American Country Awards

Turns out that when baseball is over...I have nothing to blog about for Fan Friday. Other than country music here and there. Today, we talk about the American Country Awards. I got to go see the awards show out in Vegas in person last Tuesday! You might have missed them though A) because it's still a small awards show B) because the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was on C) you were watching Sons of Anarchy finding out the latest death.

Liiiiiike a month ago, I got an e-mail from a ticket website that I had still been registered to from my DWTS/SYTYCD obsession days. I still get updates, but usually ignore them. This one came across my e-mail for pit passes to the show and didn't have to think twice about it. I would be there. I put the word out there and everyone was busy, but coming in with the last minute save...my friend Holley decided to go. And to be honest...I don't think I would have been able to go had it not been for her spotting me some extra dineroooo. Thanks!

We took off to Vegas Monday night after work, get there around 1 am and crash at the hotel. Wake up Tuesday morning, go out to lunch...freeze our butts off, then get to the show. So many people there! We got there about 2.5 hours before it started and did a lot of standing around. We weren't supposed to take our phones in, but of course I was a sneaky snake and got mine in. Oops. I hope I don't get sued because of this post. Since there was a lot of waiting, Holley and I snuck some picture before the show...and then I got in trouble for it. But they didn't take my phone so that was good.

Arm Candy! Right pit bracelet. Yeah yeah!

What's up super great lighting?!!

We had to leave the pit area because "we were part of the opening act" but I don't think that worked out. It was supposed to be a flash mob thing...not so much. A minute or two into the show's opening Brad Paisley and Luke Bryan came out to take their seats. OMG, I lost it.  My heart was racing and I was about to cry. Luke Bryan was about 15 feet away from me and I couldn't focus on anything but him the entire time. #creeperstatus. It was still the beginning of the show so I didn't pull out my phone to snap a picture of him because I had already gotten a warning and didn't want to get kicked out. Halfway through the show Luke and Brad wend backstage and Lady A came out to take their seats. I love Lady A, so to be so close to them was great. That night I learned that all country male artists have hot wives. Good for them! 

Danica Patrick and Trace Adkins were the hosts, there were a bunch of cool acts like Lady A, Darius Rucker, Sheryl Crow, Justin Moore, Randy Houser, Jake Owen, Leann Rimes, Florida Georgia Line, Brad Paisley, plus some more I can't think of right now. I felt super cool having previously seen 90% of those acts in concert. I felt like a real fan! 

I got bold and started snapping some pics towards the end of the show...although not very good ones. I got one of Luke, and another of FGL's performance. I also snapped a quick one of Trace and Danica. 

Luke Bryan. Such a beautiful man.

FGL Performance

Trace Adkins & Danica Patrick

The show kind of had an awkward ending, at least it was in studio. Everyone started flooding the exits trying to get out. Still sooo crowded! We took off to the hotel room and crashed. Even though we only stood, it was pretty exhausting. But a lot of fun! Would I do it again? Sure, if it was on a weekend. It was a mission and a half doing a crazy trip like that in the middle of the week while dealing with work and having to be awake for so long. Had I not been so close to Luke or Lady A, I might have called this show a bust...at least for me. But in the end, it all worked out!

Have a great weekend all!

Little Big Town & Keith Urban

HAPPY HAPPY HAPPY FRIDAY! [Yes, I am watching Duck Dynasty as I type this]

Today is a good day. After a few hours of work, I'll be headed to the Jason Aldean Concert. I'm super excited about it because if his show is anything like it was last year...it will be nothing short of amazing. Unfortunately, this is the last show of country concert season for us San Diegans...or at least for those of us that aren't going to Zac Brown Band in a couple of weeks.

Anyways...tonight's concert is setting the mood for today's post. Let's talk about the last country concert I was at: Keith Urban.

Keith is one of the HUGE reasons I bought the mega ticket earlier this year. It guaranteed me tickets to Jason, Luke, and Keith. I'm not too in love with Keith Urban's looks, as most of his fans are...but I do love his music. His opening acts were Dustin Lynch and Little Big Town.  

Of course...we started off with some tailgating. 

