We met up on Saturday afternoon at a car rental place in the Village. Here's Jenny and Eva excited about roadtrippin. ˆ eva ˆ jenny penny ˆ

And we're off! ˆ jenny penny ˆ meredith ˆ rental car ˆ sunglasses ˆ

We'd just left NYC and were heading south on a NJ highway when suddenly... ˆ eva ˆ jenny penny ˆ me ˆ rental car ˆ

...our rental car's hood started lifting up! Scary! I the hood wasn't latched down and as we picked up speed going down the highway, the wind started trying to flip it up! ˆ me ˆ highway ˆ

Thankfully, there was a place to pull over and I managed to get off the road and latch it down without incident. ˆ me ˆ highway ˆ

Eva and Jenny brought along a bunch of the 90s CDs and we spent the drive down signing... ˆ me ˆ driving ˆ

...while Meredith spent the drive gluing on the package of Lee Press-On Nails that she'd just bought! Hahaha. ˆ meredith ˆ nails ˆ

Ooooh-la-la! ˆ meredith ˆ nails ˆ

A little before 6pm, we hit the Atlantic City Expressway... ˆ atlantic city ˆ driving ˆ

...and then a couple of miles later, we'd arrived! ˆ atlantic city ˆ driving ˆ

We drove past Caesar's and Trump's... ˆ atlantic city ˆ driving ˆ

...and Jenny was so excited that she nearly lost her mind in the backseat. Haha. ˆ jenny penny ˆ excited ˆ

Centurion on the roof of Caesar's Palace. ˆ atlantic city ˆ driving ˆ rome ˆ

Atlantic City is like the 90% discount-version of Vegas. All the casinos are lumped together right next to one another with hundreds of pawn shops interspersed between them. ˆ atlantic city ˆ driving ˆ

Matt's band was playing at the House of Blues which is part of the Showboat Hotel. ˆ atlantic city ˆ driving ˆ

We parked the rental and hit the hotel which was plastered with...

...fliers promoting the show. ˆ flyer ˆ taking back sunday ˆ

We took the elevator up to one of the fancy floors and located Matt in his totally free fancy room! The place had arbitrarily-placed flatsreen TVs on pretty much every surface. ˆ matt ˆ hotel ˆ

Check out this one on the wall in the bathroom. I can almost hear the conversation between the two guys installing it. Guy number 1: "Hey, it almost fits here between these two mirrors." Guy number 2: "Works for me. Get the screw gun." ˆ hotel ˆ mirror ˆ tv ˆ

There were even all sorts of special "rock star" amenities. Like the raised "fuck me" stage that the bed was on! ˆ eva ˆ jenny penny ˆ matt ˆ meredith ˆ piper ˆ hotel ˆ

At the foot of the bed there was even a convenient body-sized box. (Just in case any sluts end up partying themselves to death in your room, you can use this box to temporarily hide their bodes until you're able to slip out of town on your tour bus!) ˆ meredith ˆ box ˆ

Of course everyone needed to take turns making sexy poses on the big swanky bed. Here's Eva. ˆ eva ˆ bed ˆ

And here's Matt! ˆ matt ˆ bed ˆ

Rowr, tiger! (PS - is that a mohair jacket you're wearing? WTF?) ˆ matt ˆ bed ˆ best ˆ

Jenny and Piper both did their sexy tiger poses too! (Look how Piper's putting her little tiger paw in the air! Hahaha) ˆ jenny penny ˆ piper ˆ bed ˆ

And then Meredith threw her keyster into the mix! ˆ jenny penny ˆ meredith ˆ piper ˆ bed ˆ

Nom! Nom! Dog ear! ˆ meredith ˆ piper ˆ bite ˆ

According to the itinerary, Matt's band didn't go on until 9:30. We hung out in the room until around 8:30...

