The WASTRAVAGANZA

Here’s my vlog from the first two parts of WASTRAVAGANZA so I don’t have to explain anything. So if you feel like experiencing these things in order, watch the video below first before reading the rest of this.

Otherwise, I don’t give a shit if you read before you watch or watch before you read.

So now that you’ve been completely caught up on the awesome that was the last week of July, let me tell you about the how even the last 5 days of my life were better than that stuff my face talked about up there.

Thursday afternoon I drove to Adrian’s house in the Couve. We ate corn dogs and watched a Scottish b-movie called Dog Soldiers about werewolves. It was ridiculous. Then we went to Costco to get some food for our trip. It didn’t occur to me that you can’t really get normal sized portions of anything at Costco, so we bought a 50 pack of cream cheese packets for our bagels. We ate three. Because we failed to put ice in the cooler. Thankfully it was only about $4 so we didn’t waste much money. We literally left Costco five minutes before it closed. Then I put more gas in my car. The next morning around 8:15 we left to pick up Ash from Voodoo Too before we set out on our trip to San Francisco.

SAN FRANCISCO, YOU SAY?

Yes, my friend. In case you didn’t know – I traveled 800-ish miles south to San Francisco to see We Are Scientists, along with some of my other favorite people. A few of which I’d never met in person, so this was definitely a new experience.

But I’ll get to the really cool stuff in a minute, after the clusterfuck that was my car.

No, really. My car drove wonderfully because we’d just maintenanced her the day before so Janice was good to me. I just wasn’t good to her. We didn’t stop (besides pissing at rest stops) until we got past the OR/CA border where some border patrol thing stopped us to ask if we had fresh fruit or plants. I wanted to be like, “no, but we’re harboring illegal aliens from Canada and we had an endangered species of ape shoved in the trunk.” I don’t think they would have been very amused.

So that was weird.

But then we stopped in…Redding I think…to go to In N Out, because I’ve never been to one. Because it was around 5:30 p.m., as soon as we stepped out of the car the sky breathed its hot, humid breath on us pale out-of-towners. Seriously, everyone who walked into that place was tan, thin, and mostly blonde. Weird. But I never realized that the In N Out menu was so limited. I hoped for chicken, but because they only sold hamburgers, Adrian and I got french fries while Ash got a cheeseburger “animal style.” Apparently that means that the bun is toasted or something, but “animal style” it sounds like they just ran outside and slaughtered a fresh cow and stepped all over the meat to make the burger. Ack. But it looked tasty. Our fries were really good. I can say I’ve eaten at In N Out now, but it’s a bit of a cop-out getting just the fries. Oh well.

Several more hours went by, and we were literally like 60 miles from our destination and I had to stop and get gas. It was a good thing we did though, because there wasn’t a station for about a gazillion miles after that. I turned off the highway, around to get into the station and went over a giant curb, bottoming out, and Janice made angry noises at me while I drug her undercarriage along the road. Freaking out that I’d busted my radiator or something like that, the LEAKING coming from Janice almost made me piss myself. Thankfully this nice woman came up to us and reassured us that it was our AC letting off condensation because, ya know, it had been on for a good 600 miles. I didn’t kill my car, yay!

Because I was so startled by our near run-in with car trouble, I failed to realize that I’d set my phone on top of my car when we DROVE AWAY. Coming around the turn to get on the highway, Adrian and Ash noticed that something fell off my car. We backed up in the freeway entrance and parked my car and looked. And looked. I was worried that I’d run over my phone and the pieces from lodged in my tires. Tremendously, they weren’t. The back cover came off and the battery flew out, but we eventually found the phone part and Adrian put her hand into the prickly bush to retrieve it for me. I love her. In the car Ash looked for “poisonous california plants” from her iPhone just to see if what we were stepping through wasn’t going to give us a rash or kill us or something.

I’m obviously not dead, and if I’d gotten a horrendous rash, I’d have already mentioned it. So no poisonous plants.

