December 2009 – Concert Katie

Alvin and the Chipmunks with Honor Society

Katie December 24, 2009 0 Comments

This is what happens when you post your year in review before the year is really over – something exciting happens unexpectedly.

Tuesday night I received an anonymous tip that Honor Society would be at the Pallisades Mall in NY to view Alvin and the Chipmunks 2 – a movie in which they have an appearance. Unfortunately this all came just SECONDS after Lauren had signed offline to go to bed and blackberry was having an outage so I couldn’t even try to catch her with a BBM. I opted to email her, but of course the outage was not only BBM but email too so she didn’t get the email until the morning – which confused her because I had given it a subject of “tomorrow” haha

She emailed me back and said that she would go – so I right away purchased tickets because we didn’t know how fast the “rumor” would spread amongst the fans. We didn’t want to risk it selling out.

By 4pm we were off – the GPS said it would take just an hour to get there, but before we even reached the CT/NY border we were stuck in traffic for 45 minutes. It ended up taking us just over 2 hours to get there and then of course there was the challenge of finding a place to park – at a mall – on christmas eve eve. (Although that was not nearly as difficult as we were anticipating, surprisingly)

When we arrived at the theater we spotted our friends and then spotted Mike. As we were chatting with our friends Alex and his family arrived. We opted to grab food (I was STARVING as I didn’t get a chance to pick up something to eat before we left and had nothing but a couple of cookies all day) and then get a spot in the theater. Alex ended up 2 rows behind us, Mike was 3 rows behind us and I never did see where Jason ended up. Andy was not there.

The theater erupted in to cheers when Honor Society’s scene, the opening scene of the movie, was on the screen. And once again when their names appeared in the credits.

After the movie (which was totally adorable and I loved it) the guys were hanging out near the Alvin and the Chipmunk statues. We got a group picture with them, then I got a drum history lesson from Alex (I asked him one thing, which he wanted to know why I asked, but instead of giving me the chance to answer he went into a history lesson. I am supposed to thank him when I go on Jeopardy or Millionaire lol) and then Alex took a picture of himself with a chipmunk tail. He should be tweeting it soon, and I am sure that it is hilarious.

Alex came back over to our group a bit later and I told him the dead rat story. His eyes like popped out of his head. The look on his face was priceless. He re-wrote the end of the story to “THEN I STEPPED ON IT AND IT CAME BACK TO LIFE!” which of course would have made things a lot more interesting…

Then it was time for the guys to go, we said goodbye to Mike and Alex and I don’t even know where Jason was, so we didn’t get to say goodbye to him. By that point it was about 10pm. Luckily traffic was not bad at all on the way home so we made it back in an hour, just like we should have 🙂

It was a very pleasant surprise of a night.

Random

2009 Year in Review

Katie December 21, 2009 0 Comments

2009 started off with me having hacked off all my hair and donating it to Locks of Love. It was the shortest my hair had been in years. Of course now it is getting quite long again.

My first concert of the year was Cowboy Mouth on the Lido Deck as the Rock Boat took sale from Miami, FL to Nassau Bahamas. The Rock Boat was 5 days of pretty much non stop rock. You never knew who you would see jamming with each other. Our first night we “had dinner” with 2/3 Hanson. A couple nights later Maribeth & I happened upon Zac Hanson sitting in with Scott Munns. Maribeth & I went to 4 of the 6 M&Gs; and got a poster signed by a TON of people. While it only counted as 5 concerts – we saw tons and tons of bands, and didn’t even have a chance to see everyone on the boat once! And it took almost a month for me to get my land legs back!

February Jen & I braved a snow storm to check out The Alternate Routes and Matt Wertz at the Webster Underground in Hartford. Honor Society played their first sold out show at The Fillmore at Irving Plaza. Before the show Lauren & I went to see Wax Jonas at the Wax Museum. Little did we know we would end up closer to the REAL Jonas Brothers than we were to wax jonas… I also won a radio contest to meet Nick Lachey and mine and Lauren’s major motion picture debut was made when Jonas Brothers the 3D Concert Experience was in theaters.

March’s lone show was Curtis People, Ernie Halter and Josh Hoge – after David Cook’s $2 show at SCSU was canceled for family reasons. At that show I realized I was not really a fan of Andrew Hoover who made the show run late so we weren’t able to stay for Ernie’s entire set.

