a bee sting, a stupid concert, and the slaying of an armadillo.

I know I haven't blogged in awhile and now that I am about to, I'm going to be complaining. 

you know when you find a recipe you want to make and you have all the right ingredients for it and you're totally excited but somewhere in the process something goes horribly wrong and your souffle (or whatever) turns into basically dinosaur poop? Well that was pretty much how my day went on Saturday.

I can't pin point exactly what went wrong but I know that when we got home in the wee hours of the morn and got into bed I wished I had never gotten out of it.

 Here were the ingredients for my "wonderful" Saturday:

1. Sleep in

2. Receive my make-up stuff I ordered online from Urban Decay

3. Get lunch at Zunzi's

4. Go to City and Colour concert in Charleston, SC

5. Walk around Charleston and get dinner before concert

That sounds awesome, RIGHT?

I guess you could say it all started to go downhill when I got up kind of late and since we were going to eat lunch pretty soon, I decided to skip breakfast. (Chill out health freaks. I know how important breakfast is.) But then we didn't eat lunch quite as soon as I had expected. So naturally, I turned into a monster. Because I am absolutely the opposite of delightful when I am hungry. (FATTY GOTTA EAT!) Zunzi's is a take out place so you walk in, order, pay, and take your food to either sit outside or leave. We decided we were going to stay and I walked outside to the corner to where Taylor was. I had my back turned to the building and Taylor goes, "Hey, watch out." (VERY CALMLY, the kind of tone you would use to say, "hey watch out you're about to step on hundred dollar bill.") and points to the side of me. I turn to see what I am about to step on and right as I look down I see a red wasp and and I get stung on my arm. (Mind you, this is while I am still a hungry monster) I immediately become enraged and obviously put all of the blame on Taylor. Now looking back on this with a clear head, I realized that it wasn't entirely his fault but if he would have just said, "WASP" I would have ran away and probably avoided being stung. So. Kinda his fault.

the victim: my right arm. not pictured: my pouty face.

At this point, my arm was throbbing and I was trying to hold back tears. Have you ever tried to eat while crying or on the verge of crying? It makes food not taste as good. So that was crappy too. Luckily where we parked downtown there was a CVS right across the road so I got some benedryl spray and it helped a lot, even though my sting still hurt a little on and off through out the day.

We arrived in Charleston, walked around. Had dinner. Went to the show which was at the Music Farm. The Music Farm is a very cool little venue. The show was at 9 and the doors opened at 8. We got there at about 7 45. When we walked in there was this spot about 6 inches higher than the rest of the main floor and there was railing so to me, it was as good as being in the very front because I could actually see and not have to be crowded by people. 

Finally at 9, the opener walked on. He plays the guitar for city and colour but he was doing some solo stuff. MUCH to my dismay, it was country. It was absolutely the most torturous opening act I have ever sat through in my entire life. It wasn't that he wasn't talented in his own right, but good lawd, I HATE HATE HATE country music. And unfortunately, I think it set a really bad precedent for the rest of the show, HOW COULD DALLAS GREEN SUBJECT ME TO THIS FOR AN HOUR? I know I'm getting old when I no longer feel that the musicians I adore can do no wrong. He did me wrong, and I don't know if I'll ever forgive him fully.

So basically we had to stand for about 2 and half hours before City and Colour came on. I was feeling really uncomfortable and a little nauseated so I decided to sit down for just a second. I was sitting there when behind me a really drunk troll like guy, came up to Taylor and was barely coherent and sad something about Taylor being too tall. Then instead of walking behind us and around he decided wanted to climb through the railing where I was sitting so he could get down to the main floor. Then he yelled, "MOVE!" at me and I instantly became furious, I turned around and briefly considered punching him in his knee caps. I shouted at him that I wasn't moving one inch until he asked me like a normal person. Then he leaned down and said very calmly, "You're a person." I rolled my eyes at him and scooted over so he could crawl through the rails. I hate drunk strangers almost as much as I hate country music. 

