'll have to write about the first few shows some other time because doors are about to open!

One Year in CA!!!!!

I started writing this on September 15th, the 1 year anniversary of my coming to California.  Then I got busy (as always) and them my laptop monitor decided to go haywire.  At the moment I have a borrowed computer and a bit of free time, so I figured I'd proofread what I had and post it to let you all know I'm still alive :)

My blog has been neglected lately, sorry. I don't know if I'll ever get around to posting about the last 2 days of the Polkadot Cadaver tour because it was soooo long ago. I've been really busy with work lately. Our department is finally getting the hours we need, and we're all at almost 40 hours. I'm not sure how my co-workers that are in school manage. I'm not sure what we're going to do during the holiday season if we're maxed out now. They'll probably hire some seasonal people and hopefully we'll just have extra people running around helping out...?

Days off tend to be spent accidentally sleeping in WAY too late because I'm exhausted from work, or trying to catch up on things like laundry, grocery shopping, being social, dishes, cleaning my room, etc.  One day off was relaxing in Santa Monica.  I have a bunch of fun pictures from the trip, but my computer wouldn't read the card from Corey's camera, and bugging him about getting them to me hasn't been working. I've also gotten back into jewelry making. I registered for an etsy store and once I get more pieces finished I'll open it up and post a link.  I've also made a few One-Eyed Doll inspired pieces and been talking to Kim about them.  I'm not sure if they'll end up in my store or theirs.  I sadly didn't make it on their fall tour with Mushroomhead.  The timing just didn't work out with some stuff I have to take care of.  Part of me is wondering what the crap is wrong with me.  A few years ago I was just another average fan of the band.  Somewhere along the way I became a friend, helped them shoot a music video, and have gone on tour with them twice.  Now they're asking me to go on more tours and quit my job to work for them, but I'm like "nah, I got other stuff I need to do right now..." Seriously, who the crap does that?!?!?  Most fans would kill to be asked this by their favorite band.  Fans reading this now probably hate me for turning down the opportunity.  I hope they realize (and I'm sure they do) that I'm super grateful for the opportunities, there was just some other stuff I needed to take care of.  Especially to make sure things work out in the long run.  Part of me really just wants to drop everything and live life up in the air, but I know at the moment I can do some things that will make the future easier for me, so I feel like (or a change) I need to do the responsible thing and do it while I can. 

Now, let's talk about the reason I'm finally getting around to writing an entry.  September 15th was the one year anniversary of the day I finally made it into the state of California!  It has been a great first year.  I moved out here with one of my best friends, Corey, and I couldn't have asked for a better person to have moved with.  He's an amazing person, great roommate, and has become so much more than a friend :D  We also got lucky and found an amazing roommate, Mary, and a nice place to live.  We've found a great group of friends out here.  We found decent jobs and have awesome co-workers.  It really has been an amazing first year out here.  I miss friends and family back in Michigan, but moving to California was one of the best decisions ever.

Now let's see, what have I been up to since September?  Corey and I managed to get 3 days off for our Birthdays (his is the 31st) and Halloween.  We went out to brunch on both of our birthdays.  I wish I could upload the picture of the gigantic Benedict Florentine on a croissant I had for my birthday, it was goooooood!  We also threw a big Birthday/Halloween party that a lot of our friends made it out to, despite being a week night.  I sadly don't have a really good picture of my phoenix costume, but you can see most of it in the picture below.

Cupcake tower!

Grant as Ash from Evil Dead and Corey as a Lumberjack from Monty Python

Emily - pregnant girl, Mary - Barbie, Me, Dee - Going into labor?

We ended up hiring 3 seasonal people at work.  One used to work there and current works at another Starbucks, so she's already trained.  Another used to work in the food area at Target, so she's familiar with things, and has been picking up drink making easily.  The other girl is completely new and has been having some trouble getting the hang of things.  We should have pretty good coverage for Black Friday though.  My scheduled shift (though we'll probably work overtime) is 2am-10:45am.  I'll probably just take a nap then stay up all night and let the coffee induced, sleep-deprived craziness ensue.  It should be fun.  Now that we have 3 extra people, hours may get cut though.  Fortunately, my manager is going to work it out so I'll be getting paid to go on the winter One-Eyed Doll tour!  Not only that, but it ends the 21st in Michigan, so I'll be home for a few days for Christmas.  It somehow all worked out perfectly!  I have my flight out to meet OED, just got my flight home and  my manager is working out the schedule.  I'm really excited!!!

