...and then I saw River City Extension!!!!

The DAY AFTER MY BIRTHDAY, River City Extension was putting on a show down in good ol' Hamden, CT at one of our fave places, The Space. We had been there a few times before. Good people, good vibes, funky place, easy drive. Tickets were only $10, and Kara bought me one for my birthday! So, all I needed was a full tank of gas and the open road!!!!

I had tweeted to the band that I was coming to the show, and got this response from James, the RCE bass/banjo player:



I laughed for a while after reading this. James is kind of awesome like a lot. He's the one who fronted like, $40 to make sure we all got into their show in the summer. Great guy. Great musician.

There were some cool bands that opened for RCE. Including a bluegrass band where the lead singer looked like my old friend Cynthia from high school. [shout out to Cynthia if she's reading...!!]

I met up with Jo! And her friend Kato, and also, Ben Silver and Holden!! Our "Space" friends! But also friends in real life!! It was super fun to see everyone. People are so nice there.

Met up with RCE guitarist/djembe player, Nick, in the vintage store on the second level of The Space. That was fun. Also found lead singer Joe downstairs and told him his new haircut looked sharp. It did.

And then they finally played some music!!!!

They opened with just Joe and Mike playing their new song, 'Golden Tongue (Thanatopsis),' which is one of my faves. I was SO HAPPY they played it.






The fine gentleman on the far right in the plaid shirt is James, who sent me the 'Maine bitch' tweet earlier.





DAN. DAN DAN DAN DAN!!!!!! This was the 6th time I have seen River City Extension, but only the 3rd time Dan has been performing with them. So, it was super cool that he was able to make it!!!! It's just not the same without the trumpet.




Joe, Mike, Sam, James and Nick!!!! The right side section of the band.




And the left side section of the band.... Pat, Dan and Jenn!!!!

What a great looking band.









LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!! James switched to banjo for 'Letter to Lainie.'





And Jenn switched to bass!!! Love it.




And then Jenn switches to trumpet for 'Mexico' and it's the best thing ever. Also love this picture of Joe. Also - Pat comes out from the keyboard to do some hott dancing!!!!! (I still always want to call him Kevin.)

AND BONUS - you can see the new RCE drum head!!!!! With their super cool infinity logo!!!






River City Dancing is the best. I realize I capitalized the D in dancing and I didn't mean to. But, I'm going to leave it. It's a great alternate name for the band. I also didn't mean to write 'dancing,' I meant to write, 'Extension,' since that's the name of the band. But, I was thinking about what great dancers they are. Hence the River City Dancing. Enough explanation.

Then we hung out with the band after the show. I was catching up with Dan and all of a sudden Sam RAN over and yelled, 'Happy Birthday!!!!' and gave me a big hug. Then, I got lots and lots of birthday hugs from the band. And also normal people. Which was kind of the best thing ever. Did I mention they're the best band ever?

So then, me, Jo, Kato, Ben, and Ben's girlfriend Marisa had plans to head over to the 24-hour diner just down the street for some late night eats. And then we thought it'd be fun to invite the band to come along.


AND THEY DID.




And that was the time I went to a diner with River City Extension. It was a super fun time. Like, SUPER FUN. We got to the diner before the band and the hostess was like,

HOSTESS: How many?
BEN SILVER: Um, there might be 5 of us, but there might be like, 20.
HOSTESS: .....Ok....

Best thing ever. Ben took that picture with his phone. And I stole it from him for blog purposes.

And then it started to snow. Fast. And I remember that I had like, a three hour drive home. So, I left about 12:30am and headed north.

WORST DRIVE EVER. Like, maybe ever. Well, not ever. Worst Drive Ever would have to go to the time it took me like, 36 hours total to get from Western Massachusetts to Berwick, Maine. A drive that should have taken 3 hours.

But! This was my first time driving in a snow storm with Morgan (my car, duh), so I wasn't sure how she would hold up. But, she was great. The weather, however, was TERRIBLE. Like, I couldn't believe how bad it was. It was like, 25 mph on the Mass Pike. I was pretty certain I was going to die that night. On multiple occasions I thought:

1. I can't believe I'm going to die the day after my birthday.

but then I thought,

2. At least I got to see River City Extension one last time.

So, there was that.

But!! I made it home just after 5:30am. It took me a very long time. And I gave Morgan a kiss on the steering wheel once we were safely in the garage.

Overall - GREAT NIGHT.

Videos!!

- Ballad of Oregon - my fave RCE song.
- Today, I Feel Like I'm Evolving - another favorite
- Elephant - a song from their first record! GREAT SONG. The beginning reminds me of an overture to a musical.

And then the band went and played SXSW and were named one of the ten best performances by Paste magazine!!!!!

