this can be hard...

after burlington, things got challenging. burlington was a drastic change of weather and some of the guys went out walking in the cold not wearing enough clothes and so, of course, woke up the next morning very sick. but the thing is, when you live on a bus with 12 other people, it's pretty selfish to get sick because then everyone else has no choice but to be exposed to it.

so i spent the week after that vigorously fighting for my family to stay well. but everyone else got super sick. flu sick. in fact, i wouldn't be surprised if we had a bus-full of the swine flu. that alone made the rest of the tour hard. but we also had a beat-down, crappy bus that never felt like home and was definitely never comfortable. so that didn't help. and it used to be Anna Nicole Smith's bus when she was touring for TrimSpa. wonderful.

we need t-shirts that say "we survived Swine Flu 2009 and Anna Nicole's bus"

pretty much I hid inside the bus and hotel rooms for a week trying to keep ndi warm, but here's the places that we went:

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Farmingdale, NY: this was on Long Island. we decided we couldn't spend the time or money to go into Manhattan on our day off there, so we headed to Huntington Village, which was only a 10 minute cab ride away. it was a really cute town and we had a nice evening there with the other bus family.

Philadelphia, PA: by far the worst day for me on the tour. i was really excited to go here since i lived there for about a year. philly is my "spiritual birthplace" and forever holds a dear place in my heart. everyone was at their sickest this day, it was cold and raining the whole time so i couldn't walk around the city as i had planned, and i didn't get to see one person that i knew there. i didn't even feel like i was in philly:(

Granville, OH: home to a small college called Denison University. i didn't go in the show but apparently it was the greatest show ever, and the guys realized how fun it would be to go on a college tour (i'm in favor of that as well...)

Charlotte, NC: yep, we stopped in good ole charlotte for a day, but didn't even get to spend the night. they played at the Lowe's Motor Speedway before a big NASCAR race. they had been invited personally by the owner of NASCAR, Marcus Smith, who had been listening to PT for about a year and invited my man to lunch one day to meet him. my sister-in-law and her family got there bright and early that morning to spend the day with us. it was SO good to spend some time with them, we love them so much! somehow i always feel like i didn't get enough time with them, though. especially her. she is amazingly wonderful--such a special woman. my mom and step-dad drove into town for the show as well, so i got to go home and do laundry and spend some much needed time with my mama. it wasn't at all long enough. the day was over before i knew it and i had to go get back on that God-forsaken bus

Toronto, ON: first time the band repeated a city, and the same venue. didn't explore toronto like i would if i wasn't trying to keep my baby from getting sick, but i realized what a cool city Toronto really is, and plan to see more of it when we return again in November

Foxborough, MA: finally, the end! Foxborough is the home of the New England Patriots and Tom Brady. the show was right outside of the stadium. music man had finally succumbed to a cough and lost his voice. but the best part was that Foxborough is only 30 minutes from where my brother and his family live. so my sister in law came to pick me up and I spent 4 incredible days there with them, about which i will post my next blog. my brother, little man and i drove back for the show and it was really fun. my brother was excited to see Everclear since he is a 'product of the 90s'. You know Everclear's big song "Father of Mine"? every night before they sang that song they would dedicate it to our band, because they bring their wives and kids on tour with them, and it's a song about changing the cycle and being a better parent than what you got dealt. really cool

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On my worst day (in philly) i was thinking to myself, for the first time, "this is too hard. i want to go home." i wanted the warmth of the fire in my living room, my big king size bed, my empty house filled with no one but me and my family; i wanted a daily routine for my baby; i wanted normalcy. i whined all day inside my own head, until suddenly it hit me:

no matter what my life is like, there will always be hard days. there will always be sacrifices that i have to make. even if i were a working mom, it would be hard and i would consider it a sacrifice. even if we lived a normal, stay-at-home, 9-5 kind of family life, i would have hard days and would probably even get bored, and i would consider it a sacrifice.

the point is, THIS is the sacrifice that I have chosen to make.

and i would so much rather see the joy on our child's face when he sees his father every morning, and see the joy on my husband's face as he watches our child do something for the first time, and experience new places together as a family on our days off, than to be cozy at home with a nice routine and normalcy, but without my man. that is why we chose life on the road. it is the harder choice, but it keeps our family together.

