So here is the funny thing about 2011. I spent the first three months in a solid depression over Bonny, sleeping about four hours a night on average. I spent most of my summer inside, watching t.v., instead of riding my bike or paying proper attention to my garden. And the panic over the holidays set in and most of fall was shot. Sounds pretty shitty, right?

But. BUT.

When I was going back looking for posts, I found a lot of good things. I got to see three of my favorite artists, I blogged about Ted Leo and The Thermals, but did I mention that I went to see Wild Flag and I washed my hands next to Carrie Brownstein? If I hadn’t just gone to the bathroom, I would’ve peed myself. When Brian and I left the show, I kept clutching my newly bought shirt to my face and smile-screaming into it.

I had lots of fun with MoFo and my theme.

I made friends with a baby squirrel.

Brian and I made donuts, something i’ve always wanted to try.

I helped raise over $500 for Ride To Light, and the frustration only made me cry once. Or twice.

I put myself on a personal budget to buy a new computer and became obsessed with nail polish.

Fawkes. He has come so far in just a few months, from a scared dog who didn’t even want to be held or play with toys to a chewing fiend who constantly wants to be rubbed. He is also a little shit who chewed the vacuum cord, escaped the back yard TWICE this weekend, and one of those times was to the neighbors yard, and he came back without his dapper sweater that makes him more visible at night. And we still can’t find it. Speaking of dogs, after two years of blood tests, medication, and playing with his diet, Chester’s liver levels FINALLY dropped and he lost three pounds. It was nice to have a vet visit that didn’t end with me wondering if his liver was about to shut down. I love my dogs, I love my cats, I love our little family.

And lastly…Brian and I started P90X! It’s EXTREEEEEEEME!!! fitness, six days a week. We just started week three (out of 12) and it is crazy. Google ‘I hate Tony Horton’ if you want to see what we’re putting up with. But I enjoy it overall, and after being sad all year I was glad to end 2011 feeling strong, productive, and working towards a goal. I am NOT on a diet. I do not have a goal to lose x amount of pounds. My goal is to complete P90X, and that’s it. I actually couldn’t be on a diet and effectively do P90X because of all of the strength training! I am eating lots of proteiny things and green smoothies so I am eating pretty good by default, minus the upcoming pictures. I will probably go into greater detail about the hilarity that is me trying to do a pushup at another time.

Onto New Year’s eats! Now, Brian and I don’t drink. We are also lame anti-social assholes, so we just stayed home and made pizza and Dr. Pepper floats, and I actually crawled into bed 20 minutes before midnight. I was just happy that I wasn’t ringing in the new year shivering on the couch, stricken with stomach flu and sadness like I was last year.

My pizza was another take on the Amy Deluxe/Supreme, basically all I did was put it on top of a pizza crust (using Upton’s italian seitan), sprinkled with Daiya. Brian’s pizza was the rest of the Upton’s, mushrooms, and Daiya. Then before midnight, we assembled what I thought was the genius idea of Dr. Pepper floats with cherries. Don’t do this! The ice cream kills the DP flavor, making it taste like plain soda water. Also, it made me feel like shit the next day! I should’ve just drank my celebratory Dr. Pepper and called it good. Lesson learned.

For brunch on New Years day, we made biscuits and gravy, adding mashed up black eyed peas to the gravy and I put steamed kale with mine for color and vitamins and what not. And I drank a lot of water. A LOT.

And here is my mix of my favorite songs from 2011 (that came out this year, I listened to this song a few hundred times and let’s not talk about all of the Ke$ha). Also judging by this year’s album collage, almost every single band/artist I like that is still making music/not dead came out with an album this year! So next year is probably going to be a boring year for music.

Happy Friday the 13th!  I couldn’t not share this everywhere because I keep looking at it and giggling.

 

 

 

Sing it with me:  I don’t want this slaughter to eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeend!

 

Now Brian and I are going to watch Jason X, because my box set is far away and it’s the only one available on Netflix.

I don’t know if you know this, but I have been trying to see Ted Leo play for a good part of this year.  First, he had a show scheduled in St. Louis in February, I couldn’t go.  Then he played with his band at a festival in Champaign, we couldn’t afford the tickets until the last second.  I spent the whole week cleaning a basement to get the money.  When I tried to buy a ticket, I was informed that I couldn’t buy any for the single show, I now had to buy a festival ticket, which was twice as much, and could no longer afford them.

BUT THEN I found out that the show in February had been canceled anyway, so Ted Leo was coming back for a makeup show!  So Brian and I went and it was magical.

