Some pictures from the past few days.

Hi guys. Here are a few pictures from the past few days, including Alyssa's visit that I thought you would enjoy seeing!



This is a picture from Lauren's 'black and white' party. I kind of ruined it with the scarf. Oh well.


Alyssa and I at SLU!


Erin, Me, Lili, Katie, and Aimee


This is actually a photograph Luke took of Alyssa and I (Alyssa is wearing my jacket in the foreground). Believe it or not, we were actually laughing really hard in this picture even thought it doesn't look like it!

Fall Out Boy Secret Show.

After a month of deciphering difficult clues and tracking secret websites, the FOB secret show finally happened! Our show was one of 4 secret shows the band played: 1 in boston, 1 in new hampshire, 1 in columbus, and 1 in saint louis. There was a show in chicago at the chicago theatre, but they were filming a show to be aired on national television, so that wasn't nearly a "secret". The 4 secret shows were held in venues they first played at back in 2003 and 2004 - all about 200 capacity. The one in saint louis is called the "creepy crawl" and is located 3 blocks north of the busch student center. Because the band only wanted their most dedicated fans present, tickets were sold at the door only at the venue the day of the show...

...which means we camped out! At 10pm the night before the show, there were already 4 groups with tents set up on the sidewalk. After a quick trip to target, devin and i set up camp along with them! We spent the night talking with the other fans from the insides of our tents reminiscing about "the good old days" of the band, where they played venues like the creepy crawl and weren't hollywood famous. everyone was SO nice and it was so so much fun! we all have some great memories and funny stories! sleeping wasn't too bad - it actually wasn't that cold!


Our tent is the red one. You can see our new friend Logan zipping up his tent - he had his friend came from Kansas City!

the next day devin and i took shifts waiting in line so we could go to class, shower, and do homework, etc. at about 3:30 we took down the tents and stood with our blankets waiting in line. by this time, the line was about 3 blocks long - people had shown up all through the night and day! at 5:30 we were able to buy tickets, and at 6:00 the doors opened. devin and i got pretty good spots, about 5 rows back from the stage. (side note about the stage: not a stage at all! it was elevated 1 foot off the ground, and made of wood. no barricade or anything!) the opening band was a small small band from the chicago suburbs. they played 5 songs then it was time for FOB!


Devin and I waiting in line (in matching american apparel hoodies!)

When Fall Out Boy came on, Devin and I were able to push our way to the second row (the first row ended up having to sit on the stage because of all the pushing). IT WAS AMAZING. the banner they hung was the one they used in 2004, and can be seen in their "Dead On Arrival" music video - one of their first ever, filmed in Arlington Heights. They played an hour and 45 minute set. Patrick and Pete saw my sign that read "I'm from winnetka" and talked to me in between songs! Patrick told everyone about how he always drives through winnetka to get to pete's house. and pete yelled saying "you're from winnetka, you better know the words to this song!" the song was "chicago is so two years ago". GOOD TIMES! pete also gave me the setlist from the stage, but i ended up with only a 1/4 of it because i shared it with devin and some others.


The old Fall Out Boy banner.

i was so close i didn't even have to use the zoom on my camera. they were RIGHT THERE. we were sitting on the stage, dancing, having a BLAST! it was sooo sooo sooo soooo much fun! most of the time everyone was singing so loud you couldn't even hear patrick's voice. in the middle of their last song, they stopped playing and pete told us about how they will probably never ever get to play a show like that again, so they had everyone come up on stage and dance with them! eventually they couldn't even sing or play anymore because everyone was hugging and thanking them! WE WERE ON STAGE WITH FALL OUT BOY!







this was THE most fun i've had in a LONG LONG time!!!!!! I think both Devin and I slept with smiles on our faces.

i'll put up a video later tonight or tomorrow.

Volunteering, The Academy Is..., and Halloween

**for some reason the pictures are being cut off, so click on the picture, and it will open in a new screen and you can see the complete one!**

Volunteering:

I have volunteered at two events on campus in the past few weeks. The first was called The Light Bulb Exchange. This was through the ETF club I am a member of. The club was given money to buy enough CFL light bulbs for each student on campus. These light bulbs last for 7 years and use 1/4 of the energy. Members of ETF went trick-or-treating for light bulbs for three consecutive nights. We knocked on doors (we hit ALL on campus housing!) and asked if people would be willing to give us their old light bulbs for a free exchange of some new CFLs. The old light bulbs we collected were sent to a place that recycles them and makes art with them. Pretty cool! By the end of the three days we handed out enough CFL bulbs to save SLU just over $17,000/year on their energy bill!

The second event I helped out with was Make A Difference day on SLU's campus. I was part of my floor's team, and we did a Habitat For Humanity build. Our job was to put up fences in the newly built homes. It was hard work, but lots of fun! I'm now a chain link fence expert!

The Academy Is...:

On Thursday Erin, Devin, Maureen, and I all went to The Academy Is...(TAI) concert. It was at the same venue as Cobra Starship. It was SO MUCH FUN! The venue is an amazing place, and the energy is just incredible. TAI is from Barrington, but spent a lot of time in Winnetka and Wilmette because they are best friends with Fall Out Boy. Knowing this, Devin and I made signs that read "I'm From Winnetka" and "We Love Chicago". During the first song William Beckett, the lead singer, came over and read our signs (we were in the second row). He gave us a HUGE smile and pointed at us for the rest of the show! When we held them up later, Butcher the guitarist saw them and smiled, then went over to the bassist and pointed at us. The bassist, Sisky, then came over and gave us a big smile. After the show, we were talking with Sisky and he told us a whole bunch of stories from when he was in high school. He said that he would always drive down Green Bay Rd. to go to Peter Wentz's house (Fall Out Boy bassist), and would meet Joe Trohman (Fall Out Boy guitarist) at New Trier after school. He also talked about how he has always thought that Winnetka was better than Wilmette. When he asked me if I went to New Trier, I said I went to Woodlands and he went "Oh yea! I have a lot of friends from Lake Forest!". It was really fun talking with him about our shared hometown more than 200 miles away! He also told us some funny stories about Fall Out Boy before they hit it big. Here are pictures and videos from the show:


Devin, Sisky, and I after the show.


At midnight Sisky came put on his Halloween costume!








"Automatic Eyes"


"Hollywood Hills"

Halloween:

For the first part of the day, we hosted kids who cannot trick-or-treat in their own neighborhood due to gangs. They knocked on our doors and we gave them candy. There were also games in the lobby and all over campus. It was fun having them with us!

After the kids left, we all got ready in our Halloween costumes! I will save the details of the night (and our costumes) when I can locate some good pictures! You've got to see it to fully understand!

KK's Visit/Cobra Starship Show

KK and I had a TON of fun exploring Saint Louis! She arrived late Friday night (around 11:30) and was quickly assimilated into the dorm. There only people on my floor were Erin, Max (and his girlfriend, Sheila, who was visiting), and Luke. The group of us had some fun times goofing around and getting to know each other before we all retired to bed. KK slept on the futon, and we both woke up the next morning at about noon. We met up with Max and Sheila at the metro link station before heading down to the Delmar Loop. KK and I got lunch, frozen yogurt, and then decided to hit up a few stores. We ran into Max and Sheila at a cool thrifty store called Rag-O-Rama before heading to the COOLEST furniture store, Pizazz! Here is a lamp I found that I really want to buy:



After the furniture store we met up with Max and Sheila at the station again. They got off at SLU, and KK and I continued to Laclede's Landing to see the arch!




We spent all of 5 minutes at the arch (no joke) before our taxi was there to take us to the venue to see COBRA STARSHIP! The show was absolutely amazing! It was our 5th time seeing them, and the best yet! Here is a video from the concert:


Afterwards, we met up with some girls from my floor and waited around to meet the band. As always, they came out and hung with "the kids" for quite awhile. Gabe (the lead singer) has been under the weather, so he wasn't as much fun as he usually is, but still tons of fun! We ended up dancing together when some people started singing a song. Here's KK and I with Gabe:




Soon after Gabe cam out, Alex Suarez (the bassist) joined him. Alex, on the other hand, was feeling great! He is one funny and super nice guy. I asked him to sign my shoe and his response was: "I'll sign your shoe only if you sign mine!" In response to his own statement he whipped off his shoe and handed me the sharpie! Alex Suarez's shoes now have MADALYN GUY written down the side. Pretty cool considering he wears them on stage every night! Here's pictures with Alex:


This was while I was signing his shoe and he was sporting mine!





After the show we got dinner at Vito's Italian restaurant, right off campus. We finally got to bed around 3am, and woke up at 6:45 to catch our bus back to Chicago!

The Neon Extravaganza

Last night was the Neon Party, where everyone got dressed up in their most annoying clothing and celebrated the fact of looking weird. I'd say we did quite a nice job ourselves:

(Chelsea, Murphy, Katie, Erin, and Me)


(Joe Baldwin - not the musical one)




(Natasha, my parrot pin)

Pictures from the Jack's Mannequin Concert (Prents Weekend)

Pre-Show, waiting at the barrier. (Me, Erin, Katie, and Luke)



(Andrew from Jack's)


(Andrew, again)

Campus Pictures

Just some random pictures from around campus...