some days can be hard...but most of the time it's a blast!

sneaking into dc and family time in burrrrlington

in raleigh we got to see my hubby's little sister. they share the same biological mother, but were adopted by different parents. we haven't seen her since the wedding (!) so that was fun. i've never spent much time in downtown raleigh, i've only visited unc chapel hill, where i wish we could have been for the show. but it was cool to get to visit raleigh, my state's capitol.

then we drove to richmond. i walked around for a couple of hours to explore. richmond is nice...cute cobblestone streets with older buildings. but then i skipped the show because natalie came to pick me up and take me back to DC so that I could spend some extra time with her! isn't she sweet? we met stephanie at Busboys and Poets, my favorite hang out in the world that happens to be in a city in which i don't live. the name refers to Langston Hughes, who worked as a busboy prior to gaining recognition as a poet. it's a restaurant, bookstore, fair trade market and gathering place where people can discuss issues of social justice and peace. anyways, we tried to make a 9 pm poetry reading, but it was packed so we settled for just dinner. the next day natalie and i woke up and made the short walk from her anthro-cool new apartment on capitol hill to the Eastern Market. then we met stephanie and her boyfriend for lunch. then i got to walk and spend some qt with stephanie before natalie and i headed over to falls church where the guys and the bus where for their show that night. i tried to get natalie to fall asleep on the bus so i could steal her, but my attempts failed and i had to say goodbye:(

i awoke the next morning as we were driving into vermont, the place i was most excited about going to on this tour. the views from the bus windows were captivating. i didn't even bother taking pictures because i knew i could never do it justice. today, our little family woke up early and took a bus to downtown Burlington. burlington is without a doubt a city that i could live in. the view of Lake Champlain overlooking the Adirondacks, is something that i am so glad to have seen in my lifetime. it was breathtakingly gorgeous. and Church St and the entire downtown area is so cute. it was about 47 degrees and cloudy and it felt like Christmas. i think a blanket of snow would only complete it's perfection. we ate at Magnolia for brunch, vermont's first certified green restaurant, and it was yummy. we walked around all day and now i'm back on the bus and the guy's are sound-checking. tomorrow i'll wake up in Long Island, NY

i DO love Tucson (and meat-packing district, manhattan)

we flew out of LA and into Arizona...a state that is far too hot to have the inhabitants that it does. but thank God it's not the middle of the summer. i've heard of tucson, but who knew i loved it all along? that's what i'm learning in these travels, that there are so many cities out there that i love and i've never even been there. it's crazy how much of the world that we live in that we'll never see...

so, here's the view of Tucson from our hotel window:

cute right? it's every bit as southwestern as i wanted it to be.

my need for all-natural laundry detergent led me on a long walk to 4th avenue, which happens to be the coolest part of town. very hippie, but 'hippie' always makes for the best areas, right? it was like a southwestern version of Little Five Points in atlanta, but much cleaner, and no homeless people. not that i have anything against homeless people. i love homeless people, there just didn't happen to be any that i could see in this area. i snapped some shots of the street scenes that i liked.

i stopped in this great Co-Op for some natural snacks and detergent, and a little bookstore to buy Twilight. i will only allow myself two sentences of this blog to talk about Twilight, because I am inappropriately obsessed with it: I am reading the Twilight series. It is awesome. There, two, as i promised.

we ate some delicious Mexican food that night, and the next day the band played at a festival at the Fairgrounds there, and then we flew out to NYC. i didn't let myself get too excited about going to new york, knowing i would only be able to have a one day love affair with the city. it's nice to know that we'll be visiting there a lot, so i don't have to try to absorb all of it every single time i'm there. so i could relax a little, and just enjoy what i could.

