I misunderstood the point of this ride

So today's the Boston Marathon, meaning that my boss stayed home rather than brave the traffic, my bus isn't running because the race cuts right through its route, and a whole lot of people across the state have a holiday. If I start inking under my desk at some point, I will feel pretty well justified.

Mild crankyness and inconvenience aside, though, life continues to be pretty great. I'm a little worn out from jumping on and off of buses practically every weekend, but it's worth it! On Saturday I went to a teeny-tiny (completely adorable) art festival/indie comic convention right in my hometown. There were some kind of stunning picture book artists there, and something like a third of the comics folk were alums or current students from my (future) school. I had an amazing time chatting about the program, learning to make an eight-page comic from a single sheet of paper, and buying all the minicomics. (Next time I will remember to bring my own and do some trading. /o\) Eventually I ran out of money, ran back to my parents' house, and drew all day, in between rereading print versions of a favorite (tragically hiatus'd) online comic.

Things are starting to pick up towards my move out of here. An announcement about my departure should be going out to the department soon (it's several months off, but once the job's posted ... and we need to hire somebody early enough for training), which will kind of be a relief; I'm starting to discuss the time frame for all the moving I'll have to do this summer; tuition and loans need to be seen to soon. (Meep.) And so on. It's a lot of stuff, but I'm trying to focus on being excited for the outcome.

On another, more immediate note of excitement ... so, anyone going to see MCR in New York this Friday? :DDD (Apart from the usual suspects; you know who you are.)

So scattered right now. There's been plenty happening in my life, but I'm not having an easy time making it cohere into a post. I've been listening to Vice & Virtues nonstop (countdown until I start reading lots of Brendon/Spencer: 5 ... 4... 3...), watching more Castle, and I went to see Travie McCoy & the Black Cards play in Boston with jjtaylor and ataratah (looking a touch out of place in my fedora and tie, I suspect). I cannot fucking deal with how much I love Pete Wentz, you guys. Also, Bebe is an adorable tiny dynamo, and I really like their energy together.

The weather continues to be mildly frustrating, but that's par for the course for a New England March. (I hope it warms up a little for you Muskrat folks.) Also, I've decided that what I really want for my birthday is more sleep, so I think I'm going to go hide at my parents' house for about a day or two. Maybe then I'll have the energy to participate around here a bit more?

Speaking of participation, bidding at help_japan has closed, but the auctions at help_japan are continuing 'til the end of the month. If you're thinking of putting something up yourself, though, you only have until tomorrow!

Oh, and because I'm hilariously paranoid about separating my fannish identity from my "public" one, some of you might find yourselves being followed by two of me on Twitter as of this morning. I just can't help myself. /o\

Last night fuschia and I saw Amanda Palmer play in my hometown (in the venue where I had tickets but missed the Dresden Dolls twice), and she covered House of the Rising Sun (along with Nervous Cabaret). My god, that was hot.

There are lots of exciting things going on! I got myself an Archive of Our Own account (and you can too; open beta is open). Now I have to look at my sad little collection of fic and decide what stays and what goes, because I definitely need to get rid of my website. (I'm looking forward to being able to post fanart there, too! But I suspect it might be awhile.) Also my Star Trek reboot DVD shipped yesterday, and I'm unreasonably excited to be able to rewatch that while working on various holiday projects. ;)

Speaking of which: would you like a holiday card from me? Here is a poll.

I should go hang out with my mom now, rather than obsessively watching for my yuletide assignment (or worse, checking through handy spreadsheets for all the people who requested my fandoms).

P.S.: GIVE ME THAT ALBUM, MCR! >:( I need some Black Dragon Fighting Society in my life.

So tonight I'm going to see my favorite (smaller) band perform at Johnny D's in Davis Square. Enter the Haggis! Celtic rock punk folk bluegrass blues jazz ska oh whatever, let's just call it fusion. ♥ I was going to see them three or four times a year until I got all blindsided by restructuring my life; I can't wait to see them again. (New album in under a week, too! \o/ My preorder comes with shot glasses. Obviously.)

( A few songs for you guys, just because. )

Meanwhile, across the street in the (rather small) Somerville Theatre, U2. What. (And the only way I heard about this? The guy at Johnny D's actually called me back after I made my reservation, to warn me. I should pay more attention to local news.)

yuletide sign-ups are imminent! \o/

I've been meaning to do a little meta post on the subject of requesting, but I'm having trouble concentrating on much of anything just now. olivia_circe asked me to share my cathartic Election Day mix, so I thought I might: ( Because I'm a dork, on my iTunes, this is labeled 'Electoral Collage' )

My Amanda Palmer ticket came on Friday! \o/ I cannot wait. Also, I'm debating trying to get into the Harper's Ferry Fall Out Boy show . . . it would be kind of amazing to see them in such a small venue. Not sure how I'd swing it, but!

