i always knew that my ideas were brilliant. now if only constantly yelling at the tv would have changed the outcome of the 2006 cup. maybe i should sharpen a few more of my skillZ and coach a world cup team!

SEMI-FINALS You achieved 81% Cup success!

The sheer frustration. Only one step away from the biggest final of your life, you’ve finally met your match at the semi-final stage. After battling hard throughout the knock-out stages, you could only be left ruing the missed chances and lamenting the mistakes made during the course of the game. Or were your opponents just plain lucky to escape with the win? Damn, you were so close to attaining greatness. In the end, you can only wonder what could have been......

My test tracked 1 variable How you compared to other people your age and gender: You scored higher than 99% on Cup success

Link: The Can You Win the World Cup? Test written by arcani on OkCupid Free Online Dating, home of the The Dating Persona Test

with the win over mexico, the us women are going to the 2007 world cup!!!!

*sigh* i heart soccer. and i am so much more of a fan of the us women's team than i am of the us men's team.

(i may need a new world cup icon...)

i'm sitting here in salt lake city. this time there's no IG or no red butte garden. i'm just on a short pit stop on my way home. i left colorado at 645am this morning. i was supposed to leave yesterday, but there was a slight problem. remember how i was bitching about my eye? well, luckily my aunt knocked some sense into me and dragged me to the eye doctor. basically (without going into too many gross details) the sun, along with my contacts, managed to wreck the surface of my eye, basically blinding me to light. i was not allowed to drive yesterday. my eye is healing, but i can't wear my contacts for a week. anyway, i was able to leave this morning. i'm hoping to get back home to the bay area by tomorrow afternoon at the latest. i'm only about 10 hours from home. "i got 10 hours to natchez and another 10 home, i'm goin' home..."

i am relieved that i didn't do any major permanent damage. i'm also relieved that i'll be healed by next week in time for east coast tour.

did anyone hear the latest fifa news? there's going to be an investigation into the racist comment made to zidane by the italian player. italy could lose the cup! ITALY COULD LOSE THE WORLD CUP FOR THAT! if that happens, there will be no winner of the 2006 world cup. that's historical.

so yeah, the first leg is over. i can't believe it. i've been planning this for so long now, and west coast is always my favorite leg. and now it's over. at least i'm seeing the indigo girls again next week. but it still won't be the same, west coast is always the best. at least i'll be with my fellow west coasters: dillard and cornfusion. we're going to being the west coast tour spirit to new england. and world cup is over too. that's sad as well.

so that's what's up - i'm almost home and my eye is going to be just fine.

i can not WAIT to see my cats. frisco and prince of darkness, mommy's coming home!

yes, that was actually a quote from the stage on boulder tonight. amy said it. now before you get your panties all up in a wad, it needs to be put into context. amy was talking about how when they used to play little five points pub in atlanta, her friends would always fuck with them. one night, her friend told her (while amy was on stage) that her fly was down (it really wasn't). so she announced tonight that, on that night, "i spent the whole night touching my crotch." excellent. i seriously almost fell over laughing. i didn't sing along to "dairy queen" (the song right after that choice comment) because i was too busy texting cornfusion, crazycatdoglady, dillard, and lapiccolastella to tell them about amy and her crotch. tmi, amy. TMI!

my other favorite comment from the stage tonight was when emily called amy her hero. emily was telling us that before the tour started, she didn't really want to play any of the new songs. amy assured her that they needed to play the new songs. that's when emily pointed at amy and said "my hero." it was very very sweet. so emily and i have the same hero. sweet.

oh, and The Chain has landed in boulder. i repeat, The Chain has landed in boulder.

the show tonight was fun, though the setlist kind of sucked. i had an actual front row seat, but we orchastrated a stage rush, so all of us ended up right up front and in the center. that's how i wanted to end my first leg of this tour, so that was good. i was in my "happy place" (FRAS - front row amy side). the crowd was ok. but i had fun regardless. i just kept on telling myself that yes, this is my last show in the west, but in 10 days i'm seeing them again on the east coast and starting the second leg of this indigo girls tour.

