Road Trip Day Three

Posted on October 21, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

Wednesday October 8, 2014

Let’s Rock!

This is the day we were looking forward too and this is the reason we decided to go on vacation. In the morning we went to the Automotive Hall of Fame museum. It was okay, not a lot of cars to look at mostly the history of the people behind automotive creation and design which was cool. Got to watch a documentary on how cars came to be. I found even though there weren’t as many old cars to look at the information was really cool to learn about it. There was this older gentleman named Olaf who followed us around the museum telling us interesting stories. Like the story about Carl Benz everyone knows the name Benz. The interesting story was that Carl Benz was really socially awkward but made a car, he wasn’t going to show anyone. So one morning his wife took his car without telling him. It was so awkward to see this car because back then everyone had horse drawn carriages. It was so weird it made the paper the next day. If she hadn’t taken the car and showed it off there were probably be no Benz cars today. Mercedes was name of his daughter and named the car after her. Which I thought was unique name for back then to have name like that. Usually you hear names that were literal or simple not Mercedes. Very interesting!

The second part of the day was the concert. The concert consisted of four bands: Nothing More, HELLYEAH, Volbeat and Five Finger Death Punch. It’s real interesting about Volbeat because I totally did not like them at first. Jeff is the one who really liked them but after listening to them for a little while, I became a huge fan. I think I am a bigger fan than Jeff now. We were really lucky because a month before the concert Jeff bought VIP tickets. The VIP tickets consist of meeting Five Finger Death Punch in person. I was totally excited because well you all know I love Jeremy Spencer and I couldn’t wait to meet him. In fact that is all I talked about for a whole month. I am sure my husband was sick of me talking about it. (Oh well!) I told him if we were meeting Kate Upton he wouldn’t stop talking about meeting her. He agreed, too funny!

What I didn’t know that the VIP tickets included a tour of the stage and the equipment. It was bad ass to see everything. But before we got to go to the stage, the stage manager was talking how everything is run. I wasn’t really paying attention; I was looking around the arena. Then it happened! HELLYEAH walked right behind our group. I couldn’t believe it, Chad Gray the lead singer of HELLYEAH looked right at me! I was really star struck, I should have said something but I just couldn’t. It was really funny because I was thinking wow, he is really short. He was probably as tall as me and I am 5’4. Also he had the most piercing blue eyes, I have ever seen. So hauntly awesome! I couldn’t believe no one else saw them. OMG! I will never forget that!

After the manager was done talking we got to see all the guitars and some were really unique. We got to see how it takes a couple of people to run all the sound for both the guitar players and bass player. Also seeing the all drums sets were neat. Yes, I got to see Jeremy Spencer’s awesome drum set. It’s really cool because it’s red and gray.

Then after the tour of the stage and the equipment we went down this long hallway were all the dressing rooms where and meet 5FDP. I was SO NERVOUS! I felt like passing out and puking all the same time, that was how nervous I was. Being a VIP we got a cool bag and in the bag were drum head, drum sticks, a jersey, guitar picks and a wallet. The drum head was signed by all of them. I was surprised that no one had Jeremy Spencer’s book, I was the only one. I thought that was weird. So this is how it goes, all of them are sitting at this long table and you stand in line. There were about 20 people in our group. They sent two people at a time to the table. When it was our turn, whew I do not have nerves of steel. First it was Zoltan, Jeremy, Ivan, Jason and then Chris. We got to shake all their hands and have them sign whatever we wanted. Jeff and I both got our Jersey’s signed and I got to Jeremey signed my book. I told Jeremy that he was my favorite. He told me that he appreciated me for reading his book and thanks. He was the one who pointed out my t-shirt, he said that he thought it was really cool. Ivan said he loved my shirt too. Jason called me sweetie. (Um heart melting right now) I have to say that Ivan and Jason were more into the whole fan thing. I give Ivan a lot of credit because it felt like he understood all of us and that he appreciated all of us for supporting them.

After the signing we got to take pics with whoever we wanted. I wanted one with the whole band and one of me and Jeremy. While taking a pic with just Jeremy, Ivan and Jason photobombed us, I thought was so funny! Then Jeff and I took a pic with the whole band. Jeff got a pic with just Ivan. The whole experience was so fun! I will never forget this whole experience and I am a 5FDP fan forever.

