Coachella Music Festival - Day Three - Photos galore

Day three at the Coachella Valley Music and arts festival ** Caesers by (and in) the cold, cold pool *** Vintage dress *** First IN-AND-OUT Burger ever (amazing) *** Free beer in the lineup *** Art work *** Amazing performance by MUTEMATH *** Talked to Hot Shot the Robot *** Charlotte Gainsburg and her cool, French style and songwriting *** Watching Owen Pallet from the cool, dark Sensory 5 tent (mmm free gum *** People watching *** Sunny Day Real Estate *** Sore feet *** Found the margarita stand **** SPICY PIE!!! ***




























Mike Talks to Hot Shot the Robot - talks about sexual robot favours and crowdsurfing :)


MUTEMATH






MUTEMATH's amazing drummer... GET THIS... balancing on a drumkit held up by people in the crowd before...


JUMPING! Not just a Mike Patton thing :P






SPICY PIE




Charlotte Gainsburg







Sat down for an hour and a half to get a good spot for GORILLAZ (ended up missing Thom Yorke **** WAS COMPLETELY WORTH IT*** GORILLAZ was amazing *** Damon Albarn was a giddy little conductor up there *** Little Dragon and the slightly senile Bobby Womack OWNED it *** Considering how the Icelandic Volcano prevented Most Def, The Hypnotic Brass Ensemble and half of their crew from performing like they were supposed to - show was BRILLIANT *** The most FUN concert I have EVER BEEN TO *** Couldn't stop smiling :D


Gorillaz Camp - these people had been there for HOURS


Us goofs at our Gorillaz sit-down, packed in like sardines but happy as clams


Albarn joined by Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of THE CLASH


Last Living Souls


On Melancholy Hill


Dirty Harry with Bootie Brown


White Flag




To Binge (with Little Dragon)... come on Yukimi, make eye contact with Damon!


Superfast Jelly Fish with De La Soul


Empire Ants with Little Dragon - love how into Damon Albarn gets from the piano :P

Ended on a weird sad note with Cloud of Unknowing ... but was actually a perfect, strange end to Coachella.



No one wanted to leave. No one could believe it was all over.

And for us... there was to be no sleep that evening, or the next day. We got in our car and drove to San Francisco. More on THAT epic journey later.

Khaki Blues

The weather has been absolutely delightful in Vancity lately, aside from a never-ending breeze that likes to blow up all but my most structured skirts and dresses.

And to be honest, I really haven't been in much of a "pant" mood lately. I've been working out like a madwoman (more on that after the photos) and am at that awkward "I have muscle now but my fat is still on top" phase, so the binding restrictions of pants are really off-putting.

My happy medium? Those darn comfy silk cargo pants again:








Silk pants: VS; Safari jacket: Forever 21; Purse and jewelry: ASOS; Top: Zara (bought in a Zara in Finland in 2005! Yay for old clothes!); Sandals: Union Bay


So I've started training with my friend (and ex-designer for Narccissist) Hannah Fletcher. I've always admired Hannah's stunningly athletic physique (not to mention model-like prettiness and the sunniest disposition ever), so once I found out she was adding personal training to her already packed physical repetoire (including pole dance glasses and various other high intensity sessions at some of the best gyms in the city), I jumped at the chance.

I never had a personal trainer before and even though my financial situation didn't really warrant one, my BODY did. Plus Hannah has an amazing price and is extremely kind with my payment situation.

When I showed up on day one, back at the start of April, I did not know what to expect. I guess I thought it would kind of be like what I did on my own regarding weights... you know, bicep curls, squats, sit-ups, etc. I thought she would just critique my position and keep me going.

Well, she DOES do that. But you don't just do "bicep curls, squats and sit-ups" - you do those plus a hundred other things at the same time, with big weights(for me), at very high intensity with as many reps as you can until you want to puke, combined with other things like push-ups on a Bosu followed by a million burpies followed by walking squats across the gym with a 10 pound ball above your head followed by DEATH.

I'm not kidding... the end of the session feels like death. And it's great. You just lie there on the mat and she stretches you FOR YOU which is perfect since I can't actually move at all.

It's tough going, no doubt. There are times when I am almost crying because it's so hard (I have balance issues thanks to my club feet which makes things extra hard), there are times when I have to stop because I literally think I am going to puke all over the mat (no joke - Hannah knows my vomit-on-you face now) and there are times when my muscles just won't move. They just wont. You tell your arms "one more pushup" and they literally yell "NO!" and won't move. It's crazy.

