Live Mighty

Jason Mraz opening for Dave Matthews Band?! Yes, please!!

Since I was in seventh grade I have had a strong love for Dave Matthews Band. I had older cousins who were into them and influenced me into loving their music.  

My love grew in high school, especially when I went to more concerts, with the favorites being the ones attended at Alpine Valley.  

Then... in college I learned about this artist, Jason Mraz. A geeky, fun-loving, hippie, surfer from California.  He was a skinny, awkward dude in his early twenties. 

I saw one of his shows... 

 ...and from then on it has been love.

 

Jason Mraz has since grown into quite the attractive man... no longer awkward or geeky. Just pure sexy.

yum.

Whenever Jay wears this hat, people tell me he looks like Jason Mraz.  

I couldn't be happier to hear this.  

heck yes!

Jay and I also have this agreement, if I ever get invited back stage and Jason Mraz falls in love with me and wants to whisk me away to Bora Bora... Jay is not allowed to argue... it just has to be!

ANYWAY... September 18th... I am proud owner of 4 tickets to see Jason Mraz opening for Dave Matthews Band at Wrigley Field (Home of the Chicago Cubs).

Excitement is SEEPING out of my pores. I cannot concentrate. I cannot even fathom how much fun this day will be. There will be drinking and eating in Wrigleyville. There will be dancing in the streets. There will be dancing in the stands. There will be screaming when I hear both Jason and Dave's sexy voices. There will be lots of singing to all the songs I know the lyrics too... and there are plenty of them.  

Watch out neighbors in seats 8 and 13!

Sidenote: concert tickets are SO expensive these days!  Granted this is Jason AND Dave... and also the concert IS at Wrigley Field in Chicago... but... still... the cheapest tickets were $66 after all the fees and taxes!  (Most expensive were $100ish) Although I do have to say... I did see Jason Mraz for $10 two years ago, because he is awesome and knows students are poor. I am sure the venue makes the prices skyrocket.  

Either way I am game. I am there. I am pumped. I am amped. I am ecstatic. Can you tell?

and to end with the words of Jason Mraz...

Live High

Live Mighty

Live Righteously

kick in the butt.

I had a little freak out last week when I realized getting a Masters Degree is NOT easy. Well, duh, Rachelle.  I cried a little, stomped my feet a lot, and had a small temper tantrum.  I planned this ENTIRE summer before I even knew I got into school (I literally had every weekend day that I am not working booked from June through September).  So, now on top of working full time at the hospital and having every weekend booked with trips, parties, picnics, cabin trips, concerts, festivals, and shows to go to... I have to squeeze in getting my Masters Degree.  I might as well don a spandex suit and shiny patent leather boots and make everyone call me Wonder Woman, because I am going to need super powers to make it through this summer.  

Last week, my whole freak out moment started when I received a 30/50 grade on a quiz.  I think I really needed this to kick me in the butt and get me into shape. Well, get my brain into shape, that is.

I took this kick in the butt seriously and worked hard this past week (I even took "cabin" time to study at the library)... and I got a 50/50 on my last quiz! Go me! It made me realize that it IS possible to succeed, you just need to eliminate shopping days, city visits, and lazy days with friends in exchange for study time and quiet days at the library.  I think I'll be ok. It also helped to have motivational words from Jay and some of my friends... especially Shley.

Next week is my trip with the girls to Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin for my birthday.  The big quarter life birthday... 25 years old. Yikes!  I feel so old, but I know I am still so young. I won't reflect on my life in this post, but I feel I have to reflect on my life every year around my birthday.  Isn't that what birthdays are kind of for? To look back on the past and smile at the memories, assess where I am in the present, then make plans for the future? Well, birthdays are also for celebrating and just getting silly tipsy on wine with friends and family... which I plan to do in Sturgeon Bay. I'll do the serious reflecting next time.

Until my trip to Sturgeon Bay... my life will be... Study Study Work and Study.  
Off I go to... guess what? Study.

Cabin Fever

Every summer I bring a bunch of friends up to my cabin for a weekend. We eat too much, drink too much, but never have too much fun.  It is fantastic. 

• We ride around on our golf cart and laugh at silly things.
• We visit the "boat graveyard"... a place where residents store their boats (at night time it is pitch black and we drive through and try to scare each other)
• We swim at the pool and play "keep up" with the beach ball to see how long we can keep it up. 
• We eat too many burgers, hot dogs, and bags of chips.
• We drink too much beer.
• We inhale too much campfire smoke.
• We do not shower enough.
• We wear flip flops all weekend long.
• We do not check our cell phones as often as we do at home.
• We have no access to the internet.
• We watch no TV (sometimes we watch movies)

 ... its just a break from reality.