Some of my favorite people <3

What's a post without a selfie?!!

After a few hours of that, it was time to go in...that in itself was a huge mess that's too lengthy to explain.

After running around like crazies, we all met up inside the amphitheater. We ended up missing Dustin Lynch...I assume, since we didn't see him. 

We caught some of LBT singing Tornado.

Also saw them sing Boondocks! If you listen to this video, you'll hear how much of a mess I was between saying bondukes instead of boondocks which had me highly amused, the spaceship launch sound boop boop boop-ing is totally me, and that chaaaaahooo, me too. Sorry. Ha!

Once it was time for Keith, I took off from my friends to get a better less obstructed seat...check out some vids:

You Gonna Fly-

Sweet Thing-

I wandered back hung out with the group, and then saw Emily take off...so I totally followed. Keith was leaving the main stage and making his way to the lawn!!!!! There was a small stage towards the back and he performed for us. I got 1 song recorded before my phone died...check it.

It was an amaziiiiing concert, and a great time despite the couple of hiccups we had. So far it's been my favorite show of the season. Way to go LBT & Keith Urban. 

This post was brought to you by Jason, Keith and Sarah over at Venus Trapped In Mars. Rules changed a while ago and posts weren't limited to sports, but now you could write about anything you're a fan of...country music and Keith! Boom.

Make it a good day folks! I know I will :]  

Life Lately...Part 2

Whoop. Part 2! No lame-o intro like yesterday, let the good times roll!  

Del Mar Races-

Horse races happen every summer out here and this was my first chance to go in a long time thanks to a work event that was being held there! Bet on random horses mostly because their name related to something in my life. Ended up picking a lot right, but somehow bet wrong and left the track being down $20. Oh well. It was super fun!

Baconfest-

My friends and I had been looking forward to baconfest for months. We are lovers of bacon. Even bought some super sweet day of the pig shirts from Butcher & Baker for this event! Unfortunately, it was kind of a letdown. Extremely hot day, too many people, not enough vendors which led them to run out of food an hour and a half into the event, lots of beeeeer (which sucked for someone like me who doesn’t drink beer) and ran out of water. Our group of 6 probably got about 7 samples out of the 40 advertised food vendors and that was because we split up a couple of times and were in different lines and got samples for everyone. Lots of people were upset, complained on their facebook and twitter. I wrote an e-mail to the organizer and threw a fit because it wasn’t worth the $60 they charged us. They’re working on righting the wrong and offered unsatisfied people VIP tickets for next year…I’ll keep you posted on how that works out :] We went to a friend’s beach BBQ right after and that was cool, but the best thing about that was we all got to see a random couple get engaged! How sweet is that?!!

Our awesome shirts!

The sweet proposal we got to see!

Birthday-

I turned 25 last week. Had some drinks with my friends the night before the big day! Couldn’t hang for a midnight drink because I’m a grandma and was in bed by 11:00 pm. Went to 6 flags with a few people on the day of my birthday. That was tons of fun, but very exhausting. And the drive was kind of veryyy long! Might need to get a hotel in the area next time. Not many pictures of that since I left my phone in the car all day…didn’t want to risk losing or dropping it! Also, one of my biggest goals for myself was to have my degree by the time I turned 25. I graduated in May and got my diploma in the mail the day before my 25^th! Just in time :] Birthday gift to myself was a new watch...I’ve been on the hunt for one for months. Loved this one, pulled the trigger and got it :] 

OFFICIALLY OFFICIAL!

Rascal Flatts-

Wasn’t too excited about this show, would have been the 3^rd time I’ve seen them and the other 2 times were very unimpressive. The only exciting thing about it was The Band Perry was the opener and I’ve loved them and the energy they put into a show for a while now! The Band Perry was great, and Rascal was better than the 2 other times that I’ve seen them, but still…nothing special. Whomp.

Fireball Jello Shots!

Most of us! Including Jessica's crew!

Okay, I think that’s it…or what’s noteworthy at least. There’s a couple of concerts and last few baseball games in the schedule before life settles down a bit. As fun as everything has been, I’m cool with some down time!  

