SPIRAL OUT

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22 years ago, i'd make my sister tag along to edgefest hours away in ontario where tool was playing/headling. ok ok. I WAS F*CKING STOKED!! well, turns out i most likely scarred her for life (HAHAHAHHA after all wasn't she only in it for the tea party?). at the very least it's the impression i got during their set according to the visible sheer terror/confusion in her eyes begging me to head back to the bus. oh, dear! honestly she kinda killed my mood as i was slow dancing far back on the lawn. goddammit! SUNDAY 19TH; needless to say, their show announcement completely took me by surprise this year. the last time i'd seen time live was all those years ago back in vancouver + honestly i've been out of the loop for ages. never seen them in the montreal though, so OF COURSE i was gonna be going. once i arrived to the venue the lines looked like this (even though the doors had already been opened for a while...?!): 😲😲😲 thanx but no thanx. just don't have enough patience for this! so i opted to enter towards the side instead. thankfully the lines were NOT quite as long. yyyep. we're at a tool concert, no mistake. ended up waiting a fairly long time in this merch line-up cuz i wanted to get the medal-whatever thing i had a glimpse of while checking out tables: ...only to be told once my turn came that they'd sold out for this item. MEEEEH. tell me i can't have something = i'll want it even more. hahaha. was kinda pissed for a minute and considered giving up, but ultimately went to line-up at another merch stand. yep, another looooong line. chances were still 50/50, but. after some suspense i'm glad to report that i've been successful in my quest. wooo! & goddamn. it was worth it cuz it's truly BEAUTIFUL. ❤ YASSS. hi. the "where's waldo" guy was all kinds of awesome: had a kick out of the guys sitting nearby who kept yelling "CHAAAARLIIIIE" with a deep voice every time he'd show up. 😂 now see me disobey the band's "no photography" rule (sowwy!!!): k, what can i say afterwards other than perhaps..... MIND-BLOWN?! sure, let's try out with other words: hypnotic + immersive + mystical trance trip. a tool live experience is likely the closest i'll ever get to feeling as though i'm on drugs, i swear. daaang. also now i understand why tickets aren't exactly cheap either! danny's drumming alone is fully worth my ticket price!!! btw--i totally get the band's "no photography" plea in order to fully engage in the moment. it's just that i'm way too OCD-ish and can't help myself. i NEED those kind of memories. but shall it be known that all the while i was snapping pics, my eyes were still glued to the stage....somehow. 😂 THEY WERE!! now... the "confetti" ordeal. so, at one point during a song (can't remember which) they had what i assumed to be kind of glittery pieces of paper fall down from the ceiling. a sh!tload of them, in fact. but it was only falling above people located on floor—with me sitting higher up i really had no way of thoroughly checking. well, later on i would randomly stumble upon the answer online... *gasp* !!!!! i CANNOT believe i missed out on that. oh, man... luckily i found that one guy on a FB group who also attended the montreal show who was willing to part with some of his pieces. he should've mailed me a couple pieces by now, but mostly stars. i'll still be missing 3 skulls band members. UGH. don't get me wrong: i'm still feeling overly thankful, buuut. fingers crossed so i can get my hands on the rest. cuz i'm a tad obsessive. y'know. & just like that, this was the last show of the year. holy hell. what a year it's been. *bows down to the music gods* p.s.: snapshot from someone's video, aka "I'M HEEEERE!": "no really, I AM":

ooOOo, trouble in st-jean

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FRIDAY 17TH; thankfully we could still reach village des valeurs!

the conch ring issue

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THURSDAY 16TH; so i went back to the local piercing shop to attempt putting in my 11mm ring for my latest/lower conch. the one pat had decided on a 12.7mm for—cuz he said otherwise it was too tight—which i wasn't overly thrilled about. well, mission accomplished (!): only the thing is.....😭 turns out pat was actually kinda right. it didn't feel so tight, but looking at it from all angles...yeah. damn!!! to my dismay, went back to the shop later in the evening to switch to a larger ring. bought a 12mm rose-gold seamless ring, so somewhere in the middle. this one works out almost perfectly albeit (again) hanging just a tiny bit too low for my liking. eventually would like to try out a 11.5mm if i can manage to find one, but. enough f*cking around for now.

