Where Is She Now?

Wow, I feel like it's been months since I've last seen this blog, but it's only be a few weeks. I have a few reviews lined up that will roll out this week, but I figured I should probably update this thing so you people don't think it's just a chicken typing out the reviews. Although, that's something I'm going to look for in the future {hastily googles typing chicken}.

This whole summer has gone by in a blur. A hot, sweltering, disgustingly sweaty blur. That's one main reason I've been staying away from my computer lately. Moving two inches to the left would cause my entire body to melt, so I've been doing my best to stay in the pool or in front of a fan. Thankfully, the weather has finally broken {for, like, two days}, so I'm getting everything I need done this weekend. I don't think it's supposed to be like the inside of an active volcano this week, but who knows. Southern California does like to surprise its residents.

The first night at Fenway for Pearl Jam.

Speaking of sweat {I know, right}, I spent most of last week in Boston. The boy got tickets to Pearl Jam at Fenway {sorry Yankee loving Bree from a thousand years ago} and we've always wanted to visit Boston, so it was a no brainer. It was all kinds of humid there and my hair was a puddle of sweat the moment we stepped out of the hotel, but it was awesome. Something about Boston brings out the American pride in me. We went to Cheers, which was surreal and so delicious. Like, I watched Cheers relentlessly as a kid because I convinced myself that I would grow up and marry Sam Malone. This was obviously before I understood that television shows were not real.

The oh so beautiful Cheers sign outside of the downstairs bar/restaurant

Then my boyfriend was a good sport and we drove to Salem to see the witch museum and to walk around the downtown area, which reminded us of a strange witchy Disneyland. Salem held a special draw for me, because I was that weird kid in elementary school that was slightly obsessed with the Salem Witch Trials, and I'm also in the midst of writing a book that deals with aforementioned trials. It's been floating around in my head {and my computer} for a few years now, and being in Boston only pushed me more into writing it. It's gone through some major revisions, more of which I'll talk about as the story develops.

The tour was kind of weird, but I was just excited to be there.

We also drove to New Jersey to watch the Bayern Munich-Real Madrid game, which was a dream come true. I've been wanting to go see a Bayern game for years and when the opportunity arose, we snatched up tickets. It really served to remind me why I don't like going to sporting events in America, but we had a good time, even though Bayern did lose.

My boys

The only downer of the trip came on Monday. Two things really did it, but we're going to start with the less depressing. We flew Delta. In case that means nothing to you, let me elaborate: Delta had some kind of power outage in Atlanta on Monday morning and that affected a bajillion flights, including ours. But we didn't know that until we stepped into the airport. So they got us on another flight, seven and a half hours later. We landed in Salt Lake City around midnight, where we had to make sure our luggage was moved to the correct flight and find someone who would get us the hotel room that we had been promised back in Boston. Well, we found our luggage. The hotel room, however...not so lucky. Our flight left at six in the morning, so the boy and I figured that sleeping in the airport wouldn't be too bad. It wasn't...until two in the morning, when we found out that our six a.m. flight had been cancelled. Fast forward to three a.m., after a temper tantrum by both the boy and me, several unhelpful employees, and three ridiculous flights that didn't leave for sixteen hours, and then someone finally got us on an Alaska Airlines flight at six in the morning. Twenty hours after we first arrived at the Boston airport, we arrived home, tired, gross, without luggage, but home. We finally got our luggage this week and we've vowed never to fly Delta again.

That was only frustrating. I'm sure what I'm about to share only added to our bad moods.

On Saturday night, my boyfriend told me that Bryan Clauson, one of my favorite drivers, was injured badly in an accident. He had to be airlifted to the hospital. Me being me, I thought, he'll be fine; he's Bryan Clauson. I was ready to smile and laugh when reports would come out to tell everyone that he woke up Sunday morning, shook it off, and got back into his car. Unfortunately, I was the one to have to share with my boyfriend on Monday morning that Bryan died.

We were both kind of shell-shocked.

Neither of us knew Bryan Clauson personally. He'd driven at Perris, our hometown track, several times, but I had been too terrified to go up to him. Being honest right now, the main reason I had latched onto him was because he was so scary looking. I constantly made jokes to my boyfriend that if anyone pissed Bryan Clauson off, they better sleep with one eye open. Then I watched him race and realized that he was just as scary behind the wheel, and I was in awe. He may have been six years younger than me, but he was larger than life in my eyes. I couldn't possibly talk to him. I wasted so many opportunities to go up to him and tell him that he was my favorite, that he was amazing to watch on the dirt, because I was too scared. But it's not even that that's making me tear up right now. He leaves behind a gorgeous fiancée and two super adorable puppies. He was chasing two hundred races this year and he was kicking ass at each one he showed up to. He was 27 years old. Like...no. This was someone who brought so much joy into so many people's lives, and it's not fair. And don't be one of those people to tell me that life is unfair, because, yes, I know that, but this is so unfair that it's just wrong.

Every race, my anxiety is multiplied a thousand fold for the boy and his driver, Any little thing could go wrong, and I find myself asking whatever is listening to keep them safe. We all know what this sport can do. And yet we're all still out there because we love it. If you take anything away from this blog post, let it be this: google Bryan Clauson. Read about him. Look at what he did with his life. Look at the impact he's still having, from sprint cars to NASCAR to Indy. He was so much more than just a driver. There is never going to be another like him.

Now, on that note, have a great Monday, and look forward to a few posts this week. I promise, I'm trying to get better to get organized, but it's been a mess around here for so long. Keep your fingers crossed for me!