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.

Doja Cat – Need to Know (@ Viejas Arena)

I heard from a friend of a friend
That that dick was a ten out of ten
I can’t stand it, just one night me
Clink with the drink, gimme a sip
Tell me what’s your kink, gimme the dick
Spank me, slap me, choke me, bite me
Uh, wait, I can take it
Give a fuck ’bout what your wifey’s sayin’

I wanted to dress up for the Doja show and her new album has pearl spiders on the cover. I once saw Phoebe Bridgers perform on SNL in a custom Gucci pearl skeleton ribcage necklace and I’ve always wanted to recreate it. It turned out better than I expected! Plus it went great with my skeleton bone nails.

It’s all in the details 💀

Bitch, I said what I said
I’d rather be famous instead
I let all that get to my head
I don’t care, I paint the town red
Mm, she the devil
She a bad lil bitch, she a rebel
She put her foot to the pedal
It’ll take a whole lot for me to settle

It’s the things we love most that destroy us

I’m def watching this!

New York in December, anyone???

I don’t got nobody, just with you right now
Tell the truth, I look better under you
I can’t lose when I’m with you
How can I snooze and miss the moment?
You just too important
Nobody do body like you do

I miss the thought of you and nothing else

Sad French songs on this rainy day.

My love, where are you?

Whenever you’re ready, whenever you’re ready
Whenever you’re ready, whenever you’re ready
Can we, can we surrender?

I heard this song in a puppy surprise video and have been crying ever since.

Because I’m still in love with you
I want to see you dance again
Because I’m still in love with you
On this harvest moon

Last supermoon of the year today ✨

Just let me take you to a better place
I’m gonna make you kiss the sky tonight
Yeah, if you let me show the way
I’m so excited to see you excited

A new *NSYNC song wasn’t on my bingo card for 2023, but neither was having 2 strokes 😅 This year is full of surprises!

My Mount Rushmore of *NSYNC songs 💕

I hope you’re happy
I wish you all the best, really
Say you love her, baby, just not like you loved me
And think of me fondly when your hands are on her
I hope you’re happy, but don’t be happier

My sister’s husband heard me blasting Olivia Rodrigo from my room and came by to make sure I wasn’t hanging from my curtain rod. My door was only open because the sun faces this room in the afternoon and it gets super hot in here. I’m gonna get this blackout window film so I can cry in peace block out the sun.

I want you in the worst way
Is the gate code still your birthday?

John Mayer has an intimate show at The Wiltern next week, but I got waitlisted. If you’re able to get tickets, I will find a way to get to LA. He’s my guiltiest pleasure 😅

I don’t know your thoughts these days
We’re strangers in an empty space
I don’t understand your heart
It’s easier to be apart

My friend got us tickets to Keane at the Greek next year! I was traveling through the Philippines the last time they were in LA in 2020. Then covid hit and our lives took a 180. So glad concerts are back 🙌🏼

Olivia Rodrigo and The Breeders??? My teenage heart is bursting.

Was Olivia Rodrigo even born yet when Cannonball came out in 1993?

I would’ve also been happy if Remi Wolf was opening, but it looks like she’s only gonna be on the international leg of the tour. Anyone want to travel overseas???

Update 9/15: Olivia Rodrigo added two LA dates on Friday 8/16/24 and Saturday 8/17/24. I changed my registration for her last show on the tour! Hopefully, I don’t get waitlisted 🤞🏼

Young the Giant is always a good idea (@ CalCoast Credit Union Open Air Theatre)

One of Francis’ friends was working security, and he was like, “Yooo, you like Young the Giant?!” like it was a bad thing 🤣 Is this like when I liked Hoobastank?! 😅

Even though my calves burn with the fury of a thousand suns (our seats were at the very bottom and it’s a looong way to the top where the drinks are), YTG is always worth it.

Here’s Francis and I texting each other during the show because our seats were right in front of the speakers and we couldn’t hear each other LOL:

I bought tickets to Sylvan Esso at The Greek tonight thinking I’d be back in LA by now, but I haven’t started driving yet, so I’m still at my sister’s in SD.

