This weekend was another adventurous one. It was, also, a very internet centered one. Jake, Sierra, and I went on another excursion..this time to Indiana University to see YouTube star Tyler Oakley. Then rushed back to Purdue to see Hoodie Allen in concert.
We left for Indiana University Thursday night. On the way down to IU my dad called me and wanted to catch up. Unfortunately, I forgot to tell him about this road trip. I had told my mom briefly about it. But not wanting to be scolded and due to being gone from Purdue for the past 3 weekends, I figured this trip wouldn’t be looked well on by them. So I got to enjoy that awkward moment of telling my dad that I was currently on the way to IU to see a YouTuber. He had no idea who Tyler Oakley was and simply told me to be careful, and handled it a lot calmer than I had expected.
Shoutout to Dad!
Once we reached IU, we dropped everything off at the hotel room and headed out to see if there was a line at the bookstore (where the meet and greet was). There were only 500 tickets available to see Tyler Oakley and it was first come first serve basis, hence, we were worried the line would get too long. Fortunately, there were only a handful of people camped out.
With that figured out, we headed over to our friends house to catch up and then went to the hotel again to take a quick nap before returning to the bookstore to wait in line at 5am. When you decide to miss a day of class to see a YouTuber you may as well go all out and secure your ticket!
After waiting for the bookstore to open at 8am to purchase our tickets, we went to walk around campus. As much as it pains me to say it, being a Boilermaker and all, IU’s campus is gorgeous. Especially in the fall with the leaves changing colors. We ambled around for a bit, went to get breakfast, and then decided to go nap at the hotel again.
Nap and rally was pretty much this weekend’s slogan.
Being from Indiana I had a few friends at IU, so we met up with them and asked if we could see the Lil Bub mural. Lil Bub it turns out is a native Bloomington resident…who knew?! The mural did not disappoint! Right after this tangent, we went back to the bookstore to get in line to meet Tyler Oakley. Now I’m new to YouTube, and have seen way too many videos on YouTube for just getting into it. BUT! There were teenagers and preteens there who were hardcore YouTubers. Some were on the verge of tears just thinking about meeting Tyler. I felt a bit out of place, not going to lie.
Meeting Tyler was a funny experience. I’m sure he thought I was completely strange, due to me waltzing up to him and blurting out, “Can we just straight thug it?” He stared at me for a hot second and then laughed out a “yeah for sure!”
Love embarrassing myself. Favorite hobby. Good times.
Later Jake posted his picture with Tyler on Instagram and Tyler LIKED it! This was a big deal for us due to Tyler complimenting Jake’s hat earlier at the meet, as well. The next day Jake had posted another Instagram of us at the Lil Bub mural and Lil Bub LIKED and COMMENTED on the picture. We were in internet heaven. Tyler had, also, liked Jake and I’s tweets about the meet and greet before the meet and greet Friday.
Saturday, we woke up late (whoops!) and rushed back to Purdue so I could make it to work on time. I went straight from IU to work to the concert. Busy, busy!
Hoodie was an amazing freestyle rapper and had excellent stage presence. He made it feel like it was a casual hang out with friends. Which, if you remember my previous post about the Matt and Kim concert, is one of my favorite things about an artist. If they interact well with the crowd, they become one of my favorites. Simple.
During the Hoodie concert there was a lot of playful dissing on IU, one of Purdue’s favorite pastimes. (IU’s is the reverse of this so don’t feel bad for them) Thinking this hilarious though, I had tweeted and tagged Hoodie, about this dissing on IU. Later that night Hoodie REPLIED to my tweet! He said it was us leading this small attack on IU, but in my opinon, he’s the one who started it!
I could barely deal. First, Tyler Oakley. Then, Lil Bub. Now, Hoodie Allen?!
Amazing.
A phone call on Sunday to my mother let her know I was in fact staying at Purdue the next weekend. This settled her nerves a little, due to it being the first time in 4 weeks I didn’t have an excursion planned. But hey, I’m young and am completely in love with traveling.
Embrace the awkward, and practice reckless optimism.
Robin
Tangents of an Awkward Optimist 