Hello excitable nation!! Happy 311 Day week!! What better way to start it than by reading about a fellow fan. Let’s meet this weeks spotlight – Katie Sluhan!
A self-proclaimed “newbie,” Katie didn’t become a super fan until 2013. She had always liked the band and the music she heard on the radio, but she really got into them when she met her now husband a few weeks before he went on one of the cruises. “While he was gone, I did some research and downloaded their albums to see what they were about (and to impress him with my 311 knowledge). Turned our the songs that were not on the radio were their best songs and haven’t stopped listening since!”
Show tally so far is at four which includes 311 Day 2014. Favorite so far was Red Rocks in 2013. “It was my first show and I was hooked! Met so many great people and is hands down the best concert I have ever been to.”
The song “Two Drops in the Ocean” is Katie’s favorite song and rightly so – it was her and her husbands first dance song at their wedding! “I think the lyrics suit our relationship and the melody is something different (which I like about it). I think everyone would have been more surprised if we did not dance to a 311 song.” Two of her favorite lyrics are, “Stay positive and love your life” and “Fuck the naysayers.”
St. Louis, Missouri is where Katie was born, raised, and still lives. She is one of six kids, an aunt to four and great aunt to two. “I spoil them all like their my own. Love coming from a big family!” Katie currently works on the Washington University campus where she “keeps all the students fed and caffeinated” by overseeing a café, Starbucks, and Einstein Bagels. To fund all the trips she likes to take, she does a lot of research studies within the university. “Currently I am doing a study on high fructose corn syrup and the effects on the liver, getting paid $1200 for it.”
On December 12, 2015 she married the love of her life in a fairy tale wedding. While they opted out of 311 Day this year due to this, they are going to Alaska in December to see the Northern lights! “Traveling is my passion and plan on going to as many places a as possible before kids come in the picture. I turn 30 in August and still feel like there is a lot I need to do in life!” Even with Katie’s mom passing away in October, and missing her every day, she has managed to keep her positivity. “One thing she gave me was my positive outlook on life and focus on the dash (the dash between your birth year and death). Life is too short to stay at home and be negative.”
Something many don’t know – Katie is studying to become a coffee master. “It is described as the sommelier of coffee. It also has made me a coffee snob. Have to French press everything now!” So we know that she makes a really good cup of coffee but another talent she says she has is that she’s really good at flip cup! (Everyone keep that in mind if she goes on a cruise and there’s a flip cup tournament). Guilty pleasure comes in the shape of clothing – work out clothes to be exact. “I swear I have enough black yoga pants and motivational shirts to not do laundry for a month!”
One of Katie’s other favorite bands is The Urge and she is lucky enough to live really close to Steve Ewing’s (the lead singer) hot dog shop! “I even got some wedding pictures there with him! It was a surprise to the whole wedding party, including my husband.”
Katie says she turns into a huge blob when she meets celebrities, so to avoid that, she’d like to send this message to 311 here: “Thank you for keeping it real and promoting positivity.”
Thankfully she won’t turn into a blob sending this message to all the other amazing 311 fans out there:
“This has always been my favorite quote and a motto I live by “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by things you didn’t do than by the things you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
—Mark Twain
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That my friends was the story of Katie Sluhan! And what a great story it was. Thank you Katie for sharing it and being the fan spotlight this week! Now everyone, go out, be positive and make someone smile. And of course, have the best 311 Day you possibly can!!! Love you all!
-The Runt