tour blog 3

November 30
V Club
Huntington, West Virginia

Awesome and huge poster on the side of the venue.

Smaller version that you can actually read.

Merch, merch, merch

Old man boyfriend on the hook. He brought me pumpkin donuts. All the way from Ohio. #bestjobever 

Pumpkin donuts from Circleville, Ohio. O. M. F'n G. These are going to make me morbidly obese. Happy, but morbidly obese.

Van Lear Black

Seriously, I get paid to do this?!

Matt Woods-- Loved him!

New selling tactic: Leave the jeans and boots at home, try heels and leather leggings instead. Tactic didn't really work, but I do love my hooker shoes and I have missed them oh-so-much.

Fifth on the Floor

It's hard to read, but this was painted on the wall outside the bar. It's the Hunter S. Thompson quote "Buy the ticket, take the ride"

December 1
Zazoo's
Louisville, Kentucky

Owl-Hoot Scoot, y'all. Love the name.

Tequila shots. At 330. Wearing a dress. This night is headed in a glorious direction. Come see for yourself at Zazoos in Louisville! 3:23 PM - 1 Dec 12

Kyle James Hauser. His songs put me to sleep. But in a good way.

Those Crosstown Rivals

Slithering Beast

 If you're a guy and you drink your drinks from the bar through a straw, i judge you and assume you are a weak girly man. - 1:26 AM - 2 Dec 12

Fifth on the Floor

500 Miles to Memphis

One of the most frequent questions people ask me now (replacing the ever popular "How's your thesis coming along?")  is "Are you still liking working with the band?" Maybe this alludes to my tendency to get bored with things quickly. Maybe people just think that this is something that should only be temporarily fun, therefore I should be tired of it. But I'm not. Not at all. I will admit, I had doubts about it for the first time on Saturday night. People weren't buying anything. I was ridiculously sleepy. Even more than I was sleepy, I was bored. It was a festival-style show, which meant it was a long night. We got to the bar six whole hours before FOTF played, and all that downtime really wore on me. Plus, it can get really lonely sitting at a merch table all by yourself. It's one of those "alone in a room full of people" kinda things. There were tons of people around, but I knew none of them and they had no interest in what I was selling. I didn't even have room to have a chair to sit in at my table, so I had to rotate out sitting on the edge of the table and sitting on my merch totes. (Ever sat on a tote while wearing an entirely too short dress? Not comfy. Nor attractive, btw.) 

After about two hours of this, I had banned myself from twitter after over-tweeted like a mother, then subsequently banned myself from texting because everyone was irritating me by either their over-eagerness to suddenly chat or complete lack thereof, and finally banned myself from fb after doing my best at trying to creep on new boys that seemed incredibly interesting and I decided I wanted to meet...as soon as I was able to leave the three-foot radius of merch table. I was bored. I was TERRIBLE at my job. And I was super lonely in every sense of the word. I convinced myself that I needed to quit this silliness, for the sake of the band, because I sucked big time. 

But, FOTF's turn finally came for them to take the stage, a friend who lives in Louisville came to see me and kept me company for a while, and then the final band played and people were actually buying things from me. Not a lot of things, but still, some money was made. I met fun new people I wanted to meet and a really big dog with an awesome name, and had a great time.

So, going back to where I started with this- Am I still enjoying it? Hell yeah I am. This is what I have wanted for so long. It's not without some issues, but what job is?  I'm still getting to travel and see live music in venues I've never been to and probably never would have otherwise. And I get to do all this with a pretty cool group of guys who don't openly hate me, despite my lack of selling abilities. 

I jokingly told someone last night that I was the coolest girl they knew. He surprisingly told me in response that that was probably true. That made step back and think, and take it all in. I don't know how "cool" I really am, but I do know that I'm really happy with whatever level it is. I like good music. I read good books. I dyed part of my hair pink, quit my real job, and ran off with a band as a merch girl. I mean, really. I NEVER thought I'd actually be at this point. And don't get me wrong, I'm still incredibly insecure and unsure of everything . But overall, cool or not, I actually like me and the decisions I have made, at least for the moment.