RagsReborn Gifts' December Craft Shows

What a whirlwind couple of months!! I have been lucky enough to participate in at least one craft show per week since late September. One might think I'd be stressed out, burned out, and ready to quit after so many shows but that is wrong... I absolutely LOVE this!! Holiday craft show season is my absolute favorite. I have worked hard the entire year to be able to showcase my handmade items during these few months. Right now, I am one happy and proud sewist. ("sewist" - combination of the words sew and artist; to describe someone who creates sewn works of art)

And now it's time for my annual plea to shop local. While you're holiday shopping this year, might I suggest visiting a local craft fair? There are so many different local shopping events happening this time of year. I have the ones I will be participating in listed below.  I've been shopping local for my gift list since I started RagsReborn a few years ago and I plan to do so again this year. Please everyone, let's support our local entrepreneurs. (I'm marked as "going" on all of these on Facebook; if you'd like some more details, please let me know and I'll be happy to send you an invite.)

Sleigh Bells Market
Saturday December 3, 2017
12pm - 6pm
Oklahoma City Public Farmers Market 311 S Klein Avenue, Oklahoma City, OK 73102

The Heart of Christmas Craft & Vendor Fair
Saturday December 9, 2017
10am - 4pm
Events at Ten West Main 10 West Main Street, Yukon, OK 73099

Erica & Wes go to Ft. Worth, TX, pt.2

Ahhh Sunday, day 2 in Fort Worth (if you missed day 1, you can read about it here- http://ragsreborn.blogspot.com/2017/11/erica-wes-go-to-ft-worth-tx-pt1.html.) Sunday was art museum day because the Modern Art Museum is free on Sundays... and we're a frugal pair. LOL I am not the biggest fan of contemporary art (mostly because I don't "get" it and, honestly, while I understand that art is supposed to provoke you and start a conversation, I really just rather enjoy it), but I took to The Modern a lot more than I anticipated I would. I actually would recommend going, even if modern art isn't your "thing" because the museum housed a large variety of art and I'm sure you can find one exhibit you'll enjoy. My favorite part was the Sculpture Garden. There weren't too many sculptures (as Wes pointed out) but the ones they had were very unique. There was a larger-than-life horse made from tree branches and two life-sized metal trees that were shaped as if the wind was blowing them into each other. The trees were positioned near the reflective pool that surrounded the museum so you could see their mirror image from the second floor.

Also at the museum was the Haunt exhibit. Its a collection of photographs taken at various haunted houses throughout the nation. I wouldn't say the photographs were scary (there were little children present and they didn't seem frightened) but the photographs were definitely disturbing. I think they were meant to be more jarring than "scary" in the traditional sense, but if I had seen the images in person at a haunted house, I would have been creeped out. Wes says they weren't scary (frightening, jarring, disturbing, etc.) at all, so it could just be me. He said he just saw it as any other art form; an artist's expression. I am more of a wimp than he is and this is probably also another reason why I don't fully appreciate contemporary art. LOL Anyway...since the gift shop didn't offer any replicas of the entangled trees, I bought a gradient puzzle. It is literally a 500 puzzle piece puzzle that is nothing but green fading into blue color. Its going to be awesome. 

After the art museum, we headed to Buc-ee's... the greatest gas station in the entire universe. This was our third time visiting Buc-ee's and I'm officially making it a tradition to stop here every time we are in or drive through Texas. Buc-ee's is large (a bazillion gas pumps!), clean, friendly, reasonably priced and has both convenient store type snacks and a hot food deli. I mean seriously, there is so much food at Buc-ee's! There is a beef jerky bar, fudge stand, walls and walls of snacks, tons of drinks, sandwiches, salads and cheese plates, the list goes on and on. And there are souvenirs galore!

While at Buc-ee's, I noticed that Texans love hitching stuff to their trucks... RVs, boats, go karts, other trucks...

We had lunch at Buc-ee's and then did some shopping. For lunch, I ordered the Signature Spicy burrito with added guacamole and Wes ordered the chicken tenders plate. My burrito was probably the size of my face. LOL The food was good. I would say it is comparable to sit-down restaurant quality food and surpasses any other gas station food I've ever eaten. The only downside is that there is not an area to sit down and eat; no tables inside or outside. Wes hypothesized that it was to deter loiters and panhandlers. We ended up eating in my car, which was fine because there was plenty of parking. After lunch, I bought some Beaver Nuggets (puffed caramel corn) and Beaver Nug-ee's (spicy puffed corn cheese balls) for the ride back and we headed home. There was a football game in Texas that weekend so the drive back into Oklahoma was slow going. Although it was a slow drive, I preferred it over the insanity of the construction and Texas traffic. All in all, a good trip.

