♥ Chicago & Riot Fest.
Last weekend was amazing. It was definitely a time I'll remember for the rest of my life.
This is VERY long. But it's interesting, I SWEAR.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Maree arrived at my house around 12:45 in the afternoon in her 1988 Volvo. After stopping at my bank so I could withdraw cash for the weekend, we hit the road. Two hours later around 2:45pm, a mere hour away from Chicago, we hear a loud boom and smell burning rubber and immediately pull off into the grass to the left of the highway. We thought we had blown a tire, but Maree got out and looked and all her tires were fine. Her engine was smoking so she popped the hood and checked her oil. It was fine. She tried starting the car, with no luck.
Then, we see the boot. A high heeled, black leather hooker boot, all torn up. Turns out we had run over the boot and the pointy heel knocked a huge hole in the engine of her Volvo. Fuck. All we could think was that we were screwed. She called her dad and her boyfriend Kyle. Luckily, Kyle agreed to come out with his new Audi for us to use. Our only problem was where we were gonna wait during the two hours it would take Kyle to get there with the car. Out of nowhere, an Indiana State Trooper pulls into the grass to see if he could help us. Maree filed a crash report with the cop, and he offered to drive us to a Subway only about a mile away from her car. We were so grateful, and we took him up on his offer. Maree sat in the front so I sat in the back, but I had to sit with my legs resting on his shotgun. It was scary, haha. But he was REALLY nice!
He dropped us off at Subway, and we ordered food and sat in a booth eating and talking while waiting on Kyle to arrive. We used her iPhone to find out we were in a little podunk town called Demotte. I was texting my good friend Anthony (who lives in Chicago) the entire time, and he asked if we just wanted to stay at his house so that we could save money by not having to pay for a hotel. Of course I agreed, so we called the hotel in Chicago & cancelled our reservations. About an hour and a half later, Kyle arrived with his Audi. We were so happy to see him. Now we just had to waste two hours around Demotte until Maree's dad could drive up with his truck and a hitch to tow her Volvo and take Kyle back home.
We went to this tiny little Chinese restaurant called Chinese Wok, and had good food.
My fortune cookie had the best fortune ever.
It read: "Your luck has been completely changed today."
If that wasn't the truth! And it was only going to get better.
We then stopped in the Dollar General right next to the Chinese Wok, and bought a book of Mad Libs and a door hanger for Anthony that was purple velvet and white with a cat that said "The Princess Is In" on one side and "The Princess Is Out" on the other, and it came with markers to color it in. We drove to a rest stop that was directly across from where Maree's Volvo was, and used the restrooms. Their water was yellow, it was so strange and gross. It was now night time and it was getting cold, so we bought some bland instant Hot Cocoa and sat on the sidewalk by his car for an hour waiting on her parents. We filled out Mad Libs and colored the door hanger. Maree colored the "The Princess Is In" side and I colored the "The Princess Is Out" side:
Oh, we knew he'd love it :].
Her parents arrived, hitched her Volvo, and we drove to a Burger King a few miles away. There, we all said our goodbyes, and Maree and I were finally back on our way to Chicago. It was 9:21pm Indiana time.
We finally arrived at Anthony's apartment around 9:45pm Chicago time (10:45pm Indiana). He wasn't home, he was at a party, but I had his keycode to get into his apartment. We dragged our luggage upstairs into his apartment. We got inside, and immediately felt like we were in the wrong apartment. We checked all the bills sitting on the coffee table to try and find one that said Anthony King on it, haha. We found one that said "Maximilian Delagarza", and we thought that was the coolest, yet fakest sounding, name ever. Haha. We didn't find a bill for Anthony so we walked around the house til I found something familiar: a photo album full of pictures of Anthony, his little brother John King, and other people I knew. Finally, we started trying to make ourselves at home. The only problem was that we didn't know if we were the only ones there or not, because we weren't sure if his roommates were there. The apartment was HUGE, and there was music blaring in a bedroom in the upstairs of his apartment. We sat on the couch in the living room watching TV, assuming we were alone. About an hour later, we see this guy about our age wearing a suit peer down from the stairs at us. It was awkward yet hilarious. He goes, "Wohhh, what's goin' on here?". He was obviously drunkkkkk. We told him we were Anthony's friends. He asked where Anthony was, and I told him he was out at a party. "FUCKKKK". That was his response. Poor guy was angry he wasn't invited apparently. He stormed back upstairs and turned his music up louder.