It was so weird once we got to the bay, because this heavy sheet of fog that reminded me of Mount Doom hovered over the city, but with a layer of clear sky right below it. It looked pretty creepy. And this was about 8 p.m. I think. Yeah. Cause we got to the hotel at 8:30.

THE HOTEL THAT DOLORES GOT US. We stayed at the airport Marriott that night, and Adrian almost finished up her dolls that night. Aren’t they awesome?

Not creepy in the slightest. Mine are the big ones in gold jumpsuits on the left. Original Keithdoll is the really big one with pink eyes and a Tapper pin. Aarondoll was added after this, because I got to perform surgery on an extra Chrisdoll so Adrian could stuff Aarondoll with Chrisdoll’s stuffing.

That sounded dirty.

That night at the hotel I also learned the Fresca is Adrian’s favorite drink, southern flight attendants with those ridiculous accents actually do exist, and hotel porn is really expensive. Nah, we didn’t actually buy any. We watched Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and That’s So Raven the next morning. We’re cool like that.

Also that night at the hotel, we got to meet up with Dolores, who was one of the people whom I was dying to meet in person because before she solely existed to me on the internet. She’s so funny and feisty. She stuck around at the hotel for awhile after we drove around Millbrae for a bit and got pizza. We watched more Ace Ventura, ogled at Adrian’s dolls, and talked about Kings of Leon and Amanda Bynes.

Real quick – OUR HOTEL ROOM HAD A BOTTLE OPENER IN THE BATHROOM. MOUNTED ON THE WALL.

Since the hotel didn’t have free Wi-Fi, we went to bed relatively early. The next morning we ate bagels and showered before we departed to our Slorestravaganza at the Metro Hotel. I didn’t drive this time, because I don’t like hills. So Ash got to check parking up a hill in San Francisco off her list. It was kind of awesome, because literally the San Fran hills are horrible. Well, we first parked right outside the hotel to unpack our shit. I noticed that there was a sign in the window warning people about recent sneaky thieves, and then saw that our hotel was on the most adorable block (save Haight/Ashbury). We were next to (and our room was actually above) a Comic book store, a vintage clothing store was to the right of the Metro, then a vintage record store, and a cute little grocery store. Can I move to San Francisco please? Once we go all our Fresca, doughnuts, and dolls unpacked, we noticed that our hotel room had a tiny back room. The walls were all painted red, and a queen-sized bed sat raised up two steps. There was a mirror too. That’s all that was in the room. I wondered what one would do in that room, so we started calling it the sex dungeon. Then someone said that we needed to get Aaron Pfenning back to our sex dungeon (with how wasted he was, I’m sure he would have obliged if we asked).

While Adrian stayed back to finish the dolls, Ash and I walked .7 miles (which seemed way longer up and down hills) to this tea place that she’d heard about from Kevin Rose of Diggnation. He’s her idol, and he’s apparently a master of tea.

This is where we enjoyed our English breakfast (me a chai) and stumbled upon Kevin himself.

Ash about vomited, because she loves him so much. We were sitting against the window near the door and Kevin was up in the back nook area. So after…about an hour chilling, freaking out, drinking tea (because I’m such an Anglophile) Kevin was leaving, and as he walked by our table, Ash said “Kevin, I just wanted you to know that I’m a huge fan of Diggnation.” “Oh thanks, what’s your name?” “Ashley, would it be alright if I got a picture with you?” Ash was fangirling so much she said her full name. Kevin was very friendly and gracious, and when he left the waitress said that it happens a lot. So Kevin probably didn’t feel as weird as we did.

After this happened we wanted to run into Steve Jobs so Ash could punch him in the face. I really wanted to see that, actually. Ash had terrible reception on her new iPhone, so Jobs deserved it.

