Coachella Begins....

God love you if you actually read through all these...I'll only get one up tonite - but I love you my blog readers who actually read my ramblings!!!
Here goes:
Thursday night, headed out just as the sun was setting for my 3 day trek to the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. As I drive by myself through the desert my mind wanders to childhood memories of my grandparents desert place and all the time we used to spend there. Night falls. I'm almost there. I get a twinge of excitement when a SUV passes me w/Coachella 2010 painted all over their car. Its here!!! I pull into Embassy Suites - we did it a little swanky this year - where T greets me at the entrace. Her and J have already been here all day and are just arising from a disco nap. (See prior blog) We head to the room where I get settled and the girls pour me a glass of red. We laugh and chat and I start to finally decompress, letting it all go for at least a couple of days. When you come out here you come to another world. Line-ups and highlighters out, we begin the process of trying to plan out what bands we're going to try and see. We head out for a few errands and the annual drive by the grounds. Not all the lights are on this year, and the car camping line is scary as hell. Somehow we end up on the patio of the hotel discussing the Jewish Sater and the Fecal Man. Yup. The Coachella weekend has begun.
Friday morning.
I have 3 gripes about the hotel. WiFi is way overpriced, so bringing my lap top was pointless. There were these weird green flashing lights in both rooms...random and we had an issue with our coffee maker. But - our gal Brittany was the bomb and took good care of us.
We roll out of bed and start the slow process of getting moving. We make coffee and start to putter around. "What time does the free breakfast end?" J asks - T looks at our little cards. "9:30". Its 9:27. Shit!!! A mad dash downstairs and make it just in time for some yummy breakfast. I'm not much of a breakfast person, but still stuff my face knowing I have a long day ahead. Coffee outside with a morning cig and we head back to get ready. The normal routine takes place - showers, back packs packed with sunscreen, cameras, cigs, bandannas, etc. We pack our evening wear into J's winter bag, grab our cooler of tailgating goodies and head out. Us 3 girls have a very strange way of traveling perfectly together. We're directed to a small parking lot and breeze right in. Nice! Peanut butter crackers are a staple. We lather up on sunblock and T makes some yummy strong vodka drinks in our "to go" cups. Day 1 has begun. We only park for a half hour or so as we are anxious to get in. Check in blew. We waited around 1 hour and half or so to get our 3 day wristbands (Not to be removed...real fun in the shower btw) and have our stuff checked - twice! We finally get in and head to our locker where we unload all our crap. Here we go girls!! 1st stop is the T-shirt stand - must get our Coachella stuff. Not as good of a selection this year, so I go for a simple black tank with Coachella painted across my non-existent breasts. We of course hit the porter's since J and I have the bladder the size of a pea - very well kept up this year. We have time to hit 1 beer garden before our 1st band. Beers for the girls - vodka drink for me. We chill a while and then head off to Sleigh Bells. We stood off to the side and danced a bit to the fun-ness that was Sleigh Bells. Back to the Beer Garden, where we decide to cop a squat and listen to YeaSayer since they were directly across. They start rockin out and low and behold - Gorde waltzes in front of me! We hug and chat, we meet all the friends - of course I'm "Shane's sister" to all. We hang for a bit and they are all off to see another band. This was also the brief moment the heat got to me - MUST HYDRATE. I recovered and we headed over to Aeroplane - in the tent we bounced a bit, but still a bit woozy I napped outside the tent while the girls danced a while longer. We headed off and past Ruth Chris steak house tent! OMG!!! Sliders for me! So f-ing good!!! We found a spot in the food court and listened to She & Him while chowing down our meat. Zooey is so cute!!!! I just love her so! Next we wandered over to the Mainstage to here some of the Special's - bounced a bit to some Ska like fun. I thought of my bro. Back over to the Outdoor Stage for Passion Pit - great band, bad miking. The sound was just not there friend unfortunatley - we didnt make the whole set. Sun is setting now and getting a bit chilly, we head to our locker and put on our "night clothes" then chill at Mainstage listening to Them Crooked Vultures...whats up supergroup! They of course rocked. LCD Soundsystem followed them - a band I was not familiar with until this weekend and they became my highlight! So great!! Next up was Vampire Weekend - one of my faves. They of course were fun as hell. I bounced and sang along. I f-ing love them. Sadly the crowd was just too much, and I was realizing this was going to put a damper on the weekend a bit. This year 1 day passes were not and option, only 3 day and they sold 15k more. This making a total of 75k people. Sold out. It was just too damn many, but we did make do. The 3 of us then started to wander around and check out all the night art, I played with my night vision on my digital and got some fun fuzzy shots which I always love. There was a great giant oragami lookin thing you could chill under with a budda floating inside. Giant lighted things, a huge tube that fire shot through, glowing land sharks that cruised around the grounds. All kinds of crazy shit as usual. Some of the randoms in the people part - lots of chicks in just bathing suits, sometimes underwear, a group of fellas with british cop helmets with lights on top, A hot dog eating a pizza, people pretty much having sex and much much more. Jay-Z was the headliner that night, so we did want to stay and at least see part of his set to see what he was all about. He was great - very entertaining. Live band and a total rockstar. We left before the end, but I actually probably could have stayed for the whole thing. I did get a major foot cramp at this point - I think thats the 1st time I scared T. That was good times. There were also kids...not a lot but a few. That was odd...just not a place I'd think to bring a little one. We also started a new game called "Man? or Woman?"...you get the idea. Getting out of the lot was a breeze. Back to the hotel with a bit of body aches, but had a good day one!