The 20/20 Experience

When Justin Timberlake announces that he is adding a second leg to his world tour and stopping at a city near you, you go. At least in my world you do. A huge fan on N'SYNC, and a collector of all of JT's albums, there was no question. I had to go. Plus I hadn't seen JT live since N'SYNC's "No Strings Attached" tour in 2000. Jeremy agreed to go and we eagerly bought our tickets back in May. We gladly took off work the remainder of the week (the show was on a Wednesday) and headed towards Raleigh.

Before we left for the day, we got to visit our nephew at Grammie's house. He found an N'SYNC car hiding in my old room!

Lunch break! Pizza larger than my head. It was delish.

The night finally arrived and we planned to eat dinner at a nearby restaurant near the PNC Arena where JT would perform. The restaurant was swarming with women all to see the man himself. The wait was too long for my liking so we settled for Wendy's instead. Same scenario there. We noticed that for every 1 man, there was at least 10 women. Male or female, it was going to be a good show regardless.

Ready for the ULTIMATE date night!

We scarfed down our food and headed over to the arena who's doors were supposed to already be open. We hopped in line trying to make do with the cold and waited patiently for the doors to unlock. Once in the arena, we met up with a friend and then headed to our seats. 'The Weeknd' opened up with a few songs and when the clock struck 9 PM, JT emerged on stage starting off with one of our album favorites, "Pusher Love Girl". For the next three hours, yes THREE, we were on our feet dancing and singing right along with everyone else.

Just hangin' with JT.

Wooohoo! Justin Timberlake hits the stage!

We weren't the only ones who traveled to Raleigh for the show. It was great to see a friend from work!

The show was split into two parts where the first hour and a half was dedicated to mostly older songs that I kind of forgot about. It's crazy how the words came back instantly and I was able to sing along. I'm pretty sure I told Jeremy, "I LOVE this song!" to the start of each set. JT, of course, brought it with his dance moves and claimed he was just getting warmed up which made it impossible to want to sit down the entire time. Their was a brief 10 minute intermission which I even enjoyed because they played one of my favorite songs off part 2 of his latest album, "Amnesia".

Cheesin' for the show.

JT returned to the stage thanking us for letting him take a 10 minute break...he claimed he was getting old and needed it. Totally understandable. I'd need a break after all that dancing and singing too! The second part of the show was dedicated to mostly new material which I looooove. He threw in a few covers as well which is always a fun touch. At one point we got a closer look at JT as part of the main stage broke off and slowly made it's way to the opposite end of the arena, floating over the crowd and extending closer to the sides of the crowd. I'm pretty sure that was my favorite part of the show. At one point Jeremy looked over at me and I had a HUGE smile on my face. All he could do was laugh.

Justin doing is thing.

Midnight rolled around and JT ended the show with "Mirrors," a song you can't not sing along to. I've never been to a show like this before as my jaw dropped numerous times by unexpected moves and cool approaches to put on a fantastic show. It was a night I won't forget.

JT serenading the crowd.

Oh and did I mention the morning of this little day trip, it was announced that JT was coming to Charlotte in 2014? I guess he can't get enough of North Carolina. Looks like I get to experience the 20/20 Experience alllllllll over again and I can't wait!

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

It's way past Halloween but I feel like all I've blogged about lately is concerts. They're great and all but I figured I'd switch it up a bit and tickle your fancy.

Jeremy and I were lame this year and didn't dress up for Halloween. Well...Jeremy attempted to dress up but things didn't go as planned. He found an awesome Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle costume from Target (along with those awesome foam wigs above) and just haaaaaad to purchase it. There was one tiny problem. No adult sizes. We found an Extra Large and when we got home he squeezed his way into it. It was a little snug and lets face it....we both decided he was not going to wear it in public. I did get a good laugh though.We were able to capture a picture of awesomeness just for you.

Back to the point of this blog...Jeremy and I both won Halloween contests that we entered this year! We also received some pretty awesome gifts. Jeremy walked away the Grand Champion of the annual Kafsky Pumpkin Carving party. This is a big deal, people! There were AT LEAST 20 pumpkin's entered so it was pretty awesome that he won. He showed up to the party without a pumpkin, was convinced he needed to carve one, went out and bought a pumpkin, carved it and then ended up winning the whole shabang! The prize package included a gift card to Buffalo Wild Wings, a Halloween hat, Halloween decorations and some Frogs Breath Beer that we're afraid to drink.

Now let's get to my Halloween glory. I am proud to announce that I ended up winning the Halloween Snack Day contest at work! I made Pumpkin Dip (recipe here) but I must say, it was all in the presentation. I carved a small pumpkin which took FOREVER. (That sucker had me sweating and working for an hour trying to carve it out!) I then used some wax paper to help maneuver and make it look like the pumpkin was puking it's guts out. It was Halloween after all. Either people got a kick out of it or they thought my dip was really good because the votes came in and I walked away with an iPhod Shuffle! Woop! Woop!

Even though we're weeks behind, we hope you had a Happy Halloween! Oh and ya know...It's kind of funny that we actually did end up winning a chicken dinner.

Sister, Sister

My sister and I weren't the closest while we were growing up. With me being 5 years behind in age, I was often the annoying little sister always trying to get into her business. Fast forward to our young adult years and it's a different story. Now a days we make time to call and spend time with each other. I was overly happy when she said yes to having a night out on the town, just me and her...Something we shockingly have never done.

Last Saturday we headed uptown to dinner and a show by Joshua Radin and Matt Nathanson. My sister agreed to go to the show having no clue who either of them were. We blended into the crowd at Amos' Southend and listened to Joshua Radin open the show with his sweet sound. He captured the crowds attention by stepping away from the mic and singing solo. I must say I loved it and would love to see him play live in a coffee shop or small theatre. Matt Nathanson caught our attention in a different way. He is quite the character, confident in his ways and not really giving a flying flip what you think of him. That's the vibe I got anyways. Matt played a lot of old stuff and new, describing how each song came to be throughout the show. He had us singing Whitney Houston tunes, laughing and dancing most of the night. 

Joshua Radin

Matt Nathanson

It was a great time to catch up and talk about all things sisters gab about. It was a sister-date long overdue and hopefully a little tradition soon to start!