Because it was warmer outside than we expected, and Adrian had texted me letting me know that Renee and Meghan had gotten to the hotel already, we took a bus up the hill to the hotel. It was so nice seeing Renee again, after our fantastic Spoon encounter in April….awww after show passes…but this was SO MUCH BETTER. After sitting around for awhile, Ash and Adrian (who’d finished Aarondoll in the time we’d been gone) went in my car and Meghan and Renee went in their rental car. Because Adrian’s hardcore and a bit paranoid, we dropped her off at the venue early before heading over to Amber and Scott’s loft (!!!) There was already a girl waiting outside Slim’s but only one, so Adrian got to save our seven spots in line. Yeah. Seven. But it turns out that Slim’s stage is very long, so there was plenty of room. If we’d been at Neumo’s we would have covered the entire front of the stage.

So we left Adrian is this sketchy-looking area, wearily…but it’s okay because she was there when the guys got there for sound check. And she got to give Aaron and Danny their dolls, which they very much appreciated.

Uhhhh, Aaron’s so hot.

But Ash and I drove just over a mile to Amber’s loft, and they had to ring us up. I think I was the most excited I’d been all day, actually, because I’d never met Amber in real life and she’s one of my favorite people in the world. One of my favorite tiny people. They rung us up to the fifth floor and I giddily hustled down the hallway and Amber greeted me at the door with her cat to a wonderful hug. I can’t for the life of me remember which cat it was. There were three, so it’s hard to keep straight. Let me tell you – the Gregorys’ loft is pretty sweet. We didn’t have penis pasta, but we did have tasty basil pasta with parmesan cheese – and Pirate Booty. Amber said that even though she couldn’t get penis pasta, she would have other food that had either a sexual-sounding name or was phallic in shape. Pirate Booty and summer sausage. I love her.

Ash and I were the first ones there, and by that time Ash had gotten a damn ear infection, so Amber got her some benadryl, then Renee and Meghan got there so we sat around and ate food and talked for about an hour before leaving for the venue. Because Renee’s awesome, she got these plushy mustaches from Comic con for Meghan and Amber, because we all know how much they love mustaches. I’d taken Adrian’s cat bag with all her dolls in them, so Amber could pick out her dolls and Dolores could get hers.

Amber’s dolls.

Dolores’ dolls.

My favorite part about Amber’s dolls is that Keith has a v-neck and Chris has a crew neck. Adrian, you’re awesome.

When it got to be around 7:15, we all left Amber’s house in car my so she could get dressed in her snazzy show garb and Scott could get some work done before heading out. We got to the venue and there were probably about 10 people in line after Adrian, but we stood up front with her because she saved our spots. That was after I got my will call and Renee got her guest list spot (even though at first her name wasn’t on it because Keith and Chris suck). She called Chris (I think) and got it all squared away, because Renee’s cool like that.

We got into the venue at just after 8, and went and took our spot in front of Keith. I was between the speaker and this obnoxious pole, but the pole kept me cool…and something to drum on. Amber was to my left taking pretty pictures with her magic camera and pretty f1.4 lens. I’m still waiting for those pictures, too. You can hear us in several of the videos I took, because we didn’t stop talking. Meeting everyone in person was so not weird. I was expecting to have this awkward feeling of “oh right, you exist. What should we talk about?” But it was like, “hey I know you!” It wasn’t like meeting someone for the first time, more like seeing someone you haven’t seen in a REALLY long time. That’s how it was. And also kind of how it was when we talked to Keith and Chris that night. Even though we’d seen them the week before.

Aaron Pfenning came on stage around 9, and he was dreamy. Like…hnnng. I still get a girl boner watching videos back. And even better, he spent quite a bit of time over by us during his set. After all, we were most definitely his biggest fans in the venue. At one point I was looking over at Renee and Adrian, and failed to realize that he’d stepped up on the speaker and wrapped himself around the pole I’d been clutching all night. Renee laughed and gestured for me to look up, and I found myself looking right at his Marty McFly sneakers above my head. Again a little later during “Come Close to Me” (that song makes me thing dirty things) I was singing along because I’ve listened to that song so many time, and he came right up to Amber and me and sang to me with his floppy blonde bangs in his face. This made for quite a good photo opportunity for Amber though. It just made me awkward, still singing along and smiling a HUGE fangirly smile. *Sigh* He better tour with more people and come back to the northwest, cause I bloody love him.

