a night of fan-girling, mechanical bulls, & kate freaking nash

Before reading this, if you haven't heard Kate Nash before, you should go listen to her. Or if that's not really your cup of tea, try this song. Also before reading this, be aware that it's going to be quite long. I don't feel like I'd be doing the night justice if I skimped on details.

Years ago I was really into Regina Spektor (still love her, just not the way I used to), and one day a Kate Nash song came on my Regina Spektor Pandora radio station. It was so quirky and fun. Over the next few years I came to really love her music and as I found out more about her as a person, I came to love what she stands for.

My friend Jenny and I went to see Kate at The Pyramid Scheme last year on St. Patrick's Day. It was my first time seeing her live. We were front and center and everything was perfect. We ended up making friends with one of the sound check guys, Kris. He was on tour with Kate and her band. After the show ended, we sat with him for an hour or two and chatted. Jenny and him kept in touch over the following year.

A couple months ago, we found out Kate was coming back to Michigan; this time in Kalamazoo. So of course we decided we had to go. Next thing I knew Jenny was telling me Kris put us on the guest list and that we didn't need to buy tickets. I was actually in disbelief for a few days. As the end of July approached, we solidified our plans for the night, which included adding our other friend Jamie to the guest list. 

After what felt like years of waiting, July 30th finally rolled around. Jamie, Jenny, and I headed to Kalamazoo. We got there early so we stopped at a Coney for hot dogs. Then we went to wait in line for the doors to open. When we got to the front, we gave our name and were let in. The venue wasn't what I expected at all; it was outdoors and had tables and fire pits and was fairly cute. We picked a table and sat there while we watched the opening band and waited for Kate... Also would like to throw out there that she tweeted me not too long before they went on stage. I had posted a picture and tweeted her and she responded with a bunch of emojis. My inner fan-girl was hard to contain.

I won!

Hello everyone! So, something very exciting has happened to me since I last posted. If any of you know me well, you'll probably know that I'm slightly obsessed with the British singer Kate Nash. In fact, I've posted about her and how amazing I think she is before. Fan girl status. No shame!

Anyhow, she posted to her social networks on Valentine's Day that she was putting on a contest. She wanted her fans to send in an email, poem, story, etcetera, about who their valentine was this year. She would go through them and pick her top 5 favorites. The winners would get a signed photo from her. Since my boyfriend and I have a pretty good story, I decided to send in an entry.

A few days after I sent in my email, I got a reply saying she loved mine and that I was chosen as one of the winners! It was so exciting I had trouble breathing for a few moments!!

I've had a couple requests to see what I entered so I figured I'd post it on the blog.

Here is what I sent in (WARNING: it's really cheesy):

Hi Kate, so this year my valentine is something like 3,700 miles away. I live in Grand Rapids, Michigan and he lives in Carlisle, England. We started out over 2 years ago as snail mail pen pals. Ten months after communicating only via mail and internet, I flew across the Atlantic to meet him... BEST DECISION EVER. He's absolutely amazing and worth every mile. He's coming to visit me in 29 days and I can't fricking wait. I'm hoping one day soon we'll get to permanently close the gap.

Anyways, after my last visit (in November 2013), I wrote this poem with him in mind. It's based off a photo I took standing outside his front door before a walk into town one day. 

41 Dalston Road

autumn leaves beneath my feet;

heavy, damp air

sticks to my skin,

exposed.

clouds

close to earth --

not oppressive --

embrace tree tops.

branches droop.

my lungs expand

and I breathe in 

his scent,

lingering.

Thank you so much for being such an amazing person/artist and for taking the time to read this! Hope you have a lovely Valentine's Day. :) x

-Tess

So that's the entry that got me into the top 5! I'm still kind of in disbelief that she chose mine. Super happy about it. I guess Tom and I really do have a great story though!

-teddy x

my best friend is you

Hello loves! I haven't posted in awhile, mainly because I've been lacking ideas for posts. I'm really trying to keep up on this though so here I am! 

I actually received a little inspiration tonight when I glanced up at the bulletin board in my room and saw my Kate Nash concert ticket from last year.

If you haven't heard of her, or heard her music, you should probably stop reading this now and go look her up. It's not just her music I love, (which I first fell for whilst listening to a Regina Spektor Pandora radio station), but I love the things that she stands for. She is a strong, positive woman and a great influence to females young and old. She is not afraid to stand up for what she believes in or what she wants, and although many people claim to be this way, few actually are. So many women in the music industry today conform to the standards of society, and frankly it's a tad boring. Kate Nash is fun, quirky, and a woman of her own. She is an inspiration to me.

I'm totally about to sound a bit fan-girl-nerd-like buuuuut last year I tweeted about getting tickets to her show from my boyfriend for Valentine's Day (who by the way knows I'm in love with her so it's ok!) and I don't even think it was an hour later that she favorited my tweet and then started following me on Twitter! Needless to say, even though I think twitter is one of the most boring things ever, I can't delete it now.

Also, we've sort of had a conversation before. One of my lovely but loud-mouthed BFF's decided to shout to Kate at the concert (we were right in front of the stage) that my boyfriend lives in England (she's from London so it was something to bond over maybe????) and she looked at me and said "Your boyfriend lives in England?", I got all nervous/excited and just nodded, and then she said "Oh shit giiiirl". 

Maybe one of the best moments of my life? 

Anyways, I just wanted to say how awesome she is and that everyone should check her out!

Ain't she a beaut?

Photo taken by me at The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids, Michigan on March 17, 2013.