Star 94 Jingle Jam 2013

Finally gonna rave about Jingle Jam that I went to 2 weeks ago.
I went to the Star 94 Jingle Jam again this year and it was pretty damn amazing, if I do say so myself.
If you've been around these parts, you may remember my post raving about it last year. I was SO excited to be seeing Ed Sheeran, and the other artists that were there were all amazing as well. Jason Mraz? Duh! Andy Grammer, Alex Clare, Grace Potter & Phillip Phillips? All amazing. You can read it here if you'd like.
This year, I decided I wanted to go again, depending on the line-up -of course.
It felt like it took FOREVER for them to announce the line-up and I remember when they did.
I was driving home from running errands, patience at an all time low with idiots on the road & I was listening to the station that puts on the show & all of a sudden there it was, "Star 94 Jingle Jam, featuring *plays music*" It confused me at first because I thought, "why the hell would you start an announcement and then cut it off half way through to play a song?" Then it dawned on me, that's who was going to be playing! Well, one of the artists anyway. And that artist/band alone was enough for me to say yes. I called Doug immediately, I'm talking as soon as the announcement stopped, and told him I'd be buying 2 tickets to this show AS SOON as they go on sale. And I did. And I even bought FLOOR seats, a first for me in a "bigger" concert. And boy was is worth it! And luckily Carla went with me (and had just as much fun as I did.) ;-)
I'm honestly still kind of pinching myself.
The line-up? Colbie Caillat, Avril Lavinge, The Fray, The Goo Goo Dolls,...and...The BACKSTREET BOYS.
Never in my life did I think I would be able to see them live. Ever. Same with the Goo Goo Dolls. Like, what? I think I knew them even before BSB.
Let me just start from the beginning.
They show was on December 16th.
We got there early, because I'd rather sit in the parking lot & wait than to be stuck in traffic.
Found our seats fairly easy & was blown away at how close they were. Definitely closer than I thought, and I am not complaining.
I feel like it was a good build up of artists. Started out slower with Colbie & ended with the big finisher BSB. Every artist in between built up the energy more and more. With a snag or two.
Colbie Callait was actually great. I like her music. I feel like some people don't because all or most of her music is more mellow and slow/soft, but I like it. It's good, chill music. So I think she was a great opener. And she seems just as chill as you would imagine in person.
Avril. So, you know Avril Lavigne, right? Pop-punk princess. Rebellious type of attitude/image and all? I didn't get that vibe out of her performance at all. She wasn't awful, but I honestly expected more from her just based on her music and such. I didn't fully get that punky attitude that you'd expect. I don't fully know how to explain it. Regardless, I still sang along. I was just a little sad at how it ended up sounding.
The Fray. They...are...amazing! Not even exaggerating in the slightest. If you ever get the chance to see them, I would take it. I like their music anyway so I was okay with them being in the line-up, but there was a small part of me that thought someone else could have went there. BUT, let me tell you, they fit RIGHT in. Isaac puts me in mind of someone from the 90's and I cannot for the life of me think of who it is by name right now. He's got kind of a nasal-y crackly voice and I loved it. He even walked out in the audience (he stopped about a row in front of me) and stood up in a chair and sang. Then he sang on top of his piano. They have great stage presence & the entire band in amazing. I know that they lead singer always get's raved about, but it has to be said that they whole band was great. 200% pleasantly surprised by them. Love it.
Goo Goo Dolls. I mean a dream come true for anyone old enough to appreciate 90's music, right? Duh! It doesn't even matter that they were the oldest artist/band in the line-up, they were amazing. And getting to hear some of your favorite songs from years ago, live, is just amazing itself. But unfortunately this is were the snag came in. They had a 30 minute set and they ended, of course, with their major hit "Iris". Holy excitement! Well, about halfway through the song, Avril comes out and decides she want to sing with "one of her idols" -as she said-, SHE. DIDN'T. KNOW. THE. WORDS. She fumbled the song, wasn't singing the right line in the right place, and just kind of seemed like a space cadet. The just when you think she's going to leave the stage to they can finish the song properly, she doesn't. She just continues to butcher it. I sat down. I couldn't take it. I know it's probably rude to kick someone off the stage when they want to come out and accompany you in singing, I mean it should be flattering right? But Johnny so should have booted her somehow. I don't know. I was sad about it though. So was Carla, and so were the people behind us. It just one of those things. I don't know....I was embarrassed for her. I actually hope she was drunk.
Backstreet Boys. I'm seriously so excited I got to see them live. I cannot express that enough. I'm also glad it was in the venue it was in, cause even though it's an arena, it's a smaller one. And you know what? They are ahh-mazing. I'm not kidding. For them to be a 90's boy band, all grown up and having gone through some of they things they have and just life in general, they are amazing. I'd totally pay to see them again. I also recommend if you like or liked them that you go see them. Not only will they make your preteen/teen dreams come true by singing some oldies, their new stuff is good as well. They did I don't remember the exact set list, but it was a mix of new and old & they threw in a Christmas song so there were only a few songs I didn't really know. The rest of them I belted out at the top of my lungs while trying to contain myself just a bit. Haha.
Overall it was an amazing show, very well worth the money. Such a fun experience. Star94Atlanta did great again with putting together a great show as well as getting together a great line-up. Even though I wasn't fully happy about Avril, I'd still recommend seeing her, especially if you're a fan. I was happy to see her because I have liked a lot/most of stuff she's put out since the beginning so seeing her for that alone was good. That's just one of the risks of a concert, you have to know that there is a possibility that they won't sound the same. But everyone else sounded as they do on radio/album if not better.
Also, there was a photographer there that was walking around taking pictures of the show and the audience. He stopped and took pictures of Carla and I a couple of times. I do not know who he was taking pictures for but I would surely appreciate finding him so I can see those pictures because I feel like I look ridiculous because we were kind of having a blast! lol. Leave it to me to throw in comments about the photographers. I just want to do it. Star 94 should get an extra photo pass and let me try it out. I would love to shoot a concert with my Rebel as opposed to my P&S. Maybe one day.
Anyway, here are photos & videos!
Photos are mine, videos are not. Sources will be below. :-)

