With 2008 winding down, I've been inspired by others to dedicate a blog entry to the past 360 some odd days, Looking back, I'd like to think I have grown as an individual. Life and fate and all that good stuff forced a lot on me this year, so I didn't really have a choice but to roll with the punches. And when I say punches, I mean some real jabs in the metaphorical stomach.

We started the year being some of Hannah Montana's oldest fans. Watching the Jonas Brothers take their phenominal show from a mediocre size stage to the likes of the Prudential Center and Nassau Colisseum was out of control. Of course they blew the crowd's minds, and a whole new generation of JB fans were cultivated.

February was cool. The Giants won the superbowl, I turned the big 2-1, and got to celebrate it at a place that didn't even ask for my ID. I was surrounded by some of the most important people in my life, and although I was so appreciative at the time, looking back I am so happy that I got to spend it with the people I did. Some lame stuff happened too, stuff that put a bit of a strain on my and Steph's friendship. I hate that I wasted time being upset with her, but again in retrospect it has helped me to learn to forgive and forget, and not to sweat the small stuff. The trials of the month also brought me closer to Janice and Lauren. Without them, I don't think I could've made it through what the next few months brought.

Oh and I got to see the JoBros and band in 3D, which was frickin epic. I never thought I'd get to see Joe on teh big screen with my 3D glasses on.

We recreated the past with Lisa

Steph wore scrubs

Mike wore eyeliner

Janice was pale and rocked JB merch

Honor Society did some sick shows

We said "goodbye" to Janice and she "moved" to Virginia

Got dressed up

And wore sombreros

 March, oh March. March started off wonderfully. I got to see the visit the new residence of the Tilleys in wonderful VA. Big Billy, Janice and I experienced the boys' first headlning show, and we all were floored. A favorite memory of mine is Janice and I standing on the floor, clearly visible since we were the tallest gals there, with our mouths in shocked grins and our hands pressed together, like parents watching their child's first piano recital. The following weekend, we were able to go to the final show on the Look Me In The Eyes tour, at the famous Conintenal Airlines Arena (or the Izod center). Watching the boys sell out the arena we all grew up going to, where just 2 and a half years earlier they played to about 11 people at the dump called the Bloomfield Ave Cafe. It was a proud moment, that we were all blessed to experience which those closest to us. The night ended with a splendid end of tour party that was the perfect end to a surreal night.

Alex was the surprise guest of the evening

It's funny how life works. March 22nd was the last LMITE show, the next day was Easter. Monday night, the final life of Steph's life, we talked for hours. About our friendship, about the future, about what a great weekend we had. It was a great conversation, and since it had to be our last, I was glad it went the way it did. Things were back to normal, we were making summer plans, talking about how much she missed her boyfriend. The morning of the 25th I got the worst news I could've possibly gotten....

The next few days were a blur, filled with confusion, denial, tears, and trying to smile through those tears. The outpour of support from people we knew and people we had never even met really blew my mind. I still to this day think about how amazing everyone was, and how I couldn't have made it through that initial week without everyone. Even a simple "I'm Sorry" made an impact on me. It's hard to express how hard it all has been, and I'm still not healed. I don't know if I will ever be okay. But life continued on, as much as I didn't want it to...

April came and life forced me to carry on. I did have some amazing people helping me day by day, week by week. I lost my camera and my iPhone. Thankfully I was able to get my phone back, but the camera was a goner. Rock for a Cause and Rock for a Cure were both a few days apart. Rock for a Cure took me and JAnice to Chicago, with George, Tim, and this guy Mike Higgins. The 20 hour excursion brought some great memories and a great distraction for me.

solidarity beards

Janice and Lisa wore plaid shorts to make me smile.

We schooled Mike on the pop world.

April didn't end without another downer occuring. We learned just how the business can take over the music in the industry. It was a real eye opener, and unfortuntely for us we had to learn this lesson the hard way We watched our friends go through some of the hardest times of their lives, while I was still trying to cope with my grief. It was a sad time, but like they say, everything happens for a reason...

May brought the warmth and the beginning of summer weather, but I was dreading it.

Merch Mitch and Janice were reunited

Floating Head Doctor Janice

Article A Man

Lisa ate a cornish hen at the Tick Tock Diner

Janice and Mike Higgins laughed, and laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

HS put out an EP and had a sick partay

Michael Bruno had a posse

this picture occured.

June brought Demi Lovato & her band, kind of, into our lives, as well as Camp Rock. A guilty pleasure of mine was the song "we Rock"..... okay and maybe "This Is Me." I loved Kevin Lovato from the moment I heard him sing Joe's lines in This Is Me.

This is normal for Janice

Mike & I dressed alike

we sweat a lot for Demi

Mike & Janice danced a lot to This Is Me

The Chamberlin was encountered and created

Mike was Mike

The party shoes stole the show

Mike Manning ladies and gentlemen

Janice got to go back to the site of "you got babies?"

 In July, we were in the middle of the HS craze, while getting ready to Burn It Up. I got to go to London, Hershey, Ohio and Chicago in the Noyes minivan, Rape Alley in Connecticut, I saw fireworks over Little Falls, and ate asian salads from Ricky Schroeder.

