I ask only for the strength to defend my people.

To Hell With You and All Your Friends...IT'S ON!
( 2004-08-05 @ 9:33 p.m. )

Allright, a actual entry, all about me, rachel, lars, and surviving the warped tour twice....in florida which IS NO EASY task ok? I mean hell, I pride myself on being a veteran of both the Orlando and Jacksonville shows. For those of you who havent gone it's hard to pain a picture but imagine a heat index of about 98 degrees, and with the added humidity index let's say maybe 105 or so. If your lucky it rains or gets overcast, if your not, well fight back that heat exhaustion and settle in.

People pass out right and left, get sick, throw up, pass out......always fun. It's all about the music though, that's why my family {the punk kids and veterans alike} turn out in droves, pay 37.00 a ticket to stifle in the heat, swelter and brave heat exhaution, nausea, fire ants, scary people and god only knows what else to see our anti-heroes in action.

So Last Weds Rachel arrived here at 11:28 in the afternoon, I headed off to the airport only half awake. I had arrived in what I considered perfect time, and had about 10 minutes till she arrived, I ran over to check the flight screen and had turned around to go up the escelator only to see Rachel coming down. Come on now, A EARLY FLIGHT? Who in the hell has heard of that? She had been upstairs thinking "Wow, that chick has cool boots," only to realize a second later it was me. Bwha! So

off to ticketmaster we went. We made our way into the mall, ducked into Hot Topics for a second, then into FYE, we saw a Social Distortion DVD which Rach promptly grabbed and we got our tickets for both shows. Then it was off home, acting positivley nutty the entire way. We got home, ate our Taco Bell and settled Rachel in. We got into the Jelly Belly beans, Saltwater taffy and gummi candy we had picked up at the mall. The Saltwater taffy was in a chinese take out box and we had a ton of it because the only rule was "Cram in as much as you want, but you must be able to clsoe the box" if all else had failed I had nail glue and was gonna glue it closed!LOL! We munched on candy, then went off with my Mom to do some shopping shit, we ran around K-Mart with trash cans on our heads and quoting Rancid from the Rancid sing-along we had had on my stereo prior to leaving. We went and told off my vet {My dog almost died, long story Ill go into later}, and then on the way home it was off to Publix where we purchased Tasty Cakes {Butterscotch Krumpets}, Arizona Green Tea, chips and dip and some other shite. Upon arriving home we settled in and went through pictures, listened to more Rancid, and watched the Social D. DVD about twenty times. Around midnight Danny came over with the Playstation and we all had a good laugh, then Rach and I stayed up, watched some t.v. and got ready to conquer Orlando the next morning.

We went to the Orlando show late, we didnt get there until 3. We got up, ate some breakfast {Spicy Chicken Rolls Japanese Style}, and got dressed, sent my brother to buy smokes while we finished up,. then off to Orlando we go. The whole way up was spent singing along to the crap we found on the radio, including a rendition of "What I like About You" that had the guy in the car next to us dying laughing. We arrive on the scene only to fid we have missed the Bouncind Souls, The Casualties, and Lars and the Bastards. A bit miffed, but pumped nonetheless we survey our territory, circling the area. We see Lars is having a meet and greet at 6:30 so we decide to come back for that. Once that's decided and we have located merchandise tents we head off to Flogging Molly who kicked much ass, dedicating "Selfish Man" to George Bush....BWHA! They also ripped the place apart with "Devil's Dance Floor" so no dissapointments there, my 3rd or 4th Flogging Molly show and it was amazing. The Vandals were awesome, doing "Oi to the World" even. That made me happy, love the Vandals, good to see them live. Then we watched a few more sets including Taking Back Sunday, of whom we knew like.........the chorus of one song's worth, very funny All about the thoughtful "I know this song" head nodding}, and then we wandered to the merch tent area, I went off to buy a Flogging Molly shirt since I had allready purchased my Lars and The Bastards shirt. Rachel meanwhile parked it in front of the Vandals tent, apparently their merch guy wasnt to happy.

Vandals Guy: You cant sit here

Rach: Errrr, why not?

V. Guy: You'll block people coming in

Rach: ~Spreads arms wide~ There's no one here, you have all this space

V. Guy: Um yea, but you cant sit here

Rach: Fine!~Moves off 5 fetet, sits down and gives the Vandals guy a thumbs up~

I wandered back at this point and parked it next to Rachel, sitting about 5 or 6 feet from the Bastards tent, we opted NOT to wait in line, we had another plan. Lars soon appeared looking much different and Rachel and I bravely and unabashedly stared at him, making eye contact, looking away, making eye contact, looking away.....very funny. Then, as the line is dwindling, Rachel and I make a sign on a piece of paper saying "Lars we want you" or summat, and sge perchaes it in my lap, we are laughing insanely at this point and flashing the sign. Funny shit, then suddenly there's only one group of people in front of Lars, time to move in.

