Happy birthday to my sis…almost.

I bought my sister’s birthday present yesterday (it’s not until May, but I had to get these in time!) and I could not be more excited for our celebration in September. haha Ironically, we just saw Maroon 5 in Tulsa a couple weeks ago, and I just bought tickets to see them again in September with Kelly Clarkson on the Honda Civic Tour.

This is basically our middle/high school dream come true. Back when Kelly Clarkson was on American Idol, my sister and I were OBSESSED. And I mean obsessed. We still reminisce about how we covered our closet doors in pictures of Kelly. We saw her with Clay Aiken (embarrassing) in Dallas and made “Kelly’s #1 fan shirts” (obviously, we were BOTH her #1 fans…). She said we should definitely wear them again to this concert. haha

All jokes aside, I love Maroon 5, I love Kelly Clarkson, and I’m excited to make the trip to Dallas in September! It’ll be a great time. Both are great singers, songwriters, artists, musicians, etc. I have lots of respect for them both and can’t wait to see them put on a great show! (I wouldn’t mind a surprise duet…)

On another note: Real World Portland is on tonight! I’ll be sure to post my recap in the next few days. I hear this week, Marlon reveals his huge, super-shocking secret. I can’t wait!

Maybe next year, I’ll start acting my age…

That line’s appropriate for two reasons: my birthday was yesterday, and I’m seeing the man who wrote it into one of his songs tonight in Oklahoma City. I’ll be celebrating my birthday with a little-known, country-ish singer by the name of Corey Smith. If you don’t know him, you should give him a listen. His acoustic country sound and his relatable lines are what I and many others love about him. The first time I heard anything from him was two years ago at the annual concert Calf Fry at the Tumbleweed here in Stillwater. I listened to some of his music in the car on the way to the concert, and from his sound and lyrics I did not expect to see a middle-aged man with a shaved head and sunglasses, but that’s what I got, and I loved it.

Since then, he’s been in Tulsa at Cain’s Ballroom, which I was too broke to go to at the time, and I saw an ad in our school newspaper last week that he’d be at the Tumbleweed again on Nov. 10. My first thought was, “Yes! I get to see him again!” But you see, Nov. 10, last night, was my 21st birthday. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Stillwater and the Tumbleweed, it’s a country dance club that attracts an interesting crowd. I went once when I moved to Stillwater and have gone to two concerts there since. To be honest, the Tumbleweed was the last place I wanted to celebrate my 21st birthday. Luckily, I got online and saw he was playing in Oklahoma City tonight, where I’m from and planned on going for the rest of the weekend anyway. I got a lucky birthday surprise!

I can’t wait for the concert tonight; another exciting thing is it will be my first 21 and up show. Unfortunately, I don’t know if I’ll be taking part in any 21 and up activities; I think I had enough last night to last me a while.

I definitely encourage everyone to take a listen to Corey Smith; you won’t regret it! 🙂

Please don’t try so hard to say goodbye.

I tried hard not to say goodbye last night, but I had to sometime.

Last night, I went to Oklahoma City to see Matt Nathanson, Train and one of my favorite bands since I was young(er), Maroon 5. I’d only previously heard a few of Nathanson’s songs that had been on the radio, like “Come On Get Higher” (which he cleverly told us was all about “Scrabble”…listen to it if you haven’t yet) and his new single “Faster,” which they play quite a bit where I work.  He was cute, funny and entertaining…although I couldn’t stop thinking about his striking resemblance (from my far-away angle) to Jason Wahler from Laguna Beach/The Hills/the tabloids/rehab. But please, don’t let that affect your opinion of him. He has a great voice and a lot of catchy songs!

Next up was Train, who you all know is fabulous. The 20-year-old college student in me couldn’t help but think how old the band looked, but they are still awesome. I love “Meet Virginia,” along with the rest of mankind, and “Drops of Jupiter” is and always will be one of my favorite songs of all time.

“Can you imagine no love, pride, deep-fried chicken?  Your best friend always sticking up for you, even when I know you’re wrong?  Can you imagine no first dance, freeze-dried romance, five-hour phone conversation, the best soy latte that you ever had and…me?”

Gets me every time.

And last but certainly not least was the love of my life, the beautiful, sexy, talented creation that is Adam Levine and the rest of Maroon 5. This is one of the few bands whose albums I can listen to in entirety without skipping a single song because I absolutely love every single one. The band’s energy is awesome and I sang along happily to every song and enjoyed every minute of it.

All in all, the show lasted about four hours and it took about another hour to get to my parents’ house, which is about 15 miles from the venue. That part was awful, but the show was great. I’d seen Maroon 5 twice prior to this, and can’t wait to again!  Now I just need them to tour with Dashboard Confessional and we’d have my dream tour…

Did anyone else see these three on tour this summer? If so, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the show. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope everyone else did too!

Vacation, all I ever wanted.

Here we are.  The last five weeks of the semester.  To me, it doesn’t sound too bad.  It’s only five weeks, only 25 days of class, only shortly over a month.  But I feel like because I have that mindset, it’s going to go by slower than ever.

But hopefully time will fly and summer will be here before we know it!  I’m very much looking forward to this summer.  I’m hoping I can gain some kind of PR experience with either a paid internship somewhere in Oklahoma City or helping my mom out with some press releases.  I’m also hoping to see Chelsea Handler with my best friend in June and Britney Spears with my sister in July.  If I can get the money together, those are two shows I don’t want to miss!  And go ahead, make fun of my Britney love all you want.  I get enough of it from my boyfriend! (blog plug!) (P.S. Femme Fatale is awesome!)

Now for the good part.  My family and I go to Breckenridge, Colo. every summer.  When my sister and I were younger, we complained every single year that my parents never took us anywhere for vacation besides Colorado (besides Dallas, but Oklahomans know that doesn’t count as vacation).  My dad graduated from the University of Colorado and my parents lived in Boulder for a few years, so they love Colorado.  And now that I’m older, I don’t blame them.  Anyone who’s been there knows it’s beautiful, and it’s very nice to get away from Oklahoma’s 100 degree heat during the summer.  We do all sorts of things, though: white water rafting, Alpine slides, Jeep rides and of course shopping and eating out. 🙂

My sister and I on a Jeep ride

And now for the REALLY good part.  As I said, Colorado is pretty much my only vacation…I’m not complaining, but it’s true.  I’ve literally been there every summer since I was born.  So when my wonderful boyfriend seriously mentioned going on a vacation this summer, I was all for it.  Behold the beautiful Maya Beach in Mexico that I will be residing in come August!

Barcelo resort in Maya Beach

That looks like an amazing ending to what will hopefully be an amazing summer! 🙂