In April, my dad, brother and Lisa made our way to the new home of the Mets – Citi Field. We weren’t all that impressed. (But it didn’t stop us from going back several more times throughout the season). I went to see Seal at the casino and Push Play and Tiffany Giardina rocked a restaurant at my mall.

In May I went to Hershey Park to see Honor Society. I saw Josh Gracin at the casino and Tony Lucca at the Fairfield Theater. I flew to Oklahoma to see Hanson at a Hanson.net Member’s Only Event and got to check out their hometown of Tulsa. When I got back – I met David Cook and had a rotten experience at Toad’s Place before his show. I woke up at 3:30 AM to go to the Today Show to see Kris Allen and Adam Lambert perform with Lauren. We were on TV.

June brought me to Broadway to see Drew Seeley in the Little Mermaid. I went to see Demi Lovato and David Archuleta at the XL Center alone (but met up with Christine). I got to see Taylor Hanson’s side project, Tinted Windows in NYC and talked to Alex & Andy of Honor Society live on their say now.

July I went a little crazy. I turned 25 and saw Honor Society 6 times in 5 days. I met Jordin Sparks and got foamed by Kevin and Joe Jonas. I also got to be a part of a World Record at Citi Field.

August I spent a lot of time at casinos – seeing David Cook at MGM Grand at Foxwoods and Tinted Windows at Mohegan Sun just a few days later. (Where the kid sitting across from me spilled his water on my lap!) Lauren & I tried to meet Kris Allen but ended up meeting Michael Sarver, Matt Giraud and Danny Gokey instead. We weren’t impressed with Danny Gokey’s behavior. Lauren, Britt and I finished the month out in the rain in Queens to see Honor Society at Arthur Ashe Kids day and landed ourselves on TV once again.

In September I challenged myself to blog every day. And I did. I went to see American Idols Live in concert and was devastated when Kris Allen came out and announced he was too sick to perform at the show. It was the only show he missed the whole tour. We got the old gang together (Jessa, Jen and I) and went to see Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers – who were so excited their CD just came out that they kept smelling my copy of it. Lauren & I celebrated Honor Society’s release of “Fashionably Late” by being VIP in the city. We were on TV again when we went to the Today Show to see Honor Society perform and met Al Roker. Lauren won VIP tickets to see Push Play and we were denied our Meet and Greet.

October was a lot of Honor Society – NJ, NY and PA and a little bit of Hanson mixed in – my 40th show in Albany NY and a Members Only Event in Washington DC where I got a hug from Zac. Lauren stepped on a dead rat. (I can’t recap the year without mentioning that.) Lauren, Britt and I also attended Jonas Brothers Kick for Change and I went to a Stevie Wonder concert as well. To finish the month off, I won a twitter contest for Circus tickets and my aunt and I were *in* the circus on Halloween.

For November I decided to participate in National Novel Writing Month. And I “won”, writing a novel clocking in at 50,170 or so words. It still needs hard core editing – but that fact that I finished it was quite an accomplishment. I went to 2 (sold out) Honor Society shows in NYC in Boston – finally getting a drumstick from Alex at the Boston M&G.; I also went to see Idol Judge Kara Dioguardi at SCSU talk about songwriting and sing some songs she had written.

December seemed as there would be nothing to look forward to before New Years in Hershey with Honor Society. Then I won tickets to see Kris Allen at Lounge 101. The day before we got tickets to see him sponsored by 96.5 TIC as well. He is precious and apologized for missing the show in Bridgeport. Then Lisa and I decided to get tickets for our Mom’s to see Grease at the Oakdale. We managed to get them for 50% off for a Sunday night show, only to get an email a couple days later that the show was canceled. We decided to go to the 2pm Sunday show instead – but then Connecticut got blasted by a blizzard and THAT show was canceled too. I guess me seeing Ace Young in Grease is just not meant to be.

Now I am just hoping that we won’t get any more snow before January so we can make it to Hershey to see Honor Society for New Years Eve.

Music

Grease December 20 Saga

Katie December 20, 2009 0 Comments

My long time friend Lisa and I had decided that we were going to take our Moms to see Grease at Oakdale for their birthday/christmas. We finally worked out a date and time when we would all be available (Sunday December 20 at 2pm) and as I was going to get the tickets, I saw that the Sunday 7:30pm show was being offered for 50% off. I contacted Lisa and she said that was fine so we went for the “bargain” show instead.