For Thanksgiving this year we're getting together at our friends Jeremy and Rachel's place.  They used to live just down the street, but recently moved into a house a little bit further away.  It's sad that I can't just walk there anymore, but I'm excited that they now have a 2 bedroom house for roughly the price of their 1 bedroom apartment, and have space to host things like Thanksgiving :)

So that's what I've been up to for the past few months.  Hopefully it won't take me another 4 months to post again :)

St. Louis, Peoria and Spring Lake Park

Wow, times flies when you're busy.  Well, tour has been over for a while.  Luckily I had most of a blog written weeks ago, and I have notes about the rest of the tour, so you all still get to hear about it.

Tuesday, June 25th we were in St. Louis, MO for the third show of the tour. The place we stopped for lunch on the way there was right across the street from the 50's Place I ate at when moving from Michigan to California. 

 

This stuff is AWE-SOME!

Exotic Animal Petting Zoo (EAPZ) broke down on their way and didn't make it to the show :( I don't know if the lack of them being there had anything to do with it, or if it was just the area we were in, but there was a really small crowd at this show. It was still a great show though. Ally and Jaye were there, along with Norm and Jessica from the first VIP this tour. Jessica brought along her 5 year old son, Halon, who was adorable. He was rocking out during Polkadot Cadaver. Todd, the lead singer, kept trying to get him to come up on stage but he got all shy when they drew attention to him. We also have 2 new VIPs, but I wasn't there for the VIP after party so I don't know their names :( If you're reading this, hi! *waves* Guitarist Jason from Polkadot was rocking a OED “Dirty” shirt for this show. Also, during one song, whenever there was a part of the song he wasn't playing, he ran out into the audience and started pulling people closer to the stage, then run back up on stage to play. One guy he kept pushing forward went and sat down on a stool, so the next time he ran down he slide the entire stool closer to the stage.

Ally tagged the table...

Wednesday's show was in Peoria, IL. It wasn't very far away, so we got a hotel room for the night. We've been extremely spoiled this tour. I've gotten to sleep in a bed almost every night, and I've had a shower ever day. :D

Kick-a-poo!

We got to the venue in Peoria at 5:15. From the outside it looked like a liquor/party store. No one from the venue was there yet. A bit before 5:30 someone showed up to let us in, but they guy in charge of telling us where to unload everything wasn't there yet. So we left Mike and the trailer there and went to find food.  By the time we got back, things were unloaded and people were hanging about.  There were 4 local openers, and despite no EAPZ, One-Eyed Doll didn't start until after 11, and the entire show didn't end until after 1am.  The crowd was chanting "One-Eyed Doll!" while Junior and Mike were setting up.  Kim called me up on stage, as well as Mike and VIP Norm's daughter, Patience, and made us run in place while they played "I Love My Little Bus."  That was my first time seeing that song live, as well as "Black Forest."  The crowd was awesome, and almost knocked over some speakers they got so into the show!

Afterwards we attempted to take our VIPs (all of them veteran VIPs if I remember correctly) to this restaurant called Richard's.  Even though it was 2:30 in the morning, they were still serving alcohol.  And even though it's a restaurant, apparently no one under the age of 21 is allowed in while they're serving alcohol.  That meant no Patience.  So we called Ihop.  They were already closed for the night.  Denny's it was.  For some reason this Denny's food was really good though.  Super awesome VIP Skitz paid for all of OED and crew's meals.  Thank you Skitz!!!!  *BIG HUGS*  We ended up not leaving Denny's until 5 am.  We went back to the hotel room, showered, and left at 6:30 am for the next show.  Luckily Paulo stayed at the hotel and slept during the show so he was ok to drive the 8 hours to our next show in Spring Lake Park, MN.