Now on to the concert, Jeff and I didn’t want to stand in the front. I feel being in the front you don’t get the whole experience. Sitting further away you can see the whole show. It’s not like you can’t hear the show. It was so loud! So awesome! First it was Nothing More I don’t really care for them. HELLYEAH was next and they were so awesome. Their whole stage present was amazing.

Next was Volbeat, they were FREAKING AWESOME! Loved there stage set up. I knew every song they sang and sang along with them. First I like to say I was surprised by the lead singer Michael Poulsen because I have watched interviews and concerts on YouTube but his voice is not that low. It’s actually higher than I thought also you can tell that English is his second language. If you didn’t know Volbeat is a Danish band. He definitely has an accent. He was so funny; he asked if two girls in front were sisters. They must of said no because he’s like you can kiss each other right now. So they did lol! Then he pointed to a young kid and asked how old he was. He said that he was 12 so Michael Poulsen is like “stay right there” and he crowd surfed to give him a t-shirt. Too funny! Also while crowd surfing someone touched his crotch he said thanks for that. OMG! He was so hilarious; you could tell he really loves his job. Volbeat I hope I get to see you again because you are so awesome! I am a Volbeat fan for life.

5FDP was next and wow! First Jeremy Spencer came out and all you could see was flashing something which I knew he had flashing teeth. Then the lights came on and he was just standing there with his skeleton makeup and costume on. Then the whole band came out and they started with the song Under and Over It. Ivan even had make up and a costume on. His was a red hand on the side of his face and a bandanna. The light show for Volbeat and 5FDP were something to really see. Ivan was really good at getting the crowd going. I liked singing along to the songs. A few songs later, just Jeremy came out. He had on a devil mask and played a drum solo. It was so FREAKING AWESOME! Then when the whole band came back Ivan got a lot of little kids to go on stage and actually sing Burn MF. (Their parents must be so proud) Holy crap it was so fun and funny at the same time!

The whole show was just amazing! I will never forget this concert, I have never been to a concert that truly made me happy to go. This concert outweighs all the bands I have ever seen over my life time and I have to say I’ve seen a lot. This day was the happiest I have been a long time. It was just so much fun and I can’t wait to see more awesome bands in concert!

Road Trip Day Two

Posted on October 17, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

Tuesday October 7, 2014

We had no idea what to do during Tuesday. We ate at a really cool restaurant called Max & Ermas. So yummy! Kinda wish we had one here. So while we were eating I was looking on the map and found a private car collection that people could go and visit. Jackpot! It was the private car collection of Jack Roush. It was so cool! First it was free because they want you to buy something in the shop. Second not only did it have race cars it had really old cars. Also we didn’t buy anything, so it was free. (Ha ha!) We had really great weather throughout our trip; it only rained when we were driving home.

Road Trip Day One

Posted on October 15, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

Road Tip!

Monday October 6, 2014

Guess who was the driver? It was me! Yes I drove the whole way there. How long did it take? 10 hours in our Escape. Wow! But the drive there was so pretty! Michigan is definitely into the fall season, all the trees were turning. My two favorite parts of driving was going over the Mackinac Bridge and going into Michigan. You can drive 70, so that means 75, but everyone was driving 80mph or more. It was like driving a race car, so fun! Also we noticed that all the restaurants that failed in Wisconsin are thriving in Michigan like Big Boy. It was cool to see one of those again. The first three nights we stayed at the Hyatt hotel. Not really impressed about the cleanliness. I found a little lump of hair on our bed, hair always freaks me out in a hotel. I have no idea why.

Vacation Time

Posted on October 2, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

Super happy fun time!

I am so excited because starting on Monday; I get to go on vacation. I haven’t been on a long vacation for six years!

We have been on mini vacations like two or three days but not a whole week! I am SO excited to go on the adventure we are going to have. We are driving to Michigan near Detroit which that part isn’t all that fun. It will take 8 hours to get there.

We are going to go to a Five Finger Death Punch concert, that’s the main reason why we are going on vacation. Not only do we get to go to the concert we are actually going to meet the guys. I am SO nervous and excited at the same time! But you already know I really want to meet Jeremy Spencer he is my favorite. Hoping he will take a pic with just me and him. (Crossing my fingers!)

The concert is four bands. Nothing More which I only like one song and I don’t really like any of their other songs. HELLYEAH I know some of their songs and I think they are pretty good. The last two bands are the ones I really want to see. Volbeat I love those guys! My favorite song is The Nameless One I hope they sing that song but I love most of their songs. And of course Five Finger Death Punch totally love those guys! My favorite song is Bulletproof. Whatever songs they sing, I am going to totally love it!

I can’t wait to rock out! It’s going to be so cool!

Also we are going to stay at some really cool hotels and see some museums. Yes museums, Jeff and I like museums. I am looking forward to the Henry Ford museum. Even though I don’t know a lot about cars I sure do like looking at them especially really old cars.

I know we are going to do some other museums and sightseeing. Whatever we do in Michigan it will be fun because every time we go on vacation really silly and funny things happen to us.

So my blog I will see you in a week, I will have some fun tales and some really great pics to share.

Scatterbrain

Posted on September 29, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

That’s me!

Definition of a scatterbrain: a person who tends to be disorganized and lacking in concentration.

That so describes me because it’s not like I don’t want to pay attention or get one thing done. It is that I think about so much stuff all at once causes me to forget so many things. That is why I am always sending myself emails and writing things down.

It’s really bad because if my husband is upstairs and asks me to get something or do something downstairs. Once I am down there I always forget. So I get a lot of exercise going up and down the stairs. And that is true when it’s just me at home. I would be upstairs go downstairs to get something and totally forget. So I go upstairs “Oh yea” and then downstairs to get it. In fact I have to talk to myself once I am downstairs to remember to grab whatever it is. It’s worse when I have to go to the basement.

It would be cool if being a scatterbrain was a super power. Like if someone said something hurtful and I just forget about it like right away but unfortunately that is not how it works. Also being this way doesn’t mean I don’t remember everything. No, that is not how it is. I just forget the things I have to do at that moment but usually remember later in the day and write myself a note. It’s always the little things I forget not the big things. For example: I need to grab the mop from the basement, I get down there do laundry and go upstairs, forgetting the mop. It can be frustrating at times but I am learning to expect that is just how I am.

I feel kinda bad for my Russian friend because we email all the time and she asks me questions or says interesting things. When I email her I will forget to talk about the interesting things and I just focus on the questions. So the next time I email her I have to say sorry I didn’t say or sorry I didn’t add this last time and then continue. It’s bad! So Helen I know you are going to read this, sorry about that.

I have read that a lot of creative people are scatterbrains which doesn’t make it any better but that is my excuse. “Oh I am just really creative”. That is why I can’t remember what you told me just now or yesterday. When I think about it, it kinda makes me laugh because I should be in a cartoon with eight thousand hands all over the place trying to get everything done at once. But I guess in reality it’s really not that funny but I am trying to positive about it.

Being a scatterbrain also means I have many projects all at once. Seriously! But to my own credit I do get some done. I am not one of those that just let them be around forever. They do get done. However there are some projects that will take a lot longer depending on what they are. Like my cross stitching I have a project I need to finish so I will finish it and it will be awesome. But other projects like my writings those will last a really long time. When I say writings I mean my poetry and I am creating some stories but I will talk about those later.

So what do I think about? The real question is what I do not think about because I think about everything a lot. So what I am trying to do every day is take like 20 minutes listen to music and think about nothing which is really hard to do.

Livemocha

Posted on September 25, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

One day my husband came home from work and told me a story about his co-worker trying to learn Italian because he wants to go Italy someday. I was like really? Is he taking a class? Jeff said no he belongs to this website called livemocha.com. So, generally I was curious about it and checked it out later that day. Once you go there, they had a video and go through what the site is all about. I decided to try it out and it is free. I picked Spanish because I took Spanish in school and figured I would learn this language.

