2015 in review

Since the year is coming to a close, time to look back at all that I have accomplished for this year

I went to my first music festival
-Rock on the Range, an annual hard rock/heavy metal music festival in Columbus, Ohio. It's at formerly Columbus Crew stadium, now MAPFRE Stadium. It's three days of hard rock and heavy metal, like Woodstock on steroids, lol. I got to see Judas Priest and Linkin Park in concert, in addition to tons of up and coming bands. I also got to see Slash with Myles Kennedy and the Conspirators. I do think I should have seen Priest when they came to the Horseshoe Casino here in Cincinnati the next day, but then my sister wouldn't have gotten to see Linkin Park. I felt better that she could see the band and plus, I got killer pics of the band for her, so she's happy, lol!!! It's a win-win situation: we both got to see our favorite bands and she got to check out Rob Halford and Glenn Tipton, who she will think is cute until they die, lol!

I got my first car
-This happened back in August. I bought my first car. A fire engine red 2007 Chevy Aveo LT hatchback. Of course, when I tried to put in the car seat cover I got for Christmas last year, which was a Kiss Love Gun seat cover, it took me a half hour. Apparently the people who made it didn't think about the fact that some car seats have attached armrests. No matter; I simply put the cover over the armrest. I don't use the armrest anyway.

Bought a book on Phil Collen
-Being a Def Leppard fan since college, I had to read this. Not to mention Phil Collen is, in my opinion, one of the cuter members of Def Leppard. It has nothing to do with his six pack abs. He can be skinny as a rail and I'll still like him! In fact, I have to say that all the guys in Def Leppard are amazingly handsome for their age. Don't want to forget them

Bought a book on Paul Stanley
-I honestly never thought this would happen. After reading the book, I'm glad I bought it. It was a very good book. He seemed very open and honest with himself, even to the point of occasionally putting himself down. After reading about all the bullying he endured because of his ear deformity, it makes me sad to think people are like that. They bully those they see as an easy victim. But he managed to by pass all that and become a musician, a world-famous, award winning musician at that

Saw my first tribute bands
-In September, me and my sister saw our first tribute bands in concert. We never knew there were tribute bands out there. Until now. We saw Highway to Hell, an AC/DC tribute band, at Bogarts, a massive concert venue here in Cincinnati. I have to say-Highway to Hell is THE band to see if you are an AC/DC fan. You'd think the real band was playing with how good these guys are. Not to mention, what's really awesome is that one of the guys in the band, named Rod, who plays guitar, looks EXACTLY like Malcolm Young. Talk about going for authenticity. All looks aside, these guys are amazing. You need to see them if you ever get a chance.
-We also saw Mr. Speed, a Kiss tribute band thanks to free tickets we got after leaving the Highway to Hell concert. Nothing better than free tickets!!!! You put these guys and the original lineup of the real Kiss together, you won't be able to tell the difference. The guys in Mr. Speed and the guys in Kiss' original lineup look alike. There are a few differences here and there. Like in Mr. Speed, Alex Lords, who is supposed to be "Gene Simmons", has a tattoo of a bat against a moon on his right arm while Gene Simmons has no tattoos. Not to mention Mr. Speed has no egos, that we know of. Me and my sister got a picture with the band. But there was a near fight that broke out. Some people ahead of us created their own line and cut everyone and when me and my sister went up to get a picture, one of the women said rudely "I was here first". Thankfully, everyone else thought it was rude of them to do that. Including this man behind us who had his little girl with them. They both had their faces painted like Peter Criss, awesome! It was so cute, so adorable!!!!

Got three tattoos
-I never, in a million years, thought I would ever get a tattoo. But that changed. At the end of last year, I made a promise that I would get a tattoo because I wanted one and it was one thing on my bucket list. And in January of 2015, that happened. I got my peace sign daisy tattoo on my left arm, inspired by the belief that I am a darn hippie, to quote my step-dad and sister and also my love of all things 1960s and 1970s. Then in March I got my geisha tattoo on my right leg, inspired by my love of all things Japanese culture. Then in June, I got a koi fish jumping out of the water with Japanese maple leaves surrounding it.
-My mom thinks that women with too many tattoos is trashy. I don't agree with her; it all comes down to placement. If they are placed in certain spots, yes it looks good. But if they are overlapping each other, then there's a problem, but it all comes down to how you view it. Me and my sister are of the opinion that it's our bodies. We'll do with them what we want. But of course, when I said that I didn't think it was trashy, she said "Okay, go ahead and get tons of tattoos. No guy will want a woman with too many tattoos. You'll probably grow old and die alone because no man is gonna want women covered in ink. It's hillbilly-ish". I tried to be nice about it, but forget it. My mom is VERY opinionated and set in her ways. She will always think she is right. So I don't bother wasting my breath trying to prove something. And she VERY RARELY admits she's wrong! Not to mention, she's also very nosy. If I order something off the internet, she wants to know what it is. If I tell her it's a CD of Dusty Springfield, which I ordered recently for my birthday, she gave me this weird look and said "Why do you like her? She's not even remotely good". I sadly have to lie when it comes to that. Heck, when I bought a few of Iron Maiden's albums recently, she said, with that same stupid look "When did you start listening to them?" And I was honest with her. My supervisor at work listens to them and one day recently when we were not very busy, she saw me listening to my music and said "Caitlin, come here for a second". I honestly thought I was in trouble but she said simply "You like Judas Priest?" After nodding, she said "Listen to these guys. They're really similar to Priest. You might like them". And the song she played was "Flight of Icarus" by Iron Maiden. She must have seen me smiling because I liked the song and said "I take that smile that you like them. That's Iron Maiden. It's their song "Flight of Icarus" from their Piece of Mind album." Anyway, my mom is very set in her ways about everything. She thinks it's some kind of phase I'm going through because I listen to a lot of old metal. It's not a phase; I'm just trying to expand my musical tastes. That also includes some newer bands, like Avenged Sevenfold, Disturbed, Five Finger Death Punch, Sixx A.M., Velvet Revolver, Duff McKagan's Loaded, etc.