We made it to Minnesota this time with out getting pulled over!  I guess a van with a trailer looks less rock star then a Sprinter driven by a guy that looks like a hippie :)  We got into MN early, did some laundry, got some coffee, ate some really good food, and still managed to get to the venue with time to set up.  This was the same venue in MN as last tour.  The one raffling off steaks and playing honky-tonk music.  If they were doing it this time, we were luckily there too late and missed it.  There were people there just playing poker/pool though, same as last time.

The above sign was in the restroom.  I understand that it's saying something to the affect of "Thank you for not using" but it could also be read as Management sarcastically thanking us for making it out of order, or us sarcastically thanking management for it being out of order.  Apparently Management also works at a gas station:

The audience was chanting for OED at this show too.  There were plenty of fans from when they played here last tour, and a guy who told me he saw them on YouTube and was instantly a huge fan.  One fan who saw them there with Otep thought they were headlining this tour, until they got their ticket and saw Polkadot Cadaver on the ticket.  But they were still excited they were there again.  

Awesome fan Chloe got to be on stage during the show.  She sang along and played the severed leg guitar.  She also was my awesome helper at the merch table.  We were dressed almost the same and both had pigtails in our hair.  I'll have to see if I can find one of the pictures somewhere.  We called her mini-mini-Kimberly.  She was great at showing off merch and dancing during Polkadot Cadaver, without any training!  I taught her how to give Mike a disapproving head shake, so now she knows how to do everything.  Either I have someone to call in if I'm ever sick, or I need to watch out because someone may be gunning for my job!

After that show we had one single VIP named Tim.  We ended up at some local diner/hamburger place, where the guys from Polkadot Cadaver showed up later.  Tim was also the first VIP to get to participate in a VIP dance-off, something we continued at the rest of the VIP parties.  I think some video ended up on OED's facebook page.  Go see if you can find it and watch that while you wait for me to write about the last 2 shows and getting stuck in TX for a few days.  :)

Beginning of Tour

Sunday was the day of the first show. We'd stayed the night in Joliet, but ended up having to head into Chicago to find Junior a new fedora, and some costume stuff for Kim. We got really lucky and found this awesome hat shop that carried a ton of different hats, and they were cheaper than what Junior usually pays. Mike even ended up going back and getting a hat. It was also just down the road from an AWESOME costume shop. Fantasy Costume has just about everything. There's full costumes, accessories, costumes for rent, wigs, make-up, props, etc etc etc. They even carry foam display heads, which I had been looking into getting, but Kim said she had 3 and I could have/borrow one :) Kim used her birthday money from fans to get a bunch of stuff for tour. We bought so much stuff the girl gave us a discount, and even gave us free hats with their logo on it. There were 5 of us but only 4 hats left, so she let Paulo have the kitty ears he was going to buy for his daughter for free as his “hat.” You can order online and they ship anywhere, so you should definitely check them out!

After our shopping trip we needed to get to the venue for the first show. It was at MoJo's in Joliet where they played with Otep on the last tour. It was a really good crowd for a Sunday night. They played an unreleased song, as well as UFO which I've never seen live before. We also had 13 VIPS!!!!! Many of them were repeat VIPs, and many we'll be seeing at other shows. Allie who followed us around for 6 shows last tour was back, as well as her better half, Jaye this time :) We had the regular VIP party at Denny's because there were so many, but after we had a flan after party in the parking lot. We were seriously there for at least another hour hanging out in the parking lot. VIP Mike was teaching roadie Mike some juggling tricks. We decided that there should be a super hero that shoots flan from his wrist like Spiderman shoots web, except he'd hold his had like an “f” in sign language. We ran around the parking lot “flanning” each other like that. I think a few people have video, and there's even video of people taking the video. You'll have to check the One-Eyed Doll facebook page to see if anyone posts them. It was a super fun night despite going to bed exhausted at 4am.