there's virtually no where to park a tour bus in manhattan, so we stayed in a nice hotel in sacaucus, nj. but the night we got there, our new tour manager was finishing up Fall Out Boy's tour with Blink 182, so he gave us all free tickets to Madison Square Garden! we had never been there before and it was so much fun! in one 24 hour span i lived the life of a typical american teenager: i read 1/2 of Twilight and watched Pete Wentz shave his head on stage. and yes, little man definitely came with us. he never misses a rock show, hence his new nick-name, Indie Rock

we ate at a diner and then took a bus back the hotel to get some sleep. the next morning we drove into manhattan. the show was at the Highline Ballroom, right in the center of the Meat-Packing district in Chelsea, which is my second favorite district after the Village. so i was happy to stay in that area for this trip. it has a completely different feeling and vibe than most of the other areas in Manhattan. it's right next to the river, and there aren't any sky-scrapers. but instead quaint cobblestone streets filled with both old original meat-packing buildings as well as modern new condos and store fronts. i love it. i ate in the Chelsea Market at a restaurant that only uses foods fresh from the local farms (called Green Table), and then had a perfect latte at one of the best espresso shops in manhattan, 9th Street Espresso. i spent time with the other band wife and a band member's new GF, who is beautiful and sweet with the most humble, gentle spirit. as you can imagine, it is very important to me who these boys end up marrying, because i will be living with them. i definitely approve, and i told him so and that he better not mess it up:) he's in love, so i don't think he will.

then we walked on the Highline (a park that they built on an old railroad above the streets that i have blogged about before), and walked around more. stopped in a bookstore to buy New Moon (2nd in the series), a journal and Sense & Sensibility, and then headed to the concert. for some reason we've heard that New Yorkers are the hardest crowd to win over, but for us they are always the easiest. concerts in NYC are always the best--everyone dancing and clapping and going wild. little man now watches the shows intently and points to his daddy and claps between the songs (so adorable!) then, half-way through the set his eyelids get too heavy and he falls asleep for the rest of the night. forget bath time and books and lullabys--this is our new bedtime routine! i just hope he loves me for it one day...
here's some pictures of the area

the beautiful, busy streets

wall art:

views from on top of the Highline:

the next show was in Poughkeepsie, NY which is upstate. it was just a typical small town with nothing to do. the best part about it is that it sits right on the Hudson River. we walked down the long hill to find something decent to eat and a coffee shop

californ-i-a

i have to be honest and admit i wasn't as excited about going to cali for the week as i usually am. partially because i had just entered an autumn frame of mind, and going to the heat of southern california wasn't very appealing, and partically because i knew it was going to be a lot of running around, back and forth from san diego and LA, and (what i expected to be) long boring days of photoshoots and video shoots. i couldn't have been more wrong. flying there and back (and everywhere in between) was miserably inconvenient, but other than that, it was the one week in this whole music adventure that i wouldn't have wanted to miss.
so, of course, let me blog all about it

first there was San Diego, which i suprisingly already blogged about (kudos to me),



i was somewhat disappointed when i found out that i wasn't allowed to be in the show with little man, yet somewhat relieved as i was very anxious to get some sleep. i usually spend my first 2-3 days in california delirious from lack of sleep due to the time difference, and i was trying to not do that to myself this trip. i was told the show went well, and i woke up early with my little one the next morning and walked down to the water, and then around 'little italy' in dt san diego, happy for a chance to get some exercise.
then we went back to LA for the rest of the week. we stayed in our same hotel, our little home away from home. it is simple but what makes it nice is that it has everything you need--a good restaurant, a coffee shop, a nice outdoor pool...so if i get stuck, which is quite common, it isn't the end of the world. every morning my alarm clock woke me up (that would be my son), and we would sit outside and eat breakfast. it was a daily ritual that i looked forward to, especially once i learned how to beat the system of the $12.95 buffet by ordering a free kids breakfast of fruit and yogurt (which was partly for him, mostly for me), and just ordering hot tea and oatmeal for myself for a lower cost of $7:)
here's our sunny bfast spot:
the night we got back, the band did a private acoustic show an LA radio station. they had about 50 people there, including listeners who had won tickets. the station owns a penthouse condo where they have these types of events frequently. it was interesting, in a good way, to hear the songs played acoustically. they also interviewed them and did some talking. it was a really laid-back event.