Meanwhile we found out that Ace Young, one of my favorite American Idol contestants, had joined the production as Danny Zuko. (We already knew Idol winner Taylor Hicks was in the show was Teen Angel)

A couple of days later I got an email that the 7:30 show was canceled, but we could use our tickets for any other day. Once again I contacted Lisa and we were back to our original Sunday 2pm slot.

Except Saturday night we got a HUGE snow storm – a foot or so of snow around where I live. My mom checked at 8:30 and it said the show was still on so she and my dad dug the cars out of the driveway. At 11:30 she told me we would be leaving in an hour to make sure that we got there in time and had time to switch our tickets. I went to Livenation.com and it said that the 2:00pm show was ALSO canceled.

Now I am just waiting on the refund from livenation – total bummer – we had missed going to this show when Ace was in it on Broadway as well. I guess it is just not meant to be…

Concert Hanson

Guess what I’m doing in April?

Katie December 16, 2009 0 Comments

HANSON Announce “FIVE of FIVE”
Special Concert Series
LEADING UP TO APPEARANCE AT THE BAMBOOZLE FESTIVAL
FIVE CONSECUTIVE CONCERTS AT NEW YORK’S GRAMERCY THEATER, EACH CONCERT FEATURING ONE OF THE BAND’S FOUR PREVIOUS ALBUMS IN THEIR ENTIRETY, AND THE PREMIER OF THEIR UPCOMING SPRING 2010 RELEASE

HANSON today announced that they will be performing at The Bamboozle festival on Saturday May 1st. Leading up to this prestigious festival appearance and in anticipation of their spring album release, the band will be hosting an exclusive five-night engagement at New York City’s Gramercy Theater, during which the band will be performing, in their entirety, each of their four previous albums, leading up to a worldwide premier of their spring full length.

Schedule as follows:
April
26 – Middle of Nowhere
27 – This Time Around
28 – Underneath
29 – The Walk
30 – New album
May 1st – The Bamboozle Festival

Regarding the upcoming concerts Taylor Hanson said “It’s great to be a part of this year’s Bamboozle festival, and especially on the heels of a new record we wanted to bring together a live music event that was really unique, something that allows us and our fans to share the music we’ve created over more than a decade like never before”. Added Isaac “We could not think of a better way to span the old and the new music than in this live setting”.

Although I don’t think I will end up going to Bamboozle – it will be hanson concerts #42,43,44,45,46 for me. Could I hit 50 by the time their summer tour is over? We’ll see…

Random

2009 Goals – How did I do?

Katie December 13, 2009 0 Comments

While there are still quite a few days left in 2009, I decided to take a look back on my goals for the year and see how I did and start thinking about some of my goals for 2010. It is too cold and I am far too busy with work (and lazy) to try and sneak any of these things in last minute lol

Check out the details under the cut

Get Organized – I did make progress on this, but I wouldn’t consider it a huge success, I definitely still need to work on this.
Time Management – Did a bit better here than last year – but I really need to work on staying up late for the sake of staying up late!
Double my savings – Close but not quite. A budget I need to stick to is definitely in order for 2010.
Read at least 10 books – I read 17 and still have the 3rd in a series to read which was put on hold for NaNo. Not sure if I will get to the library before 2010 though
Watch at least 50 movies – I think I am at about 130 for the year, and am about to pop another one in. Cutting Netflix back to just 1 movie at a time in 2010 though so I imagine that number will be significantly less next year 😉
Scrapbook at least 150 pages – As of October’s pages being finished I am at 190.
Go to at least 15 concerts – I went to 15 HONOR SOCIETY concerts. And 42 shows for the year as of writing this. I also met my sub-goal of going to at least 1 concert a month.
Get all the pennies available in Connecticut – I got no new CT pennies and 2 more machines were added to the state. Definitely need to work on this in 2010.
Try digital scrapbooking – I tried it. I wasn’t a fan.
Ride my bike at least 5 mins a day – This worked out well until I got back from the rock boat. I need to re-work this goal for 2010 so I actually do it. (ie find something else to do while on the bike – reading or something)
Try new scrapbooking techniques – Used eyelets, did some flocking, but nothing really stuck. Except using ribbons… I’ve developed a fascination with ribbons.