Rachel and I get up {this was a long process, many limbs were asleep, it had been nearly a hour and a half}, and make our way to the tent. My hands are shaking now, I mean once again Im before one of my heroes, one of the people who saved my life,

Rachel and I are both chain-smoking with shaking hands. We get up there and he looks up and grins.Wow, you guys have been waiting a LONG time" he says.

"We didnt want to wait in line" Rachel explains as we park ourselves next to him.

He then asked Rach her name, and signed a poster for her, I stood there somewhat blank, then Rachel leans over and whispers something to him, all I could hear was "tattoo" and I knew she meant me.

"Let me see this" Lars says, motioning for me to turn around, and pushing his sunglasses down to get a better view. I freeze, oh yes....I FUCKING FROZE....Rachel yanked my hsirt up and Lars took a long, good look at my Rancid tattoo.

"Wow, that's amazing, that means alot to me" he says. I turn around, grinning sheepishly and manage to blurt out one sentence that sounded like this.

"Itwasveryimportantthatishowthistooneofyouguysbecauseyoursoimportanttomeandihadtogetyouimmortalizedonmyfelshyouguyssavedmylifeandmeansomuchtomethanksifuckingloveyou"

Yea, it sounded like that. Lars then asked my name and I froze again. I didnt say anything at all."Julie" Rachel says shooting me a look.

"Julie" he asks.YES! Julie" I manage, proud that I have now remembered my name. He nodded then grinned up at me, pointing at the poster. "I spelled this right Didnt I?" he says.

I nod and he finishes it off saying

"To: Julie

Much Respect

Love Lars"

At this point pictures are taken, one with Rach and Lars, and then me and Lars, I perched myself on his leg, practically sitting on his lap and HE GRABBED MY ASS! Bwha! He also groped Rachel, grabbing her ass as well, and trust me, he had reason, Rachel is gorgeous! I snagged a hug, then he got up and said. "You Ladies just wait right here, I got something special for you."

He then rummaged through a few boxes and gave us both a Bastards shirt, I promtply blurted.'Can I have one more hug?" He grinned.Sure, c'mere" I snuggled in one last time, a good excuse to smell him again, cause....well he smelled good.Rach then asked him to call her sister, and he would of, but he was off to see Hazen St, so we followed him off to Hazen St, gawking at him, me with tears in my eyes because....well it was Lars, I mean this is one of my heroes here people.

So then we were off, Rachel had a panic moment as she found she had lost her wallet, this could have been bad since with no i.d. she cant get back on the plane, so after a panic attack from both of us we go to the lost and ofund, where wallet is found with money and all.

Then home.....where I got despratley ill. I was up all night and Rachel kept saying "Did you throw up yet?" this made me laugh despite myself, alas I never threw up.

Next day was a lazy day full of bad t.v., my annoying x-boyfriend being in town and coming by, and such crap. That night however we decided we would thank Lars by making cookies. So sure enough, Saturday we get up and head off to Publix and get the stuff for sugar cookies and make them, decorating them with black icing and red sugar crystals, we are quite proud. Being the Punk Rock Martha Stewart I wrap them up and stick them in a baggie along with some poetry I wrote for Lars and Rancid.

Well, we watch more bad t.v., eat soem food and get settled in...it turned into a long night, as in we NEVER WENT TO SLEEP because we had to be up at 8 am...........so not sleeping, we were definitley up in time.

We got dressed, tried to wake ourselves up, and headed off for the 2 hour drive to Jacksonville. We stopped to get smokes and energy drinks and were off.

We arrived at the Fairgrounds in plenty of time so as not to miss any shows. We headed to the Basards merch tent to see when the meet and greet was, no info was up though so once again, we surveyed our domain. We wound up going past the damn merch tent "Unobtrusivley" about a million times till finally we saw the "Meet Lars at 7:30" We then parked it under a tree for shade and peopel watched, all was fine until the guy frever known as "Creepy Joel" showed up. This being some psycho kid in bondage pants dancind manically in circles. Rach and I were sitting behind the first aid ambulance and he was dancing around. We speculated on whether he was drunk, on drugs, or both. Both we figured. All of a sudden, he was next to us, we quickly lowered our eyes trying despratley not to laugh and NOT make eye contact. All of a sudden, he started humping the ambulance.

"Oh god, dont make eye contact, he's humping the ambulance" I mutter, but OF COURSE he walks up to us.

"Hi I'm Joel" he sticks his hand to Rachel.

