Foreign Foreign

Posted on November 14, 2014 by dkbadmin under Foreign Language

Now that is so foreign!

Foreign language is not my friend even though I want it to be my friend. When I was younger meaning grades first to the fifth, I had no choice of what language they were going to teach us. The language was Spanish. I was kid so that means I could care less about learning a foreign language I wanted to do kids’ stuff. That means I didn’t really learn anything.

Sixth grade which is middle school I got a choice between three languages German, Spanish and French. What do I pick? Of course Spanish and it was not fun. Seventh and Eighth grade I decided I needed to pick a different foreign language. I looked at German and it looked really hard so I picked French. Well I was in for a treat. French was so hard for me. I have no idea why I took two years of it. Also in Eighth grade I was failing and my only redemption was going to French camp for two days. My teacher told me if I wanted to pass I had to go and make an effort she would pass me. French camp was horrible! Once I got there the only rule was no English only French. Since I sucked at speaking French I couldn’t say what I wanted or needed for two days. But it was worth it to pass the class so I didn’t have to go to summer school.

In high school ninth to twelfth grade I got the same three choices German, French or Spanish. The only difference I only had to take a foreign language for three years instead of all four. I do not know how but my mom convinced the principal to let me not take a foreign language but to swap it for a bunch of computer classes. I think that computers could be a foreign language. So I took a crap load of computer classes but it was worth it not having to take a foreign language also I liked my computer teacher he was awesome.

After high school I didn’t think about learning any foreign language, I always thought what is the point because for whatever reason I can’t learn them. Not until I joined Livemocha remember I told you about that. That site makes you pick a foreign language so my fall back foreign language is Spanish so I picked that. I didn’t have any interest of learning the language just wanted to meet new people and help them with American English. Anyways I met my friend Helen there. Her language is Russian and I thought I would learn Russian. Now that is a very hard language! In my mind I thought I could learn Russian and someday I could speak to Helen in Russian and she could speak to me in American English. I would like to say if you speak Russian I admire you because your language is super hard to learn.

A couple of months ago I gave up learning Russian. I did learn some numbers, the alphabet, greetings and some random words. Russian was a lot harder than I thought to learn and I didn’t have the drive or the discipline to want to learn Russian. However that doesn’t mean I do not want to learn about Russia. I love learning things about Russia just don’t want to learn the language.

I was thinking about it and I know my best friend April is learning a foreign language. I didn’t give it any thought till I gave up on Russian. This foreign language I have always that it was unique. I think because they do not teach this language I didn’t think I could learn it without a teacher. The foreign language is American Sign Language. I didn’t come in contact with this language till I was fourteen. When I was fourteen had my first job I worked at an ice cream shop in the food court of the mall. We had a mother and daughter who would come and buy ice cream. The mom was deaf so the daughter would order for her. I thought wow talking with your hands is interesting. So back when people actually went to the library, I checked out a book on American Sign Language which is ASL for short.

It was really interesting learning some of the culture and learning some signs. I have no idea why I didn’t try to learn more. I guess I figured because I couldn’t learn a foreign language why bother, even though I thought it was really interesting.

Being older and rediscovering ASL I really wanted to learn this language. I understand Helen more and why she loves learning American English. You really need the want, drive, fascination and discipline to learn a foreign language. Also with ASL there is no pronunciation just have to watch what I sign because I am learning that some signs are pretty similar just need to pay attention what I am signing.

Why I think I will stick with this language because I have never been truly excited to learn a foreign language before. I really want to learn this and I am having fun doing it. Also it helps that I have a good teacher. My friend is teaching me and that is what she wants to do with her life. She wants to become an ASL teacher. So she can practice with me till she gets her degree. It’s cool!

One more thought, my friend April told me that music can help you learn a foreign language. I will have to agree. Since I am huge music fan learning the signs to a song and then practicing till I can sing along in ASL will just add to the fun. I decided to go with Sixx A.M. and their song Stars it’s one of my favorite songs right now. She is going to teach me all the words to that song. That means I will know more words plus I get to sing along with them eventually. Neat!

Here is a video of her signing Sixx A.M. Stars also I found these huge sunglasses and told her she had to put them on to make the video. Just being silly. April is so good at signing this song and she didn’t even know this song till I told her only couple of days ago. I filmed this on my phone this is her first attempt of the whole song. So I am really impressed!