The worst part - even worse than the pain - is how stupid I look. I mean, I get BEET RED to the point where I look like I have third degree burns, I am absolutely covered in sweat and can barely talk, breathe or exist. Meanwhile, everyone else in the gym looks as cool as a cucumber. Is it just harder for me? Or is Hannah just a real "The Biggest Loser" -ish trainer who pushes you to the limit more than the other trainers do? It's probably both.

I think I'm getting better though. And I know I am building muscle... I keep poking my stomach pooch and fearing that I'm pregnant because it's all hard now (hard underneath all the flab... or maybe that's my swollen liver!). That's the problem though... i have the muscle but it's underneath the fat still. More days jogging and perhaps eating less sugar should help with that, but I'm still trying to do one thing at a time!

Hopefully if I update you in a month's time, you'll be able to SEE the muscle that so far can only be felt :)

Coachella Festival - Day Two

SO....

I've decided that I'm pretty much done with being negative on my blog.

I think, no, KNOW, I have a right to write whatever the fuck I want to, seeing as I've had these blog for over four years and during those four years, it has helped me work through many different situations in my life. Ironically, when I started the blog it was always about how great things were and I attracted a lot of haters then too... HATERS GOTTA HATE.

But even though I believe everyone has a right to complain about whatever they see fit (and if you don't like it, go fuck yourself...quite frankly, why are you reading this?) I also think that if I change my way of thinking in my life (to become more positive) then my blog should reflect that as well.

I've noticed that when I write more negative posts (even though that's life), I attract more negative douchebags. The internet is a breeding ground for lifeless asswipes and it's not good to encourage them.

As such, my blog will take more of a happy, upward slant for awhile... then maybe I my way of thinking will follow. Does these mean I won't complain about the shit in my life - no. Just I'll deal with it in other ways... there is a ton of bad stuff that I deal with that I would NEVER share on my blog because it's too personal. Maybe I should just make this all less personal, I don't know. It seems when I am honest, I get flack for it. But when I write more happy, fluffy posts... well I get flack then too. You can't win but that's why I'm doing this for me!

Anyway, we'll see how long this lasts but in the meantime, I'm going to be moderating comments on the blog.

I'm too tired to deal with smug chumps out there... it seems some people have way too much time on their hands and revel in trying to bring people down.... when really, they don't have much of a case. These are people who quite obviously don't read my blog and don't even realize that what they are saying is wrong and had they read back in the archives by a month or two, would see that. But no... lazy, bitter people don't have time for that. They read ONE post and base their assumptions around that. Do your research if you're gonna open your yap! You'll look less stupid.

Anyway, if I'm going to be more positive, this blog is going to be too and so will the comments. Helpful critisicm is always appreciated BUT I am not going to publish insults or comments designed to ruffle my feathers...two things I've been getting a lot of. Sorry... your words have no place on my blog or anywhere :) - and if comments get worse, my bf has bravely volunteered to do the moderating for me so that I never have to read them LOL. You lose.

So, with that said, let's leave this rather negative intro behind and concentrate on something happy... Coachella Day 2!

This was probably the best day at Coachella, simply because I was going to get to see Faith No More and Muse again, plus reunite with my Warfield buddies.


People having a bikini hoe-down to Old Crow Medicine Show


Sat next to this guy for a half hour before I realized he was passed out from the heat


Watching Temper Trap


Chilling in the beer garden with my fellow FNM friends


Having to suffer through the mediocre Coheed & Cambria in order to get a good spot for Faith No More. Got stuck in the mosh pit for a while. The last song had a marching band though, which was pretty cool.


Despite that, I still didn't get the rail for FNM. I was one person back, which was ANNOYING as hell... not because it wasn't a rad view, IT WAS, but because the entire front of the audience were MUSE fans who had been there ALL day just to watch Muse. They didn't even know who Faith No More was, nor did they think they would like them.

In fact, as far as I could see, there were only three people beside me who were there to see Faith No More... kinda sad. All of FNM's fans were further back... I really think the Muse fans should have let us be at the front since they were only there to see Muse and didn't care at all about FNM, but alas, it wasn't that way.

Faith No More was awesome. Again. I seriously felt like I was seeing old friends, it was rad.






Patton and crew were on top of their game. Unfortunately the crowd at the front was not that into it (Muse fans, again) and even Patton said, "I see a lot of confused faces" but I think as the set went on, even the Muse fans had fun. I was singing EXTRA loud to all the songs, just trying to show my support. I apologize profusely to everyone around me as I am a terrible, terrible singer and I know how much I hate it when people sing off-key in my ear during a concert but I digress. I was just so into it, ha!


