JANUARY
New Year's in Philly: $40, open bar, lots of Crown. Champagne toast. Great times, and even greater friends ... it was the perfect way to ring in the New Year. I think my favorite part of the evening was Mike's midnight toast: "Who the fuck knows where we'll be next year!?!?!" But I think we've all done pretty well for ourselves, so far. :)
At the end of the month I wrecked my car. That's not a highlight, but it's notable. R.I.P, Chester. You are missed.
FEBRUARY
I was sick for over half of this month, but right before I resigned myself to my bed and chain-watched four seasons of Gilmore Girls (I wish I was kidding), I saw Cross Canadian Ragweed at the Cannery Ballroom on February 9. This is always a life-changing experience, and I still remember that show pretty vividly.
I got a new car. A 2007 blue Ford Focus (I know what I like, okay?! Why mess with it?) His name is Nick. Nick Carraway (CARraway, get it?!?!) If you don't get the reference, you should probably catch up on your greatest works of literature, k? Anyway, Nick is pretty great, and we get along just fine.
Also, in February, we made some very important new friends. Basically we met our musical soulmates. Holiday Parade. You should check them out. They are my very very favorite boys, and I'm really not sure what I did without them. I almost forgot about meeting them in February ... because I feel like I've known them forever. :)
MARCH
Spring Break took me to Disney World with one of my best college girlfriends, Julia, and her little sister (I say little only because she's younger, but she's 19, so not that LITTLE). I hadn't been in over four years, and I became a 12 year old girl all over again (hmmm ... this is also around the time I started loving the Jonas Brothers ... coincidence?) We went for 4 days, and it was just the perfect trip ... perfect weather, no crowds, and great company.
I came home for all of five days before leaving for St. Patrick's Day in Philly. Even though I was 21 for the 2007 edition, this was my first official St. Patty's out in the bars, and we did it up right. Philly has the "Erin Express", free buses that drive you back and forth between six bars with $2 Killian's. And if you visit all of them, you get a t-shirt. Let's just say my wardrobe got a little more green :). And because the city officially moved the holiday to Saturday the 15th, we did bars that day, recooped on Sunday, and celebrated all over again with a house party on Monday night. Epic. What I managed to remember was quite memorable. Haaa.
APRIL
April was the beginning of the end, the downhill slide into graduation and all things senioritis. Starting with Rites of Spring the 18-20, everything is a blur until graduation.
Also, Tyler Hilton moved back to L.A. and had a going away concert concert. Sad day for Nashville.
MAY
Senior Beach Week in Destin with great friends, Cinco de Mayo, and graduation. So depressing, yet so fun. There's not much to say about it. But I miss college. :(
The end of May I was at home for my best friend's birthday in Philly, and then a string of graduation parties and quality time with the family. Probably the last time I'll be able to return home for such an extended period of time, and I took full advantage.
JUNE
More graduation parties ... one pretty much every weekend through the 21st. Then I headed back to Nashville for the very end of the month.
JULY
In July I went to my friend Casey's cabin in Georgia for a long weekend with a bunch of friends. A lot of relaxing and playing on the lake. Oh, and drinking absinthe?! And we stopped in Atlanta to go to Six Flags. Good times.
Jason Mraz AND Gavin DeGraw on the 17th. So worth the four hour drive to Indy. Amazing show ... and it didn't even matter that right after we drove so far to see him, Jason announced his fall tour and Nashville show ... because we just wanted more, anyway. He is just one of my favorite performers. Ever.
KingBilly Is Your Friend night for July was filmed for GAC this month, and the boys just blew me away. They always amaze me, but something about this month just broke down new walls and they impressed me all over again. Just when I think they can't get any better ... Also, we met our new friend and music/life soulmate David, who was interning here and living with some of the boys in the band this summer. He plans to move back here soon, a day I am very excited for and anxiously awaiting. David ... rocks.
Also, my friends from L.A./the Drew Davis Band came to town to play with Hootie and the Blowfish on their summer tour. I met Hootie, no big deal. This was the first of many visits from these boys this summer/fall, and they spoiled me. I hope these frequent visits continue in '09.
