Reviewing: 2014 Year In Review – January through April

2014 was a great year, one filled with fun memories and many great opportunities. Now that grad school is over, I can finally start blogging again, so to start, let’s wrap up last year. January We started the year going to Space City Con in Galveston, Texas. We’ve never been there, but we loved it. It was freezing, so we didn’t get to experience the beach/water too much, but it was just so quaint and there were so many cool little places to check out, that we enjoyed just wandering. The con was awesome too, with the highlight being meeting so many Game of Thrones characters (Renly, Loras, Hodor, Syrio, Khal Drogo, and Ros). I’d love to go back and explore, especially the Moody Gardens Hotel, where the con was located.

February At the NOLA Comic Con, we were able to meet Matt Smith (11^th Doctor), John Ratzenburger, Linda Hamilton, and a few other cool people. Matt Smith was a giant disappointment (which will be in another blog, but the quick story is that I spent all that money for a Matt Smith autograph to have him fly through the line at lightning speed, which wasn’t long at all, and not even look at me. When I said thank you he ignored me), but besides that, we had a blast.

I finally got to see one of Kurt’s music obsessions, Neutral Milk Hotel. The first time I heard them, I thought it was The Decemberists, so I was very quickly put in my place that NMH came first and that the Decemberists sound like them, not the other way around. They played on every instrument imaginable, including things like milk jugs, so it was definitely an experience. They only have two full albums, so I would check them out. You can listen to their whole catalogue fairly quickly (In the Aeroplane Over the Sea is my favorite of the two).

I also went to Pensacon and met a few cool people, like Deep Roy, Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), and some others. Pensacon suffered from experiencing an incredible turnout their first year as a con. The talent they had was very good, but it was cramped and hard to walk from the exhibitors to the media guests. I couldn’t even stop to see any of the booths, because the aisles were so small that if you stopped, you literally blocked everyone behind you. I hope they fix the logistical issues this year, because it has the potential to be really great. March On Mardi Gras day, Kurt and I worked “security” for my friend’s dance group, the Nola Nyxettes. We walked in Zulu! It was so awesome walking in a NOLA parade on Mardi Gras day, especially one as iconic as Zulu. I would march every year if I could, because interacting with all the parade goers was fun and downright interesting. You meet a lot of cool people along the route, way more than I thought! NBC Learn honored me by giving me the K-12 Subscriber Spotlight. All I do is use their videos in my class to enhance my lessons, and they interviewed me about my experience. Such a nice honor and such a useful tool for my classroom! My friend Beth and I went to the 311 Day concert on 3/11. We finagled some backstage passes thanks to Beth’s husband and were able to see the boys up close and personal. They are still one of my favorite bands and they never disappoint. I highly recommend seeing them, especially on 311 Day! Five great hours of playing. Kurt and I saw Elton John, a bucket list artist for me. He played for three hours and sounded phenomenal. I loved that once he came back for his encore, for almost five minutes, he signed autographs for all the people that were in the first rows in front of the stage. A class act!

Hogs for the Cause is one of our favorite charities/festivals. It’s a huge contest where you cook a pig every which way you can imagine, and different contestants enter under fun names such as “Piggy Stardust” and “Sweet Swine O Mine.” The different types of foods from pigs is astounding – chocolate covered bacon, ribs, pork tongue tacos, pulled pork nachos, cracklins’…you name it, them make it. And it all supports pediatric brain cancer, so how could you not be behind something like that? Plus, they have great bands. Hooray for Riff Raff and The Hold Steady were the two that we specifically wanted to see, and they did not disappoint.

April WrestleMania XXX was such a blast. Hulk Hogan, Steve Austin, and The Rock opened up the show. We got to see Brock Lesnar defeat The Undertaker. I mean, who saw that coming?! Daniel Bryan beat Randy Orton and Batista, much to Triple H’s chagrin. It was so much fun being there and the best part was seeing the little kids get so into it. WrestleMania is just one of those big things people should experience, and I’m glad I did.

For Spring Break, we went down to Disney World. We spent Easter at a great Cuban restaurant in Celebration, FL called Columbia with my sister and her boyfriend. Celebration is the cutest little town, right on a lake. It’s like Stars Hollow from Gilmore Girls or the town on The Truman Show. Plenty of cute shops, bands, a lake, good restaurants. Definitely make the trip one day if you’re looking for something to do outside of Disney. Disney itself was, of course, a blast. I’ll always be a Disney kid at heart. The new Beauty and the Beast restaurant was well worth it. We went for breakfast and dinner. It’s gorgeous and the food is wonderful.

The first weekend of Jazz Fest we saw Vampire Weekend on not the main stage. They were on point and it wasn’t too crowded.

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