"I bet that's Maximilian!" said Maree.
"I really hope it is".
Anthony texted me and tried getting us to come out to this huge party he was at, but we were so tired we weren't sure if we wanted to. We were watching some surgery show and relaxing when his front door opened. In comes a cute guy named J and a bleach blonde guy wearing snakeskin skinny jeans named Jimmy. They were drunk too but more excited to see us than Angry Kid. J saw the surgery on television and was saying the greatest things. "Looks like a quesadilla!". J kept asking us if we had pot, and we kept telling him no because we don't smoke.
"I brought my Hookah though" said Maree.
"Can we smoke pot in it?" asked J.
J and Jimmy were entertaining. They sat in Jimmy's room, right off of the living room, on their laptops on Myspace listening to indie and pop bands and Jimmy was on Perezhilton.com. I got a phone call from my friend Nathan saying we should all hang out and party sometime Saturday night. I texted Anthony and he said it sounded like a plan. :]
Maree and I passed out in Anthony's bed around 3am.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Maree and I woke up early, around 10am probably. We admired this piece of artwork hanging on Anthony's bedroom wall before we got ready for the day:
After getting ready, we sat on his bed using Maree's iPhone to look up places close to his apartment where we could eat. We found a place called 90 Mile Cuba. Sounded interesting enough. So we crept into the living room, and we saw Anthony being incredibly adorable passed out on his couch with all his clothes and shoes still on. He was obviously wasted when he passed out, haha. His floors are all wooden and EXTREMELY creaky, so we had to tip toe to make the least amount of noise as possible, which is still pretty damn loud. Maree had to try and slip her shoes on while trying not to wake Anthony up, who was tossing and turning on the couch.
We then left quickly and walked to the 90 Mile Cuba. The menu was all in Spanish so we immediately decided to just buy shakes and then find somewhere else to eat. I got a strawberry shake & she got a mango shake. They were kind of runny.. but still tasty.
We found a place called Cornerstone Cafe, which seemed a lot more promising than 90 Mile Cuba. We walked there and had really good food. Anthony finally texted me at 12:45pm. "Heeeyyy where are you?". We finished up our meal and started walking home to his apt. On the way back, we saw this REALLY sad black kitty with goopy eyes sitting in some grass by the sidewalk. I gave him a piece of chicken and petted his head and then we finished our walk back.
We got there at 1pm but he had left to go to a meeting with his landlord, and said he'd be back by 1:45pm at the latest. So we sat there on his couch watching Rob & Big until he got home. He didn't wind up getting back til like 2:30pm. But I didn't care, I was just so happy to see my Annie! I hadn't seen him in 2 and a half years since I came to Chicago and stayed with him for a week for my 18th birthday. Maree, Anthony & I sat on the couch catching up for a few before we called Megan (Girl Bob) to have her meet up with us on the Train.
We walked from Anthony's to a corner a few blocks up to wait on the CTA bus. We caught up some more while waiting for the bus and while sitting on the bus waiting for our stop. We got off in front of one of the train stations. We had to walk to a Dunkin Donuts so I could break a $10 to buy a train card. I didn't want anything, but Anthony said I could buy him a Gatorade and call it his birthday present, since his birthday was three days prior. We walked back to the train station and met up with Bob. I had heard so much about her through Anthony and my other friends, yet it was the first time I met her. She was pretty damn awesome. We took the train to Chinatown.
