On the road again... Part Deux..

Okay, so the roadtrip was awesome... and yes, we picked a really swanky hotel... but only because two chicks on a road trip alone is kinda dangerous. We wanted something with good security and as close as possible to the venue... and when you put hicks in a swanky hotel... well, you can imagine. I own nice luggage, but for an overnight stay? Nope.. I had a huge blue backpack, a shoulder bag thingie (okay, that's part of my luggage) and a victoria's secret bag. That one ended up staying in the car when I thought about how retarded it would look for me to waltz into the lobby with a victoria's secret bag full of small appliances. How was I to be sure they'd have a hairdryer? Luckily they did.

No, I've never used valet parking... no matter how snotty the hotel, it's still a shifty-eyed teenager in a red coat. Even if wasn't my car (we took Trish's), I still didn't trust em! But, it was either pay the kid fifteen bucks (!!!) or have to haul our crap two blocks from a parking garage. Yeah right! So we check in, and the room was awesome.. mini-bar and all. For some reason, the hick side of my brain overruled the side of logic to actually produce the thought 'Don't even touch the minibar or you'll get charged!' So then we take a cab to the venue. I'd never been in a cab, so again.. new experience for Kari. haha. So we get in, and the guy is wearing some pretty stout cologne. Did I mention my love of cologne? Yeah well, this cologne was bad.. real bad. Anyway, the man rolls down the window like WE stink! hahaha Gotta love it. So then he starts speaking some foreign language into his cellphone. Apparently in his native tongue, whatever the hell it was, the phrase 'good luck, man' is still the same as in english.. it was like "jabberjabberjabberjabber Good luck, man!! jabberjabberjabberjabber". The five bucks we paid for a three minute ride was worth it just for the laughs.

We get into the venue, and spend the next couple hours plastering it with posters... so many posters, that one of the barworkers actually asked us to stop. He didn't think the fans would take them down...whatever, they were nearly all gone by the time the show was over.. kids were getting them signed left and right. HA! MR. BARWORKER! I SCOFF AT YOU! SCOFF SCOFF!! First band was Zao.. all this time I thought it was pronounced 'zow', I guess it's actually 'zay-o' or something to that effect.. actually I don't even care, cause I didn't like them at all. I'm all for growling, but occasionally, I like to be able to pick out a word or two in the songs. and then there was DevilDriver. Not to sound like such a fan, but they honestly get better every time I see them. Great set, the crowd went insane, the circle pit was crazy, and lo and behold, they were filming for the dvd. It would happen that there was an insane bright light that would flash like every 30 seconds.. honest to god it was like 'the light'.. just made me wanna say 'Can you show us the way home, Carol Anne?', so if there's any shot of me on the dvd it would be when the light flashes and I'm freaking out and covering my eyes. hahaha after their set, Trish and I made our way to the merch table. This was of course, after we'd made our way to the bar... and since we'd only had a sandwich from Arby's... the booze hit me 'like a garbage truck... dropped off the empire state building'.. and so, this is the only picture I could be dragged into...



and nope, I don't really remember taking it. We completely missed Trivium (eh, no biggie) and In Flames (damn).....but, we were with great people, so a good time was had by all. Took another cab back to the hotel at some point, and the valet guys were still out, waiting to open the door for us. Yeah, that was really nice, but we were honestly just trying to make it to the elevator without stumbling into something. haha Next thing I know, it's after 6am, and Trish is talking to me.. I'm not a morning person anyway, and I was still basically pickled in crown royal. it went a little like this.. 'Kari?' 'Yeah, where am I?' 'You're in your bed.. in the hotel' 'Where are you?' 'I'm in my bed'.. and I think there may have been a '...dumbass' thrown in there too. Haha So I open my eyes and I can't see anything... I have a milisecond thought that I've drank myself blind, and then I remember I left my contacts in. Whew! Thank god for that.

Then I hear 'dude, they even put chocolates on our pillows'..... then I think to myself, 'chocolate... what chocolate? I never saw any chocolate.' then I start to panic, thinking I've slept on it, and there's gonna be some huge brown stain in my bed... eeeeeeeew! Right about that time is when I saw it on the nightstand. Whew! Lucky. Throw off the blankets to discover I'm wearing the same clothes.. bar bracelet and all. If this happened to me more than once a year, it would be a lot less funny. In fact it would be pretty sad. Sad in one of those 'Lifetime Channel' kinda ways. Then, we fell victim to the room service breakfast menu... that's what happens when you leave all of your munchies in the car... a car that is now basically owned by the valet redcoats.

So instead of Munchos and Dr. Pepper, we had sausage links and hashbrowns... honestly, that was pretty brave... I'm not sure how we made it through that much grease without throwing up. The ride home was pretty uneventful, just basically laughing at the same things as on the way up.. I defy you to pass a sign for 'Big Beaver Creek', 'PeePee Creek', 'Wetmore Road', 'Tater Ridge', or 'Buttles Street' without laughing. Maybe I'm just into cheap humor, but stuff like that will never cease to crack me up. Eh, that's about it. All in all, probably the best road trip ever. I know I've left out so much stuff....I really need to start filming them.