BSB- I Want It That Way

source

 

BSB- Everbody

Source

 

The Fray- How To Save A Life (long)

Source

 

The Fray- Over My Head (Cable Car)

source

 



I'm not going to post the Iris video,...but you can watch it here.
And if you want to see any other performances just look up "Star94 Jingle Jam 2013" in YouTube.
:-)

Lovins
♥♥♥
Brandy

I still can't believe I saw AJ & Nick & Brian & Kevin & Howie live. LIVE. Mind Blown.

Trying to NOT be a Scrooge.

Oh, Christmas.
Is it almost Christmas?
Why, yes. 3 days away.
It's almost hard to tell though.
Even in Georgia, where the weather changes every 15 minutes, it's usually cool (if not cold) this time of year.
But...we are at 57 and rain...RAIN RAIN RAIN. Annoyed is an understatement.
Add on spend 2 FULL days in bed from a cold.
Only to now have a queasy tummy, among some other issues.
And let's add the cherry on top being the fact that I am still not finished shopping.
I just have to shop like hell tomorrow I suppose.
Oh, wait, and let's sprinkle on dirty water. Yep, after having dirty water for a week, then bleaching(disinfecting the pipes) and allowing a few days -or more- for that to filter through we now have cloudy water AGAIN. YAY!
What a lovely stress sundae I have.

Oh wait there's more. I really want to squeeze at least one of the THREE dr appointments I've been slacking on before the new year.

I'm ready to be done shopping.
I'm ready to be not have wishy washy ass weather.
I'm ready to have my appetite and normal functioning body back.
& I'm ready to be able to use the water in my house with out being paranoid of any bacteria or anything else being in it.

Even still, I'm trying not to stress.

-I'm glad I was able to get out of bed and function yesterday, I was able to get out and about & I got to meet Aaron Murray, GA Bulldog QB-former now :( - I'll post about that when I get the picture back. :)
-I was also able to go out to dinner with Doug, my mother in-law, brother in-law, grandparents in-law..lol and some aunts and uncles (all in laws you get it) for my bother in-laws birthday, he turned 13 Friday. Thirteen. O.O
-I have a place to go for clean water in order to shower and anything I need to do.
-Get to see a lot of family on both sides in a couple of days, so that's always good.

There's more good, I'm just gonna try to cut this rant short so I can make my shopping game plan because we can see where procrastinating has gotten me so far.

