Matisyahu Concert

This Thursday Matt and I went to the Twilight Concert Series to enjoy the music of Matisyahu. For those of you who haven't heard of it, the Twilight Concert Series is a free set of concerts that take place in Pioneer Park throughout the summer. In 2006, Matisyahu was the opener for a 311 concert we attend. Unfortunately we got to that concert late and missed him, and although we did get to meet him after the 311 concert, we were sad we'd missed seeing him perform. So getting to see him and it being free on top of that, was something we definitely weren't going to pass up.

We started our night off by eating dinner at Ekamai Thai Curry, a place owned by one of our friends and very conveniently located across from Pioneer Park. They have super yummy dishes (I highly recommend trying the mango sticky rice for dessert) and Matt and I seem to always be craving the food lately.

After dinner, we went in to the park and found a spot on the grass. Everyone was sorta doing a picnic style thing during the first band, sitting in groups on blankets and eating various foods from the tents set up in the park. Then when Matisyahu started setting up, things got pretty crowded. We were pretty surprised at the amount of people and how much everyone attending varied in age and style. I think we saw people from the age of 5 all the way to a couple who looked to be in their 70's.

Matisyahu has a different way of doing concerts than other artists. Instead of singing everything the way you're used to hearing it on the cd, he remixes and changes up a lot of his songs. This made for an interesting experience. While it was cool to listen to some "new" songs and see how much he could push his musical creativeness, it was also sort of hard to recognize some of the songs. But despite that, about a dozen pot circles around us, and the fact that I couldn't really see the stage for the majority of the concert, it was a pretty fun night.

If you're not familiar with Matisyahu, here is a youtube video of one of my favorite songs he sings. Although it is probably his most popular and somewhat overplayed, (it was the music for many of the 2010 Winter Olympic clips and commercials) this version is a bit different and he does some wicked beat boxing mixed in too. Plus, I'm always a sucker for the acoustic versions of songs.

My Pal Paper

Paper and I have been friends since I was young 

I would spend time telling paper stories and my days events 

Paper would tell me stories too, and I always enjoyed our time together

We imagined things together, talked things through, took a blank space and filled it with creation

As I got older, paper grew distant and I'm not sure how it all happened 

I guess life became occupied with more things that didn't involve paper 

It became harder and harder to get that relationship back

I saw paper less and less

No matter how hard I try it just doesn't seem the same now

I sometimes wish I could go back and fix things

Typos, grammar errors, misspellings, mishaps

But things made in ink are not so easy to erase

Sorry if no one "gets" this post. There have been countless times where things are swirling around in my brain like crazy and I've wanted to post but worried about the opinions and thoughts of others or me being too weird/abstract with thoughts. But I'm trying to have a new outlook on that idea. After all, it is my blog right? I should be able to post whatever I like. Sometimes it just makes your head feel more at peace to write things down, you know? Even if it doesn't always really make sense. Maybe now I can go to sleep.

Things about Matt

So every time I write a blog, Matt's ongoing joke is to ask me if I'm blogging about him. Since I haven't blogged in a while and I've been stuck on something to write about, I figured I'd do just that, blog about Matt. So here are some randoms about him.

-His salad dressing of choice is vinaigrette

-He hates flip flops

-He is of Italian and German descent

-He has blue eyes

-He loves chocolate cake and hates sour cream and pineapple

-He is very picky about his shirt collars

-He could probably eat pasta salad every day

-He can spend hours fixing up his car and thinking of new ways to modify it

-He can often find interesting ways to fix something so that it works

-He has broken two bones, his arm and his collar bone

-He made a dress shirt for himself and a skirt for me in a sewing class in high school. and yes i did wear the skirt, it was cute.

-He played ice hockey as a child, lacrosse in high school, and currently plays in a men's roller hockey league.

-His favorite colors are red and black

He is not a big movie buff but if he's going to watch a movie, he enjoys comedies

-He generally doesn't care what people think about him - a pro and sometimes a con of his personality

-He has a certain strangeness about him that is hard to describe and usually involves his sense of humor and explains his randomness. If you know him well enough, you understand it and know what I am talking about. 

I love this boy

i find that music helps.

the rhythm and flow of a song

put my mind at ease

when i can't find the words 

to describe emotions

there's no way of really knowing

how to express my thoughts 

so i listen to lyrics and see that

someone has felt it before

and put it into words much better than i

"Words are kind

They helped ease the mind

I'll miss my old friend

And though you gotta go

We'll keep a piece of your soul"

remember when we stayed up really late and watched music videos on vh1?

i do.

oh, and em - we count too.

Florida!

A couple weeks ago we took a vacation to Orlando, Florida. We'd had it planned since January as a way of celebrating our 2 year anniversary and also graduation. It was so exciting once the time finally came for us to pack and board a plane. I was a bit worried about the weather being gloomy since a couple days before our trip weather.com told me that it was supposed to thunderstorm every day we were there. Luckily, it only rained a bit the evening we flew in and a little bit the next day. Plus, Florida rain is warm, so we didn't mind it much.

Thanks to my parents, we were able to use some RCI credits for an awesome resort hotel about 10 minutes from Disney World and relatively close to SeaWorld and Islands of Adventure. We had a great and very exhausting time. Because I don't want to spend numerous vacations going to the same destination, I wanted to pack as much as I could into the week we'd be there. We went to six theme parks, two beaches and four malls. I'm glad we got to see all I had planned, but my feet weren't so happy with me. The very next day after arriving we went to Epcot and The Magic Kingdom in the same day. We were gone from about 9:30 am to midnight...good way to set the pace for the rest of the week.

As always, I thoroughly enjoyed not having to cook food or clean up anything. That may be one of my favorite things about vacations. Sad, but true. So, because pictures generally say more than words, here you go my friends. And if you'd like to see more, check my fb page.

Tasty sandwiches in Downtown Disney

SeaWorld

Getting to ride a Segway

Shopping of course!

We waited in line for a ride and it started to rain. Since we were next on the ride, we didn't get out of line but rather let it pour down on us. Then they shut down the ride because of lightening. We basically got soaked for nothin'

Seuss Landing at Universal's Islands of Adventure

Here you can see the rooftops of Hogsmeade from the Wizarding World of Harry Potter at Universal's Islands of Adventure. It was seriously so real, just like I was in the movie. Unfortunately, the grand opening isn't until June 18th, so this is all I could see of it. 

Daytona Beach