We walked around really cute little shops, and into this restuarant so Maree could buy a bubble tea. Bob threw her arm around me.
"Hey baby what's up?" she said.
Haha, strange but it definitely broke the ice and we started talking more. We walked into this one area of Chinatown that had all the Chinese Zodiac statues.
1988: The Year Of The Dragon
That's Megan on the left, and Anthony to her right.
After looking at these statues for awhile, we walked into this little Chinese restaurant and had a seat in a booth. Anthony and I on one side, Bob & Maree on the other. We ordered some food, and then Anthony & Bob's friend Ashton came out and pulled a chair up to the booth. Ashton was really fun, I liked her a lot.
They bring Anthony's food out. 5 minutes go by. They bring Bob & I's food out. 10 minutes later, the appetizer finally comes out. Silly Asians. Bot ate a pot sticker, and while she was eating it I couldn't help but watch the expression on her face. She looked disgusted and confused. She then explained that the pot stickers tasted like this guy she used to make out with. Gross, haha. After we ate, Bob ordered this little cake that was only $1. She brought it back to the table and tasted it. No wonder it was only a dollar. She then passed it around the table so we could all experience just how gross it was. I was the first to try it after her. Uh, nasty. It tasted like wet dog with the texture of a sponge. Anthony and Ashton both tried it as well, then we just sat it in the middle of the table and Bob proceeded to finger it until we decided to leave.
We walked into this Chinese Candy Store a few shops down. They had DRIED BABY CRABS being sold as candy. How gross! Bob took a bite of one and immediately ran outside to spit it out, hahaha. Then we walked into another Chinese Candy Store. They had weird dried fish and dried shrimp and such also being sold as candy. Fucking weird if you ask me.
That's Anthony holding one of the dried fish.. things.
We walked around Chinatown for awhile more before getting on a train to head towards Bob's house. Ashton, Bob & I got off leaving Anthony on the train by himself because he had to go back to his apartment to get some stuff. But whenw e got off the train and looked back in at him, he was giving us the saddest face ever because he was alone :(.
We walked to a wig shop, and saw a wig that looked just like Anthony's old hair (half blonde, half black). It was quite amusing. Then we got on a CTA bus. Ashton got off a few stops before us, so she could go to her apartment and then meet us later at Bob's. Then, Maree and I arrived at Bob's apartment. Nathan was there, and that was my first time meeting him in person. We've talked for a couple years online and he even sent me a dozen Gerbera Daisies in this cute vase once out of nowhere. He's a nice guy. But he didn't talk much IRL. Maybe he was shy, who knows. Ashton arrived shortly after, and Maree, Ashton and I sat on Bob's bed while Bob showed us this hilarious babysitter porn. It was incredibly amusing. We made Mii's and played Wii Bowling for awhile before Anthony showed up with his friend Lisa. She.. didn't look like the type Anthony would hang out with. But I grew to like her. Anthony came bearing goods (a LOT of alcohol, including a fifth of Captain for me). Anthony and Ashton took a bunch of shots of Early Times before we left to pile into Lisa's car.
Lisa drives a Scion. Anthony drove, Lisa was in the passenger seat, and we crammed me, Bob, Ashton & Maree into the backseat. Bob was pretty much on top of me and Maree was Ashton's second head. We went to Union Station to pick up two of Anthony's other friends from Indiana. We then managed to cram NINE people into that Scion.
Anthony, Ashton & Lisa up front
This was the backseat. From left to right:
Indiana girl #1 on Indiana girl #2's lap, Maree, Me, and Bob on my lap.
We drove to this place called Eleven Diner so Bob could get a hamburger. They took like 15 minutes to make her hamburger, and we stood outside the place the entire time. Anthony's two other friends, Allie and some girl whose name I don't know, met up with us and waited outside with us as well.
Left to right: IN girl #1, Lisa, Anthony, Maree, Me, Allie (blonde), and the other girl.