my aunt came to the show with me. she LOVED it, and she even got to meet amy and emily after the show. speaking of which, amy rubbed in her world cup victory to me. fucker. but she admitted that italy played dirty. oh, and the funniest thing was that she kept immitating zidane's head butt. ok, watching amy imitate a football player is kind of beyond hilarious. it has to be one of those once-in-a-lifetime experiences. i told her "vive la france" over and over again. hey, at least she knew the reason WHY the head butt occurred. dude, i love that amy loves world cup. amy also promised me that she'd play "world falls" for me, but she really likes dangling it over my head (she's so sadistic), so i'm guessing i won't hear that until mohegan.

i showed emily my "pendulum swinger" dance, and she loved it. she wants me to teach it to everyone at the east coast shows, so we can all do 'spike's "pendulum swinger" dance' in sync. hee hee. oh, and she corrected my pronounciation of "lowell." it was very funny. oh, and both amy and emily apologized to me (several times) anbout the tour bus hitting my car incident. i assured both of them that i think it's hilarious, and that the dent FROM THE BUS fits perfectly on my indigo mobile. seriously, i'm STILL laughing about that.

i talked to michelle malone for a bit. i really miss her too. i wish she'd come play the bay area again. she's always up in portland and seattle, but never down in the bay.

so yeah, this leg is over. in a way i'm sad, but in a bigger way, i'm thankful that i'm getting a break and not just doing a bunch of shows in a row. i still have the entire east coast tour (i leave for boston on the 19th, so that's really soon) coming up. and i have to say, i am glad i am skipping the midwest. the detroit show's going to be super short and all crowd favorites (festival set). i have ravinia. and i'm just not in the mood to drive to minneapolis right now. i am exhausted. my eyes are fucked up. i have a horrible cold. and i just need to head back to the bay area, sleep in my own bed, and cuddle with my cats for a few days before hitting the indigo road again. i'm going through a tiny bit of IG withdrawl, but nothing major - i'm seeing them again on the 20th, so it's not like i have to wait four months (like after princeton). the days off and the relaxation will be really good for me. plus, i'm not too keen on driving my car ALL the way across the country, and if i was doing the midwest, i'd have to (no time to drive back to san francisco to catch a flight to boston). so i am very content now. and hey, it all ended on such a high note - watching amy imitate zidane was absolutly priceless.

so i'm leaving on a high note. i had a blast. i traveled all over the west coast and the southwest, and even fit vegas into my busy schedule. i saw so many of my friends out there on the road. i made new friends. i learned all the new songs. i argued with amy about football. i had their tour bus hit my car. i sang. i laughed. i cried. and throughout the whole thing, i thought about how lucky i am to have amy and emily in my life. there's really no place i'd rather be than an IG show.

( a small list like thing under the cut )

my flickr is updated with my boulder photos...

"pendulum swinger" is completely going through my head. and i'm having a lot of world cup withdrawl (damnit). those two sentences were probably really incoherent and make zero sense together.

the salt lake city was good. the setlist was mediocre to good, but i would have prefered a few more surprises (yah for "come on home" and "thinline," though). the girls were not too chatty, but the energy in the venue was amazing. the crowd went wild. no one sat. no one. and everyone sang. red butte gardens does not allow photos, and since the security person was a) standing right by me and b) super nice to me, i decided to respect the venue's wishes. so that's two shows in a row (san diego and salt lake city) with no photos.

after a bit of line anxiety, i ended up FRAS (front row amy side). a lot of people wanted to be up higher, so the front row wasn't as sought after as usual. inside the venue, i met jordan, who's cool as shit (COME TO BOULDER!). we and emilyevangelist partied it up all night, singing and dancing to every word. the venue was beautiful and really intimate. i'd love to see them at red butte gardens again. LOVE TO! michelle malone was with them tonight, and while i really like malone, i was FAR from impressed with her set tonight.

anyway, not much more to say about tonight. the setlist is posted. i have a long drive ahead of me tomorrow, so i'm going to go to bed and be refreshed for the drive to boulder.

boulder is my last show of this leg. but the east coast tour has yet to begin.... (!!!)

oh wait, i do want to make a few comments about humphreys (san diego). this was the first time for me ever at humphreys where the security people weren't being freaks. i had a second row seat right on the aisle, and i stood and danced throughout the whole show. not one person (security or concert goer) asked me to sit down. NOT ONE! and the people behind me were all standing too. pretty amazing for humphreys.

ok, now i'm really calling it a night.

i don't want to fucking talk about it.

if you're on lapicollastella's friends list, this is probably old news. right now is the soonest i could get to internet connection.

last night, after the humphreys show ended, we were getting our room all cleaned up and preparing to leave for the long nightride to vegas. as i was making a trip from our room to my car, turtle came up to me frantically. she told me something about the tour bus hitting my car. i seriously thought that she was joking. i was like "whatthefuckever. hee hee."

when i got to my car, rick, sulli, tristan, and a few others were standing in a half circle arond my little honda civic. sure enough the tour bus had hit my car, while it was backing up through the venue's parking lot. before even looking for damage, i immediatly started laughing. how hilarious is it that the indigo girls tour bus hit my car?!?! tristan, their tour manager, was all concerned. she insisted that they pay to have it fixed. i told her it was no biggie (seriously, it's just a tiny scrape on the bumper. it's not like rick plowed his bus into my car going 80 mph...), but she kept on insisting. she gave me her number and i am supposed to call her if i ever get it fixed. i won't. hello!?? what could be more perfect for the indigo mobile than a small scratch made by the indigo girls tour bus itself? dude, my new scrape is CLASSIC.

poor rick. he felt soooo bad. i kept on assuring him (and tristan and the others) that it was FINE. rick kept on saying he was thankful that it was my car and not some asshole's.

i seriously laughed about that episode for a good few hours. even now, almost 24 hours later, when i think about it, i still crack up.

aside from that excitement, it's so on with amy and her stupid italian team for the world cup. i'm gonna win the bet. i'm gonna win our bet... oh, and one of my friends got soi drunk at the show and came back to our room with us. she was puking all over everything. thankfully, lynn, carolyn, and i were no longer staying there. her poor girlfriend had to clean up a lot of vomit. ewww...

i'm still really tired. the past two drives have been long (san diego to vegas with lynn and carolyn, and vegas to salt lake city today by myself). there were times during both drives when i wondered if i'd make it alive. right now i'm here in salt lake city, chilling at my hotel. i am actually staying here for two nights and driving to boulder early monday morning! yah! i can relax. last night (errr, this morning) we got into vegas at 5am. we checked into the luxor and just slept. in fact, i didn't get to have much vegas style fun because all i wanted to do was sleep. lynn and carolyn are still in vegas at the luxor. they fly home to the bay area (from vegas) tomorrow morning. for me, tomorrow's first the world cup final (LET'S GO FRANCE, LET'S GO!!!!) and then later in the evening the indigo girls show at red butte gardens, here in salt lake city. utah is weird, man. i feel so very out of place here. and i miss lynn and carolyn. lynn and i have been traveling together for over a week now, and now it's just me, so it sucked to leave them in vegas. oh well. at least lynn is doing most of the east coast tour with me in a few weeks. i don't want to say i'm lonely, because i'm not. i so despertly needed some alone time. but at the same time, i do miss my friends.

i'm going to head down to the hotel bar and have a good stiff drink. after my two loooong drives, i deserve it!

i just made a bet with amy ray. it is about the world cup. she is (WHAT THE FUCK) cheering for italy, even though she is french. baaaaaaad amy. i think she told me that just to get a rise out of me.

all i can say, if i win this bet. boulder is going to be the best fucken show ever.

if i lose... well, i am not telling.

ha ha ha ha ha ha!

indigo summer camp officially began. we're at humphreys in san diego.

i have such a love/hate relationship with this place. on one hand, it's like being in paradise. it's a tropical hotel with a pool bar (i'm sipping my pina colada). i'm lounging by the pool with my wifi, thinking i am in hawaii or fiji. i am listening to a very interesting conversation about someone trying to explain the indigo girls to another person. i just heard the name "linda ronstat." ewww. but on the other hand, this place leaves much to be desired. the venue itself is suckage. the security staff here are closer related to facists than venue security. my seat is ok - not great, but ok (2n row centerish). lynn and carolyn have shitty seats (5th row). we won't all be together. i prefer general admission so much to this. yeah, sitting in line all day can be icky, but at least we get prime seats in the venue that way. oh, and the facist security team here is so insane that they don't even allow dancing or standing. hello. it's a ROCK concert. but whatever. last night was wonderful and i need to remember that.