I fell in love with a hairy man from an opening act.

We were introduced to Harry from the band Mile 77, and saw a lot of his midriff. Not too shabby.

5 people slept in 2 very tiny beds.

August brought Jonas-palooza. We joined the tour, saw Jonas sell out 3 nights at Madison Square Garden, shut down Times Square the night of album release, the boys dedicated their show at PNC Bank Arts Center to Steph, we saw Jonas sell out the place they first played 3 years ago, while opening for some band caled their Backstreet Boys, then saw the Backstreet Boys at the Moheagan Sun casino, HS sold out their first show, met tons of amazing new people, and got foamed lots.

And Joe Jonas wore a fat suit.

September came and the tour ended. I cried in class everyday. Not really, but I missed the tour. October Tilley turned 23 and HS left for Cali. We got dressed up for a fancy dinner, saw HSM 3 in our full fancy outfit. I continued the crying.

Willis had a dog-hawk

November was the month of traveling. With Honor Society's first show in San Diego opening for Demi & Jonas, Janice and I knew we had to be there. The weekend of the 15th we went out to wonderful San Diego and threw up as we watched them play for 15,000 people, and kick bootay.

Two weeks later, we spent our Thanksgiving in Dallas, Texas at the Cowboys football game. It was their last Thanksgiving game at the stadium, so it was a sick experience. Pizza Hut never delivered our pizza and stole my money, and we ate turkey dinner from the hotel. We saw quite possibly a child who had been growing his mullet since birth and lots of people dressed as pilgrims and turkies and such. The next day we almost missed our flight from Dallas to Vegas, Janice sat smack in the middle of 4 hookers and 2 very stupid young men who apparently were going to Vegas to get married. Jombies took over the MGM, my mom got to meet the boys (although she met them back in the day) and we saw HS, Demi and JB play 2 shows in one day. We played fake roulette with the boys and guys and saw JT do an incredible reinactment of Beyonce's dance to her song "Single Ladies." We got stuck in 8 hours worth of traffic from Vegas to Hollywood stuck in the Dodge Calibur, which we nick named POS. The scan button on the radio was our best friend. We made it to Hollywood in time to see HS & JB do "Dont Close the Book," got to eat In-N-Out with Tony, Lauren and Cassie, and then gave the wheel to Tony. He took us to many hotels, or rather some hotels, some motels, and some mo's. We witnessed CBS ablaze, and Tony's fear since he was scheduled to be an audience member of the Price is Right the next morning. Against my opinion, we stayed at the Comfort Inn, across from my love, Holiday Inn Express. I literally cried and couldn't help but think of the Dateline specials where they take black lights into the hotel rooms. But alas I survived and the on our last day in Cali we got to take a tour of Honor Society's pad. We then said our goodbyes to HS, the POS, and departed for home.

December has been pretty calm and it's allowed me some time to reflect on the past year and try to make sense of it all. I want to say thank you to everyone who has stood by me through my bad moods and unpredictable behavior. This year has been a blessing and a curse, it's definitely made me a stronger person, and has forced me to take a look at myself. I desperately miss Steph, and each day without her still hurts just as much as the last. I don't know if any of this has made sense, since it is 3am and i have been writing this blog for 2 days. But basically, I'm sorry to those who I have burdened with my mourning and grief, and I cannot thank everyone enough for their love and support. Fo'real.

I hope you enjoyed my toast to 2008. Here's to 2009. Whatever it has in store for me, I'm pretty sure I'm prepared.

After this past weekend, the only word that I can come up with to describe it is blessed. After having the worst start to 2008, and having to deal with so much change and emotional turmoil, there were a few boys, and gentlemen, that helped pull me through day by day, month by month. Saturday night I got to experience one of the best moments of my entire, short life. The Jonas Brothers and Honor Society, as well as Demi Lovato and her amazing band, all on the same stage.

Everyone has asked "so how was the show?" I try to verbalize just how mind blowingly awesome it was, and how I had chills/wanted to cry/held back from projectile vomitting while pinching myself to make sure it was all really happening. I try to explain the experience, but I can't give it justice.

The band had a few people sign Alex's drum head before they left for Cali...

Honor Society's dressing room...

Here's how big Janice and I were smiling all day/night

They were just as excited :)

Michael loves shredding

One of the best parts of the day was watching Nick during soundcheck "choreographing" the duet, he never ceases to amaze me

My good friend Shine On-Media has a ton more pictures, so to view them visit www.shineon-media.com

Here's a video of the duet JB and HS performed together:

And I wanted to include a few flashback videos, inspired by Shine On-Media's HS flashback (check it out here)

August 16th, 2006 - Joe's Birthday Celebration/Album Celebration at Starland Ballroom:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bnFCUgJ5LY

The Jonas Brothers wishing Steph a happy 21st last December:

One of my all time favorite fan videos, documenting the Jonas phenominon:

So in closing, I couldn't be prouder or HAPPIER for both Honor Society and the Jonas Brothers. I've seen so many negative comments from fans about both bands and how they're "changing" and such. I don't want to get into it, but take it from me, instead of being bitter, try being happy for the success they have achieved. Otherwise, don't even bother calling yourself a fan.

this past weekend, i got some advice that really made an impact. someone told me "find a guy you are so comfortable around that you have no problem ripping one in front of."

that really made sense to me, and i wanted to share it with you all.

that is all for now, thanks for reading.