next came the photoshoot. unlike the rinky dink one in NYC in the summer, this time was the real deal for sure. Here is their photographer. just visit his website and you will see what a big deal he is. and then there was video shoot, with a legendary director which really sent us all over the edge with excitement. we pulled into this huge space at a dam which would have been empty on any other day, but had instead been filled with Rv's, tents, tables, gear--essentially a mini and temporary village had been set up to prepare for the next 12 hours of shooting. goosebumps chilled up my body as it sank in that it was all there for us. and the food, my God, the food! i'm used to not knowing when and what my next meal will be (on the road), but here there were people that brought out a new meal every 2 hours it seems, and new snacks every hour. i had to really exert some will power so that my stomach wouldn't be sick the entire next day. the point is, we were overwhelmed. in one week we 1. heard the band's song on the radio for the first time, 2. the band went on radio shows for the first time, 3. experienced a real professional photo-shoot with a legendary photographer (i forgot to mention that the guys were able to keep all of the thousands of dollars worth of clothing that they wore in the shoot), 4. had an amazing experience on a music video set. the guys felt like rock stars probably for the first time.






ok so suddenly i have just become self-conscious that i may come off as bragging. you have to understand that i tell all of this in no other but the spirit of a giddy 7 year old on christmas morning. that's how we all felt. we are grateful only to the Lord for His goodness and providing these opportunities, knowing that we are not promised anything more and it could all end in an instant. or the music could simply just not go anywhere. we hope it does, however, to touch billions of lost and hurting souls....





and here's some cute pictures of little man playing in the studio where it all began



ok, there you go. now let it be known that i have sacrificed some much needed sleep in order to create this very long and thorough blog.
and yet I am still not quite caught up. now we've started touring again. so i'll have to save the rest of the update for another sleepless night (sigh)

a bus, a break, and the next big thing

we went on a short, 6 day tour, for which we traveled in a tour bus for the first time! wow, did it make all the difference. there are 12 beds so that we can all sleep on the bus, whenever we are tired, at any time of the day. i share a little bunk with little man and Music Man sleeps above us. :( we miss him but i'm sure in the days ahead we can save a little extra money to get hotel rooms at least maybe once a week to spend family time together. sharing a bunk with little man was hard at first because i barely have any room. but now that i'm used to it I look forward to how closely we 'snuggle' all night. I cherish these nights with my little man, because I know they won't last forever (thanks for reminding me, mom:)

we went to some pretty random places: Grand Rapids, Michigan; Munhall, PA; Allentown, PA; Sayreville, NC; Hartford, CT (but the ghetto of it)....but we got to take a 2 day break in Cleveland, OH where we visited the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. That was pretty fun and fascinating...

I have always wanted to see the Great Lakes. The museum was right on Lake Erie, so I got to 'see' it, but still not really experience it. It's ok, i'll take what i can get for now:)

After the tour we were able to go home for 5 days. None of us really wanted to go home, since it takes about a week to get used to tour. So I didn't unpack, just continued to live out of my suitcase. I tried not to get used to being home, but at the same time enjoy things like a clean shower and a big bed and my kitchen!

so.....

now I am in California for a week before the next tour starts, and we will pretty much be gone until Thanksgiving! tonight the band is playing a show in San Diego. A radio station there, 91X, has been playing one of their songs, and tonight is putting on a concert called "The Next Big Thing", for which the band is headlining. Thursday night a few of the guys drove into San Diego and heard their song on the radio for the first time! I really wanted to be with my man the first time that he heard one of his songs on the radio, but I was at home ( i traveled to CA the next day), and I am so sad that I missed it. Still, it was a pretty exciting moment for him! Yesterday morning 91X had them on their morning radio show to play an acoustic song. 

This week in LA the band will play another show here, do a photoshoot, and then film their first music video! wow, a music video...i think that will make them official rock stars haha! i'm excited to experience it all, and so grateful that me and my son are able to be with his daddy during such an exciting time of his life.

so in an hour we head to Pacific Beach, where the show will be. It is unusually hot for southern california for this time of the year--near 90 degrees! so i will hopefully get to see the ocean and dip mine and little man's toes in the water and enjoy this last bit of summer before we head to NYC and in to the autumn season

on the road again

i have just finished packing up the RV. we leave tonight at midnight for our second tour! tonight we drive straight through to Chicago, and then Toronto. i've never been to either city, so i'm pretty excited! then we'll be in NYC for a couple of days, Boston for a couple of days (where i'll get to see joanna, michael and skyler yah!), and then i'm going to leave the tour for 5 days (i'll miss two shows--atlantic city, and somewhere in iowa) to go to Myrtle Beach where my family is throwing a surprise Beach Week for my grandmother's 80th birthday. i'll get to see some of my cousins, aunts and uncles that i haven't seen in years and i'm so happy about it. we used to all be really close growing up, but then we stopped having beach trips once a year.