Places to visit-

Nassau, Bahamas – Accomplished
Half Moon Cay, Bahamas – Rock Boat was unable to dock here so this didnt happen.
Keyspan Park – For the 3rd year – did NOT make it to see the Brooklyn Cyclones.
Citi Field – Got to 9 games at Citi Field
Hard Rock Cafe Miami – Didnt make it here
See NYC on a double decker bus – Still havent done this
NYC Wax Museum (to see David Wright) – Check!
DC Wax Museum – This was mainly to see Wax Jonas – which we did in NYC when they were visiting.
Newseum – Fail.
Bethesda Fountain Central Park – Fail
The Mark Twain House – Fail – but they have a penny machine now so here’s hoping I get there in 2010.
Ellis Island – Fail!
Hard Rock Cafe Nassau – Accomplished.

Concert Kris Allen

Kris Allen December 8, 2009

Katie December 8, 2009 0 Comments

I don’t think I ever posted about going to see Kris today – so here is a bit of a recap – last Monday I woke up to BBMs from my friends saying that Kris Allen was performing at KC101’s Lounge 101. Immediately I *knew* I had to win because I love love love Kris Allen and didn’t get to see him in Bridgeport.

I streamed KC101 all day and knew that if I didn’t win on Monday I would go INSANE by the time Friday rolled around listening to Top 40 constantly. Maze had a twitter contest – didn’t get through from that. Wendy Wild asked for caller #101 – I got hung up on so I don’t even know if I really got through. Trey wanted caller 10. I was 4. And then he was all “Hey KC101 who is this?” so I knew I won. Amazing.

Yesterday we saw that 96.5TIC was giving away tickets to their Listener’s club, so the girls all bought one (thinking it was just one ticket) to go and see him twice in one day.

Lauren and I made it to Hartford by a little after 11, parked and waited for Christine. Finally we got our confirmation email that we won our passes and should be there at noon – and that we had a PAIR of passes. Oh well…

We went in and Article 19 was playing. I had heard of them before and they weren’t bad but it seemed like they were trying a bit too hard at times.

At noon, we were brought upstairs and grabbed a spot in the back with a pretty clear view of the stage.

He played Heartless mashed-up with Gangsta’s Paradise – which was really cool.
Man In The Mirror
Alright With Me
The Christmas Song
Live Like We’re Dying

There was a lot of banter going on between songs – he said he was trying to get his voice going and apparently he did that by talking. There was talk of baseball teams and Derek Jeter, Mexican Restaurants and then he checked if he had any pit stains. Cale teased that he was done now because of all the cameras and then called him pit stains mcgoo. (fyi – there were no pit stains)

Then we got to get a picture with him – told him we’d be seeing him soon at the next show and he seemed excited about that.

The plan was to “fly” to Hamden, but of course 91 traffic made that difficult. We took a detour and made it to the 2nd location with plenty of time to spare.

Got there and waited for my cousin and then went in and grabbed a seat at the bar. The stage was not elevated here so it was hard to see and at one point Kris stood on his chair because he wanted to see every body. Of course then for us he became speaker head because of the angle we were at.

He played the same set list except no christmas song and not as much banter – though he did mention that some people were at both shows and he thought that was cool. He also apologized for not playing the Bridgeport show and said he’d book a show here to make up for it. (Let’s hope it is not at Toad’s)

Somehow we ended up at the front of the photo line this time and I told him I was so upset when he didn’t play in Bridgeport and he rubbed my back and was like “I felt so bad about that. I am so glad you got to see me today” and I was like “Yea me too!” and then I got yelled at for talking to him for too long. LOL.. Oh well.

Now normally I would end the review – but there was more excitement when we went to Panera for dinner. We were sitting there minding our own business when we hear this “BOOM!” I looked to my right and a girl at a table jumps up and there is dust/smoke everywhere. Turns out – a car drove RIGHT INTO THE BUILDING. It seemed at a fast speed too and more than just accidentally putting it in drive instead of reverse and hitting the gas. The cops were still there when we left and the brick on the side of the building was messed up pretty good.

Scrapbook

Scrapbook inspiration

Katie December 7, 2009 0 Comments

Over the weekend I was attempting to scrap my 20th Honor Society show, but I was stumped. How do you make a layout fresh when you've done it so many times before?

I looked through my scrapbook ideas book and one layout caught my eye. It might have been because the word 'remember' was so large and this show was all about if Alex would remember my drumstick.

The layout was loosely based off the one in the book but it turned out so different! Check it out…
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