my plans have changed slightly. instead of trying to floor it all the way to salt lake city after the show, i'm going to drive to las vegas. and i'm staying at the luxor! sally scored me a great agent rate there, so it's so on! the luxor! yah yah yah! i love vegas! i love staying on the strip! VIVA LAS VEGAS! then tomorrow, after i get my vegas on, i'm going to continue the drive onto salt lake city. i'll be arriving into SLC late tomorrow evening. i got the hotel hookup in SLC too, so it's going to be a few nights in a row of nice hotels.

because of my change of plans, i am (sadly) going to miss the world cup third place match (i will not, under any circamstance, miss the final game. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO WAY!). i should be able to pull it in on am radio, though. oh well. i like germany, but i'm not too jazzed about the match anyway. i will, however, be watching my french boys kick some italian ass from salt lake city. oh yeah! that is so set in stone.

after salt lake it's off to boulder. then after the boulder show, i drive home. the first leg (western us) of this tour is almost over. but the second leg (EAST COAST BABY) has not even begun yet. i heart touring. LOVE IT! and i love seeing my indigo girls almost every night. *siigh*

it's fourth of july
i'm just now getting home
and on the horizion i can see it all unfold ~ amy ray

those words have never rung so true. i was listening to amy's new song, "three county highway" (which i used to call "fourth of july") on the ride home this morning. it was around 10am, nearly 10 hours after we left veneta, we had just 'officially' entered the bay area. i was just then getting home. i was driving, and andy and lynn were both sound asleep. it was a moment.

i think i've pointed out that i don't understand why and how amy and emily can be so life changing, and how their shows can really get me to a higher power. i just take it as is and run with the feeling, unapologetic to anyone who might think that i see too many indigo girls shows. i understand what the indigo girls do for me, and i know that there's no place that i'd rather be than at an indigo girls concert. it all makes perfect sense to me. i've only just begun on this tour; there is so much more on the horizion for me. it's exciting and really really tiring at the same time (i'm NOT complaining). i can't think of any other reason that i'd be willing to drive 10 hours over night, leaving at midnight, on very little sleep. amy and emily are in a catagory of their very own of my life. pulling off the 5 during the wee hours of morning on today, the 4th of july, really touched a chord for me. and listening to that song, as i was getting closer to home, was a real moment.

so veneta... last night's show was amazing. the highlight for me was getting emily to play "cold beer and remote control" for crazycatdoglady, who had a REALLY rough day yesterday and is having a birthday today (happy birthday, c.!) it really meant a lot to one of my closest friends, and i was glad i was able to help. of course the setlist was amazing by itself. amy and emily pulled out "three hits," "reunion," and "everything in its own time" (all rarer to hear live these days) in a single set. and danielle howle joined amy for an awesome acoustic version of "let it ring." the venue at veneta is one of my favorites - good wine, good crowd, friendly staff, just an all around nice vibe (can't all venues be like that, please?). it is obvious that the indigo girls share my love for that place, because they were super happy last night. lots of smiles, chit chat, and enthuaism.

i also have to say, i was a really harsh critic of emily's new song "pendulum swinger." i take back anything negative i've ever said about that song. they played it for the first time live last night, and it was amazing. yes, i recorded. the end got cut off, and i need to clean it up, so it's going to be a while until i can mp3 and share it. that is one great song. i'm listening to it right now, and despite being overcome with exhaustion, i can't help but to groove along.

after the show, things got a little sad. the west coast crew, who i had just spent the last few days with, all went their seperate ways. lynn, andy, and i drove back to the good ol' bay area. courtney (crazycatdoglady and julianna stayed in eugene but are going back to seattle today (i hung out with them for a while after the show at the hotel). cornfusion (bon!) and betsy went somewhere else in oregon and bon is flying back to the east coast in a few days. learn2yield went home to portland. at least i'll be seeing cornfusion again REALLY soon - it's bon, lynn, and i on the east coast! the west coasters invade the atlantic side. and i'll see crazycatdoglady, julianna, and learn2yield at homo-a-gogo for the amy ray solo set next month. but it still sucks to have to leave the crew. at least later this week in southern california i get to see rayster and cris. and tomorrow night's my hometown show. loads of my friends will be there!