Sadie & Athena loved their Buc-ee's souvenirs! 

Erica & Wes go to Ft. Worth, TX, pt.1

At the Active Pool at the Fort Worth Water Gardens.

In the midst of craft show madness, I was still able to sneak in a weekend getaway last month. Wes & I took a short trip to Fort Worth, Texas for our annual El-versary. (If you don't know what that is, it is the anniversary of when we drove to Las Vegas to have our wedding vows renewed by an Elvis impersonator. Read about it here http://ragsreborn.blogspot.com/2015/11/erica-wes-do-las-vegas.html). We chose Fort Worth because we had originally just planned to drive to Pauls Valley, OK to eat a meal at Punkin's. But since Texas was so close, we drove the extra hour and a half to do some touristy stuff after lunch (which turned into a weekend's worth of activities).

You might be asking, why did we drive so dang far just to eat lunch? Well, because Elvis supposedly ate at Punkin's! And the food was really good. I got the catfish plate; the catfish and tarter sauce was amazing. Sadly, the fries were a bit bland and the hush puppies were too sweet for my liking. But the fish was so good, I really didn't want any sides to fill up on anyway. Wes got the sliced brisket bar-b-que sandwich, which he said was good except the bun wasn't baked all the way. I think his favorite part was the bar-b-que sauce. He praised it for being tangy instead of sweet. I had a few house potato chips off of his plate and thought they were way better than my fries. I will probably substitute poato chips for fries the next time we eat there. They also had a house pickle bar that I was pretty excited for. I actually love trying restaurant "house" anything just to taste their version of it.

Traffic into Texas was crazy, as usual, but we made it safely to our hotel at the 3pm check in time. Yay, a chance to relax. NOT! The night before, Wes booked us a room at the La Qunita through Travelocity. Unbeknownst to us, rather than simply removing availability from Travelocity, the La Qunita continued to accept reservations but on the following day, started kicking out reservations made through third party travel sites because they were over booked. So when we arrived, an incredibly unenthused clerk told us that our reservation was one of the unlucky ones that was kicked out and there is nothing she could do. We drove around in more crazy traffic (and construction!) and ended up at a Hampton Inn, which was probably a better choice anyway.

After de-stressing a bit (and venting about how much we hate La Qunita), we headed out for our evening's activities. Our first stop was the Fort Worth Water Gardens. The gardens represent a "cooling oasis in the concrete jungle." The area expanded a pretty large section of downtown Fort Worth and consisted of three pools and a large concrete mountain. Wes enjoyed climbing up the gigantic concrete slabs to the top of the mountain. On a normal day, I would have enjoyed it as well but on this particular evening, I was wearing a sundress and my fear of exposing myself got the better of me. I slowly ascended and descended the mountain taking extra care to maintain my dress in proper position. LOL The three pools are the Active Pool (which was a gigantic water fall), the Quiet Pool (which was a shallow meditation pool) and the Aerating Pool (which was a bunch of color-changing spray fountains). Both mine and Wes' favorite was the Active Pool. The pool is made up of several concrete steps of various sizes that are unevenly spaced and lead down to a large pool at the bottom. Completely surrounding the steps is a loud rushing waterfall. The loudness of the waterfall was probably my favorite part. We both thought the Active Pool would be an accident waiting to happen but, surprisingly, only one family has been killed there. And after their tragedy, the city reconstructed the pool to make it safer. Standing at the bottom of the pool and watching the water cascading almost 40 feet down terraces and steps all around me was a pretty neat experience. I would recommend this as a destination if you're ever in Fort Worth (and the best part is that its free!)

We stayed downtown and walked (almost a mile! Wes says it was 0.8 miles.) to dinner at Rodeo Goat (a trendy beer & burger joint). I was surprised by how dark it was downtown. There were barely any street lamps and none of the establishments were well lit. We got to Rodeo Goat at the traditional dinner time and most people would expect a wait time. I say most people because the patrons behind us (two douchey-looking frat boys) were aghast that they had to wait to be seated. Their exact words were, "This restaurant has a wait?" The hostess confirmed and asked how many would be at their table. They gave her more attitude and walked away. Rude. The wait was only about five minutes before Wes & I were seated. Rodeo Goat was another delicious meal. I got the Nanny Goat and Wes got the Olivia Darlin'. I was in love with my burger... seriously soooooo good. The patty was cooked just right (nice n' juicy!) and it was topped with plenty of fragrant goat cheese. It also paired well with my Rahr & Sons Pumpkin Ale.  