 

 

We arrived right before the first band started, and both opening bands were pretty good and fit with Ted Leo very well.  As soon as we took a spot near the back, Ted Leo came out and stood five feet from me.  When I told one of my co-workers that I was missing work on Monday to go to a show he said, “Yeah, i’m going to see U2 in July!”  Pffft, is Bono going to come stand five feet from you?  Not nearly as exciting.  Brian wouldn’t let me throw my bra, Chicago Diner cake, my bra loaded WITH Chicago Diner cake, or my PPK button at him, so I just tweeted excitedly and then watched the show.

 

Apparently Ted Leo (by the way we never refer to him as Ted, always Ted Leo) talks a lot, which he apologized for at least four times.  An apology wasn’t necessary, as he was funny and personable.  He mostly talked about KISS and cold gin, and when his distortion pedal was too quiet he said that it was some ‘weak Nirvana shit’, and then said, “Yeah, I said it!” He played ‘Me and Mia’ second and then said, “I thought I should just get that one out of the way.”  He threw in a cover of Angelfuck by The Misfits at the end of a song and that made Brian really happy.

 

He was also assertive with the audience, which I thought was very cool.  Some guy in the front took pictures the whole time and finally after a few songs, Ted Leo was like, “You know i’m not going to do anything but stand here with my guitar, right?  After awhile it gets a little uncomfortable.”  When someone asked him to play Since U Been Gone (his very popular Kelly Clarkson cover), he refused and said that song haunts him everywhere he goes.  He also didn’t take any requests at the end, because he said he really wanted to play the last two songs on his setlist.  It sounds dickish, but he was really nice about it and I believe this is what the kids call “keepin’ it real”.

 

He didn’t seem to be selling merch, so I didn’t get a shirt and had to use my cash for practical things like gas money and food. 

 

The only negatives were the audience.  It was in a bar so you would think the alcohol would help, but hardly anyone was even moving, or singing along, or looking like they even liked being there.  A guy in front of me stood behind his girlfriend the entire time, creating a wall with their heads, and he also kept backing up and pushing a girl into me.  Apparently she didn’t care, but if you’re at a show and it’s NOT packed and they have plenty of space in front of them, if someone is backing into you, don’t move.  Let them back into you and then in theory, they will realize they’re too close and will move.  Unless you’re Brian, you’ll end up with your elbow in a 6’5″ linebacker because the guy doesn’t know what personal space is.  Seriously, Brian’s elbow ended up in this guys stomach and he still wouldn’t move away from him, and I don’t mean like he was throwing elbows, I mean he had his arms crossed and the guy ended up THAT close to him.  So Brian just yelled ‘yeah!’ and ‘woo!’ extra loud all night.

 

The moral is, don’t be a dick.  Be aware that there are people around you and they probably don’t want you stepping on their toes and rubbing on them!

 

Overall, it was worth me spending my weekend driving all over Illinois and I would do it again.  If you have the chance to see Ted Leo, with or without The Pharmacists, do it!

 

To move backwards, to go to St. Louis, first I had to drive down to Carbondale and pick Brian up.  It was finally warm here so it was a good weekend to road trip.  I wore skirts all weekend because I was sick of the cold and having to wear pants and sweaters.  Brian made me biscuits and gravy for Mother’s day:

 

We picked up a package of the Field Roast apple and sage sausages to go with them.  I’ve had Field Roast slices before, but not these and…they were gross.  I haven’t had a sausage in at least 18 years, but I thought they were too meaty and I ended up feeling sick for most of the afternoon.

 

When it came to dinner time, obviously I wanted to eat in St. Louis since we were going there for the concert anyway.  The problem was, it was Sunday, the show wasn’t until 9:00, and most places that we could kill time in (The Galleria), would be closed by 6:00.  So that crossed a lot of things off of our list.  We decided to go to Pi Pizzeria, but when we got there at 7:00 it was packed, and there was a 45 minute wait just to be seated.  So we just went to Whole Foods.

 

I swear, on my tombstone it will say, “She always ended up eating at the Whole Foods Deli.”  I didn’t really want anything on the hot bar (Not for $8 a pound anyway), so I got some simple spring rolls, a drink, and of course, CAKE.  I tried to eat the muffin for breakfast, but it tasted like there was no sweetener in it at all, and then I realized there were two spots of mold on it.

 

And this is what I wore.  I had a hard time picking out which black vegan t-shirt to wear, but in the end I went with the one that was actually clean.

 

And that was the end of my St. Louis adventure, hopefully the next time I go it will be on a weekday so i’ll be able to blow all of my money on soap and food like the good lord intended.