All this time, I’d been filming little clips of a couple songs as to avoid getting caught with my camcorder. But when Keith stepped up to the drums and Chris grabbed his bass and Danny put the SG around his neck, Aaron was like, “if you have a camera, it’d be really cool if you filmed it, because I’d like to see it.” He wasn’t talking directly to me, but to the whole audience. So naturally I shot the whole thing.

Yeah, isn’t it wonderful? I was pretty happy with the filming I did that night. And I didn’t get caught EVER. Now I just wished I’d filmed more of Pdreamy (which is what we all started calling him). Chris even called Aaron Pdreamy the night before when they were in LA.

OH MY GOD I FORGOT.

When Adrian, Ash and I got to the hotel the first night, we were getting constant updates from Renee in LA, and he told us that WAS had a special guest playing with them. Automatically Adrian and I thought “TAPPER!” Because he lives in LA, and we got all nachos. We would have cried if that had been the case. It wasn’t sadly, but not so sadly – Max played two songs with the guys in LA and Renee got to see him again. Max has been playing with Katy Perry lately, because he likes money. But when we heard Max, I thought “LETHAL ENFORCER” because Max plays synth, and that’s all “Lethal Enforcer” really needs that WAS doesn’t have regularly now. To our dismay, he didn’t play LE, but he did play “After Hours” and “Jack & Ginger,” with its awesome synth line, definitely the best synth line on Barbara.

Back to now (well not now, but chronologically correct time).

Um…so Keith drumming is one of the greatest things ever. What made it even better was that he was wearing a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt. So he looked even more like a 13-year-old boy.

After Pdreamy (I love how we’re not even calling him Rewards, because we’re all BFFs now) was done, we had a short intermission where Keith was peddling his merch again. There was a huge line so I wasn’t about to go wait in it. I needed to get a shirt, but I waited to do it until after the show was over.

I got video of a lot of the songs they played that night, but I don’t remember the setlist. Thankfully Adrian has a fantastic memory – so it went like this:

Nice Guys
Nobody Move
Rules
Carol (I Don’t Bite)
Scene is Dead/Inaction
Impatience/Let’s See It
Pittsburgh/Ambition
C’lit
Jack & Ginger
It’s A Hit
Dinosaurs
The Great Escape
After Hours
Cash Cow (Encore)

Even though “Impatience” isn’t my favorite song, it was one of my favorite moments of the night, because Pdreamy got up in stage all nonchalant in sunglasses lounging in a chair to play tambourine.

Here you can definitely hear me and Amber laughing like crazy people.

Honestly I don’t want to include excruciating detail of the show because you can see a lot of the clips below. But I will definitely say that when they started playing “It’s A Hit” I jumped up and down like a 10-year-old at a Jonas Brother concert. What can I say? I didn’t get it in Seattle and Portland. The stage was really tall though. And I’m relatively tall, so this was different. It made the Neumo’s and Doug Fir stages look short. It was funny though, because I kept looking over at Adrian after Keith would tune his guitar to see if she knew which song was coming next. She didn’t. But that was another reason why this show was so much better than Seattle and Portland – all of us were there, and since this was an all-ages show, Adrian got to see it with us. It was all of us sharing in our love for We Are Scientists, we slores came together in San Fran-fucking-cisco for the WASTRAVAGANZA.

Once the encore came, I got all sad. I mean, I knew that the night was definitely not over, but still. “Cash Cow” is the last song I’m going to see them play in a long time. I don’t even know how long. If I wasn’t in school I’d be booking a train or something to Texas for Ghoulsfest. But it turns out that Sufjan is playing that same night in Seattle, so that will be good I guess.

