Dally Day One: Bruuuuuised!

Everything about traveling to Dallas went off without a hitch. I kept waiting for some disaster to strike because...anxiety, and of course everyones recent horror travel stories. It may have been the one time I got right through security without a wait at all. The flight was on time. The flight had absolutely no turbulence. It was a nervous-flyers dream. 

I got to Dallas at 11 and ran out of LOVE to find my love. After a bit of confusion on where to find Erin and Meagan, I finally saw my boo honking the horn! 

First stop was to get some food at this cute little vibe of a restaurant Paradiso. The hummus! The cauliflower! The artichoke! The best damn truffle fries (Yes, Gaya, possibly better than Lonnie's!).

Earlier in the week, Erin, texted me asking if I wanted to get a matching tattoo with her. This was very out of character for her. I was not only shocked because 1. my boo isn't a "tattoo person" even though she has a couple small ones and 2. we literally were going to do this when she moved to Texas 8ish years ago and I wound up with a "follow your arrow" tattoo and she did not. LOL But I'm game because tattoos are a roadmap of your life and to get something that represents my boo is something I've thought about for awhile. She wanted a simple cat face which I did not since I already have my cats tattooed on me. I threw out the ghost idea because we have called each other "Boo" since the beginning of our friendship (18 years ago) when we watched How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days. If you don't know the reference then please find that lovely romcom on a streaming service of your choosing. I've been thinking about a ghost for her for a little bit so I thought this would be perf. She was on board! Until she was not...LOL The minute I got into the car she's like "Ok, don't hate me but I don't want the ghost." I honestly wasn't even mad because this is just classic indecisive boo. She had decided she wanted a simple bouquet. Get it girl. Do you. I came up with the idea of a Bluebonnet to represent Texas, Meagan came up with the carnation to represent her birth month, and of course the orange blossom to represent her Florida roots. 

After lunch, we drove not even a mile to Erin's friend's tattoo shop where she had so kindly already booked an appt. for all of us. Her friends were all so nice and even had a cute dog and cute baby in the shop. Meagan and I made Erin go first since she was FREAKING OUT. Mind you this entire thing was her idea. We talked her through both of her tattoos and she was a champ. I ended up still getting my cute lil ghost for my boo on the back of my ankle. I love it! It's my first out-of-Florida tattoo! Meagan went last with a design on the back of her arm. 

We were tatted and ready to party! Meagan offered to use her points to get a hotel room nearby to rest/get ready before the show instead of driving an hour back to Erin's house ON THE OUTSKIRTS. Erin was appalled we called her area "the outskirts" but it is. It is literally a fact. I see Frisco (where she used to live) as the burbs and now she is even further from that which, my dear friend, is known as the outskirts. Honestly, the hotel was perfect even though we took the long way walking around the entire floor because none of us could read a very visible sign. Shrug. I took the task of saniderming up everyone's tattoos so they were nice and protected. While looking at Erin's bouquet, I noticed bruising. Meagan confirmed my suspicion while she sang in the tune of Jack's Mannequin "Bruised...." and we all just cracked up because A+ comedy right there. I have a lot of tattoos and so does Meagan and neither of us had ever seen a tattoo bruise like this.  Apparently it can happen (obviously!) according to the internet. We had no idea how insane this bruise was about to get...

After we all had a couple outfit changes and makeup touch-ups we headed back out to go get some food before the show. We paid $20 to park in a garage when Erin mentioned the name of the venue and I was almost certain that was incorrect. I checked, and yep we were at the wrong venue. She thought it was The Bomb Factory when it was in fact at the South Side Ballroom (thankfully only a couple miles out of the way). We ditched the whole dinner idea because time didn't seem to allow for it if we wanted a good spot and WE WANTED A GOOD SPOT. The venue did offer nachos and bags of potato chips so that had to suffice. We got some merch and were about to check it at the "Merch Check-In" but we refused to pay $10 just for them to hold our bag for the night. We got a plastic grocery bag and shoved all our shit inside it and I slipped it on the belt of my fanny pack. I was swinging that bag all over the place the entire night. Sorry to anyone I hit by accident (which is probably everyone). Before the show started we got all center of center on the floor and started talking to Pittsburgh Lindsey. She was super nice and friendly and showed me all the cool photos of Andrew and Chris playing a week prior, right outside Heinz Field, at the AE stage. One of these days Dustin and I will go to a show there. 

I've seen Andrew perform in his varying bands the most I've seen anyone (maybe 15 times?) and I'm sure half of them were with Erin. She and I hadn't been to a show together since she moved to Texas so it has been a minute. 

Or 8 years.

So when I saw the tour come out and there was no Orlando date but the Dallas date was on a Friday, it was a no brainer. Then Jon and Meagan jumped on board and all we had to do was wait like 4ish months. It was just like old times singing to one another in a crowd of fellow forever emos all losing their minds like we were 17 again. I mean, his setlist included Hurricane, I Woke Up In A Car, and Punk Rock Princess. How could we not? He floated over our heads one minute and another he was walking in the crowd RIGHT NEXT TO US. See the video for receipts.

After his set, Erin and I went to pee. Well, we tried but the line was SO long. We went to the other side and the line was also SO long but also didn't even make sense so we decided to sit down against a brick wall and rest our old ass millennial bones until the line got shorter. We finally saw our opportunity and got back in line. A girl came out of the "mens" side and was like "There are two stalls in there!!". Erin and I  looked at one another and ran in there so fast. Sorry to the guys at the urinal we might have startled but we had to go. 

Erin and Jon hung back on the outskirts during Dashboard's set. I didn't want to dive back into the depths of the crowd again but I had never seen Dashboard (weird, I know!), so I wanted a better sightline.  I moved to the side of the stage with a great view and enough room and sang along. Of course they played all the oldies but I was actually bummed he didn't play more newer music. His latest album is really good and I wanted to hear more songs from it. But I get it, this night/tour was to honor all of our former teenage selves. And we did. 

We met back up with Meagan. Said goodbye to Lindsey. And drove the hour back to Erin's because hashtag outskirt life. But first we stopped at Whataburger because we were all starving. This was my first time and it hit way harder than In-N-Out ever could. Yes, I said what I said. They both warned me to go with onion rings instead of fries which I did. We didn't go to bed until like 2 am. Who even are we?