Oh, Arthurian Smallville. I am so not impressed with you, but having boys moan other boys' names on their (potential) deathbeds never hurts. *g*

Pete Wentz, I love your face, but I am way too tired for any more of these viral marketing shenanigans. (I see that cfob and all those various myspaces have been updated again, with further crypticness.) Please to be getting to 60xxx already.

Had a fantastic time at the Hush/Cab show last night! The Cab were kind of adorable, though their music isn't really my thing. Cash was totally subtle with his flashing of the CFOB address, someone in the audience apparently wanted to fight Singer, and after a bout of shredding from Ian, greendreaming leaned over and whispered "Bauer Toro!" *g* Steel Train was fun (I should really get my hands on some of their music), and the Hushies were fucking fantastic, as always. fuschia, greendreaming and I spent the opening acts hanging out in the 21+ area, but we came down to the floor and danced like crazy people during the Hush Sound's set. ♥ I hope someone puts a better version of the Obama song up on youtube at some point, because that was amaaaazing.

I definitely approve of the bands coming out and playing with each other, also. :) Singer did Brendon's bit of "Don't Wake Me Up," Ian played some snazzy harmonica (I thought of you, inkjunket ;)), and the Tom Petty cover was particularly lovely! (So many intra-band hugs, awww.)

(olivia_circe and I have agreed, however, that we need to send the younger generation of fans to Beatles boot camp. Maybe Panic would help us out with that.)

Met a bunch more of the internet, also, which was lovely. :) Sorry for being so shy, bbs.

Ugh, I'm exhausted. I can't wait to go to sleep on the bus back to Boston. I will probably have comicky crack to share with you all (finally) tomorrow or so, however.

PS: The reports I'm hearing about last night's Leathermouth show have me totally excited for the Cambridge show now. Which is mildly alarming. AHAHA FRANK, I CAN'T WAIT.

Had a lovely family weekend punctuated by intense worry, the reason for which is all over the news. (sweetvalleyslut and her fellow Peace Corps volunteers are being evacuated to Armenia, and all should be well, but it's fucking terrifying all the same).

Since sitting around fretting doesn't actually help things, I did try to have a good time. The New Pornographers concert was great fun, if very different from the concert experience I've gotten used to. (Someone needs to tell those indie kids that it's all right to dance! Well, I think some of the ones in the pit were swaying, but up in the balcony, everyone was just sitting there. Tch.) That's all right, though; I came home today to find Reggie/Leathermouth tickets waiting for me. In case I was worried about missing the full spectrum of concert experiences.

I also went to see The Swell Season with my family. It was an outdoor concert, and it kind of rained all over us. I forgot my poncho! (Shame on me!) I did have an umbrella though, and it was really kind of awesome . . . their music is amazing in any case (as you'll know if you've seen Once), but the crowd's defiance of the weather brought the whole experience up to a new level. Just brilliant (I thought of you).

I should stop refreshing Yahoo! News and go to bed. The rest of my week will be work, the Red Sox (possibly with more rain), trying to make international phone calls, and drawing more pictures of Gerard Way making funny faces. (Also IB designs. I have one and a half done. I need to learn to draw zombies . . . and um, boats.)

Remind me to wear shoes with arch supports next time I go to a concert. Ow. Damn flat feet.

Last night was great fun, in spite of the fact that it was just about a million degrees in the venue. I hung around with fuschia and omnia_mutantur, and we wandered in and out all night, since we were really only invested in seeing the Hushies. The place was packed with screaming teenagers (and younger; I swear there was a ten-year-old behind us in line).

We went up to the restaurant for dinner, and missed The Morning Light completely (which was no great loss, from what I hear). Steel Train was actually quite engaging; the song about touring was adorable, I must look into them further. After they wrapped up, I picked up a Dance Across the Country t-shirt (I love the design, and they actually had real-person sizes!), and then we wound up going outside and missing most of the Cab's set. They're fine, but I'm just not particularly interested. (Though I was mildly terrified to discover that I could list all their names, and a few random personal details; it's the power of fannish osmosis.)

sweetvalleyslut sent me a text from Georgia (you know, the country) yesterday to warn me not to get too close to them (she was one of the victims of the original "plague"), so maybe it was just as well. ;)

( The Hushies were fantastic, of course. )

One thing that struck me through the whole show was just how incredibly happy the whole band seemed. They were just all smiles; Chris seemed positively gleeful (Darren too, when he was visible), Greta was just soaking up the crowd's energy, Bob was telling stories . . . it was delightful. :) I don't think I can afford to go see them in Hartford, but I am awfully tempted. (It was marvelous to see the internet there, as well. Equipped with paper fans, bless them . . . that pun was unintentional, really. But anyway, I kind of love this fandom.)