After dinner, we were faced with another stressful drive home (well, mostly I was faced with it since I did all of the driving). There is construction on literally every freeway in Fort Worth. Normal construction isn't bad but this construction was insane. The signs signaling lane and exit closures were incorrect, the lanes were not properly marked and even if they were, I couldn't see them because nothing (NOTHING!) was lit. Fort Worth is the darkest city I have ever driven in. Someone, please petition your senator to use tax money to put in some street lights! Besides the roads, we had a very enjoyable Saturday. Sunday adventures to come in next week's blog! 

Here's a preview... we got to the Modern Art Museum. 

RagsReborn Gifts' November Craft Shows

Its my favorite time of year... fall craft shows are under way and holiday craft show season is just around the corner. So many fun craft shows are happening around town! So many talented artists and makers are showcasing their hard work! So many unique items are available for gift giving season! Since this is the time of year when giving thanks is most encouraged, I wanted to give many thanks and appreciation to all of you who made it out to one of my October craft shows. You are aWeSoMe; it is because of you and your support that I get to design, sew and create. Here is a list of my November craft shows- (I'm marked as "going" on all of these on Facebook; if you'd like some more details, please let me know and I'll be happy to send you an invite.)

The Holiday Handmade Show
Saturday November 4, 2017
9am - 4pm
The Crown Center 13300 S. Western, Oklahoma City, OK 73170

Church Craft Fair
Saturday November 11, 2017
9am - 4pm
Triumph Family Worship's Family Center 3425 SW 44th, Oklahoma City, OK 73119

Jasco Merry Market
(This event is open for Jasco employees only)
Friday November 17, 2017
11am - 3pm
Jasco 10 E. Memorial Rd., Oklahoma City, OK 73114

The Santa Market
Saturday November 18, 2017
9am - 5pm
Edmond Community Center 28 E Main St., Edmond, OK 73034

Erica and Lacey make cosmetics pouches.

Can you believe these are made of plastic sandwich bags and Duct tape? They're so cute! 

Yay, a DIY blog! Monday Craft Night is back. Sorry it has been a while (craft shows have taken priority this month). A couple of weeks ago, I came across one of those "Duct tape hack" videos on Facebook. I normally don't find those videos very inspiring (and most of the time, the "hack" takes more time to perform than the problem its trying to solve... just buy a bathroom rug or fix a leak the old fashioned way!) But, the project in this video was simple and the supplies were cheap. I invited Lacey over and we recreated the project.

I saw this majestic unicorn Duct tape and knew that I needed it in my life! 

The cosmetics pouches turned out to be so friggin' adorable! Duct tape comes in so many printed designs (did you know that it is also now stickier than ever? The packaging proclaimed that the adhesive formula is stronger. Too sticky in my opinion.) and sandwich bags come in so many different sizes. The sky is the limit with this DIY project. The pouches don't have to just be for cosmetics, either. My craft supplies box was a mess so I'm using mine for organizing craft supplies instead.

DIY Cosmetic Pouch Tutorial-

Materials needed: Duct tape, sliding zipper plastic sandwich bags, scissors

1. Decide what you want to put in the finished pouch. Using that as a guide, measure how big you want the pouch to be.

2. If you want the pouch to be smaller than the original size of the sandwich bag, fold it to the new desired size and tape it in place. 

3. Cover the sandwich bag in Duct tape. Make sure to tape both front and back sides of the sandwich bag. Although the Duct tape was super sticky, I still found it fairly easy to tear pieces off of the sandwich bag if I accidentally placed it in the wrong position. To avoid air bubbles, I found it best to place the Duct tape on one end of the sandwich bag and slowly press it down, moving from one end to another, instead of placing the entire piece of tape on the sandwich bag at once. Also, be cautious of the zipper at the top of the sandwich bag. I stopped taping just underneath the red zipper. 

4. Repeat step #3 so there are two layers of Duct tape over the sandwich bag. (You can probably do multiple layers depending on what you plan to store in the finished pouch and how hefty you want it to be but I stuck with two layers.) 

