Music As a Weapon

There's nothing like a great show to make you feel alive again. Last night I was lucky enough to see Disturbed and Killswitch Engage at the Izod Center in New Jersey. I love nothing more than the gathering of the most degenerate humans on earth at every metal show I attend. Only 10% of metal fans are female, but I feel at home at these sort of concerts. There is no better, more uplifting feeling that hearing a great band play live on stage, especially if it's the first time you're seeing them. In this case, I have seen both of these bands before but they're both amazing enough to see over and over again.

In case anyone isn't aware, frustration, grief, and stress are alleviated in no better way than by being in a mosh pit. I got to push a kid wearing joker makeup. It was glorious, but I got my karma when a 200 pound man was dropped onto my head while crowdsurfing. I felt like I had just sniffed a gallon tub of white out and nearly passed out.

It was all worth it.

Reunited & it feels so good.

I feel like I just got back together with an ex that I had badly scorned. She's forgiven me and after six and a half weeks I finally have my Chelsea back!

I was convinced that I'd forgotten how to drive but all is well. Now I'm still adjusting to actually having a means of transportation and not being stuck up on this hill all the time.

I'm starting to think that spring is Car crash season. I can use both of my hands to tally up the people that I know who have ruined their cars in the past couple months. If I were to try and count those plus people who have just been PART of a car accident, I would need my toes too.

So now I'm waiting for the weather to steadily get nice, and stay nice. In the mean time, you can see me driving like a grandma. No way I'm going to strike out 'cause 3rd time crashing your car is definitely not a charm.

What a Week.

So this has been quite the week if I can say so myself.

Monday began pretty normal, class .. hanging out .. my unconventional evening class had a suitably unconventional guest speaker which made the class very laid back and enjoyable .. until I receieved a phone call from my best friend Skye.

She was sobbing when I answered and when she was finally able to compose herself to tell me what was wrong, she broke it to me that our childhood friend Arthur, along with his entire family, had been in a horrific highway car crash which claimed the like of his younger teen sister, Regina.

Needless to say this changed the mood of everything for me, && the rest of the day was white noise. If you google "Regina Kriklivy" her name is mentioned on numbers of sites and blogs with stories on the crash. After glancing through the first page of results I began to feel ill.

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/morris/index.ssf?/base/news-5/123847305689840.xml&coll=1

Her wake was Tuesday night in Brooklyn. About 500 people were gathered in what is the biggest funeral hall I have ever been in. This girl was loved, and with good reason. She was beautiful inside and out. It hurt so much to see her brother, my friend, in pure agony as he sobbed over the casket of his little sister. I hate when guys cry.

He gave a touching eulogy and then left the mic open to the rest of us. A few minutes went by with no takers, so I decided to break the ice. I said my few words, mentioning how amazing it was to see this many people gathered to pay their respects, and stepped down. After this a few others took the stand to do the same. I was surprised at myself, but glad I did it.

The next day was a complete turnaround. I got to do my favorite thing in the world, go to a show! I went to Irving Plaza with some of my pledge sisters to see A Day to Rememeber, Emarosa, the Devil Wears Prada, & Miss May I. It was an intense night of headbanging, pushing, tossing, moshing, && crowd surfing. I loved every second of it.

Now I'm awaiting tomorrow afternoon to get away with the girls again, this time for an entire weekend to the Poconos. Oh my.