It’s givinggggg Ocean Drive.
Ya feel me?
Guys…it happened. I’ve entered my Ocean Drive era. I’ve talked about not being able to see Duke Dumont for YEARS on this blog, and my time has come. Thank you universe. However, we have a lot of stuff to cover before we get to that moment.
You know what other era I’ve entered? My chronic migraine era…yet again. The drive to EDC was brutal to say the least. What one would consider a bad omen, luckily did not turn out to be one. No traffic, I thought it was my lucky day. However, I did decide that drinking a lot of vodka lemonades at Machine Gun Kelly the night prior wasn’t going to haunt me the next day. WRONG. Oh well, we made it. Migraine free for the rest of the weekend too…it’s what she deserves.
Let’s talk about Friday, the most overwhelming day of my life. First of all, walking into EDC is something I would have never imagined. I have no idea why I was under the impression that a NASCAR SPEEDWAY would be the size of the OC fair, but I did. So, what I did not expect was for the festival to basically be the size of a mini city. It was amazing. I was shell shocked, I couldn’t even properly express my emotions about it. The main people I was looking forward to seeing on this day were Loud Luxury. Let me just give a backstory before I start complaining. We go way back, always dm-ing about my man issues, and how I used their song Love No More to get over men, countless times again. This Summer, they came out with a song called Mistakes. No matter how long you have been in my life, you have heard me talk about this song. I am willing to bet that it will be my #1 played song of the year on Spotify. I absolutely beat it to shit in my last toxic situationship. It also helped me dump that man. So imagine my excitement to see it performed live. Music is the best form of revenge for me. Imagine I dump you because of a song, and then I get to go see that song a few months later. Iconic.
WELL. They didn’t play it. I was truly baffled. Honestly, it hurt. Don’t get me wrong, I love all their music, but how do you not play your most recent banger?? Now I have to go hunt them down at the clubs just to hear it. I felt like suing, but the vitamins I took prior had my serotonin shooting through the roof. I did not care. Also, if you’re reading this and a cop, please exit. Can we talk about poppers really quickly? I’m going to tell you a cute little story of why you are taught not to take candy from strangers at a young age. We met this awesome couple, and while sitting on the floor in between sets, one of them offered a little sniff sniff of a bottle he was holding. My friend next to me was like no, I’m good. My dumbass was like, why? It’s just essential oils. Girl. What. Anyways, it was in fact NOT essential oils, and upon googling the next day we found out it was possibly deadly given our already induced state. It wouldn’t truly be a festival with me, if there wasn’t some sort of stupid death defying factor involved.
Waking up on day 2 was ROUGH to say the least. I felt like I was on my deathbed. Thankfully, we weren’t interested in going to any pool parties that weekend. Or I probably would have been delivered back to Sherman Oaks on a stretcher. Which people would think is ironic because of spooky season. Day 2 was spent exploring, and waiting for Gryffin and DJ Snake. We thought it would be an early night for us, but who really has an early night at EDC? Not me. I have more vitamins. We ended up getting home around 5am. You bet your ass I was texting until the sun came up. What can I say? I have very motivated Saturday friends who love to wake up when the sun comes up. Not my fault. I honestly don’t remember too much of Saturday. I think my brain was borderline fried. I do remember making a new cutie cowboy friend at Gryffin, hope you’re doing great queen if you see this.
Sunday was my downfall AND my uprising at the same time. Kinda crazy how that works at festivals. In the morning, I was struggling to the extreme. Waking up every few hours, and also having my man call me batshit because of how out of control my comedown was. He was valid for real on that one. Aw, are you guys going to make me elaborate on having a man after absolutely slandering them to shit on here the whole year? No!
So pretty much, the whole day I was on a massive comedown. Nothing could save me, not even the cheese and salami in the fridge. Not even the seven waters on my bedside. I legally could have been pronounced dead at the scene, but somehow by 7pm, I just WOKE UP? I was READY to go. I’m so glad I had a change of serotonin too, because Sunday happened to be the most unexpectedly fun music day of the weekend. The art cars were absolutely popping off, and we unexpectedly had a blast at Purple Disco Machine. This man played 70s and 80s remixes the entire hour, and it was all I needed. A weekend full of ABBA. I also forced Alana to ride a bunch of carnival rides with me. Something about a rickety roller coaster that barely works just gets me GOING. Now here is the part we’ve all been waiting for…
It’s a quarter to midnight. The last day of EDC. Duke Dumont is on soon. I honestly turned off my emotions prior to this because I just knew I would be crying in an hour. AND I DID. I’ve never been one to cry at concerts. Even when I’ve been waiting so long to see the artist. At The Weeknd, I just proceeded to scream bloody murder for 60 minutes straight. Horror movie or best day of my life? You decide. Ocean Drive is different, however. People know me by that song. I used to have old bar regulars call me the Ocean Drive girl. Or, I would make the opening manager play it on my Sunday Brunch hostess shifts to wake me up. You don’t know me without knowing my love for this song. And if you do, you don’t know the real me. Now you do. When I found this song in 2015, I knew it was for me. I was so homesick in college, and couldn’t wait to play it driving down PCH when I got back home. Upon doing so, I cried and cried up and down the street. It was euphoric. I have been waiting to hear the song ever since.
Ocean Drive has been the song I listen to on the best days of my life, and the song I turn to when I need to be cheered up on the worst days of my life. I mean, I have it tattooed, it has to mean SOMETHING. For years I contemplated what lyrics to put on my body, my favorite being, “don’t say a word while we dance with the devil.” However, that is a mouthful. After going through the worst beginning of 2021 I have ever seen, I decided to go with the lyrics, “Hold On.” Not only are those words lyrics, but honestly a reminder. Sometimes life will kick you when you’re down, but I firmly believe if you hold on things will get better. So hearing this song live to me, meant the world. I cried the minute I heard the beginning riff. The reprise he made specifically for his vinyl last year. Whenever I hear the guitar strum, everything in my life fades away. In fact, after this, I’m going to listen. I could use the ease of mind. The song was timed perfectly with the nightly firework show, with fireworks blasting as Ocean Drive is playing, I knew EDC was going to be the one for me. The festival of all festivals. The one to beat out Coachella. I finally knew why it was everyone’s favorite place. At that moment it felt like home to me. I knew I wouldn’t want to leave.
The drive back was almost as unbearable as the drive there, minus the migraine and adding a lot of rainy day traffic. I used the alone time to reflect. I used to HATE coming back from festivals. I’m starting to realize it’s because I was so unhappy in my home life, I was using festivals as an escape. While they still are an escape from reality to me, I have stuff to look forward to now. A cozy little apartment to snuggle up in, a bustling city that won’t let me sit in my comedown for long, and little fluffy dogs that run my payroll and my life. I’m finally content, and all it took was a little EDC moment to realize that. I can’t wait for my next mini escape.
Surfing the Soundwaves 