Life Lately...Part 1

It’s been 20 longggg days since my last blog post. Oops. Life’s been a little crazy and school started…so blogging took a back seat. But, I’m sure you’re all having Marty withdrawls. Riiiiight. Ha. Anyways…I’ve done lots of cool blog worthy things, just never had the time to write about it. Gonna split it into a couple of posts though, because it's sort of a lot.

Luke Bryan-

I had been looking forward to this concert for months! Luke has a comfortable spot in the rotating top 3 favorite country music artists alongside Dierks Bentley and Lady Antebellum. A buddy of ours hosted a tailgate that started 7 hours before the concert! Got there around 1:00 pm and partied until 7:00 pm when the concert started! Florida Georgia line was the the 1st opening act and they totally won me over as a fan! I was kind of meh about them before this show, but they lit up the stage, and they had the lawn area filled up like I’d never seen it before…for an opening act! Thomspon Square came on stage after them and rocked some, but not as hard as FGL. Luke Bryan was the main event and I think my super duper high expectations of this guy blew it for me. It was a good show, he preformed all my favorites and shook his booty…but I was left a little underwhelmed. Oh well. Not a lot of pictures from this night because they were mostly on my camera instead of my phone.

SELFIEEEEE.

LIFE SIZE INFLATABLE BALL!

The crew :] Jessica and her peeps chilled with us too!

Padres v. Mets-

The season tickets crew (minus Ashley because her job is lame) caught a Thursday night game against the Mets. I got a call from our ticket rep while I was at work asking if we wanted to do “Friar Feud” and I said I’m sure one of the five of us would be down. I ended up being the one that did it…was asked to name two brothers that have both played for the Padres. I ended up losing and won this random consolation prize. You’ll hear more about this injustice on Friday…

ON TV/THE BIG SCREEN!

Random consolation prize for losing. Haha.

Stone17 Beerfest-

Stone is a local craft brewery in San Diego that tons of people love. I don’t drink beer, so I’m kind of meh about it…but their restaurant is pretty beautiful. They do an annual beerfest fundraiser for the local Boys & Girls Club, YMCA, Surfrider, (and a 4^th organization I don’t remember) as their anniversary party. I had a friend who volunteered to be a beer pourer but couldn’t do it. It sounded like a cool event so I said I’d be down to do it! I learned that beer people are super serious about their beer. Haha. It was a lot of fun, hopefully I get to do it again next year! And I totally recommend any beer drinker friends to buy a ticket for next year…super fun and super cool event!

Padres v. Mets-

A friend from NY was in town for the week and we arranged to catch a Padres game together. We had brunch on the field and all the players and coaches were out to sign autographs for everyone. We got to meet Padres manager Bud Black a second time, 1^st baseman Yonder Alonso again, and our favorite bullpen catchers Justin Hatcher and Griffin Benedict! The NY-ers in town got lucky because the players rarely come out to say hey. Haha. It was a good game, Padres won with a walkoff!

Brent & I

Lime & I with Bud Black!

With Yonder Alonso!

Lime & I with Hatch & Benny

Oh! And met this super hot Mets catcher!

Mmmmkay. That's enough. Good stuff, right? Check back tomorrow for part 2!

Man Crush Monday: Luke Bryan

This post was brought to you by Tim McGraw's Superstar Summer Night Concert from May that was replaying on tv this last Friday. 

I love country music so much, and I love that all of my country favorites were there!

Tim McGraw. Lady A. Luke Bryan. Dierks Bently. Jason Aldean. Keith Urban. and Pitbull...I guess. Haha.

It was an awesome special and I legit stayed at the gym until it closed Friday night so I can watch a majority of the concert.

So how did this concert inspire this man crush Monday post? A big fat smile would come across my face each time this dude was on camera...

Luke Bryan. He is the hottest dude in country music right now, rightfully winning the ACM entertainer of the year award. He is crazy good looking, but totally goofy!

This was my favorite of the night. Besides all of these awesome men signing together...I love how Luke kind of just wanders the stage when he's not singing. Lol.