We stayed at our hotel room again that night since the drive to St. Joseph, MI wasn't that far. On the way, we stopped at the coffee shop and Italian/Greek restaurant/store in Merrillville, IN that we went to 3 times last tour. It was as delicious as we remembered :) We were hoping to stop again on our way to St. Louis, but it was a little bit out of the way, and we were running behind, as usual :(

Second show was even better than the first! Even though One-Eyed Doll had never played in St. Joseph before, I think over half the crowd was OED fans!!! Mardie from last tour (as well as my second show ever years ago), was there, as well as 4 of our VIPs from the night before. This show they played Recipe 4 success and PAO!, both of which I'd never seen live before, as well as UFO again. It's fun being on a different style tour because I get to see different songs and different interaction with the crowd. During one song Kim even gave a shout out to Allie and Jaye! :D We only had the 5 VIPs that night, Brad from the night before and last tour didn't make it :( so we just rode around in the van and listened to a few unreleased songs. It was a good time, as we got back to our hotel room early since we had a long drive the next day. The hotel was actually booked for us by the venue! This never happened last tour and I didn't realize it was a thing! The Super 8 was pretty nice too! Thanks Czars in St. Joseph! Before we settled in for the night we drove around for a bit looking for a little something to eat, when we passed a Meijer. For those of you not from the area, it's like a Wal-Mart but awesomer. I've said/thought so many times since moving to CA that I miss Meijer. They're 24 hours, carry just about everything, you can run there in the middle of the night to pick something up, I know exactly what section to find most things in, it's fairly cheap, and they're everywhere. There's no place open late in my city and no place that carries everything. Plus, I can never seem to find what I want half the time and go to 3 different stores trying to find it. But anyway... we stopped into Meijer, got a variety of food and a few things we needed before heading to our nice hotel room to get a few hours of sleep before our drive.

All the fans there to see One-Eyed Doll

Grainy because I was so far away :(

The awesome rainbow alarm clock at our hotel

Funny side story from the show that night, and yet another reason I'm glad I'm not addicted to my phone. Mike was texting on his phone and accidentally went into the women's restroom because he wasn't paying attention :P

More Pre-Polkadot

Friday there wasn't really anything we needed to get accomplished, so we actually got to sleep in!  I don't think I woke up until 12:45.  That's about 10:45 LA time, which is about normal for me.  We just hung out drinking coffee and taking advantage of Johnny's internet, then went to grab some "lunch" (it was 4pm) at a Korean BBQ place.

Not very vegetarian friendly, but I still left full :)

After hanging out for too long (as usual) at Johnny Zero's, we went to pick up Paulo. You might remember him from the end of the last tour. Well, he's going to be our driver for this tour! We stopped for dinner at a place called Burguesa where we all became space explorers. 

 

Paulo then drove through the night while the rest of us slept. At some insanely early hour we stopped in Memphis, TN for breakfast at a fun little place called the Eclectic Cafe. Eventually at some point in the early afternoon we made it to Salem, IL and stopped for lunch. While we were there the sky grew dark and it got really windy. Junior and Mike looked up the weather, and we were going to be heading straight into a ton of bad weather. We hung out in the little strip of stores the restaurant was in, hoping some of it would die out. Kim got a few cool things at this awesome little store called The Attic. It was like a thrift store, but everything was new. As we were leaving the girl working (who's also the owner) complimented me on my “Be My Friend” hoodie. We explained that it was Kim and Junior's band and gave her a One-Eyed Doll sticker. She was pretty awesome. If you for whatever reason find yourself in the little middle of nowhere town of Salem, Il you should go check out The Attic. There was a pawn shop down the strip from The Attic and Junior was hoping to pick up some VHS tapes to watch in the van. But they were closed. What kind of a pawn shop closes at 5 on a Saturday? There was also a Dollar General in the strip where I picked up some fun, cheap, thick eyeliners in a few different colors. Eventually we decided just to try heading out, and the rain wasn't too bad. Random comment – I was a Zebra Fruit Stripped Gum semi-truck going the other way on the highway. I didn't realize that gum still existed! Now I keep seeing it at every gas station we stop at. We got into Joliet about 10pm Saturday night, and got a hotel room. We then spent the next hour and a half trying to find some place to eat that was still open. What's up with that, Joliet?!?!