I was impressed how many languages they had to offer. Also, a neat feature of this website is not only do you learn a new language; you get to chat to people from all over the world. And you can help others who are trying to learn your language. It’s a win-win situation. You learn a language, you can help others and you can talk to them using their chat feature in the site.

I got to chat with some people from Spain, Iraq, Africa and Russia but the most people that I chatted with are people from Brazil. If you didn’t know they speak Portuguese in Brazil. I made some connections with a few of people from Brazil. I even have three of them as Facebook friends. Even though it is neat to chat with them, I don’t really want to learn Portuguese. I am one foreign language person.

I met the coolest people but like everywhere you go on the internet there is always really horrible people. Yeah, I found them here too. I did have a scary stalker person. But Livemocha has a blocking system in place and you can write notes why you are blocking a person. So these horrible people and that stalker can’t find me on Livemocha’s website.

I have been on Livemocha for almost two years but later last year they changed their website completely. It was really confusing and some people had the new site and others had the old site. I feel they did a poor job of implementing the web change. I felt that they should have done WAY more testing before uploading it to any users. There were so many problems when they changed their website.

Because they did such a poor job of converting everyone and the hard time I had with the new site. I just stop going there. I no longer feel it’s worth my time or effort of being a Livemocha member. And not just the change of the site that made me not want to go there. I also decided I wanted to do something else with my time. So, partly the change of the website and a change of my mind that I no longer want to do this anymore however I do feel grateful to meet the people I did.

I also had something amazing happen to me on this website though. A woman contacted and asked me to be her American English teacher. To get this straight, almost everyone on that site has no training or has a degree in their own language. There is a place to say if you are teacher and have a degree but I am not one those people.

So I was taken back by this because like I said I have no degree in English. But I couldn’t miss this opportunity to help this person and potently meet a new friend. Now this is totally unlike me, I tend to shy away from these kinds of interactions because who knows who on the internet and I am not a social person. But like I said couldn’t pass the opportunity.

I am glad I said yes because this last April we will have been conversing for two years. Two years! Now I have a new friend from a different country which happens to be Russia. And I have to say I have been learning a lot more than I thought I would.

7 Years

Posted on September 15, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

7 years today I have been married. Let me tell you it has been a roller-coaster but not a negative one, a fun one at times, frustrating but all in all the best decision of my life.

When I met Jeff I was 22 and he was 29. I was young considering I graduated high school when I was 19. Now that seems late but more than half of my class graduated at 19. I met Jeff on a dating site and I found him. Yes, I like pointing that out. The first time I saw his pic he was posing with a young girl who I thought was his daughter. Wrong! It was his roommate’s daughter. It’s kinda funny because Jeff doesn’t remember that pic. The other pic he had on there, he was wearing a red shirt, black pants and glasses. Totally cute! We talked on the site, then on the phone and finally had a date. Our first date was AWESOME! No guy ever treated me like that. Which I mean is held the door for me, super polite, paid for dinner. What? Paid for dinner? Yes, no I haven’t been on many dates but the ones I have been I always had to pay. It was totally cool and he walked me to my car.

During our “dating days” we hit some bumps but always worked them out. Just like now! Our wedding was a very traditional Catholic wedding. It’s funny because when we talk about our wedding, we both agree that we would have been fine with a small untraditional wedding. (Oh well!)

We have been married for 7 but have been together for 9 years. I have to say I love our relationship now and Jeff agrees. But I am glad we hit our “bumps” early on.

So here is my secret of a happy marriage: honesty. Yes, honesty and laughter. We tell each other EVERYTHING. No secrets! And we make each other laugh every day. You know that saying “never go to bed angry”. Well poppycock! I learned that sometimes not all the time to go to bed angry. Sometimes I or he just needs time to think about it. Also I can’t always be right. Yes I am wrong…sometimes.

Here is a wedding photo of us. Also Jeff would have been smiling but he got Bell’s Palsy before our wedding. If you don’t know what that is, it is a disorder of the nerves that controls movement of the muscles in the face. This can happen to anyone at any time and the doctors do not know what causes it. Kinda scary! Anyways we are, one of the best days ever!

Danielle's Blog

A blog about Danielle

Category Archives: Everyday Life