Despite the fact that Sandy Cove tends to get slightly boring after the official season is over, I still managed to have some fun here and there-even without a car. The first few things I did, though, are rather depressing. I had to cut back on my plan for my new Voyager since Verizon lied to us about how much it was gonna cost per month, so no more GPS or internet, but I still have unlimited texting and whatnot... On the 13th Kirsten left Sandy Cove for a couple days at home before she went off to college in Kentucky. I got to see her again at Purple Door that weekend (for the last time until Thanksgiving :'C). Purple Door this year wasn't quite as awesome as past years have been, but the upside of that was that I missed very few of the bands I wanted to see. Friday night I got there late, catching the end of Spoken's set (which apparently had opened with "Welcome to the Jungle"). I went and saw Red, then skipped basically all of Skillet to shop merch and talk with Farewell Flight (who will be coming to Messiah this winter for b-sides!). Skillet did have an intense light show and pyrotechnics and whatnot, but they're definitely not my jam. Dad had brought us up, then he picked us up, took us to the hotel, got us breakfast and bandanas in the morning and dropped us off before returning to Sandy Cove to work that day. Saturday morning we got there early and spent some time hanging out with Kirsten (who was working a drink stand) and hearing Hiram Ring's sound check, which was intriguing enough to get us to go to his show later on. First I stopped at the HM Stage to see Neocracy, the local contest-winner, which turned out to be kind of an old-school thrash metal vibe. Back at the Gallery I caught most of Hiram Ring's set, then headed back to "those HM retards"-as Stephen Weaver affectionately calls them-to see Oh Sleeper. After that was John Reuben at the Main Stage-always a good time. This year I picked up his remix album and his last full-length "Word of Mouth", which I inexplicably did not already have. Immediately after his show we swung over to the Gallery for Farewell Flight, who were riding hard for their latest record this year-giving out free samplers and plastering posters all over everything. They put on a good show, after which we scored some lunch and more merch. 1:30 found us back at the HM stage for Inhale Exhale, who set up a Wall of Death (the only group moshing activity I hadn't previously done) without actually saying what it was for fear of being shut down. This is a youtube video I found of that Wall of Death (apparently somebody actually died when Killswitch did it last year at Warped and it got banned): Next was a brief bit of Bradley Hathaway at the main stage before coming back to the HM stage for The Showdown (insane! and so much less scene/more metal than the rest of Purple Door hxc) then staying there (other than a brief bit of The Mint @ the Gallery) for Haste the Day (who have a new guitarist since Jason got kicked out of the band for becoming an atheist-Dave Krysl-who stood next to my sister throughout ABR's show) and August Burns Red. Both bands put on great shows, as they always do, despite ABR's increasingly preppy stagewear. Found this video where you can briefly see me in the mosh pit: After that it was back to the Gallery where we saw Denison Witmer and the always-phenomenal Derek Webb (who will be at Messiah this fall with the Art. Music. Justice. Tour). Took the opportunity to lay down and relax while enjoying some good mellow music. After dinner we saw bits of We Shot the Moon (the lead singer from Waking Ashland's new band-that guy hits on my girlfriend P.S.), then shopped merch and hung out with Kirsten. She got us all-access passes so we were on stage for the beginning of Sherwood's set, but then we couldn't take pictures or dance so we just went down front. Sherwood was PHENOMENAL! Absolutely amazing live show, especially with a crowd that didn't know much of their music. Kirsten and I got to talk to the keyboardist Mikey for a while after the show and he was really nice, too. I went in the pit for a bit during Disciple's set (specifically for "The Wait Is Over" because I like that song) and then was walling when they started a circle pit on the next one. Some big dude threw a shoulder in my face and busted my lip, so I spent the rest of the night trying to stop the bleeding. Went down front for Emery, who opened with the one frontman coming with his guitar and playing a song no one knew that eventually went into Spanish "Esta noche... Esta noche..." while the rest of the band came out in luchador masks (the Mexican wrestling like in Nacho Libre). They played a much better set than the last time I saw them (at the Troc on the Bone Pallace Ballet Tour with Chiodos, Scary Kids, and TDWP). Stephen Weaver, the summer staff co-ordinator at Sandy Cove who also MC's the main stage at Purple Door, closed the festival by saying "You've been amazing, and I've been Stephen! Good night and God bless!" or something along those lines. I said goodbye to Kirsten and then we met mom at the car for the ride back to Sandy Cove. After that it was pretty much a matter of saying goodbye to staff as they left the Cove, frequent trips to Wal-mart for nerf guns and BB guns with Adam, then to Wawa with Jason & Mike, watching Family Guy re-runs and the Olympics. One night we spent hours trying to fix Mike's headlights only to find it was a 10 minute job. We had the whole week with Josh Harris' churchyouth group that isn't allowed co-ed swimming because he wrote "I Kissed Dating Goodbye", which is always relaxing for us at the pool since they are exclusive. The Wednesday of the week after Purple Door some friends from home were supposed to come visit me, but we ended up having a funeral in Jersey since my mom's cousin died. My mom felt bad for killing my day off, so after work on Tuesday she took me up to Melissa's house, where I hung out with her and Kell for a while, then Meliss had to go to her last night of work on the bridge, so she took us to Cabana's then to Kell's house, where I watched the Olympics for a while until Emily came and picked me up and drove me to Jared's house, where I spent the night and then hung out for part of their Day of Sports the next day with Jared, Will, Aaron, Ronny, Steph, Ra'ef, Shirley, Dave Atis, and a few other people. My mom called saying they couldn't make it up to Hainesport in time to pick me up for the funeral, so I got a ride with Ra'ef to the Cherry Hill Barnes & Noble since he had a soccer game to go to down there. I sat there reading The Fader in the coffee shop until I got a call from mom telling me Uncle Sam had just got off the exit and would be there to pick me up in a minute. I put on my dress shirt in the bathroom, my tie in the parking lot, and was in the car ASAP. We went to the funeral (which was done by the Church's dad P.S.) and then to dinner at Charlie Brown's Uncle Sam, Cousin Sam & his now-fiance Melissa, and my fam. Back at the Cove, I went to a couple of CG's and we made t-shirts that say "Sandy Cove Lifeguards, Jesus Saves So We Don't Have To" on them (my idea). One of the Fridays the family went down the shore to Ocean City, NJ, which is always fun. The next Friday I was back at school. It's been a crazy summer...