Also, this is when Roger introduced me to one of my soulmates, Beth Brinker. Beth and I had been one degree of separation for over 2 years(!!!!), but never met untill she graduated from Texas A&M (go Aggies!) and finally moved to Nashville in June, our paths finally crossing. We like to believe it was for a reason, that we were met to meet at this particular point in our lives, and I also like to believe we've been very good for each other. She gets the whole music thing the same way I do, and we've had a lot of great times together in the past five months, with, I believe, many many more to come. :)
AUGUST
Nothing monumental happened in August--just a lot of summer stuff. I babysat and watched the Disney Channel a lot, our friend Lindsey's parents came to visit and we went out on the lake for a day.
Oh, and the Jonas Brothers' new album came out. And was amazing. And I became even more obsessed with them. I probably listened to "Can't Have You" about 7,853,932 times this month. Approximately.
SEPTEMBER
At the beginning of September, HP came to visit again. We sat on the roof and went to Baja Burrito (where Andy got a grill ... made out of tin foil) before they left for their show in Chicago.
Then about a week later, we went to Atlanta to visit HP ... and to see Stephen Kellogg. We saw them on the 12th in Nashville, the 13th in Atlanta, and the 14th in Birmingham. See highlights below. This was also the trip where we started our vlog!! Mostly so I can remember all the things that happen in our life, which has been difficult in this blog so far, so good thing.
Then when we got back, we attended Matt Wertz's cd release at Border's, the ddb came to visit again and played a label showcase at 12th & Porter, and David came to visit for KingBilly Is Your Friend night!
September was probably my favorite month of 2008. Full of great friends, great adventures, and great music.
OCTOBER
October was another great month of music.
On the 3rd, Beth and I went to see Hanson at the Wildhorse.
2 days later, we attended Dierks Bentley's Miles and Music for Kids III, a big concert here in Nashville at the Riverfront with lots of special guests that benefits the Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. We rolled deep, with like ten friends, and had a blast. Dierks kicks ass, that's all there is to it.
Then on the 13th, we were all lucky enough to go to the ASCAP Awards at the Ryman. I can't really describe how amazing that night was. Just to be in a room full of people that love music as much as you do, honoring the writers and artists for all the best songs of the year ... it was amazing and kind of life-changing. They also honored Reba McEntire, and as they were going through her career highlights, I realized I'd really sorta been there for all of them ... being raised on the Reba/Garth/George/Alabama country of the 80s and 90s as I was. Really, truly, an incredible evening. And we took fun pics on the Red Carpet, something I've always wanted to do.
The 23-28 we went on tour again. We saw SK6ers in Indy on the 23rd, then back to back in Chicago on the 24th and 25th, hanging with our pals Clayton and Angus. Clayton Senne had opened for SK6ers in Nashville in September, and is really very talented and just a great guy. Check him out. We haven't finished our vlogs from this trip, just Indy and Day 1 in Chicago. We need to get on that. But we were thriving in Obama country, eating deep dish pizza after an epic journey to Gino's East, and spent a LOT of time on the train (thanks Angus).
We then saw HP with My Favorite Highway in Chicago on the 26th. We became tour bros and on with them to Dayton, OH--but MFH's transmission failed and we had to leave them behind. Because they cancelled that night, and it was an 18+ show, nobody came to the concert and we all just decided to get wasted. It was an interesting show, with just Michael and Andy playing acoustic, but a GREAT night. We were supposed to leave after the Dayton show, but the boys talked us into coming to Pittsburgh the next night so we could see MFH again ... but lo and behold, halfway there we get a call from Dave Cook and they are still stuck in Chicago, and have to cancel again. The venue in Pittsburgh was AWFUL, and we had another quite interesting evening, followed by a seven hour drive through the night back to Nashville. But it was totally worth it just to spend time with our boys. :-) We narrowly avoided staying on tour and going to NYC, but we knew we would never make it home at that point. They almost convinced me to quit my job and throw my stuff in the van--don't tempt me, boys. Just don't. I can't wait to go on tour for real, and I WILL do it someday. Maybe the next HP tour ... hmmm.
We made it back to Nashville just in time for Halloween and October KBiYF night--featuring special guest Hannah Montana!
We also had a Halloween party at our house with a bunch of my friends that are still in school at Vandy. It was a blastie, and we vow to have more people over this year for more great times. We played Battleship (the drinking version--ask me about it someday, it's fantastic). Shirts & Skins vs. Team Superior.