He comes to town in 2 weeks...I can't wait :]

Someone get me this for the show!

The only thing hotter than a dude in baseball pants...
Luke Bryan in baseball pants <3

Okay, I'm done. 

Happy Monday everyone :]

Music I love, 6/13/13 Edition

Thursdayyyyyyy! I've been looking forward to you :] Why? Because it's almost Friday and on Friday I get to skip town for a couple of nights to Orange County to hang out with a friend and watch some Yankees baseball :] and then the Pitbull concert Sunday! Finally. 

So I've blogged about this one time before, but there is SO much music on the radio that I am loving right now, I had to share...

ARIANA GRANDE- THE WAY FEAT. MAC MILLER

I love Disney and Nickelodeon shows, including Victorious. Cat was my favorite character on the show! I'll totally admit to recording Ariana's new show Sam & Cat :] Anyways, when I first heard this song I totally thought it was Mariah Carey. Legit sounds like her. Obv. a little younger, but there are similarities. Love the awkward Mac Miller in this too.

MARIAH CAREY- BEAUTIFUL FEAT. MIGUEL

Speaking of Mariah...this song is gold. I love it. Mariah is a legend and besides that award show jump that might have caused damage to a fan...Miguel can do no wrong. I fell in love after seeing him in concert a few months back. Now thatyou've listened to the two, tell me Mariah and Ariana don't sound alike. I dare you.

ROBIN THICKE- BLURRED LINES FEAT. T.I. & PHARRELL

I really don't know what to say about this song other that it is fun. And 3 beautiful men have collaborated to give is a great summer song!

PITBULL- FEEL THIS MOMENT FEAT. CHRISTINA AGUILERA

Mr. Worldwide! I had to throw him in here A) because I love this song...but more importnantly B) I love Pitbull and I'm seeing him with Caroline and Chelsea this weekend! Whe I was younger and used to go out dancing regularly, I'd wear heels that killed my feet. I'd take breaks to sit and give my feet some rest...every time a Pitbull song would get played I'd hop up and run (in that way that girls whose heels are hurting them do) to my friends and dance for the song. Once it was over, I'd peace out and sit again...until the next Pitbull song. Excited for Sunday!

FLORIDA GEORGIA LINE-CRUISE FEAT. NELLY

FGL is the duo that people are obsessing over right now in regards to country music. I kind of get it, they've got good music. But I don't see the hotness that everyone else does. Meh. Love the original Cruise but I do have to say I'm happy for them to be on Top 40 radio thanks to the help of Nelly. 

That's it for now :] What do you think? Do I have good music obsessions right now? Anything you think I should hear? Let me know!

Music I Love, 3/7/13 Edition

[Update...so I totally just went in to erase the period in my title, and it changed my published date. This is totally killing my OCD, but whatev's.]

Happy Thursday! It's almost Friday which means it's almostttt the weekend! Which I so desperately need. 

There is so much music on the radio that I am obsessed with that I decided I must share it with my readers :] Shout out to my newest followers: Rachel (remember her from the Valentine's Day swap?!! She's stuck around!) and my newest one...Lauren over at Pink On the Cheek! Kayyyyyy was pimping out Lauren's "Hello Box" where you're paired up with a blogger and get to know them and hopefully become bff's! I'm paired up with a girl [to be blogged about in the future!] who is recently engaged. Hopefully I charm my way into her bridal party! Haha.

Anyways...back to music:

MACKLEMORE & RYAN LEWIS - THRIFT SHOP FEAT. WANZ

I don't know what it is about this song, but I am alllll about it. It makes me so happy and I always want to dance!