Best part was when Patton did the cover of Ben again, jumped down into the crowd, walked along the corridor then stage dived... again.... into the Coachella audience.

And ONCE AGAIN I happened to be in his flight path. I could see him crowd-surfing and he was coming straight at me. Well, I was NOT about to have a repeat of what happened on Wednesday night (my head still hurt).


We even made eye contact as he was just about on top of me. I screamed "NOT AGAIN! WHYYY?" and I think for a second he was like, "Uh oh, this girl" but I managed to not get kicked in the head. Instead I got a face and armfull of his tummy. And for you crazy fans who would ask, he had a soft tummy :P


Anyway that was the quite the way to make my final FNM concert memorable. So, thanks guys!

After FNM finished their incredibly short set (only 50 min, wtf?) I had the option of sticking around for Muse. My bf wasn't with me during Coheed or FNM because he isn't crazy, so I decided since I saw Muse only a few weeks ago, that I didn't need to be at the front for it. Plus, I was soaked to the bone with my sweat and other people's sweat and I felt like I was going to die... see:



So I went a bit further back (but still super close to the stage) and watched the Muse set from there.





It was as good as in was in Vancouver... very tight, excellent production values, and I still say that they sound better live then on their CDs. Still didn't play Butterflies and Hurricanes or Assasin but oh well! Matt still had his rad magenta pants and the lazers came out to play.











AND to end on a huge positive note: Thanks to all my special, regular readers - you guys are always supportive (even when you have some critiques) and seem to "get me." Thanks for sticking with me (some of you have been reading this for FOUR YEARS!) throughout all of my life's trials and thanks for never making me feel like I should have to apologize for being me. You make the internet (and my world) go round :)

As a special thank you, I'll be doing a giveaway this week for some fab stuff from Forever 21!!

First World Problems

I'm just hear to clear things about about my last post (I have a feeling maybe my anger was making my words a bit obscure) and also let this all take a more positive angle:

1) the reason why I am struggling to make ends meet is because I am unemployed. I was not struggling when I had a job. Once I get a suitable job, this problem goes away (though I hope I would remember the lessons). If I had a job and was hit with the whole Coachella fiasco, it wouldn't be as big of a deal, financially anyway.

2) Like I said before, I'm surviving. I'm not near bankruptcy or anything. I can (normally) pay all my bills but the things I used to do when I had a job (ie, spend money), I can't do now. Which is why I asked for your advice in the last post. How do I adapt?

3) Someone in the previous post mentioned I should move out of Vancouver. That is not the problem and moving out of the city is not an option.

I own my apartment and I will sell it due to problems in the building (that's ANOTHER story) but I'll stay in Vancouver. It's my home, it's my boyfriend's home and I love it. I've lived in other places in the world, small towns (like Kamloops, BC) or big cities (like Auckland, New Zealand and Sydney, Australia) and I'm sticking with my hometown. Besides, I just spent 10 months living with my boyfriend's parents in a faraway suburb. I'm pretty damn happy to be back in my downtown Vancouver condo again.

Where else can you do WHALE WATCHING from your roof??? That's right, there's a grey whale swimming around in Vancouver's English Bay right now and I can watch it from my roof :)

look, I just went up and took pics with my telephoto lens!







Besides, my mortgage (when split with my bf) only costs me $362 per month. Talk about cheap living!!! I paid more than twice that in rent when I lived in a small town like Kamloops.

4) The debt I am in RIGHT NOW is to my mom (who is in debt herself, which doesn't help with the guilt factor but does make for more flexible ways of paying her back). The debt is $250 from both of us. It's not as big of a deal to my bf since he has a job, but I am having a hell of a time coming up with $250. It can and will be done, but slowly... and all the while I'm going to feel immensely bad about it.

If I had my old job back, $250 would be nothing. Right now, $250 is `1/4 of my income and is already allocated elsewhere.

5) So really, this situation at hand only exists until my debt is paid (which will probably be two months). Then the "extremely frugal" alert is lifted and replaced with the "very frugal" alert. The latter of course still sucks and it will suck until I get a job, but I am willing to adapt (well, I have to :P)

and 6) I'm not taking just any job. The government is paying me enough to live (frugally) until December. I am taking advantage of that and using the time to find a job that I actually like and will be good at AND use my god damn degree and experience. Pay isn't as important but I do know now exactly what I'm worth.

I'm amazingly lucky on a lot of levels: I can't afford new clothes but I have so many damn clothes that I don't need new clothes! My dad owns a yacht, so doing sailing trips is a fun and free activity (actually, my favourite activity). My personal trainer is awesome and really understanding with my money situation. I have so much makeup, there's no need to buy any, so I'm lucky there. We have a massive DVD collection, with lots of DVDs I haven't watched yet. I'm up to my neck in books I need to read. I like to cook (and aren't bad at it) so not going out for dinner doesn't really bother me. I can't really afford my car insurance this month but at least my car is paid for and I don't owe anything there. And of course, I have a wonderful and supportive boyfriend who has my back in everything and, also, helps with the bills. Plus, I am getting just enough EI from the government to cover my essential costs each month.

Not enough to cover unexpected costs like I am realizing right now, but this is just a rough patch that I have no choice but to face and somehow find a way out of it.

Anyway, I was taken with many of your food suggestions as listed here and on Twitter and I whipped out this recipe last night. Cheap, good for you and tasty! And easy to make (I used canned lentils).

Herbed Lentils with Bacon - fantastic sidedish, or even as a main!


And as DaisyChain asked in the previous post, do I like tofu? I do, but I have no idea what to do with it. Any suggestions?

Last but not least, here is an ouftit post. I wore this to my boyfriend's sisters birthday dinner in White Rock (courtesy of the in-laws):











Jacket: Target (I got in pre-trip for $30 - love it!); Dress: Karta; Boots: BC Shoes; Bag: Rafe; Ring + earrings: Forever 21; Belt: Vintage

No Money, Mo Problems

Sorry for leaving you hanging with these Coachella posts - they just aren't pressing at the moment. I'm going through an extremely rough time right now, in more ways than one. Though the big ONE is my whole money situation. After the whole bedbug disaster on the trip, then consequent loss of much-needed funds, I'm in the scariest financial situation that I've ever been in and I am not done being angry over it.

You see, when you are on a fixed income to start with and have a ridiculously tight budget, a few extra (hundred) dollars owed really throws you for a loop. I could barely survive before and I can barely survive now. What sucks the most is that I can't even rely on my parents for help... because my mother is the one I owe the extra money to (when my friends went to another hotel, I had to put my room on my mom's credit card - she was gracious enough to let me do it, but now I know my mom's in debt over this too).

So now, that money goes to her to get her out of the debt and I can't afford groceries or my car payment this month. I really don't know what to do. My boyfriend can't even help me because HE'S in the same amount of debt I am now. I've never seen him more angry or stressed out either because of this.


Anyway - rest assured that I am at least able to pay my mortgage and most of my bills. But this aggrafucking situation is more annoying now because I'm trying to eat better but all the healthy food is the most expensive. I'm trying to work out with my personal trainer but even though she charges 60% less than other trainers AND she's letting me pay when I can, it's still a lot of money (but this is important with me so I'm sticking with it!)

I guess it could be worse... I could not afford my mortgage and have to declare bankruptcy. At least I am barely squeaking by. I am grateful for that, believe me.

But it doesn't really take away the feeling that life isn't fair... and why is it the people who are the most financially unstable the ones who get screwed over by life? How come the rich, spoiled people of the world don't get touched? Irony. I guess.

Whatever doesn't kill you, makes you stronger? Believe me when I say that this is something that I won't forget.

Anyway, I'm not just writing this to get it all off of my chest (which I am, and thanks, it is making me feel better) but I also wanted to get some feedback off of you.

Since my bf and I are poor as churchmice for the next month or two (or at least until the debt from the hotel is paid off), we are looking for suggestions on what the fuck to do with ourselves.

Luckily, we aren't really going out types - we are homebodies at heart. But we honestly can't afford to go to any bars, restaurants, birthdays, shopping trips, social events, movies, trips, weddings, etc.

So, what are some nice, low-cost (or free) things that you like to do? One of mine is having a picnic on the beach.

Also, for those who are also money-conscious and into HEALTHY (and/or low cal, low/suagr) eating, please share below (in the comments) some of your best meal and snack ideas! I've got some great ones when I posed this question on Twitter.

Thanks everyone and hopefully I'll get back to posting regularly and happily once my pulse goes back down to normal :)

PS here is one good piece of good news! During the whole bedbug room change in the middle of the night, I left my SLR camera behind. I didn't even notice until days later (because I had been using my point and shoot). Luckily when I called the hotel, they still had it and sent it to me by express mail, free of charge :)