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 :)