Hey Jude

This summer I had the immense pleasure to fly to Chicago for the infamous Lollapalooza music festival, and it made its way into my top 5 favorite weekends of all time.

The weekend was spent with my incredibly beautiful and oh so wonderful roommate- Anna; and I couldn’t imagine having spent the weekend with anybody else. We cried together, we fan-girled together, we laughed together, we screamed and lost our voices together, we frolicked all over Chicago together, and we spent the most incredible weekend together.

Our flight left Dallas at 6 am.. meaning we were up before the sun at the ungodly hour of 4 am. Putting us in Chicago around 9 am, meaning a full day of trekking all over the city and walking who even knows how many miles once the day was done. In Chicago we stayed with the son of a family friend who was interning in Chicago. 5 boys living in an apartment together resulted in THE dirtiest apartment I have ever seen. Literally. Beard hair everywhere, empty beer cans, pizza boxes, a pile of trash in the kitchen 3 trash bags tall (who knew how long they’d been sitting there), and a shower I swear that could have been white at one point but was now a grayish black. I would love to say that we were super zen about the whole thing and that having to clean off/wipe our black feet before slipping them into our shoes didn’t phase us; but it did. We were grossed out.

But hey, free lodging right? We survived.

If you’ve never been to Chicago, you are missing out, I understand the hype now. It is beautiful. The beaches on Lake Michigan with super clear greenish-blue (but cold) water in front of you, and the skyline of Chicago stretching behind you, it was an amazing setting. And also the setting of one of the greatest naps I have ever taken on a beach, because ya know you can actually nap on those beaches without worrying about baking like a cake in the sun, and getting skin cancer if you stay out for too long. You can even get goosebumps if the wind is blowing and you’ve just gotten out of the water. I had GOOSEBUMPS at THE BEACH, IN JULY. This is a concept foreign to any Texan; goosebumps in July? Ha. HAHAHA.

The festival was epic. It was everything. If you know me at all you know music plays a huge role in my life, whether it be going to festivals and concerts or the simple fact that I always have to have some form of music playing in the background while doing basic things; cooking, showering, writing this blog post.(currently; Lover where do you live by Highasakite) Music exists in everything I do, so being at this festival and getting to experience such beautiful artists in such an amazing city was everything for me.

We saw big names like Paul McCartney. Yeah, PAUL MCCARTNEY. As in THE Paul McCartney. As in the Beatles, as in my all time favorite band, not to mention my favorite Beatle. Oh Paul, you beautiful thing, you. *SWOON* (yes, I realize he’s a 73 year old man, but I just don’t care) *SWWWWOOONNN*

I can’t even put into words the experience I had while watching this legend perform. Two hours of nonstop tears. I think I didn’t cry for maybe 2 of the songs. Every time I would get settled into the concert I would look up at him doing his thing and rocking out, or he would tell some story about the late and great John Lennon or about George Harrison, and the tears would start all over again. Or he would play one of my favorite songs, and he’d tell the story or meaning behind it, and the water works would start again. To be even in the same city as him was so overwhelming, and being in his presence and watching him on stage was the greatest thing I have ever seen. Singing along with him to Hey Jude and Black Bird were two of my favorite moments, completely indescribable and I swear I felt like nothing was wrong, every thing bad disappeared and everything (if only for those two songs) was right and good and perfect in my world.

We also saw MisterWives who put on an absolutely incredible show full of life and so much energy. There was Sturgill Simpson, Alabama Shakes (Britney I wanna be your friend, seriously let’s hang out), Broods,Tame Impala, and so many others.

One of my favorite shows was Elle King; I’ve realized more and more that I have obsessions with strong women who just don’t give a damn. Who are 100% unapologetic about who the are, and are just free. She rocked the stage and cracked us all up with her absurdity and incredible vocals. (Elle let’s hang out too and talk about feminist things together, I love you.)

On the last day of the festival the park got shut down because of a storm cell that threatened soft-ball size hail and crazy winds. Which we found out after some mis-informed worker told Anna and I that there had been a bomb threat. Which wouldn’t have been anywhere near as terrifying and believable if all of the streets within a 6 block radius hadn’t been shut down and barricaded by tons of cops everywhere. We silently freaked out and I tried not to alarm my mother when I told her what was going on.

However, there was no bomb threat that we were aware of, or later heard anything about, and the park re-opened 40 minutes (or so) later. And we went back after eating some of the greatest Italian food I’ve had (in America at least)

Our last day got cut short because of our flight back to Texas and our fear of getting caught in crazy traffic and missing our flight (which was later delayed because of weather).

We caught our flight and said goodbye to Chicago, and I tried to not to cry for the week after every time I put on a Beatles song, (although I did not succeed).