"Errr, Sara" she says, he then holds his hand out to me. "Michelle" I mutter, he then makes conversation, dances around the ambulances and takes off, we were on "Creepy Joel Watch" all dayWe listened to the crappy bands play, made fun of them and waited for our first band, Flogging Molly. They kicked much asss of course. We wandered around alot, making fun of people or sitting in the unbearble heat which was god-awful really. We walked in circles around the grounds, kept hydrated and layed down for a bit, meeting up with rachel's Mom's friend Matt. We watched Anti-Flag play from our perch on a hill, they kicked much ass, great classic punk rock all around, a great live band Ive seen them a few times} and I give them ALL KUDOS for playing in long-sleeved black shirts. They gave a rousing speech against Bush, and a "Go vote" bit as well, people tried to boo them off stage, always funny to watch morons do that. Rachel then went to watch the Bouncing Souls, I opted to wait off to the side, for the sake of NOT CRUSHING the precious Anarchy cookies. So I waited, The lead singer stage-dived at one point, and walked around the side to go back up, I nearly killed him by running him over, and poking his eye out with my freshly lit cigarette, this is what you get for not pyaing attention kiddies. I apologized and all was well.

Rachel came flying out and grabbed me with one sweaty hand {she was drenched} and we ran to the next stage for Lars and The Bastards. I admit, I screamed to most of the songs, but a good portion of the set was spent by me standing there in abject awe of Lars....kind of sad really but I was stunned, maybe I drooled a bit, either way it had Rachel laughing which was good. Lars even acknowledged us from the stage, making direct eye contact and nodding. Very cool, I was stunned of how amazing they were even though I saw them before with Dropkick. Still I was blown away and Rach and I had many a bonding moment, arms around eachother screaming the words.

After the set, we grabbed drinks and parked it in front of the merch tent. This is where things got amusing. The All American Rejects tent was adajcent to us. I odnt know the band that much, nor do I care so Rachel and I spent 5 minutes trying to figure out if the guy garnering all the attention from puppy-dog-eyed 15 year olds was the lead singer, we decided he was and feeling self-destructive I giggled madly, got up and made liek a obsessive, fawning fan and asked for a picture and a hug, he obliged saying.Did you enjoy the show?"Oh YEA! It was GREAT! You guys are amazing!" ~Snicker-Snort~To funny, so Rachel snapped a picture, trying her BEST not to laugh. So yes, theres a picture of htis. A bit later, Rachels friend Matt and his friend Oliver dared me to harass him again. I obliged and hopped up and ran back, getting him to sign my ticket stub, I made puppy-dog=eyes and said "Can I PULLEASEEEEE" have another hug it would MEAN SO MUCH to me" he grinned.OF COURSE YOU CAN! Come here!" he grabbed me and squezzed me to death. Meanwhile my crew is 15 feet away laughing madly as is Oliver all of a foot from me, I held my laughter in till I sat back down, then I died.

Then Lars appeared, he acknowledged us again, looking over and smiling and nodding, even pointing us out to his merch tent guy who nodded and smiled. It made us grin, after a bit again the line had dwindled and we set forth to offer the cookiesRemember us from Orlando?" I asked approaching the table.Yeah, I remember you guys" he said, smiling and nodding.

"We wanted to thank you for being so cool in Orlando" Rachel said. "So we made you cookies!"

"Oh NO YOU DIDNT!" he said grinning as I handed over the bag. He peeked into it and grinned then handed it to his merch guy saying "Matt, take these to the bus, these are my cookies!"

I snagged another picture, and Rachel asked him to sign something for her sister, I snuggled in super close this time. Rachel then asked if we could both have a picture with him.Sure, just let me get up, here, I'll stand in the middle" so he squished in between us. I knew it was time to go for the kill, I had been saying all night I was going to plant a kiss on his cheek, so I swallowed and bursty out with. "Lars, I hope you odnt mind, but I have to kiss you."Me to" Rach chimed in. So we grabbed him in close and planted a kiss on each cheek, Lars grinning madly, yes, there is alos picture evidence of this. He smiled at us.

"Cant complain about that." As we went to leave I backtracked a bit and grabbed his hand, intending to shake it.Thanks Lars, for everything, and for the fucking kick-ass show, it was brilliant, it means alot."No, thank YOU" he said, then instead of shaking it he grabbed my hand, squeezed it and lifted it up to his lips and kissed it, grinning madly all the while. My knees went weak I swear...........

Rachel and I then left, screaming abotu how bloody awesome it was........how amazing it had been, and even on the drive home, things got better.....it was just amazing.

Rachel has the pictures developed and I should have my copies by Monday, Ill get them up ASAP!

BWHA!

That is all.

P.S. Thanks to J1, Lorelai, Pheebs, Kate, and anyone else who sent me letters-presents-support, I LOVE IT ALL, and it means

so much, keep it up, God knows I need it..........Im still....well not doing so well. I love you guys. I think I may make a layout outta the pics of me and Lars...BWHA!

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