I really have no idea why so many boys were shirtless at my house that night ... but I can't say I minded ... or that it was the first time. :-P
NOVEMBER
The 4th was a pretty big day for all of us, and I don't think I need to go into details. We had a few people over to watch the results, and had settled in for the long haul, but it was all over by 11:30 pm. I never expected such a landslide. :-)
We saw Jedd Hughes at the Rutledge on the 6th, always a treat. The Rutledge is a GREAT venue, you should check out a show there sometime if you can.
We celebrated our friend Eric's bday and I saw Twilight ... then I celebrated my birthday several times. Bowling in Nashville with my roomie and work friends, on the actual day in DC with some college and high school friends combined that have ended up there, on Thanksgiving Eve back in the 'boro with high school friends, on Thanksgiving with the fam, and then on the 30th in Nashville with Casey, Chung, Gillian, Sam, and oh, yeah, JASON MRAZ. 23 on the 23rd ... my golden birthday was one of my best ever. :-)
DECEMBER
The second week of December was a very full week of music. On Monday we went to a taping for GAC of a Dierks Bentley concert at Rocketown, free and VIP, baby--I love my friends.
Rock Star.
On Tuesday night we went to Belmont's "Dead Day Eve" festival at 12th & Porter ... we went to see Steve Moakler, who is INCREDIBLE. Check him out now, because he's going to be HUGE and I'm going to say "I told you so" a LOT. But we ended up seeing a lot of very talented and varied bands, and it was a great night of live music.
Wednesday Clayton was in town to open for The Gabe Dixon Band (also amazing!) at 3rd & Lindsley, and after some quality time with him we headed back over to 12th & P for Chris Janson. This boy (and he is just a boy, barely 21) could probably change your life musically. When I see him live, I feel like I'm in the 60s watching an opening act for Johnny Cash or Elvis Presley ... maybe both. He blows my mind every time.
Friday was the November/December KBiYF combo, with RICHARD MARX and Matt Scannell of Vertical Horizon. Oh, and Taylor Swift came to check them out (on her BIRTHDAY, no less!) and her fiddle player, Caitlin Evanson,jammed with them. No big deal. Not an epic night for my boys or anything. And they sang a Christmas song, Rudolph, at that, which may have been a highlight of my life.
We have a lot of videos from this week, we just need to edit and publish them, so hopefully you'll all get to experience some of it in the future ...
That weekend, we baked a thousand Christmas cookies, and bought JONAS BROTHERS TICKETS! After they announced their intimate show at the Ryman, which is TOMORROW, btw. Merry Christmas to meeeeee (thanks boys, you shouldn't have!). We delivered cookies to KingBilly at Hotel Villa that night and to the rest of our friends throughout the week, and went to see our friend TJ play at 3rd & Lindsley.
That next weekend was the roomie's 21st birthday. We got a hotel downtown (which the Pittsburgh Steelers were also staying at ... crazy and kind of annoying!) and went out to dinner and laser tag before hitting the bars at midnight. She lasted three bars before we spent the rest of the evening by a toilet. All in all, a great 21st birthday. Love you, roomie! :-)
Our apartment flooded the next night, when our pipes froze and burst in the kitchen, but it was home for Christmas for me and not worrying about it! It seems to be all sorted out now.
Christmas Eve Eve at the McDonald household was as usual an event with lots of drinking and Trivial Pursuit, which our generation won this year! (We play Mike's friends vs. his older sister Erin's friend vs. his parents and their friends)
Then Christmas with the family, which was lovely, and then I got a 24-hour stomach bug, which was NOT lovely, but I recovered just in time for my first big high-school-friend-wedding event. It was open bar and we saw a lot of old friends, including Jess, one of my best friends from high school who moved to Georgia our junior year and I don't get to see NEARLY often enough. It was a great night of old friends making new memories, and a beautiful wedding. Although it weirds me out that I'm at THAT age now ... eeek.
TABLE NINETEEN FOREVA! Haha. We got a little ridiculous, but we had a lot of fun dancing! :-)
Back to Nashville after that, back to work, and New Year's Eve took us to the Music City Bowl game, where VANDERBILT WON! It was our first bowl since 1982, and our first bowl WIN since 1955. Needless to say, I'm glad I braved the cold to go to the game, it was very exciting. Then a party at Hotel Villa with some of my very favorite people ... but that's another blog for another year ... ;-)
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