So, if you haven't already - go start listening to RCE. They will probably blow you away, so be prepared.

Alright!

In other news: Go watch this awesome short movie made by Hampshire College kids!!! Called, The Incident at Tower 37, this movie has been getting super great reviews and winning all kinds of awards all over the place. And, HAMPSHIRE COLLEGE!!!! Probably one of my favorite places in the whole world. Yep. It's a really great movie that makes you think about water consumption and how it's affecting the different ecosystems around us. Only ten minutes, GREAT MUSIC, and really great animation. Enjoy!

I think that's all for now. I'll get better about updating. Now that I maybe have exciting things happening in my life, I might actually have things to write about.

But now! I have to go to the post office to mail my BFF a birthday card. Yes, that's right, Maria's birthday is TOMORROW, March 30. Mark your calendars!!!! Sorry the card will be a little late. Better late than never, which is the theme of my life.

Also - I cut my hair. Also - I dyed it too. But, I have to dye it again because the dark brown actually came out kinda reddish, and didn't totally take out the teal. It's weird. It's very rare that my hair will actually take on the color it's supposed to be.

Also - I learned how to make espresso and other fancy coffees for my new job at French Connection Cafe and Coffee Shop - opening THIS FRIDAY, in Springvale, Maine. Come visit me and I'll make you a delish raspberry mocha.

Also - come visit me at my other new job at the Eddie Bauer outlet store in Kittery, Maine. I won't make you a raspberry mocha there, but I will help you pick out a hott outfit.

GREAT!!!!

OH OH OH OH!!!!!!!! One of my oldest friends, Laura Plaisted, is getting married and is in the running to win a dream wedding. Like, a real dream wedding. I've been friends with Laura since like, first grade and Kara is BFF with Laura's sister, Mary. So, WE ALL can help her win the wedding by VOTING HERE!!!!! She's a finalist and the voting ends on FRIDAY!!! One vote per day, and watch her totally awesome video.

- RCE
- hampshire movie
- coffee shop
- eddie bauer
- maria's birthday
- laura's dream wedding

I think I covered everything I wanted to talk about. Blog success. Love when that happens.

OK!!! Have a great day! It's Tuesday, I believe, so there's no excuse for it not being a great day. It's nice and sunny here and the temperature is a balmy 44 degrees!! (That's, Fahrenheit.)

We'll talk soon. I really do miss you all. I'll be a better blogger.

TAKE CARE! be well, friends.



☠ ∞

Kara and Julie Adventure to CANADA!!

Here are the pictures from Canada that I promised you a while ago. Better late than never? Yes.

So! Now it's time to adventure back to Canada with me and Kara! Here's what we did:


We left Berwick very early on 31 January. Like, really early. Stopped a few times for bathrooms, food, unsuccessful trips to the bank aanndddd.... NIAGARA FALLS!!!










A "Defunct for the Winter' Amusement Park!!! Martin's Fantasy Island, to be exact. Western New York's favorite and most affordable family theme park! Who knew?!





We had no idea where we were going, we just followed signs for The Falls until we hit this parking lot:




We ended up not parking there, because it was like, $10. But, we parked right across the street for $5. Of course, it was like the coldest day ever in the history of upstate New York, so that extra few feet across the street was painful. But, worth the $5 savings.


But then BAM -





Snowy Niagara Falls!




Picture where Kara fell asleep real quick. Too much excitement!

We looked at the picture and I was laughing so hard, and we took another photo:





We finally got it together. This is a nice one, actually.








I like that last one too. 'Oh, sister my sister.' 'Sing to me of the man, Sister...' 'It was the best of sister, it was the worst of sister.' 'Thank God Sister got that job at the bank!'

And that was the segment of the entry where I take well-known first lines of books (and a poem) and replace them with the word 'sister.' (that last one was for Maria. i hope she's reading.) Blog points if you can name the books/poem the lines come from!


And then the next day, we woke up early and took the airport shuttle to the Toronto Pearson International Airport for our flight across the country! We ended up in Vancouver, where we found the "super small plane" gate, and took a super small plane over to Vancouver Island!






Plane shots! To quote the lady sitting behind me on the plane, "This is no better than flying in a tin can!" True that. The scariest part was actually just sitting in the plane. Once we got in the air, it wasn't so bad. There were like, maybe 25 seats total. It was crazy.

So then we landed and saw MY DAD!!!!! Who we hadn't seen in over 5 months!!! That was the longest I had ever gone without seeing him. It was a very fun reunion which immediately included a trip to the nearest Tim Hortons. The reunion with my Canadian Gram and Aunt and Uncle was also awesome and SUPER FUN. We hadn't seen them in like.... 5 years? Or some outrageous amount of time that should never happen again.