5. For the first layer of Duct tape, I folded the edges of the Duct tape over (as shown in the picture above step #3). For the second layer of Duct tape, I left the edges hanging over. Once you're completely finished taping, cut all the extra tape off the edges of the sandwich bag. 

Athena enjoys crafting with us!

All done! In about 15 minutes, $10 worth of supplies and five easy steps, you've got a nice collection of matching pouches.

RagsReborn Gifts' October Craft Shows

Hello, all! *insert waving emoji* Can you believe summer is over and fall is in the air?!? Long time no talk (no write? no read? What is the proper syntax when you're not really talking?) I hope 2017 has been treating you well. Things have been great in RagsReborn-land. Its that time of year again... fall craft show season! I have a TON of craft shows coming up; I'm actually booked each weekend from now until Christmas. But let's not get ahead of ourselves; here is a list of the first wave of shows... (I'm marked as "going" on all of these on Facebook; if you'd like some more details, please let me know and I'll be happy to send you an invite.)

Dream Center Craft Bazaar
Saturday September 30, 2017
9am - 4pm
Inner City Church 2212 SW 55th, Oklahoma City, OK 73119

4th Annual Classic Car Show
Sunday October 1, 2017
1pm - 4pm
Doo-Wop Glam Shop 5581 NW Expressway, Warr Acres, OK 73132

OUHSC Staff Senate Fall Craft Fair
(this craft fair is open to the public... the vendors are mostly staff & faculty so that's why they call it that.)
Friday October 6, 2017
10am - 2pm
Robert M. Bird Library Lobby 1105 Stonewall Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73117

Wanderlust Pop-up Shops
Saturday October 21, 2017
10am - 6pm
Wheeler Ferris Wheel 1701 S. Western Ave., Oklahoma City, OK 73109

Fall Craft Fair and Open House
Wednesday October 25, 2017
10am - 2pm
St. Ann Retirement Center 7501 W. Britton Rd., Oklahoma City, OK 73132

I couldn't find a picture of this craft show but I'm going to be participating with my friend, Elizabeth. She's the owner of Zee & Zeus Studios and that's Zeus up there! @ZeeandZeusStudios)

Fall Festival Craft & Food Fair
Saturday October 28, 2017
9am - 3pm
Moore First United Methoidust Church's Chrisitan Life Center 201 W. Main St., Oklahoma City, OK 73160

Erica & Wes are homeowners!! ^_^

In front of our wonderful home!

Yup, yup, my husband and I now own a lovely three bedroom, one and a half bath, two car garage dream home. Buying a house was so incredibly easy and I have nothing but glowing reviews for our realtor and mortgage lender. I always thought it would be a difficult process because that's all I've heard from other homeowners and that's how it is portrayed in movies & on reality house-hunter shows. I was completely shocked at how quickly the entire process went and, honestly, it was more stressful after we bought the house than during the buying process (moving in, unpacking, fixing things here and there ... that was the stressful part!)

Our lease was set to expire on August 1st so on May 1st we started house hunting. We drove around and searched online for potential homes. We mostly did this so we could get an outline of what we wanted in terms of amenities, location and pricing. We decided on a budget and three "must haves" for our home. I wanted a sewing room, Wes wanted a two car garage and we both wanted a nice back yard for the dogs, and that was it. We approached everything else with an open mind.

We got a recommendation for a realtor from some friends of mine. Wendy with eXp Realty was absolutely amazing! I would highly recommend her to anyone who is looking to buy or sell a house. In my opinion, she really cares for her clients and is not afraid to fight for them (aka she has no problem being the "bad cop") and she was also not afraid to be honest with us. She got us moved into a house in less than two months. We took two tours with her--I think we only looked at about 12 houses total. The first tour consisted of houses of all different price ranges, neighborhoods and features. She really listened to our feedback on each of the houses that she showed to us. The next list of potential houses that she sent to us was spot on. Our second tour went a lot better than the first and we found our top three homes. From the top three, we picked our favorite and Wendy went to work for us.

Everything was smooth sailing between our realtor and the sellers' realtor. I'm sure it is hard work behind the scenes, but for us, it was the easiest process ever. While this was happening, Wes got a new job with insane overtime hours, I started a new position within my current company and I also battled the stomach flu. Regardless, Wendy was willing to work with our schedules and met us several times in the evening. She kept in touch by text & email and all we had to do was e-sign a few documents here and there. There was a little back and forth between us and the sellers after the inspection but it all worked out in the end.