The last time I was in Phoenix, Google was testing their self-driving cars and I remember thinking, “I’d never get in one of those.” 5 years and 2 strokes later, I’m seriously considering getting a Tesla so I never have to drive again (even though I still don’t trust self-driving cars or Elon Musk).

The last time I drove was before the incident when I drove myself to urgent care. The doctor was like, “You drove yourself here?!” To be fair, urgent care is up the street from my apartment. They wanted me to take an ambulance to the ER, but I was like, “I’ll just have my friend, Nori, take me.” I spent the next five days in the hospital, my sister and her husband picked my car up from the urgent care parking lot the next day, and the rest is history…

Full moon tonight ✨ Mercury is in retrograde, but this is the second full moon this month and the biggest and brightest supermoon this year! Charge those crystals and harness all that energy, y’all. My crystals are still on my sister’s rooftop from the last full moon, so I’ll just leave them there 😂

Seeing you tonight
It’s a bad idea, right?
Seeing you tonight
Fuck it, it’s fine
Yes, I know that he’s my ex
But can’t two people reconnect?

Olivia Rodrigo gets me 😆

Hate to give the satisfaction, asking how you’re doing now
How’s the castle built off people you pretend to care about?
Just what you wanted
Look at you, cool guy, you got it

So when you gonna tell her
That we did that, too?
She thinks it’s special
But it’s all reused
That was our place, I found it first
I made the jokes you tell to her when she’s with you

I hope you’re happy
I wish you all the best, really
Say you love her, baby, just not like you loved me
And think of me fondly when your hands are on her
I hope you’re happy, but don’t be happier

Brown guilty eyes and little white lies
Yeah, I played dumb but I always knew
That you’d talk to her, maybe did even worse
I kept quiet so I could keep you

All the things I did
Just so I could call you mine
All the things you did
Well, I hope I was your favorite crime

My friends are the best 🙃 Most of my responses have been redacted to keep up the illusion that I’m a nice person 😅

Everybody’s like
“He’s no item”
“Please don’t like ’em”
“He don’t wife ’em”
“He one nights ’em”

I wanna get lost with you
And hide out, out under the light of the moon
I wanna get lost with you
And see what it’s like to spend a whole night with you, just you

I just scored tickets to Jason Mraz’s FREE SHOW at The Shell!

Morning View is my favorite Incubus album, and they’re re-recording it and performing it in its entirety at the Hollywood Bowl in October.

Action Bronson and Paris Jackson are opening, though. Was Hoobastank unavailable? 😂

You only think about yourself
You only think about yourself
You’d better bend before I go
On the first train to Mexico

You’re still the one I run to
The one that I belong to
You’re still the one I want for life

I love Kevin Garrett so much (okay, and Shania, too). He’s one of my favorite people to see live ♥️

This is pretty much how my first day back at work went. Also, I couldn’t remember any of my credentials 😅  I’ve never had to update so many passwords. It’s a good thing the new Local Natives album just came out, because it’s the only thing that got me through this day.

Lifted up, lifted up, lifted up
No, I don’t care about any of that now
It’s all been put behind
It’s falling through the cracks
Lost somewhere between
Where I was and wanna be now

Local Natives was the last band I watched live in LA. I had front row balcony tickets at the YouTube Theater at SoFi, and they didn’t sell enough tickets, so they closed the balcony and made everyone sit on the bottom floor. Except they didn’t tell anyone till they got there and already paid $40 for parking, so my seats were shitty because I skipped the opener and got there later and everyone had gotten their seats reassigned and were standing so I had to stand the whole time around these obnoxious people who talked through the entire show. I usually see Local Natives whenever they have a show in LA, and they had three shows at Hollywood Forever Cemetery after that (a venue that I love), but I was still mad about the YouTube show, so I refused LOL. It’s been a year, so I’m over it now. This new album is really good, so I might see them at The Sound when they close out their tour in San Diego.

Baby, worship my hips and waist
So feminine with grace
I touch your soul when you hear me say
“Boy, let me be your woman”

Doja Cat is touring this fall! Who’s coming with???

Since today is the first day of summer and I’m seeing Young the Giant in two months!

…or Jay’s message to me today after finding out about my strokes 🤣 I can totally hear him saying that! Except he says “skrong” like Kanye in Roses and “bitch” (also like Kanye in Roses).

I saw Kanye perform his debut album at 4th and B back in 2004. I miss the old Kanye.

My blue jeans
Will last me all my life
Oh, yes
So should we
I’m spending all this time

I went to my cousin’s son’s high school graduation party, and his daughter’s playlist was playing and I realized that I have the same musical tastes as a 16-year-old.

I would see Daniel Caeser in concert but his show is the same day as The Brook & The Bluff, and I’d rather eat at Pizza Port see The Brook & The Bluff.

You lit your cigarette
Oh, how quickly we all forget
That bed you made, you must lay in it
Lost in a fruitless cause
False hope was all you bought
Oh, and the answers didn’t seem so far

Just got tickets to their fall tour! I’m going to their SD show instead of the one the next day in LA, partly because trying to get to Hollywood on a Thursday sucks, but mostly because I want to eat at Pizza Port.

Hey, Siri. Play the ‘Roy is sorry for not understanding Keeley’ playlist.

Don’t mind me. Just re-watching old Ted Lasso episodes and loved this scene.

P.S. I’ve known Sade’s By Your Side was gonna be my wedding song ever since it came out in 2000 and I thought I’d be married by the time I turned 25 (I’m 41 now LOL).

On my walk, this guy was blasting Yellowcard while working out in his garage.

I had so many questions. Did he mean to play it this loud? Is he listening to my resurrection sunday playlist? Is it 2001??? I usually listen to my twerkout playlist when I work out, would early 2000s pop-punk pump me up more?

P.S. I love that the top comment on this video is, “Music is the closest thing we have to a time machine.” Ain’t that the truth…

Jessie and I go to our friends’ kids birthday parties for the free hood ass ice cream trucks (@ SD Sweet Treats)

Can’t I be both???

This cover of Labrinth’s Jealous sung by an all-male a cappella group led by a Korean dude is probably my favorite cover ever. It’s also available on Spotify if you feel like listening to it on repeat and crying yourself to sleep (not that I ever do that). Does anyone want to go to Nashville with me to watch them in the fall??? I used to be in show choir in high school (I have the sequin dresses and nude character shoes to prove it) and I’m a huge choir nerd. I hope that doesn’t turn you off LOL.

Also, I once went to a Billie Eilish show in 2018, and my ears are still ringing.

New favorite song, though.

BRB crying.

Lewis Capaldi – Wish You The Best

I miss knowin’ what you’re thinkin’
And hearin’ how your day has been
Do you think you can tell me everything, darling?
But leave out every part about him

I hardly listen to the radio in SD (partly because the DJs are garbage, but mostly because I’m usually listening to Young the Giant on Spotify). I heard this song a few times on 92.3 on the way up to LA, and I’m obsessed.

SZA – Kill Bill

I’m still a fan even though I was salty
Hate to see you with some other broad, know you happy
Hate to see you happy if I’m not the one drivin’
I’m so mature, I’m so mature
I’m so mature, I got me a therapist to tell me there’s other men
I don’t want none, I just want you
If I can’t have you, no one should

I went to my first show in months tonight, partly because it was Kevin Garrett, partly because it was his birthday today, but mostly because he was the opener and I didn’t have to stay up that late (@ Quartyard).

Kevin Garrett – Coloring

Don’t want the world to know I’m by myself
Don’t want the world to know I’m on your shelf
But if you want to try at all
Stay for the night, tell you why nothing’s right if you’re gone
Stay for the night, if it’s all a lie, I wouldn’t mind if you’re wrong
Stay for the night, we’ve been alright for so long
There’s no coloring around us anymore
You either know or you don’t

He did a cover of “Iris” by The Goo Goo Dolls, and I’ve been listening to the City of Angels soundtrack from ’98 and crying ever since.

