another night and I'll be you

 What I Did On My California Vacation, by Jilli:

• Saw My Chemical Romance, my precious bombast cupcakes, THREE TIMES.

At the first show, Gerard wore a cheerleader uniform and came onstage with a flamethrower. He didn't wear any costumes for the other two shows I was at, but betrayed me by dressing up as Bela Lugosi's Dracula on the night I wasn't there. HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME GERARD?

Even with that costume betrayal, the three shows I did see were FANTASTIC. The band was having a blast, and they played so many songs I wanted to hear, including "Vampires Will Never Hurt You" all three nights. Just amazing. I wish I could have justified the money for tickets to the Saturday and Monday shows.

• Spent all week with Jen/Cass! Who is one of my closest friends and sanity check people, and my #1 concert buddy for MCR. I adore her, and we hadn't seen each other in far too long. There was much flopping and talking.
• Spent 48 hours with my darlings Drew and Kristin and their collection of critters: 3 cats, 3 dogs, one of which is an extremely affectionate 6 month old German Shepherd puppy. 
• Went to Venice Beach and stood in the ocean. I occasionally need to walk into the water.
• Went to Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles. CHICKEN AND WAFFLES. 

The not so great things:

• Had a terrible puking migraine on Thursday night. 0/10, do not recommend.
• Was tormented by Body Image Demons all week. This is becoming a regular occurance. I've been slowly increasing my activity, and I know I need to do more of that. I really don't want to start stepping on a scale weekly or tracking my food/calories, because those two things are a fast track to crazy town and flirting with an eating disorder, but I suspect I need to before I go talk to my doctor about "My abdomen has enlarged disproportionately to my body, this is not how I gain weight, do we need to see if something weird is going on?". (Yes, I know, menopause causes women to gain weight, especially around the belly area. This ... doesn't look like that.)

All in all, my trip was wonderful. But I'm very glad to be home, even if it means back to Packing Hell and trying to catch up on a week's worth of work messages.