Bus to the Sun (the band I was in) is no more. Since a couple months ago. Not a big deal, it just wasn’t something my bandmate decided she wanted to do. I am continuing on exactly as before, except now I need to either find or start a band. I’m going to try to figure out and use a music program on my laptop and just do everything myself, but no promises on that. I’ve been in a bit of a slump (or wasteland?) lyric-wise so far this year, but I hope to turn that around soon.

If anyone actually takes the time to read this, I love you. In a totally friendly way.

This may be long, but it’s the story of one of the most meaningful experiences of my life.

Yesterday, my best friend, Diana, and I went to The Noise Tour concert at Boston House of Blues. It was amazing that we even made it there. The public transit times to get there from our college and back were impossible. We were about to give up, but Diana’s dad volunteered to bring her car over for the week (freshman can’t have a car on campus). That meant having to pay $40 for a week-long parking pass, but we decided to go for it. Money isn’t too much of an issue when we want to see There For Tomorrow. We waited with anticipation for weeks and were very excited when the 18^th finally came. We’d seen TFT at Warped Tour and they were amazing, so we knew this show would be good. Driving to the Alewife T Station wasn’t a problem; neither was riding the T in to Boston. It was a very short walk to House of Blues. Because we wanted to have plenty of time to chill in Boston, we arrived at HoB around 2pm. Doors opened at 6, so we had a long wait. We sat around for a while, but decided to get in the line at 3. Standing in line with a bunch of music-lovers for three hours means friendships will be made. We befriended a couple girls and pretended to be cousins so we could hold each other’s places in line. We saw Christian, the guitarist of TFT, walk past and went to say hi because I had to apologize about the worst high-five ever at Warped. He let me give him a better high-five and Diana snailed him (That’s when you make a fist-bump look like a snail… Look it up.). The waiting time really wasn’t too bad and being toward the front of the line was cool.

When we were admitted for the concert to start, I was pumped. Five bands were playing: The Make, There For Tomorrow, You Me at Six, We Are The In Crowd, and Mayday Parade. When TFT took the stage, Diana and I sang along and were a little crazy, unlike most of the crowd. We ignored weird looks because we’d rather cheer for our favorite band than worry what others think. After their set, the guys briefly signed autographs and took pictures with fans by their merch table. We missed them because we were waiting for the area to clear out a bit and they left during that time. We asked Kelly at the merch table if they’d be back and she said they would after the concert was over. This was the first act of greatness of the day. Sure, we now had to stay through three bands we didn’t really know, but we would have left sadly otherwise. It turned out that the other bands were all really good, so I’m glad we stayed. Seeing all the great performances also inspired me to try harder to improve my musical ability.

After the concert, Jay, the bassist, came out to say hi to fans. He said the others guys would be along soon, though it ended up being over an hour. We all got kicked out of HoB and waited outside for the other TFT guys. Jay was kind enough to hang out with us during that time; he’s a super-cool guy. By the time the other guys showed up, only four of us were left waiting. We chatted a short while with them, got hugs, and basically said everything we’d wanted to say. Chris, the drummer, thought it was odd that we didn’t want pictures or anything, but we were there to talk only since the photos from Warped were enough. Diana also snailed Maika, the singer, and he thought it was weird. The issue with trying to befriend people you’re a fan of is figuring out what to talk about. Having that waiting time with Jay was the best thing we could have hoped for and the fact that he was willing to hang out with us instead of sleep or something was the second act of greatness. He’s my favorite now.

After we said goodbye, it was almost 1am. To our horror, the last T going our direction had already left. Being from a small town, I operate under the belief that almost everything in a city is open 24/7. Sadly, Boston is a smaller city and this is not the case. We were about to freak out, but ran back to TFT, catching them just before they drove away. I felt awful to ask them what we were supposed to do, but Andy, who is one of TFT’s associates, was kind enough to call a cab for us. Then, when we were in the cab, he even called me to make sure we’d been picked up. That was the third act of greatness. The cab used up almost all my cash, but we got to Alewife Station’s parking garage and got Diana’s car with no problem. Then we faced the difficulty of getting out of the city in the dark. We took a wrong turn or something and got completely lost. We managed to find a woman just getting home and asked her for directions, but then got lost again. There were a bunch of policemen in the area, responding to something, and we stopped one to ask for directions. He was kind enough to lead us to the highway even though he was busy, the fourth act of greatness. From there, it was no trouble to get home. We arrived back around 3:30am and went straight to bed.