This cabin has been in my family for a very long time. When I was little it belonged to my parents' friends, eventually they sold the property to my parents and in the last couple years we got rid of the old cabin and a new one has replaced it.  There are 3 bedrooms, a loft, a kitchen, family room, and one bathroom. We have a big deck attached to it, a fire pit, a shed to house our golf cart. It is a very simple place, but we have lots of fun.

To help you understand the memories we form up there... pictures galore!

We ate Chicago Style hot dogs... topped with pickle, relish, onion, tomatoes, celery salt, pepper, mustard, NO ketchup! (missing a sesame seed bun). Delicious.

Jay very excited to eat his dogs.

We ate a lot of burgers as well.

Jay and me soaking up the sun.

  Some of my ladies that came up with me.

 Salsa made by Shley... needless to say we devoured this in 2.5 seconds.

We rode our golfcart around at 15mph... that's about how fast it can possibly go... pedal to the metal!

The girls enjoying our golf cart ride

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Me and my love at the playground.

We met these random dudes... who were engraving rocks. They put my friends to work and told us they would give us a free engraved rock. We lost interest after awhile and were kind of creeped out (they were hilariously tipsy on Old Style)... so we ditched out before they gave us a free rock.

Love this place. It's on the Rock River and is always a great time. Had lunch here.

Enjoying our delicious lunch.

I purchased this ducky... At the end of the summer Fins sends all the duckies down the river and if your ducky makes it to the finish line first, you win something. It's for a good cause that helps fund a program that trains dogs for the blind.

The rain came to bother us just for a little while, but as you can see it did not bring down our cabin spirits!

We played a lot of games...

-Ladder ball (pictured on left)

-Bags (pictured on right)

-Whiffle ball

-Frisbee

-Soft ball

-Tennis

Softball @ the park

Tennis! We quit after 5 games, Jay was "winning" 3-2. 

Don't tell him I let him win. He gets so mad when he loses.

Jay enjoying ice cream...

We get very excited to go to the ice cream social... happens every Saturday of the summer. 

Some of the cute old ladies of the neighborhood serve ice cream (6 flavors only) 

35 cents a scoop or 3 for $1!

@ the tiny general store

We played with fire. I just love this picture. Harry was holding a stick with a beer box on the end of it, set it on fire and voila! This picture was created.

We set lots of cardboard on fire.

Having fun with Shley.

 

We take shots out of only these teacups from the 1970s.  

Whenever I actually have my own house and kitchen I plan on including these into my dinnerware.

 

All my friends insist on wearing head lamps.

Lauren and I won ladderball. We were extremely excited! 

Mostly because we aren't competitive at all and our opponents were moreso, so it was funny when we won.

Overall.... the cabin trip was great fun. We had lots of laughs, lots of fun, and ate and drank too much. I need a couple weeks to detox my body to makeup for all the ickiness I put into it.  So worth it though. I am happy with all the fun memories we made.

... and I got to cross a couple things off my To Do List! :)

My Spring & Summer Fun To Do's

• DONE Go to the beach
• DONE Go to a museum
• DONE Seek out photo ops 
• DONE Go to Ireland (June 2-7)
• DONE Kentucky Derby party @ Mike and Shley's (May 1)
•  DONE Visit the Sears Tower (not Willis darnit!) Skydeck
• DONE Have a bonfire
• DONE Paint pottery
• DONE Lake Geneva trip with my favorite ladies (June 17-19)
• DONE Pride parade (June 27) 
• DONE Summerfest for the 4th of July in Milwaukee, WI
• DONE Go to a concert
• Go for a long (for me) bike ride
• Go to my cabin  (July 10/11 and Aug 7/8!!)
• Ride a roller coaster
• Hot air balloon ride
• Have a picnic
• Go to the zoo
• Volunteer
• Play bocce ball
• Gamble at a casino
• See a movie in grant park
• Go to a cubs game
• Pitchfork music fest (July 16-18)
• Play tennis
• Go camping
• Chicago Jazz Fest (Sept 3-5)
  
• Paint with acrylics
• Oktoberfest Chicago (Sept 24-26)
  
• Sturgeon Bay, WI for my birthday with a few of my best ladies (July 21-23)
• Family Picnic (July 24)
• Possible South Carolina Trip (mid September)