The Katy Perry California Dreams Adventure!

(Yes, I suck at coming up with blog titles.)
I think it's really funny, and amazingly awesome, that we got to see The Band Perry and Katy Perry in the same year. Of course, the circumstances both times were considerably different, not to mention their styles of music couldn't differ more. Also, Katy Perry isn't really her name, but I read she's actually Katy Hudson. Still, it's fun to think about this and muse about how amazingly lucky I am.
I've decided never to doubt anything my mom ever says...again. She said we were going to see Katy Perry, but since we were in Peru at the time I thought all the tickets would be sold out by the time we got home. That was not the case. There were still decent seats available, and I could see the whole stage perfectly well. My mom makes things happen. I'm not sure how she does it. She's just awesome, that's all I know.
The concert was well-choreographed and basically a work of art. There were so many costumes and for each song it was different. It followed the Alice in Wonderland/Candyland theme--I think there was almost a little bit of Cinderella in there, too. On the screen between songs they played bits of this movie where she's in costume and she walks around this really cool land made of candy, searching for her Kitty, and having adventures. It reminded me of the Taylor Swift concert I saw a couple of years ago, where for each song she had a different set, and it was simply magnificent. I'll share photos from that later.
My favorite song she played in this concert was E.T. because you could feel the beat here more than in any of the other tracks. There were green and blue lasers reaching wide over the crowd, making you feel like you were in a science fiction movie. I wish I'd been able to get a good picture of that, but I was too busy singing along, so that's fine. I was enjoying myself and if I'd spent the whole concert taking pictures, then I would have missed the whole thing--and that wouldn't be much fun at all.

This really was an adventure. It was almost perilous. Here's the suspenseful summary of how it was action-packed and nerve-racking at first:
I went with my mom, dad, and my brother. I had the greatest time with them. I had quite an adventure trying to get four bottles of water to them. For some reason the guys at the food place just had to take the caps off the bottles, so... Picture Mariella stumbling through a crowded arena and trying to figure out how to get back into the row where her family is sitting, that is really narrow and where it's easy to fall down.
Well, there were some kind people who helped me pass down the bottles of water to my family. They said, "Need us to help you pass something down, sweetheart?" Probably because they saw me looking so pathetic with the four bottled waters calling to my family who couldn't hear me because of the music going on at the moment. So we called until my parents looked up and received the bottles of water--and then I finally went back to my seat, the chances of falling and dying having been slimmed. But I wasn't going to be able to last the whole concert without any water. We'd gone up three flights of stairs and my tongue literally felt like paper. How was I ever going to sing along if my tongue felt like paper?!
Aside from that, I wore some nice ballet flats that I thought would look good with my sequined shirt, but I forgot that for something like a concert ballet flats are not the most comfortable kind of shoes to wear. Next time Katy Perry comes I think I could get away with wearing fluffy bunny slippers! ♥ It would fit the theme and I think that if I dress up in my pajamas I might be able to make the Meet-and-Greet. I will start shopping for the perfect bunny slippers now.

Yesterday was, in fact, my brother Christian's 14th birthday. This concert was his birthday present. I think we all had fun and I'm glad he had a nice birthday. I know I enjoyed myself as well. It was an adventure.
Thank you so much, Mom, for proving me wrong. I'm never going to doubt you again.
(Honestly. My mom does amazing and crazy things! I want to be like her!)

WHOA. That was unexpected.

It happened. Like, in one second. The entire plot for Beautiful Dancing changed.

 

Or did it? I'm starting to wonder if it ever had a plot. If it's ever going to have a plot at all. Pauly's a liar, a blatant liar and she can't stop. It feels like this book is just a lie, and it's getting all these pretty covers and things...

 

I've told a few of my friends the plans I had for this book and everything. But everything you may know about it now has changed. In just the blink of an eye, what was isn't and what isn't...well, that isn't either. It's all one big lie.

 

Can I pull it off?

 

I don't know how long this book is going to be. It's up to the book. But I'm not making any more goals ahead of time.

 

I'm excited. I'm on fire to write it now.

In which Mariella's mom gets her an iPhone.

And I show off the signature Jenn made me for the first time! You'll find it at the bottom of this blog post. It's really pretty. I love the umbrella and the butterflies.
I don't know if anyone really cares, but since it's my blog I'll say it anyway: I've been really feeling awful because of a cough that came with allergies and brought along with it an asthma attack. So I've been dealing with that cough for a few days now, and though it's getting better (thanks to my amazing mom who takes such care of me and she's the absolute best! ♥) it's still an annoying cough. I had to go to the doctor because I couldn't breathe well and my heart was beating way too fast. So yeah, that was a very long day. I came back breathing and feeling better, but still with a cough that's way annoying.
I've had a rough past two days because of this cough. I can barely talk--my voice is really hoarse. I know, I know...at least I can talk. And one good thing is that I can stay around in my pajamas and just finish up a bunch of things. I've made a lot of progress on arranging the ESCAPISM blog. I had a ton of help from friends and contributors who gave me ideas, their bios, and Syd made me a banner. I can't wait till tomorrow, when I can make the introductory blog post. I've been planning this since May and it's exciting to finally see it coming together and shaping up to resemble the masterpiece it's meant to be. If you guys still want to participate, we're always hiring for contributors, and all you have to do right now is let me know.
Also, my mom is so amazing that she got me an iPhone. The kind with all the apps. And I can listen to Pandora radio on it. And store pictures. And it makes chatting really epic. And I can listen to iTunes music on it. My mom is the best. I can't begin to describe how lucky I am to have her; I don't know what I'd do without her. She's my best friend and always will be.
So, from now on you'll probably be talking to me or texting me via an iPhone. I'll check my blogs on the iPhone. It's all iPhone.
I'm all hi-tech now. I've got the nookColor, which is a totally epic eBook reader and I love. It's got a big screen and it's easier to type blog posts in than perhaps an iPhone would be. Then there's the iPhone that's both phone and iPod at once. (Yes, I'm totally having a bragging moment here.) The nookColor has a pink rubber cover on it, and the iPod has a blue one. I'll get pictures!
Also, I thought I'd share with you guys my reading list for the rest of the summer. Here they are, and I might check them off in the sidebar as I go: (Some of them are really complicated to read, so wish me luck with that!)

