Sochi-bound!

In case you hadn't already guessed it from the title - I'm headed to Sochi, Russia, for the 2014 Olympic Winter Games!

So, next February, I'll be boarding a plane in Salt Lake City, stopping at New York JFK and Moscow Sheremetyevo, then finally landing in Sochi-Adler, Russia, after a full 24 hours (well, 24 hours and 15 minutes according to my itinerary)!

I've been spending some time looking around online at the press facilities. I've been credentialed at some pretty cool events before, but this is a whole new level. I cannot wait to experience it!

Detox Just to Retox

Two Fridays ago, I took a little bit of a trip back to college. Fall Out Boy had a small venue show in Salt Lake City and I could not pass up attending for old time's sake! When I bought the tickets back in February (I think), the only one of their new songs out was "My Songs Know What You Did in the Dark (Light 'Em Up)," so I had no clue if I'd actually like their new songs or not. Granted, as someone who has loved all of their albums, I wasn't too worried about it.

Originally, Julia was going to come with me, but she had to go out of town for the weekend, so Ashley joined. We had a very different concert-going experience than my Fall Out Boy days of my youth. There was no waiting in line for hours to make sure I could be on the barricade. I didn't even want to mess with trying to be in the pit and leaving covered in other people's sweat. Instead, we happily waved our IDs and went up to the 21+ upstairs. We were one row of people off the front of the balcony, but they were super nice and actually let us have their spots for the encore.

It was fantastic! I love their new album and haven't seen them live since before Folie a Deux was released, so about half of the show was songs I'd never heard them play live before.

Highlights

• The encore. Oh my goodness the encore! "Thnks fr th Mmrs," "Save Rock and Roll" and, of course, "Saturday." Probably the best encore performance I've ever experienced at a concert.
• The new music. Like I wrote above, I really like the album Save Rock and Roll. All of the songs sounded fantastic live.
• The music period. Every time they launched into another song, I got that feeling you get when your favorite song comes on. Over the course of ten years, somehow all of their music has stayed relevant to me and I enjoy it just as much (and more in some cases) as I did when I was a college fangirl.
• Energy. Despite being more than five years older than the last time I saw them live, these guys have not lost an ounce of their enthusiasm for performing. Joe was still spinning all over the place, Andy was a human tornado on the drums...hell, I'd even say that Patrick has more of a stage presence now than ever before.
• The little things. Ashley and I noticed Pete waving to his little four-year-old song offstage and making funny faces at him. The lick-lick salute. The guitar spins during "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race." Knowing all the places to clap and shout the background vocals. I suppose you could say knowing all of these things is the product of ten years of going to Fall Out Boy concerts.
• The crowd. It was by no means a perfect audience (does that exist?), but everyone there knew all the words to all the songs and (at least to me) appeared to truly be there for the music. The enthusiasm for "The Disloyal Order of Water Buffalos" was just as intense as it was for their hit singles.
• Being an adult. I know that sounds strange, but I feel like I was able to enjoy myself so much more as an adult than I did as a 20-year-old because I'm more confident in who I am. I was rocking out and couldn't care less what anyone thought about it. And that lack of inhibition made the concert all the more enjoyable for me on a personal level.

What a great time! They won't be coming to Salt Lake City on their arena tour (and it would be soooo strange to see them in an arena...definitely have not had that experience before!), so I'm not sure when I'll see another of their shows, but it will hopefully be sooner rather than later. 

XO.

Poets and PhDs

I recently decided to give online dating a shot. And, after regaling some friends with some of my stories, they insisted that I write about it. So, without further ado...my first awkward online dating meetup experience.

When you live in Park City and sign up for a dating website, most everyone else in your "area" is in Salt Lake City. Despite being a little old fashioned in my first date thoughts (and believing the guy should come to the girl), I figured since I was going to be in SLC anyways last weekend, I'd take someone up on their offer of an SLC date. So, I made plans to meet up with this guy at a coffee shop downtown.

His profile was promising: athletic-looking, cute academic in the middle of PhD studies at the University of Utah. In our messages we had exchanged, he seemed like a sharp, witty guy who would make for a great conversationalist. I was pretty excited for coffee with someone who wanted to share some intellectual banter!

So, I arrive at the coffee shop at 4:05. I was five minutes late because I am pretty much always five minutes late to everything. I walk in and there are only three people in the coffee shop. Two are female and the one guy in the shop looks nothing like the one in the photo online. So, I text him and say I'm standing in the entryway. A short, chubby guy (the one guy in the shop) stands up and, rather than exchanging a hug or handshake or whatever gesture you extend on a first date, waves me over to the table and says he already bought a coffee so if I want something, I can go get it.

Strike one. If you can't even offer to buy me a coffee (like...a black coffee that typically costs $1.50 but at this overpriced place YOU chose costs $3.50), that's not promising. I'm always going to offer to pay for my own things but you should at least make an effort.

So, I get my overpriced coffee and sit down at the table. I don't even remember what topic I brought up, but we start talking.

And he has a stutter.

Now, I'm not insensitive. I know that stuttering is a real thing and that's not make-or-break for me. But somehow, it seemed to select the most inopportune times to present itself. It didn't select simple sounds to get stuck on. It was the sounds that make you spit. So he's sitting here spitting all over me and I'm trying to maintain a poker face that I'm totally okay with it. Because I'm genuinely trying to give him a shot. I decide to forgo hearing every word in favor of adopting a distance that's a bit further out of the reach of the spit.

The topic turns to interests. He inquires about my run that morning because I had shared with him that I had a six-mile training run for my half-marathon that morning. I tell him that it wasn't great due to the heat, but running is getting easier for sure. He proceeds to explain to me in great detail how much he hates running. And sports. And basically everything that I like.

About the only thing we can agree on is the fact that it is currently hot as hell in Salt Lake City.

So I turn the conversation to him. He mentioned studying for his PhD at the U...what was he studying?

Poetry.

Somehow, I manage to squelch my immediate response of laughter and instead ask what kinds of things he does while working towards his PhD.

"Well, I write poems."

That's awesome! I've written songs before. Which are kind of like poems with a melody. Kind of. So, what kinds of classes do you have?

"We just write poems."

Don't you have a dissertation or something to defend before you get your degree?

"No, we just write poems."

Well, you must have classes where you like...discuss and dissect poems? Like workshop sort of classes?

"No. We pretty much just write poems."

At that point, I decided to stop asking leading questions because clearly there wasn't much going on in this program besides writing poems. The conversation stalled, so I glanced down at my watch and decided to become a senior citizen and announce that I had dinner plans at 5 p.m. for a belated birthday celebration (not entirely a lie...I did have plans for a belated birthday celebration with Korey and Ashley, but there wasn't a time attached to it).

He immediately stood and walked to the door, not really waiting for me or saying much else. At the door, no niceties were exchanged. Rather, he just pointed in one direction and said his car was that way. I nodded and said mine was, too, and he nodded and just kept walking.

So, I kind of took that as a sign that he realized the date was pretty much an epic failure.

But then, the next morning, I get a text message from him.

"Hey birthday girl. How was dinner? I'm still sweating it out in Salt Lake."

I'm sorry, poetry man, but there was absolutely nothing about that coffee "date" that made me the least bit interested in any additional contact with you. And I really don't have any idea how I could have possibly made you think otherwise. You're not an awful human being, but the fact that we couldn't find a single thing that we have in common other than being physically present in the same geographic area? That's not exactly a good sign.

I wish you the best in your online dating endeavors. But you might want to splurge for the coffee for the next girl.