Kara and I slept good that night. We were tired. And we had the most comfy bed ever to sleep in.

The next day, Kara and I decided we were going to TAKE ON THE DAY and adventure out on an enjoyable walk. There is something called the 'Courtenay Riverwalk' that is about 5 minutes from my dad's house and it's a nice path along the river that stretches for a number of kilometers. It is described on the website for British Columbia as, "a lively promenade for walkers, joggers and people-watchers."

These next photos showcase the glory and wonderment that is the Courtenay Riverwalk.





This is the Courtenay Airpark, which is where tiny planes fly in and out of. It's very fun to sit on a bench along the riverwalk and have a tiny plane land like, 50 feet from you. Trust me.





Ya know, snow-capped mountains. Like, right in your town.





American HOTTIES on the Riverwalk!










Yep, we're adorable.





Canadian pride on the Riverwalk!!! Who wouldn't be proud to be a Canadian?!?!





Dad's Cookies in the grocery store! This has a story:

So, when my American family was up in December celebrating my Grammy's 98th birthday she kept mentioning this company, Dad's Cookies, that used to be at the end of Princeton Street in Somerville,MA, where my mom grew up. And nobody had ever heard of Dad's Cookies before, and for some reason she kept bringing it up. This location of Dad's Cookies was confirmed by some of my aunts. So imagine mine and Kara's amazement when we found Dad's Cookies in a Canadian grocery. AMAZEMENT.


That Saturday, our Aunt Liza took Kara and I to Hornby Island, which you have to get to by ferry, by way of Denman Island. We drove the car onto the ferry, then drove off onto Denman Island, then had to drive across that island to the next ferry point, and then drove onto the final ferry over to Hornby.

While on the Denman Island ferry we encountered a hitchhiker hippie. Ya know, like you sometimes do. Her name was Raje... or something like that. She said her real name was something like, Susan or Nancy, but the name 'Raje' was given to her while she was in India at age 21. Yep. She was basically a Hampshire College student. And she had lived on Hornby Island for like, 25 years or something. Crazy island folk. Anyways, she hitched a ride with us while we drove across Denman Island to the other ferry point. And then we dropped her off at her house once we got onto Hornby. Nice lady. And the first time I had experienced picking up a hitchhiker. Canadians are so freaking nice.


Then! We went to a beach!!








There was lots of driftwood.






And cool rocks!






We walked up a secret path we found leading away from the beach and ended up at this Isla Taco place!!! Who knew?! It was closed for the season, which was a bummer.





And right next to it was this creepy little graffiti hut! An island bathroom, perhaps?


While on the island, we were on a fossil mission. We wanted to find some hardcore, awesome fossils and pretend like we were fossil hunters. So, with information given to us from Raje the hitchhiker, we found the best place on the island to fossil hunt. (Hornby Island is kinda famous for its neat fossils.)

Lucky for us, it was this other gorgeous beach with beautiful snow-capped mountains in the background.








We found some maybe-fossils that day. We had this great rock smasher tool that we used. You may not know this, but it feels great to smash a rock into tiny pieces.


After our rock-smashing adventure, we headed back to the ferry dock to catch the boat back.









What a great day we had!! It was super fun having a girls day with Liza, who is totally awesome.


We arrived back at my dad's house to the horrible news that our grandmother had passed away. So, we unexpectedly had to take a flight out the next morning.




TINY PLANE to get off of Vancouver Island!!! Not much bigger than a person, as you can see here.






But - how awesome - we could see right into the cockpit!!! It RULED. I want to be a pilot. It was super foggy the whole way to Vancouver. Kinda scary, especially knowing you're around all these giant mountains. But, we made it!!!

We had like, maybe a 2 hour wait in Vancouver before we flew back east to Toronto. From Toronto, we called the hotel shuttle and this darling man came to pick us up. He was the best. I might have already mentioned how awesome he was. But, he was seriously the best.

It was like, 11pm by the time we got back to the hotel, but we knew the Denny's is open 24-hours, so we drove over. The waitress remembered us from when we were there the week before :) It was nice. Like, coming home! We had delicious Denny's food! Yumm.

Then we headed back to the hotel, slept like princesses, and woke up semi-early the next morning to take on the long drive back to Maine. It was a looonnngggg drive back. Or, at least it seemed that way. But, we didn't hit any rush hour traffic through Albany, which we were semi-worried about. Smooth sailing all the way home!

So, that was our beautiful, awesome trip to Canada! Everyone should be Canadian, because it rules.

Hope you enjoyed taking a mini-blog-vacay with me! Let's do it again soon!!

I will be blogging again soon with MORE PICTURES, STORIES, AND EXCITING TIMES. As always, duh!

Have a great Friday!!! What's with this nice weather?! Enjoy!!!!