quick montreal stop

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WEDNESDAY 15TH; a few hours back/from montreal heading to the office for my yearly non-virtual evaluation. had to get it postponed from the prior week having been too sick (pretty much lost my voice as well) and while i was still sick at this point, at least it was bearable. managed to stop a coughing fit while sitting on the bus ALL HAIL TO MY ORANGE COUGH LOZENGES!!!

first snow

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THURSDAY 9TH;

walmart try-on

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SATURDAY 4TH; ok so i didn't buy it, albeit it was tempting... D'OH HO HO!! p.s.: thus was my last day of not feeling utterly SICK as everything would shift the next day and for 2 LONG WEEKS (mad coughing fits!!!!). whoever gave me this while i was out, most sincerely, f*** you.

memento mori tour, round II

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FRIDAY 3RD; approx 7 months later & here we were again: another dose of live depeche mode in our city. YEAAAAH! i'd previously sold the ticket i initially bought to eryn who was now coming along to the show, meanwhile acquired another located closer to the stage albeit a bit off to the side (i.e. "obstructed view" in their own terms). parked underground where it was somehow puzzling to find our way out. (no thanks to the unhelpful lazy employee!) finally, yaaaay... exit ahead: we ended up taking off to do a bit of shopping since we got there too early and neither of us felt like watching the opening band. fast forward once @ the venue later on... painfully slow lanes at the merch booth! ugggh. people acting as though they're calmly browsing at the mall and asking endless questions to random salesperson about the different clothing options. *facepalm* once our turn FINALLY arrived, eryn & i both quickly got keychains. i still had the $15 worth of coupons to exchange for food/drinks over at the venue that sylvie had given me back in april (wooo!). they actually expired at the end of the year so now it's all done & taken care of: the young employee working at the counter that we ordered from seemed rather confused with my coupons at first, but sylvie thinks it's because they just hired a bunch of clueless new people. haha. afterwards got to our respective seats: once i got there someone was actually sitting in my goddamn seat. ummm! NUH UH. worse thing about the matter is, (get this) the employee nearby actually wanted me to take care of the issue. WTF, okkk. so i politely asked the guy to double-check his seat number—turns out he'd made a mistake with his seat being located a few rows higher up. he immediately moved so i didn't have to make a scene..... phew! once the show began the 2 seats to my right surprisingly remained empty, so i texted eryn about it in case she might want to come sit closer to the stage with me. we both figured it'd be wiser to wait a couple songs, which we did. then after a while the 2 missing persons ultimately showed up..... JUST AS ERYN SHOWED UP AS WELL FROM THE OTHER SIDE. 🫢 oh noes. hahhahaha!! so we ended up kind of sharing my seat as i reassured her we wouldn't get into trouble cuz clearly the employee nearby did NOT give a sh*t about doing her work. i ended up standing for the entire set—ok, ok, for the most part cuz i didn't have a choice = seat sharing thing 😂 but i also truly felt like it. absolutely living the moment dancing and singing my little heart out. THE SHOW WAS AMAAAAZIIIIING. somehow i felt an energy/mood which was a whole lot better than in april. not sure how to explain it, really. setlist-wise, they swapped a couple of songs as my brain went OMGZZZ: "policy of truth", "dressed in black", "black celebration" (NO WAY holy sh*t#@$@#%?@?#) + "condemnation". could NOT be more pleased. the only thing i'm sorta disappointed with this time around is dave's mild cattiness. throwing around remarks that [insert crowd of whichever show he's currently live at] is SO MUCH BETTER than [insert crowd of whichever city they've just done last]. personally i tend to think it's rather juvenile and not playful as most likely intended. but hey... what do i know, anyhow. I HAD A BLAST. !!!