It’s been a busy spring (see here and here) and an even busier summer… I left off in late June and that’s where I’ll pick back up.
Melanie Martinez concert
My friend Laura and I went to see Melanie Martinez at The Mann in Philly. This is a few weeks after also seeing Ed Sheeran together. We love our concerts. And we’re both diehard fans of her.
Melanie Martinez is the most creative singer ever. She throws herself into character and fully commits to the act. If you’ve never heard of her, let me explain. She became famous as one of the contestants of The Voice. Her first album “Crybaby” came out in 2015 and it was a concept album about infancy and childhood wounds that come out in adulthood. In 2019, she came out with “K-12” in which her Crybaby character goes to school — it begins with elementary school and ends with high school graduation. This was also made into a film (see my review here.)
Her newest record “Portals” is a new chapter in which her character “Crybaby” dies and travels through a new dimension as a mythical creature. She wears a prosthetic face with four eyes and a catlike mouth to resemble this new character that she is portraying. Her music is very much a story that takes place in its own, unique universe.
The concert was so much fun! It was a little short because she only played her new album. However, she did end the concert announcing, “see you next year!” which was a little suspicious – new music soon!? Anyway, I was really impressed that she wore this prosthetic face throughout the whole show. The dancing was really cool, the visuals were fantastic. My favorite song she performed was “EVIL.”
Ocean Grove 2023
It was another great year at Ocean Grove – OG23! The vacation included: a book tour, a brewery tour, pinball at the boardwalk, and pizza on the beach. The ocean was pretty warm and the waves were perfect. If you didn’t know, I’ve been coming here every year since I was a baby – with 2020 as the only exception. We have a lot of classic traditions while we continue to make new ones. Ever-evolving.
Lana Del Rey jacket
I’d like to take a moment of appreciation for my new Lana Del Rey racing jacket. It has patches of each of her albums so far. I splurged a bit on this one. I got this to honor the success of my LDR blog posts. Whenever I write blog posts about her, I tend to gain a huge amount of views. My most viral blog post ever written is “Top 25 Darkest & Saddest Lana Del Rey songs” and I’m so thankful for all of her fans who have shown this blog immense support!
Happy birthday, Mom!
My mom turned 66 this August and we celebrated with a beautiful cake. Red is her favorite color. And cake is her favorite food. Lots of hugs from her.
While I was home at my parent’s, I let Luna go outside for the first time. I usually let Venus go out while I’m visiting OB. I would always keep Luna in because she’s very skittish and I was nervous about her. But I’m trying to help her lose some weight, so I thought it would be good exercise. She did really well and I’m proud!
The Flaming Lips
I went to The Flaming Lips concert with Dad and my cousin Priscilla. We had so much fun! My favorite song they performed was “The Yeah Yeah Yeah Song.” Also, “Do You Realize??” and “She Don’t Use Jelly” were also great. Wayne Coyne is extremely talented, he had lot of energy and really knew how to pump up the audience.
The band played their entire album “Yoshimi Battles The Pink Robots” (the twenty year anniversary!) and then they played their greatest hits. It was at least three hours, which was incredible! The visuals were spectacular – notably the lights, the blowup giant robots, and the hamster ball.
The adirondacks
I went on a huge camping trip with Kevin. We drove from PA to upstate NY which took close to seven hours. We left early Friday and got there around 5pm. We went backpacking on the Mount Marci trail (note: we didn’t climb the whole mountain, just part of the trail.) It was two miles, which may not seem like much, but keep in mind all of the hills and rocks that made it more difficult, plus the weight of the backpack.
The was a small area for setting up camp – very small, as in there were like four other people camping there. We set up the tent, put our backpacks down, and then did some exploring in the area. We came back and made dinner – it tasted gross but I was so happy. Sitting outside in the stars is so magical. I can’t explain how blissful it felt.
However, I was honestly a little scared the first night. I’ve never camped with so few people around. We had to put all of our food and trash in a bear canister and hide it deep in the woods. I swore I heard a bear as I was falling asleep but it was just Kevin’s stomach grumbling, hahaha!
Saturday morning, we packed up and backpacked back to the car. We had no cell phone service so we asked one of the rangers about the weather; apparently a storm was coming. Originally, we were going to drive to another area to do more backpacking in another area. But we figured that it would be smarter to do car camping the next night with the rain, plus I was pretty tired by then.
We drove to Lake Placid. We did a small hike on the mountain where we had a perfect view of Lake Placid. The weather was so nice and cool; I was so happy to escape the intense heat of PA summer. Even with all of the hiking, I was never too hot. We took an elevator to the top of the mountain (above) and beforehand we walked through the mountain which was a freezing roughly forty degrees F.
Afterwards, we drove into town and walked around there. We had lunch at a really nice restaurant. I had veggie burger and a mixed drink. Outdoor seating was like a forty minute wait, so we sat inside, but there was a lot of character at the place as well as many windows to see the views.
That night, we stayed at a campground. After setting up the tent, we hiked another trail. The rain began, so we went out for food. We stopped at a bar and this place had LOTS of character – a lot of funny signs on the wall. It was located in “Childwold”, one of the smallest towns ever, population about 40.
It was an amazing trip and I feel transformed by it. Getting away from society and losing cell signal is refreshing. It makes me want to slow down and have more appreciation for the simple things in life.
And finally, yesterday was the Renaissance Faire. This is only my second time going since 2018. I wish I came here more often because it’s right in my element. We watched jousting and drank mead.
That concludes my summer so far! We still have a few more weeks to go. But to me, we are technically in “pre-fall” as the days are getting noticeably darker and the heat is starting to cool down.
Saving the best news for last: Last week, my first nephew was born. My brother and my sister-in-law had their first baby. I’m so excited to fly out to Chicago in a couple weeks and meet him! Wishing the three of them all of the hope and hapiness in the world!
Crystal Aura Gaze 
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