On November 1, I set out with a goal – to write a 50,000 word novel during the month of November. Every night I tried to get in my 1,667 goal words (or more) to keep on pace.
Friday night, the twist and end to the novel came to me. I was too tired to write it all out last night – but today I put in 3 days worth of goal words and finished the novel just around 5pm EST time. The official NaNo word count is 50,170.
Now to come up with a title for it… and do some MAJOR editing…
Friday night, singer songwriter and American Idol judge Kara Dioguardi came to the Lyman Center at Southern Connecticut State University to talk a bit about her journey in to song writing as well as sing a few of the many, many songs she has written.
She talked about how she went to Duke to be a lawyer as that was what her parents wanted her to do and that her junior year decided it just was not for her and she wanted to be in music. She got her foot in the door by working at Billboard Magazine and learning the ins and outs of the music business.
While I am neither an aspiring singer or songwriter, it was still a very interesting talk and her main point was – if you can find what you love and make money doing it then you are golden. Which is great advice for anyone in any career path.
She was joined by Mitch Allan who used to be in the band SR-71. He was also a song writer and wrote the song 1985 which was later re-written a bit and released by Bowling For Soup. (He sang us the original which was a bit less radio friendly lol)
The night concluded with a Q&A; from the audience. One question was if the woman’s daughter could get an autograph and photo with Kara as they had driven *9* hours to be there for the event!
Setlist under the cut. No photos were allowed at the event.
Walk Away – Kelly Clarkson
Taking Chances – Celine Dion
Sober – Pink
Pieces of Me – Ashley Simpson
1985 – Bowling For Soup (Mitch Allan)
Ain’t No Other Man – Christina Aguilera
Lost – Faith Hill
Get Kris Allen’s new album now on iTunes
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Yesterday Lauren and I added Christine to our crew for the Honor Society show in Boston. Since Andrew had mentioned to Lauren that he didn’t even have to turn around after I came through the line, he knew who was there, we were planning all day to throw him off by putting Christine in between us for the M&G.;
We got to Boston a little after 2 and parked around the corner from the Paradise Rock Club. The line was a bit longer than it was when we got there over the summer for their Full Moon Crazy show. We went to Qdoba for lunch and then got in line.
Lauren and I decided to go into Goodwill to see if they had folding chairs for sale and they did so we bought a pair of them. The plan is to puff paint them and make them our official Honor Society waiting chairs lol
We sat around and joked about what we would do if Alex forgot my drumstick and then we all decided to tweet him to remind him.
I had gotten a flip camera last week so Christine and Lauren went to the front of the line to interview some people for a video for our fansite. Shortly after the gents arrived and got on the bus, they were leaning out the windows so Lauren and Christine went to the bus to document while I held down our spot in the line.
Then we waited and waited and waited for doors to open. While we were waiting they announced there was only 2 tickets left. A few minutes later the show sold out making it Honor Society’s 5th sold out show in a row.
A little after 6 we were let in. Christine and I went to grab a spot and Lauren was put on merch duty. We were also given pears for the “Snackin On a Pear” music video they were recording so Christine and I decorated our pears and ourselves with glo-sticks while we waited for Lauren to come back with our M&G; wristbands.
The gents came out and did snackin’ on a pear a few times and then it was a wrap! We thought Esmee Denters would be out next, but it was some girl from TX who sang 4 songs too many and kept calling them “The Honor Society”
Esmee didn’t come out until about 8. So much for her playing at 7! She did her usual set and then it was time to wait for the gents to come out! The crowd (99% with X’s on their hands) kept surging forward so they kept getting told to move back.
The setlist was the same as New York, except THEY BROUGHT BACK THIS BED IS AN OCEAN!! This is one of their old songs that didn’t make it to the Fashionably Late album, but was Lauren’s favorite song. (HSLive used to be called “Far From Shore” which is a line from that song) This was even MORE awesome for us because Lauren, HSLive and a couple other twitter fan friends had spearheaded a campaign to #BringBackThisBedIsAnOcean on twitter the night before!!
After See U In The Dark, we thought that Andy was pointing to us, but we weren’t sure if he could see us or not so we just kind of looked at each other confused.
Once the show ended, we met Esmee Denters and then got in line for the Honor Society M&G.; It was a signing and Christine kept going back and forth telling us what order they were in while they tried to calm me down because I was trying to NOT get my hopes up over Alex remembering a drumstick for me.