I know holidays can bring on stress, but I hate being this stressed. So I just needed to rant.
I've been MIA (I still haven't posted about the concert- daaang-) again and honestly, its because I can't even sort my thoughts long enough for ME to understand half the time. lol I won't say I'm ready for the holidays to be over, but I'm ready for the stress to be gone. I'm ready to enjoy the holiday.

So, sorry for the Bah-humbuggish post right before Christmas, but girl's gotta get off her chest.
Whew.
Now to get this shit done!

If I don't blog again before Christmas, which it's likely I won't, then I hope everyone has an absolutely amazing Christmas!

Fa-la-la-la-la la-la la-lovins!
♥♥♥
Brandy

Remeber that time I was a blogger?

No doubt I've been MIA. Partially because there honestly hasn't been anything going on & partially because I was a bit lazy (as far as electronics go).
Let's play a small bit of catch up...about some not really important things mixed with some pretty cool things mixed with some of the mundane...lol

-Right before Thanksgiving (the day before actually) my cell phone shit the bed. It died. RIP HTC thanks for lasting me 2yrs & 3 months. Well, I was kind of fine with it, which seems unheard of. Haha. My mom kept pushing me to get a new one & I kept putting it off. A couple of days passed & then I ordered a new one on Cyber Monday. & got it a couple of days later. So I was really only without it for a week. And everyone was so happy that I got a new one. Kidding...only partially kidding. It bothered everyone else more than it did me. But, anywayyy, I now have a Samsung Galaxy S4 Active & so far we're friends, there is only one thing I have found that it a bit of an annoyance, but it's not even much of a big deal really. I need a phone case though.

-I didn't do a WIW last Wednesday, because,..idk why. But as always I still weighed in and le scale said 157.6. Woo! However.... I'm nervous about this weeks because I've taken one too many days off in the past week & for some reason I'm having a bit o' digestive issues & bloat. What gives? I don't know. But, it's okay. I'm sure my diet hasn't been the best in the past 8 to 10 days. I'm just hoping everything returns to normal soon.

-We haven't had clean water for 8-10 days, add that to paranoid me & you get only eating things that don't require water & spending the night at my mother in laws in order to wash clothes and take a shower. The Friday before last I noticed that my toilet water was brown & low and behold, all of the water in the house turned out brown. We concluded that the seal on our well wasn't there & needed to be resealed & we needed a new cap...it took one too many days to even do that. THEN once you to that you have to bleach the water & allow time for that to pass through. For whatever reason it also took one to many days for us to bleach the water & now we are waiting for it to pass because it's still pretty strong smelling...my hands smell like bleach. Boo. So needless to say I will still not really be using water for another day or two.

-I may go to a small hiring/job fair for American Eagle this Friday. But there are also a couple of other job listings in a couple of medical offices/hospitals that I noticed. I took a break from looking, but I need to get back to it. UGH. Hate it!

-Guess who still isn't finished Christmas shopping? Me. -__- Thank the Lord for Doug's Christmas bonus & the fact that it was handed out right before payday. Much needed to help us make it through the Holiday without worrying too much about money. But, I've still slacked so bad on Christmas shopping. UGH. & I still haven't told anyone ideas for me so now my procrastination is forcing others to procrastinate. lol. Ooops.

-I missed a autograph signing Saturday & it was like an instant regret. BUT, I noticed this AM that there is going to be another one even closer to my house, YAY! SO I'm for sure going to it.

-Guess who's seeing 1D again in 2014. Yea, me-me-me! (Don't look at me like that!) I love already having one concert planned already...even if I do have to wait until October. Haha.

-Speaking of...I'm heading to a concert tonight. It'll be my last of the year. I'm excited. I get to see The Backstreet Boys. EEEK! Along with 5 other artists. I'll do a post on all of it sometime this week.

