Theresa Rules, another run in with Guyton and AGGG, Georgia

So my friends Mattie, Chase, and Danny live in this RV in our friend Derek's back yard. To see pictures and read more about that check out this previous entry: Guyton, GA post. Anyway, welcome again to Guyton, Georgia.


How funny is this. Yea it's me. To see more scroll down and read what we were doing...

To get to their RV Paradise I have to drive about 35 minutes out of Savannah into the sticks. The first time I went out there I took a wrong turn driving home and ended up having to turn around on this country road. It was the first time I had ever seen a live armadillo... It was poking around the side of the road and when I pulled a U-turn my headlights grazed it's scaly back. I actually got out and watched it for a second before I took off back home to Savannah.

Anyway, Derek's family basically rules. This post is for the last time I was out there. It was the day before the boys left for their summer tour. Check out their tour at the AGGG Myspace. His family basically made everyone steaks and baked potatoes and we had this bread with butter that his mom's family sent them from the mountains... I don't get it either but it tasted like heaven. Anyway, I was there just visiting and not expecting dinner and next thing I know his mom is cooking a steak for me while I'm sitting in his living room with the boys watching them play their dad in shoot em up video games. It was awesome.

That night I really got a chance to talk to Derek's sister Theresa. I had met her before but I had never really talked to her. She was visiting before the boys took off as well. She lives in Savannah not too far from me and studies music at Armstrong Atlantic University. The chick is seriously cool. She's going to school to compose music for video games. I also found out that she's Catholic (and into the faith!) and she might be coming to church with Hawk and me soon. I really enjoyed talking to her and I can't wait to get to know her more!

That night we played with a camera and made a ton of sweet photos. All of these haven't been touched by photoshop... this is just a bunch of crazy kids and me playing with shutter speed, flashlights, and our good old imaginations... I guess these kids have just learned to make their own fun since they have moved out there... haha. I'm just kidding... kind of. Our pictures:


Mattie, Derek, Me, and Chase.

I feel like a little kid gang in this pic. Where are our slingshots?

Derek in two places at once????

We thought it'd be cool to try to switch everybody's head with everybody's body... it almost worked.

Got it.

There are so many of these.., I just took one of them. You get the idea. haha

More light tricks.

Even more light tricks.

My fav one.

And of COURSE they had to put their band name in the mix. of course.

Ok enough of this. Please pray for these boys because they are far from home and will continue to be for a while they are on tour. If they are playing near where you are living, check them out and give them all of your money...

... come on they live in an RV.

haha. We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea

Colleen Hawkin's wedding: Atlanta and Milledgeville, Georgia

So last weekend (July 21-23) I told Hawk that I would go with him to his sister's wedding. His sister Colleen was getting married to this guy Derek. I had never met Derek but I had met Colleen a little over a year before when she had come to visit Hawk in Savannah. I really shouldn't have taken the weekend off but it was important to Hawk and he's like my brother so how could I say no. Here went nothing.

So, the night before we left for his parent's house in Atlanta (about 4 hours from Savannah) we went dancing at the Jinx.

We got mad dressed up and that was AWESOME. I will most def be going as many times as possible until I move out of Savannah in November. I can't help it... 80's dance night at the Jinx is just so mad fun. The crowd has changed considerably since my freshman year when it was only 18 and up and it seemed like EVERYONE WENT but the change hasn't been bad. I always forget how much I love to dance. Anyway, we didn't leave the Jinx until late and I definitely didn't fall asleep until about 4am. We had to leave the next day at 8am for Atlanta. Burn. We're stupid.

I packed and met Hawk outside my apartment a little after 8am. After finding out that his Ipod wasn't working a mile or so later, we turned back around to get mine. Somehow, after getting screwed over at a gas station and other random things happening, we didn't get on the highway until 9am. Better than nothing though... I wasn't sure I was going to be awake on time in the first place so I figure being only an hour off target wasn't that big of a deal.

Half way to Atlanta Matt asked me if I wanted to drive. He asked me if I could drive a stick shift first. All I could think about was me fighting Nick over and over when he'd tell me "today is the day" when it came to learning how to drive a stick. I never wanted to do it EVER. Why? mostly because Nick's cars were always pretty nice and they were like his BABY... I knew that if I screwed up and did something lame or even worse, smashed into something or broke something, not only would I be in trouble because his car was worth something but I'd be screwed because I would be hurting the thing that my boyfriend put most of his time into. NOT a good idea. I finally did give in and let him teach me but only after I got my motorcycle endorsement on my drivers license and had ridden plenty of motorcycles. I guess you could say that I learned how to drive a stick by driving motorcycles but then Nick really polished it off by teaching me to apply it to a car in his half dissected Jetta. Anyway, I drove Hawk's car for a while down the Georgia back roads that he takes to Atlanta. It was a fun experience.... and helped out the 5 speed confidence.


  
Hawk got to play with his camera a little while I took over the driving.

  

  
ten bucks says he took this one for his myspace page lol. haha

When we got to Atlanta, we went to Colleen and Derek's wedding rehearsal. I got to meet a lot of Hawk's family and Colleen's little baby daughter Theresa. Her fiancé Derek also has a son who is 2 years old. They are both beautiful children. Theresa
was the calmest little girl and (dereks sons name) was my dance partner all night.

So I guess I went there to help film her wedding. I don't seem to remember agreeing to that though... what I DO remember is Hawk asking me to film it a long while back and me saying "absolutely not" and explaining that I didn't want to film weddings, especially those of people who are close to me or friends. I am sure that I said these things. Matt asked me if I was still going to the wedding weeks later and I said of course and packed up my finest and went with him... Honestly, I was under the impression that I was just going as moral support and as his date. When we got to the house Colleen hugged me and was like Thank you SO MUCH for taking time out of your busy schedule to do this. I replied "no problemo" but in my head I was like "HUH?".
So I go up to Hawk later and am like "uh... what is your sister so happy about me doing here?" To which he explains that "We're shooting the wedding, remember?" Um, no I didn't remember but whatever, I was already there and I couldn't really back out so what the heck. Hawk you sneaky con-man you. If I understand weddings correctly and YOU are IN the wedding then I am the ONLY person left to SHOOT the wedding so bam, there you have it. Another weekend of working. Whatever, it was fun.

So long story short, we were supposed to use this kid Chris's GL2 to shoot the wedding and we went to the rehearsal and figured out easy angles and what not and had the whole thing planned out. I even met up with the music guy to make sure I was coordinated with him and how everything was going to go so I would know what to film and where to be when. So then, between the rehearsal and the actual wedding we could not for the life of us get into touch with this Chris kid. He didn't call us back and let us hear from him until 2 HOURS before the wedding. WTF. It took about an hour to get to his house and and hour to get back and he wouldn't help at ALL with getting that camera to us even though it was him that was supposed to get back into touch with us and he didn't so basically we never got a chance to get his camera. What to do? Hawk was frustrated because the wedding wasn't going to be filmed and everything was going wrong. Next thing we know its an hour before the wedding and the wedding planner is like "i have a camera you can use". Good, and then even better, it was a sony HI-8. haha. again, wtf. Good thing I love weddings.


Matt and I during the reception.

Shot the wedding on High-8. Good luck editing, Hawk. Overall it was fun. The interesting stuff didn't happen till later though. We got to catch up with DOMINIC (an awesome friend from SCAD who just moved to Atlanta) at Waffle house that night LATE and I got to meet one of Hawk's best friends Daniel who, by the way, is hilarious and I enjoyed his company.

Dominic at the WH
The next day we went to church in the morning with Hawk's mom and then to lunch at this mexican place before we had to take off. I had to be back in Savannah around 6pm so I could work on this project for school. It wasn't optional, it was basically a requirement that I HAD TO do. We weren't very smart in giving ourselves exactly 4 hours to get back before 6pm but nothing about this trip was "smart" so whatever, right?

Right... so... Hawk's car BREAKS DOWN about an hour and a half outside of Atlanta near this little town called Milledgeville.

  
After some consideration, troubleshooting, and me trying my best to convince Hawk that this would be the perfect excuse to try to hitchhike home to Savannah together just for the story to tell... yet to no avail, smart old Matt Hawkins decided he'd phone a friend.

Supposedly Milledgeville isn't so small during the school year because there is a college there and some community schools but man during the summer the place is empty... especially on a Sunday. NOTHING was open. Anyway Hawk's car blows the water pump and so no matter where we go or how long we drive it overheats. Good thing Matt knows one of the only girls in Milledgeviille.. well it seemed like that anyway. Bonnie came to our rescue. Somehow we got the car to her house and we were stuck there until late that night. Yes, this means I missed the project I was supposed to be working on and yes that means that I was in trouble the next day.

Bonnie was cool. She let us chill at her awesome house while we tried to figure out what to do. She was a really cool girl. She had this pet rabbit named like some funny ghetto name, I can't remember, that she just let run around the house. It was probably the coolest thing ever.

  
Bonnie and her bunny! How awesome is the phone on my camera.

  

  

  
How could things get weirder? Easy, we go to the only place open in Milledgeville on Sunday which was this college taco and nacho place. Mexican food...again. Awesome. Even awesomer (is that a word) was the fact that when I got into line and finally got to the front all ready to order, the guy behind the taco bar took one look at me and said "You aren't from around here are you?" This caught me SO OFF GUARD. I laughed despite myself and was like "heck, no I'm not, are you?" Turns out his name is Barratt and he grew up there his whole life. Maybe that's why he knew I wasn't local, or maybe it could be because I didn't look a thing like all of the other little plastic divas that filled the taco place. Daisy dukes and pastel t-shirts, that's all I have to say. I think I was wearing my holy jeans, cowboy boots, and a black shirt with a sweaty bandana on my forehead from helping hawk with his car in 100 degree weather. I probably looked like a hitch hiking vagabond. haha. He seemed excited to talk to an "outsider" though so I chatted with him a little. Pretty cool kid.

Already it was night time. Hawk and I went out to the side of the road where we left his car and attempted (successfully) to drive it the 20 mins to the actual town of Milledgeville. It was overheated and smelling up a storm the whole time. Great thing for the engine I'm sure. It kept wigging out and all the lights would go on on the dash and then the engine would cut out in the middle of driving. We thought it was going to explode and we were going to die. What else is new.


  

  

  

  






This is a picture of his dash. Yes every check engine type of light is ON and the temp is way past the red. oh no.

Problem: How do we get out of Milledgeville?
Well, we needed someone to DRIVE US BACK TO SAVANNAH because if I miss one more of my Monday classes I would fail and we didn't want poor Bonnie to have to deal with us all night anyway. I asked Barratt how adventurous he was and if he wanted to drive us back but turns out the kid got a DUI not too long ago and got his license yanked. We didn't want to drive with you, anyway, Barratt, esp not if you like to drink and drive. ugh. Matt ended up calling Dani and Jeff (this awesome girl and dood we both know) and they were all about coming and rescuing us from the small town. They finally got there around 11pm- ish, if I can remember correctly, and drove us the 3 hours home. THANKS DANI AND JEFF!!!

I finally got to sleep and actually made it to class the next morning. I was a few minutes late because I woke up at 8:55am and the class is at 9am on the other side of town but nobody seemed to notice. Awesome. Too bad I was dead tired. It all worked out in the end though and I made a cool friend in a random town in Georgia.

How do I get myself into these messes? At least it was fun. Next weekend: Michigan (yes I'm being serious).

AGGG video clip: Master Disaster

So, out at the RV in Guyton a while back, after the Backyard Brawl, I got Derek and Chase to tell me the story about their now infamous "Master Disaster". It's a good one. Click the play button on the quicktime window to watch it.



A Girl A Gun A Ghost Explain why they don't have CDs available for sale during their summer tour.
Copyright 2006 Veritaz Productions

Cornerstone 2006, Bushnell, Illinois (July 2-10)

Preface (haha)
Cornerstone this year was so different from years past. I went to my first cornerstone in the year 2000 with Kate Maher and her mom. That experience really changed me and I have continued to use what I learned that year on the hill and under those tents throughout my later years and even now. I went again and again until 2005 when I skipped it for the first time because I was so worried about money and making money for school. I basically psyched myself out and couldn't get it out of my head that if I missed one week of my life and went to Cornerstone I wouldn't make the amount of money that I needed to make that summer for school. After the end of the summer it turned out that I would have been fine if I went. Despite me not going, God still used my absence as a real teaching opportunity. From then on I have learned and decided that money is never the issue and my time needs to be spent on the things most important in life. I learned that I had to prioritize and that my priorities lay with and always will lay with my relationships in life. My relationships with GOD and my relationships with those people that are the very alive kingdom of God in my life: my family and closest friends. Since then I have been making way better decisions, according to me anyway, that have been much more moral and fulfilling in my life. For example, I'm going to be returning to Michigan during a busy time at school here for my brother's graduation party. School won't suffer much... It's important that I go to his party. You only have one high school graduation party and I'm his only older sister. I should be there. If this was last year, however, I probably wouldn't even consider going because I'd be too freaked out about leaving during a busy time at school. How lame was I? Pretty lame. THIS YEAR, the idea of missing an ENTIRE WEEK of school while I'm also taking extra credit hours of classes and it's been hard as heck didn't even phase me. Everyone was like "you are crazy for doing that!" They think I'm crazy as it is for taking an extra class, especially during the summer and then when they hear I'm taking an entire week off of school, they freak out. I guess you just don't do that or something. haha.

Cornerstone 2006
I really wanted to bring my sister and brother to cornerstone this year and share my experience. When I realized that that plan wasn't going to work out and that my sibs weren't going to be able to make it this year, I got really discouraged. It changed ALL of my plans. I was planning on flying to Michigan, picking them up, and then going from Michigan to Bushnell, Illinois for Cornerstone. I REALLY wanted to share the experience with them. So anyway, my plans changed and I ended up hitching a ride from Savannah with this guy Gabriel who I met through one of my closest girlfriends Lauren (who is in California right now working at an awesome Christian camp called Alpine). Anyway, turns out Gabe was driving up with a bunch of other girls: his 19 year old sister, her 24 year old friend, and this 16 year old girl, a sibling of one of his friends. We all packed into his civic and took off for the 14 hour drive. We had to pick up the older girl in Nashville which was on the way anyway so I got to see Nashville for the first time. It was a SMASHED ride with all of us uncomfortably smashed into the little car with ALL OF OUR STUFF, which thinned out considerably before we left as we all had to make sacrifices to fit Autumn, the 16 year old. She had never been to Cornerstone and so we decided to let her come with us and try to give her the best experience that we could... this meant that I had to loose my sleeping bag AND tent. I went to cornerstone this year with only a hammock and a pillow for my sleeping accommodations. It was all worth it to have Autumn with us. Anyway, I dug what I saw of Nashville. We took a quick driving tour of Bellmont, the school that Gabe's sister goes to. It was pretty nice. She is studying music management. I didn't even know that was a major. haha.


