nomad'z land

two days in paris including one day off, dreeeeeam!! so happy! we rushed off the bus around noon and into our hotel, the crowne plaza republique, so french! tres francais. whoop whoop. i speak french when im drunk by the way. not very well but i mean it is what it is. drunken french is what it is. so we got in, i had to search for tampons BY MYSELF, found some whatevs ones two blocks away — cardboard applicators YUCK. but i conducted the entire transaction in french, dope right. then j and i went across the street to a cafe, had a little foodyfood, people watched, discussed how cool it is that we were in PARIS togethz, then to the louvre! we met up with mikey and carl. i love the louvre. i think we covered a lot of ground, but i could have done like a week there or some shit. did you know i intended to minor in art history but stopped because i was failing ucla art history classes and my advisor told me to just drop it all so it wouldnt interfere with my overall gpa. well guess what, gpa is not that big of a deal. look at me now, im in grad school after a 2.9. how shameful. i guess if i kept art history minor my overall gpa probably would have been like a 2.4 or less. which would have been bad. oh god who even cares right now!!

i super enjoyed our louvre stay, so exciting to be around all that art!! and you can buy tickets like at the movies, at those do it yourself kiosks. modern shit g. did you know theyre coming out with a louvre 2 in dubai! ill have to go there and check it out. maybe i wish i took one shroom before going to the louvre. can you imagine! i probably would have cried. and im in a better mental and emotional state than when i did it the other time so i wouldnt have found myself in a fetal heap on the floor trying to sleep it off. or who really knows, drugs are crazy. we left the louvre, tried to take a cab to the eiffel tower, which was in view from the louvre, but 2.5 miles away. no cabs available or maybe its just cause were black. so we walked. and walked. and walked. lovely walk along the seine, so cool!! i wish we had so much time to just sit and chill and drink and eat and talk FACE TO FACE with people the way they did in paris, or most of europe really. america you suck. but the fact that we can say that america sucks without being imprisoned or stoned to death is a really nice thing, so theres one point for america. anyway everyone chills along the river and they look so happy and shit. i too would be so happy if i were living fashionably in paris doing happy hour in the midst of all this gorgeous architecture (read: lots of goooold i love gold).

we made it to the eiffel tower juuuust as the sun was setting. tickets to get a ride up were booboo so we were like fuck it we’ll walk, grab a bite to eat upstairs. i love how the lady was like “just go up to the second floor” ummm the second floor happened to be 1000 steps up. we were sweating balls by the time we got up there which did not mix well with the cold wind. also, the restaurant requires reservations and is so expensive. as mikey put it, he wouldnt go there unless he was proposing to someone. hahah. but yay! so happy to have seen the louvre and eiffel tower. i love love loved my romantic paris day with j mikey and carl. j and i ended the day with a romantic meal across the street at mcdonalds. i loooove getting mcdonalds in other countries. they have all sorts of cool different shit specific to the culture. such as serving mayo with the fries and calling it “fry sauce” whattttt. this mcds was dope, they had an upstairs so we sat up there by the window watching the street, shooting the shit, being in love and whatnot. then i took a shower oh mannnnnn tour life equals not so much on the shower thing. if you know me, you know i HATE showers. so its bad when i want a shower. when j woke up he was like, your hairs smells pretty, and i was like YEAH cause i hadnt washed it in dayssssss poor guy. i mean you can get really grimy on these tours. so easy to. ive smelled ways ive never smelled before. even j had a little something going on and he never smells ever. tmi.

second day in paris, we took the train (confusing) with mikey manas and kylie to dragon street to get our shopping on! j got me this dope ass ring which now that i think about it might be abstract vagina shaped. i wonder what it all means.. walked around, super sunny lil bit sweaty, back to the venue for little bite to eat at the cafe on the corner, then impromptu photo shoot with the crew, its endearing to see grown men go “take this shot of me!!” im going to make a behind the scenes spearhead book one day. lots of weed smoke gonna be in it. show was dope, tiny little venue, purposed to drink a lot since it was my last night, uh mission accomplished. blech!

got to ghent belgium which was sooooo cute and goddamn why do i have to leave a cute place! i should have left from a whack location so that it wouldnt be so painful. anyway took a 45 minute cab ride (um pretty sure this was really expensive) to brussels for my hungover 8 hour flight to dc then 5.5 hour flight home to la poooooo! wish i were still on tour with my boodley, especially since hes in milano right now! i wanna go to fucking italy. im not complaining, well i am, but i am also so happy to have had this europe experience with my lover, especially paris! god i love traveling. lucky as a duck to get to do it this way (aka free alcohol and other shit). blessings. asfdihasoifasdfh okay last thing, on the way to europe i was watching that movie with james gandolfini and julia louis dreyfus, “enough said,” soooo good. she was walking with her new poet friend who happened to be her new bfs ex wife (real complicated. also, the lesson here is communication. and dont lie. or keep things from people). and a couple approached the poet friend and were telling her how much they admired her work. then the poet said thanks, and when they parted, she said “blessings.” and julias character didnt know what to do so she goes “oh um… blessings.” maybe you had to be there or i just suck at explaining it but it was hilarious. i laughed out loud. i also cried. thats just what i do on long plane rides, alternate between sleeping, laughing, and crying. c’est la vie, pourquoi pas? told you i can speak a little french. okay thats all!! next stop: summer tour. yikes! thinking about it makes me tired. but first ill tackle summer session I. ttfn!

hello jetlag, my most loathed sometime companion. im back home and straight to summer school whatttt ive never done summer school in my LIFE. whatevs i dont mind it as much as i act like i do.

anywayz, poor internet connection while abroad meant not only that i wasnt able to bloggyblog every day but that i didnt receive any texts until i landed which was poop. so now i have to remember things which im so terrible at!! i do believe we left off on our day off in manchester which was monday. stayed in and slept most of the day, had dinner with mikey cat blythe, and that was pretty much it. showday in manchester on tuesday. it was the only day that j worked during the day which is SO GOOD right! so i took me a little stroll around town and ended up in the ghetto, then i was like shit son i need to go back to the bus cause i feel weird. so i went back to the bus and felt better. show was good, guess what, i actually wore lipstick and kept it on! must be a euro thang.

next morning we ended up two hours away in birmingham which is pretty ghettz. i woke up and had to shiatsu so i went with urana and blythe to a radisson about a 7-minute walk away to use their facilities cause as you know, rule on the bus is no shitting! they need to do something about that. its a scary thought, like what if im going to diarrhea in the middle of the night. especially with all the drinking and pizza, very real possibility. they say to just shit in bags and throw em out later. why am i talking about this. j and i went to the mall in search of comfortable heels that i wouldnt die/sprain my ankle/reinjure my knee/fall over in. instead i found shorts and a necklace OF COURSE. i had to find something that i didnt need, story of my life. we walked back and i was taking pics in this underground tunnel or whatever since they dont use crosswalks in that part of town, and this shifty character was like, i suggest you not walk around these parts with your camera. and j and i were like, son, we were trained as navy seals, were good. just kidding, we were like oh okay thanks. showtime was cool, they were playing smalllll venues so tiny. i dont mind it. very hot in them things though. oh darn i didnt get a pic of my outfits, i made sure to be super cute. maybe not practical which is how i hurt my ankle in the first place. life!!!

next up was back to london for a fundraiser/gala/15th anniversary for ubuntu education fund at the roundhouse which is literally round. me likey. i mean sooo many rich people in this place. they raised over 150,000 (i cant find the pounds symbol, go figure) i think which is just crazy. who wants to contribute to my grad school loan fund? anyone? fine. it was lots of fun, we gals danced up in front to get it poppin. so great j solo’d in front of me and i grabbed him super groupie like, holding on to his leg and everything so when mikey came back to the mic he was laughing. later backstage one of the guys was like, “ohhh youre a couple, i saw that out there and was like wow hes getting this attention at a formal charity event, i should have been a guitarist!” not like j doesnt get that kind of attention on a semi regular basis which is just whatevz, fuck all you hoes! just kidding thanks for the support blah blah. ummmm oh the dinner at the event was great, lamb! dessert was amaaaaze i dont even remember what it was. also crazy is they had those blackberry looking things to bid money. they curiously gave us all cards with chips in em at the beginning of the night, on some real super modern technology rich people shit. gotta love em! next up, paris!!!!

europe tour commence! straight from finishing my first year of grad school (wheee!!!!) to a looooong (well pretty long) flight to glasgow scotland with a stop in newark. i arrived 730am and j wasnt due to get in til noon from ireland, so naturally i went to the bar and drank until he arrived. jk i went to the hotel and slepttttt oh a bed felt so good. i would have liked to walk around and tour the place a little but it was cold and i was sleepy so whomp. j got in and we slept some more, then showtime! it was across the street at this place called Oran Mor which used to be a church and is now well the opposite of a church i guess. i found a new friend, some lady who was getting on to the elevator at the same time and who was wearing a short dress which i got excited about not because im a male or a perv but because i was wearing shorts since i have no idea how to pack/dress for cold weather, and i felt reinforced in my decision. sidenote, weather is not as bad as i anticipated, maybe its the power of the clothes i packed. like the secret but through fashion. anyway she was from texas which in hindsight just meant that we both didnt know how to pack for cold weather, not that i had necessarily made the right clothing decision.

anyway, great time, although i was pretty much just busy drinking with my new friend and her husband rather than paying attention to the show. so you know how i tore my left acl and im not supposed to be wearing stilletos, yes i now understand why. i was walking along after the show, ladida, and i felt myself falling (i think i was tripping over the trash on the floor) and i grabbed one random person’s arm, then another’s, apologizing all the while, and i did not fall, but i definitely twisted my right ankle and made my bum knee feel a little more bum. so fml. its been two days and its better, but still a little swollen and i cant wear those heels or the like ever again unless im being carried wherever i go and then just sitting the rest of the time.

gosh im trying to remember what happened after the show. oh yeah i was drunk then we got on the bus and talked shit until we left at like 2am for london. i believe it was a 7 or 8 hour drive. oh man the bathroom on this bus smells so cray. but other than that its a two story magenta colored bus and bunks are slightly longer than usual. we all sleep on the top floor and i just love when were all cramped on one bus, but then again im not here for the whole time so. i still love it!

we get to london and i am determined to get j up so we can roam around and he can show me touristy shit. he finally got up at noon which isnt too bad. we took a taxi to camden for a little shoppyshop, to piccadilly circus for chinese food, and i think thats it? got back and napped sitting up in the dressing room of the venue, islington assembly hall, soooo warm in there i love warm!!! ummm then.. god i suck. showtime, wowzers at times when everyone was jumping up and down i felt like the floor was going to collapse underneath us. so i drank some more to calm myself down. or i just drank because drinking has not gotten old yet. so show was good, then we tried to go to a karaoke place across the street which i was soo excited about, but fail, it was closing in like 10 minutes and they wouldnt let us do just one song.

okay im writing too much, almost finished. then we went to this bar that played rockabilly music which was soooo fun. j and i danced all night the way his parents did when they fell in love. and everyone was dancing and drinking and almost getting into fights but not, which i ran out to check and j said “sure honey ill stay here and watch our stuff.” best boyfriend ever material right there. lotsa fun and we werent due to leave london til freaking 7am cause we were only going two or so hours to manchester, so we got shitty food from the store next door (read: two-packs of microwaveable cheeseburgers) and ate all of it because i totally wanted to have no control over my bowels this morning. not. so here we are in manchester at the end of our day off and who cares here are pics: