For 16 days, we are all connected.

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too:
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream — and not make dreams your master;
If you can think — and not make thoughts your aim,
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same:.
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build'em up with worn-out tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings,
And never breathe a word about your loss:
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on!"

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings — nor lose the common touch,
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much:
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And which is more; you'll be a Man, my son!

- "If" by Rudyard Kipling

So the Olympic Games have begun. That was an amazing Opening Ceremonies, so beautiful. Go Canada Go!! I'm rooting for you, Kyle Shewfelt! You've come so far!

Warped Tour/Meeting Andrew McMahon

It's taking me a long time to sit down and write this because I've gotten out of the habit of blogging/journal writing. I've also been quite distracted with my love-hate relationship or should I say obsession, but I will get to that later. It has taken about 3 days to write this lol.

So as some of you may know, on July 19th, my cousin Brit and I went to Warped Tour. This was my first Warped Tour experience. For many years I've thought about going because certain bands I liked were playing but I never got around to it since it was always in Barrie and I didn't want to mission all the way there. So about a month before Warped, my cousin told me Jack's Mannequin was playing a handful of dates, including Toronto. I didn’t really think much of it because although I love Andrew McMahon and JM, I didn’t want to go to an outdoor festival just for one band. A few weeks passed and the fact that I was stuck at home doing basically nothing started hitting me, and I really wanted to do something fun like go to a show since the last show I went to was The Rocket Summer in April. I found out that Warped was at Arrow Hall which is in Mississauga (or Malton if you want to be precise) and that gave me more reason to go since it was so close. I brought up Warped Tour to my cousin again and we decided to go. We joked about stalking Andrew or tracking him down since he’s one of my heroes and it would be awesome to meet him but I never really thought I’d actually get to meet him.

Andrew McMahon for those who don’t know is the lead singer of Something Corporate and Jack’s Mannequin. To me, he is such an inspirational person. He was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 22 and remained so positive through such a difficult time and overcame it. He has taught me to appreciate life more, that no matter what you are dealt with, to always look for the bright side. He’s not only an amazing person but he writes really good music as well. I love the upbeat, therapeutic lyrics in his songs. “Watch the Sky” will always be one of my favourite songs. As much as all of this has been said or as fan-girly as this all sounds, it’s very true.

My cousin mainly wanted to see Relient K so we made a deal that as long as JM’s signing didn’t interfere with Relient K’s set, we would go to it. So when we got inside Warped, we checked the schedule and JM’s set was at 4:15 and Relient K’s was at 6:15. We also picked bands to check out like The Academy Is and We the Kings. Other than that there weren’t any bands we really wanted to check out. We walked around the different merchandise tables. For some reason we had the hardest time finding Jack’s Mannequin’s merch table. When we finally found it, we found out Jack’s signing was at 5:45 which was cutting it close to Relient K’s set. We decided that right after Jack’s set, we’d go and line up so we’d be near the front and not have to wait that long once the signing started. After The Academy Is’ set, we had a lot of time to waste until Jack’s set so we randomly walked around. We discovered a band called A Cursive Memory. They have pretty catchy music and remind me of the Rocket Summer. That’s something I love about concerts, when you discover new music.

When JM came on the stage, Andrew said Mississauga instead of Toronto or Canada like what most other bands did which was awesome. It was something small, but I loved it. Jack’s set was short, they played mostly old songs like “Kill the Messenger”, “Holiday From Real”, ‘I’m Ready”, “Bruised”, “Dark Blue”, “The Mixed Tape”, “La La Lie” and a new song called “Dropout” which I really liked.

I was worried about the signing. I didn’t really know how the signing would work, what if I had nothing to for Andrew to sign? I wanted to get something signed but I didn’t have my CD cover. I thought it would look stupid if I just got him to sign my ticket stub and I didn’t want to him to sign my shirt. I didn't even know if he would allow pictures. I brought this up to my cousin and decided to preorder the new CD so we would get the poster that came with it and have something for Andrew to sign. After JM’s set, my cousin and I went to their merch table and got the posters and stood in the line for the signing. There were about 5-10 people already waiting. It was about 4:45 then so we had an hour of just standing/sitting around to do. It started pouring rain really hard at about 5:00. Luckily Brit had an umbrella. I was more worried about the poster getting wet so I got soaked. Lucky for us, Andrew showed up and wasn’t late. I heard some bands cancelled their signings or cut it short because of the rain.

As we waited for our turn, Brit took pictures of Andrew as he talked to his fans. I still haven’t gotten those from her yet. Because it was raining a lot, my sunscreen started getting in my eyes, (even though it’s suppose to be waterproof!!) and my eyes started stinging. I was worried I wouldn’t be able to keep my eyes open. When it was our turn, Brit went up to him first and when he saw me he waved at me. I heard him tell Brit that she was so sweet. I later asked her what they talked about and she said he asked her how she was and stuff and that she was speechless lol. He was taken aback by people waiting for him in the rain, so sweet. She got him to sign her poster and I took a picture of them together. Whenever I would think about meeting Andrew, I imagined myself telling him what he meant for me, how he inspired me and how great of a person he is. However, when I went up to Andrew, I forgot everything that I wanted to say to him. I was speechless. I think I managed to say “Hi.” I know I had the biggest smile on my face though, and I hope by that he somehow knew what that moment meant for me. My cousin took a picture of him and me. My hair is so bad, but I just wanted it to be out of my face that day.

He saw my t-shirt which is the first Jack’s Mannequin shirt I ever got and said he liked it and that it was one of their first designs. I hope I managed to say thanks. As I was leaving though, I said “Please come back to Toronto soon!” and he went “Aw, we will!” I didn’t know at that time but he’s coming back on August 23rd, one week before my 20th!!! After we left I got all giddy and squealed. I was so happy. It was still pouring really hard but we stayed for Relient K’s set. My backpack didn’t do a good job of protecting my belongings so almost everything I had got soaked. I managed to protect my signed poster with plastic bags and the shirts I bought. My camera got wet because of my stupidity and the screen stopped working for a while which freaked me out. Luckily no pictures were lost and the camera started working again after a few days.

I heard that Andrew stayed and met all his fans or as many as he could. He’s truly a genuine and nice person and very grateful for his fans. I’m grateful for that. I know how disappointing it can be to have expectations about meeting a celebrity or musician and they don’t meet those expectations. I got sick from standing in the rain for so long but it was worth it. Overall Warped was a great experience. That was a very long entry but it was an epic moment for me. =D

- Jenny

Guess Who's Back?

Since June, I've had a lot of time on my hands. The majority of this time off has been spent on the computer. OMG, I spend way too much time on the internet. I've also been reading, reading one series in particular but I will get to that later. Sooo for many reasons, I stopped keeping a blog. I'll just say that looking back at most journal entries from the past has been very cringeworthy. Man I was so ~emo~. Teen angst at its finest. LMAO. Soo why am I back then? Well while most entries chagrined me deeply, some were very endearing and nostalgic. It was great reading back on them. I want to be able to look back at good times and remember things vividly, in a way that I probably wouldn't remember them if I didn't write them down. This will also going to be an outlet to express my thoughts and opinions on things. I'm older and dare I say wiser than I was when I last actively kept a blog so this will be a different experience. Happy reading!

- Jenny