It's Flagler Bitch

We've been utilizing my Aunt's friend's "beach house" (It's like 3 blocks from the beach so close enough) for a few years now. It's become somewhat of a tradition. I'm glad we all were able to get together again this year. 

2017
2015

I got into town around 10am on Saturday. Shortly after I arrived Hayley and I bolted to the beach with Rachelle and Addilyn. Man, it's a hot one. Like seven inches from the midday sun. Anyone recognize that little diddy from the very late 90s? Santana just came to mind as I thought back to the misery of the heat. I know I know, the beach is supposed to be sunny and hot but in my perfect beach world it would be warm and overcast. There was no beating the heat but Hayley and I tried beating the sun by slathering on SPF 100, sitting under an umbrella, wearing hats, towels, and even blankets as needed. Ain't nobody got time for a sunburn. Addilyn spent a lot of time just digging but then she needed to stretch her smol legs and she took off left and right. She's like all day cardio with how fast and far she can run! At first she was afraid to go near the water, either that or she just didn't want to because you know a two year old isn't about to do anything they don't want to do. But finally she came in a little bit with us right along the shore. There was even a moment she lost her footing and fell completely on the top of her head. She was totally fine but it was just hilarious. Hayley tried to go out deep in the water and Dilyn said to Rachelle "Her too far!". Little lifeguard on duty! It was a little dark out towards the west and after only being there 5 minutes we heard lots of thunder. We thought about packing it up and heading back but we decided to stick it out. I'm glad we did because although the storm kept on growing it never made it to the shore and therefore our beach sesh wasn't shortened at all. 

We all walked back to the house and said goodbye to Rachelle and Dilyn. My mom was at the house now (after driving through the storm that missed us and getting off at the wrong exit and driving WAY out of the way) and proceeded to show us all every single photo on her phone. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. She then kind of made up for it by giving the birthday girl aka my aunt a cute royal themed mug. She gave Hayley and I little porcelain cat trays. I think they are meant for your tea bag but since I don't do tea I'm using it as a small jewelry holder. Hayley and I were getting hungry so my aunt got out all the food she had bought and while telling us our chip options proceeded to say "I got this interesting chip bag full of exotic flavors. What is a Funyun?". This was the exact moment Hayley and I burst into laughter because who hasn't heard of Funyuns? So for the rest of the trip we made them sound super fancy by pronouncing them like "FUN-YAWN". 

Right before we left on our Tomoko State Park adventure Grey showed up. He had just been in the car for over an hour so he opted to go to the beach while we continue onwards. It was just as my aunt turned right onto A1A when the Flagler Beach water tower was visible to everyone that my mom said "It's Flagler Bitch". I about fell out of the car I was laughing so hard. Tuck and roll and laughing the whole damn way. She said a million crazy things on this trip and unless you follow me on Snapchat you really missed out. She asked Hayley and I if we were millenniums. I said, "You mean millennials". She randomly told us she liked the word "stagnant". Also there was the story about how it took her two weeks to teach herself how to drive stick in a Toyota Corona. We proceeded to tell her she meant the Corolla but she was convinced it was called a Corona. Sure enough she was right. This is what the little turd looked like. 

We drove down A1A and then back up through the Tomoka State Park. We stopped for a bit and walked around in the humid air. The whole trip cars were passing my aunt, my mom wouldn't stop talking about the mansions on John Anderson, and Hayley and I just looked at each other with wide eyes, shook our heads, and giggled to ourselves exactly the way we did as kids. Some things never change.

Later on we all went out to dinner at Oceanside. It had been such a day that I had some sangria. No, this isn't a big deal for most people but I don't drink. I don't drink for a lot of reasons but mainly because alcohol usually tastes like shit. Sangria is great though so I ordered my first alcoholic beverage at a restaurant since I turned 21. Yeah, that's how much I don't drink. I just needed something after the stress of being cooped up with family. YOU KNOW HOW IT GETS. Also, originally this was going to be a day trip because Hayley and Grey weren't going to come but since they were there I powered through! 

After dinner we hit up the Flagler Beach pier. I really do like the small town beach town of Flagler even if Dustin tells me about the "real" Flagler. Ha! There were lots of people fishing as usual. It was beautiful looking but muggy as all hell. So as you look at these pretty photos just remember it was about 96% humidity. Grey went back to Gainesville and then it was just the four of us. We talked about a lot of old stories. One of which my mom said she signed me up for some before school program in middle school and one day when she picked me up early she asked someone about how I was doing and they said I never show up to it. She then said "I didn't know what the hell you were up to so I just prayed." This had me cracking up. I look back on those mornings with fond memories of hanging by the staircase next to the basketball courts. There was a huge group of us that would meet up there before school. A lot of the time Valerie and I would walk a few blocks to 7-11 wherein we would see what we could get for $1 because we rarely had any more than that. We'd have to leave our backpacks by the front door so I just remember a pile of backpacks when you walked in since we weren't the only kids skipping the morning program to enjoy some M&Ms at 7:15 in the morning. 

 

By Sunday we were all getting on each others nerves and it was clearly time to go our separate ways. We all had a nice breakfast and then packed up the cars. Hayley rode back to Orlando with me since she was catching a flight back home that afternoon. We had some time to kill so we stopped by my house for a minute. Hayley finally got to meet Cheeto and Olive. I think she won him over with some food. He was surprisingly good aka he didn't run and hide under the covers. 

It was a good weekend and although we all start to lose our patience it's a nice tradition I hope we carry out until we no longer can. Until next year ladies...and Grey.

Gainesville Gang

Two weekends ago Dustin and I drove up to Gainesville to visit with Hayley and Stephen (and the rest of the family) while they were in town. While Stephen was still out on a ride (he rides like 5 hrs straight and something like 80+ miles - straight up beast!) Hayley and my Aunt Sarah was telling me about their crazy morning getting woken at the ass crack of dawn so a nurse could take Stephen's blood for drug testing. You know, athlete and all. 

We went to Satchels for lunch which is probably my all time favorite pizza place. Also their salads are everything! Oh and let me not forget about their homemade sodas. We got right in without a wait which is kind of unheard of. Afterwards we checked out their new addition in the back. It all used to be open to the outside for extra seating and they had a little store of fun knick knacks but then it caught on fire so they rebuilt it and now it's inside which means AC! It's still just as cool. 

The five of us squished into my Aunt's car and Hayley took us on a little tour of Gainesville. We saw a couple of her old houses and one of Grey's. We saw the new Target and the duck pond. As we were driving by all of these old houses Hayley pointed out that one still had carriage steps in the front which I thought was the absolute coolest. They look like this. I love that some houses have left them untouched. What a neat reminder of another time, of the history of the property itself. I bet Savannah has a bunch I never paid much attention to but I'll be sure to be on the look out the next time I go. 

It was a nice little day. I'm glad Dustin got to meet Stephen too since he's about to officially join this circus. 

K+A=TAY

Katie and I bought our Reputation Tour tickets when they first went on sale in December 2017. It was a long eight months but I kept counting it down with eager fan girl enthusiasm. 

Finally, August 14, 2018 arrived. I left work early and went home to get ready. I went with a simple outfit of a Taylor lyric shirt and a black fascinator that one might wear to a funeral. It was a play off the line "Taylor can't come to the phone right now. Why? Because she's dead!" from 'Look What You Made Me Do'. If old Taylor is dead then I want to dress as if I'm mourning that loss but also show I'm excited for the new Taylor. Katie made her outfit in reference to the vault part of the 'Look What You Made Me Do' video. She bought an oversized shirt and sewed patches on it. I was the one who provided the props for the photoshoot. Did I have a baseball bat like Taylor in the video? No. But did I have just about everything else? Yep. We were dying laughing as she posed with a golf club, a broom, a mop, and best of all a pool noodle. 

We ended up leaving my house by 4pm. 

The concert started at 7pm. 

Taylor was rumored to take the stage at 9pm. 

We have plenty of time, right? 

NOPE. 

I-4 was extra brutal as we inched along. I expected it being that it was rush hour but I did not expect it to last for a full hour. Once we finally got going we got stuck inside a torrential downpour. I had to slow down to 30 mph just to feel "safe". But even then I couldn't see but a few feet in front of my car. I was already stressed from being behind schedule and the rain put us even further back. As we got into the outskirts of Tampa Katie yelled "What is that smoke?!" and sure enough I looked over to the right and there was a smoke cloud. A few minutes later we drove by an SUV blazing on the side of the road. Where the hood once was was now engulfed in dancing flames. Thankfully everyone made it out safely. We finally got off the exit at 7pm and had not eaten anything. We found a Taco Bell (we always seem to eat there before any kind of Tampa concert) and stopped to get something into our stomachs. We left by 7:30 and were on our way. We thought it would be smooth sailing from there since we were only ONE mile away from the stadium. But then my GPS took us through a neighborhood and it was a parking lot. Cars were lined up down each street and were not moving. We waited for a long time before panic started to overwhelm me and fear of missing one second of Taylor started to enter my mind. Then I did something that could have been very dumb. I got out of the line we had been waiting in for 30 minutes and went straight where no Taylor traffic was going. Upon doing so we almost got T-boned by a crazy lady in an SUV. She just sped across the street instead of inching out little by little. I haven't had to slam on the brakes like that in years. Katie and I screamed and cussed and then finally laughed because now our adrenaline was going and we were alive to tell the tale. I ended up turning onto a main road and there was our actual parking lot from the 1989 tour. It was only $20 and we got right in without a wait. I'm so glad my risk of getting out of one line to find something else worked in our favor. I felt instant relief in my chest the moment I parked. We made it into Raymond James Stadium with only 30ish minutes to spare. I have never been "late" to a concert like that in my life. We had enough time to get drinks, find our seats, and watch Camila Cabello perform two songs. Then we waited about 15 minutes before Taylor finally hit the stage. 

I had heard about how this was the best Swift tour yet. My friend Alyssa went to it a month before  me and gave it rave reviews. She'd say "YOU JUST WAIT." and "I'D TOTALLY GO AGAIN." Needless to say there was a lot of hype and I was READY FOR IT. Pun totally intended. 

It was everything I hoped it would be and more. She sang (so strong and beautifully). She danced (girl has cute dorky white girl moves and she has actual dancer moves). She played guitar and piano (I'm always impressed by anyone who plays an instrument and writes their own lyrics). She included Meredith and Olivia (her cats). She performed on THREE different stages (the main one and then two close to where our seats were). She walked through the crowd and high-fived hundreds of fans along the way. She talked to the crowd often about everything from her music always evolving to the last time she was in Tampa dressed as Olaf (which Katie and I saw with our very own eyeballs) to that very day being the year anniversary of her winning her sexual assault case in Denver. And while she made her speech (you can hear it in my video below) the crowd held up dollar bills in support. That part made me cry. It's a bittersweet thing but I'm just so glad she came out on top. She always does. I don't have a story like that but I, too, went through some real shit recently. I know what it's like to be betrayed by people you thought you could trust, you thought were your friend. I can relate to people not believing you even when you told the truth. And I'm proud to say I know the feeling of winning, of being 100% justified after months of hell, and coming out the other side anew. I've always loved her music from the beginning but none of her past albums spoke to me personally the way this one did. It really was part of my healing process. Singing to those lyrics while I was in the worst of it pulled me back from the edge several times. Singing those words on the other side with my best friend next to me surrounded by thousands of lit up wrists was such a special moment. 

They're burning all the witches even if you aren't one

So light me up

Light me up

I DID SOMETHING BAD/TAYLOR SWIFT

My castle tumbled overnight

I brought a knife to a gunfight

They took the crown, but its alright

All the liars are calling me one

Nobody's heard from me for months

I'm doing better than I ever was

CALL IT WHAT YOU WANT/TAYLOW SWIFT

This is why we can't have nice things, darling

Because you break them

I had to take them away

This is why we can't have nice things, honey

Did you think I wouldn't hear all the things you said about me?

And therein lies the issue

Friends don't try to trick you

Get you on the phone and mind twist you

And so I took an axe to a mended fence

But I'm not the only friend you've lost lately

If only you weren't so shady

Here's a toast to my real friends

They don't care about the he said she said

And here's to my baby

He ain't reading what they call me lately

And here's to you 

Cause forgiveness is a nice thing to do

Haha, I can't even say it with a straight face

THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS/TAYLOR SWIFT

I don't like your little games

Don't like your titled stage

The role you made me play

Of the fool, no, I don't like you

But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time

Honey, I rose up from the dead, I dot it all the time

I've got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined

I don't trust nobody and nobody trusts me

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO/TAYLOR SWIFT

Thank you Taylor for an incredible evening. 

Thank you for being you and letting us have a peak inside your creatively detailed, genuine, human mind. 

photo

 

photo

 

photo

  

A Tampa Bay resident and fellow Swiftie by the name of Tara McCarty worked on the lyric project alone. She compiled every single lyrics and compared them left and right. What a task. I thought it was just such a neat idea. 

Look What Taylor Swift Made Me Do (A lyric project)

I, too, have noticed certain words being repeated in more than one song especially in this album. I've always picked up on her using fantasy and fairytale like words in her music. She also has mentioned the word red and usually in the context of her lipstick a time or two. The words below are the ones I noticed being prominent in her reputation album lyrics. 

Gold/Golden: Dress, Dancing With Our Hands Tied, End Game

Blue: Delicate, Dancing With Our Hands Tied, Gorgeous 

Burn/Burning: I Did Something Bad, Dress, Call It What You Want, Dress

Necklace/Locket/Chain: Dancing With Our Hands Tied, So It Goes, Call It What You Want

King/Queen/Kingdom/Castle: King Of My Heart, Look What You Made Me Do, Call It What You Want

Drink/Drunk: End Game, Gorgeous, King Of My Heart

Reputation: Delicate, End Game

photo

photo

Tampa, Florida tonight!!🔥🔥 #taylorswift #reputationstadiumtour

A post shared by Maho Udo (@maho_udo) on Aug 14, 2018 at 10:47am PDT

It’s all in the faces. 😅 Are you ready for this humidity Tampa?! #reputationstadiumtour #reptourtampa

A post shared by Jake Landgrebe (@jakelandgrebe) on Aug 14, 2018 at 2:45pm PDT

I'm not sure how many problems I have cuz math is one of them. *sings gorgeous* I hate you so much, I hate you so much 👏👏

A post shared by Marion (@drinkingcoffeewithswift) on Aug 16, 2018 at 4:55am PDT

To whomever organized this and handed it out... Yall are the real MVPs! Taylor was so emotional and grateful 😭❤️ #taylorswift #onedollar #sexualassaultisnotokay #reptourtampa #reputationstadiumtour

A post shared by Elzahn van der Westhuizen (@sensibleswiftie) on Aug 16, 2018 at 12:18pm PDT