Pre-Polkadot

As I mentioned before, One-Eyed Doll is heading back out for a mini-tour.  What I haven't mentioned because I've been so busy with work and making sure it's being organized, is Mike and I are going again!  It's a short tour, and there's no wifi in our van this time, but I'm hoping to attempt to blog again.

Tuesday I flew out of Long Beach, CA.  I was a little nervous because I've only flown about 4 or 5 times before, never flown by myself, and never even been to this airport.  Things went super well though.  Corey drove me to the airport, and we left early so we'd get there with plenty of time.  We'd planned on getting some lunch once we made it to Long Beach, but there was nothing around the airport, and we didn't want to spend money on parking, so he just dropped me off.  I got checked in and through security.  The machine randomly selected me for extra screening, which meant they swabbed my shoes and put the swab in a machine to test it.  It came back negative and sent me on my way.  Only took about an extra minute.

The airport was really small.  I've never been to an airport this small before.  For the first time I walked out on the cement and up a ramp to get into a plane.  Here's me plane, with a minions blimp on the background:

While waiting I grabbed some coffee, sushi, and a "Southern Style" red velvet cupcakes for later, and read my book.  The wait wasn't very long at all.  And because it was a small plane, maybe 80 people max, it was quick boarding.  My seat was in the very last row, across from the back lavatory.  It was really loud back there.  Luckily I had a window seat so it wasn't so claustrophobic.  They served complimentary pop, coffee, water, etc and food and alcohol for an additional cost.  I skimmed through the US Airways magazine, and before I knew it we were in Phoenix already.  I was staying on the same plane to get to Austin, but I still had to de-board and re-board.  When leaving I asked the guy at the counter when re-board was.  He said it was in 27 minutes, and asked me where my seat was.  I told him, and his response was "That's a TERRIBLE seat!" There were a few open seats still at that time, and he moved me to a window seat in the emergency exit row.  So from Phoenix to Austin it was quieter, and I had more leg room.  We also got complimentary drinks again. 

Over all the flights went super well, and we ended up landing in Austin a bit before 11pm.  Junior picked me up from the airport and we went to get Kim form her friend Crystal's apartment.  I finally got to meet Crystal!!!  We became friends on Facebook at the beginning of last tour, but she was sick the day of the Austin show :(  She's also been a loyal reader of my blog :)  Hi Crystal!!!  *waves*  We grabbed some dinner with her, then packed up some stuff from the practice room Kim and Jason had been renting, and headed to the hotel room they've been staying in.

Wednesday we picked Mike up, ran some errands, then spent the afternoon in 100 degree weather moving things out of their storage unit to get to the merch we needed in back.  It sucked, but we got it done.  Dropped Mike back off so he could go to a birthday party, then had sushi at Kim and Jason's favorite sushi place made by their favorite sushi chef, Toshi.  He made me an AMAZING veggie roll packed with all sorts of yummy things.  Afterwards we stopped for Kim's newest addiction - shaved ice.  Not like a snow cone, it's more like an ice cream with toppings.

Thursday was spent finishing up errands before leaving Austin, like getting the van's oil changed and eating at delicious Pars Mediterranean Deli while waiting, packing up the practice space. Then (way later then intended) we headed to Johnny's Zero's house in Dallas for the night.  And here we are, Friday morning afternoon, hanging out at Johnny Zero's before making our way to the first show in Joliet, IL  :)

Gift tips

There were a lot of things I noticed when it came to fan gifts on the last One-Eyed Doll tour, and with another tour coming up, I thought I'd give you some tips.

It's almost always better to mail gifts.  I know you want to give them to Kim and Jason in person, but they have very limited space in the van.  Plus, things get moved around, lost, possibly searched by the police, and there's a good chance things will get ruined or lost.  You can always bring the gift to the show so Kim can put a face with the gift, but then send it to their PO Box:

ATTN: Kimberly or Junior
PO Box 80017
Austin, TX 78708  USA

That way you know for sure it will be ok.