Twitter Addict

Posted on November 11, 2014 by dkbadmin under social media

Twitter can be a good decision for some. But it was a really bad decision I made. I joined twitter in 2012 but never really used it till April of 2013. Now knowing me I should have never sign up for this Twitter application. I am such an internet addict and this really didn’t help me at all.

WHY THE HELL DID I DO THIS?

You cannot watch TV or go anywhere on the internet without anyone or anything mentioning Twitter or hashtag this or hashtag that. Seriously it’s everywhere! Even the President is on Twitter, everyone is there. It’s like a big party for really stupid thoughts. Or to promote things you don’t really care about. However, if you do have a business or author or really important, I can see how this can help you but I am none of those things, so it only really hurt me instead.

I am already a nervous person and think too much about random stuff. Hence here I am. At first it was really fun. I got to say dumb useless things in 140 characters or less and started to get starred and some followers. I was like wow, this is so much fun! Then after about a few months, big accounts started to follow me and they would retweet my tweets. I was like what? Wow, so fun! I am going to follow everyone who is following me no matter what or who they are or even what they represent. Once I started to do this, I started to gain a lot of followers. So many that I looked for another application that Twitter created to manage everyone that was following or had unfollowed me. I used unfollow.me to manage everyone and it was free. Also you have to sign up with Favstar to get the full experience of Twitter. Favstar is really to see who starred your tweets and you can give people trophies there.

I have to admit, it took me awhile to figure out everything. When I did my first retweet it was a rush. And I actually did a #FF. Which is Follow Friday and then you enter everyone you want others to see and follow. I only did that a couple times and was happy. Also I was getting DM’s from people and chatting with them that way. A DM is a direct message if you didn’t know. I have met really awesome people and really horrible people. I do have to say thank goodness Twitter has a blocking system in place for the horrible people. I was also thrilled to be mention in a tweet.

I figured as long as I was having fun this can’t hurt me in anyway. Right?

But then it started…….I would tweet and then think about it way too much! I would also be like “Why doesn’t anyone every retweet or star me anymore” or “OMG, I hope I didn’t offend anyone” etc. I was thinking about what to tweet what not to tweet. What if I don’t gain any more followers? I would think about Twitter so much, it was affecting me other ways in my life. Like spending time with my husband or family events and even sleeping. I thought about Twitter all the time!

I would check Twitter the first thing in the morning and it would be the last thing I would check before I went to bed. Even if I didn’t Tweet, I wanted to know what other people were saying or sharing all the time. It really was nonstop for me. I didn’t know I had a problem. My husband would be like you want talk about Twitter again and give a sigh when I would talk about it. But I really didn’t pay attention to it because I was a Twitter addict.

Literally one day in February sitting in bed thinking about Twitter like always; I thought about how this one little application was affecting me. Twitter made me nervous about what I was tweeting or what people thought about my tweets. And it hit me in the face! That I was spending too much time on this Twitter, what do I care about other people’s thoughts on Twitter? Most of the stuff on Twitter was just useless crap. Also I was sick of people DM’s about a lot stuff I didn’t care about or them harassing me because they didn’t like what I tweeted about or the fact that my avatar wasn’t a pic of me. Yes, I never put my pic on Twitter and I was really discreet about myself. Twitter was never the real me. Sure I would tweet about things that had happen to me or if I saw something funny but it wasn’t Danielle.

So, I thought about quitting Twitter for about two days and asked myself these questions: Do I need this? Is Twitter even fun anymore? What have I been missing in life because of Twitter? And the answers to these questions were easy to answer. No, I don’t need Twitter and it’s really not fun anymore. I have been missing a lot in life because of Twitter. After answering these questions, I did it. I quit, I didn’t even make it a year. But it was a lot wasted time there. I did however leave with a pretty good number of followers though. I had 606 followers but I didn’t even say goodbye and just quit.

And wow, I thought about it some more. I thought do I really want to do this? What I am going to do now? For two weeks I thought about joining again because I am a Twitter addict. I have a problem and Twitter was making it worst. But now after I quit, I do feel better. I know I am an internet addict but I don’t need Twitter to make it worst.