Almost immediately after that, this girl who had been standing down in front of the railing below us with her boyfriend acting like idiots making out and looking at each other dramatically crouched down through the railing and was like "HEY HEY COME HERE" like all excited and she was like "YOU GOTTA GET UP ITS DALLAS GREEN." I stared at her for few seconds and asked her if it was starting because I was really confused about her motives. She said "No not yet but it's about to, come on get up!" And I was like, "No." and I couldn't totally hear her but all I heard was, "Okay look my boyfriend is standing here so it's awkward." Or something and I was like, "I'm not getting up yet, I was here first." But I wanted to choke her and tried to convey that in my tone to her and I think she picked up on it cause she was like, "okay okay" and backed away and then they left. I was kind of hoping she threw a drink on me after the show so we could scrap like Jersey Shore style cause I was in that kind of mood, but it didn't happen. But just so you guys know, if it did go down like that, I would have won.

They finally came out and after one song I was ready to leave. The people in the audience were some of the most annoying and retarded people I've ever experienced in my life.

Where the idiot couple once stood there was now a girl. She was much more concerned about her instagram and facebook friends knowing that she was at the concert than anything else going on around her. She checked her facebook at least 2000 times, and she was texting her friend about how she had slept with this guy and bought them tickets to the show but he met up with his best friend, talked about other girls in front of her, and ditched her to be alone at the concert. But she kept saying how she liked him. WHAT IS WRONG WITH WOMEN IN THE WORLD? More on that in another blog on another day.

Anyway, it was 1 AM before the show got over and we had a 2 hour drive home. On the way home April was driving and she ran over an armadillo. I didn't see it because I was turned around talking to Tayl in the backseat. But I felt like it was a pretty good way to sum up how I felt about that day.

Oh and to answer the burning question, no not even the concert made it worth it. It was way better in London. 

beautiful things.

some of you may or may not know that Anthony Green is one of my favorite modern day musical artists.

some of you may not even know who the crap Anthony Green is. Well, I will tell you, Anthony Green is a singer/songwriter. He is the former singer of Saosin. The current singer of Circa Survive, and also a solo artist. 

like City and Colour, I introduced Taylor to Anthony Green at the very beginning of the beginning of our relationship. At first I shared with him some Circa Survive, and Taylor wasn't totally into it. I wasn't actually surprised because when I love a musical artist, it's usually because they are weird and different (hence why I hate American Idol so much, because everyone sounds the same), and I don't necessarily expect people to feel the same kind of love and admiration that I have. Anthony Green is weird, his voice is unique, his lyrics don't make sense, and the way he yells in some of his songs will either terrify you, annoy you, or give you the chills (<-- me). BUT, I made a decision to make Taylor listen to Anthony Green's solo album, Avalon. (Because let's be honest, Taylor is just as weird as me, if not more.)

Low and behold, Taylor loved it. And overtime grew to love Circa Survive as well.

ANYWAY, so to finally get to the point. On Wednesday (January 25th), Anthony was playing in Atlanta for his Beautiful Things tour, as he just released a new solo album. For Christmas, Taylor bought us tickets. So we headed out at about 2PM to make the 4 hour drive to Atlanta.

We got to the A around 5:45PM and met up with Jamie [+ the Nef fetus] for dinner. And then she so kindly dropped us off at the corner for the show.

As usual before a show Taylor had an internal (with himself) and external (with me) conflict about whether or not to bring his camera. I do love having awesome pictures but I hate having to worry about holding anything at show. And also, sometimes they don't allow cameras and so you never know when you're going to lose your place in line to take your camera back to the car. So he settled for my crappy little point and shoot and these are the pictures he got with it before the camera died.

standing in line outside.

the dear hunter's keyboard

the singer for The Dear Hunter

And then just like that, the battery was dead. Along with the batteries in our phones. We literally had nothing  to capture the memories with, aside from our minds. (imagine that.) It was really unfortunate because we were at the front (to the side, right up against the speaker.) But Tay's DSLR would have got some amazing shots. Probably even some drops of sweat on the lens.

[The strangest part of this show for me, was how everything was exactly on time. They said the doors would open at 7, and they opened exactly at 7. They said the opening band would play at 8, and they started playing exactly at 8. I mean the entire concert was over by 10:30 PM. Which was great for us who had to drive 4 hours home that night.]

When Anthony came on, he was his usual smiley, foul mouthed self. He loves to interact with the crowd and that's part of what makes him so fun to watch. He likes to high five, make eye contact, make jokes, and get everyone to sing along. The other part of what makes him fun to watch is how he moves on stage. I don't think I could ever describe it to you with words. So here.

He's my favorite. and he's a complete weirdo.

Also, in closing, I would like to say that aside from the "show hoes" invading my space, we had an all around good time. It was well worth the drive.

I will leave you with my favorite Anthony Green song ever, which was also the song that Taylor and I had our first dance at our wedding to. "Miracle Sun"

Oh also THIS.
 [because I do what I want, and this segment made me cry a little.]

Fragile bird.

WOW.

So this is probably going to be our last blog post in England. So as a warning, it might be long.

In fact, I really should be packing but this sounds more enticing.

On Tuesday, we had our last date night.

We went to dinner and then went to see The Three Muskateers in 3D. It was actually really good, and was surprisingly released here in the UK before the U.S. which is not typical I've learned.

They gave us the left over Harry Potter 3D glasses. I initially declined them because I am not a Potter lover, but the lady said they were more comfortable so I was like, fine.

They were more comfortable.

Last night [Wednesday], was the night of the City and Colour concert at Roundhouse in London.
The Venue was actually really cool and LED ZEPPELIN played their first show in London at Roundhouse so I thought that was pretty rad. I'm not sure if I've ever been to a venue where the greatest heavy metal band that ever existed played.

I found the original flyer for that concert so I had to post it. Awesome.

So, we drove into London and parked at an underground station and took the underground to the venue, it was a pretty simple process. And when we got there it seemed like we had to wait forever for it to start, but luckily we had seats on the upper deck, but unfortunately they were kind of crappy, there was a pillar and some speakers blocking the stage. But I could see a lot better than I would have if I were standing down on the floor. It sucks being short at shows.

Taylor got up early [5:30 AM] to do the early shift at work so that we could leave early enough to get there on time. (We probably would have been fine if he didn't though.) He was pretty tired. He actually fell asleep while we were waiting for the opening band to start. 

the view from our seats

the ceiling.

i tried to take a picture of Taylor sleeping and FAILED.

So after what seemed like days, City and Colour finally came on stage. They looked super classy. Dallas Green had on a white suit coat. But he wasn't wearing his 50 year old dad glasses.  It's fine though.

See what I mean about the speakers? Oh well.

The music was, well, music to my ears. I love every second of that concert. After a few songs the band left the stage and Dallas Green played some of his earlier City and Colour stuff, solo. At one point he busted out his harmonica and asked everyone to put the their cell phones down and stop recording, tweeting, facebooking, texting whatever, and just enjoy the song and live in the moment, for at least that one song [body in a box], and surprisingly everyone listened. It was really cool to be above the main crowd and watch the cell phone lights go out. During the song, one by one, lighters started to go up. It was pretty awesome.

You can kinda see all the lighters. It was like we traveled back in time.

All in all, it was an incredible concert. The really cool thing about City and Colour was that it was *I* who introduced him/them to Taylor, and he loved them. And so basically all the songs are tied to memories with Taylor and I. It made me really happy, and it was also a kind of romantic. I think I teared up at one point. 

Here is some baby makin' music, if you need it. We recorded this.

This is the part where things get kind of dramatic and disgusting, you have been warned.

So after the show was over we got on the train and headed back to the car. We were both tired and I was really thirsty. We started the drive home and kept getting stuck in traffic but I suddenly got a burst of energy and was acting kind of crazy [in a fun way]. I had to go to pee kind of bad and then I started to get this pain on the right side of my stomach. I wasn't really sure what it was but I told Taylor he needed to stop so I could go to the restroom as soon as he saw one.

Suddenly the pain got REALLY bad, and I also had to pee really bad as well. So I started freaking out a little bit. Plus we were trapped in the car in traffic. I was so desperate for any kind of relief but the pain was just getting worse. It started kind of spreading to the middle of my stomach. We finally were able to stop only to find that there was no restroom open at that time. I got out of the car and debated peeing behind a bush but there was a truck parked by the bush so I decided not to. I climbed in the back seat of the car and realized that I could have appendicitis. "GREAT" I thought, "JUST GREAT! Couldn't it wait until I was back in America??"