-I need a rock concert in my life. I miss my Framing Hanley boys, I wish I could pay for them to come close to my town and perform, just so I can see them. They still have 3 FREE songs available on their website, if you like rock/alt go. get. them. I mean shit, they're free. Who doesn't like that? Click HERE to get 'em, once you get there, scroll down to see the music player & then click on "Download all 3 tracks FOR FREE RIGHT NOW!!!". I'll never not promote them, but most of you know that already. ;-)

AND that's all you get right now because my mind is drawing a blank. I need to go put some time in on the treadmill since I won't get to tonight & then my friend who's going to the concert with me will be here & the rest of the day is driving, eating & dancing/singing along. lol
I miss you all, I always do when these little breaks happen, especially if they're not planned. I'm way behind on reading also, so I'll have to get to that too!
I also have a couple of new followers due to Karla showing me some love in this post last week (that I'm still at a loss for words over, unexpected for sure & I'm so grateful for her & her friendship.) But to those new followers, welcome to my mess! That's exactly what it is, my like, a mess. But it's a fun one most of the time. So, HI! Look forward to getting to know you!

& because I'm seeing em tonight, here's some BSB for you.

Everbody

 

If You Want It To Be Good Girl (Get Yourself A Bad Boy)

 

Hey Mr. DJ

 

Larger Than Life

(Funny how the screen freeze for this song is on the midsection...am I the only one to notice that? Dirty-minded me.)

Happy Monday, Love Bugs!
Lovins!
♥♥♥
Brandy

WIW 12.4.13

Oh hey there!
Totally didn't do a WIW Wed. post last week because, well, quite frankly I was lazy. lol
BUT I did weigh in.

So, for a short and sweet post.
I basically took a week off from everything.
Blogging.
Working out.
Tracking food.
And I really didn't watch what I ate too much (and still didn't eat too bad -or in my opinion anyway-)

Got back on the wagon Monday night.
Got a 16 minute mile out & that's all I could muster up energy for.
Gotta work back up (not that I was doing amazingly before) but still.
What I was doing was better than nothing. Anyway, I digress.
I also did some arms stuff & a attempted squats again. (hurt my knees again)
I'm a stubborn ass & will again try them a few more times.
I swear they were starting to not hurt before my week off.
So we'll see.

Last night, I opted for sleep over working out.
I don't know what it was, but I was so tired.
I was in bed and asleep before 10:30 I think.
Crazy for this night owl.
But it was GLORIOUS!

So, yea...that's where I'm at right now.

Now to the nitty gritty...
The Weigh In:

Week before last (11.20.13-last WIW): 160.5
Last week: 159.4
Today: 158.5

Down 0.9 lb since last week.

Heyyy, going down! (Let's hope I don't jinx myself!)

Happy Wednesday!
I'm trying to score concert tickets so I gots ta go!
Rant about that later maybe..

Lovins & stuff!
♥♥♥
Brandy

What a week...

So, I flat out just couldn't find the time to really blog last week, & that is A-OK.
So I'm just gonna talk about it all right now, a week recap instead of a weekend recap.

Monday was Thanksgiving at my house. Which turned out great. My pecan pie? Not so much. Listen, sugar free just doesn't work for everything, and apparently this is one of those things. but we tried, we always try to see if we can cater to Dad having diabetes, so we often try sugar free stuff & sometimes it works...sometimes not so much. Anywho I didn't take the first pic, but all was good.
Tuesday was kind of a rest day.
Wednesday was a rest day too, for the most part. I however, became phone-less on Wednesday. I just woke up that morning to a dead phone & that was all she wrote. It wouldn't turn on, charge, connect to computer, nothing. Just dead. Whatever. I didn't post a WIW, but I did weigh in at 159.4. Eeep!
Thursday was great. We went to both of Doug's sides of the family. Which are always great times. It's hard when holiday dinners over lap, but we did the best we could and decided to go with Doug's family. The only place we didn't make it to was to my other Granny's. It was the first Thanksgiving without Doug's grandpa & I'm glad we made it to it to see his Grandma. She has dementia and just isn't doing as well as we would obviously like. And my baby fever was kicked up a notch at his Nana's because I finally got to meet his cousin's newest baby boy & I love him. I held him for about 30 minutes and he was just as content as could be. He is so. stinkin. cute! And then of course after dinner the sales papers came out & Black Friday plans began. I skipped out because as I said I wasn't going to shop on Thanksgiving night. Some of them wanted some doorbuster things though & so I declined to join. I can't lie though..I wanted some of those doorbuster things too. But I'm happy I held off. I spent Thanksgiving night alone for the most part, until my brother got home & even then he went straight to bed. Doug & his little bro headed down to the hunting club as soon as we got home from his Nana's. So, I had a quiet evening. :-) Oh AND the Lions slayed the Packers! Woop!

