Day 5: A picture of your favorite memory

I think it almost impossible to pick just one favorite memory. But, this one is by far a contender.

This was taken at the end of August 2006. Erinn and I are at the Arco Arena seeing Taking Back Sunday, Angels and Airwaves, Head Automatica and The Subways. This is not how the day started out.

I had planned on going to see this concert with my friend Nikki. I offered to give her a ride to the concert since I was going to be in Sacramento that day to drop off my buddy Curtis at the airport. Well, some wires got crossed and Nikki's cell didn't ring, so when we showed up at her house, no one was there. Majorly bummed, I convinced my mom to buy Erinn a ticket so we could still go to the concert.

As it was, Erinn had this guy from Stockton up to visit here. It turned out she found him kind of boring and odd and was generally not enjoying having him around. So this was also an opportunity for her to send him on his way home by saying that we were going to drop him off at the bus station (I know, we weren't the nicest about this kid. I still feel bad about it).

After all the hustling, we barely made it to the airport in time to drop off Curtis. After we said our good-byes, we dropped off the other kid at the bus station (which was honestly one of the most ghetto places I've ever seen). We checked into our motel and got dressed for our concert. My mom, who was after a series of stressful things and bratty behavior, on her last nerve so she had us take a cab to the arena about three to four hours before the concert started

We get in the cab, which the air conditioning vents have been gutted out of, and our driver starts saying some weird and random things--mainly: "Figure out what you wanna do with your life." This should have been an indicator of what kind of ride it was going to be, but I just smiled and laughed like "WTF?" It was at this point that we realized he was on his cell phone and was not talking to us.

As we began speeding down the high way (literally speeding--like 80+ speeding in a rickety cab with no air conditioning), he began to yell louder and louder as we drove along. It became apparent that he was breaking up with his girlfriend when he said, "Bitch--Imma do me and you-a do you." When he hung up, I distinctly remember exhaling. He then proceeded to tell us things like, "Bitch was getting possessive" and "One woman just ain't enough. I got me three. One woman JUST AIN'T ENOUGH! You know what I mean?" After which he called his other girlfriends to fight with them too.

We didn't know what he meant.

Against all odds, we made it there alive. I gave him 40 dollars because I didn't want to ask him for change. As it was, he dropped us off about a mile from the actual arena so we had to walk the rest of the way. It was literally 112 degrees out that day, so by the time we got there, we were drenched in sweat and dehydrated. We proceeded to sit in the line for like 2 hours in the sun. I could feel myself baking. When we finally got into the air conditioning, it was one of the most refreshing feeling I have ever experienced to this day.

This is when we took this picture. After nearly dying of dehydration and heat stroke and having a mildly terrifying experience. This is one of my favorite memories because a) my best friends was there to witness it and b) as awful as it was, I still remember laughing like a banshee as we waited in line when I thought about what I was gonna do with my life