Today was Rock the Garden! And I got to see Metric again, and they were big and loud and it was fabulous. But I'm not gonna lie, I'm kinda tired after a full day of shooting and climbing all over the muddy hill, so I'll keep this short. If you want to see the rest of today's photos, they are up over here. Enjoy!

What a day! I got to have lunch with girlfriends, walk the dogs, see Metric and David Koechner (!!) at Wits, which was AMAZING, and then I made it over to First Avenue to catch a fantastic rap show with Sims, Astronautalis and P.O.S. Uh huh. Quite a day chalk full of great entertainment.

And tomorrow? Tomorrow I get to see Metric AGAIN. This fangirl just couldn't be happier about it.

To see more shots from the rap show tonight, look over here. It's almost 4 am now, so I'm crawling off to bed. Everyone cross your fingers that the Vizsla lets us sleep in a bit tomorrow...

Trust me when I tell you that there was no way I could have blogged this last night after the show. I fell asleep in the car on the way home, and when I awoke I was so tired that I was seeing double and everything was blurry. So I made the executive decision to post first thing this morning instead -- I apologize for the tardiness...

First off, the computer system was down in the newsroom the entire workday yesterday again. I know things like this happen in offices around the world occassionally, but we have a paper that we HAVE to put out every day, and when systems have problems like this, it is a Very Big Deal. It's super high stress and ... enlightening (I'll leave it at that). Our new gem of a system has been down every single day this week. Some days for a few hours, other days for 8-9 hours. I really cannot emphasize how badly I feel for my coworkers who are forced to work on this piece of garbage. And I cannot tell you how thrilling it is to think Wednesday is my last day on it (knock on wood).

The good news is that with the computer system down and no "real" work being done, I was able to clean out my entire desk and gather all of my portfolio clips. So there's that!

After *that* awesomeness of a day, we headed out to the Turf Club to catch Man or Astro-Man, one of my favorite bands from college. I used to go to these shows when I was 18 or 19, and I have such fun memories. Back in 2010, they played a show at SXSW, and I got to photograph that, and it was so much fun. The band comes out dressed as spacemen and they have crazy instruments and a theramin! And sometimes they light it on FIRE! And sometimes they make lightning on stage! In general, it's a great show.

Last night was interesting in that there's now a girl in the band (we all know how much I love that), and one of the main instruments had changed. Before it was a strap on keyboard/guitar -- not like a piano keyboard, but more like a computer keyboard -- that would help with the sound effects. Now? Now it's an iPad inside the guitar! So seeing upgrades like that was fun.

And lastly, I met up with a few friends at the show to celebrate my birthday (a week early). One of them, dear Tom, offered to get me a drink at the bar. I rarely drink at shows (really!) and so I asked for a glass of wine. This was funny in that the Turf is pretty divey, and I was pretty sure the wine was going to be awful, but hey, it would make a good story.

Tom returned with a BOTTLE. They only sell bottles, not glasses. And? And it was good wine! Do not worry, I did not drink the whole bottle. I shared plenty with friends, but I probably had the equivalent of 3 glasses myself, which is also why there is no way I could have blogged last night. Your fearless leader here? Total lightweight.

So this is the other side of our bathroom! I shot this from the tub, and you can see our new sink, toilet and cabinet. We still need a handle for the vanity cabinet, but otherwise this half of the room is complete. Next up is the linen closet and then we are FINISHED.

The only other thing I'll say about today is that work was so ridiculously bad that I am starting to wonder if the universe is patting my back for making the decision to leave the paper. But man, my poor, poor coworkers. That new computer system we got in January is truly a piece of crap. TRULY.

Today was a good (but long) day. The best part was the awesome and fun shoot with one of my favorite rappers at a boxing gym. Yup, some days in my job at vita.mn are pretty rad, and these are the days I'll miss the most.

The photo above is of Carlos, the staff photographer, and Hollie Mae, who styled the shoot, boxing in the ring between wardrobe changes. I love those facial expressions!