Summer isn't technically over yet but...wow, what a doozy! As you may have guessed from my disappearing act, I've had a very busy summer. For one, it was the first summer I'd worked full-time the whole way through, like a BOSS grown-up, but it was also filled with more adventures (mostly musically related) than ever. A quick run-down of the big ones? Why sure!
Summerfest
Summerfest is the world's largest music festival, and it takes place right here in Milwaukee (damn straight). I've gone one of the 12(!) days when there was a band I really wanted to see, but this year the Summerfest Gods smiled down on me and my sister and I went down three nights. For an S-Fest veteran, that's small potatoes, but it was a lot for us! We went down to the grounds after work on a Thursday and Friday (I work only a block and a very large parking lot away from the festival grounds) and then all day Saturday. On Thursday, we saw Imagine Dragons, a great band whose album isn't even out yet! On Friday, it was AWOLNATION, which has my vote for best concert of the summer (also a cool "emerging" band called Hell & Lula, check them out!). And Saturday we braved the heat, sitting on hard metal benches all day until the sun went down and Cake performed. By the end, I was incredibly sweaty (and I was sore from all the bench-sitting), but filled with rock n' roll spirit!
State Fair
I'm really not a huge State Fair person. Sure, deep-fried food on a stick is always entertaining, but as I've gotten older, I'm way less interested in spending time in smelly animal barns than I used to be, and the weather always seems to be dire. But this year, one of the headlining bands was Neon Trees (whom I'd seen opening a show last fall and had been jamming out to on the radio all summer) so, that's right, sister & I headed off the fair. Even though it was both hot and rainy, we still had a good time - my godparents came up to meet us, so the whole fam hung out for a while before J and I set off for the stage. We ate: cheese curds, cream puffs, deep-fried scallops on a stick, all-beef hotdog and a cheeseburger from the Cattleman's Association, and cotton candy (well, J did). There was even time for my favorite "traditional" State Fair activity - checking out the prize-winning food and textiles! There were some gorgeous cakes in there. And the show was great too - it stopped raining by then, and Shiny Toy Guns opened and were a pleasant surprise (although I started coveting the female singer's undercut! Bad self, fall in love with office-appropriate hair!).
LeakyCon
Did you know I'm a huge nerd? I think you did. If you recall the lengthy post I wrote about Severus Snape and the implications of sorting, you will probably know that I'm a huge Harry Potter nerd. So when a Harry Potter convention popped up a mere three hours from home, obviously I packed up all my best house gear (Slytherin pride!) with
Disdainbrook
and headed down to Chicago! It was really the highlight of the summer. We actually didn't end up going to any Harry Potter panels (...oops?), but we saw a ton of awesome panels by awesome young adult authors (including one of my favorite of any authors, John Green), participated in epic wizard rock concerts and dance parties,
and saw the final installment of Team Starkid's A Very Potter Musicals LIVE AND IN 3D!!! (I'm looking forward to seeing what the version they eventually put up on youtube will look like...it was definitely an experience to see it live...all 5+ hours of it...)
Authors!
Wizard rock!
(If you couldn't tell, I'm pretty obsessed with Instagram now. You can follow me @ampersandjay. Just before Leaky, I got my very first smart phone, which was another big source of excitement this summer!) Basically, when they announced the dates for next year's in Portland, I started mentally planning my attendance so - yes, it was awesome. My first convention!
But perhaps the most exciting summer moment came just this Thursday - I got a(nother) job! It's part-time, but it's in my field and it seems like it'll be a great place to work. And, on the plus side of part-time, I'm going to be able to stay through on this temp assignment through the end (which actually got extended...gosh, I haven't posted since then, did I? Oops!), which is fab. Looks like the best of both worlds! (Did you go to a Hannah Montana place? I've never even watched that show. Let's pretend no one did.)
How was your summer? It feels like the Really For Real end for me since J is moving back to school this weekend - plus, I've done so much fun stuff, that must be a whole summer's worth!
The case from QT Case is very nice; when I saw them on the website, I was worried about how strong the ears would be, but I've tugged on them and messed them around and they seem pretty tough. It appears to be molded out of a single piece of silicone, so everything is well attached. The case was a little bit loose around the phone (it's an iPhone 4S) - it stayed on, but I'm not sure that I would trust it getting jostled around in the bottom of a bag (but would you really just dump your iPhone into your purse with no protection?). Bunny ears aren't quite my style, but I can see it working really well with a super-femmey and slightly quirky look (maybe Lolita?) or as a somewhat classier version of the Playboy logos that were so popular for a while (are they still popular? I hope not. Not my taste, thanks!). I could definitely see the brand expanding to feature other animals (cat ears, anyone?) and I know they're planning to add more colors to the line-up (the cases are currently available in the blue seen here, pink, and yellow). QT Case also donates 10% of sales to the Susan G. Komen Foundation - in the interest of transparency, this isn't a charity that I personally choose to support, but I always appreciate a business trying to do something good in the world.