After the show was over, we stood around by the stage (well, Adrian and I sat down because we’re lazy) before the venue people kicked us out. So instead of leaving, we went and stood in line for merch. I needed to get my t-shirt, damnit! The line was ridiculously slow, because Keith talks too much. But we still love him. We finally got to the front, and Dolores showed Keith her doll. He made a comment about his hair not being the right color. Keith, don’t deny it. Your hair is going to be that grey one day. Then Dolores said that it was Apocalypse Keith, but Keith exclaimed, “Post apocalypse you wanna cover all exposed skin!” And he got all fired up. Once I got to the front, I slapped down a twenty and asked Keith for a medium of the one of the new WAS logo shirts. He said they were out of mediums. Damnit. I asked, “which shirt DO you have a medium in?”
“The bass your life on Chris shirt… you want it?”
“Ummm, sure! Give me one of those!”
And then he leaned on the table closer so I could hear clearly. “Okay, I’ll sell this to you on one condition. Will you follow the prescription? Will you base your life on Chris?”
“Absolutely.”
“Well alright then!”

So now I think I’m the only one of us that has that shirt. Next time I’ll have to have Chris sign it, as well as my dolls.

At that point Scott took Amber home, because she’d been to three shows in the last three nights and was really REALLY tired. It would have been nice to have her stick around for awhile, but it was really fun to have her shooting right there in front of me. Amber’s short, so it’s not like she got in my way or anything. Right before the show I realized that this is the first show I haven’t SHOT since October (besides Muse in April, which was a last minute thing and their photo policy was rubbish). I mean, I was videotaping a bunch of it, but as I was recording it I kept seeing photos in my head. This was the first time I haven’t had to worry about getting good photos, and it was kind of freeing. Besides, if I’d shot it as well as Amber, I’d have been comparing our photos the whole time and I’d feel inferior.

After the show we waited for quite a while before the guys came outside. There were other people out there too, but I’m not sure if they were there for the same reason as we were. I filmed a little bit of it, but it was way too dark to get any good picture on it. The guys were packing up there stuff, and at one point when they were shoving things into the van, Adrian yelled at Keith.

“KEEEITH!” No answer.

“You should try again.” I said.

(IN A MANLIER VOICE) “KEEEEEIIIITH!”

Then Danny joined in. “KEEITH!”

“Just a second!” And Chris came and talked to us. Renee asked him about his different glasses, because he’d been wearing the sexy horn-rimmed ones recently, but that night he wasn’t. I think he called these ones photochromatic or something.
“Transition lenses?”
“Yeah, but I like the way I said it better.” Then Adrian accidentally called his other glasses rim-horned, and Chris smiled and laughed. So I proclaimed that it would be a good name for a band – the Rim Horns. We’ll do Chairlift covers, and I’ll sing the high parts that Caroline does, and Adrian will sing the really low parts that Aaron does, and Keith will play drums, and Chris will be our manager. We’ve decided.

Danny told Adrian that he’d been protecting his doll with his life, because he’s worried that someone might hurt it, in turn hurting him (they’re not actual voodoo dolls, guys!).

“Like that guy!” Adrian pointed over at Keith.
“Hey!” Keith said angrily.

Keith eventually came over and gave Adrian the most epic hug in the entire world. I was jealous of that hug. They literally didn’t let go for…forever. It was magical.

I’m not going to try and rewrite everything Adrian wrote, because she already wrote an awesome blog about it.

But I will include the photo we all got. I handed my camera to this guy standing around outside, and he failed in pressing the button so the second photo is not focused right, but it’s still awesome. We all knew what happened there, and we all knew how amazing everything in that photo is.

Aaron’s nomming Renee’s shoulder, and Danny is nomming Keith’s leg.

Then Chris jumped in, which is when the focus fucked up. CHRIS FUCKED UP THE FOCUS.

Can you see Aaron in the corner there? Yeah, he was drunk. Adorable Aaron Pfenning drunk. Adrian and I came up with that new description for adorably drunk after that night.

As the guys were almost done packing their stuff, Aaron gave Adrian an epic hug himself. He went in for the normal hug, but then they stumbled off the sidewalk and into the road, and into me. I think I helped keep them from falling. We talked to Aaron for awhile, and Renee asked him when he’d be touring again. All the while, he was struggling to stay standing so his feet kept shifting around. “I might…tour with them down…New Orleans…to make music…down…” And he pointed to the ground. We all laughed. Then Adrian said “down on the ground? that’s a good place to make music.” So then he smiled and giggled, all drunkenly and adorable-like. *Sigh*

Before they all left for the bar called Butter, Adrian told Aaron that he had to sign her Talkboy. That got him really excited. She pulled it out of her bag and he was all, “I can’t believe you have this. Oh my god (giggles).” She handed him the Sharpie and it took him forever to finish drawing what he was drawing. It was his name, quite illegibly (not as bad as K-squiggle) and another random squiggle. He said it made him feel nostalgic. At this point we were all standing in a circle on the sidewalk in the cold, possible misty rain. So it called for a hug huddle. Me, Adrian, Aaron, Renee, and Ash (Dolores had gone to get her car) all put our arms around each other to keep warm. Apparently Aaron’s hands were really cold because he had his hand right on Adrian’s neck. He said, “It’s so cold, but it feels so good!” I love him so much.

What was next?

Oh right, Renee had gone to put her stuff in Dolores’ car while Adrian and I kept talking to Aaron.

“Aaron, I got really good video of your last song with Keith on drums!”
“What?” He didn’t hear me and leaned in closer to hear.
“Two Cardinals, I got really good video of it!”
And his eyes lit up, “Where can I see this video?”
“On YouTube in a few days.”
“Awesome.”

Then they were all getting ready to go to the bar. Aaron started getting really excited and jogging drowsily in place

“Can I go in? Will they let me in?” Like an anxious 7-year-old.
“I don’t know if you should drink any more.” (WHO SAID THIS? I CAN’T REMEMBER)

And Keith and Chris were like running, gesturing Aaron to hurry up.

(Still running in place) “I’ll be RIGHT BACK!”

He didn’t come right back, but they did all invite us into the bar with them. Since Adrian didn’t have a fake ID (which disgusted Keith), we sat outside and got some crepes. But at one point Ash and I did go into the bar to see if Aaron was okay, and to make sure Keith wasn’t taking advantage of him. It was so weird being in that bar. I handed the bouncer my ID, and we walked in to like three chicks dancing on the counter. We didn’t get up from the table for like ten minutes, and just kept staring back at Aaron and Keith giving flirty eyes to each other. I guess I can say that I went to a bar with We Are Scientists. That’s cool I guess.

We left eventually because it was weird, and Dolores, Renee and Adrian were outside eating their yummy crepes. I think about 20 minutes passed before the guys came back outside because APPARENTLY they needed to go to this burrito place that closed at 2 a.m. So we were in front of the crepe place, and they were down just a little ways, and when they stumbled out of the bar and saw us down the street and pointed at us all excitedly. We pointed right back at them.

“You guys are crazy!” Chris shouted at us.

So we all ran up to them before they could leave, and there was another round of hugs.
Adrian went up to Keith and said, “One more hug?” And then there was another epic hug.
“You’re making a mockery of my hatred of you!”
“You love it.”
Before they skipped out to find the burrito place. I went in for a Chris hug and he said, “It was nice to see you again Abby!”

I just about died.

I know that it was like a week and a half before when we’d seen them, but it was one of the best things that had happened all day. Well, that whole day was the best thing that ever happened.

We ran across the street in front of the van to get to my car, and waved at them as we departed.

I really hope that it doesn’t go another two years before I see those wonderful guys again. Hopefully Aaron will tour with someone else so we can see him again too.

We drove back to the hotel, and it took up about half an hour to find parking, and Ash went up and down the craziest hills ever (I’m pretty sure one was at least 45 degrees). She had to piss like a racehorse, so it made the searching all the more stressful. But we eventually found a free spot in a non-tow-away zone, but we had to walk at least 6 blocks back to the hotel at 2 a.m. in downtown San Francisco. We did see a guy standing on top of his apartment building and he waved down at us. I’m pretty sure that he was drunk, so I was worried that he might fall off, but he was okay.

Back in the hotel room, we stayed up for quite awhile, and reflected about the awesome night and Pdreamy’s dreaminess and how he gave us all girl boners. And how much we love Keith. And Chris. And Danny. Adrian and I were the last ones to go to sleep at around 4 a.m. Laying in bed after the best night of my life, I cried just a little bit because it was over. I wondered if Adrian was doing the same thing, because I was listening to my headphones and couldn’t hear anything.

The next morning we took Renee back to meet Meghan at Amber’s house and so that we could properly say goodbye to Amber and Scott. And get rid of some of our doughnuts. We still came home with quite a bit. Four-day-old doughnuts. Yum. We said our goodbyes and set off to find Amoeba Records before we officially left. Amoeba was as epic as I remember it. They didn’t have any copies of Brain Thrust Mastery, which was kind of lame, but they did have the Deftones! And an entire row of Bright Eyes, and an entire row of Mountain Goats.

Our final goal for San Fran was crossing the Golden Gate, because we had to do one touristy thing while we were there. It took us FOREVER to find the damn thing, because my GPS is a piece of shit, but we eventually found the exit, where we met lots of traffic. It was okay, we danced to the awesome playlist I’d made for the car ride. It was quite awesome. Adrian and Ash can vouch for that.

The Golden Gate is so long. Like really really long. Once over the bridge, we stopped to take touristy pictures.

I have the best friends in the world.

The drive that night seemed way longer than the drive there. For some reason. We stopped at In N Out again, where we found out that there are veggie burgers, but after Adrian and I ordered our fries. Fail. But I’m pretty sure i can write a travel guide to all the rest stops up the west coast from San Fran to Seattle. Most of them are quite nice, which makes me feel like an idiot that I stopped and peed at a gas station bathroom when we got gas. I walked over to the bathroom on the outside of the building and this little boy was just getting up from the toilet WITH THE FUCKING DOOR OPEN. I didn’t need to see that. It was awkward, and the bathroom smelled like piss really bad. I’m surprised I didn’t get any diseases.

As we were getting to Ash’s house in Tigard, I was literally on my last gallon of gas, so once we got over the border to Washington, I immediately got gas. I like filling my own gas tank. But once we pulled out of the gas station, I was going the wrong way down a one-way street. Thank god it was 2 a.m.

Adrian and I didn’t go to bed until like almost 5 a.m., when the sun was coming up. We were up reading all the tweets from the Visalia show and I uploaded the photos from that day. I didn’t want it to end.

You know what I said in the vlog about about Seattle being the best day of my life? Well, I lied. San Francisco was the best day of my life. I tear up a bit thinking about it now because I want it to happen again, and I never want WAS to stop touring, and I want to see Aaron Pfenning again, and I want my friends who exist most of the time in my computer box to exist in real life more awesome. Now all I have to do is see all Y’ALL over on the other side of the Atlantic. That’s my next goal. I honestly cried in the car on the way home from Adrian’s house on Monday. I was driving by myself for 2.5 hours, Keithdoll was sitting on my dashboard and Chrisdoll in my lap, and when “Foreign Kicks” came on I started singing along and couldn’t keep my voice steady. I wish I had a TARDIS so we could all do it over again. Exactly like we did it before, because it was perfect and if we changed anything it might make a crack in the universe.

Seriously, I do. I love everyone.

❤ Abby