Spotify’s really out here exposing me right now 😅

Silver dreams bring me to you

Local Natives (@ YouTube Theater)

Ghost, I wish you well, it’s your life
Pray you find yourself as souls divide
Seven sisters blue, it’s your life
Left my heart with, left my heart with you

Palace (@ The Fonda)

💔

Dance party (@ The Forum)

It feels like we only go backwards, darling

Hello
I’ve waited here for you
Everlong

Tame Impala x Foo Fighters (@ Innings Fest)

If you only ever go to one concert in your life, let it be Tame Impala at the Hollywood Bowl.

Everything that happens is from now on
This is pouring rain, this is paralyzed

Spent my Friday night crying in Inglewood, hbu? (@ YouTube Theater)

I’ve seen Bon Iver twice before, but this was the first time he sang my most favorite song of his (re:Stacks). This was also my first time seeing a show at the new YouTube Theater. It’s located inside SoFi Stadium and it is GORGEOUS. If I were the Chargers, I would’ve left SD for this shit, too! It’s also an 11-minute drive from my apartment and near this cajun resto where we had the best pre-show po’ boys ever. Chargers game, anyone???

Tame Impala and Black Pumas? Yes, please.

Lay me in the tall grown grass in a shallow grave
Let it have me

Lord Huron (@ Hollywood Forever Cemetery)

One of my favorite bands at one of my favorite venues! My first live show in nearly two years did not disappoint 🖤

Take my money 🖤

I want you in the worst way
Is the gate code still your birthday?

John Mayer will forever be my guiltiest pleasure.

Lord Huron at the cemetery? Yes, please 🖤

KG covering one of my favorite songs on my birthday ❤️

Outside Lands 2011 with Pammie, Chris and Jessie was def my most favorite festival ever. So much has changed since then, and at the same time, not much has changed at all…

I was supposed to be in Nashville this weekend, and I’ve died a little bit inside every time a show has been canceled this year. Is it 2021 yet???

Sameer of Young the Giant played a solo acoustic show for Twitch Stream Aid and performed my most favorite song from when they were still called The Jakes. Also, I have that same case study planter, so it’s basically like he was singing to me in my apartment.

Kevin Garrett – Love You Less

There’s a place where we’re together
That’s what I’ll keep on telling myself

I love that artists are live streaming from their living rooms during this lockdown, partly because I’ve missed going out to shows, but mostly because I get to cry sing as loud as I want in the privacy of my own home.

Title Track (@ The Hotel Cafe)

I try to catch Kevin Garrett whenever he’s in LA, and this was by far my favorite show of his. Love this intimate venue.

I love that Christine’s birthday is so close to mine, especially when her husband throws her a surprise party at my favorite BBQ spot! (@ Grand Ole BBQ)

The girls gave me the best gift ever: music and travel! I can’t wait to see Tame Impala in Portland!!!

Thanks to Chel, Christine and the old man in a hawaiian shirt at the bar for buying me all those birthday drinks (and even more thanks to Alicia for picking my ass up and Ray for driving my car home).

When the clock struck midnight on my birthday, I was two burritos deep and lying on the floor at Alicia’s house. This is 38, guys.

Sylvan Esso – Coffee (@ Walt Disney Concert Hall)

Last show of the year at my new favorite venue ❤️

Ohana Fest (@ Doheny State Beach)

This is the third time I’ve seen The Strokes and probably my last. Julian’s a mess! During one of the songs, he forgot the lyrics, walked off the stage and sang, “I don’t want to play in this place anymore.” The show wasn’t done yet, but he sure was.

They just finished a new album and are probably gearing up to tour next year. As much as I love their music, I don’t know that I would see them live again. If you can, catch them twenty years ago in NYC!

Maren Morris (@ The Greek Theater)