Weekly Roadtrip #4: 6/26/11 A trip to Ireland in my backyard!

U2 was in concert here this past weekend, and Sarah and I got to go see them. Freaking AWESOME concert. They do know how to put on one hell of a show. The extra added bonus for me was getting to see Florence + the Machine as the opening act. Sarah couldn't figure out yeah I was so excited about Florence, but she started singing, Sarah worked it all out, "I get why you like her so much. It's like Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan had an angry lovechild!" lol

Needless to say, a great time was by all 70,000 of us sitting in the stadium that night, watching U2 perform on undoubtably the largest stadium concert set I've ever seen!
Sarah waiting for the show to start.

I have never seen a stage this big for a concert before!
Florence + the Machine

Neither of these last two pics do justice to how incredible the staging looked at these precise moments!

No weekly Roadtrip this past weekend!

I decided to take a weekend off this past weekend from my Weekly Roadtrip adventuring. It's been fun, but I've been busy most nights during the week as well, and just needed a break!

Besides, there was a YA author event at my local bookstore on Saturday that I didn't want to miss. Schuler Books was hosting the Dark Days of Supernatural Tour, with four YA authors in attendance. All in all, I have had the extraordinary luck of meeting a wide range of authors over the last couple of weeks! Who I've met in the last 10 days:

Courtney Allison Moulton - Author of Angelfire, her debut book and part of a YA paranormal trilogy.

Leah Clifford - Author of A Touch Mortal, her debut book and part of a YA paranormal trilogy.

Aimée Carter - Author of The Goddess Test, her debut book and part of a YA paranormal/mythology trilogy.

Lisa Desrochers - Author of Personal Demons, her debut book and part of a YA paranormal trilogy. (Seeing a running theme yet? These four authors were all part of a single YA tour.)

Colm Tóibín - Author of Brooklyn, amongst many others.

Meg Waite Clayton - Author of The Language of Light, The Wednesday Sisters and The Four Ms. Bradwells, which are all favorites of mine.

Kelly O'Connor McNees - Author of The Lost Summer of Louisa May Alcott, her debut book, which just came out in paperback. (I attended the Printer's Row Lit Fest in Chicago last weekend, where I sat in on a discussion with Colm Toibin and ran into Meg and Kelly, who were also attending the discussion.)

Mary Doria Russell - Discussing her new book, Doc, at one of my local indie bookstores. I actually didn't pick Doc up, but got a copy of The Sparrow and Dreamers of the Day instead.

Veronica Roth - Author of Divergent, her debut book and part of a new YA dystopian trilogy.

Josephine Angelini - Author of Starcrossed, her debut book and part of a new YA paranormal trilogy.

Aprilynne Pike - Author of the Wings series.

Ellen Schreiber - Author of the Vampire Kisses series. (Again, these last four were all part of another YA tour.

Needless to say, I've been thrilled with all the authors I've been able to meet. And I've said it once, and I'll say it again, authors are some of the most gracious people you'll ever meet. They are so friendly and easy to talk to and really seem to appreciate each and every person who comes to meet them, and I feel lucky and blessed to personally know so many great authors! People, keep up the good work.

So, there it is. A weekend off, but I'm picking right up again this coming weekend. I'm heading back over to Brighton to meet up with V. He and I are going to the movies and to dinner, so that should be a good time. And, to make up for no trip last weekend, I did go to Flint last night to have dinner with Kristin, Lara, Jonathan and Olivia and that was a loverly time. Olivia is such a doll! i'm completely infatuated with that child. =)

Until next time, happy adventuring!

Weekly Roadtrip 2011 #3: 6/3/11-6/5/11 Chicago! (With added Monday adventuring!)

This week's Weekly Roadtrip was a much needed weekend adventure back to Chicago. For those in the know, you know why I haven't been back more recently, and for those not in the know, well, there's a reason you don't know why I was staying away from Chicago for awhile.

Anyway, my reason for going back to Chicago was a two-fold adventure. I hadn't seen Chad in quite some time, so I wanted to spend some time with him, and I wanted to go to the Printer's Row Lit Fest.

Chad and I had a really good time. We rented a couple of movies to watch on Friday night after he got out of work and went to see the new X-Men movie on Saturday night after he got out of work. He gave me my bday present and it's fabulous. I'll have to get a pic of it to show off. Really, it was an awesome time hanging out with him.

The Lit Fest was a great time, too. I sat in on a discussion with Colm Tóibín and got his book, Brooklyn, signed. I also ran into Meg Waite Clayton and Kelly O'Connor McNees, so that was an added bonus!

After the Lit Fest on Saturday, I wandered around downtown. I found an Art Festival and headed down to the TDS on Michigan. I had lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Bella Bacino's, before wandering over to Millennium Park. A storm was brewing over the Lake, so I headed for Macy's and Borders to keep out of the rain. I seriously haven't walked that much in ages!!

Sunday Chad had to work, so I got to hang out with Mandy K for most of the day. We hadn't seen each other in months either, so we spent the entire morning and early afternoon talking and catching up and being our usual catty selves until it was time to drop me off at the train station. We made a quit stop into TDS so I could drop my keys back off to Chad and to give him a quick hug on my out of town.

Overall, this was one fantastic trip to Chicago! =)





As an extra added bonus, Mary Doria Russell was speaking at Nicola's Books the Monday evening ater I got back, so Sarah and Brad and I drove over there to see her. She was discussing her new book, Doc (about Doc Holiday), and signing after the discussion. Sarah was thrilled to meet her, and had almost every book she's written with her to sign. I picked up The Sparrow and Dreamers of the Day to sign. I'll post my reviews here as I get them read.

Distance traveled: 230 miles
Bonus trip distance traveled: 70 miles
Total Adventure miles traveled: 435 miles

Weekly Roadtrip 2011 #2: 5/30/11 Making a New Friend!

So, for this week's Weekly Roadtrip, I headed over to Brighton to meet a new friend, who shall be known as V for the time being. He and I have been talking online for about a week now and decided to finally meet in person, so we agreed on Brighton as a middle point. We had a nice lunch at Stillwater Grill and just chatted, getting to know each other better. After lunch, we went to Borders, had some coffee and talked books for a couple of hours. Overall, not a bad way to spend a Memorial Day. =)

Distance traveled: 50 miles
Total Adventure miles traveled: 135 miles

Weekly Roadtrip 2011 #1: 5/21/11 The Drousy Chaperone at the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre

Something I've been thinking about the last couple of weeks is I need to fill up my time with some more excitement. As my friend Tanya says, I need more circus in my life. While she probably means that I literally need more circus in my life (she does love her clowns!), I'm looking at it as I need more out of the ordinary, off the beaten path fun. To that end, I've decided on my Weekly Roadtrip 2011 adventure!

I may not make it somewhere every single weekend, but I want to try. Maybe it's to the next town over, maybe it's somewhere farther away. I just want more fun.

So, this weeks Weekly Roadtrip is to the Kalamazoo Civic Theatre to see my co-worker's wife, Dee, in a musical called The Drousy Chaperone. She invited me to the last weekend of the performance's run and I decided this was the perfect opportunity to start my adventures! I'll post more after the show.

Distance traveled: 85 miles
Total Adventure miles traveled: 85 miles