My "Bon Jovi Backstage Experience"

About a week ago I got to do something pretty cool thanks to one of my professors and the director of the Bradley Agency, our student run PR firm. A recent BYU grad contacted him about an opportunity to send three PR students to do a "mini-internship" with Bon Jovi which was called the "Bon Jovi Backstage Experience".

We spent almost twelve hours watching them turn the pieces of equipment from 19 big rigs into the most amazing high-tech stage I have ever seen [not that i've seen many]. We got to talk to a bunch of the guys who help make the tour happen and it was a lot of fun. There was a guy who was Prince's guitar guy for twenty years, a man who promoted tours for Michael Jackson as well as two other Bon Jovi tours, tons that worked on Britney Spears' last tour and lots of other cool people. It was incredible to see how much time and energy and behind-the-scenes stuff goes into a production like this.

We also got a little PR practice in as we were interviewed for various local newspapers and news stories. Apparently I was on the news but I never got to see it. I was quoted in a few articles but I am pretty sure the quote was altered a little. Oh well. It was still great practice. At the end of the day we enjoyed the show from the pit for a few songs and then back in our seats in the second row for the rest of the night. Not too shabby, right? And in case you were wondering, Bon Jovi was great. It was the most seamless, smooth-running show I have ever been to!

To say it was amazing would be an understatement. I had two friends there with professional cameras who took awesome pictures but I figured if I waited to get them from everyone it would just take too long. So I will share a few of the less amazing but still pretty cool pictures I took.

[we left for lunch and came back to the whole venue set up and ready to go]


[their amazing collection of guitars. can you believe they let us near them?]


[quite possibly my favorite moment]


[on stage with all their equipment]

Gaga, Ooh La La

[putting our paws up]

Last week Chad and I saw Lady Gaga and it was kind of a big deal.
First of all, we heard about it in August and wanted to buy tickets right away but we thought we should wait it out.
"Waiting it out" for us meant we waited until October...for a concert in March.
Needless to say we were a little anxious for this day to come.
And we were really afraid that we wouldn't be friends by the time the show came around.
So the night was a celebration of waiting patiently for 7 months
and toughing it out and remaining friends for the 5 months we had tickets.
We made it!

[Gaga performing, me & the stage, my toes in a puddle of beer]

Due to the facts that we had never seen Gaga perform before and we weren't sure we'd even be going to the show so far in the future,
we bought the cheapest tickets we could.
We were up high but you could see everything perfectly and even backstage.
It was pretty amazing.
Except for that one part where someone above us threw a beer and it hit me
And that other part when the woman right above me kicked her brand new beer and it landed right on me.
The whole thing.
She did bring me a napkin though, which was nice but didn't help with the smell.
Or the wetness.

[I spent a long time convincing chad the lightning bolt wasn't embarrassing & even though I don't think he believed me he still did it. the glasses, however, took no convincing.]

We had some time on our hands between the opening act and when Mother Monster arrived to take us to the Monster Ball.
Clearly that lead to a little monster photo shoot to show off our lightning bolts and glasses.

For those of you non-gaga fans out there, here is some vocab for you:
Mother Monster: Lady Gaga
Monster Ball: Her concert
Little Monsters: Us/her fans
No, I did not make that up.

[the actual monster, mother monster, and a little monster trying on our glasses before the show]

It definitely was not a show for everyone
[the mom next to us sat with her hands clasped and mouth straight the whole two hours]
but we loved it so much!
And she ended with "Bad Romance"
my all time favorite
It was perfect.

Happy Birthday JJ!

Well what do you know...It's another grandma's birthday today! Boy am I lucky to have two great grandmas to celebrate!

And of course, just a few of the many things I love about JJ:

1. All the names I get to call her- J-dot J-dot, Jaje, Jota Jota, Jimmy Jammy...
2. Reading the gnome book together whenever I visited
3. Her mismatching socks (and sometimes shoes)
4. She always seems to know cool facts about everything
5. Her love of 4-wheeling. Who else can say their grandma 4-wheels? Only me and Napoleon Dynamite.

Happy Birthday Jaje, I love you lots and lots and hope it was a special day!

The Bachelor

I'll admit it. I watch The Bachelor.

And even better than that, a group of friends and I got together for the finale Monday night and had a little party to celebrate. It was quite the event with everything from roses and candles, to ring pops, pictures of Brad and the girls. Not to mention food and drinks with their very own names to go along with The Bachelor theme. We were all pleasantly surprised he picked Emily but I think we were even more excited just to be having our little party. It was a fun night!

Brad's Big Bad Cherry Limeade, 7 Layers of Love Dip, Emily's Sweetie Pie Pizza, Over-Berrying Chantal Salad, and Rose Ceremony Red Velvet Cupcakes.

Lauren emailed these invitations out to everyone. Cute, huh? She said she got the inspiration when she just so happened to be google-ing pictures of Brad. Too funny.

We played a game where we were blindfolded and had to get as close as we could to kissing Brad. Don't worry, I didn't even come close. I kissed the wall behind him. Here you go...maybe the only time anyone will ever see me wear lipstick. And now you know why. So not my thing.

Happy Birthday!!

Today is my Grandma Penny's 70th Birthday!!



And since I wasn't able to celebrate with the family last night, I thought I'd list 5 of the many things I love about her:

1. All I have to do is see the color purple and it reminds me of her
2. She makes the world's best grilled cheese sandwiches
3. She is the queen of crocheting which means all of us grand kids get awesome slippers every year...and now hats!
4. She always takes care of me and always has anything you could possibly ever need in her purse
5. She loves her grand kids-A LOT- and we all know it

I love you so much Grandma and hope you have a Happy Happy Birthday!

TGIF

Good thing it's Friday and this crazy week is almost over!
[and good thing we have a cleaning check tomorrow!]

Here's our latest roommate collaboration
Jann and I are quite proud of how it turned out
And that we managed to keep it contained to just this pile
Don't worry mom, this usually NEVER happens
It's just been one of those weeks, you know?
I will be recuperating with girl's day/good weather/retail therapy
and maybe some cleaning...
Happy Friday!

UPDATE: See? All better.

Is it Friday yet?

By the time Friday came around this week, it felt like it had taken forever to get here and I was beyond ready for a break. Between being sick and preparing for a stats test, I was ready to forget the last few days and play. I lucked out because this weekend ended up being quite lovely. Here is just a small sample of all the lovely things that happened:

Good movies



I got to hang out with these people



Pedicures!



Michael made these beauties



Asparagus on the BBQ

Good Things

Good things happen every day but here are a few things that made me happy today:

1. I got to wear sandals for the first time in who knows how long
2. A baby was born
3. The sun was shining
4. I didn't have to take any cold medicine
5. I saw Ron Weasley's look-alike
6. A friend made me laugh pretty hard
7. I talked to my mom & dad
8. I found $32 that was hiding in my wallet
9. Our gas bill went down
10. Cherry limeade

And this video. Don't you just feel like this sometimes?