THANK GOD FOR GABE

Got to cornerstone around midnight. We paid and got it and started looking for a place to set up camp. Tons of stuff was already roped off for early campers that came and called their spots. That's just how it goes I guess. The problem was that we needed a place with some trees to hang the hammock. After TONS of searching we decided to just go with this one place near the encore stages with one perfect tree. We hooked the hammock up to the tree and tied the other end to Gabe's car. Gabe, Autumn, and I set up camp in the middle of the night while Gabe's sister and her friend just slept in the car. We decided we'd be cool and set up their stuff as well and just let them be lame and sleep. We basically got everything done without them but then it started RAINING and I mean POURING... so here we are, Gabe, Autumn, and I running for our lives and trying to tie down the tents and keep our stuff dry after being up for like 24 hours and driving the WHOLE WAY all the while, the other two girls are sleeping like babies in the car not even offering to help. We ended up seeking refuge in The Asylum which is a huge tent dedicated to a GOTHIC OUTREACH... we ducked in there soaking wet and miserable only to find tons of crazy gothic decorations and a bunch of pale white people wearing all black with heavy black eye liner and tons of piercings awaiting us. Seriously freaked me out haha. They were super nice to us and let us take refuge overnight in their giant tent. We talked about their outreach and dubbed them the Gothic Red Cross. That night we slept a few hours on the hard ground under their giant red striped tent while still in soaking wet clothes. What little sleep we got was miserable. The next morning we dried off and took showers. Poor Autumn. I did my best to get her dry clothes that night and at least she had a dry shirt... better than Gabe and me. We all slept side by side in the Gothic tent. NOthing else we could do. I woke up to Gabe's whole body shaking and shivering- his shoulder that was against mine was shaking so bad that I could have sworn he was awake. Nope, fast asleep and shaking like he was freezing alive. Poor kid. That morning was much better after we got started and stuff. His sister and her friend never thanked us for letting them sleep in the car and setting up all of their stuff at our own expense. Day two and we're running on 2 hours of soaking wet freezing sleep. Begin Cornerstone 2006.

After that, everything was peaches. The only problem that I really had was the fact that I didn't really have a blanket or anything for my cold nights spent in the hammock. We ended up fixing that after 2 more FREEZING nights by going to Wall mart and getting me a 15 buck comforter (which worked WONDERS and made the outdoor sleeping under the stars WAY more comfortable).


My sleeping place.


in past years I had brought a serious george forman or some high-tech camping grill... This year was a little more lax. haha.

Cornerstone this year was very different from years past. The biggest difference for me? I think it might have something to do with the fact that in the past two years I have gone from being just another kid trying to find their place in the world to becoming a professional artist.... I guess much like those performing on stage. Really I don't see much difference. I make videos and they make music. Artists, psh. I love the community of Cornerstone... especially now that I am working professionally as videographer and director. Its strange, really... I feel like something inside me has changed. I guess I'm just growing up. Cornerstone used to be an event that I went to where I just went and had fun. This year I guess I've just naturally moved into my spot as part of this kingdom of God. Cornerstone isn't in any way just the event that was thrown that I attended anymore. Cornerstone is a party that we are throwing for ourselves and our friends and our God. Cornerstone is made and run by people just like me and Hawk and Gabe and any other Christian that I work with on a daily basis. To me, it is now more of a community and a gathering of like-minded creative people than just a giant music festival. I think that THIS is what it has always been and has meant to be... I'm just now growing into my place and finding it's meaning for myself. Cornerstone is a place where artists and fans alike can enjoy each other's passion and life work. Awesome.


Gabe Hall in the mix during the first Showbread show! He was taking pictures from the floor while we were filming on stage. Here are some of the pix he took:

Proof! Pix taken by Gabe Hall



(all of the color work on this picture was done in-camera by Gabe Hall)


My FAVORITE thing about Cornerstone this year? I met a ton of new people and got to really sit down, or walk for the most part, and have some awesome and Christ-centered conversations with a few of them. There are a few people in my life that I have met and been instantly attracted to. I don't mean in the way that I am actually physically attracted to them hahaha no no no, I mean these are people that I have met that I know right away will be friends in faith. It's apparent right now how important it is to keep up with these people and keep them close to my heart. These people make up what I consider to be the true kingdom of God in my life. My personal kingdom of God if you will. haha. Anyway a few of these kids were at Cornerstone this year and I got to really catch up with them and have a few awesome conversations. It is those conversations that are like my drugs in life... they leave me so encouraged and pumped. ENCOURAGE ME, friends. This is the true reason why going to Cornerstone really energizes me and "fills my cup"... not because of the music but because of the fellowship. I mean who knows, I might not see some of these people again for up to a year, even more. It is just so good to be able to be with them for the little time I was able to be with them at Cstone.

Shows? I went to some awesome shows. I also did a little bit of video here and there. Funny because I was NOT planning on bringing my video camera to Cornerstone but I saw Ivory of Showbread about a week before Cstone and he asked me if I'd be filming them when they played there. I told him I wasn't planning on doing any video work there and that I just kindof wanted Cornerstone to be a retreat for me and a place where I got away from work, including video work, to which he said: "oook that's ok... we'll just tape it with our little crappy handy cam." He looked at me with that Ivory look, probably knowing that he said the exact thing to get me to bring my expensive camera to dirty old cornerstone. He smiled as I was like IVORY jeesh don't say that. Now I won't be able to let you film Cornerstone shows with a crappy camera... ugh! Next thing I knew I was filming for them at Cornerstone which was turned out to be an AWESOME experience! Filming at Cornerstone at the HM stage in front of what seemed to be a thousand people was so much fun. I don't think I have ever filmed a show that large. I thought I'd be nervous but I wasn't at all. It was natural and we had a ton of fun. I met a kid named Dillan who had the same kind of camera as I did and I invited him to help out. Together, we got some AMAZING footage during both Showbread shows. We also filmed Chasing Victory which I honestly haven't watched yet. A guy from Zambooie.com approached me at the end of Cornerstone about working with them and possibly selling them the videos. We'll see about that. It sounded like a good opportunity.

Here are like 18 stills from the filming (just of the Showbread show on Tooth and Nail day):























































It was hard to leave after Cornerstone was over. We left LATE during the last night and drove all night and all day until we were finally back in Georgia. I had to do some school work so I did that and then had to be at school at 9am the next morning. We were in Atlanta for the night and I had driven there separately from Gabe so I was planning on jumping in my car and just driving back to Savannah before class. I slept a few hours at Gabe's house in Atlanta and then got up at 4:30am and set off on my own. About 2 hours into the trip back to Savannah I was so exhausted that I decided to just screw school and not worry about it. I pulled over at a gas station and parked next to a Georgia Peach stand next to the gas station. I and fell asleep in the driver's seat and slept for 3 hours. When I woke up, there was another car next to mine with people sleeping in it. This gas station must have been a safe haven. I lumbered into the quick-mart and brushed my teeth, washed my face, and put on some makeup. Morning routines at a gas station make me feel like a woman. haha. Not to mention I was alone. I bought some chocolate milk, walked back to my jeep (hoping that the peach stand would be open but it wasn't), put a few new stickers on my car, stretched, popped in a new facedown sampler cd and then listened to bro-core all of the way home.
WHen I got back to Savannah I slept all day. haha. How depressing to be back in school. Just kidding. I really got the boost that I needed at Cornerstone and I had a lot of time to learn about myself and about my faith. God taught me a lot in those few short days and He really worked on my vision. Am I totally clear on what needs to be done and worked on in my life, no, but I feel like he added another line of text to the driving directions of my life. Cheesy, yea haha. Anyway, next year I have big plans for Cornerstone. Big plans involving Veritaz Productions.

Please keep my heart pure, Lord, and thank you for manifesting your kingdom here, right here and right now. Thank you for those far away and please keep us strong despite our absence in each other's lives. I love you more than ever and I'm grateful for the break that Cornerstone provided for me from the everyday hustle bustle of life.


My friend Mike and I at mainstage waiting for As I Lay Dieing to play.

We could be closer than you know,
Chelsea