My sister flew into Oakland on Friday, I left work early to pick her up. Still arrived late, thanks bay area traffic. Lagged a bit, went to pick up the car, lagged some more. Then we split ways, I had to run an errand before our trip. Totally forgot to get the cooler. Went to my other job, picked up the cooler. Dude. I cannot stress enough how fucken badass this motherfucken cooler is. #YetiCoolerForLife Parked my car, sister bought some alkey and we bounced to Nevada for the Reggae festival. The drive there seemed pretty quick, thanks to the beautiful night sky and my awesome “Amy and Denise’s Epic playlist.” Except when it died in the mountains due to lack of reception. Anyways. The night sky in the mountains are the most beautiful I’ve seen. Side note: I should definitely plan more trips to the mountains. We arrive. I carry all my shit (40 pound pack, Work backpack, Duffel bag full of comfortable adventure shoes, and my newly purchased Hopper Two 20 Yeti Cooler Bag. This cooler is fucken legit. We left our beer, liquor, sodas, waters and snacks in this bag, filled it with ice on the first night and 2 days later, the ice was still in tact. My beer was still cold and we only did one ice run. #BestInvestmentEver Anyways. We arrived around 2AM Saturday morning. The day of the #budandbrew festival and slept for 6-ish hours. Woke up, got ready. Got my fucken period. What a shit show start. Anyways. I was still going to rock out. 2 hours passed. Got my drinks flowing, my sister and I are catching up, talking shit and having deep conversations about ourselves, our futures, and family and I’m thinking to myself God, I missed this. We told ourselves we were going to leave after our 4th drinks, and this bitch is hella extra and decides to open a beer and take another shot. We arrive an hour and a half later than we should, but fuck it, we’re feeling great. When in good company, you feel good, you are good and the universe fucken hears it, and sends great fucken vibes back to you. Our uber driver had fucken snacks in her car, was so fucken cool about everything and seriously made us so relax and chill. I’m digging this vibe entirely. We arrive at a marked location. Reggaes playing. We check in quick, even though there’s security and a fucken line. Shit. Even security was cool af. Got some extra tickets for some beer (we will sooner regret how great we are), got to our VIP section, chilled. Then I saw fucken ducks and dogs. And yes I am seriously that weirdo that wants to pet every animal she sees. So I feed the ducks and they swarm me. Some start attacking each other. I stop. Sister smoked a cig that I didn’t approve of. After that, we went back to our seats. Started to jam with the music and there’s this guitarist who's playing his guitar on the back of his head. FYI, this dude is sweating bullets through his pits. Anyways, Tribal Theory comes on, the band we’ve been wanting to see. Great energy, and then my ass needs to pee. Fled quickly, thought I needed to poop, gosh this damn alcohol and traveling, it messes up my bowel movements. Anyways, my creeper sister later sends me this video of me wandering to the restroom from a distance. *Ugh* What a Creep* AHAHHAH. The game plan was to have us share 1 drink each to keep the vibe up. To not be so tipsy. To still have some self control. And yet that is not what occurred. My sister and I were rotating getting drinks. I first went, came back with one. And then this bitch went, and came back with four. Not sure what really happens next, but this is what I recall: the bass player came out hella energetic and I’m feeling the vibe. Then “My Roots” came on, and I’m on one. I stand up, started dancing like a weirdo, but fuck it, I’m having fun. A majority of the time, my annoying sister is snapping this shit. But I thank her later for it, because it meant I could see what I was seeing / doing. My behavior was not all that bad. #noregrets (Off the record: except when I went to the restroom trying to poop). Anyways. We go to the restrooms. And my sister meets the lead singer and guitarist from Tribal Theory. They recognize her from the audience and wanted to see what’s up. After I come out, super embarrassed btw, I meet the guitarist Peter and we discuss his new tattoos. At this point, I’m super plastered, but I remember to wash my hands and mind my manners. He tells us of the after party, then we part ways. My sister and I begin to wander around. There is this river / aqueduct and we see people practicing body boarding and paddle boarding. We’re super amazed. Mostly because it’s winter and these people are doing this openly by a park. This brings back pleasant memories of ours; especially that one summer back in high school when almost everyday we spent body boarding at the beach with our family that I actually tanned and didn’t burn like the pale vampire I am today. We climb down the rocky exterior to get a better look. I sit down, but somehow my sister decides to join in?! She’s 3 feet deep in water with a scraped knee, and all we can do is laugh at what just happened. I help her out. We almost didn’t make it. (OMG, right?!) and this whole time, this old creepy guy is watching us, but cheering us along the way, I believe he said “you can do it!” but then again, I’m super jacked up rn. The last band is taking fucken forever to play, and my sister and I decide that it’s time the grandmas go home and knit. We call an uber, head back to our room and just “chill” aka “NAP-TIME!” I wake up to her throwing up, which is what I can only describe as “If-you-were-giving-birth-to-over-sized-dragons-through-your-mouth” magic. She’s all right, she tells me and I fall right back to sleep. We missed the after party, which is a bit of a downer, but overall I think was the right decision for the night. The next day, we meet up with cousin Nate, who is all about good vibes. We catch up over coffee, head out and said deuces to Reno. Drove out, stopped by Donner Lake spontaneously and saw this incredibly landscape that mother nature created. Could not help but to think about the recent events of how great and terrifying Mother Nature could really be (Hurricane Irma, Hurricane Maria, and the 5-ish Earthquakes in the bay area that week). We meditate, take some pictures for the gram and soon head out. The landscape is changing but still very eye-catching and delightful. Traffic begins building up, we take a different, longer route, drove through a pleasant small town and then decide to head to San Francisco. Make it to Mystery Spot XXX, one of my favorite spots in the world to be, cracked open a beer, listened to my epic playlist and just enjoyed each other’s company. Retook some pictures of old throwback’s (side note: gotta keep that shit update on the regulars =)). Ate some pho at Kevin’s Noodle House afterwards, got some honey boba at T-Pumps, and we left back to Berkeley. Showed her my other secret spot to enjoy the beautiful views of the bay, and we left to drop off boba to my partner in crime. Then lagged some more, picked up my car, lagged to return it because we forgot to get gas, then got home super exhausted. Played with my little munchkin godson, took a shower and slept. Top notch weekend with great company. <3 Love you sis. Thanks for making the trip. #myrootsandculture #sisterlylove #budandbrewmusicfestival #reno #yetiisstillthegreatest