They sent me through the line first, so incase there was no drumstick, both Christine and Lauren would have a chance to yell at Alex. Andy was first, and I asked him if he had a pick for me. He made a face and felt in his pocket and said No, made a sad face and then said “I failed you again” Then he was saying how he saw us during the show and was pointing at us and we had no reaction and we said how we thought he was pointing to us but didn’t know if he could actually see us. And he was like “I SAW YOU!” Meanwhile, I hear Lauren making funny noises and I turn towards Alex and see him putting something behind his back…
Mike was next and we just said hello and that everything was going good. Then it was Alex who had the drumstick out in front of him at this point. I said thanks and asked him if he remembered himself or if Kat reminded him and he was like “no I remembered! and i told Kat.. we have to do this.” Then I told him I was glad he remembered because if not I might have burst into tears and he was like “NO! I remembered” 🙂
Next was Jason and I told him that our friend Ashley from Syracuse said hi. His eyes lit up and he was like “OH! Tell her I said hi!” and then I told him it was my 20th show so he gave me a high five and said he would see me at #21. Then Lauren came up and told him Ashley said hi and he said “So I’ve heard from multiple sources! Tell her I miss her and I will see her soon” And then Christine was like “Oh, if you didn’t hear, Ashley said hi!”
Then I went to leave and I think Lauren and Christine were still talking to Jason. and I hugged my drumstick all the way back to the car. And then I almost poked myself in the eye with it when I was trying to get my shoe off in the car LOL And I almost poked myself in the eye with it again when I was leaving Christine’s car and getting into Lauren’s. I guess I am just prone to being poked in the eye at Honor Society shows now.
Also – at one point during the show Alex flipped his drumstick but caught it backwards. I kept trying to show Christine and Lauren what he did (because I was cracking up when I saw it) and finally when we got to the car I was able to give a legit demonstration with my drumstick! 🙂
One of my goals for this year was to get my total number of Honor Society shows up to 20 by the end of the year. When I told Alex about this in September, it seemed like I would only be able to hit 19. (Which led him to ask if TV shows counted and then told us to go to The Today Show and The Early Show to see them lol)
However, after seeing Hanson in Albany (show #40!) and driving 3+ hours home, getting home at 3am I thought – “Wow, I can totally go see Honor Society in Boston!” Now any sane person would say “Wow, I got home at 3am, that totally sucked! I am never doing that again!” But not me!
Tomorrow I will get up at 10 – which is early for me on a Sunday. (Hey, I stay up late watching SNL and then some, ok?) and we will begin our adventure, this time with Christine. Christine has only seen Honor Society open for the Jonas Brothers this summer – so I know she is in for a real treat 🙂
And Honor Society will be tied for 2nd place with Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers for # of times seen! I wonder how long before they catch up to Hanson…
Thursday was my 19th Honor Society show. Originally Lauren and I were going to go see Maroon 5 instead, but after the whole drumstick drama in PA, we decided to see Honor Society instead. I’m not sure how the Maroon 5 show went, but I’m pretty sure we made the right choice.
We missed our first train, but luckily there was another just 15 minutes later. We got to Grand Central and hopped on the 6 to get to Union Square. Got out of the elevator and made our way over to Irving Plaza.
We walked to line looking for our friend Ashley, but ended up finding Dominique and Dierdre who we met at the CD release party and see at the NY shows. When Dom and I hugged, somehow it ended with her poking me in the eye. I don’t know how it happened, but I could see out if it and it feels fine now so I think all is ok.
Then we found Ashley, she was with Octavia that we know from the AHSF board. We were also informed that Kevin Covais – aka Chicken Little – from American Idol was there! We ended up seeing him a bit later and I got a picture with him 🙂
Once it looked like security had come out, we asked about getting a seat for me. They said there was only 1 seat and that it was near the bar, which is in the back, but I could still see. They took us up on the elevator and there was no seat! One of the bartenders grabbed us one and I sat waiting for the crowd to start filling in. Security told me that once the show started, the chair had to be back in a cubby – I could still sit on it in the cubby though. Considering this was like as back as you could possibly get, I opted to sit and get my energy back during Esmee’s set and then before Honor Society hit the stage we found a spot closer.
It was a good spot until the Yankee fan Dad next to me ended up just about ON TOP of me by the end of the show. (And my screaming, singing and clapping didn’t phase him.)