Another great component to our home buying process was our mortgage lender. Wes' place of employment recommends First United Mortgage Group to all of their employees. We were very impressed with our Junior Loan Officer, Beau. I definitely recommend working with him. Like Wendy, he kept us abreast of all developments via text & email. The loan application and approval process was a little more difficult than our relationship with Wendy but still much less of a headache than I thought it would be. Honestly, the only hurdles we encountered were with First United's underwriting and legal departments toward the very end of the process (and Beau had nothing to do with the mishaps we were faced with). There was some miscommunication between us and a few other employees at the First United office but Beau remained courteous and professional throughout the entire process.

Closing day came on July 21st. I was both nervous and excited. Everything else up until then went so smoothly, I was almost expecting something crazy to happen on closing day that would ruin our entire experience. But that was not the case. Closing on the house went as well as everything else...easy as pie! Wendy and Beau met us at the title company with smiles, congratulations and housewarming gifts in hand. After signing about fifty contractual documents, we officially became proud homeowners.

And I am happy to report that my sewing room is all set up and I am ready to get back to work at RagsReborn. Fall and Holiday craft show seasons are quickly approaching! I have over 20 craft shows lined up for September, October, November and December... I might be a madwoman. Let's just say I am an ambitious small business owner with drive. More on the craft show line up in upcoming blogs!

Erica advises against renting at Coventry Cove apartments.

** For all of you new readers, this is my first "angry customer" blog post. I've never written a sour Yelp review rated any business less than 5-stars on Facebook but I feel as if this negative review of Coventry Cove is completely warranted.**

Unit 205 D has been my home for the past four (almost five) years. Its a great apartment complex if you ignore the staff. For what its worth, management changed about a year ago and the new apartment manager is a zillion times better than the old one ... but there is still room for improvement. If your apartment never has any maintenance needs and you like to be left alone, Coventry Cove is great to rent from. But, if you need any assistance from the staff, good luck on getting them to cooperate.

The location is absolutely wonderful. It is located in a quiet and friendly neighborhood just outside of Nichols Hills. The apartment complex is close to Interstate 235, Downtown OKC, the Western Avenue shopping and dining district, the Chesapeake campus and Whole Foods grocery store. It is also only a 3-minute drive to the office I work at. That is the number one reason why I have lived here so long.

When I first was apartment hunting, the manager at the time, Terry, told me that she didn't have any current openings but if I didn't need to move in immediately, she would have an opening in a few weeks. She assured me that the Notice to Vacate was already submitted & approved so the unit would be available soon. She didn't give me an exact date but I was so enamored with the location of the apartment and cheap rent that I forgot to ask.  I told her that I would stop my apartment hunting and check back in with her in a few weeks. She said that wasn't necessary; I could complete all of the paperwork now because she was 100% certain that a unit would be available for me, and if I didn't complete the paperwork immediately, the unit could be gone because she had a long waiting list. So, like any other naive twenty-something, I signed and paid my deposit. It was over a month before I could move in. Every time I contacted Terry to get an update, it was one excuse after another. The tenant decided not to move out, the apartment needed cleaning, her carpet installers rescheduled. Luckily, my mom let me stay with her during this awful time so I didn't have to be homeless.

Unit 204 B was my home for about 9 months.

Within a few months of my moving in, my downstairs neighbor knocked on my door one evening and scolded me for my barking dog. This lady was elderly and she talked to me like I was a 13 year old delinquent. I had Kensington at the time and he was pretty rambunctious but he never ever was loud enough to cause complaints. I apologized and then slammed the door on that bitch. LOL The next day, an extremely rude note was tacked to my door. Then a week later, Terry called me to tell me that my dog is causing too much noise and she has received "several" complaints. She also told me that if I didn't do anything about it, I would be evicted. This was my first complaint. No one gets evicted on their first complaint. Instead of arguing, I asked if one of us could move. I had no problem moving into a different unit if Kensington was causing my neighbor so much distress.  Terry agreed to move me as soon as a unit was vacant. While we were waiting for my move,  both my neighbor and Terry took turns bullying me and Kensington. The harassment lasted about a month.

How could any one hate on this adorable dog??!?!