I told Taylor to take me to a hospital. which is really weird for me because I avoid the doctor at all costs. I never go to the doctor and I don't think I have ever been to the hospital for myself, let alone the emergency room. But for some reason I just felt like it was something we had to do. 

Then I started to feel nauseated and Taylor was trying to find a hospital on the GPS, that's when I felt like I was going to throw up so I opened the car door and threw up just a little bit. At this point I started shaking and shivering and I couldn't stop. It was a combination of the fear, the cold, and the vomiting.  Taylor was kind of scared I could tell and I felt so bad because it was midnight and I couldn't imagine how exhausted he was. I took the GPS out of his hands and found the nearest hospital and handed it back to him. It was about 10 minutes away  so we drove there only to find that it was just a day clinic. I decided that I just was going to pee behind a bush so I did. I only felt a little better, the pain was still there. Taylor called 911 to find out where the closest hospital was to us. I grabbed the two little grocery bags in the car and doubled them up in case of another puking incident.

He finally found the right hospital on the GPS and we headed over there. I was still in the backseat in pain and shivering but trying not to scare Taylor anymore and I just kept apologizing to him. That's when I really puked. Right into the bag luckily. Normal when I throw up it's really dramatic and I like cry and stuff and I hate it but I just did not care about the vomit because I was in so much pain. Luckily, in spite of my pain I was able to get all my vomit into the bag. I held the bag out the window so Taylor didn't have to smell it and prayed and prayed that I did not throw up again before we got there.

FINALLY, we made it to the hospital. We went inside and checked in. The lady told me it was going to be a 3 to 4 hour wait and I was like THIS IS ACTUALLY AN EMERGENCY! So she got me in basically right away. The nurse took my blood pressure and told me she needed a urine sample. This was literally like 8 minutes after I just peed behind that bush so I was like MAN THIS IS GONNA TAKE FOREVER. But I got some. I brought it back to her and she took my blood, gave me some pain killers and sent me back out to the waiting room telling me the blood work would take two hours. It was about 1 in the morning now and I hated that it was going to take that long but I was grateful they had at least seen me. About 10 minutes later the doctor called me back again and took me in a room and did the rebound test and asked me about various things and let me know that I wasn't pregnant. She said that I probably has premenstrual symptoms, OR had food poisoning. I figured it was probably food poisoning. She said that she didn't think it was appendicitis but if I get a fever within 24 hours to come back, but that I could go home with anti-vomit medicine. Taylor asked her about the blood work and turned out that she didn't know that I had got blood taken so she couldn't let me leave until the results came back. So she sent me back to the waiting room and the painkillers started to kick in. I had Taylor say a prayer with me that I would be okay.

I have never in my life hoped I had food poisoning, but if it was food poisoning, at least I would still get to go home on Friday.

So we waited about 2 hours and finally the doctor came out and told me everything was normal and that I could go home. I was sosososososo happy but SO tired, and still in a little bit of pain so I asked for more painkillers. They were nice. DON'T WORRY I'M NOT AN ADDICT.

On the drive home I wanted to sleep, but I felt guilty sleeping since Taylor had almost been awake for 24 hours. So I stayed up and talked to him. We spent most of the drive talking about the bright side of the situation, and how it could have been worse. I've noticed we always do that, at least we're kind of optimists, well, Taylor is. 

Kyns: "At least it didn't happen at the concert."

Tay: "At least it happened while we were in the car."

Kyns: "Good thing they got us back there quickly."

Tay: "At least you're not dying."

Kyns: "Good thing it happened to me and not you cause I couldn't drive this car."

Tay: "At least we don't have to clean puke out of the car, you did a really good job of keeping it clean in spite of your condition. I'm impressed."

Kyns: "Thanks, I'm professional."

The good news is that I'm alive. The bad news is I'm not totally sure it was food poisoning, just because, I didn't throw up again. But, I did have those anti-vomit pills which work like a charm. But it ISN'T appendicitis and that's what is most important here.

Also, Emergency room visits in the UK are free. So even though I have travelers insurance, last nights little fiasco didn't cost a dime. But they still treated me really well

Overall I was satisfied with my English healthcare experience, but now I am ready to come HOME!

See you tomorrow America.