If you want to give them food, keep in mind they live out of a van.  No microwave.  No refrigeration.  No utensils.  Things that will get stale or moldy are a bad idea.  Resealable packages are awesome!  If it's going to get stale or spill all over, it'll probably be thrown away soon after it's opened.  Also, as much as they appreciate goodies that are homemade with love, they can be questionable.  They never know what crazy fan may be trying to drug them.  Or maybe you didn't realize the milk you used was expired and now they both have food poisoning.  You never know what might go wrong.  The van can also get warm sometimes sitting in the sun, so stay away from things that might get melty.

Some things we went through a lot of on tour - Dried Seaweed, Japanese fruit jelly cups, Tea Bags (Kim has a herbal throat coat tea she likes, I don't know exactly what it's called, but we all drank a lot of various teas as well), Emergen-C, dried fruit, pretty much anything yummy and healthy to snack on that you can get from Trader Joe's, Whole Foods, etc.  Kim also mentioned once that Hi-Chews were her favorite candy.

Kim is allergic to bananas, a certain preservative they use in some dried fruits (a quick google search makes me think it's Sulfur Dioxide, but I'm not 100% sure), and cats.  As far as I know, Jason's good with just about everything

Hmm...  I thought I had more tips when I started this.  Well, if I think of anything else I'll let you know!

Post Tour

For 6 weeks this was my home

This was my messy bedroom

This was my family

Photos by Yacob

Photo by Johnny Zero

I got to hang out with a lot of awesome people day after day (many of whom I sadly didn't get pictures with)

Nosaj, all around awesome guy

Tristan, Otep's tour manager and the guy that makes everything happen

Erik, bassist for Otep

Adriana, Picture Me Broken's merch girl

Erik, Shaun, Justin & Jimmy

Met tons of amazing fans

I went to so many amazing places and had so many adventures.  It was such an amazing time, and it was really hard to go back to the "real" world after all of that.  But, that's where I've been stuck for the past month.  So, what have I been up to?

Well, the first week wasn't too bad because I took work off, plus Mike, Kim and Junior were still in the LA area.  So I caught up on sleep, hung out with them, and did one of my favorite things that I wasn't able to do on tour - BAKE!

A few days after tour ended, we all met up where we started - back in Little Tokyo having $2 sushi boats.  This time Rob Ross joined us.  We discovered that there's a cool little vintage thrift shop across the street from the sushi place.  We also learned I may have dislocated a rib on tour...  I can't remember how much I wrote about it, but I had that really bad cough for a while, and soon my side was super sore.  Once tour finally ended and I had time to deal with it, I noticed that one of the ribs was sticking out of line from the others.  Plus it was still extremely painful to sneeze.  It wasn't as painful in general anymore since I wasn't carrying around tubs of merch on a nightly basis, but it was still sore.  I was telling them about this, and Rob Ross looked it up on his phone.  Apparently it's possible to dislocate a rib from coughing.  I've looked into it though, and it seems like if it was actually dislocated it would be a lot worse and a lot more painful.  *shurgs*  It's a month later now, it's better, but I think it's still out of line a bit and every so often lifting something or sneezing makes it hurt.

After sushi we all went to see "Oz: The Great and Powerful."  It was super cool because part of it was filmed in Michigan and a lot of local actors I know are extras in it.  My friend/Corey's acting coach Ralph even has a featured part.  If you've seen it, or are going to, he's the girl at the beginning's dad.

After Oz we hung out at Rob Ross' until some ridiculous hour in the morning before I finally told them I needed to get home before I fell asleep.  We spent forever looking up directions and trying to decide what the best way for me to get home, but it didn't matter because in the end Mike ended up coming back with me so he could hang out, and sleep on a couch rather than the floor.  He got to try my awesome nutella cupcakes.

I sent some back with him and Rob Ross, who'd heard of them, got to try one.  Right after he sent me a Facebook message letting me know they were "amazingly delicious!"  I also discovered that the Wine Bar down the road my friends preform at has a open mic night on Sunday nights.  So that's were we took Mike Sunday night.  He only got to play 2 songs, but for a change he got to play for someone other than just me.   He also met a guy that works at the wine bar, who also played at open mic night, that's originally from Austin.  How crazy is that?  They exchanged contact info, and now Mike has another connection both in LA and Austin. Since tour he's been doing a lot of open mic nights in Austin and setting up shows with his band mate.  If you live in the Austin area, you should go bug him on his music page and get him to post when and where he's playing.

