what not to do at a concert

every summer isn’t complete without a good ol’ down and dirty, sit-in-the-scolding-sun-for-hours-with-some-of-the-best-people-watching-on-the-planet, rock concert. our concert of choosing (thanks to meghan winning free tickets for…well, we don’t really know why…) was the big gig. of course i was excited for this because i thought it would be some sort of pink floyd “great gig in the sky” tribute or something. i was mostly wrong except i’m pretty sure the words “pink” and “floyd” (okay, maybe not floyd) were used at one point or another during the show.

it was a 6+ hour long concert with about a dozen bands playing. i was shocked when i heard there were different groups – i thought it was the same band changing clothes and occasionally number of members during breaks. that’s how unique each band was. yay pop culture. *disclaimer: blue october has a very unique sound.* *disclaimer on my disclaimer: i have to say that so meghan doesn’t beat me up.* *disclaimer on my disclaimer on my disclaimer: she could*

now, if you’ve never been to one of these types of concerts, let me set the stage (har har) for you. imagine a huge community picnic (with more drugs). you pretty much have to come at 2pm to get a good spot on the giant lawn. it’s really ironic because at 2pm on a steamy august saturday, the “best seats in the house” are actually shoved back in the corners of the field…aka the only places dotted by shade. you can’t fall into this trap though, because these “best seats of the house” will be the absolute worst seats of the house once the sun sets and 8 billion more people come. so, even though your doctor might disagree, sitting in the spot most prone to give you heat stroke is the option for you.

the concert was fun. me, meghan and kyle swayed with the music (or because of heat stroke…i’m not really sure). more and more people piled onto the lawn, meaning by the end of the night, we were in very close proximity to the girl who mooned us, the belly dancer, any number of illegal substances and to the innocent foot that i violated.

in my defense, when there’s not enough room to even spread your personal bubble to 2 inches, you can’t be held responsible for your actions…kyle was sitting on one side of me and i had my arm around the back of him – you know, not wrapped around him or anything, just resting on the ground behind him.

i started playing with his hand a little flirtily (real word?) (p.s. it’s not...but flintily is) when it all of a sudden occurred to me “hmm…that’s kind-of an odd position for his hand to be in…” my stomach sank a little bit because i pretty much knew what was going on before i even turned around to confirm it. i turned around to see my hand, groping the barefoot attached to the lady sitting directly behind kyle. i thought her foot was kyle’s hand…my bad…

so what’s more disturbing – the fact that i was groping a strange lady’s foot or the fact that the lady behind me was letting me grope her foot without saying anything. was she getting some sort of satisfaction out of it? sick. i’m going with that’s the worst part. but maybe she was just embarrassed because what do you say to some stranger who’s fondling your foot?

the rest of the concert was good. kyle even let me hold his hand again after i washed all the random foot germs off.

misread street signs

apparently colorado's a little behind on its political correctness

but it at least pretends like its handicap accessible..

p.s. this sign is right next to a spiral staircase

llamas llamas everywhere

i can't say i'm particularly fond of llamas, but that's probably widely disputed based on:

1. i recommend emperors new groove to everyone (shameless promotion - you should see it)

2. this is one of my favorite things on the internet

3. my llama shirt

4. my recent journey to the burro days in fairplay colorado

here's the funny thing about the burro festival. there are camels...there are llamas (more to follow)...but from what i saw, there aren't any burros actually in attendence. (this is a lie. i think we just missed the actual burro day)

here's the other funn(ier) thing about the burrow festival. the festival kicks off with a 3 mile run/walk. sounds sane enough right? right. the trick is this - you have to race with a llama. like this:

(p.s. i had no idea that guy was wearing a byu shirt before i took that picture...)

you and your llama speed through main street, dodging all obstacles in your way. then it's off to the fields where you tread through streams, over rivers and through the woods. oh and, these llamas are hardcore - they train for a whole year! the 2008 llamas are already starting their boot camp. of course, they are still llamas and llamas are apparently stubborn. this is no task for sisies. even some boston marathoners probably couldn't do this race. we unfortunately couldn't do it because by the time we got there, they were out of llamas. so sad

how brilliant is this? uh doi - very brilliant! i'm not really sure where the money goes or what organization puts this on, but i assume it has to do with the national association of llamas or something equally llama-minded.