After Bob got her food, we walked to Allie's apartment, maybe a block away. Her apartment was on the 33rd story of this huge building. The view was AMAZING, I wish I took a picture of it. Everyone sat around drinking alcohol (except Maree, Bob & I) and watching Licensed To Drive. Their friend Chad showed up as well. He had an elephant tattoo from Salvador Dali's painting "The Temptation Of St Anthony" on his arm, and it made me happy.
Then, out of nowhere, Allie started snorting coke off a blue dinner plate. WHAT THE FUCK. Was not expecting that. It made me feel pretty uncomfortable. But I guess that's how they get down in Chicago. Three other people that I didn't know before that night snorted coke as well. But the funny thing? They were snorting it through a plastic tampon applicator. Weird, right? Anyways, they snorted their coke, smoked their pot and drank their alcohol and then we left Allie's apartment to go to this party. We walked to the train station only to find out the party had been busted. So then we all got on the train to head to Ashton's apt instead. A 10 minute train ride and a 15 minute walk later, we were at Ashton's. There were like 20 people there. It was 1:40am and Maree and I were both exhausted so we sat on Ashton's couch for awhile before we decided we had better head back to Anthony's place to get some sleep before Riot Fest the next morning.
We went downstairs to ask Anthony if he'd go with us to find our way back to his apt, and Bob talked to us while Anthony came up with a way to get us home to his apt. He decided the best way would be to take a cab. He walked us out and to a main street and hailed us a cab, and told the driver "I'm trusting you with their lives". Talk about pressure, haha. The cabbie was really nice and we got back to Anthony's apartment in no time.
We ate our leftovers from earlier in the day while sitting on Anthony's bed and checking the line-up for Riot Fest the next day. As we were doing so, J and Jimmy and some girl came home and walked into the bedroom to check out the situation. They were drunk again, imagine that haha. We passed out at 3am, but apparently Maree woke up sometime in the middle of the night to J or Jimmy peeking their heads into our bedroom and saying "You're not Anthony!". "I know we're not, thanks for reassuing me though" said Maree. Hahaha.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Maree & I woke up around 9:30am to get ready for Riot Fest. We each wrote a note to Anthony and sat it on his laptop. We drove to The Congress Theater, found some cheapish parking really close, and went to wait in line.
Speed Hump, Don't Blow.
It was 11:45am when we got there, and the doors had opened at 11am, so we got inside really fast. We picked up our tickets from Will Call, got our (PURPLE!) Riot Fest bracelets, then left to find somewhere to eat since the first band we wanted to see didn't play til 3:30pm. We walked to a KFC and ate, then walked through a drive-up ATM at a bank. We then went to CVS and got hit on by punk kids. It seemed the CVS was the cool place to hang out for everybody at Riot Fest, because it was packed with punk rock kids. We bought ice cream cones and went to sit on a guard rail in the shade by the building next to the CVS. Soon afterwards, we were joined by a hoard of 8 pigeons, whom we fed for about a half an hour.
We headed back to The Congress around 2:30 and watched the end of Valient Thorr's set. They were pretty bad ass, not gonna lie. We moved up to the 2nd row right before Mustard Plug played. And after Mustard Plug's 2nd song, Maree and I had weaseled into the 1st row right against the barrier :]. Much skanking by Maree ensued.
That kid behind Maree had oldschool Anthony hair. It was black on the other half, much like this:
It freaked the both of us out. Anyways, on to Mustard Plug pictures:
1! Get Off Your Seat!
2! Stomp Your Boots To The Beat!
3! Throw Your Knees In The Air!
4! Like You Just Don't Care!
I Just Wanna See You Move Faster & Faster
To The Beat Of The Super Ska Master
Skankin By Numbers Is The Only Way
Get Off Your Seat & Take A Chance
Skankin By Numbers Is The Only Way To Dance!
I will be back to finish this entry later, it might be in a separate post.
I still have to talk about Horrorpops & Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
And I have a lot of pictures of both of them :D
I need to sleep for now though.
