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! 

Road Trip: Jason and Jane

In June of 2003, I was introduced to Jason Mraz. I went to his show, was blown away, and well now I'm pretty sure I'm Charlotte's most biggest Mraz fan. Over the span of 10 years I've been to 9 shows and I never really noticed how my listening and music habits had rubbed off on my mom. She too became a fan of Mr. A-Z and the last time he came through Charlotte, she voiced that she wanted to go to the next show.

I kept that in mind but knew it would probably be another year or two before Jason went back on tour. So I waited. But not too long. 

A few months ago, Jason got back into the recording studio with Raining Jane, an independent, electronic rock-folk band made up of 4 women based from Los Angeles. One of the awesome ladies, Mona, had toured with Jason the year before as his percussionist . It was announced through twitter and the Mraz Team that Album 5 had begun and it was being done with Raining Jane. Videos were posted on twitter and facebook of the recording process and even in those short little blurbs, it sounded amazing.

Still thinking it would take a while for the next tour to start, I kept my patience and causally looked out for announcements of any shows. I finally noticed one posted on the east coast not too far from Charlotte. Norfolk, VA was hosting an acoustic evening with Jason Mraz and special guests Raining Jane. Just the description of the show sounded magical. I made the decision in about .2 seconds and bought two tickets knowing that I was going to surprise my mom with a weekend trip to see our favorite, Jason Mraz.

For those of you who don't know, about two years ago, my mom was diagnosed with Alhzheimers. To have this horrible disease diagnosed so early in her age is scary. She has good days and bad and it takes a lot of patience from my dad and sister who spend the most time with her. I try to spend time with her on the weekends and told her that I had a big surprise for her coming. The first thing she thought was that I was pregnant but I had to squash that dream and tell her to wait a little while on that. Week after week, she forgot about the surprise until I finally got the tickets in the mail and was physically able to place them in her hands. You should have seen the smile spread across her face. She was ecstatic to see Jason Mraz live for the very first time. I was estatic to cross this wish off of her bucket list. We wrote the big day on the calandar and waited for the weekend to arrive and please note, she did NOT forget about our plans to come :)

The big day arrived and my dad graciously handed over his credit card saying that he would pay for everything knowing it was a special trip for both of us. We hit the road and blasted Jason Mraz through my speakers for the entire 5 hours. That's something I can't do with everyone in the car so I was in my happy place for sure.

We passed through small towns and endless cotton fields, finally arriving to the coast. We spotted Chrysler Hall, the venue of the show,  and were both giddy....like mother like daughter, I guess. Our hotel was conveniently a block away from the venue and we anxiously showered and got ready for the evening. We didn't have much time to spare so we found something quick to eat downtown before heading to the show.

Chrysler Hall looked beautiful and invited us in for an evening we wouldn't forget. My mom was like a kid on Christmas and was happy to get her hands on a Jason Mraz t-shirt. We took our seats and were greeted with a "disguised" English-speaking Jason Mraz who attempted saying "hello" to everyone in the venue. (Side note: Since I've seen him live in 2008, Jason likes to introduce the opening act either in disguise, quickly as himself, or take the time to read from a book...you just never know.) He introduced Raining Jane who gave us a preview of the greatness that would occur for the rest of the evening. The ladies had us captivated within the first song and we easily understood why Mraz had chosen to create his next album with them.

Raining Jane exited the stage and out came Jason, guitar in hand. He started out with a familiar song, reminding me that he was human and makes mistakes as he had to restart the song a few times, needing help from the audience of lyrics he had momentarily forgotten. Jason had our attention for the next 2.5 hours as he had us laughing with songs like "Half Ass", grooving with all of the new songs sung with Raining Jane, and singing along with songs we know and love from past albums. Goosebumps rose over my arms at one point during the show when a fan shouted "You're home, Jason" as he started to sing "93 Million Miles" where his lyrics say "Just know, wherever you go, you can always come home." (For those of you who don't know, Jason is from Virginia.) It was seriously the perfect night as there was a perfect balance of rotation between old and new, acoustic melodies, crowd participation, and a pretty awesome encore.

Very few pictures and videos were taken on my part because I got tapped on the shoulder towards the beginning of the show saying that neither were prohibited. I was a little sad at first but I was able to enjoy the show even more without fooling around with the camera. I found a few videos online showcasing a few of my favorite moments of the show.


The next morning we awoke wanting to re-live the night again and were in no hurry to leave. Although we were in Norfolk for less than 24 hours, we managed to have a scrumptious breakfast at a local spot and do a quick walk-though of the historical harbor downtown. We headed home shortly after exhausted from a weekend that would definitely go down in the books.

Jeremy and I have been blogging for 3 years now and what started out as a way to document our wedding planning has slowly turned into a way to document our life. With Alzheimer's in my family, this blog will be my way of remembering if over the years, I ever do forget. It will be a way of Jeremy and I to share our life with our kids and say, hey look!...you're parents were once cool! You never know what life will throw at you...so why not write it down?

Mom, this blog is for you. I love you and can't tell you how much October 19, 2013 meant to me. 

Family Photos: Shake it like a polaroid picture

When Jeremy said "I do" he knew what he was getting into. Annual photos every year. He has his sports. I have my photos.

I'm that annoying friend who always wants to take a picture. I gather all of my friends...family too...as they nicely roll their eyes and deal with my picture taking self for the next minute or so. I can't help it. As you can see, I like to document my life and photos are the perfect way to do it.

I went to my go-to friend and photographer, Sunny of Themba Imagery, and she suggested the most perfect place for Jeremy, Apollo, and I to get our cheese on. We met at the Anne Springs Close Greenway in Fort Mill, SC where we took our 2 year photos and where Apollo was amazed and stunned just as much as I was by the horses that roamed the area.

Thank goodness it was a Panthers bye week. I didn't have to force Jeremy to show that gap-toothed smile I love so much. He smiled with ease as we used one of our favorite wedding gifts, a t-shirt quilt made of all of our App shirts we collected over 4 years to use. We also brought his guitar out for some photos as he's learned to play this year and practices every day. Seriously. Every single day. Sunny captured one photo of all 3 of us where Jeremy is strumming, Apollo is lounging, and I'm listening. That photo literally describes many evenings at the Singletons this past year. And that, my friends, is why I love photography.

Below are some of my favorites taken by the amazing Sunny!

One thing I love about Sunny and Themba Imagery is her giving heart. She always gives a portion of your payment to a charity of your choice. This year Jeremy and I decided to give to Dream on 3, a fairly new organization that makes dreams come true for children battling and overcoming chronic illnesses, developmental disabilities, or life-altering conditions through the world of sports.

We had an afternoon full of laughs and catching up with Sunny. She gives THE BEST hugs and we are both happy to call her a friend. I think it's safe to say we have plenty of pictures to choose from for our Christmas card :)