Hello my excitable friends! I hope you had an excellent weekend full of positivity. Here we gather again to read another fan spotlight. This week we feature a fabulous lovely lady, Miss Vanessa Holliday!
It was Vanessa’s friend in middle school who got her loving 311. Her friends older brother would drive them around to activities before they had their licenses. “He was constantly blasting 311! I have to admit that at first I wasn’t really into them, haha. But they grew on me pretty quickly!”
With her show tally right around the 75 mark, I’d say her love for them grew tremendously! She doesn’t know the exact number but she has held on to all of her ticket stubs over the years. Picking her favorite show though she says is a tough one. “Transistor is my favorite album by far, so Pow Wow was an amazing experience event-wise, but the back-to-back Orange Peel shows in Asheville, North Carolina in 2009 still always stand out to me as my favorite regular shows to date.”
Vanessa has the title of her favorite song, “Time is Precious,” tattooed on her ribcage in her parents handwriting, so you can tell it holds a special place in her heart. “I definitely feel that this is one of their more lyrically mature songs and it’s one of my absolute favorites!” She also LOVES the song “Galaxy” off Transistor. “I don’t think any other song comes close to it in a live setting!”
The Washington, D.C. area is where Vanessa has lived all of her life, minus when she was attending Virginia Tech and living in the mountains of southwest Virginia. She funds her 311 habit by working as an outside sales representative selling datacenter IT to the Army. Her residence is about to change though when she moves to Denver, Colorado, where she got a house with her awesome boyfriend, whom she met through 311! “Should be an exciting new experience!”
What else is Vanessa into? Well she loves classic rock and says Led Zeppelin is her favorite band from that genre. She also loves blasting hip hop music in the car and can get into pretty much anything except top 40 pop and country. Her guilty pleasure is reality T.V. and she calls herself a “reality T.V. junkie of epic proportions.” “All the bad shows are on my DVR including (but not limited to) Dance Moms, Keeping Up with the Kardashians, Bad Girls Club, Real Housewives…and many, many more!”
Vanessa prides herself on being physically fit and she is very active. “I love lifting weights and striving for excellence in all aspects of fitness. I also have a guilty obsession with Zumba, so I try to attend a class at least once a week!”
The other love in her life besides her boyfriend and 311 is her miniature turtle Yoda! She bought him at a beach store in Myrtle Beach for a dollar and was told he’d only live about 6 months. Six years later and he’s still with her! “He’s surprisingly pretty active and it’s fun to watch him splash around in his tank!”
Vanessa’s love for 311 has brought her a ton of fun over the years, helped her find love and also a ton of friends! Her message to them is this:
“Thanks for all the awesome memories and experiences I’ve had over the years as a result of traveling for your shows! I’ve met all my closest friends as a result of being a fan of this band, and I’m very grateful for that…now if I could just get some of those friends to actually live in the same timezone as me, everything would be perfect haha.”
And to all of you out there loving 311 as well:
“See y’all in Jamaica ;-)”
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That my friends is Vanessa! I hope you all adored her story! So Denver excitables, make sure you give her a warm welcome once she gets there and if you see her on the cruise, make sure you say hello!
Until next week my friends, keep livin’ & rockin’!
Much love! – The Runt