1. Kissed by an Angel
2. The Essential Works of Christian Mysticism
3. Teresa of Avila
4. Go Ask Alice
5. The Memory Keeper's Daughter
6. The Reformation
7. The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
8. Lord, Have Mercy
9. The Disreputable History of Frankie London-Banks
10. I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist
11. The Summer I Turned Pretty
12. Augustine
13. Beastly
14. The Prince of Tides
15. The Forgotten Garden

And more that I don't have around me at this immediate moment but definitely need to get read.

LATER...

I've added some tabs to my blog, as well, so it resembles more of a website. I don't know, I'm just having a lot of fun with this. I hope you enjoy sifting through here because this blog is going to my my attempt at being more personal than ever. The I LOVE... page is where I brag about people. Literally. I just feel called to tell people about the great things I have in my life, and the people I love, so I'm organizing all those posts into a page.

It didn't work out trying to get more followers by blogging as a professional blogger. Now I'm going to try and get more followers by being me, because I'm the only one who can. And I'm me for a reason. So here's my blog.

Thanks for coming and happy July! (I started this blog post on June and finished it on July. ^^)

My Memoir On Meeting The Band Perry On My Way Home From Peru

A photo of what happened after I got some courage
and went to say hi to them in the airport.

So. I knew the day I flew back home after so long would be amazing, but I didn't think it would be this amazing. I've already drafted a huge, long blog post about this but it's practically a short story so I'll try to tell about what happened on June 16 in a manner that's not boring and not rambling...otherwise it'll take up the entire blog.

At the Denver airport, I saw some people that looked vaguely familiar but I figured that I was so tired after the two long flights that I was seeing things. I hate the Denver airport. It's so huge and frustrating. There couldn't be people here, among all the strangers that were walking past, that I knew or had even heard about before in my life. Yet, I looked at these people again; I couldn't help it. Then it occurred to me where I must have seen them before--who it was that they reminded me of so strongly.

"No," I thought, turning away in disbelief. "I'm definitely hallucinating. It can't be them."

But my imagination always gets the best of me, so it wouldn't let me forget. Once we boarded the plane, I grabbed my backpack and--ignoring exclamations from my mother and brother asking what I was doing--I dug out my iPod. I only had one picture to judge off of at that very moment, and it was the album art in my iPod.

The EP I checked to make sure it was them.

(The one I looked at in the airplane was the EP that I am showing right here.)

And I studied it. And glanced up at the three people (but couldn't see them well because they were several rows ahead of us.) And showed the iPod to my mom and brother and told them my suspicions. It was my mom who told me that the people were pretty clearly The Band Perry.

"They look exactly alike!" she told me with total certainty. "They even have the same hairstyles!"

What followed was the most agonizing plane ride of my life. I tried to think about whether I ought to go speak to them or not. What if I really was hallucinating and they weren't The Band Perry? What if I went and asked and I totally made a fool out of myself and wasted their time?

Somehow I dozed off and when I started awake again, my mind was made up. I would ask. The worst that could happen was these people saying "No, we're not The Band Perry." It wouldn't hurt to ask. And if the need came, I'd add, "But you look so much like them! It's so cool!" So that it sounded like a compliment and not me mistaking them for someone famous and upsetting them. All that was left to do was calculate what I would do when the plane landed--I had to get off the plane as fast as possible to catch them before they left.

So I did. I raced off the plane, certain that I would be totally unlucky and they'd be gone by the time I got out of the tunnel thing.

But they were right there. Standing right in front of me. Then I struggled against that "Don't bother them. Just keep walking" feeling. But I ignored it.

From left to right:
My dad, Neil, my mom, Kimberly, me, my brother, Reid.

I walked up to them and said, "Hi."

"Hi!" Kimberly replied, and it encouraged me.

So I said, a little enthusiastically, "You look like The Band Perry!"

At this point I was so giddy that I believe what happened next is either a little more blurry than my tentative "Hi," or it could be the clearest memory I have from that encounter. Reid smiled and replied with something along the lines of, "That's because we are The Band Perry!"

Whether he said precisely those words or not, it's one of the best moments of my life--because it was the moment I realized something totally impossible was happening. To me. I was meeting someone amazingly awesome like them in an airport. I had been in a plane with them!

Then, what happened next was even more insane. My mom always manages to pull off the most amazing things. She talked to Kimberly and made it so that we got free concert tickets, and Meet-and-Greet passes. If I'd done this alone, all I would walk away with was a picture and an autograph; but my mom was there, so she made the amazing experience last even longer.

I'm not sure how she does these things, but I'm sure lucky to have her as my mom.

We met The Band Perry a second time at the Meet-and-Greet and saw the concert. I heard Luke Bryan and now have a new favorite artist--he was amazing as well. It was a great night and the best welcome home I could ask for. I remember that day and know that my life is good. It's amazing. The best things happen to me and my family, and this is one of those things that will stand out.

Even now, a few days later, I can't believe it happened. It must be some sort of dream. But just in case, I tagged their official fan page on the pictures I have up on Facebook. Maybe they'll see the pictures and remember us, because I'm certainly never going to forget that day!