...and then decided to head down to the venue. Here's Jenny and Meredith posing with the exquisite, electric-blue, metallic Buddha near our elevator. Classy! ˆ jenny penny ˆ meredith ˆ buddha ˆ

Downstairs we met up with Bev Chase (Roxbury High School "Class Wit" 1995!) and her boyfriend, Adrian! She'd mentioned that they were thinking about coming down to AC for the weekend, so Matt put them on the guest list and hooked them up with passes! ˆ adrian ˆ bev ˆ meredith ˆ

The crowd from backstage right before the band came out. ˆ backstage ˆ taking back sunday ˆ

The band came out and the place went nizzuts. ˆ backstage ˆ crowd ˆ taking back sunday ˆ

Mer and me (and Quinn peeking out in the back!) ˆ me ˆ meredith ˆ quinn ˆ backstage ˆ us ˆ

Quinn, Jenny and Eva. Haha. ˆ eva ˆ jenny penny ˆ quinn ˆ backstage ˆ

Bev and Adrian (making quite the sassy face!). ˆ adrian ˆ bev ˆ backstage ˆ

The show was great. And it's really interesting to watch the show from the wings of the stage and get the same vantage point of the crowd that the band has. I can't even imagine what it feels like to have a crowd cheer you on when you're doing your job. Haha. ˆ backstage ˆ taking back sunday ˆ

Sean congratulating Matt after the show. ˆ matt ˆ sean m ˆ backstage ˆ

Piper wasn't very happy about the placement of her backstage pass... ˆ ellen ˆ piper ˆ backstage ˆ dogs ˆ

...until Ellen turned it into a little VIP hat! ˆ piper ˆ backstage ˆ dogs ˆ

As we were navigating the maze of hallways behind the auditorium, Eva was keen enough to spot this! ˆ eva ˆ sluts ˆ

The "Sluts Training Room!" Hahahaha. ˆ eva ˆ best ˆ sluts ˆ

After getting lost in the backstage labyrinth of hallways (shit was like Spinal Tap, no joke!), we finally emerged back into the hotel and made a beeline for the elevator. ˆ hotel ˆ

We all piled into the elevator and headed back up to Matt's suite... ˆ best ˆ elevator ˆ

...for a "Congrats on the end of your tour" champagne toast! ˆ hotel ˆ party ˆ

Meredith and Matt putting some tunes on the stereo. ˆ matt ˆ meredith ˆ

Me acting like a jackass and playing air guitar (I love how Eva is totally giving me the "You're a jackass" look). ˆ eva ˆ me ˆ air guitar ˆ

Quinn and Ellen ˆ ellen ˆ quinn ˆ

Eva and Jenny. ˆ eva ˆ jenny penny ˆ

Around 2am, Ellen, Matt and I headed down to the casino to play. ˆ atm ˆ

I love how they put these posters on the side of the ATM all the way near the back so that you'd never see it if you were actually using the machine to withdrawal money. You stay classy, Harrahs! ˆ atm ˆ sign ˆ

Two hundy was my limit and it lasted me all of fifteen minutes at one of the higher-limit blackjack tables. (It's poker-only for me from now on!). ˆ money ˆ

Meredith wasn't feeling well and had gone to bed early. I woke her up a little past four when I got back to the room to give her a delicious pizza snack! ˆ meredith ˆ bed ˆ pizza ˆ

The view from the suite the next morning. Scenic! ˆ atlantic city ˆ

There's Matt's tour bus over there on the right! ˆ bus ˆ

A little after 1pm, we decided to pack up and head back to NYC (it was Easter Sunday and we were worried about getting stuck in traffic if we waited until later). ˆ meredith ˆ hotel ˆ

Ellen and Piper. ˆ ellen ˆ piper ˆ

Goodbye, Casino! Spend my $200 wisely! ˆ casino ˆ

We loaded up our rental car... ˆ eva ˆ jenny penny ˆ rental car ˆ

...threw all of Matt's tour-luggage in the back, and hit the road! ˆ matt ˆ meredith ˆ rental car ˆ

Before leaving town, we decided to stop off and get ourselves a huge brunch at some chain restaurant (TGIF? Chili's? Ruby Tuesday? Applebee's? Anyone remember?). Here's Eva and Jenny totally excited about brunch while Matt works on waking up / recovering from almost a year on the road. ˆ eva ˆ jenny penny ˆ matt ˆ

Officer Silverman. ˆ meredith ˆ sunglasses ˆ

After eating way too much food for brunch, we decided to continue our overindulgence and double-down with some desserts! Here's Quinn's apple pie with EXTRA ice cream! Hahaha. ˆ quinn ˆ excited ˆ food ˆ

After stuffing our faces, we hopped in the rental car and headed north on the parkway! We got back to NYC a little before 7pm! Thanks so much for inviting us out, Matt! ˆ driving ˆ nyc ˆ