ALICIA KEYS - NOT EVEN THE KING

I. Love. Her. LOVE. I love her piano skills. I love her amazing voice. I love everything about her. I'm going to her concert next week! Wooo! So excited because I've never seen her live. I bought her latest CD, and love all the music on it, but Not Even The King and  When It's All Over are my two favorites. There's no official video but below is Not Even The King on David Letterman. I love the message of the song. The relationships we have with each other are priceless, materialistic things are worthless, not even someone as rich the king can buy the happiness we've got. Click that When It's All Over link...good song, but my favorite part is when she features her baby at the end <3 

MIRANDA LAMBERT - MAMA'S BROKEN HEART

I don't know if I'm allowed to say this, but I'm not too fond of Miranda or Blake as country artists. I feel like they're too hollywood for me. [Says the girl who is obsessed with LA! I'm an odd one.] I don't know what I don't like about them, I just know I don't LOVE them. With that said, I love this song. I think one comment that convinced me of it was a KSON DJ saying this song would probably be sung in a cabaret. Which I'm currently obsessed with...hahaha.

KACEY MUSGRAVES - MERRY GO 'ROUND

I don't know much about this girl, but what I do know is she helped write Miranda's song up above, and I was intrigued by Merry Go 'Round the second I listened to it. This song is too true about how we get stuck in ruts and just go with it. Not doing anything to shake up our lives and move on to bigger and better things. Hope this girl makes it big time! She's on her way!

Let's pick up the mood and close out with this song...

BRUNO MARS - LOCKED OUT OF HEAVEN

Another song that makes me happy. I don't think I've every really listened to the song, but the beat and hook are so catchy [as with any Bruno Mars song] that it makes me want to dance. Tickets for his concert go on sale Friday! I can't wait to buy them!

Weekend Update: All Sorts Of Blah

Mondayyyy. You have arrived. Meh. This weekend had so much potential, but ended up being a little lackluster.

Thursday: Yep, we’re starting with Thursday. I worked all day and then headed to a Relay For Life meeting. This will be my 3^rd year doing it, and it’s crazy how big the event has grown in our little town. 1^st year was 2011 and we had like 5 teams, 2^nd year totally blew up and we had like 18 teams or something AND raised like $40,000 for the American Cancer Society. The event is still 2 weeks away and according to the website, we have 20 teams and have about $39,000+ raised. Super cool! My team captain is my best friend’s mom so I got to the meeting a little early and raided her fridge like the good old days. We talked about what is gonna happen at the relay and what our team has planned…should be an awesome event.

 

This walk is for the AmericanCancer Society , an organization that raises money to fight ALL cancer. The Relay For Life is a 24 hr walk where teams participate and each team must have at least 1 person walking at all times. Ideally, there should be 20 people walking the course at any given time. Even at 3:00 am! I've kind of sucked at raising money, so I’m pitching it to my readers :] If you've got an extra $5, $10, $20, or even $100…throw it my way! It will be greatly appreciated!

Friday: Remember how I was super excited for Tim? He kind of did not impress. We left town a little late, encountered traffic, missed our exit, more traffic, tailgate, strongggg honey jack & coke, found an InCahoots group that brings speakers and line dances in the tailgate lot before the show, completely missed Love & Theft, caught Brantley Gilbert’s last 2 songs, searched through the masses for friends, didn't find them, and mostly chilled through Tim's set. My problem with Tim was he played a lot of new music I didn't know. I guess that’s my own fault for not being a true fan. Loved the last 20 minutes of his set which was where he played everything I knew! Chilled in the parking lot and waited for traffic to die down, saw a chick dance on the roof of a car and secretly wished she fell…no luck. Mexican food. Sleep.

Chelsea with the photobomb.

3 amigos <3

Let's take a second to appreciate the growth of my hair! Left is 2 summers ago (I think?),
baby piggy tails, right was at Tim Friday night.

Saturday: Worked in the morning, 3.5 hour nap, unpacked my bedroom stuff, hung art I've collected in the last year, caught up on SYTYCD, sleeeeeeep.

Yankees Stadium

Jack's Mannequin and Something Corporate autographed lyric posters. 

1 more off the 100 things to do before you die list! #33.

Sunday: Did laundry & ran errands with my mom. Purchased bedroom curtains. Bought cinder blocks to put on the corners of my bed frame to raise it. Got the idea from pinterest! I bought the wrong size, had to make another trip to HD and buy the right size which raised my bed about 10 inches. Now I’m kind of scared I’ll fall off! Pictures soon once my room is completely done!

Wasn't a boring weekend, but nothing too exciting.