This weekend I got to celebrate lots of occasions, the main one being Janice Tilley's twenty third birthday. I've only been close to Janice for about 2 years, so this was the 2nd birthday I got to celebrate with her, and we wanted to make it a real shindig. I think we were pretty successful in doing so, if i do say so myself.

We kicked off the weekend by doing what most teenagers were doing (nevermind that none of us are curretnly teenagers), we saw the epic premiere of High School Musical 3. We got dressed up and went on a nice double date, followed by the 9:45 showing of HSM3. We quite possibly could have been the oldest four people there, and no doubt the most dressed up, but it's always fun to be a spectical.

Here's an awful picture of all of us from Friday

And Janice and I ballin

The following day, Saturday the 25th, Janice was bombarded with birthday wishes from lots of sick people, so if you were one of those people, you're awesome. :) We shared a wonderful afternoon with the gentlemen of HS to celebrate, I promised myself I wouldn't cry, and I successfully made it through. Willis dressed up in her Halloween costume, and flaunted her doggy-hawk. We ate a big canoli, which gave birth to baby canolis, It was a wonderful time.

After that party, we were off to celebrate Janice's 23rd the only way birthdays should be celebrated, at Dave and Busters. Sam and Jennie made a super awesome cake (funfetti!)

We did a shot for Steph, in honor of her 7 month anniversary ♥ .... and then we did a few more for her. We loved her a lot.

Janice really enjoyed the funfetti

And we all partied her out, so she ended the evening celebration with a bang, and sitting on the floor

All in all, we had a great time, even if we are suffering today from the intense partying. But I feel it is well justified. To everyone who helped make this weekend a success, I thank you. Janice and I both needed it :)

I had so much fun, I don't even care that I can't find my wallet. I'm just too lazy to go look for it. Oh well :)

It's about 8:50 on Sunday night. Aka bed time.

I love you all.

Go Wildcats!

- Kat

PS If you're my friend on Facebook, check out the rest of my weekend photos there. Hopefully more to come, if people are nice and upload them :)

Over the past few months, I've found myself thinking about the John Mayer song "Stop This Train." I've had one of the most tumultuous years of my life, and it's only October. As the seasons change and the temperature begins to drop (sort of) I can't help but think about what the future holds for me and the ones I'm closest to.

I've always been anti-change. When I was younger I would wear the same shoes until the soles were worn out because I refused to get a new pair and let go of my current pair. A few years later I was forced to move to a new house. Luckily for me, it was only down the block, but even still the change was not something I was happy about. I was able to avoid and hide from major changes until I met my best friend Steph. The 2 of us had been acquaintances for a few years, but it was at the beginning of 2005 when we began the process of being inseparable. I didn't realize it until she was gone, but she had taught me so much about dealing and accpeting change, even if she wasn't trying to. Her mother had died 2 years prior, January 2003. The final few months of her mother's life, Steph found herself hiding in her room and ignoring the change that was taking place just downstairs. Her mother was dying and there was nothing anyone could do. She could have continued hiding and could have missed her mother's last few moments on earth, but she soon realized that she would have to deal with a feeling far worse than acceptance.... she would have had to dealt with regret. So she looked change right in the eye and said in one of her crazy accents "let's roll."

I don't really know what the point of this blog is, but I hope it makes some sense. For those of you who don't know, Steph passed away last March, and I haven't been the same since. There are so many points throughout the day where I just want to hide under the covers and sob, but I don't let myself do that for 2 reasons. One being I like to think that Steph wouldn't have wanted me to do that, and second being, I have been blessed with amazing and supportive people in my life. I don't want to let them down, and they have been there for me when I have needed them the most. I don't know how I will ever repay them.

I think my initial thought that sparked this blog was how I sometimes get depressed watching summer change into fall... but then I remember that all this change happens for a reason. We just have to dig in our heels and embrace it.

Here's some John Mayer to end this inaugural blog entry...

So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game to find a way to say that life has just begun

See, once in a while when it's good
It'll feel like it should
And they're all still around
And you're still safe and sound
And you don't miss a thing
'til you cry when you're driving away in the dark
saying stop this train.....

Hey everyone out there on the interweb, I'm Kat, and welcome to my blog. I've always been fascinated by blogs, yet I never considered myself the blogging type. When Cassie offered me the opportunity to blog for The One Love, I couldn't say no. I've admired Cassie and Jade for creating such a great site in support of so many amazing causes. So it's great to be here, and hopefully I'll be slightly entertaining for all of you wonderful visitors.

I promise I'm usually much more interesting. So stay tuned for future not so dull additions :)

- freckle fart 90