leaving, saying goodbye, that's always the hardest part of the tour. and then there's the extreme indigo withdrawl, that sinks in after the last note of the last song at the last show. but i don't even want to think about that! i still have ten indigo girls shows left this month. and so much more is going to happen. the whole thing will be amazing no matter what because amy and emily, who are at the center of it all, always make it amazing. i am so excited to see what's on the horizon.

today is a day off. i'm back home and i am going to sleep and get reorganized for the journey to southern california, utah, and colorado. after tomorrow, i won't be home again until at least the 13th. i need this day. i have the world cup on, some indigo on (multi tasking), and i think i am about to take a nap. aside from the IG show tomorrow night, tomorrow morning's my BIG match: france vs portugal. COME ON FRANCE! so this is a really busy week. oh, and i think i failed to mention this earlier, but 1 july might have been one of the best days of my life. france beat brazil, sending brazil home! and then there was an indigo girls show later. life can be really great at times.

oh, here are some more pictures that i took. i hate to have to say this, but i do. i've seen some of my ig photos pop up on places like myspace with no credit. feel free to use anything, but please give some credit and link back to my flickr if you plan to use them for anything like that. or at least send me an email telling me what you're using (indigokare at gmail dot com). thanks in advance.

oh, and one more random factoid. i took the photo in my icon at the veneta show last year. amy was wearing pretty much the same thing in veneta two years in a row. ;)

sleepy time...

SUCKAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

FRANCE SENT BRAZIL PACKING, BABY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 to 0!!!!!!!!!!!! the varig flight leaves at 1035pm.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW!!!!

so cornfusion, chkngrrl, andy, and i are sitting in this pub in portland, oregon watching the france/brazil game. COME ON FRANCE!!! bring it home for CDG! i'd love to call varig right now and book 35 first class tickets BACK to sao paolo. the game is scoreless and we're 6 minutes into the second half.

our friends are holding our spot in line at the portland zoo. we did the early shift and now we're here taking a world cup break. i'm so nervous for france, i can't focus on the upcoming show tonight.

the drive up here was looooong. much longer than we anticipated. i think we got in at around midnight last night. we checked into the hotel and crashed.

today's a line/world cup day. i have to say, it's good to be "home." when the big tour bus pulled in, and rick (the bus driver came out to give me a hug), i knew i was back. i'm not sure if the reality, that we're seeing the INDIGO GIRLS *tonight* has hit me yet. but whether or not it's hit me, i know it's happening and i'm pretty fucking excited.

i need to get back to this match. in the meantime, here are some photos:


first in line!!!!!!!


cornfusion and i watching the england/portugal match in line. portugal won on PKs.

UPDATE: FRANCE SCORED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (i'm watching in espanol).

OMG OMG OMG!!!! update: 11 mins into the second half!!!!!!

j'aime futbol!!!!!

we are here... finally.

the drive was long. very long. i am exhausted. cornfusion, dillard, and carolyn are all sound asleep. i am about to join them in slumberland.

france v. brazil at noon tomorrow. VIVE LA FRANCE!!!

indigo girls at 7pm tomorrow!!!

1. How many foreign countries have you visited?
ummm... pretty much all of western europe (france, spain, germany, italy, uk, belgium, netherlands, sweden, denmark), greece, russia, japan, thailand, vietnam, australia, morocco, china, korea, hong kong, singapore, canada, mexico, belize, ummm....

2. What do you always take with you on vacation?
wallet, passport, camera, and recently, ipod

3. Name something you've lost recently:
nothing i can think of.

4. Do you prefer action packed vacations or relaxing ones?
action packed, baby! all the way!

5. Other people's vacation photographs: do you really want to see them?
yes. i really do. but only if they're to places off the beaten path. i don't need to look at 30 million photos of the arch d'triomphe (go france tomorrow!!!) i love travel (duh... look at my job), and love seeing places through other peoples' eyes.

and while we're on the subject of travel and foregin countries, i am so up for the world cup match. i'm leaving after the first match! most importantly, (for tomorrow) COME ON FRANCE!!!!!!!

from world_cup_2006:

The referee for Brazil vs. France will be Luis Medina Cantalejo (Spain). That’s the guy who gave Italy the last-minute penalty shot against Australia.