welcome to the masquerade.

a few weeks back i was able to work thousand foot krutch's merch table when they passed through the cities. tara and i were pretty much all-stars and got everything counted down before tom (the guy who travels with tfk) even made it back to the table. he was mad impressed and half-jokingly said, "see you guys tomorrow" - tfk was playing a show in a town about two and a half hours away. we laughed and said, "haha, yeah sure." then we went and ate the best chips and pico di gallo i've ever eaten.
while we were stuffing our faces with salty, crunchy goodness we got to talking and realized none of us had plans for the next day. so we decided that a mini-road trip was in order.
so on sunday afternoon we piled into a car for the trip up to central minnesota. we stopped at a gas station for tara to use the restroom. then had to stop again about 50 miles later for another bathroom stop, she apparently has a tiny bladder. however, on our second pit stop we found a gem. a big ol' paul bunyan statue! perfect picture op. so after a few fantastic pictures we finished the trek up to the show.
when we arrived we, of course, walked around the building in the wrong direction to find the door to get in. it took us like 20 minutes to find the correct door and we got to the merch table mere minutes before the doors opened. we were greeted with a hearty, "i can't believe you guys actually came!" from tom followed by him running to get us food from backstage and thanking us over and over.

i love free food and as an added bonus: we could actually see the show at this venue! so we rocked out to ivoryline, disciple and thousand foot krutch and sold merch like it was going out of style. tom told us (me and tara) that we were the official tfk merch girls whenever they played a show within 3 hours of the cities! yay!

on the way home we went through an arby's drive through and the next morning i woke up way too early for going to bed so late and had lead gut from the fried food. i felt like a rock star.
xo

marry me.

i'm sure because of the title of this post one would assume that i am again professing my love for some random rock star (i realize i do this so often it's probably unhealthy) in hopes that he would reciprocate the feeling and we would live happily ever after. not so. this is the story of of a song.
i was driving along after work on my way to the grocery store when the radio dj announced the next song was train's new single, "marry me." the song opens with an acoustic guitar and pat monahan's vocals. that's it.
the song grabbed me. it struck a nerve and i don't even know why. maybe it's the simplicity of the song? maybe it's the hopeless romantic in me? maybe it's the fact that i want the story in the song to be my story? whatever the reason was i adored the song at first listen. it was a heart-stopping, eyes brimming with tears, drown-out-everything-but-the-song first listen that warmed my heart and reminded me what it means to fall in love with music all over again.
someday i will wear white and he'll wear out the words "i love you" and "you're beautiful."
xo

walking with austin. sorta.

one of my favorite things to do is going on walks. i love them, you can be outside, it's exercise (kinda) and you don't get all sweaty like you do if you run. so one night after i was done working at the coffee shop i decided to go on a walk because it was gorgeous out and i had been trapped inside al day. the roommates were all gone so i ventured out by myself. i decided to walk to the lake since there is always a ton of people around and i very much enjoy people-watching. so i'm truckin' along, singing to myself, enjoying the gorgeous evening when i look up and see austin tofte walking down the street with a couple of other fellows! that's right, the brainchild behind swimming with dolphins. i had an inner freak-out session and decided against mobbing him. remember how i can't really control what comes out of my mouth when in the presence of beautiful men who make music? yeah, i think it was a wise choice.
so i finished my walk, all the while freaking out via text to a friend, and eventually ended up back at my place. now i apparently have no self-control and just couldn't leave well enough alone. i wrote mr. tofte a facebook message telling him that i had seen him on the street and i didn't want to be one of "those" fans but i very much appreciate his music and just wanted him to know that. seriously, what possess me to do these things?!
he was kind enough to write back and said that if i ever saw him on the street again that i should most definitely come up and say hello and to keep in touch. what a gem.

pretty sure he wrote these lyrics for me:
i'll be up in the stars
but i'll be anywhere you are
just say you need me and i'll come down

or maybe not.
xo