Thank you for anyone who read this entire thing so far!
I love you! :]
This is VERY long. But it's interesting, I SWEAR.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Maree arrived at my house around 12:45 in the afternoon in her 1988 Volvo. After stopping at my bank so I could withdraw cash for the weekend, we hit the road. Two hours later around 2:45pm, a mere hour away from Chicago, we hear a loud boom and smell burning rubber and immediately pull off into the grass to the left of the highway. We thought we had blown a tire, but Maree got out and looked and all her tires were fine. Her engine was smoking so she popped the hood and checked her oil. It was fine. She tried starting the car, with no luck.
Then, we see the boot. A high heeled, black leather hooker boot, all torn up. Turns out we had run over the boot and the pointy heel knocked a huge hole in the engine of her Volvo. Fuck. All we could think was that we were screwed. She called her dad and her boyfriend Kyle. Luckily, Kyle agreed to come out with his new Audi for us to use. Our only problem was where we were gonna wait during the two hours it would take Kyle to get there with the car. Out of nowhere, an Indiana State Trooper pulls into the grass to see if he could help us. Maree filed a crash report with the cop, and he offered to drive us to a Subway only about a mile away from her car. We were so grateful, and we took him up on his offer. Maree sat in the front so I sat in the back, but I had to sit with my legs resting on his shotgun. It was scary, haha. But he was REALLY nice!
He dropped us off at Subway, and we ordered food and sat in a booth eating and talking while waiting on Kyle to arrive. We used her iPhone to find out we were in a little podunk town called Demotte. I was texting my good friend Anthony (who lives in Chicago) the entire time, and he asked if we just wanted to stay at his house so that we could save money by not having to pay for a hotel. Of course I agreed, so we called the hotel in Chicago & cancelled our reservations. About an hour and a half later, Kyle arrived with his Audi. We were so happy to see him. Now we just had to waste two hours around Demotte until Maree's dad could drive up with his truck and a hitch to tow her Volvo and take Kyle back home.
We went to this tiny little Chinese restaurant called Chinese Wok, and had good food.
My fortune cookie had the best fortune ever.
It read: "Your luck has been completely changed today."
If that wasn't the truth! And it was only going to get better.
We then stopped in the Dollar General right next to the Chinese Wok, and bought a book of Mad Libs and a door hanger for Anthony that was purple velvet and white with a cat that said "The Princess Is In" on one side and "The Princess Is Out" on the other, and it came with markers to color it in. We drove to a rest stop that was directly across from where Maree's Volvo was, and used the restrooms. Their water was yellow, it was so strange and gross. It was now night time and it was getting cold, so we bought some bland instant Hot Cocoa and sat on the sidewalk by his car for an hour waiting on her parents. We filled out Mad Libs and colored the door hanger. Maree colored the "The Princess Is In" side and I colored the "The Princess Is Out" side:
Oh, we knew he'd love it :].
Her parents arrived, hitched her Volvo, and we drove to a Burger King a few miles away. There, we all said our goodbyes, and Maree and I were finally back on our way to Chicago. It was 9:21pm Indiana time.
We finally arrived at Anthony's apartment around 9:45pm Chicago time (10:45pm Indiana). He wasn't home, he was at a party, but I had his keycode to get into his apartment. We dragged our luggage upstairs into his apartment. We got inside, and immediately felt like we were in the wrong apartment. We checked all the bills sitting on the coffee table to try and find one that said Anthony King on it, haha. We found one that said "Maximilian Delagarza", and we thought that was the coolest, yet fakest sounding, name ever. Haha. We didn't find a bill for Anthony so we walked around the house til I found something familiar: a photo album full of pictures of Anthony, his little brother John King, and other people I knew. Finally, we started trying to make ourselves at home. The only problem was that we didn't know if we were the only ones there or not, because we weren't sure if his roommates were there. The apartment was HUGE, and there was music blaring in a bedroom in the upstairs of his apartment. We sat on the couch in the living room watching TV, assuming we were alone. About an hour later, we see this guy about our age wearing a suit peer down from the stairs at us. It was awkward yet hilarious. He goes, "Wohhh, what's goin' on here?". He was obviously drunkkkkk. We told him we were Anthony's friends. He asked where Anthony was, and I told him he was out at a party. "FUCKKKK". That was his response. Poor guy was angry he wasn't invited apparently. He stormed back upstairs and turned his music up louder.
