Bubble No. 51: GODSMACK!!!

How shall I say this? Hmmmm….oh yes…

GODSMACK ROCKS!!!!!

Yeah, that works. ^_^ I suppose I don’t really -need- to talk about how insanely incredible the concert was, but I’m a verbose little freak, so I must.

The trip was actually the best time I’ve had in quite a while. We left Thursday morning (like at noon) and managed to make the trip from Lubbock to El Paso in less than five hours. *snerk* Don’t ask how fast my brother was driving. Suffice to say that his karma totally caught up with him on THAT score later. We got to my parents’ house at five thirty just as my friend Ninja pulled up and my mom was getting home. Can you say high-pitched girlish squealy greetings? ^_^ Yeah…I was a total girl about it. Hugged my parents, tackled Ninja and then we stuffed Ninja in the Durango (which is pure evil) and zipped off to the concert.

…and then bliss!

Hour Cast was the opening show, and they were surprising in that they were really good. Still in that "must scream everything ’cause we’re -heavy metal-" stage, but the actual music was good. I was pleasantly surprised. Breaking Benjamin was incredible. I’ve liked their music ever since I heard "Dance with the Devil," but they really put on an extremely good show. (And they played "Dance with the Devil," which had me squealing like a little girl. ^_^ And "So Cold," and "The Diary of Jane." If they’d played "Evil Angel" I would have been in heaven, but cloud nine was close enough!) They did a very, VERY good job of getting the crowd riled up for Godsmack.

And as for Godsmack? Well….*purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr* Oh yeah…that was a DAMN good show. The drum battle was insanely awesome, they played a lot of the "weird" songs like "Vampires," "Moon Baby," "Voodoo." Of course, "Shinedown" made an appearance, as did "Awake" and "I Stand Alone." The crowd was going insane for them. I swear, Sully knows how to manipulate a crowd like little marionettes. He commanded, and everyone obeyed. ^_^ There was a girl I would’ve sold my education and immortal soul to be for about ten seconds. *snerk* Sully put his guitar pick in his mouth and stretched out on the speakers to give it to her. Some bitch was smacking her arm away, but he tossed it to her when she couldn’t reach. I’m afraid I would have straight-up swooned. ^_~ We had damn good seats, to the left of the stage and about twenty feet away. (And fire. Did I mention fire? The pyrotechnics were -awesome-!) I couldn’t stop smiling for about three hours after the concert ended. (They gave an encore, which was totally spify of them. The whole stadium was chanting "Godsmack" and stamping their feet.) And I want Sully’s pentacle. That thing was so beautiful. (And reminds me that I need a new one, myself. I gave mine to Ninja about a month before I left to come here to Lubbock. Ebay calls my name!)

And the concert was just the beginning of a really good weekend. We got home after the concert, I saw Ninja off, and we all hit the sack by one a.m. I freakin’ popped awake at seven in the morning, but I got to snuggle with my mom and tell her all about the last couple of months. (Yes. I’m 22 years old, and I still cuddle with my mother. Make your scoffing noises now, ’cause there really isn’t much that beats a Mom-snug.) Shane, his friend John Rae (who came down with us) and I all headed into downtown El Paso to peer at a really, really big used bookstore (The Book Gallery; over half a million books. Oh yeah, heaven!), play DDR and Police 911 2, saw RavenMom at Wal-Mart, and then got stuff for dinner and headed home. It was nice to just have dinner, sit and watch TV with my parents and make all sorts of disparaging remarks about the shows. ^_^ (I love my family.)

Saturday was the day I’d promised my friends, and Ninja came to get me, Ibu in tow, by eleven in the morning. We zipped over, snagged my ex-boyfriend’s little brother Nightmare (who is actually a stand-up guy that we all like; no reason to punish him just because his older brother pissed off his old friends) and the guys took me to see my beloved Wuffie. *cuddles her muchly* She got a VW Bug for graduation from her parents (I’m horribly jealous) and named it Precious. ^_^ (Only a geek…) I actually got to drive Precious around Las Cruces, we had lunch, talked up a storm…I so missed her! *throws hugs ‘n kisses to mah Wuffie* Then the guys came back, yelled "Mine!" and we headed back to Ninja’s house to play DDR until Gummi got off of work. (I neeeeeeeeeed to play more DDR! Between early voting, Election Day and my leg getting smooshed, I’m horribly out of practice! *sob!*)

Sushi was delightful. Gummi took everyone to the Samurai on Mesa and we had a blast. (I miiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiissed sushi! Mmmm, miso soup, green tea, ginger salad, spider rolls, fatty tuna….*purr*) And for the record: plum wine ice cream is great! While we were buzzing on the protein high, we took off to Bob-O’s (ironically named, that) to play Laser Tag. -That- was incredible because we paid for two missions and ended up getting three! *grin!* Those were fuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!! The first two rounds, we were the Red Team, and had about two other people on the team besides the five of us. We stormed the upper level, took it, held it, destroyed bases and then just picked off the Yellow and Blue. The last game, we ended up being the Yellow team and it was only the five of us. We were -seriously- outnumbered, but we figured what the hell, let’s make it worthwhile. We stormed the Blue base, all of us destroyed it, and as the Red base wasn’t working properly, we just took the upper level and held it. Five of us against thirteen people, and the Blue and Red teams were teaming up against us. We figured we got pwned hardcore, but when we headed out to check our score, we’d tromped EVERYONE by over twenty thousand points!!!

There was a LOT of cheering (and raspberries at the opposing team; I never said we were mature!) After that, Gummi had to head back to work, so we stopped, grabbed a bite to eat and headed back to Ninja’s house so I could play Crimson Butterfly. (I -miss- having an Xbox around!!) THAT was so m

uch fun. Nightmare was snoring on the end of Ninja’s bed, Ibu was on the floor laughing when I shrieked at the ghosts, and Ninja didn’t help by tickling me when I was getting scared. (I got lots of cuddles too. ^_^ I love being the pooka queen.) I love my jerks. ^_^ We got all the guys home by midnight, and I hugged Ninja goodbye before heading in. (He got me a bastard sword!! How fucking awesome is THAT?!?)

Sunday morning was kind of just everyone not really wanting to leave, us getting breakfast, and then finally taking off by one in the afternoon. (Yeah, I’m kind of homesick already.) The trip was hilarious, though. My brother got pulled over four times. The Border Patrol was expected, as they have a waystation that everyone has to go through, but the Ruidoso sheriff, the Texas State Trooper and the Cochlan county sheriff were all a fun surprise! (My brother’s got a lead foot with a ball-bearing ankle and the joint locks when it goes down.) So now he’s got a spify 92 in a 65 zone ticket, we got home an hour late, and I’m back at work! (Wordy, aren’t I?)