after the beach trip, i'll fly out to L.A. to meet back up with the band. they're doing a show in LA, and one in Anaheim. i'm sure that my man will have to stay in LA to do some work for a few days, so i'm expecting to be in LA for a little bit before we head back home.

i'm excited for another little journey, and I know Ndi will be happy to get back on the road with his "da-da"

NYC

i finally got my fix. i got to spend an entire 7 days in new york city! the band had their first photo shoot. they had to do "work" stuff for 2 days, but we all stayed a whole week so we could play.

that city makes me feel so alive, with it's constant people and energy swirling about me at every moment of the day. in the mornings i would wake up early with ndi and go out walking looking for a place to get breakfast. i melted watching all the mommies and daddies walking, hand-in-hand, with their little ones going to drop them off at school. i giggled watching dog owners walking their city dogs, only to let them poop in the middle of concrete and have to pick it up. i often closed my eyes and marveled at all the hundreds of thousands of sounds around me.

it was beautiful.

it was new york city.

we stayed in the hotel that the label had us in for the first 3 days, and then we moved to The London NYC, where we had a sweeeeeet deal so we could celebrate our 2 year anniversary:) the band's manager was in town most of the week and took us to dinner twice. we heart dinner with him because he knows all the best places to eat in every city. he took us to Buddakan, which i am still dreaming about. it was the best food i have had all year long! and he also took us to Megu, a sushi spot in Tribeca. yum!

little man sat in a swing (how do you say it?...swung in a swing? swang in a swing? i don't even know my grammer...) for the first time in Washington Square Park in the Village, my favorite part of Manhattan. i was a proud mama.

my first day there was a rude awakening to how different nyc is with a baby. i attempted a subway ride with my big stroller and it was disastrous. (next time i'll know to bring a cheap umbrella stroller) i was a little bit discouraged, thinking that i wouldn't get around as much as usual or have as much fun as usual. but God was so good, and did quite the opposite! i actually got to see more of NYC that i ever have before! i had always wanted to go to Brooklyn. one of their photo shoots was in williamsburg (which is like the capitol of hipsters), so i got to explore there, and then hop over to Brooklyn Heights where there is this amazing spot overlooking all of Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty. Julie and I and the kids then walked over the Brooklyn Bridge (another thing I've always wanted to do) back to Manhattan, and walked up the East River for a long time.

My Music Man and i spent a day in Meat-Packing (an area in west chelsea) that i have never been to and it was the coolest spot i've ever been to! it rivaled the Village for my favorite section of manhattan, but i think the Village still takes the cake for me. however, Meat-Packing was pretty impressive! i highly recommend it. here's a picture of the new "highline" there: we also got to spend some time in Tribeca for the first time. and then we also went to our usual spots in the village, soho, times square, 5th avenue, central park, union square, etc....

for our anniversary, he got me another Diana camera, this time with a flash, and a fish-eye lens!

so, as always, i shot our nyc trip entirely with that. (also because i broke my hand-held digital camera...well nida and i both broke it together haha!). Lomography is a form of photography that i have fallen in love with in the past two years. 

the highlight of my NYC trip:

we were walking in the Village and i caught a glimpse of the "lomography" logo. i stopped, rubbed my eyes, looked again, squealed in excitement, and proceeded to run to my wildest dream come true: a Lomography store!!!! a physical, real store, filled with everything that Lomography makes. i can't describe it, but it was the first time since childhood that i had that feeling you got when your parents took you into Toys 'R Us. it was glorious!

of course, i had to splurge and get some more things, and i took advantage of having lomography experts there to ask all my questions to....ok i am stopping myself there because i could go on forever about that! basically, it's what i've found to replace the fun of the darkroom.
so that was my trip. when music man asks me what kind of car i dream of having if we ever get super rich, i always tell him, 'i don't need a car...just a second home in manhattan!' ok, so that's like millions compared to just thousands for a car...still. that's all i want