Blogmas 16 & 17: Last Weekend As A Teenager
- Samantha Richardson
- Dec 17, 2017
- 6 min read
This is a double article. The reason is blogmas day 16 and 17 go with each other. The reason? Both happened my last weekend of being 19 and were 20th birthday presents.
On the 16th, my dad and I drove from Orlando to Tampa. It's about a two hour drive if traffic is being friendly. Which on I-4, it never is especially down by Celebration (Disney).
Once we arrived at the hotel, we went to the valet to have them park our car since we would not need it until we were leaving the next day. The reason is the arena was to the right of the hotel and the convention center was to the left of the hotel. We checked in, dropped our stuff off at the room and then headed back downstairs to go to the convention center.
At the convention center, was an expo and packet pick up for the Hot Chocolate 5k and 15k. We picked up our packets which included our race number, running jacket (purple for females and blue for males), a rubber wristband that says chocolate made me do it, a hat with the official logo and a bunch of samples and flyers. The expo was mainly filled with booths that were either the sample or flyers in the bags. There were a few photo booths that just asked for donations or an email. Also there were booths with items for sale.
One of the booths was for customized shirts. My dad got two shirts one was for triathlons and the other was for crossfit. Whereas mine was a thin hoodie that said hot chocolate + running + friends. At the official booth, I got another running jacket that was pink and grey fleece with the official logo. We did pictures at both booths, and I will make sure to include the pictures below.
After finishing up at the expo, we headed back to our hotel. We decided to get some lunch at the restaurant in the hotel after not finding much across the street. It was a sports bar with mainly Tampa Bay sports decor, but there was a picture of my dad's favorite Philadelphia Flyer, Eric Lindros. I got a burger and fries while my dad got an appetizer sampler. I think. I honestly don't one hundred percent remember what we ate.
Once we finished up lunch, we headed back up to the room to chill before the concert later that evening.
A few hours later, and we were on our way to the arena. Outside the Amalie (I have no clue how to pronounce this, so yeah) arena, were some smaller artists. The Tampa location had Logan Henderson' formerly of Big Time Rush, Jake Miller (don't really know much about him except that one of my favorite artists is his opening act on his upcoming tour), and I think some other artists too. Inside, we were given a light up bowtie with the Capital One Jingle Ball logo. We made our way over to the merchandise booth which had little since it was the second to last stop. I ended up getting the official tour shirt and a Nick Jonas mock ugly sweater sweatshirt.
We then found our seats. Which were on the floor. I did not know until that day we were on the floor. We were in the tenth row in the fourth floor section. It was about the middle of the floor. Because we were on the floor, we got light up wristbands. Our row was green but we did find a red one on the floor that we also now have. While we waited for the concert to start, my dad went to get us some snacks. Options were limited as not everything was open like it is for hockey games. Luckily, there was a Dunkin' Donuts booth where we got munchkins (donut holes).
The concert line up was pretty good. In order of performance it was Why Don't We (boyband), Sabrina Carpenter (former Disney star), All Time Low (Alternative band), Nick Jonas (formerly of Jonas Brothers), Liam Payne (formerly of One Direction), Camila Cabello (formerly of Fifth Harmony), Charlie Puth (most known for See You Again ft. Wiz Khalifa), and Zedd (DJ).
I honestly did not care for Why Don't We but I filmed their performances because one of my best friends and another friend are big fans of them. While I may not get the hype of them, I have heard their one song that has made top 40.
Sabrina Carpenter was not bad, but I feel as though she is in her post Disney phase were they seem a little bit more rebellious and risky with their performances. Nothing against her, it's just her performance came off that way, but the girl can sing.
All Time Low has good music and is fairly well known. However, I only knew Good Times and Last Young Renegade which are top 40 songs. I will say a lot of people were excited for their set though.
Nick Jonas is great. I love his music and even when he was a Jonas Brother too. His set consisted of mainly his popular songs such as Chains and Levels. It was just short as his performance was roughly the middle of the show. He was also a part of the 2015 Jingle Ball that I had seen. The only difference is now he sings more of his own solo songs than Jonas Brother throwbacks.
Liam Payne his set was short but really good. However, he only currently has three songs out, so length is the only comparison. I can now say I've seen a 1/5 of One Direction. Next goal would be to see Niall (my favorite of the One Direction boys).
Camila Cabello was probably my least favorite. I personally think she was better in the band and is not quite a strong performer on her own. Specifically, because of her bad lip syncing. I understand artist do this because they can be sick, vocally tired or just do not feel to strong to perform the song yet, but on her newest song Never Be The Same the lip syncing was clearly off. It really took away from her performance. Now she is still fairly new as a solo artist, so potentially in a couple of years, it could be a completely different story. However, personally I do not think I would buy a ticket to see her as a solo performer, but if she was in another multi-person performance like Jingle Ball then maybe I would.
Charlie Puth was amazing. He was also at the 2015 Jingle Ball, but now had a larger set. He started with more recent songs ultimately leading up to See You Again. However, the version most people know from Fast and Furious 7 (I think) is not the original. The original is much sadder and was written about losing a friend to an illness' I believe it was cancer, but don't quote me on that. Puth put on a great set and definitely seemed to be a more confident artist since 2015.
The finale was Zedd. Zedd is a DJ who has countless hits and mainly plays festivals. He was also apart of the 2015 Jingle Ball. In 2015, his set was only a couple songs, but this year it was significantly longer. He was absolutely amazing. My dad was even jamming out to his performance. He played all of his recent songs like Get Low ft. Liam Payne, Stay with Alessia Cara, to throwbacks like Stay the Night with Haley Williams and Clarity ft. Foxes that really put him on the map. I would say his set was by far the longest in the 30-45 minute range. My dad said he would pay for Zedd on his own and that his segment was the real value. I would honestly agree with him.
Once the concert was over, we headed back to the hotel. We got ready for bed as we would be up early the next morning for the 5k.
The next morning, we got up at the glorious time of 5:30 a.m. As you can tell I am not a morning person and it takes me at least thirty minutes of just sitting there before becoming functional. As a child I was a morning person, but over the years I have become a night owl. I wish I could change this. After, I started moving, I put on a pair of leggings, a tank top, the light weight hoodie I got the day before, a Flyers hat and my running shoes. When both my dad and I were ready, we headed downstairs to the lobby and across the street to the race.
We waited around until 7:00 a.m. for the 5k to start. We positioned ourselves towards the back as we were mainly doing this for fun and going to walk. We did run at certain points like the start, at the mile markers and from mile 3 to the finish line. Once the race was finished (about an hour later), there was a post race part. The best part was instead of a medal it was a mug bowl filled with items to dip in the melted chocolate in the one section and a cup holder filled with hot chocolate in the middle. I learned that day that I do not like bananas. Something about the texture and smell. However, I enjoyed the pretzels and marshmallows.
After we were done, we headed back to the hotel room to get cleaned up and head back to Orlando. It was an excellent way to close out my teenage years.
Comments