one more miracle

Firstly: thank you to everyone for saying hi on my last post! Yay! hi! Glad to know there's still people around these here parts. :)

I had a most marvelous weekend! I went to Chicago for the first time in ages and there were Shenanigans.

I stayed with the lovely rhombal and musictoyourlips, who have the cutest little apartment now. I hadn't seen them in way too long! I arrived on Friday night and we lounged about chatting and looking at sexy footballers, as you do. Then we got (maybe) 3 hours sleep and woke up at some obscene hour of the morning prior to 6 AM in order to go to the pub and watch the Arsenal! The pub was much quieter than last time I went (which was the last day of the season and a massive, dramatic battle against relegation). We had coffee, coffee, and more coffee, watched a dash of West Ham vs Millwall (red card to West Ham's captain, shocker!), and then it was time for the Gunners! Arsenal were facing cellar dwellers but also bogey team Blackburn, so we were nervous, but in the end Arsenal romped to a thoroughly delightful 7-1 victory, including a ROBIN VAN PERFECT HAT TRICK and the Ox's first two league goals and a delicious Arteta goal and, as the cherry on the sundae, a Thierry Henry goal, served up on a platter by RVP. It was simply, utterly marvelous. And I didn't even miss any goals while I was in the bathroom or anything! Amazing! It's like they put on a show just for me. Thank you, boys. ♥ I was also keeping a close eye on Twitter because my other boys in red and white (Mainz) were playing co-league leaders Schalke, and I was very nervous. We SCORED and went into half-time 1 up, but Schalke came out much stronger and equalized. But we dug in our heels and held on for the draw, which gave us an important point and knocked Schalke off the top of the table! Woo! All in all, a delightful morning of football.

At this stage it was not even noon and I had already had more caffeine AND alcohol than is advisable (really just a large cider but pre-noon that is plenty). We went back to their apartment and crashed for much, much needed naps.

Then rhombal and I went to see EMPIRES and THE HUSH SOUND!!! Eeeee! This was the reason I chose this weekend to visit Chicago and oh it was so much fun! We drove to the Bottom Lounge (randomest venue ever) and had dinner with angel726 and two of her friends. We said hi to Sean van Vleet out in the bar, who remains the sweetest, and I (worryingly) identified Nick Scimeca from way across the room. Oh dear. We also spotted Ryan J (who has cut his hair - I must confess I miss the floppy) but he was hanging out with Scimeca, so I didn't get a Ryan J hug. :( We found THE WHOLE INTERNET, including candidlily and xsnarkasaurus, yay! Then we watched the first opening band, who were a bit cacophonous but had a couple nice songs, and were mostly entertaining because the singer reminded me of Gerard Way (sassiness, mostly) and, physically, Cesc Fabregas. What. We got a nice space up near the stage (dear fangirls who waited hours in the cold for this show: you are ridiculous) and then it was Empires time!!! I've seen them so many times but it's always a blast. SVV has become such a great and confident frontman. Spit the Dark and Damn Things Over remain my favorites live. The new music is sounding great too!

THEN IT WAS HUSHIES TIME! EEEE. I had only seen them twice before, way back in... I don't know, 2009? AGES. So this was an absolute treat! They seemed to be having a lot of FUN performing together again. Bob and Greta are kind of hilarious in how different they are - Bob's wicked and suggestive and irreverent, where Greta is wholesome and sweet and tries to crack dirty jokes but then takes them back immediately, and I want to give her a hug. Darren and Chris have both grown their hair long, to very different effect. Darren looks like Tomrad from behind, but I like it on him even better - I want to play with it. Chris..... looks like an effeminate Jesus. I don't even know. But they blew my face off! \o/ The setlist was lovely, voted on by the fans and balanced between the three albums. So much stuff off So Sudden! I was a bit sad they didn't play my two favorites (Dark Congregation and Hurricane) but a gorgeous rendition of The Artist more than made up for it. Molasses, Honey, Wine Red... so wonderful. I really do love them as a band, though I'd have to say Gold Motel edges them out a bit for me (which explains why Greta's songs are my favorite Hushies ones). It was a fun, breathless experience that brought me back to the heyday of my bandom love, when every show was an Occasion (now, every show is fun, but mostly seeing bands I've seen loads of times before). I have lovely pictures and videos but my memory card reader is not cooperating right now and I can't be arsed to go get the cable, so I'll have to share them later.

Sunday (today) was deliciously lazy - musictoyourlips made breakfast and we watched the first half of Chelsea-United (barf), then muted that in favor of Sherlock - Hound of Baskervilles and Reichenbach Fall, which rhombal hadn't seen yet! *rolls around* Love love love loooove.

Then I had to leave and it was sad. :( Tomorrow is Monday morning. I protest.

So this post doesn't end on a downer, I want to say that if you like Sherlock and have Tumblr, my Tumblr has become basically a shrine to Sherlock and all things Benedict Cumberbatch. \o/ I'm exsequar over there too. I will leave you with his perfection: