| August 14, 2002 Dear Jason, It's been awhile since I've written any journal entries, forgive me. I've not been using my computer much, nor writing much at all. Really, it's not like I haven't had things to write about. I went to Warped Tour yesterday, Cleveland/Sandusky last week, and Ozzfest the week before that, just for starters. As much I hate to say it though, I think it's time for me to go back to school. I'm not saying that because it almost is, but because I'm kinda in a rut. I've been working, and I've been spending a lot of time with my family, but I miss my friends, and I'm not really getting anything accomplished, except making money. I've got too much to think about, and have been letting it get to me. Yesterday, I noticed the Against All Authority tent, and went up to see them. Now, this is I band I've liked for some time (Daniel, my brother, bought a copy of their album "All Fall Down," that I've listened to a lot), but also I kind of had a wacky six-degrees-of-kevin-bacon connection to them; we were visiting my cousin Jen (who's from Miami) a few years ago, and she was looking through Daniel's tapes, and found the AAA album, and laughed and said that one of her friends had dated one of the members of the band. Like I said, wacky. Well, anyway, I bought their new cd, and was keen to get their autographs on it, and struck up a conversation with one of the bandmates (who turned out to be the guitarist, Joe Koontz, but I didn't know it at the time.) I asked him if they were from Florida, and he said, yeah from Miami, and then I recounted Jen's reaction to Daniel's tape of All Fall Down, and we stood there and talked about who Jen was. He kept saying that he knew he knew someone with her name, and kept guessing, but by the time I left he hadn't placed her yet. (By the way, he, the drummer, and the trumpet player signed my cd, but not the lead singer, since he was off picking up more t-shirts to sell.) Later, I was waiting in line with Chris (my best Buckhannon friend) to get to meet Flogging Molly (an Irish band who'd put on a kick-ass show earlier), and we were talking about where the stage that AAA was playing at was. Neither of us knew (come on, there were eight stages, it's easy to get confused), so I went back to their tent to find out where it was, and there were some more people there (including the lead singer), and Joe recognized me, and asked if they knew Jen, which they didn't. Then, like a bolt of lightening, it came to Joe, and he said, "Does she date Tony?" and I confirmed it, so he finally remembered her, and he even knows my other cousin, Angel, Jen's older sister. It turns out Joe used to be Tony's roommate before he and Jen moved in together, which says good things about Joe, cause I've met Tony, and he's really a cool guy. So, after being directed to the right stage by a guy who was in line behind Chris (the guys in the band didn't know themselves, it was one of the smaller stages), I'm standing in the crowd while the band sets up. This is when my over-thinking starts, as Joe is setting up, I decided to avoid eye-contact, as not to seem like a dorky obsessed fan-girl trying to exploit my thin connection to the band. But at one point he turned around, and despite my earlier resolution to be inconspicuous, I waved. He looked a little confused, but gave a short wave back. At this point I want to run and hide, I feel so stupid, and I'm completely sure that there's no might about it, he knows I'm a dorky-obsessed-fangirl. I did enjoy the show greatly once it started, but I spent a good deal of time feeling like an idiot, and avoiding looking at Joe (mind, this is a small stage with no dividing bar up front, and there was only one person in between me and the stage for most of the show, so I'm like, three feet away from him, if that.) Also, I didn't want to look like a flake fan, who claimed fandom when it suited me, and secretly hoped to Joe wouldn't look at me when they were playing songs I didn't know (I mean, I only had one of their albums, and it isn't even the most recent one, so some song ignorance on my part is understandable). I guess my enjoyment of the show was at times marred by my over-thinking, worrying, until the end of the show, the last song in fact, when I got right up on the stage, and was getting all into it, and right before Joe left the stage, he winked at me. All that inner turmoil for nothing. Wow, really took me a long time to get to the point, huh? Well, I was supposed to go to the movies with Daniel and Daddy, though Daniel just punked out, so I suppose I should go get ready. I'm damn sunburnt, so I'm not likely to look to good, but it's worth a try, anyway, huh? Elaine PS: Lots of () in my entry today, eh? I'll post my pictures from Warped as soon as I get them scanned. Back to my Diary |