That was one of the most intense experiences of my life, but I learned some things. Even when things are going horribly wrong, there are kind people to lend a hand. I witnessed the very best of humanity when I felt trapped in failure. There For Tomorrow is now my favorite band of all time, partly because of the music, but mainly because of the amazing people in and associated with the band. Was standing for nine hours straight, becoming almost broke, and feeling like everything was going to hell repeated times worth seeing them? Definitely. I would go through the entire experience again if it meant finding the same light that I did.

So, thank you, There For Tomorrow, for inspiring me not only to improve musically, but also to improve myself as a person. Thank you, random woman, for giving us directions as best you could. Thank you, policeman, for taking the time to help two frightened girls. Thank you all so very much. There are no words to express the gratitude I will always feel. Believe me when I say that I love each and every one of you from the core of my being.

-Skye

I just thought of something and it struck me with such force that I feel obliged to blog about it. There is an entire world of people in every single story, but only a very few of them are followed around. Take, oh, Twilight for instance. Not a good example, but it’ll illustrate my point. In Twilight, I’m sure there were far more interesting people than Bella to read about. Probably some dude in Russia or something was infinitely more interesting, had way cooler adventures, and was just better to tell a story about. But it wasn’t his story; it was Bella’s. See what I mean? Each story is a complete world full of people with their own fascinating stories, but the reader never learns about them and probably doesn’t even realize they exist. This is technically logical because it’d be impossible for the writer to tell the story of every individual, but it still makes me wonder who else is out there, unmentioned, in every book or movie. I don’t think I’ll ever read or movie-watch the same again. Food for thought, anyway.

-Skye

I don’t want to go on too long a rant here, but it has been a recent realization of mine about how deeply internet talk is insinuating itself into everyday language. I don’t just mean shortened “text-talk,” but the overall use of all internet language – emoticons, for example. Lots of people use emoticons in all types of writing. They are helpful because they can show emotion in otherwise blank writing. Like if I write something in a joking way, I can put a symbol to show that I’m joking so the recipient doesn’t take it the wrong way. But I do wonder if it’s lessening the use of descriptive writing. People can just show how they mean something, so they don’t have to choose words as carefully anymore. I admit I even occasionally catch myself from putting a smiley face on the end of an email to a professor. And I’m reasonably sure that I invented “ick” >p< since I’ve never seen it in anyone else’s use. But, overall, I try my best to not rely on emoticons to convey meaning. Language is an art and attempting to express myself properly with words is an endeavor I do not ever plan on giving up.

As a kind of side note, I really hate text-talk. But that will be a rant for another day. K thx bai. ^.^

Yeah, no. Not classy at all.

-Skye

You can validate anything you say by invalidating it. Actually… You can validate almost anything you say by invalidating it. Case in point.

This is the realization I came to yesterday. There is always some contentious person out there who will argue with anything you say just for the sake of arguing. You make any sort of statement that doesn’t include a conditional modifier and they will instantly jump all over you and point out each tiny exception. It’s quite annoying and the only way to really avoid it is by adding a conditional such as “maybe,” “generally,” “usually,” “often,” or a number of others. Anything to prevent that nit-picky contender from opening their mouth.  By not making a definitive statement, it’s more difficult for others to counter it. I use this practice often, usually without even realizing it.

So the next time you’re having a discussion, maybe you’ll notice the conditionals you add and thank them for saving you a lot of annoying arguments.

-Skye

Though it’s my dream to make a living as a singer, I don’t think I’m great at all. Not even very good. But I’ve improved a lot in just the past couple weeks, so I maintain my hope of becoming good enough to make a living of it. That’s what I want. Not a job, but a way of life.

I’m more than willing to put up with long airplane flights, sleepless nights, and tons of work if it means that I can have any kind of impact in the lives of others. I write and sing not for myself, but for other people. If I make a positive difference in anyone’s life, I’ll see myself as successful, though it’ll never be a complete goal because there’s always someone else to help. I am going to try to live my life for the benefit of others.

Though I may not be the most musically talented, it is this goal that sets me apart from so many “popular” musicians today. The reason I write will be why I’m successful. It’s all about connecting with people and inspiring them. And Bus to the Sun’s fans will be part - I hope - of a group more like a family than anything, who can befriend and help each other, relying on honesty, loyalty, and passion. With a dream like that, I think there’s no way I can fail. I just have to get others to see it.

-Skye

To whomever you may be,

I am grateful that you’re taking the time to read this. My goal for this blog is to share my thoughts, feelings, and craziness with the world. I may not always make sense, but I mean well. This will be a creative outlet for me to try to express my tangled thoughts with words and hope for some insight from others in my never-ending attempt to understand people more fully.

If you want to follow my band, our official YouTube page is here.

http://www.youtube.com/user/BusToTheSun

I am always interested in what other people have to say as long as it’s respectful, constructive, and honest. I look forward to making connections with you all.

-Skye