Besides Nutella cupcakes, Corey and I made homemade pretzels

I baked more of the cranberry walnut bread I brought on tour for Mike, Kim and Junior

 
Corey made some awesome homemade Risotto

Eventually, Mike had to go back to Austin :(  We had a going away party at Rob Ross'  Kim made some awesome dip, we had a bunch of snacks, and watched "Les Misérables."  Kim thought Rob Ross' sandal looked like a bikini bottom, so she turned his foot into a girl.

I don't think I mentioned it, but when we were in Austin, Kim let me raid her costume closet.  I found an awesome black dress that fit me, and it came on tour.

I was hoping to buy some purple ribbon to switch out the black, then wear it with my black and purple stripped stockings, but we never made it to a craft store :(  It got to be the last few shows of tour and I hadn't worn it yet, so in Phoenix I ended up wearing it :)  After tour when we were getting my stuff out of the limo Kim gave it to me :D  *fan girl squee*   :D  So I now own a Kimberly Freeman costume piece :D

Eventually my time off ended and I had to go back to work :(  After being gone for 2 months, I still remembered how to do everything and was able to jump right back in.  It was still super weird being back though.  It's sad because I really like my coworkers, the job itself isn't that bad, but dealing with the busyness, being understaffed,  ridiculous customers, the corporation I work for being clueless, etc, etc, etc. I really hate going to work.  The hardest part about being back the first day was not making sarcastic comments every time a customer asked something stupid.  Junior and Kim are trying to figure out a way I could work for them full time, which is awesome, but I also want time to do my own costume stuff.  So at the moment, my life is crazy up in the air and I have no idea where I'm going to land.  But that's ok because everything always seems to work itself out in the end :)

End of Tour

Well, I've been back in the "real" world for a couple of weeks now, so I figured I should probably write what I remember of the last few days of tour.

Hand puppets from Spring Lake Park, MN taken by Yacob the Swedish Ref

After the Dallas show we picked up Paulo who was our much needed driver for the last few shows.  It was nice to have someone to drive the 5-10 hours between shows for us so we could just sleep, yet still get there at a decent time.  From Dallas we went to Albuquerque, NM.  Because Picture Me Broken was driving themselves, they were super exhausted when they got to the venue.  Shaun (PMB's drummer) came back from a nap to find that Justin (Otep's drummer) set up his set for him.  Justin's a pretty awesome guy!

Despite being close to the stage, my pictures turned out terrible.  It's really frustrating.  I did get video of Kim's fingers moving ridiculously fast on guitar.

The next day was Phoenix, AZ.  Because we had a driver, we got there early!!!!  YAY!  Paulo has a friend that lives just down the road from the venue, and he offered his house to us while he was at work.  Paulo was able to sleep in a bed, Kim and Jason got to take a nap, we all got showers, and I finally got to go swimming!!!!!!  For some reason I'd been wanting to all tour, and I finally had time to.  It was really cold, and Mike didn't last long, but I was so excited there was a pool that I swam for quite a while.  Mike and I also used the hot tub.  After I got done swimming and took a shower, everyone was still asleep to Mike and I walked down the road to a coffee shop.

I climbed a tree on our way to get coffee.  But I scraped my arm in the process.

We had coffee at this awesome little cafe/bar/restaurant called 32 Shea.  We ended up taking Kim and Junior back there later after lunch.  By we got back from our walk, they were awake so we went to get food.  Just a bit down the street from 32 Shea was a fun Thai restaurant Sala Thai.  I had some AMAZING vegetable curry.  The sauce was so good I could have eaten just a bowl of it on it's own.  I wish they sold jars of it.  They also had this fun fish tank with fake fish in it.

We also had to stop at a store because Junior lost a shoe.  We think it fell out of the limo at a stop in the middle of the night.