Not long after that was taken care of, Wes moved in with me. We are law abiding tenants so I went to the apartment's leasing office to get him officially added to my lease. Terry did not know how to complete any of the necessary paperwork. All she did know how to do was ask for another application fee. *eye roll* The following year, Wes tried to renew our lease and he was no where to be found on any of the documents! But he was added last year! And we paid you another $50! How hard can it be to amend the lease to add another tenant? I imagine he had to go through the entire process again but I was at work that day and took no part in Terry's stupidity.

Home sweet home.

Not long after Wes moved in, our storage unit got broken into. The lock was completely destroyed and all of my boxes were thrown out. The boxes were empty but I was saving them just in case we needed to move again. Someone had thrown all of their junk into our storage unit. Wes & I each went to the leasing office to report this. When Wes spoke with Terry, he found out that Randy, the maintenance technician, was given permission to commandeer the storage unit. Management assumed the unit was not in use. She did not apologize for this misunderstanding. Then as Wes was leaving, he heard Terry mutter under her breath that she did not understand what the big deal was because, although all tenants are given one storage unit, she uses all four of the storage units in her block of apartment units and none of her neighbors ever complained.

Our completely destroyed lock that we found on the floor of our storage unit.

The next day it was my turn to talk to Terry & Randy. I expressed my concern that we were broken in to (which was a crime! theft! unsafe! burglary!) They were not taking this issue seriously, so I asked how either of them would feel if their storage unit was broken in to and all of their belongings were thrown in the garbage? I also asked why Randy would see a lock on the storage unit and then assume it was not being used by a resident. He claimed that he asked me and I told him to go right ahead and just tear our lock off. Why not Randy, I love a good robbery! When I informed him it was not me, he said that maybe it was Wes who granted him permission. I asked when this conversation took place because we don't remember it happening. Neither of them had any answers for me, nor did they apologize. Instead, they just accused me of overreacting and shooed me out of the office.

Later that day, I called National Property Management Associates (NPMA), the company that owns Coventry Cove. I explained our situation and although it could have just been an error in communication from both parties, Terry & Randy were not being helpful in resolving this issue. NPMA called Terry and then Terry called me. She did not call with a resolution. She did not call to apologize. She called to scold me; she raised her voice and verbally chastised me for calling NPMA. She claimed that she has been in apartment management for over twenty years and she has never once gotten a complaint, therefore she could not believe that someone like myself would even dare to call in a complaint. After a little back and forth, she agreed to remove Randy's belongings from our storage unit, purchase a new lock and some plastic storage containers to replace the ones that were thrown out. Still no apology, though.

Ever since that day, Terry never spoke to me again. She wouldn't even look at me when she passed me walking my dogs. Luckily, she retired soon afterward. The new apartment manager, Susan, is a bazillion times better at management than Terry. She sends texts & emails with apartment updates, she keeps Randy on top of his maintenance work orders and she even tries to plan fun activities for residents. But, unfortunately, she isn't any more efficient with paperwork. When we got Athena, I went to the leasing office to add a new dog to our lease. She told me we cannot have three dogs. I told her that we have one dog, Sadie; Kensington died in 2014 and I called the office at that time to notify her. I had assumed she had noted this on my lease and would return my second pet deposit upon move out date but, no, she didn't note a damn thing (there goes my $50) but at least she did not charge another deposit for Athena. In both 2015 and 2016, I had to take responsibility to go to the leasing office to ask her for a lease renewal because she was unaware that it is part of her job to present these to residents.

When we were ready to move out, I went to the leasing office on June 30th. Our lease expired on August 1st so I wanted to be sure to place my thirty day Notice to Vacate. Susan curtly informed me that Coventry Cove requires a sixty day notice so I could not move out on August 1st. I curtly replied that neither myself nor Wes was ever informed of this policy. She rummaged around to find our contract, turns to the page and points to the paragraph. Then, as if I was illiterate, she takes a highlighter to mark the sentence stating "residents need to provide a sixty day notice" and shoves the document in my face. Really? Where is your professionalism?

I told her that I understand the contract but what I did not understand is that if residents have to give a sixty day notice to vacate, why did management not need to give residents sixty days to renew? "It is June 30th," I told Susan, "and I have not received any lease renewal or new rental rates. I was unable to make an informed decision sixty days in advance." She simply said she was too busy to bother with providing renewal notices. I told her that I also was too busy to be bothered but at least I am trying to do my due diligence. She ended up allowing us to move out on July 31st. She probably also then promptly placed my name on the Do Not Rent list. LOL Our final apartment walk-through went well (except that we need to get the carpet replaced and I'm almost certain that we will not be getting our deposit refunded because carpet can be expensive) and we are renters no more... we have a house now! The first time home-buying process was wonderful (hardly stressful at all)! More on that in next week's blog post.