This workday needs to end so that I can go work on fanart. Instead, I'm putting out fires because everything random and bizarre happens when my boss is on vacation and unreachable. (Coworker sets up an appointment with some poor befuddled prospective student, calls in sick, and doesn't actually email me; the only member of our team left in the office today. AUGH.)

[ETA:] lordessrenegade has some great pictures from the show, and a clip of the Beatles cover up here. :D

I'm still reeling a bit from this weekend, and I've had to severely restrict my MCR intake for the time being. (No Black Parade every morning on the way to work! No "Famous Last Words" for awhile! Just a song here and there.) Concentrating at work is almost harder than it was last week.

Also, I keep trying to write a detailed, chronological concert report, and (three drafts later) it's really not working. On the one hand, it gets ridiculously melodramatic (probably because it was. Even getting to the concert was a sort of fairy tale journey, complete with a decent set of tribulations--buses, flying, filthy New York subways with rats, and five hours standing in the rain--and a transformative experience at the end). On the other, it comes out far too stilted. I'm too fucking emotional and not nearly eloquent enough.

( I give up? Kind of? )

No, I'm definitely not capable of explaining why the experience was so profound. jjtaylor does a fantastic job here. I've seen other great posts, but I think that's the one I identified with the most strongly. She's much better at describing Gerard than I am.

I've already talked a bit about the effect this fandom has on me; that I have so much more inspiration and energy now. Sad though I am that My Chemical Romance has gone away for awhile, I am left with the latter part of Gerard's goodbye: "keep yourselves alive." I've seen this echoed through the journals of some of the other lovely fangirls I know, and the fact that he can make those words work like that really speaks for itself.

My Chemical Romance and Gerard Way set out to "save lives," and I remember being completely incapable of taking that sentiment seriously. These days, I interpret it a little differently, for myself: I'm left with the inspiration to create things of my own, to get back to really living my life instead of just drifting along. (It's pretty clear that I'm not the only one who feels this way! I keep finding it in other peoples' posts. Fangirls. <3) I can't say I'm unafraid, but fucking hell, I'm going to do it. I have stories to tell in words and pictures; and hey, that's something Gerard and I have in common.

(I will miss MCR so much for the next two years, or however long their break actually is. I just found them. But I am so excited to see more of Gerard's other work, which I actually came to first. I realize that I am actually his fan, before I'm their fan, though I'm certainly both.)

As for the Honda Civic Tour concert on Sunday . . . it was a much more light-hearted affair. ( I really needed that. )

Okay, that was still a bit scattered, but it's probably the best I can do. I should go and try to earn my wages a little bit, I suppose. There should be fanart from me soon, though. Also, I really need to try and be less of a lurker in general. I love this fandom, and I met some really fabulous people this weekend, albeit briefly. I'd like to be more of a part of it all.

I mean, one of the most amazing things about these experiences has been the people I've had to share them with. sweetvalleyslut, who was with me through almost every minute of the entire thing, who is totally fucking responsible for my being there (and still the best best friend ever for taking all that whiplash in her stride), who held on and swayed with me through some of the saddest moments of the MSG concert. olivia_circe, who came such a fucking far distance, who dazzles me with her meta and makes me salivate with her fic ideas, who texted feverishly with me when I was alone at the HCT. fuschia, who I have so missed sharing a fandom with so damn much. I love you guys. <3 <3 <3

I've totally dissolved into mush now, so I'll leave you with:

"Everything deserves a happy ending. Even if it's a story about the end of the world, you should find some way to end it with a dozen roses. Just throw a little sparkle all over it." -Gerard Way

I am back. Totally fucking exhausted and emotionally a bit wrecked, but so happy underneath that.

Amazing does not do My Chemical Romance justice. Also, I love fangirls.

I want to write about yesterday in detail, but I should do it tomorrow because I need to eat and sleep, right now. (I would like to have enough energy for the Hushies & Panic!)

I have to share this before I sleep, however: an interview of Gerard Way, in comic form, by Emily the Strange. (Oh fuck, I love him so much.)

Emotionally wrung-out as I am right now, it might have made me cry--two-year fucking hiatus--except that it reminded me of how excited I am for more of Gerard's comics. \o/

Right. Bed!