No Flash Photography

i looked forward to this past weekend SO much and it’s already came and went. time flies when you’re having fun.

adam and i spent the better part of friday night sitting in a tattoo parlor while he got his sleeve worked on. i waited around… and waited… and mostly eavesdropped on the people working that night. they really do not censor themselves at all to the public. i guess that’s one of the perks of working in a tattoo shop. we finally got done around midnight and headed to the platoon party going on at adam’s buddy’s house. he and his wife threw a party and it was definitely not just adam’s platoon that attended. the keg was almost dry when we arrived and everyone was 3 sheets to the wind by the time we got there.

since adam drove, he only had 1 or 2 beers. i helped myself to the tequila. i really only had 2 or 3 shots and a beer, and i wondered why i was so drunk when we got ready to leave. then i realized i hadn’t eaten dinner that night and peanut butter m&ms only go so far when it comes to soaking up alcohol.

we slept in on saturday and then 5 of us crammed into adam’s truck and made our way to myrtle beach… not without stopping at south of the border to buy a couple hundred dollars worth of fireworks and the most unhealthy food we’d ever eaten. and of course, we had to take pictures with every plastic animal we could take advantage of…

[![](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8102.jpg)](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8102.jpg) [![](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8094.jpg)](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8094.jpg) [![](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8093.jpg)](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8093.jpg) [![](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8095.jpg)](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8095.jpg) [![](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8107.jpg)](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8107.jpg)
[![](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8148.jpg)](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8148.jpg) after our lengthy detour, we finally arrived at myrtle beach, booked 2 hotel rooms, and started downing beers. we had 45 minutes before the concert started and you obviously can’t go to an avenged sevenfold concert without [properly boozing beforehand](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8111.jpg). by the time i finished my 24oz of bud light, i was belching like an old man and hiccuping on my way through the “security check”. i put that in quotes because i managed to sneak my camera in and i’m pretty sure if my camera had been a knife, it wouldn’t have mattered. i wasn’t aware that there was no flash photography allowed until i was [drunk in the bar trying to take pictures of myself and adam](http://75.177.42.39/pictures/trips/myrtlebeach1117-1807/pictures/images/DSCF8152.jpg) and consequently got yelled at. good thing i’d already taken about 20-30 photos while getting knocked around in the mosh pit.

now, it’s been a while since i’ve been to a hardcore concert like this. poison and motley crue and winger… they’re metal, but they definitely don’t bring a mosh pit. at least not one anywhere close to the one i was in on saturday night. adam and i started out clinging to each other for dear life while shoving our way to the front, and once he put me up in the air, i was history. i crowd surfed my way to the front 4 times before finally wobbling up the stairs and meeting him at our “rendezvous point” at the 2nd floor bar. we had planned that ahead of time because i guess he knew i was going to get lost. he’s so smart.

throughout the course of the night, i lost both flip flops (and by “lost” i mean, some dickhead yoinked them right off of my feet when i was in the air being manhandled above the crowd and dropped into the arms of every security guard working that night), broke my bra (i have no idea how that happened), and my eyebrow ring almost got torn out. lucky for me, it was only bleeding so that just made me look like a badass.

after the concert, adam helped me hobble to the truck and we all made our way safely to the hotel… but not before we ravaged the gas station across the street for munchie food. i wish i had taken a picture of everything we purchased that night/morning because we probably looked like some idiot stoner kids. actually, i looked like a homeless, desheveled hooker wandering around in no shoes, drenched in sweat, and ratted up clothes, but you get the idea. we bought 2 big bags of tortilla chips and lays, 2 jars of chip dip, a giant chocolate cream cookie, beef jerky, powerades, soda, and then whatever curtis, reyes, and scott bought. that list i just spit out was everything that adam and i consumed on our own. yes, we ate like royalty.

i’m pretty sure that my throwing up 5 times the next morning had nothing to do with the jack daniel’s and everything to do with eating an entire bag of tortilla chips and a whole jar of nacho cheese. and the biggest chocolate cream cookie i’d ever eaten.

again, all 5 of us crammed in the truck, this time a bit more hungover than the trip there, and headed back to good ol’ fort bragg… but not without stopping at the family dollar to purchase some necessities. adam bought me a new pair of flip flops since mine were lost to whatever loser yoinked them from me and he also made me wear these… as “punishment” for losing my flip flops in the first place. i will have my revenge. if you look closely, you can almost make out that those are cat faces on the feet, not a giant turd pile (which was my first guess). he loves me.