photobombed by mom

Friday...I did go Black Friday shopping. ALLL BYY MYYSEEEELF. I left a little after 2am & got home at around 10am. It wasn't bad at all, in fact all of the store I went into were relatively dead. Bout like a normal shopping day. I went to 3 different counties and spent a disgusting amount of money. Made me cringe. I added up my "savings" last night & I really only saved about $195...I won't tell you how much I SPENT. lol To be fair, I didn't shop for just sale stuff...I bought a lot that wasn't on sale but I knew was on my gift list. Anyway, after being up for about 26 hours I finally went to sleep and slept for about 5 or 6 hours, until my bro got home from work & then he left for the hunting club. I spent the rest of Friday doing a little online shopping and a whole lot of nothing. I did watch the CMT Crossroads with The Band Perry & Fall Out Boy. It was good. There were some songs that sounded weird with TBP singing with them, but for the most part I liked it. If you have the chance to watch it, go for it. And it was my Mama's 50th birthday. We haven't celebrated because she and my Dad left Thursday for the hunting club & aren't coming home until today.

Saturday was another day of nothingness. But ended way too emotionally for my liking. First, it was the GA/GT game & let me tell you...talk about stress. And feeling like a crazy person for yelling while I'm watching this game...alone. But we won. In double overtime, but we still managed to get that W. Then Alabama freakin lost to Auburn. Then Mizzou freakin' beat Texas A&M. So now that means that Auburn & Mizzou will be playing for the SEC Championship, so I reluctantly have to root for the asshole wardamntigereagles. -___- It was too much. So I bathed and shower & felt glorious, got out & saw that one of my all time favorite movies was on TV (The F&F) so I turn it on. And then I just have to go and get on the internet and literally the first thing I saw was that Paul Walker died & my heart sank. I couldn't even fully watch the rest of the movie without crying. I had to get offline because I couldn't stand seeing it EVERYWHERE. Reading the articles, seeing the tweets/posts from co-stars and friends, seeing a video, seeing the pictures, I couldn't handle it. And don't even get me started on the jokes. While I agree it's eerie that he passed in a car wreck, making the jokes about it are unnecessary. He was someone's son, brother, father, friend & loved one just like the rest of us.
Sunday I woke up rested and ready to go (do more of nothing.) & That's exactly what I did. Along with watching Sunday football which stresses me the hell out. I only watched the ass end of the Texans/Pats game while waiting on the next game & then watched all of it (Broncos). The Broncos won, by the way. And, I did see thattt...The Bengals won! My Falcons actually won! I think we can all agree that football this year has been so wonky & for some fans that makes me extra frustrating. My husband got his first wall hanger, and it has a messed up rack. Crazy stuff. But proud of him. I still couldn't fully handle being online today. It was still plastered everywhere about Paul. I know some people may think, "get over it, not like you knew him" etc. But people get emotionally invested in actors/actresses/musician/etc. and The Fast and the Furious franchise is literally one of my favorites. (that & the Jackass franchise). But it goes beyond those movie to others. And even beyond that to his life outside of movies. Such a great person taken too soon. I'm extremely sad about it and I'm such an emotional person, I will cry at anything if it bothers me enough. And this did. Every updated article I read, every picture I saw....tears. Call me a crybaby if you please. It's okay because I know I am. If I sense pain even from others it affects me. Bad. It's numbing. For those of you who haven't read the articles, he was at his charity even and decide to take a ride in a Porche with a friend and they never made it back. His 15 year old daughter was at the event & Roger (the driver) his 5 year old son was there. My heart just hurts for their families and friends.

 

 

Here we are, back at Monday. I took a week off from working out (besides black Friday shopping) and so I'm hoping to get back on that wagon pretty easily and I guess I'll just see where the day takes me.

So many words.

In short: Thanksgiving was great. I lost a pound. I need to get back to working out. I'm devastated about Paul Walker passing. I shopped until I dropped and didn't really save that much. Had a bunch of great family time. ALL. 5. OF. MY. TEAMS. WON. And I am completely without a cell phone. My mom turned 50 & we haven't got to celebrate yet. Hello Monday & Hello December.

Why didn't I just do that to begin with? Cause I like to ramble.

 

Hope everyone had a great holiday weekend.

Happy Monday!

 

Lovins!

Brandy

♥♥♥