[click to enlarge the glory of the ripped-offedness]

I love bees. I think it is great how they pollinate.

I love bees until they invade my home, that is.

It all began with finding a dead one here or there - in the laundry room, behind the toaster, on the window ledge… Then one morning I woke up and there were 5 bees buzzing around my kitchen with Layla chasing them about and swatting at them.

Oh crap.

So I grabbed my trusty can of Raid, shoved Layla aside and sprayed and crushed those suckers until they were deader than week old roadkill - they had been poisoned, crushed and flushed.

Then I went on a hunt to figure out how they got into my house. I eventually found their little bee lair - up in the corner of my patio above the light. They must have been squeezing in through gaps around the patio door. (Which makes sense since I always found them in the kitchen area and my patio is off my kitchen.) They probably hadn’t been that active because the weather had been so crappy, but since this was one of the first nice days they were stretching their wings.

Well, not in my house.

I called the head of the condo association who sent an exterminator out that, well, exterminated them. Very un-Buddha like of me, I know, but I think the reason I was finding so many dead ones was because Layla was hunting them down and squashing them all by her bad ass Maine Coon cat self. I am surprised she hadn’t been stung, and I didn’t want that to happen.

And, you know, I didn’t want to get stung either.

I remember when I was young (maybe around 9 or 10?) walking in the woods with my friend Tricia. She stepped on a beehive that had been well hidden under some brush, and I got the blame for it. All of a sudden I was being dive bombed on all sides by little pricks of pain. I had never been stung before, and now I was racking up 100 lifetimes worth of stings.

I ran home crying hysterically and in terrible pain. I had killed one of the stinging culprits and it had stuck to my shorts. My mom pulled it off and showed me that I had been attacked by bees, not “giant mosquitoes” (which is what I had told her). I soaked in a bath for a while, put lotion on my seemingly billions of bumps, sobbed and dreamed of the day when vengeance on those little bees would be MINE.

Well, bees. Now we’re even.

I know in my previous post I mentioned I was going to post yesterday, but instead I spent yesterday napping and in a slight depression over the realization that the night before I saw what just might be my last Nine Inch Nails show ever - but WHAT A SHOW and WHAT AN EXPERIENCE!

A couple weeks ago Trent Reznor posted on Twitter about a special opportunity where if you made a donation to a charity he was championing, that he would give you special backstage and onstage access to an upcoming NIN|JA show of your choice. The charity was to help Eric De La Cruz stay alive, basically. Eric needs a heart transplant but has no health insurance, and keeping him alive until a suitable donor is found (and so his name can even remain on the heart donation list) will require large sums of money. (Welcome to the screwed up American Health Care System - unfortunately, Eric’s situation is a glaring example of the flaws within it. If you don’t have money, you do not get the care you need and that is just not right.) One of my old classmates John Fritz had a heart transplant. I worked with his brother-in-law at the time and I remember how stressful it was on his family with the uncertainty they faced on a daily basis, and John had health insurance! I can’t imagine the stress the De La Cruz family must be dealing with, but if we as a community can help relieve at least one major stress (just having the money to keep Eric alive) then they can focus on other things - like helping Eric get better.

So, on June 3rd I went to the NIN|JA show at the Comcast Center in Mansfield - I saw the show from the stage and from awesome seats in the crowd, met the band, hung out backstage, met other great fellow fans and all around just had the Best. Day. Ever. For a rock-n-roll geek like myself it was just awesome to see how such a big show is put on from a production standpoint, and also meet a band that I have listened to on a steady rotation for almost 20 years.

I thought about writing a very detailed account of my day, but I think I will do the selfish thing and save the details for myself. What I will say was that all the band members - as well as all the members of the NIN staff we dealt with - were extremely gracious. I went into the day not really knowing what to expect, and by the end of the day the mind of this fangirl was just completely blown. Suffice to say, all my previous backstage experiences with other bands had been in smaller, crappy venues and their idea of catering was a box of donuts and a quart of Jack Daniels on ice (which the singer usually took for himself), and this was SO NOT THAT. I mean, when you are standing in line for dinner and pondering whether you will go for the chicken, pork or vegan option and Dave Navarro walks by and smiles at you, that day just kicks the asses of all other previous show days. (OK, so, that was some details. haha)

I do have some photos and video to share tho! My complete Flickr album is here and Donna’s is here, but here are some of my fave pics of the day from both our albums, plus some video to follow…

The Mother Of All Other Photos Taken That Day - Donna and I with Nine Inch Nails. From l-r: Ilan, Justin, me, Trent, Donna and Robin.

I do not believe I got a pic of Trent SMILING! Like, showing teeth and everything.

When we were onstage we stood just to the right of Ilan. It was a great view to have as you usually do not get to see much of the drummer from the crowd.

I like taking pics of equipment crates because I am a dork.

There’s a lot of equipment that requires POWER!

I’m so glad Donna got this picture! There was a “velvet Elvis” painting backstage. We didn’t know if it belonged to the venue or if it was “traveling art” that went with the band.

Waving goodbye to the Wave Goodbye Tour.

Obligatory photo of Dave and Perry of Jane’s Addiction. And now, video! I didn’t take any video during NIN’s set because I was too in awe and running back & forth from stage to crowd. My friend Jason was at the show took some video tho, here’s Gave Up…

I shot some crappy quality video of Jane’s Addiction. Here’s Stop. Yes, that’s me you hear singing during “Turn off that smokestack…And that goddamn radio…” part. And for that I apologize.

Jane Says…

And the close of the show - Dave Navarro on the drums.

Thank you, and good night!

Big day today and big show tonight. Hopefully I will have photos to show and stories to tell tomorrow! Basically, my aim for today is to try to not act like this guy on the left…

…or Chris Farley from The Chris Farley Show…

…but my guess is at some point during the day I will most likely be a combination of the two of them.

I went to an all day teaching seminar with the Dalai Lama on Saturday at Gillette Stadium. I had been very excited about this event since I first heard about it through the grapevine at work a few months ago. It started at 9:30am, and His Holiness first gave a teaching on the Four Noble Truths of Buddhism. He expounded on the Truths for a couple hours and then there was a break and some other entertainment (dancers, singers and a flutist). At around 2:30pm he came back out and talked about the Path to Peace and Happiness. I enjoyed the second half greatly (I think the weather might have had something to do with it - it was cold in the morning but the sun broke through and the afternoon was beautiful). He even donned a Patriots baseball cap during the afternoon session to protect his head from the sun.

It was the first time I had ever seen the Dalai Lama in person, and it was also the first time I had ever extensively learned about the religion of Buddhism. Although I don’t consider myself a religious person, I love reading about religions and figure I will delve into Buddhism a bit to learn some more about it. A lot of it seems very natural and runs along the line of good common sense (be good to people, be helpful and compassionate, live simply…), but I am looking forward to learning more.

Although the Dalai Lama is a religious leader he did not seem intimidating or an imposing figure at all. He seems very down-to-earth - while he talked he was gregarious, funny and was quick to laugh and smile. He has a great laugh, and Michelle (one of the folks I went with) took some video of him on her little hand held camera…

Before Michelle had started the video he had been explaining about how people have misconceptions of others and was saying as an example that the Chinese government viewed him as a devil (and he most certainly is not) which is why he was making the motion with the horns.

If you want to see some of the photos I took of the event (I didn’t take a lot - I was concentrating on what he was saying too much to snap away) you can check out my Dalai Lama album on Flickr. All in all, it was a fantastic day and if you ever have the opportunity to see the Dalai Lama I highly recommend it.

Namaste!