Erica & Lacey relive our emo days.

AFI!! All of the pictures on this blog post are of AFI since I really didn't care for the two opening bands.

Back in 2004, my best friend, Lacey, and I bonded over emo music and dreamed of dating guys who wore eyeliner. We weren't exactly part of the emo crowd--we weren't edgy enough--but, oh, how we loved to watch from the sidelines. I've gotten less and less edgy in my old age but Lacey is still hip enough to keep up with the music scene. So when she found out that the band, AFI (one of our favorites a decade ago), was coming to town and invited me to go with her, I said, "Sure, why not?" As soon as we got to the concert venue, I discovered exactly why not... I am old. LOL Very, very, old.

AFI at 10:10...can you believe that?!? Who even stays up that late anymore? Apparently the young'ens do. 

At age 32, Lacey & I were among the oldest in attendance. Do you remember hearing those "you know you're old if..." jokes as a kid? Well, they are actually pretty true. Here are a few you can make fun of us for...
     * Our first concern was that AFI wasn't starting their set until 10:10pm! That is entirely past my bedtime. And if they didn't start until that late, lord only knows what time we'll actually make it home! We were genuinely worried that we might fall asleep before we could watch the band we came to see. It wasn't looking good as I started yawning around 9:30pm. The band must have somehow sensed our concern and actually came on stage a little early (at 10pm). Thank goodness!
     * The style of dress from the early 1990s is making a comeback and we actually remembered dressing that way as a kid. Remember wearing long t-shirts with short denim shorts and choker necklaces? That's a thing again. We realized that instead of having "flashback 1980s day" for school fundraisers, the young'ens nowadays are having "flashback 1990s-dress day".
     * We actually found ourselves complaining about the noise (do the speakers need to be that loud?...we couldn't hear each other talk.), strobe lights (too blinding) and temperature (too hot, too many sweaty bodies, yuck) of the concert venue.
     * But we did fully appreciate the cleanness of the public restrooms.

How did Davey Havok manage wear a jacket in this stuffy room?

Besides those few chuckle worthy complaints, the concert overall was rather enjoyable. I can say that I still like angsty rock music after I initially fell in love with it almost fifteen years ago. The first opening band was Citizen (from Ohio... that's how they kept referring to themselves as, "We're Citizen from Ohio"... there must be a lot of bands named Citizen from various states). After every song, they would stop and thank us for listening to them. It was a nice gesture at first, but then it felt overly appreciative and almost desperate. Lacey suggested that maybe they get booed off stage a lot so they were very happy that we were still a captive audience. Another thing that happens when you get old... you turn into a cynical curmudgeon. Hahaha!

During the set change, the concert venue played a compilation of Outkast's greatest hits over the loudspeaker. We enjoyed the throwback tracks but wondered if anyone else in attendance ever even heard of Outkast. I seemed to be the only one singing along to Hey Ya! 

Trying out our best "we're badass emo girl" faces. Please note our back shirts and eye make up. We are so hard core!

The second band to play was Circa Survive. They were a crowd favorite but Lacey & I had never heard of them *insert "you know you're old if joke" here* I thought the lead singer's use of auto-tune made him sound like Ozzy Osbourne sucking from a helium balloon. It was during their performance that we started to complain about the lighting. The strobe lights were very impressive but maybe overly so. I turned to Lacey and told her I couldn't look at that stage because the lights were blinding me. Maybe I needed to bring in my sunglasses.

                     I would have gotten pictures of the entire band but only the lead singer was up close and personal. 

Lastly, was AFI... the awesome emo rockers that we stayed up so late to see. They did not disappoint! At first we were worried that we wouldn't recognize their songs because they have released a lot of new music since we first listened to them. But, they played mostly their old songs from the Sing the Sorrow and December Underground albums (the ones that Lacey & I knew by heart). Besides playing our favorite songs, the best thing about their performance was that each member of the band stood on a riser so us short kids could view them, too. (^_^) Although I was tired and my legs ached from standing all night, I jumped up & down and scream-sung the songs along with the rest of the crowd. We left our old lady complaining behind and felt young again for an hour. I think that's the great thing about music; its something you can just immerse yourself in and forget about your worries for a while. But then my ears rang the entire way home. Ugh... old age. LOL

Last AFI picture.