Lights go down, it's dark. The jungle is your head, can't rule your heart.

Reason #2 I love summer: the abundance of concerts there are. Being from the metro-Detroit area, there's so many nearby performances I have the opportunity to go to like DTE Music Theatre, Comerica, Joe Louis Arena, the Filmore, etc. Not to mention the little amphitheatre we have in my city.

This past weekend was extra exciting though; it was the U2 concert at Spartan Stadium. The bonus? I got to work for 19 hours before the concert even started, and I was running on 2 hours of sleep. Why such a crazy schedule, you may ask? Well, one of my other six jobs is to work traffic and parking for the Special Events division of the MSU Police Department. You'll mainly see us sitting in/around our cars at the entrances to parking lots and main roads on football/basketball/hockey game days in yellow and orange vests (not flattering ones, might I add :p) with giant yellow barricades. Our shifts are normally 10-14 hours for major events like football games, but this one was 19 hours, the longest I have EVER worked in one day. It was.. interesting to say the least. My partner and I saw people walking around campus starting at 6am! They said they were going to stand in line for General Admission seating, but that is just absolutely INSANE to be there so early! I was stationed at Red Cedar & North Shaw, and traffic started to get pretty busy later on in the afternoon.

A couple of things I realized from this shift, 1) anyone who doesn't attend Michigan State or go there regularly SUCKS at driving on campus, and 2) drivers aren't afraid to run you over unless you throw a bright yellow barricade in front of their car. So many people without authorized passes tried to get past us into the parking lots closer to the stadium, and we were so close to getting hit so many times. Drivers are crazy!

So after a lack of sleep, a wonderful opportunity to tan, and learning that a guy I met at the end of the past school year is actually my boss, I went in to the U2 concert! It was.. incredible. The stage was just too cool, and the screen they used in their set (instead of the jumbo-tron ones in the stadium) were absolutely SWEET, or at least to an engineer. :p I had never really listened to U2 before yesterday except for whenever they came on the radio, but I definitely think I'm going to invest in some of their albums now. :]

Oh! Not to mention, about the entire state of Michigan came to this concert, seriously. So many of my friends posted photos and status on Facebook and Twitter about how much they enjoyed the concert and everything leading up to it. Not to mention, my friend ended up in a few of the photos in the Lansing State Journal article about the concert! :D

I was also extremely happy to be back in East Lansing. I really miss campus, and all of my friends who live to far away to see often enough or the all of the ones that are in different continents on study abroad. I can't wait until August!

Here's some photos from the concert too!

Tour "U2 360", the structure.

My favorite photo from the day. <3

It changed colors frequently.

Joe! :D

Seriously, that screen is SO COOL.

Tons of lights and colors, and so loud too. :]

I don't even remember what songs were playing during these pictures.

Bono is pretty sweet, if you ask me.

I took about eighty more pictures (just because I'm a photography fanatic) but then my camera died.. oh well!

Ain't no cloud up in my sky, I couldn't worry if I tried.

I found this article on Yahoo! rather appropriate for a couple of reasons: 1) it is officially summer, though a few days late, and the longest and hottest days of the year are now, and 2) I WORK at an ice cream shop, so this obviously happens all the time!

Q: What exactly causes brain freeze? And here’s a better question — how do I prevent it from happening in the first place?

A: Ahhh, the dreaded brain freeze. I’ve experienced too many of those myself, unfortunately. The bad thing about ice cream headaches is that they hurt — a lot. The good thing about ice cream headaches is that they are usually over in a matter of seconds, or at most a couple minutes.

For me, they always seem to come on slowly, with the pain starting at a 3 and working its way up to an 8 or 9 almost instantaneously. (You can tell I’ve been questioned about my level of pain in the ER a time of two.) But they usually subside as quickly as they come, and thank God for that.

And ice cream headaches don’t come only from ice cream — they can come from eating any really cold food or drink. Like Slurpees. In fact, in 1994, 7-Eleven even trademarked the term Brainfreeze to use in conjunction with its delicious frosty drink.

So what causes ice cream headaches in the first place? It has to do with the nerve receptors above the roof of your mouth. When you take a bite of ice cream, some of it touches the top of your mouth, otherwise known as the hard palate. That in turn triggers the nerves above the palate to cool down — and quick. The nerves send an emergency message to the brain that it’s about to get cold up there, and the blood vessels in the brain constrict to accommodate. When the warm blood rushes through the blood vessels again — presto! You get a searing headache similar to a migraine. Ouch! But don’t worry though, this kind of headache does not signify a serious problem.

So what to do? Well if your ice cream headache has already started, chances are it’ll be over quickly. To speed things up a bit, you can touch your tongue to the roof of your mouth and hold it there, warming up your palate and calming down the brain’s reaction.

To keep yourself from getting the freeze in the first place, try eating cold foods slower than usual and keep that ice cream away from the roof of your mouth if you can. Seem impossible? It’s not: I tried it to research its efficacy for this article, and not only is it possible; it works. (That’s right, I gave myself a brain freeze for this article. That’s how dedicated I am. As dedicated as Matt Damon gaining 40 pounds for a role.)

So have no fear. You can still enjoy your favorite ice cream sans the splitting headache. Just be sure to save some for me.

— Chanie

A little science, a little perspective, and a little tip for you today! :]

Two sweethearts, and the summer wind.

Ohh, I love summer weddings. Especially when they're family weddings. :]

My cousin Gary got married to his long-time sweetheart, Jen, on June 18, 2011. He is the first of all the cousins on my Dad's side to get married, so it was a new experience for all of us. It started with a Catholic mass and ceremony, followed by cocktails, photos, dinner, and dancing. The entire day was incredible and inspiring. Now, I don't mean to get all mushy and gushy on you, but I'm always reminded of how extraordinary love is when I attend weddings, which I've only ever been to a few in my life. I'm so happy for the both of them, congratulations Gary & Jen Klump! <3

My aunt asked me to be the unofficial photographer for the day, so here's a few shots that I got!

In the church.

Youngest and second oldest cousins. <3

Most of the Klump cousins.

Bridesmaids & Groomsmen photo.

The beautiful bride, Jen. <3

Seats at dinner!

"J <3 G, Spread the Love"

Wedding cake!

First dance. :]

Everyone dancing, The Cupid Shuffle. :D

Summer nights, everybody, are you with me?

One of my favorite summer activities is reading. It's the time I can catch up on all of the books I plan to read during the academic year but don't have time to due to classes, work, etc. Sometimes I don't even read new books, I just reread some of my favorites. :p For instance, I just finished rereading Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief, because I absolutely LOVE the series (aside from Harry Potter, of course!). For those of you who don't know about the series (or the movie, for that matter), it's about the adolescent adventures of demigods, or "half-bloods", to save the world while integrating ancient Greek mythology into modern Western civilization. It may be a little under my suggested age group, but I don't care. I love adventure and fantasy and science fiction books. There's five books in the Percy Jackson series, and it became so popular that the author, Rick Riordan, has expanded the series with another set of characters but with similar concepts. This series specifically sparked my interest in Greek mythology, so I decided I'm going to read The Odyssey, The Iliad, and a standard Greek mythology book that I bought last summer! I have quite a list too:

1. Percy Jackson series, Rick Riordan (5)

2. Kane Chronicles, Rick Riordan (2)

3. Eragon series, Christopher Paolini (3)

4. Greek mythology (3)

5. More that I can't even think of naming right now..

So yes, i have quite a bit to do! Unfortunately, my two summer classes mostly consist of reading, so I've only been able to get one book finished. But! I just received these books in the mail from Amazon, so hopefully it will encourage me to read them on what spare time I do have! :D

Try a little tenderness.

I'm giving my fellow blogger, Jennifer, full credit for this post:

Tonight is my high school's senior prom, and I'm feeling a little sentimental. I cannot believe that it was two years ago for me. It seems like ages have passed since then. I had the absolute BEST final week of high school though. All of my exams were easy or non-existent due to AP classes, I went to New York City with the music program for the long weekend (since it was Memorial weekend), prom was two days after my return, and then I graduated at the Palace of Auburn Hills the next Saturday. Apart from my entire college experience, it was probably one of the best weeks of my life. I had never been to New York before, so it was so exciting to go sight-seeing, and Times Square is gorgeous at night. <3 For prom, I had a baby blue dress and I felt like Cinderella all night long, plus I spent the night with my best of friends. And then four days later, I officially became a freshman at Michigan State University. Like I said, the best week ever. :]

My dress for prom 2009. :]

Broadway, New York City, New York 2009 <3

Yep, good times.

Same old song, same old situation.

Soooo nothing exciting has been going on my life lately. I worked all weekend at Marble Slab, and I get to work all this upcoming week too. I'm currently behind on my homework that's due this Friday and next Monday because it seems that all I've been doing lately is work. :/

Oh! Well I guess I did do something relatively entertaining: I saw X-Men: First Class in theatres last Friday with my best friend from home! It is an excellent movie, I would highly advise seeing it, especially if you love action/X-Men/JamesMcAvoy. It ties in with the other four X-Men movies so well, the writers and producers did such a good job with this one!

I should probably get back to my homework since I work again tonight. I hope everyone else has been enjoying their first month of summer vacation!