""But we just want to dance..."

Feeling: Sore
Current Love: "Shadows" - Midnight Juggernauts

Justice.

I have been looking forward to this show for over 3 month, and alas I have to say I came out somewhat disappointed.

I first learned of Justice's US tour Chicago stop the night of Pitchfork. Mike and I were both super excited. We even heard some kid from Ohio talking about it before Klaxons' set Sunday. This lead to another funny story.
Mike got the kid's number and finally called him the night before the show at 2 in the morning. He picked up, and Mike asked him if he was going. He replied yes, and said something along the lines of "can I go back to sleep now?" I was surprised that he was going, but unfortunately we didn't meet up with him before/after the show.

Anyways, the crew (Mike, Cara, John, and I) left West Lafayette around 6:30. The show was at 9 Chicago time, but we didn't make it to the Metro until 8:45 due to several pit stops and delays. (both on the road and in the city)
We made it in just when Midnight Juggernauts came on, and the floor was already pretty packed. Their set was short, and the sound wasn't so great at some point. (the venue's fault). "Shadows" was great live.

I almost forgot. No merch! none at all. I was looking forward to getting a Jugg tour shirt. Why do you hate us...?

Getting back to the story.
We had been slowly creeping up towards the front during Jugg's set and Justice's set-up. The space was getting tighter and reminiscence of pitchfork came back. After 20 some minutes, the metal playing on the speakers finally cut out, and the crowd chanted for Justice.

The duo ascended to their cross throne, and "Genesis" descended upon us.
The crowd went wild when the first chorus hit. Everyone was jumping, including me. Air was slowly depleting and the temperature was rising; I had a good feeling that this is going to be Klaxons all over again.
The girls behind us definitely did not except this.
"What the hell is going on? I just want to dance!" one cried out.
Looking back, I feel kind of bad for them. I think things could have been better if the crowd wasn't so rowdy and didn't have so many jackasses.

Justice's set was also lacking. The overall mood was rather edgy, and I wish they had played more happy tunes like "Just Jack" and "DVNO", and more covers. The encore of Metallica was pretty interesting/odd.

---
It rained the whole way back. We got back around 4 and I didn't get to bed till 5. I had no intentions of going to my morning classes, and I did just that. Got up around 1, ate, studied for my exam at 7, took the exam, and I was home free. What a great day.

Also, Klax in French? I guess they're fitting with the Parisian scene pretty well. I'm not a big fan of the version though, but the Justice remix is ++.

Mooncake, Mooncake

Feeling: Pensive
Current Love: "Yeah Yeah" - Bodyrox

This weekend has been rather chill. Slow, but still good. After finishing classes on Friday, I studied for awhile in the Union and chatted with Sami after he came over. (Maybe it was more like me listening to him talk about how he got raped by his Physics test) I made dinner, studied more, and watched TV. I was waiting for some calls to make plans for the night, but it was around 11, and I still haven't heard from anyone. Matt texted me to join him at a party, so I agreeded since I had nothing else to do. The host was his old roommate who is hispanic. Everyone at the party was hispanic. I'm pretty sure both Matt and I felt awkward being there, so we left after awhile. We picked up Connie from her house and met up with Andrew, Jen, Raj, and Molly at a party in Jen's apt. complex. Surprisingly, Nikhil was there, and I later discovered he lived next to that apartment. I had a good conversation with him in his slap-happy state. I also got to steal some music from him, which is always a plus. I left around 3 and passed out.

I want to kick the habit of sleeping in super late on weekends. I woke up at 1 Saturday morning, which is an ok time. Mike called, and I went downstairs to make lunch with him. Tasty bok-choi and beef stir-fry. We studied and did laundry before he had to work at 6 at Bea One. I went with him though, because I wanted to talk to the owner about doing graphic works. She was surprisingly young. I think everything went well, so I was pretty happy about that.

More study ensued after I left. Studying never gets tiring, right?
I ate at Panera (ran into Mayowa) and stayed there until 9. I switched locations to the Village Coffehouse but didn't stay very long as I had gotten a call from X. He was studying as well, so I invited him over to my place to have a study party. He brought me chicken curry from his house, which was pretty tasty. I slacked off though and pretty much just ended up watching foodTV. He left around midnight, and I met up with the crew at another party. That party did not have the best vibe, so we left for another, which turned out to be fairly cool.

It was a roof party above Von's with live music and of course, drinking. Mike came after he got off of work around 2, and we had fun watching/stalking drunk people. There was this one guy who walked like a zombie due to his drunkenness. (Also, I learned from this weekend that drunk people can be scary. I don't like it)

Mike and I left abit before 4 as the party died down but had enough time to grab food at the Rice Cafe before it closed. We ordered "Egg Foo Young", which is apparently fried egg with meat and veggies. It was tasty nonetheless. Passed out at 5 and surprisingly woke up at 1.
I went downstairs to borrow a pot and woke up Luke in the process. I decided to make lunch with him, so I pulled out my marinated chicken and veggies and made tomatoe mushroom penne. I was really happy with how the chicken turned out, so I'm excited to cook the rest when I get around to it.

Studied, did more work.

My parents wanted me to come home for dinner, because we had neighbors over, so I agreed and rode home with my dad at 6. Ate dumplings, ribs, tofu, noodles, etc. The usual party food.

-----

I feel like there's so much homework/work I have to do, but in reality, it's really not that much? I don't know. I guess I like having things to do, but sometimes having nothing gives a good sense of acomplishment.
:shrug:

"We dress just like Cid and Nancy"

Feeling: Exhausted
Current Love: "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger" - Daft Punk

Is it the weekend yet? I'm completely exhausted of energy at the moment from lacking sleep in the past 30 hours. But yet, I'm still excited about summing up my weekend at two in the morning.



FRIDAY

I woke up at 9:35 for my Diffeq class and received a text from Matt:
"You want to come to the Threadless opening?"

What.
I have been wanting to go all week, and it was surprising that he was going. Basically, the online/Chicago based company just opened a retail store and was "throwing a party" at the Metro= free shows.
After ironing out some kinks in the plan, I agreed to tag along with Matt and his friend Mike (the driver) for a weekend road trip to Chicago.

I went to my math class at 10:30 and got ready/packed before going to Mechanics at 2:30. I had to skip my 3:30 Stat class since the show was scheduled to start at 6, and we wanted to avoid traffic.
After food, gas, getting lost (solely a fault on my part), we finally got on 61 around 4:30. Lucky for us, there was an accident a mile or so down the road, and the traffic was in congestion for about 15 mins. Some car/truck was flipped on its side by the road. Eh.
The rest of the drive went smoothly and we got into Chicago just around 6. (Chicago time!) The store was a lot smaller than I had imagined from looking at pictures, but the LCD screens were super neat. I took a few pictures but did not buy anything.
The store was in the Depaul area, so Mike dropped his car off at his friend Ben's, whose apt. we later crashed at. Ben came with us to the Metro, but it took him forever to get ready. Taking the train took awhile and getting lost did not help either (not my fault this time; I was actually the one who noticed we were going in the wrong direction). We finally made it to the Metro around 8:30, where the last band, Hey Mercedes, was setting up. I was disappointed that I missed Anathallo, the band I really wanted to see, but I couldn't complain too much considering the show was free.
Hey Mercedes turned out to be punk/emo/whatever, and we all agreed that it wasn't super. We left after 40 mins. and followed Ben to his friend's party.

The party started out small and grew exponentially with time, until it hit the limit, and then decreased. It was fun talking to people, but the highlight had to be the piss-ass-drunkard.
Everyone first noticed him when he locked himself inside the bathroom throwing up for awhile. He disappeared after that, and everyone assumed he left. But later he comes out of no where, stumbles into the kitchen, where I was sitting with others. You can tell that he was about to blow as he tried making his way to the door. I watched in silent and waited for the moment...
BAM! He blasted.
The projection was rather impressive. Red liquid and chucks were splattered all around the entrance to the laundry room. Seeing as the front door was too far, the drunkard dashed for the immediate window in the laundry room and rained down from the second floor.
Oh but it gets better.

Two minutes later, a group of guys walked up from their smoke break, not looking very happy. Apparently, they got hit by the drunk's puke as the window was directly above the front door. Luckily, they didn't get too much on them, but the turn of events is still hilarious.

The hosts freaked out when people started throwing up, so they wanted everyone to leave. Ben was in the pool of people that threw up, and he was pretty wasted. We ended up hailing a cab, because he didn't want to walk, and the cab driver was really dumb.
$10 later, we made it back safely and called it a night.

SATURDAY

Mike and I woke up bright and early Saturday night. We had to pick up Matt from the apt. where we partied, because he ended up staying there for various reasons. Naturally, we made fun of him.
The plan for Saturday was going up to Libertyville, Mike's hometown. The place is about 40 minutes north of Chicago.
On our way there, I dropped into the first "Oasis" I've ever been to. It's basically a consolidation of fast food haven. I wanted to get a Gyro, but Mike recommended a local place. Since we were close to out destination, we left and ended up eating at the Gyro place. I enjoyed it, even though the meat was super salty.
We sat and watched TV at Mike's house for awhile, regaining energy and figuring out our next move. After some time, Mike's light bulb lit up, and he had a surprise in store for us.

I was pretty curious as to where he was taking us. We made a pit stop at Caribou Coffee (my first time to the chain), and ended up in the rich neighborhood. Mike led us to the end of a street, where sets of wooden stairs delve onto a beach and the sound of wave splashing lingered in the air. It was a very pleasant surprise. I had no idea the town was right by the lake, and I have not been to a beach for over a year.

We spent a long time at the beach. Everything felt calm, happy, and peaceful. I imagined how wonderful it would be if I lived in such an area. Everyday, on the beach.
But Indiana, in the end, is just Indiana.

Mike planned a get-together with his friends for the night. His dad bought him alcohol from the store and apparently doesn't care that he or his friends drink in the house. We grabbed food with his friends at a Thai restaurant for dinner, and regrouped back at his house.
The night was also his high school's homecoming, so his sister and friends were hanging out upstairs while "us college kids" partied in the basement.
We danced and raved to Daft Punk (Interstellar 5555), and later Matt taught us to swing dance. We danced the night away, and before long, everyone parted, and it was already 1 A.M. I had work Sunday morning, so I requested that we leave in the morning. Mike planned on staying up, and we all ended up staying up before leaving around 5.
By the time I got into the car, I was ready to pass out. At some point down the highway, I noticed Mike pulling into a gas station. Apparently his car was heating up, so he had to buy some coolant. Problem solved? Except some times later (I really don't remember how long, because I was pretty much drifting in and out of sleep), he stopped again because the car was still heating up. He called his dad and found the problem. Good, we're really on our way now.

I felt a little guilty for having Mike drive all the way back at this hour. I could tell that he was barely hanging on towards the end. I'm just glad I made it back safely.

SUNDAY

After getting back, I showered and got ready for work. The weather was terrific, which made the 20 minute walk fairly pleasant. I haven't gone back to work in over 3 weeks, so I had no idea what's up these days. The hours went by pretty easy as I just had to resort some books. The rest of the time was devoted to ME homework.

The rest of the day wasn't that exciting.
-----

Sooo, looking back, it was a good weekend with fond memories.
Also, I miss Chicago.

Onward, Week Three

Feeling: Productive
Current Love: Emergency - Passion

Phew. This week has gone by super fast. Stressful, but overall good.

The Industrial Roundtable was Tuesday and Wednesday. Although companies were that enthused about recruiting interns, I had a fun experience and was motivated to look further into getting an internship over the summer. I'm fairly interested in interning with UPS, a consumer company like General Mills, or a tech company like IBM or Motorola. Also, free things are good.

Another time consuming task this week was the interviews for SCC recruits. It was fun to be honest, getting to converse with the applicants and pose questions. I guess the pool of candidates weren't as crappy as I had expected, so that's good. Next week consists of two days of formal interviews. Yay for more work.
Speaking of SCC, there has been some drama/tension lately. I won't go into details, but I find the whole situation amusing. Things will straighten out, I hope.

The weather has cooled down considerably within the week, and it's so nice. I had a productive day today of attending class, finishing homework, stopping by SMEF (Management job fair), and going to work. I received my first graphic assignment of the year and am pretty excited. It's a bit technical, but I think I will enjoy it regardless.

No plans for the weekend yet.