and the award for worst blog updater EVER goes to...

yours truly!

thank you, thank you. i'd like to thank phish for their two-night run in wisconsin, a 1000-mile road trip in a 17-foot truck, a few minor accidents in said truck, a short stop in memphis, a sweaty move-in to my new apartment, and a number of other adventures that caused my blog hiatus. the last three weeks were hectic, to say the least.

in honor of my win, i'm going to spend the day blogging because i'm burnt out on apartment stuff. i have a ton of pictures to share from the last few weeks' escapades - and once i purge all of these, i can get started on apartment photos!

after lolla, i spent a week packing. thrilling. the following weekend we headed up to marty's grandparents' lakehouse in wisconsin for some swimming, tubing, pigging out and phish! since i have plenty of concert pics as it is (seen here and here), i mostly photographed the hilariousness that is the lakehouse. purchased and decorated in 1981, it has remained largely unchanged since then - including the liquor cabinet.

exhibit a: "famous gin" and an unopened glass bottle of tonic water, including random floaties, inviting one to "taste the rainbow"

whitewater lake, wisconsin. lakehouse comes equipped with a speedboat circa 1982, flooded engine included.

we started the weekend's festivities with alpine subs from my hometown, elmwood park...

...and some zapp's potato chips from my new town, flown in for the occasion by marty

yes, that is real shag carpeting. and an organ.

and original nintendo. and a jukebox. and wood paneling.

marty and his super talented younger cousin matt immediately set off to make music

more friends, more instruments. i snapped my fingers and tried to remain anonymous during the jam sesh, so as not to make obvious my tone-deafness and general lack of musicality

oh, weekends away...

i spent a great (and totally unproductive, but whatever) 4th of july weekend in atlanta and alpharetta, georgia going to phish concerts, relaxing by the pool and eating a lot of waffle house late at night. it was so fun and disconcerting to forget my responsibilities for a couple of days. i brought my camera along for the 4th to make memories out of amateur fireworks and an amazing concert.

the infamous lot and shakedown street

my cohorts ben, chris and marty

following the show, the lot become a minefield of firecrackers

i tried my hand the light show, as well. it was quite frightening and short-lived

our hotel pool in the aftermath of july 4th

patriotism

in honor of the fourth of july, i performed my civic duty of stimulating the economy by spending my hard-earned leftover loan money on urban's biggest sale ever. after watching what felt like 20 hours' worth of videos about security rights and some other crap i'll never need to know (which was in fact only 6 hours), i needed to reward myself for my hard work. patriotism at its finest, wouldn't you say? many deals of the day to come in 5-7 business days.

anyway, i'm off this weekend to alpharetta, georgia for a couple of phish shows, much-needed poolside time and maybe tubing - interspersed with learning about secured transactions, of course. happy 234th birthday, america.

image via we heart it

i want to be wearing tie-dye and birkenstocks

nora and i at our first phish show ever

toyota park lot

i really may have shot myself in the foot by coming down to new orleans to study for the bar. in what seems like a once-in-a-lifetime turn of events*, phish's summer tour opener is this friday in chicago at toyota park (which also happens to be the location of my inaugural phish show). and i'm not going.

but marty is. so are two of his sisters, two of his cousins, and a plethora of our fan-friends. something does not add up. martian is taking the train, however, and that makes me slightly less jealous. at first i thought the prospect of a cross-country train ride sounded incredibly romantic and relaxing. then i found out that the ride is 19 hours long, goes mostly through the night and the amount of sleepers is limited and expensive. goooood luck with that, mart. i have a way more fun and glamourous weekend ahead of me that includes bar review class on saturday morning and a number of planned** library dates with fellow bar sufferers. a phish concert and a weekend at home to see family and friends sounds way less fun.

anyway i decided i have no business being too sad because phish did a four-day run in miami over new years and i was lucky enough to go to two shows with becky (including the one on new year's eve!). mart was not there and he took it like a champ. so long as he doesn't gloat, we'll be okay. besides, i managed to sneak in my dslr in miami, something that would never fly in chicago (music venues are not too keen on professional-looking cameras). here are some of my faves from those shows:

*i have a flair for the dramatic, i'll admit

** i can't guarantee we'll actually follow through on these study dates

so close, but so far

marty and i, fresh off of our phish 2009 tour tidal wave, decided to test our luck yesterday and headed out to the riv to scalp tickets to see trey (the lead singer/guitarist/front man of phish aka marty's idol). we weren't the only ones. what we encountered was dozens of cold hippies pointing their fingers above their heads - the discrete code of phish fans looking for a ticket. we joined the crowd but instantly foresaw that this wouldn't go anywhere. there were just too many fans and no one selling.

me in miami on new years, graciously selling my extra ticket for face value

obviously i was disappointed because i wouldn't get to listen to trey, but also because i wouldn't get to go into the riv. the riv is one of several old theatres and ballrooms in chicago that were built in the 1910s and 20s and now function as [incredibly popular] music venues. there's something about being in an old space that holds the secrets and history of the past that makes the music sound so much better. it's really fun to imagine what went on, who was there, what they wore, how they danced... okay, well it is for me.

anyways we ended up sitting at the wild pug all night, just down the street (not before i snapped a pic of marty looking sorely disappointed). if we couldn't listen to trey, we would settle for a dj spinning techno versions of the rolling stones and 3 dollar newcastles (for me) and boddington's (for marty).