Californication.....

My incredible luck with radio stations (it's the ONLY way I ever win anything... through radio stations) this time managed to win me airline tickets, hotel reservation and concert tickets to see the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Oakland, CA...

Well the day finally arrived for us to jump on a plane and go. 6am came very early. Especially for me, who is more of a night person. Eldon and I took the MAX to the airport, so as not to have to impose on anyone else in the house at that early time. There was a beautiful sunrise to start our day... although both of us were so exhausted we barely had much time to take it in.

The new security measures at the airport were as usual lots of fun, but especially for me. The night before, as part of my packing ritual, I made sure to remove any contraband from my purse. (I could seriously be tempted to stab someone to death with my fingernail clippers or drown someone in my perfume otherwise.)

Apparently I didn't do a good enough job, because my purse was ran through twice and then completely strip-searched, each of the contents individually removed, "hello everyone, there's my tampons and birth control pills.. take a look!" and they finally found what they were looking for.... all 0.8 fl oz of liquid eyeliner that I could do some serious damage with.

"Turn this plane around, or I'll.... um... make you all look EMO!"

We did eventually make it onto the plane, and they even let me keep my eyeliner. I think all told, it actually took longer to get to the airport and go through security than it did to actually GET to Oakland.

We got to the airport and picked up a shuttle to our hotel. Our check in time was at 2, and we arrived at 10, so we had some time to kill before we could actually relax. They did allow us to stash our stuff in one of their back rooms at the hotel so we could explore our surroundings without the burden of luggage.

Now I submit to you, a montage of all the glamour that is my winnings.. or our walk around the beautiful downtown Oakland, CA.

So even though our surroundings were less than glamourous, when you have good company, you tend to have fun regardless. We did a whole lot of walking, talking, joking, etc. We walked around the coliseum and found where the concert was going to be later that night, so we weren't scrambling for that information when we were supposed to be there. We also found that if we cut through the coliseum and squeezed out of the small opening, it cut down our walk back immensely.



(Of course, I had to quote the line from Titanic on my way down.)

We were finally allowed to check into our hotel and we were so exhausted that we took a nap. I had told Jesse that I would make an attempt to meet his friend Jonathan while I was in Oakland, since he lived very closely to where we were staying. He called just as Eldon and I were waking up for our nap. Him and his girlfriend Sara joined us for a quick dinner before the concert.


Right on the tickets, it said no cameras. We thought about trying to sneak it in, but didn't want to have it confiscated, so we decided against it. When we got in, we were instantly irritated by the incredible number of cameras. Half the friggin arena had them! Not only did half the arena have cameras, but a large portion of the crowd had weed too. I was getting a contact high just being there. I was so angry we decided not to bring the camera. So, because of this, the only pictures we have are ones from our camera phones.




We also discovered that camera phones are the new lighter. Back in the old days, people would use lighters to try to induce an encore. Now everyone just opens their phones and lets the lights shine. It was actually quite funny to watch thousands of cell phones wave back and forth.

It was a great show. They played a bunch of songs from their new album which I hadn't heard, and some old favorites as well.