This was a busy month and I’m going to stray from the music news a little bit in this post (and even insert a selfie! Oh my, what is this blog coming to?!?!).
First things first: I JUMPED OFF A BUILDING! Okay, rappelled. Let’s not get technical though.
Dressed in full cat lady gear as seen above. It was amazing, breathtaking, stunning, f@$#ing awesome, I don’t even have words to continue on about what an experience it was. I got in the harness (may not be able to have babies, damn it was tight!) and headed up to the roof to prepare. After a safety explanation and practice rappel off a five foot ledge, it was on to 22 stories of the Hyatt.
Clipped in, I slowly glanced down the side and for a split second, I asked myself what the heck I was doing up there but it was time. I scooted up onto the ledge, grabbed the bar and slowly leaned into the harness. Five minutes later, I was midway down, waving to my mom, aunt and roommate as they cheered. Yes, I could hear them all at the top! When I hit the bottom, my legs were a bit weak, like sea legs after a day of boating but it was so worth it! I ended up raising just under $1200.00 but my fundraising page is still open!
Every $500.00 I earn, covers an athlete for the year. We’re talking transportation, training and equipment. I was able to meet a few athletes and they’re truly inspiring. Not only do they train hard every day, they worked hard at the rappel and made sure we were all set on the way up to the roof and cheered for us at the bottom. Still, why would I just go out and do something so extreme? I think it’s just another piece of my dad in my heart. He raised a weirdo obsessive collector, with an adventurous soul that wants to help people, just like him (don’t forget the fart jokes!).
Aside from the biggest fundraiser I’ve taken part of to date, July was also a month of music for me. I blogged a whole bunch, saw some local performers and there were some great links out there so I felt immersed this month.
The Lowell Folk Fest was the 25th – 27th so I headed down Saturday and Sunday with friends and family. It was so much fun and I think I managed to walk off all the fried dough I ate. Ya know, Lowell sometimes gets crapped on but I love it here. It’s certainly not crack town USA anymore and the diversity is amazing. Honestly, I think there might be more ethnicities in Lowell than all of Massachusetts because of our mill history. Do you know how much yummy food and great folk music performances that makes for!?!
By far, the most popular line was for the Polish tent. These ladies are NOTORIOUS. My family is partly Polish so I’ve known of these magical bites of heaven for ever. Above is one of the ladies actually demonstrating how to make pierogis.
There was a LOT of great music, but I only managed to grab one picture to share with you. Above is the bluegrass group that played, but there were street performers, steel drum groups, a Japanese drumming group (they were SO COOL!) and a traditional Greek folk group that all played ass well.
Like I mentioned, there were a lot of great lists out there this month. Ladies, if you’re sick of “bro country”, head over to THIS Buzzfeed post so listen to some bad ass ladies. I’ll admit, I’m not a big country fan, but it’s not fair to exclude the genre, especially on this blog! Also, on the new music side of things, there is a group of hard rocking 8th graders out there kicking some major metal butt. Learn more about the group from another Buzzfeed article HERE.
Do you have Spotify? Hit up THIS Billboard article for an awesome summer playlist. Thirty songs should give you a great start to that cook out, picnic, party, rafting down the river trip or whatever your adventure is! Summer’s also the time for lo-oO-OoO-v-eeee so if you’re feeling a little romantic, I have a Buzzfeed link for ya! Head over to it HERE. Speaking of Summer, Billboard had a great list of songs from the 1970s for the summer. Check it out!
Well, that’s about all for July! It felt very busy, hopefully August will just be relaxing beach days, blogging and a baby watch for two amazing ladies (not me!)!
My Dad's Albums 