I started off my morning by doordashing a spanish latte and sunrise pizza from Urth Caffé. I went to my doctor’s appointment and Dr. Joshi had nothing but good things to say about me (the first time I saw him earlier this year, he said I was “hanging on by a thread” 😅). I went through 4 months worth of mail and had over $700 in checks from overpaying for my health bennies during my medical leave. The Echo’s up the street from Guisados on Sunset, so we ate some delicious tacos before watching Hoobastank at The Echo. Not to be dramatic or anything, but yesterday was the best day of my life.
I haven’t seen Hoobastank live since they opened for Linkin Park on their Meteora tour in 2004! Fun fact: Hoobastank went to high school with Linkin Park members (Mike Shinoda, Rob Bourdon and Brad Delson). I felt like a kid again watching them. Like, is it 2003? Am I about to get a charlie horse after watching them at Canes??? 😆 I was reminded that I’m not, in fact, a kid anymore when we walked back to the car and we didn’t have to pay for metered street parking because of my handicap placard, and when I was falling asleep on the drive home before midnight 😅
Shoutout to the guy standing in front of me wearing a Yellowcard hoodie 😂
Only two things about LA still warm this heart—the food and live music.
Update: You guys, Hoobastank liked my Instagram story 💀
Ever since I saw a Hoobastank was having a 20th anniversary show, I’ve been listening to my playlist that I made in 2017 when I was feeling nostalgic. It contains songs from bands I liked 20 years ago (Hoobastank, Incubus and Linkin Park). If you want to take it back a few more years, you can listen to my resurrection sunday playlist and pretend it’s 2001.
Even though it had been years since I last saw Linkin Park in concert, I was heartbroken when I found out about Chester Bennington’s suicide.
I can remember exactly what I was doing when I first heard Hybrid Theory. Pammie and I have this game we play called Guess What Year? (it’s a working title), and I can always pinpoint the year a song came out because I’m able to tie it to life events. Like I know that Boyz II Men’s One Sweet Day came out when I was 13, because I remember crying to that song at Sharon Bernardo’s birthday party when I found out that Raymond Alcarion liked my best friend and not me. I’m totally over him now, partly because that was 22 years ago, but mostly because my name would have been “Marion Alcarion” had our love stood the test of time! Yikes.
When I was 18, my friend Nick Costa told me, “Linkin Park… Remember that name… They’re gonna be HUGE someday.” I downloaded some songs off of their EP on Napster (yes, I was 18 that long ago) and became a solid LP fan after that. I remember going to the library to chat in their forum in between classes in college. I remember listening to their CD in Sheena’s car while I practiced driving stick around Jamul. I remember how sad I was when their intimate show at Canes sold out before I could get tickets to their first tour. Linkin Park soundtracked a time in my life that I reminisce about often, and it makes me sad to think that Chester is gone now, too.
I was lucky enough to see Chester in concert a couple times in my life, and being able to go his memorial show and hearing all those songs made me feel like I was 18 again (my sore stems the next day from standing during their 3-hour set reminded me that I’m nearly twice that age). All these years later, I still remember their lyrics. Also, can we just talk about how good Mike Shinoda still looks??? Some things never change…
After Bonnaroo, Lollapalooza and Coachella announced similar (amazing!) lineups, I was sure Outside Lands would follow suit. Never have twelve syllables hurt me so much to say, but NOT EVEN YOUNG THE GIANT COULD SAVE THIS LINEUP! I should have went to Coachella. At least I would have seen Radiohead. And Tupac’s hologram. Boo whore.
I won tickets to Ellen’s 12 Days of Giveaways show. I won Glee’s Karaoke Revolution Wii game on Twitter. I won a Linkin Park tour poster and guitar pick in a Foursquare contest I wasn’t even aware I was participating in (and they accidentally sent me my prize twice!). I joined my friend Alicia’s Survivor pool and won, even though I’ve never watched an episode of Survivor in my life. And I literally sweated my ass off and won my company’s #BLC!
Since my favorite preggo, Chel, is expecting her firstborn, I thought I would use my good luck to win stuff for her and the baby. I entered a bunch of baby contests, and today I won a Sleep Sheep and Sleep Sheep On The Go from Cloud B! It’s supposed to help even the fussiest babies fall asleep… I’m sure it’ll be put to good use while mommy and I enjoy a cocktail 😉
Linkin Park is only following 28 people on Twitter, and I’m one of them! (Yes, they’re probably only following me to DM me about their contest I won that I didn’t even know I was entering when I checked into their show on Foursquare, but still!)
Now who do I have to bone to get @joelmchale to follow me?
The last time I saw Linkin Park was on their Meteora tour in 2004 from the nosebleed section. Tonight, I got to see Mike Shinoda’s handsome face from ten feet away in the pit! My favorite performance was of One Step Closer, the first Linkin Park song I ever heard. Definitely takes me back!
These past couple of days have been so fun, even though I was (and still am) pretty damn sick. Monday was a holiday, so my sister, Jay, Jed, Edgar, Gerald, Chris, Brad and I went snowboarding at Mountain High. Even though it was my second time going, I was fucking TERRIFIED… probably more terrified that I was when I first went snowboarding. I think I was just remembering how bad it hurt when I fell down repeatedly.. The first hour I was really frustrated because all these tiny kids were passing me up haha. Chris said the only way for me to learn was to follow the boys on the big slopes… so I took lift #2 and prepared to tackle ROADRUNNER… Gerald and Chris were with me every step of the way, and I seriously couldn’t have gone down that mountain without them. I tried going down a second time with just Edgar and my ass was so scared. I couldn’t do it without Gerald and Chris. I wasn’t ready yet… maybe next time I can do it by myself! Afterwards, I kept Jay and his twisted knee company in the cafe while the boys went down the crazy ass slopes. On our way home, we stopped at Fridays and had dinner with Carmina and Scott. I got home around 10:30 and went right to bed. That’s the earliest I’ve slept in a really long time. Being sick just sucks the life out of you…
Last night was fucking AWESOME!!! My sister, Chel, Alvin, Sheena, Michelle, Edgar, Gerald, Jay, Jed and I went to see the Meteora tour at SDSU. Linkin Park and Hoobastank are two out of my top three bands in the universe, so I knew it was going to be a dope ass show. Story of the Year opened, and they rocked even though I didn’t know the words to any of their songs. They covered Enter the Sandman which I loved. Hoobastank was next and they fucking ROCKED! It was my fourth time seeing them live, and they just keep getting better and better. They sang The Reason and I think my heart stopped beating for a second… Most of the songs they played were from their previous album, and they even covered Girls Just Wanna Have Fun. Can Doug Robb just have my children already??? P.O.D. played afterwards, and I only knew the lyrics to a few of their songs… They’re from SD though, so you gotta have love for them. Linkin Park headlined, and I went nuts! OMG OMG OMG. I have been waiting since 2000 to see Linkin Park live… They were WELL worth the wait! The played a lot of songs from their old album, too. They ended the night with One Step Closer and Doug from Hoobastank and Sonny from P.O.D. came out to finish the song. I’ve been to a shitload of rock shows these past few years, and this one was by far the BEST.
I have been soooo effin busy. I’ve been working tons of overtime, because I can’t say no. I’ve been going to school. I’ve been taking finals. I’ve been spending my free time working on my final projects for my web publishing and graphic design classes. Finals are finally OVER, and now I can relax for a few weeks before the hell starts up again.
The holidays are really making me broke right now. Also, I took one for the team and bought EIGHT $44 Linkin Park tickets so all of my friends could sit together (I better start collecting if you clowns want Christmas gifts!). On top of that, we’re going snowboarding tomorrow, and I bought all this gear since it’s my first time. I really didn’t have the money for snowboarding, but you only live once, right?
Right now I’m on my break at work. With more and more seasonals coming in, I hope I don’t have to share my cubicle with someone. I’m super anal about being organized at my desk. I only use clear thumbtacks. All the papers posted on my walls are perfectly aligned at 90 degree angles. I have my mini photos hanging on my wall and a few framed photos on my desk and my Linkin Park pencil holder cube filled with my own pens and highlighters… In the beginning of this year, I came to work one day and was mortified. Multi-colored thumbtacks held up wrinkled papers aligned at different angles. Scrawled out notes on sticky post-its covered my monitor. Some of my pens were missing. My catalog was missing (and I know it wasn’t my sister again, because she wasn’t working here anymore! Haha… Last year, I came to work and my catalog with my name sharpied on the cover was missing from my desk. I was talking to my sister during my break and I was like, “Yeah, some bitch took my catalog!” and she was all, “Uhhh, it was ME!” LOL). Fortunately, my deskmate was moved to a different cubicle because our schedules overlapped… I finally saw Sharon and Kit today! I haven’t seen them since I left last June. Sharon and I were talking and James was like… “Oh, no… The two of you are together again!” We used to sit in adjoining cubicles near James’ desk and he would hear all of our loud ass conversations. I’ve missed her crazy ass over the summer. It feels good to be back.
Hoobastank just played a free 4 o’clock Fridays show at Del Mar after the horse races! I didn’t expect them to sing that many songs because this show was technically free, but damn! They sang for like an hour and a half! Edgar, Sheen, Sheryll, Joanne, Framee, Joey, Jose and I got there around 7:00 p.m. and Sheen, Frame and I stood right in front of the stage. The rest of them stayed in the back to avoid the chaos that was the mosh pit. I was a victim of crowd surfing gone bad! I was in the worst possible spot. This guy leaped from the stage and fell on Sheen and me. At one point, some girl kicked me on the side of my face. By the end of the show, I was dehydrated, sweaty, nauseous, bruised, and my hair was ten times bigger than it was when I arrived… but I would do it again in a heartbeat, because hoobastank ROCKED!!! I’ll make a mental note to wear my beat up chucks instead of flip flops the next time I see them (what was I thinking?). I’ve seen them a few times before today, and I love that they still do intimate shows. A few years back when Linkin Park was unknown to MTV and I was their biggest fan EVER, I didn’t end up going to their show at a small local venue and to this day I still regret it, because I know that they will probably never play at a small club ever again. Boo.