"I bet that's Maximilian!" said Maree.
"I really hope it is".
Anthony texted me and tried getting us to come out to this huge party he was at, but we were so tired we weren't sure if we wanted to. We were watching some surgery show and relaxing when his front door opened. In comes a cute guy named J and a bleach blonde guy wearing snakeskin skinny jeans named Jimmy. They were drunk too but more excited to see us than Angry Kid. J saw the surgery on television and was saying the greatest things. "Looks like a quesadilla!". J kept asking us if we had pot, and we kept telling him no because we don't smoke.
"I brought my Hookah though" said Maree.
"Can we smoke pot in it?" asked J.
J and Jimmy were entertaining. They sat in Jimmy's room, right off of the living room, on their laptops on Myspace listening to indie and pop bands and Jimmy was on Perezhilton.com. I got a phone call from my friend Nathan saying we should all hang out and party sometime Saturday night. I texted Anthony and he said it sounded like a plan. :]
Maree and I passed out in Anthony's bed around 3am.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Maree and I woke up early, around 10am probably. We admired this piece of artwork hanging on Anthony's bedroom wall before we got ready for the day:
After getting ready, we sat on his bed using Maree's iPhone to look up places close to his apartment where we could eat. We found a place called 90 Mile Cuba. Sounded interesting enough. So we crept into the living room, and we saw Anthony being incredibly adorable passed out on his couch with all his clothes and shoes still on. He was obviously wasted when he passed out, haha. His floors are all wooden and EXTREMELY creaky, so we had to tip toe to make the least amount of noise as possible, which is still pretty damn loud. Maree had to try and slip her shoes on while trying not to wake Anthony up, who was tossing and turning on the couch.
We then left quickly and walked to the 90 Mile Cuba. The menu was all in Spanish so we immediately decided to just buy shakes and then find somewhere else to eat. I got a strawberry shake & she got a mango shake. They were kind of runny.. but still tasty.
We found a place called Cornerstone Cafe, which seemed a lot more promising than 90 Mile Cuba. We walked there and had really good food. Anthony finally texted me at 12:45pm. "Heeeyyy where are you?". We finished up our meal and started walking home to his apt. On the way back, we saw this REALLY sad black kitty with goopy eyes sitting in some grass by the sidewalk. I gave him a piece of chicken and petted his head and then we finished our walk back.
We got there at 1pm but he had left to go to a meeting with his landlord, and said he'd be back by 1:45pm at the latest. So we sat there on his couch watching Rob & Big until he got home. He didn't wind up getting back til like 2:30pm. But I didn't care, I was just so happy to see my Annie! I hadn't seen him in 2 and a half years since I came to Chicago and stayed with him for a week for my 18th birthday. Maree, Anthony & I sat on the couch catching up for a few before we called Megan (Girl Bob) to have her meet up with us on the Train.
We walked from Anthony's to a corner a few blocks up to wait on the CTA bus. We caught up some more while waiting for the bus and while sitting on the bus waiting for our stop. We got off in front of one of the train stations. We had to walk to a Dunkin Donuts so I could break a $10 to buy a train card. I didn't want anything, but Anthony said I could buy him a Gatorade and call it his birthday present, since his birthday was three days prior. We walked back to the train station and met up with Bob. I had heard so much about her through Anthony and my other friends, yet it was the first time I met her. She was pretty damn awesome. We took the train to Chinatown.
We walked around really cute little shops, and into this restuarant so Maree could buy a bubble tea. Bob threw her arm around me.
"Hey baby what's up?" she said.
Haha, strange but it definitely broke the ice and we started talking more. We walked into this one area of Chinatown that had all the Chinese Zodiac statues.
1988: The Year Of The Dragon
That's Megan on the left, and Anthony to her right.
After looking at these statues for awhile, we walked into this little Chinese restaurant and had a seat in a booth. Anthony and I on one side, Bob & Maree on the other. We ordered some food, and then Anthony & Bob's friend Ashton came out and pulled a chair up to the booth. Ashton was really fun, I liked her a lot.
They bring Anthony's food out. 5 minutes go by. They bring Bob & I's food out. 10 minutes later, the appetizer finally comes out. Silly Asians. Bot ate a pot sticker, and while she was eating it I couldn't help but watch the expression on her face. She looked disgusted and confused. She then explained that the pot stickers tasted like this guy she used to make out with. Gross, haha. After we ate, Bob ordered this little cake that was only $1. She brought it back to the table and tasted it. No wonder it was only a dollar. She then passed it around the table so we could all experience just how gross it was. I was the first to try it after her. Uh, nasty. It tasted like wet dog with the texture of a sponge. Anthony and Ashton both tried it as well, then we just sat it in the middle of the table and Bob proceeded to finger it until we decided to leave.
We walked into this Chinese Candy Store a few shops down. They had DRIED BABY CRABS being sold as candy. How gross! Bob took a bite of one and immediately ran outside to spit it out, hahaha. Then we walked into another Chinese Candy Store. They had weird dried fish and dried shrimp and such also being sold as candy. Fucking weird if you ask me.
That's Anthony holding one of the dried fish.. things.
We walked around Chinatown for awhile more before getting on a train to head towards Bob's house. Ashton, Bob & I got off leaving Anthony on the train by himself because he had to go back to his apartment to get some stuff. But whenw e got off the train and looked back in at him, he was giving us the saddest face ever because he was alone :(.
We walked to a wig shop, and saw a wig that looked just like Anthony's old hair (half blonde, half black). It was quite amusing. Then we got on a CTA bus. Ashton got off a few stops before us, so she could go to her apartment and then meet us later at Bob's. Then, Maree and I arrived at Bob's apartment. Nathan was there, and that was my first time meeting him in person. We've talked for a couple years online and he even sent me a dozen Gerbera Daisies in this cute vase once out of nowhere. He's a nice guy. But he didn't talk much IRL. Maybe he was shy, who knows. Ashton arrived shortly after, and Maree, Ashton and I sat on Bob's bed while Bob showed us this hilarious babysitter porn. It was incredibly amusing. We made Mii's and played Wii Bowling for awhile before Anthony showed up with his friend Lisa. She.. didn't look like the type Anthony would hang out with. But I grew to like her. Anthony came bearing goods (a LOT of alcohol, including a fifth of Captain for me). Anthony and Ashton took a bunch of shots of Early Times before we left to pile into Lisa's car.
Lisa drives a Scion. Anthony drove, Lisa was in the passenger seat, and we crammed me, Bob, Ashton & Maree into the backseat. Bob was pretty much on top of me and Maree was Ashton's second head. We went to Union Station to pick up two of Anthony's other friends from Indiana. We then managed to cram NINE people into that Scion.
Anthony, Ashton & Lisa up front
This was the backseat. From left to right:
Indiana girl #1 on Indiana girl #2's lap, Maree, Me, and Bob on my lap.
We drove to this place called Eleven Diner so Bob could get a hamburger. They took like 15 minutes to make her hamburger, and we stood outside the place the entire time. Anthony's two other friends, Allie and some girl whose name I don't know, met up with us and waited outside with us as well.
Left to right: IN girl #1, Lisa, Anthony, Maree, Me, Allie (blonde), and the other girl.
After Bob got her food, we walked to Allie's apartment, maybe a block away. Her apartment was on the 33rd story of this huge building. The view was AMAZING, I wish I took a picture of it. Everyone sat around drinking alcohol (except Maree, Bob & I) and watching Licensed To Drive. Their friend Chad showed up as well. He had an elephant tattoo from Salvador Dali's painting "The Temptation Of St Anthony" on his arm, and it made me happy.
Then, out of nowhere, Allie started snorting coke off a blue dinner plate. WHAT THE FUCK. Was not expecting that. It made me feel pretty uncomfortable. But I guess that's how they get down in Chicago. Three other people that I didn't know before that night snorted coke as well. But the funny thing? They were snorting it through a plastic tampon applicator. Weird, right? Anyways, they snorted their coke, smoked their pot and drank their alcohol and then we left Allie's apartment to go to this party. We walked to the train station only to find out the party had been busted. So then we all got on the train to head to Ashton's apt instead. A 10 minute train ride and a 15 minute walk later, we were at Ashton's. There were like 20 people there. It was 1:40am and Maree and I were both exhausted so we sat on Ashton's couch for awhile before we decided we had better head back to Anthony's place to get some sleep before Riot Fest the next morning.
We went downstairs to ask Anthony if he'd go with us to find our way back to his apt, and Bob talked to us while Anthony came up with a way to get us home to his apt. He decided the best way would be to take a cab. He walked us out and to a main street and hailed us a cab, and told the driver "I'm trusting you with their lives". Talk about pressure, haha. The cabbie was really nice and we got back to Anthony's apartment in no time.
We ate our leftovers from earlier in the day while sitting on Anthony's bed and checking the line-up for Riot Fest the next day. As we were doing so, J and Jimmy and some girl came home and walked into the bedroom to check out the situation. They were drunk again, imagine that haha. We passed out at 3am, but apparently Maree woke up sometime in the middle of the night to J or Jimmy peeking their heads into our bedroom and saying "You're not Anthony!". "I know we're not, thanks for reassuing me though" said Maree. Hahaha.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
Maree & I woke up around 9:30am to get ready for Riot Fest. We each wrote a note to Anthony and sat it on his laptop. We drove to The Congress Theater, found some cheapish parking really close, and went to wait in line.
Speed Hump, Don't Blow.
It was 11:45am when we got there, and the doors had opened at 11am, so we got inside really fast. We picked up our tickets from Will Call, got our (PURPLE!) Riot Fest bracelets, then left to find somewhere to eat since the first band we wanted to see didn't play til 3:30pm. We walked to a KFC and ate, then walked through a drive-up ATM at a bank. We then went to CVS and got hit on by punk kids. It seemed the CVS was the cool place to hang out for everybody at Riot Fest, because it was packed with punk rock kids. We bought ice cream cones and went to sit on a guard rail in the shade by the building next to the CVS. Soon afterwards, we were joined by a hoard of 8 pigeons, whom we fed for about a half an hour.
We headed back to The Congress around 2:30 and watched the end of Valient Thorr's set. They were pretty bad ass, not gonna lie. We moved up to the 2nd row right before Mustard Plug played. And after Mustard Plug's 2nd song, Maree and I had weaseled into the 1st row right against the barrier :]. Much skanking by Maree ensued.
That kid behind Maree had oldschool Anthony hair. It was black on the other half, much like this:
It freaked the both of us out. Anyways, on to Mustard Plug pictures:
1! Get Off Your Seat!
2! Stomp Your Boots To The Beat!
3! Throw Your Knees In The Air!
4! Like You Just Don't Care!
I Just Wanna See You Move Faster & Faster
To The Beat Of The Super Ska Master
Skankin By Numbers Is The Only Way
Get Off Your Seat & Take A Chance
Skankin By Numbers Is The Only Way To Dance!
I will be back to finish this entry later, it might be in a separate post.
I still have to talk about Horrorpops & Mighty Mighty Bosstones.
And I have a lot of pictures of both of them :D
I need to sleep for now though.
Thank you for anyone who read this entire thing so far!
I love you! :]