It is the recovering Monday after Langerado, and I’m still in the process of working out the kinks in my muscles and uploading photos. Also, not killing my cat, who is overjoyed to see me and Wade (more me) and keeps cheerleading her way around my apartment. Noisily. Not to mention her kneading my sunburn. In case you don’t know what that’s like, let me tell you…its fucking horrible.

Langerado, as a whole, was a good experience. There were a few downers and things I didn’t like, but overall, I had an awesome time. Got to see some great bands plays, had some great neighbors camped next to me, did a good deed, and got to hang out with my boyfriend the whole time, and he is always making me laugh.

Let’s get the nasty out of the way first:

• 25,000 people and….ONE podable water drinking station. One that was not a well, it was a tanker that had to be refilled, and on Saturday morning was empty. Which to me, when you’re talking about the essence of life, you should never have it run dry. Also, when the dirty hippies want to shower under it, let them. You’re doing the world a favor.
• Programs and maps were not given out at the station where you drive in and get your wristbands. I found one at the Official Merchandise Tent, and whenever I had mine out, I had about 20 people ask me where I got it.
• The map was wrong. It had ice and water marked on the map in the wrong places. Which is a little ridiculous, I think. Especially the WATER part.
• Definitely not enough trash cans and recycling bins. Don’t get me wrong, there was plenty of them, but considering the amount of people that were there, drinking beer, water, etc, you need more if you don’t want the area in front of your stages to look like a landfill.

Non-Langerado-staff-related bad stuff:

• I got a freaking sunburn, because apparently when Coppertone claims to be SPF 30, what it really means is “you are spraying cold shit on your back, and it won’t do a damn thing. Enjoy skin cancer.”
• I got bit by fire ants. My left foot is still swollen. I’m okay with that, though. I’m from Florida, it happens.
• It torrentially downpoured the first night, and the second. I mean STORMS. People’s tents were flying, because I guess they thought their air mattress would keep the tent down….
• The third night, Saturday, was BALLS COLD. Like, below 50 degrees. And I was in shorts. We went back to camp to change into warmer clothes, saw some of Matisyahu, and skipped REM so we could huddle in the back of my Jeep with the heat on and eat hot tomato soup. And then froze our asses off in our tent. I didn’t go to sleep until my exhausted mind figured out that my face was keeping me awake because it was so cold, so I stuck it under the covers and finally had some semblance of not-as-fucking-cold-as-outside-of-the-covers.
• The “HELL YEAH FUCK YEAH” girl. We called her that, because with a the exception of about 10 other words, that is all she would say. At the top of her lungs. I’m not kidding. At 3am. Across from my tent. “Hell yeah to the fuck yeah to the hot MAMAS!” “I’m LOVING YOOO, family! Fuck yeah, I’m LOVING YOOO!” “FUCK YEAH FREE CIGARETTES!” “OWOWOWOWOOOO FUCK YEAH!” I could go on, but I don’t want to. Unfortunately, I didn’t see her after that night of keeping me up for hours with her incessant yelling. She didn’t ever talk, just scream. And either “fuck yeah” or “hell yeah” was in every sentence. And I am NOT exaggerating. I told Wade if I saw her again, I was going to punch her in the face, and as she hit the floor, scream “FUCK YEAH” in her face. But we didn’t see her. Sigh.

We had some kickass neighbours, they were from Georgia. We shared a tarp for shade and used their grill when ours wasn’t working. They were chill, and not noisy. Stayed pretty clean throughout most of the festival. I always use Bonnaroo as my reference, because that was the dirtiest I’ve ever gotten. The rain at Langerado actually helped, kept the dirt and dust down, but then, it caused some mud. The weather was nice for the most part, with the exception of the rain and the freeze on Saturday. I saw lots of people from up north, because when it was 80 degrees, they were stretched out in bathing suits napping, because they were hot. I also saw (HAHA) people crowded around a fence. Me and Wade went to investigate, and discovered that they were watching some trappers handle alligators in a little pond. And people were ‘wowing’. We just kept walking and laughing at the tourists.

They had a smoker’s lounge, sponsored by American Spirits. Way cool, had couches and free samples of cigarettes. Like, they gave you two packs of cigarettes each day you went in there. Which is cool not only because they’re free smokes, but because I actually got to try more American Spirits, a ciggie brand I really like.

I got a free tube of Raspberry Mint toothpaste from Nature’s Gate, and a free beer cozy, keychain, and bag from Crocs. Apparently Crocs are a big thing, I’d never heard of them until like 2 weeks ago when I asked someone what kind of ugly shoes they were wearing. Free stuff FTW.
I picked up a pretty mousepad with a design by Katzinn on it for only ten bucks. There were two veggie places to eat at, which was way cool (to me, anyway, because I’m vegan). The staff was friendly on all the grounds, so were the cops that I talked to. Apparently the cops were busting a lot more people than expected. Generally at festies its common knowledge that, drugs are everywhere. A couple of busts is expected, but there seemed to be a lot more than a couple at this one. The first night we were there, we were watching Les Claypool and my boyfriend helped drag a guy who had passed out out of the crowd and bring them to the medics.

Also, I’d like to point out that I’m a decent person. Sort of. At a veggie place where we got some food, the food was 7 dollars. I handed the guy a 20, and he handed me 3 ones, and a hundred for change. I gave it back to him, even though I had ample opportunity to walk out with it. I went back, gave him his hundred dollar bill (sigh), and got ten dollars in return. Being nice sucks.

Concert reviews, pictures, mp3s forthcoming…..