Like a fly on the wall with my secret eyes.

The deets! The happy-haps! (What?) I mean, nothing got better than hanging out on Adrian Young's tour bus - let's be honest. I kind of glided through the rest of the weekend with a smile on my face!

On Saturday morning I woke up and headed into the city because Jesse had gotten me a gift certificate months ago for a two-hour massage. (No, seriously, he's the best gift-giver of all time.) I actually had no idea what to expect, but I lay down for two lovely hours free of tension. Looking back, I think it was rather necessary and I plan on getting another one soon!

After that, I ran some errands and met up with my friend Colleen, and we met up with my old friends in Monty Are I. Hilarity and fun times ensued. They had a photoshoot on Sunday, so all day Saturday they were shopping with their label for clothes. Then I made Steve show me some poses:

I hope he worked it out by Sunday.

Me and my lemur face with Steve.

Mike, looking not like Mike at all, but strangely...a little...Bradley Cooper-esque??? The eyes?!

Now, we were hanging out at our friend Ben's apartment, which he shares with four other dudes, and Joe was taking polaroids and making us sign them. Colleen and I looked super peeved in the pic he took of us. But we were having a great time! PROMISE!

I was going to hold this photo ransom as some sort of blackmail leverage, but I couldn't not share it with the world, now. Steve and Mike. Doing what they do.

Don't let these pictures deter you from seeing them on tour this summer - whether on Warped or with Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. They're good dudes who make good music and they have a KILLER live show. Check out their site for tour dates! They have an album coming out this summer, and it will be available on Warped Tour to purchase - I got to sit down with them and listen to the masters of their songs, and I'm excited to get my hands on it when it goes on sale. There's one song I already know I'm going to be dancing around my room to. Yes!! And I'll post the rest of the pictures on Facebook soon!

All in all, it was a blast to hang out with them and catch up on everything that they're doing. I've known them since back in my freshman year of college, which was (HOLY CRAP) eight years ago...and they were known as Monty's Fan Club. It's funny to see where we all are now in our lives, and I can't wait to see where they're going...stay tuned!

On Sunday I met up with Jill, who's married to Josh from Motion City Soundtrack. She's in town for work, so we had some brunch, did a little shopping, took in some of the gay pride parade, and then meandered into a bar we didn't know was all about the USA/Brazil soccer match. It ended up being a pretty exciting atmosphere, and we ended up caring a bit about the game, too. Weird how that happens when you're in the midst of tons of die-hard fans yelling and screaming about their teams. Anyway, it was a great afternoon!

BY THE WAY. MOTION CITY SOUNDTRACK FINISHED RECORDING THEIR NEW ALBUM ON SUNDAY!!!! And now it's just a matter of time for all the rest of the process to be complete! Are you excited? I'm excited!! The demos I've heard have all rocked so hard, and I can't wait to hear the mastered versions for maximum rock out-age.

Congratulations, dudes!
Jesse gave me a call Sunday in the midst of their celebrations - I wish I could have been there in the excitement, but I was also excited because this means Jesse is a-comin' home! He gets back on Friday, eeeeeeeeeeee!

After hanging out with Jill on Sunday, I dropped by Sarah's new party Sunday School NYC. I think it's a great idea - an all ages event every Sunday from 4-8pm at Webster Hall with bands and DJs! When I walked in I got a sweet purple bracelet that glows in the dark and had the date on it. I also got cuted out when I saw little toddlers dancing around to the music on the dancefloor! Seriously. Wow.

Anyway, Sarah is one of the sweetest human beings on the planet and I totally dig the Sunday School scene she's set up. I got really into the second band that played, Zambri, which had two awesome sister lead vocalists. More on them later when I've listened to their album I bought! The room was also a great setting for a dance party - which happened when Erica stood up to the DJ booth!

And here's my Sunday School portrait by Coco Courtney. I must not fall for bad boys! I think I've got that covered...

I am wrecked, I am overblown.

Saturday!

The Chicago Warped date was actually in Tinley Park, a good 40 minutes outside of Chicago. In the early afternoon, we were sitting on the bus just hanging out, when Coby and Alex from Say Anything came on the bus to say that Max Bemis was super sick and instead of cancelling their scheduled set, they were wondering if Justin could sing a song for them. They were going around the bus lot asking their friends for a solid. Which, apparently, everybody was up for. They said even some people they'd rather not have sing their songs were up for it (I should keep mum on who they were referring to).

The only real problem was that Motion City Soundtrack's set began half an hour after Say Anything's on a different stage - so it would be squeezing it in. Justin told the dudes he'd mull it over while MCS went to do a signing. When they returned from the signing, Beth uploaded "Alive with the Glory of Love" on his iPod, and Justin holed himself up in the back lounge trying to memorize the lyrics for the rest of the afternoon.

I spent the afternoon wandering around, trying to find my friends' tents to no avail. I caught Four Year Strong's fantastic set, and then ran into one of my good friends, Ben (I call him Supernice Guy), who is teching for All Time Low. Ben and I have known each other since we both went to college in Boston years ago, and were part of the Monty Are I fun times. It was nice to be able to hang out with him, even if only for a bit. It's weird seeing friends like that go from one context (college) to another (working on Warped). Kind of like how Jesse went from dude in a band I used to go see live all the time to, oh, hey, fianz.

Anyways.

The time came for Justin to open Say Anything's set, and he was a bit nervous. All the MCS guys were encouraging him with words and smiles. Backstage, Jesse jokingly told Bemis he owed MCS one. We all scurried on stage as Bemis explained to the crowd that he wasn't up to singing that day, but some friends would be singing their songs. And so began the first notes of "Alive with the Glory of Love" (a great, great song in my opinion) and Justin belted it out with aplomb. He was still nervous about the words (it does have a particular lot of them) and held the lyric book close. The crowd was amazing and sung each word along with him and pumped their fists and seemed to be having a good time. During the instrumental, Justin even did some dancing on stage. Everyone was having a blast.

Justin before the set.

Bemis telling the crowd he can't sing.

Justin rockin' it awkward and fun!
There's video of Justin's performance HERE!

After Justin sang, we made for an exit to get to MCS' stage, along with Aileen, who was visiting Warped that day (yay!). Everybody was telling Justin what an awesome job he did, and within a few minutes, MCS took their own stage and they rocked it as they always do. They were the last band to play that day, essentially closers, and the crowd was fantastic. Aileen, Luis, and I were singing, clapping and dancing around sidestage to their set. Luis got some great video of us during the first song, "Attractive Today," -

Oh we are so nerdy and we love it (and MCS, obvs). Aileen found it hilarious that I know all of Jesse's hand claps and did them in unison - uh, yeah. Fan and fiancee, fiancee and fan. Also, I recognize a lot of "things bands do live that I can too" in my favorite live performers (see also: No Doubt, Dashboard Confessional). I'm a dork, I love live music, it's what I do.

After the show, Warped was over for the day, and we hung out in the parking lot with the fun people. There was an early bus call and we headed out to a 24-hour Super K-Mart. Those boys like their frozen food, just sayin. It was another epic day, and Jesse and I were definitely exhausted again. I was just hoping time would slow down a little bit, because I knew I was leaving the next afternoon.