What I found out not being on Twitter is I have a lot more free time to pursue other things. I think about Twitter sometimes but it doesn’t invade my thoughts often. I am actually happier without it. Sure, I see it on TV or on the internet and of course hashtag this or that but I do not feel the need to be on Twitter anymore.

However, I am glad I went through that experience just to get it out of the way. Now, I honestly have an opinion about Twitter.

Goodbye Twitter forever!

Change

Posted on November 6, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

It’s good to change right?

Lately I feel like I am changing. Like every year I have a birthday but I do not feel older till later in the year. But this feels differently like I feel differently about things in life then I did before. I have no idea how this feeling of change came along but it has.

I feel differently about my family. I have a lot of family issues in my life and it really sucks. I feel that I should be past all this anger and I hate that I have but sometimes it just hard to get past certain people and feelings I have towards them. I am sick of dealing with the same old issues and the tears I have to endure. I am sick of trying to figure out how to get around certain topics that always seem to pop up. I am sick of trying to be someone that I am not. I am really sick of my family judging me for being the person that I am. I just want these family issues to just go away. I want to find the strength to stand up for myself and say what I really want to say but it’s really hard to do that.

So far this year I did tell a person how I felt and it was really hard. Also this certain family member didn’t talk to me for a week which I was okay with because I was so angry at them. In fact these certain family member makes me very angry and sad. But also at the same time they make me happy and make me laugh. And when it’s just me and them alone we always have the best time. It’s very hard to find a balance with them. The incident that happened I think had to happen because I felt like exploding! Unfortunately I feel these feelings will never go away but ever since this happened I feel differently towards this person. And I think that why I feel this change coming along.

Since I am on the internet I rather not say who this person is even though none of family reads my blog anyways.

I have feeling of giving up on certain parts of my family life and I am okay with that. Sucks for those people I am giving up on because they are going to be missing me in the future but this just has to happen. It’s like I have gave them so many chances and they choose not take them. Also when I see them I am not going to pretend that I will see them anytime soon. I hate when they say “we need to get together more” and I am always thinking well I gave you like a million chances to do that you never take them. This year I am just going be like “okay” and move on.

Also on Facebook I am not following these people anymore. I am sick of their posts about all the family things they do and how they gloat about it. It’s sad that I feel so much hate towards parts of family life. I really need to work on this and move past this but it has been my entire life of trying and failing. I feel so differently towards my family issues that I just feel like giving up on those parts even though they make me who I am.

However I do not feel differently about my tiny family meaning just my husband and I. In fact that part of my life is the best part. We have been through so much of my family issues that he has really been my rock through it all. Like when I cry and feel so sad, he gives me the biggest hug and listens to what I have to say. Or when I am so angry all I see red, he listens and finds solutions to the problems. I always feel so much better when he picks me up from those horrible emotions.

I feel differently on the inside. I feel that this change is good and moving me towards the person I am supposed to be. Maybe this change will make me stronger and not the coward that I see in the mirror. I know that since I have been blogging I actually feel stronger to say “Hey this is me and I just don’t care what you think about me.” All that is important is what I think about myself.

I hoping this change will move me to the things I want to get done to myself, so I feel better about myself. Like I want to lose a lot of weight so I feel different. I am not losing weight for anyone else but myself because I want to go and see so many places. Being a bigger person doesn’t let me do those things. I want to get a bunch of tattoos for me. I have a lot of ideas of what I want to get tattooed as well. I want to publish one of my stories; I don’t even care if one person buys it. Just want to say I got a book published would just be so cool.

There are so many things I want to see and do before I die. And with that I guess I really need this big change in my life right now.

I really like listening to hard rock when I am sad or angry; it always makes me feel better about myself. The song I like to listen to when my family is getting on my nerves is 5 Finger Death Punch Bulletproof. This song is so special because no matter what they say or throw at me, I am Bulletproof from their hateful words.

Oh Brother!

Posted on November 3, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

My younger brother Adam just moved to Portland Oregon. Finally! He has been talking about moving out there for a couple of years. One of his best friends and his girlfriend moved there awhile back. I guess Portland is the place to be. Well ever since then he moved out there my younger brother has been dying to move there but he would always come up with all kinds of excuses not to leave. He finally had no excuse to go a couple of months ago. His friend broke up with his girlfriend and needed a roommate. So he called my brother and to sweeten the deal he had a job for him. So there was no reason he couldn’t go. So he did which is good for him.

When we were younger we were best friends. Of course we had sibling rivalry but again who doesn’t? (Unless you are an only child.) Anyways when we got older our relationship sucked. It’s too bad that he had to move away for our relationship to be back on track but I will take it.

It’s funny thinking about the past with my brother. We are only three years apart so life when we were younger was fun because he wasn’t a little kid yet still could be very annoying. Since I was older I could boss him around that was the fun part. Ha! I use to make him do concerts with me for our parents. Make up dance routines to songs and then perform them. It was fun to do that also I think that is what we are doing in this photo. Fun times!

Also being older I would always stand up for him at school. I was pretty protective of my little brother and wouldn’t let anyone push him around. In return when he got to high school he would do the same for me. I am a shyer person then he. He always had a ton of friends which I use to be so jealous of. For example Adam could walk into a room full of people and like know half them and by the end of the night know more than half of the people. Me I would know one person and probably only know three people at the end of the night. So yes my brother is a huge social butterfly. Anyways in high school I was very shy so he and his friends would sit with me at lunch made me feel like I belong somewhere. We really looked out for each other growing up.

So when we got older and we started to separate, it made me sad because I love my little brother very much. Now that he is starting to come around in life again, I am really grateful to have his relationship back.

Here is a photo of us in high school together.

Adam I am glad you are in my life again. I love you so much!

Halloween 2014

Posted on October 29, 2014 by dkbadmin under Holidays

I have zombie love for you!

I absolute love Halloween, even more than my birthday. Even more than all the holidays combined. Halloween is the coolest holiday ever!

I love Halloween because I love scary. I love to be scared! I love zombies, do not get me started on zombies. I am a zombie freak; I probably have seen at least a hundred zombie movies by now. If there are zombies in the movie I am watching I do not care if it’s the crappiest zombie movie on the planet I will watch it. And I have seen some really shitty zombies movies that I can’t believe I watched the whole thing. I just totally love anything zombies and I do believe it could really happen.

Anyways here is a pic of a doll Jeff gave me years ago. It’s totally cool!

I also love skulls; I love collecting them and I have been collecting many things that have skulls on them since as long as I can remember. This is my absolute favorite skull that I have. I got it at a Halloween store. Check it out. I just love it even though it creeps out Jeff. I think that is funny. So far I haven’t really seen anything like it so far.

Jeff and I started our own tradition since we do not like handing out candy to kids. We turn off all the lights and pick out one or two scary movies. We get pizza, junk food and watch scary movies. It’s so fun! I look forward to that, that I picked out a scary movie like last month for Halloween. This Halloween I picked the move Oculus, it is about mirrors which always freak me out in horror movies. So I watch them anyways, I told you I just like watching horror films. Jeff hasn’t picked out his horror movie yet. This year Jeff has to redeem himself because last year he chose Jennifer’s Body and it was really stupid. The movies we pick for Halloween are movies we haven’t seen yet that, is the only requirement. Hope both movies are totally scary!

There is only one genre of horror films that I will not watch. Any horror films about exorcisms. It’s not like I haven’t seen them. I used to watch a lot of horror films on exorcism in fact I probably have seen the movie The Exorcist a crazy amount of times. I have also seen all the sequels as well (note they aren’t very good). Anyways the thought of a demon possessing someone’s body just really freaks me out and not good freak out. Since I believe in God and I believe in heaven and hell that just too much for me to handle. It’s just has been for maybe three years ago I decided not to watch those films. So I have seen them just chose to watch different kind of scary from now on.

There are certain things in a scary movie that totally gets my blood pumping. Like to the point where I am so scared, I can’t look. Those movies I need to watch with Jeff. I need someone to tell me it’s over but I find that those movies make it worth watching because of those things. Here are the things that totally freak me out in horror movies: 1. Mirrors because there is always something in them that is wrong or the reflection never follows the person looking in them. 2. The scary mouths, you know when someone is going to scream and their mouth is really too long for their face. 3. Any basements, long hallways they are always have no lights and who knows or what is in them. 4. Abandoned hospitals and prisons/ jails I do not need elaborate on this one. 5. Walking like all their limbs are broken and it’s very slow then really fast. 6.The backwards spider, ever watch the unedited version of The Exorcist if you have then you know what I am talking about. 7. The whole standing over someone while someone is in bed.

These things just freak me out so much but yet I still keep watching them. Also I love to watch foreign scary movies and I have to say Japanese horror films are some the scariest films I have ever seen in my life. Probably has to do with their really long black hair and a lot of them have that walking like their limbs are broken and those eyes totally freaky!

I have to say though the scariest movie I have ever seen and gave me nightmares is The Ring. This movie scared me so much. I watched this movie when I still living with my parents and I had a TV in my room. I had to cover my TV in my room with a blanket for months. The Ring was the ultimate scary movie and I will never watch it again. Thinking about it is giving me the creeps.

Another thing I love about Halloween is craving pumpkins. Two things I love about doing this is making cool creepy picture and baking the seeds. I love eating pumpkin seeds and they are only good if I make them myself. Here are the pumpkins I carved this year:

Road Trip Day Five

Posted on October 26, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

Friday October 10 2014

Time to go home

Time to leave the fancy hotel and go home. During our whole vacation I didn’t sleep very well. First bed in the Hyatt really sucked, it was lumpy, the bed in The Henry was comfy but it wasn’t my bed. I also missed Koko who cuddles with me before I go to bed. So maybe three to four hours of sleep a night during vacation, I was tired and really wanted to sleep in my bed. On this day I actually got up at quarter to seven. That rarely happens because I am a night owl. I could tell I was getting to the point of exhaustion because I was crabby. The ride back home was pretty, but I was driving, so had to really see the pictures to really see the beautiful water and the Mackinac Bridge again.

Also on the way back I wanted to stop at a souvenir shop. On the way up we passed a souvenir shop that said it was the largest in the country so had to stop there. We looked at the reviews online of the shop and all the reviews said how wonderful this shop was. So I was excited to see what kind of treasures I would fine. When we finally got there it was raining and we really had to use the restroom. When we got inside the shop, we asked if we could use their restrooms. They told us that they had a portable potty outside. Are you kidding me? I am going to spend money in your shop and I have to go outside in the rain to potty. I thought that was ridiculous but when you have to go, you have to go. Anyways I was so disappointed in this shop. It was just a bunch of junk in there. I could find better stuff at Goodwill. But I did find some stuff. I found some little stuff for my friend Helen, also a little statue for my friend April for Christmas. Jeff found a cool eagle statue for his dad. I also found some cool little figurines for my figurine collection. Oh and the workers were very strange especially when we asked about the restroom. There weren’t all that friendly. We got there around almost five clock and they close at five. They didn’t even tell us they were closing they just turned off all the lights. First of all we were the only customers in there you could just tell us you were closing.

All in all that shop has false advertisement and the people who reviewed this shop has never been to a thrift store in their life I would assume because a lot of the stuff was donated you could tell and all the stuff was just junk. I would have better luck finding cooler stuff at a garage sale. So yes very disappointed in this shop.

While driving in Michigan they have these funny signs we would see every so often. They would say “Pass with care” I thought those where funny because you wouldn’t pass with care you would pass with rage. I am passing them because they are going so freaking slow I am going to lose my mind! So no one ever passes with care on the road they pass with rage. Too funny!

When we got Wisconsin it was dark out. I hate driving in the dark because all the headlights on the cars make it hard for me to see plus we were driving back roads there were so many deer. I was afraid I was going to hit one. Gratefully we made it home without incident. I was so happy to be home and to go to bed. I slept like for a whole day! It was nice. I love vacation because it’s a way to see cool things and meet or see the weirdest people. But I also love being home after vacation to appreciate the mundane stuff I do every day.

Road Trip Day Four

Posted on October 23, 2014 by dkbadmin under Everyday Life

Thursday October 9 2014

This day we went to the Henry Ford museum. I didn’t know this but this museum was very large. It took us almost four hours to go through it. It was so neat! First since its Henry Ford they had all kinds of old to new cars. The cars were everywhere, it even had Presidential cars, we got to see President Regan’s car to President Teddy Roosevelt’s car. It’s funny because they were all so different and we got to see where the Secret Service would ride around the car. The whole museum was a timeline of different vehicles but we didn’t follow the timeline we were just everywhere.