The setlist was changed up a little bit from last month’s shows. Emsee sang with Mike for “My Own Way” and Jason did an awesome rendition of “Use Somebody” – he really needs to sing more.
We had our merch M&G; wristbands, but I didn’t want to have to go all the way down the stairs to come back up again (and their stairs are kind of steep) so we asked security and he let us go up in the line right away!
There were only a few girls in front of us. We saw the guys walk by and say hi to their families. (Lucy Hale was also there) And then it was time to say hi to the guys. I had made them discs of summer memories from the viewers of honorsocietylive.com so I handed them those and I also gave Alex a copy of the scrapbook from last summer that he liked so much.
THEN I was on a mission. I went up to Alex and was like “Remember that time that you said you would give me a drumstick and then DIDN’T?” and he was like “was that tonight?” and I was like “No, last month in Pennsylvania” and he was like “OH MAN!” and assured me he would have them in his pocket in the meet and greet in Boston. So we’ll see if that happens. And then I asked Andy if he had a pick for me and he was like “NO! I DONT!” and was like stomping around that he didn’t. So I told him BOSTON! and he was like YES! So once again we’ll see if he remembers!
We got the elevator back downstairs and left! Caught the 11:22 train and got home about 1 – but I had to stop and get gas because there was NO way I was waking up early before work to have gotten it and I wasn’t sure I would make it all the way to work!
The month of November is NAtional NOvel WRiting MOnth. To challenge myself, I am participating in NaNoWriMo which is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Basically the goal is to write roughly 1,700 words (or more!) a night.
With work asking for me to put in extra hours – this might be a bigger challenge than it was 2 years ago when I tried to participate (and failed) but I am determined to put in a good effort. (Though this weekend I really have to get my numbers up as the weekend after that I am going to be working to make up hours I’m taking off when I get my braces put on!)
And I’m pleased to announce I won another twitter contest, this time from Ticketmaster – to be honest I wish I had won it yesterday because they were giving away lenticular michael jackson tickets – but instead I won a This Is It cd. Very cool and I am on a roll with winning twitter contests (that was my 3rd one this year)
Now if only I could bring this luck to the lottery…
The month of November is NAtional NOvel WRiting MOnth. To challenge myself, I am participating in NaNoWriMo which is a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel in the month of November. Basically the goal is to write roughly 1,700 words (or more!) a night.
With work asking for me to put in extra hours – this might be a bigger challenge than it was 2 years ago when I tried to participate (and failed) but I am determined to put in a good effort. (Though this weekend I really have to get my numbers up as the weekend after that I am going to be working to make up hours I’m taking off when I get my braces put on!)
And I’m pleased to announce I won another twitter contest, this time from Ticketmaster – to be honest I wish I had won it yesterday because they were giving away lenticular michael jackson tickets – but instead I won a This Is It cd. Very cool and I am on a roll with winning twitter contests (that was my 3rd one this year)
Now if only I could bring this luck to the lottery…
Friday, I got a DM that I had won 4 tickets. I called and found out it was for Saturday at 6:30pm. Since everyone else in my family already had plans, I called my aunt and she said she would go with me instead of giving out candy to trick or treaters.
When we picked up the tickets at Will-Call they said row “AA”, which I knew was front row at this particular venue. We went to our seats and saw that they said “Circus Celebrity” on them and that these were the most expensive seats you could get! Online it had said something about the Celebrities helping to “rev up” the motors… but I had no idea what that meant.
A little ways into the first half of the show a clown came out and gave us lanyards which said that we would go down on the floor and be IN the circus and be a part of the action! At first I was hesitant, but it said we would ride a tram and my aunt wanted to do it so I agreed.
Near the end of the first act we were taken on to our little cars and driven around the action, 3 motorcycles riding around in a sphere. Then two more came out and there were 5. Then 2 more came out and there were *7*. The sphere was shaking SO much as they were riding around in there. We were out on the floor for like 20 minutes, I took video but I think its too big to post on youtube. I’ll have to see if I can split it or something and post it, because it was so cool!
The second act of the circus had tigers and elephants and.. penguins. As well as an acrobatics display which was simply amazing.
At the end of the show they let off confetti, and my purse caught a BUNCH of it for me! haha Can’t wait to add that into my scrapbook 🙂
Katie