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Hi there! I'm Paula and I live in Orlando. I like to run and watch too much TV. I'm a lover of cupcakes and hater of chia seeds, even though I've never tried them. I eat peanut butter out of the jar and think Aaron Paul is my boyfriend.
Tag Archives: concerts
The End of Fun
I am exhausted this week. Not only did I have a really busy weekend starting with a girl’s night on Friday, a trip to Tampa on Saturday, a half marathon and then a trip back to Orlando to see Pink in concert on Sunday – we also had tickets to see Muse on Monday.
It’s crazy to think that was all set up for Pink the night before.
I’ve seen Muse twice now and they sound amazing live, but as cool as that stage set-up is, I think it was better last time. Still a great show, though. I got pretty wild during the show and had two whole bottles of water and a soft pretzel. You can’t stop the fun machine that is Paula! I don’t even know how I survived it, honestly. I was wiped out. When we finally got home, I was so tired that I couldn’t sleep. I ended up with 3 1/2 restless hours that night before I had to get up for work.
When I got home from work Tuesday night, I ended up taking a three hour nap. I’m not even sure if that’s considered a nap once you hit the three hour mark. Then of course, I couldn’t sleep again that night because I slept too long when I got home. It’s really hard having so much fun packed into one weekend, ya’ll.
Anyway, last night I finally sort of slept. But apparently not enough because even though I’m on a break from working out and I’m burned out from running, I’m still crazy enough to think I want to run this race on Sunday.
That’s the medal, by the way. Look at the cute gator feets!
I know that I shouldn’t run it, but I could really use a good end to my race season rather than the crappy one I got last week. It’s going to be 35 degrees at the start. THIRTY FIVE! That is my dream race weather. So my hot ass race last weekend is surrounded by two weekend cold fronts. Why does mother nature hate me so much?
The Truth About Love Tour
I love Pink. I’m ready to marry her and have, like, 10,000 of her babies. (< — name that movie) She’s basically amazing. So, so, so amazing.
Sunday night, hubs and I had tickets to her show. Hubs bought me tickets for Christmas so I felt like I was waiting forever to see her. I see a lot of concerts. I mean, a lot. And this was one of the best shows, if not the best, I’ve ever seen. Hubs isn’t even a fan of her and he agreed. We are probably going to fight it out for her love.
Anyway, we had pit tickets, so I was basically standing five people away from the stage.
The Hives opened up but we stayed at the bar and had drinks since we didn’t really know their music and since we really, really like drinks. 
Before the show started, there was a guy standing next to us that I thought looked like Bradley Cooper. But like, The Hangover-needs-a shower-and-haircut Bradley Cooper not the I’ve-loved-him-since-Alias-and-he-should-be-my-man Bradley Cooper.
I told hubs and he didn’t agree. He was all, “more like Fugly Cooper.” So to prove my point, I said, “I am going to tell him and he’s going to tell me he hears that all the time and I will be validated and you will be wrong and I will be awesome.”
Sooo I told him. That’s when fake Bradley Cooper told me he’s never heard that before and his brother-in-law told me I was drunk. So yeah, that didn’t work out so well.
BUT, I could see him staring at me in my peripheral for the rest of the concert and his sister-in-law even confirmed with me that I was with my husband. So ladies, if you want to pick up a man without even trying, tell him he looks like some super hot celebrity and it’s in.the.bag.
Ok, back to the show. When Pink came on stage, she opened with Raise Your Glass and basically dropped from the ceiling and started doing all these Cirque Du Soliel acrobatic type flips while she was singing.
See her hanging way up there?
The rest of her show was basically a mix between her singing, dancing, and doing death-defying acrobatics. She’s so talented, it’s ridiculous.
*Unfortunately placed finger there*
When she sang “Try,” she did the entire contemporary dance from her video which was freakin’ awesome.
Most of the songs she did were off the new album, which makes sense since it is The Truth About Love Tour. There were a lot of songs I would have liked her to do (like Bad Influence and Cuz I Can) that she didn’t sing, but it didn’t even matter. That’s how good she was.
If you have the chance to see her, it’s worth every penny. She’s in Tampa tonight and it’s taking all my strength not to go again!
During the second to last song, she put on some contraption that catapulted her all around, over the crowd, and to the back of the stadium.
Then, right at the end, she was dunked in water. I’m not even sure how that happened. I was too mesmerized by her show to care.
I had the best time. So worth the wait and so worth the ticket price.
So there you have it. When I write a post about my impending divorce, you will know it’s because of Pink.
I’m Too Old for Fun
Last night, hubs and I drove to downtown St. Petersburg to see 3Oh!3 in concert.
Yep. Those guys. I don’t know anyone that loves them as much as I do, including hubs, so I’m not sure he went willingly. He is a trooper, especially since the the concert was on a Wednesday night, two hours away from home.
The best way I can describe their music is nerd pop. Kinda like LMFAO or Cobra Starship but more awesome. (< — opinion not shared by husband or possibly anyone)
We left work early and beat Orlando rush hour just in time to hit Tampa and St. Pete rush hour. Once we finally made it, we were starving so we stopped at an Irish pub for some food. I may have picked the place based solely on the name. (Supernatural, anyone?)
I had an exceptionally good Chef salad. (Have those words ever been written?) I took a picture of it but, eh, it’s a salad so use your imagination. 
After dinner #1, we made our way to the concert. On our walk there, I found a friend.
The concert was at the State Theatre, which is a really small concert venue with surprisingly good acoustics.
I was definitely the oldest person there by 12 years. I wanted to tell people that it was past their bedtime and ask them if their mother saw what they were wearing before they left the house.
The theatre wasn’t crowded at all, which was surprising. I mean, with this song and this song being pretty big hits, I thought they would draw a much bigger crowd. Or at least fill up that small theatre. But what do I know? The last time they were in the Orlando area, they were signing autographs at a Hot Topic (not kidding). The concert was also extremely dark, so all my pictures came out like crap. Just know they had wolves on either side of the stage with frickin’ laser beams coming out of their eyes.
Best thing ever? I think so.
I thought the concert was awesome. They have so much energy and know how to work the crowd. They had a full live band, so all their songs sounded way more rockin’ than they do on the albums. I guess I expected more synthesizers?
A lot of people recorded video of the concert with their cells phones and every now and then, the lead singer would take a phone from someone and sing into the camera close up and give the phone back. I looooved that.
This was my favorite picture of the night. Too bad it came out blurry. 
We had a good time even though hubs thought the lead singer wasn’t “nerdy enough.” They have a new album coming out next year that I’m looking forward to. In the meantime, I need to find something to hold me over. I might have to pick up these babies from their Website.
I’ve been looking for a way to draw more attention to my ass.
After the concert, hubs and I stopped for dinner #2. I was mesmerized that everything was $5.00 on the menu until I realized the place was called Five Bucks Drinkery. #smart The drive home was tortuous. The only thing that got me through it was a 12 oz can of Red Bull. I am definitely too old to be doing things on Wednesday night that require a two hour drive home. I have no idea how I’m functioning today.
***
Off topic, but did anyone watch American Horror Story last night? I haven’t watched yet but I’m dying to!
Number 5
This week has been a busy one and last night I finally got a chance to take a break and enjoy the night out with the hubs and my friend Tania. Hubs and I met up with Tania (she lives in Bradenton) in Ybor City to see Bush in concert. (Yep, it’s my 5th time seeing them. Never gets old.) Ybor City is right next to Tampa and it takes about an hour and 40 minutes to get there from Orlando. Hubs and I left work early to avoid rush hour, only to be caught in rush hour.
Since there is no way I’m going to drive home for almost 2 hours after a few drinks, we got a room at the Hampton Inn, which was awesome because it was literally a one minute walk to the venue. Perfect for stumbling.
When we got to our room, we noticed this post-it on the headboard.
I guess I never thought the sheets wouldn’t be clean for my arrival. I’m certainly glad they left a hand-written post-it just in case.
We headed out in hopes of finding something quick to eat before the show. We also took a picture that really captures my gigantism.
We walked by The Ritz and the doors weren’t open yet. There was a huge line of people waiting to get in, so we knew we had a little more time to eat. We found a place called The Stone Soup Company that we knew nothing about but turned out to be really good.
I ordered a rum and coke that was served in a stainless steel cup which I thought was super cute. I’m easy to please.
Then we all shared some fried cheese and spinach ravioli, hubs and I shared a cup of chili, and we all ordered the appetizer filet mignon skewers.
I always take pictures of my food but never use them for anything. This time I was determined to use them. So there you have it. Riveting. Anyway, the food was really good, the prices were even better, and the place was just really laid back. So laid back, that these are the signs for the women’s and men’s restrooms.
And the sign inside the restroom.
After dinner, we walked back to The Ritz and the line hadn’t changed. It was still wrapped around the back of the building, so we waited.
We waited so long to get in that we missed the opening band, who sounded pretty decent from what we could hear outside. Once we got in, the place was packed. I’m talking uncomfortable-sweaty-sardine packed.
The show was oversold. So much so, that if you walked out of the room where the concert was to go to the bathroom, you had to wait in a line to get back in because they wouldn’t let people back inside until more people left. Also, the audio went in and out at points. So basically, even though Bush was great as usual, the venue was so shitty that it was hard to enjoy the show.
After the concert, we walked to The Castle, which is this Goth club that looks like an old, vampiric church inside. I was there once a long, long time ago but hubs wanted to check it out since everyone and their brother tells him how cool it is. And it is really cool. I basically hate clubs now that I’m old and jaded, but this one is a lot of fun and you can tell they put a crap ton of money into the building.
We stayed till closing and somehow on the way back to the hotel, a gigantic piece of pizza accidentally fell into my mouth.
Lazy Came to Town
Last week lazy came to town. I worked out on Monday, but by Tuesday I was in such a piss poor mood that the only reason I worked out is because I felt too guilty to cancel with my trainer. Wednesday, I skipped spin. Then I quit salads for the rest of the week and took up bacon cheeseburgers.
Thursday and Friday weren’t any better. I skipped those workouts too. Thursday night, hubs and I went to a midnight showing of The Avengers. I’m pretty sure I fell asleep for 10 minutes of the movie. I’m old, it was late, and I’m like a canary when the lights go out. But once I woke up, I liked it a lot, even though the story was pretty weak. (And not because I missed 10 minutes of it.)
Before the movie, and before I realized I’d have 3 1/2 hours of sleep the night before, I thought it would be a good idea to buy last minute tickets to take my present husband…
…to see my future husband on Friday.
Who am I kidding? It was a good idea. Oh hey there yummy. You pointing at me?
Bush was opening for Nickelback (what has this world come to?) so I figured it would be a fun show even though I’m not really a Nickelback fan. Plus, I’m a snobby concert goer and there were floor tickets available.
This is the 4th time I’ve seen Bush and it made me sad that I missed them when they were in town a few months ago as the headliner. I heart them.
I love how they do a random cover song at each show. This time he sang Come Together from The Beatles and Gavin walked around the whole perimeter of the stadium, through the audience, while he was singing it. Freakin’ awesome. That is until the woman in green started molesting my man. Rude.
Of course, he walked right by us when he was going back to the stage and my camera wasn’t fast enough. But I was totally cool with that.
When Nickelback came on stage, we hung out toward the back of the floor. I broke my non-drinking clause because well, it’s Nickelback. Hubs didn’t care for them but I thought they were pretty entertaining. They threw t-shirts into the crowd (with a t-shirt cannon), which I thought was kinda cool.
Just when we thought we were at maximum safe distance, a big, rotating platform descended from the ceiling and BAM! They were right behind us.
They sang 4 or 5 songs from the platform until they went back to the stage, including my two faves (Animals and Rock Star). Oh, and let me point out that I don’t own one Nickelback album and still knew all but one of their songs. It is crazy how they are considered the joke of the rock world but they have so many hits.
Oh, and here’s a picture that I took that didn’t come out. Is that girl flicking him off? Or am I behind the times and this is the new way to rock out?
We left during the encore to avoid traffic and went home to watch more Breaking Bad. Because we’re not obsessed at all with that. Now I’ve had Nickelback songs in my head for the past 4 days. They’re tricky like that.
Whiskey-A-No-No
Last night, hubs and I met up with Lisa to see Evanescence in concert at House of Blues in Downtown Disney. This makes the third time we’ve seen them and they always put on a good show.
So horizontal stripes make your butt look bigger, but not your boobs. I see a flaw in this system…
We checked out the merchandise and hung out in the balcony until the show started. Since I worked the next day, I made sure to practice moderation. Two drinks at a time instead of three.
That’s a Crowne and Diet Coke with lime. If you never drink Whiskey and decide to try it, I highly recommend not getting a second one right away. You may think your sober, but the whiskey says otherwise.
The show was sold out and the opening band (Rival Sons) was Southern rock and totally the wrong sound for an Evanescence opener. I think that’s the first time I’ve ever really noticed mismatched bands before.
Before the show started, Lisa and I pulled out the old lady glasses so we could see each other better.
On a side note, we’ve had a lot of people in the past ask us if we’re sisters. My MIL calls her my twin. What do you think? Twinsies? I’m sure it doesn’t help that we seem to be on the same hair dying schedule throughout the year.
At one point, Lisa was having too much fun so we had to tell her to SIMMER down.
I forgot to take my camera off the indoor setting, and you have to hold the camera really steady on that setting to not get blurry pictures. Since I haven’t perfected the holding-a-drink-rocking-out-picture-taking trifecta yet, only a couple came out.
We had a lot of fun, they did the two non-hits that we really wanted to hear, and Lisa made the executive decision that Amy Lee has made her girl crush list. It was a good night.
Once we got back to the car, I realized my iPod Touch was missing. 
I never used to lose anything and now I only lose super expensive things. Like when I lost my Droid Incredible 3 weeks after I bought it or when I left my new prescription glasses at a bar or the time my engagement ring flew into the crowd at a concert. I shouldn’t be allowed to have nice things.
Tell me about something expensive you lost so I can stop pouting about my iPod.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged concerts, Downtown Disney, Evanescence, Friends, House of Blues Orlando
30 Comments
Worst Concert Ever #LMFAO #XL1067
Last night, LMFAO (and Jason Derulo, Karmin, and Outasight) played at the House of Blues as part of the XL 106.7 XL’ent Xmas concert series. LMFAO was the headliner, so tickets sold out pretty fast. Hubs regretted not buying tickets before the sell-out because he’s been liking LMFAO more and more recently. A couple days ago, tickets opened up again on Ticketmaster so hubs was all over it. We were LMFAO bound!
We arrived at HOB over an hour and a half after they opened the doors and still didn’t miss any of the opening bands (which was our reason for arriving late). So, we hung out at the bar for awhile and people watched while Outasight (not too bad) and Karmin (terrible) performed.
There was a really good view from the bar, particularly when the tallest man ever stood in front of me.
I saw one guy accidentally spill a drink all over his girlfriend and then ask her why she did that to herself. She was not amused. That was fun. We also noticed someone with a clever drink holder.
Jason Derulo finally came on stage. I don’t know anything about him except that song that reminds me of Beetlejuice, but I thought he was pretty good. He definitely has a good stage presence. And abs.
At the end of his set, he did back flips across the stage and a hand-stand where he was popping up and down on his hands. The dude has some serious acrobatics in him.
Finally, we were ready for our headliner. LMFAO is two guys. But only one of them was there.
I wasn’t familiar with their first song. The second song was I’m in Miami Bitch, the third was Shots, and the fourth was Party Rockin’. By the fourth song, I was getting worried they were slamming out all their hits so fast. I mean, I’ve been to a LOT of concerts and no artist does that.
The fifth song was I’m Sexy and I Know it.
And that was the end of the concert.
Five songs, 30 minutes, for the bargain price of $60 per ticket.
We stood there dumbfounded after the concert because we couldn’t believe it was over. And we were PISSED. I’ve never seen a headliner play shorter than an hour and 15 minutes, even with other bands. If the tickets were $20, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. For $60, we feel so ripped off. So of course I started tweeting nasties after the show. To LMFAO’s credit, they have he has a lot of energy on stage, sounds good, and can work a crowd. For 5 songs.
The XL 106.7 XL’ent Xmas concert series has shows every year at HOB and I will never go to another one after this. Giving LMFAO another chance is up in the air.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged concerts, House of Blues Orlando, LMFAO, XL106.7, XLent Christmas Concert Series
30 Comments
Fun on a School Night
Last night, hubs and I met up with our friend Joe to see Bassnectar at Hard Rock Live. I bought the tickets for hubs for his birthday, so I guess we’re still celebrating that damn day. 
The audience didn’t get probed by an alien spaceship. That’s just the stage set up.
This night marks the momentous occasion in which I didn’t take any pictures of myself or my friends. Those drinks must have been potent. So, instead I’ll show you a few more shots from the concert.
Why are people always putting their hands up right when I take a picture?
Can you see the DJ? Think Cousin It with more musical talent.
The show was sold out and had some really strict policies: no crowd surfing, no glow sticks, and I wasn’t allowed to have the cap to my water bottle. Good thing too because I was going to turn it into a deadly weapon.
He didn’t play my favorite song (I run to that song ALL the time) which I was really bummed about but the show sounded awesome and we all had a really good time.
What’s your favorite song to run to?
Instead of a Tempo Run, I Did This
Last night, the hubs and I went to the 10 Years concert at The Social.
The Social is a small live music venue in downtown Orlando that caters to small bands and local bands. It’s one of my favorite places, not only because it’s 15 minutes away from my house, but also because no matter where you stand, you’re close to the stage. If you’re standing on the right side of the stage, the band members have to walk by you to get on the stage, which is also fun.
Sometimes The Social books some really cool shows and they are always super cheap. I’ve seen Lisa Loeb there a few times and hubs and I have seen Sneaker Pimps, Seether, and Papa Roach. I don’t think any of those shows were more than $20.
Most of my pictures came out blurry. Probably half because of the mass beer consumption and half because of the annoying guy standing behind me that was eventually kicked out. So are a few of the better shots from the show.
I have all of 10 Years’ albums (there are 3) and have loved them for years but had no clue what the band looked like until last night. <—– bad fan The lead singer reminded me of Christian Bale.
We were really happy to be at a rock show again. There’s been so much Britney, Katy, Ke$ha, and Gaga in our life that it was nice to be at a show where everyone isn’t 13 and slutty.
During the show, I went to the bar to get a drink and there was a drunk chic passed out at a table by herself. I felt bad for her for a few seconds but then, you know that moment when you’re faced with a dilemma and you need to quickly choose between right and wrong?
We’ll just add that to the reasons I’m going to hell. But at least I’ll have company because the trend caught on and everyone was taking pictures with her.
Overall, I had a lot of fun! There are a few songs I wish they would have played instead of others, but they were still great and sounded really good. Oh, and the concert was definitely better than the tempo run that I was supposed to do last night.
Updated: The drunk girl woke up a few minutes later, so she was ok, by the way.
It’s Britney, B!tch
Before I get into the night, let me just clear this up. For anyone who saw my tweet last night, I meant “spelled” not “forked.” For the love of auto correct, I swear I wasn’t drunk…yet.
After work, the bestie met up with the hubs and I at our house. We had a drink while we waited for the cab to arrive to take us downtown. And of course, we took pictures.
For this concert, we had box seats. I’m not sure if you know anything about box seats, but know this: they feed you and there is free beer and wine. And that right there is what makes them awesome.
The box area was set up with high-top tables and couches and two buffet tables. It looked like a little wine bar.
The buffets had make your own chicken and beef tacos, nachos, rice and beans, penne pasta, Cesar salad, garlic bread, antipasto, and some chicken dish.
The chicken was AMAZING. Here’s the hubs forking his. (See? I meant forking that time.)
At 8:30, they brought out the desserts – brownies and different varieties of cookies. I showed a brownie and a couple cookies who’s boss. Then we took more gratuitous pictures of ourselves.
Nikki Manaj opened but just before she came on I got a shot of the crowd from the box area. Cool looking, no?
There was another act before Nikki Manaj but I cannot think of the name of the band for the life of me. The only thing that comes to mind is Jessie and the Rippers and I’m pretty sure that’s wrong.
I don’t know one thing about Nikki Manaj, but I thought she was great. I didn’t even know her last song which is apparently her hit that everyone else in the audience knew.
After Nikki finished her set, there was a short intermission. There were screens on either side of the stage showing a countdown to showtime.
That’s the first time I’ve ever seen that at a concert. Usually a show just starts and you just need to make sure you’re out of the bathroom or any lines on time. So, that was pretty cool.
Britney opened with Hold it Against Me and did most of her hits.
Here’s a few more shots from the concert.
The guy sitting in the middle was brought up from the audience.
Overall, all three of us were really disappointed with the concert. Hubs and I saw Britney for the In the Zone tour and her show and song selection was so much better.
Also, one of the things I didn’t like was that she shortened about 5 of her songs. So she would start playing My Prerogative or Piece of Me, but she would only do about 30 seconds of the song and then start singing something else. And of course, they were all songs I wanted to hear.
She played a handful of crappy songs from her new album. She also did S&M from Rihanna. I’m thinking if you can’t even finish your own songs, you probably shouldn’t do someone else’s. Also, she didn’t do Circus which was a major bummer for me.
Her last song was Till the End of the World. She did the remix version with Nikki Manaj and Nikki didn’t even come on stage. They just played a video of her singing in the background. Um…didn’t she JUST open for you? Least you can do is get her ass on stage.
The show ended with a bunch of confetti which always looks awesome from afar.
I know it seems like I’m hating on this concert a lot, but I did have a lot of fun and I’m glad I went. I also enjoyed her songs and show. I was just disappointed. The bar was set really high after her last concert and after Katy Perry, Lady Gaga, and Ke$ha (twice!) pretty much blew us away.
After the concert, we went to Ember downtown for a short time.
We got a hummus platter and some beef skewer appetizer and both sucked. So we consoled ourselves with alcohol and more pictures.
If anyone is interested in how to make your head look three times larger than your husband’s and best friend’s head put together, I have the answer.
If you want to see more Britney pictures, I’ll be putting them up on the blog’s Facebook page sometime today. So stop on by!
Now I need to decide if I have enough time to get my training run in before my dermatologist appointment. I have another chemical peel today in an effort to make myself look 20 again.
What’s your favorite skin care product you use? (I need to look younger, give me your secrets!)
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