The second part was trains. There was this one train that was just so huge! Jeff stood next to it and you can see just how huge it was. It was so massive that it made the other trains looks so small. The other train they had that I thought was neat was a plow train. Very interesting! In the museum they had a working McDonalds in a train car. What? Yeah I was blown away by that. In the front of the train car McDonalds was the old neon sign and a classic car in the middle of it.

Third part was airplanes. It had the write brother’s plane, it was so simple paired to the others. Still really neat. There was this other plane you could go into it was from a long time ago. It was funny because first class was wicker chairs. That cracked me up! Also they didn’t have seat belts. Charles Lindbergh’s The Spirit of the Saint Louis plane was there. Amazing! Also with all the vehicles there were buttons you could press to either hear audio or watch tiny videos on the displays.

There weren’t just vehicles there were other displays there. Like Lincoln’s chair he got shot in. I even saw Rosa Parks’s bus and I could see where she sat. They had kitchens through the centuries. I only took a picture of the 1930’s I thought that one was the neatest. Lamps and stoves through the centuries, very interesting to see them all. Also had these doll houses, the doll houses were very detailed it was crazy.

There was this one part were we go through the centuries of just stuff. We thought it was funny to go through the 80’s and 90’s centuries because a lot that stuff Jeff had or I had as a kid. For example I had a Game Boy and a Furby, to see them in a display case made me feel a little old. But it was neat to see that stuff and bring back some memories. Also Jeff use to tell me he had bag phone. These phones were the earliest invention of the cell phone. So yes had to take a picture of that. I have never really seen one person just on the internet.

That museum so far is the coolest museum I have seen in a long time.

The second half of he day we switched hotels. We stayed in the fanciest hotel I have seen or had the pleasure of staying. One thing you got to know about me is I hate fancy. I hate fancy restaurants, stores and hotels. Because I feel that I do not belong and I can’t stand snobby people. I do not how but Jeff convinced me that we have to stay in a fancy hotel at least once in our life. We stayed at The Henry and it was a Marriott “Autograph” hotel, just another way to say fancy hotel. When we walked in it was so very neat to see. First you walk in and see the biggest chandelier like ever. All the employees are wearing suits and dresses. As we were walking to the elevators the walls are covered in art work. I thought that was really neat to see. When we got to our room I am almost past out because it was so huge! Once you walk in there is one tiny bathroom and the living room with a really cool view of Detroit (11th Floor). Then the bedroom and an extremely large bathroom. As you walk into the bathroom you walk right into the beauty area, and then when you turn there is another room where there is a shower and tub. The bathroom is covered in marble. The bathroom was like a studio apartment big. People could live in there. That is how big it was!

For extra cost we got Concierge floor access which means we got to go this floor where they have fancy food, alcohol and beverages all you can eat, for no extra cost. We ate caviar; I have never had caviar in my life. If you didn’t know caviar it is fish eggs. I thought that they would be disgusting but they weren’t. I was surprised. Also you could have as much alcohol and drinks as you wanted. Totally took advantage of the coffee and creamers they had. Jeff and I are not big drinkers so the alcohol wasn’t really a big deal. However Jeff is a soda fiend so all you can drink soda and I am a coffee fiend so we were happy. Were funny! There were some snobby people in this area, they were stupid, but of course we mostly stayed in our room. The staff were all really nice and I felt a little bad for them having to work with snobby costumers, yeah I thought about that.

For the first time in my life we ordered room service. I have never had room service because I always think it’s expensive. I am a bit of a thrifty person. But like my husband said you have to at least get it once in your life. So we did I got fancy Mac N Cheese which wasn’t all that good and Jeff got a burger and fries. We also got these buffalo wraps which were really good. When Jeff ordered food the person on the other end answered the phone “How can I help you Jeff. Jeff thought that was the coolest thing. I thought so because never had that before. I could tell we were staying in a fancy hotel.

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.

Danielle's Blog

A blog about Danielle