The venue in AZ was weird.  They had a special area for 21 and up.  You weren't allowed to leave the area if you had a drink, so several people chugged their drinks just so they could use the restroom.  Really responsible, venue...  Also, Otep's merch was in an area where everyone could get to it, but we were right on the edge of the 21 and up area.  Only 1 minor at a time was allowed in the area, and they were only allowed 5 minutes at our table.  At one point a mom and her 2 daughters were looking at OED stuff, when the security guard told them only 1 minor at a time, which scared them off.  He was really apologetic though, and was just going what he was told.  Picture Me Broken's merch table was completely inside the 21 and up area, so pretty much NO minors could get to their table.  After their set, during signings, Brooklyn had to leave the table and go outside of the area just so a boy under 21 could have his picture taken with her.  It was ridiculous.  It seems like the venue would have merch set up along the other wall, which isn't in the 21 and up area, so there wouldn't be these issues.

Once again, where merch was set up I was close to the stage, but my camera is so old pictures sucked.  But, here's video of part of Scorpion Death:

Despite the 1 minor at a time thing, Kim stood inside the 21 and up area so fans would have to come past the table to see her.  They formed an orderly line, security stood by, and it wasn't an issue :)  There was a HUGE issue at the end of the night though.  I'm not going to get into it, but there's all of this crazy, behind the scenes politics that goes on with touring and merch sales.  It really sucks.  At several venues security for Otep during her post show signings was blocking our table, or directing people away from our table after they got their picture/autograph.  This venue was the worst.  There was literally a wall of 3 security guards blocking off the 21 and up area, which meant that after they were done with Otep, they couldn't get to our table.  They were directing people around the the other side.  Junior found out that there was a security guard at the other side telling people they weren't allowed in that way either.  So unless they were already in the area, or they snuck under the divider, there was NO way to get into the area where our table was.  Junior discovered this because there was a girl who's birthday it was, near tears because she just wanted to meet Kimberly, and security wouldn't let her in.  Junior tried to get Tristan to work it out since security was just doing what they were told, but that caused HUGE issues.  Because of it, we almost got screwed over at the last show, but since it didn't happen, I'm not going to write about it publicly.

The last show was back in LA at the Whisky a Go Go!  This is another venue special to me because I saw OED and Otep play here last year, 2 days after I moved to LA.  This was the first tour Otep was doing signings after the show, so I got my picture taken with her, and met Rob Ross, Jeremy, Heather, and a lot of other awesome OED fans.

Back before Otep wore gloves and a mask at signings

Jeremy, Heather, Rob Ross, Me, Corey

I woke up as we were driving into LA.  I wasn't exactly sure where we were, but I knew by the way things looked and the highway we were on that we were close to the LA area.  It was weird, and for the first time since moving out here, I was not excited to be in LA.  We dropped Kim off at Rob Ross' to get more sleep, then Paulo, Junior, Mike and I went to find some breakfast.  Mike found a place called The Little Next Door.  It was kind of part way between Beverly Hills and West Hollywood.  The waiters were dressed in button up shirts and ties, meanwhile I was wearing my rockstar sunglasses, chrome Happy Stabby shirt, pink leopard print PJ pants, and flip flops.  Super classy :)  Food was ok, I had some sort of Benedict Florentine (Junior's French toast looked AMAZING), but I got a couple of pastries before leaving and they were awesome!!!

We got to the Whisky early hoping to work out some of the issues from the day before, but no one else was there.  We got set up early though, which was nice for a change.


Mike playing drums for sound check at the Whisky A Go-Go:

The show went really well, I saw a lot of people I met at last year's show, and my roommates and friends came out to see me!  :D  After the show we did the VIP thing, but I think it was mostly just super fans and a few VIPs.  Corey got to tag along.  We ran into Nosaj and Justin at the diner we went to.  I think my brain realized it was the end of the tour, because I was SUPER tired that night.

Kim drew us all unicorn pictures on our place mats

A cop searching a unicorn for drugs

It was getting to be about 4am, and we were all exhausted, so we unloaded my stuff from the limo into my car and Corey drove me home.  Not before I started crying though.  We had a big group hug and said our goodbyes.  Even though they were going to be in the area for a while (which I'll write about later), it was still sad that the tour part of our adventure was over.