Oh yeah....

Birthday weekend.....

Friday,

Banana Cake (100% edible, not including foil, except i almost ate the foil) by Kara:

Then some other things happened, it was fun.

Saturday I did about 8 hours of yard work and my yard looks great, but I have so much more I want to do. At night, we went to the 5th Quarter to watch the Blackhawks. We (kara, bo, dane, and gosse) were having a great time drinking and laughing. My parents were there so I got up to talk to my mom. A lady walked by, pointed at me and said "........husband..... kick....ass" hmm..... I didn't think anything of it and went back to my seat. I tell Kara what I think I thought I heard and she looks over at the lady, who by then had gone back to her seat (which is the first time i noticed she was sitting there). The lady flipped Kara off..... I don't remember chronologically when this all happened, but at one point I was talking to my dad and everyone said she was screaming "FAGGOT!" at me.... Also, her and Kara crossed paths by the bathroom and she pointed in Kara's face and called her a fucking bitch. Then my dad went and asked her what her problem was; she said we were staring at her(!?!?!??!). I continued to not give a fuck, but every once in a while I'd overhear her saying something about us, but I didn't care. Oh yeah, at one point my mom said she would kick her ass :) . Also, HAWKS WON! I wish they had taken one on the road, but they looked good and I still think they're gonna take the series. 

Sunday I went to Mr. Weatherspork's church. He did a performance with a youth group that he was in charge of. It was cool. Their choir was sick. There was a backing band and everything. You couldn't not get into it. 

This week has been work and hockey, playing and watching. I just found out when I was leaving today that I have a deadline at around noon tomorrow, so I have to wake up at 5:30. Nice.

For those of you that don't read pitchfork....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryYcyt8FPlg&feature=player_embedded

Yes, that is actually Billy Corgan....

Dead Dear

I had a dream last night that I thought there were aliens coming to take over the planet. I was really mad at myself for dreaming about it in the dream because I don't like nightmares... Then I was in this crazy old hotel or something with some people from high school that I haven't seen in 5 years and all of a sudden the building starts shaking. We look outside and there are literally hundreds of thousands of deer running across this open field surrounded by forest. They moved in huge waves cuz there was so many of them. It looked like the battle scenes in LOTR except they were moving at an incredible speed and their movement was all jumpy like a glitch in a video game. Then every once in a while there would be a puff of smoke in the masses of deer. Then the puffs of smoke became more and more regular. Eventually I realized that the deer were disappearing into a cloud of smoke. Then I was on the ground by the deer and they were disappearing right in front of my eyes, and the puffs of smoke kept getting closer and closer untill one disappeared RIGHT in front of me and I woke up...
I also remember walking across a barren wasteland with a big group of people and we came upon a really curvy canal and decided to go swimming and there was a green film on the water that gave us all rashes. I'll write about my weekend later. I just had to get that down.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A2siMAwTWcA&feature=player_embedded

weak end

So I took that test on friday... I needed a 170 to pass and I got a 169. :) I was REALLY happy about that. After the test I couldn't work anymore but I had a hockey game at 6:30 up in Highland Park. so it was OK. After the game I went to the Wavves concert which was a really fun drunk time hangin with the bros. Mong gave me a ride back to my grandparents after we got a Maxwell St. Polish (WIN). Then I had another game at 9am. I was a little drunk still and could barely skate, but we won. I then slept all day before our game at night. Then after the game we went to this bar/restaurant in Glenview with 130 beers on tap, impressive. Sunday, was the championship game for the tournament and we won. One of the guys on our team laid on the ice for the team photo, then everyone else skated away and he puked on the ice. He said he ate pizza and it was red, so I believe him. That night, Schmitt came over and we watched Ironman. It was cute. The movie was good. I slept like a baby Sunday night and kinda barely remember being at work Monday thankfully, then at night Kara and I went to coopers hawk and ate dinner. They had cranberry wine, which sometimes is out of stock, and i love it. Tuesday has been boring as fuck. I made 15 sets of full size drawings (24"X36") right before lunch, then after lunch my boss said they only needed to be 11"X17". I felt like an idiot, but he didn't really tell me. I'm still at work and its late and I took a break to write a boring blahg post.

Shopping

Everyone at the grocery store was a fucking asshole today. From the guy in the lexus who beeped at me when i walked in front of his parking spot that he was approaching at mach speed to the lady at the checkout line who gave me a whole extra bag of 'tude that I didn't ask for when my cart was in the way of where she needed to pay. 

I didn't get much studying done today for the LEED exam. I fear that I might not pass the fucking thing because I just can't do the fucking studying thing any more. 

I guess I can talk about Friday, which was dirty' birthday party night celebration but I really don't remember too much other than the soy vodka called "3 am" with caffeine and guaranananana and taurineyweiney or whatever the fuck. It just tasted so good. I also remember dancing so hard I could barely breathe and then trying to fall asleep on kara's lap in the cab before she boxed my ear for being an idiot.

"Katyyyyyyy Perry!" would totally psyche me out in baseketball

Katy Perry loves bananas and she made a cast moulding of her boobs and sold them on ebay. Basically, how awesome is that? I'm apparently really cut off from pop culture cuz it seems like everyone knows this chick except me. 

Also today, we got on the topic of looking up lion king porn... Word to the wise... DO NOT GOOGLE IMAGE SEARCH "LION KING PORN" YOU WILL NOT LIKE WHAT YOU SEE. But seriously.... google image search "lion king porn". Fucking funny ass shit...

Today at lunch and all week I've been playing guitar in the basement. It's very good stress management for me and makes my day a lot less shitty. Every day I've been practicing pinch harmonics (really hard), and trying to sound like neil young on "like a hurricane" and "hey hey my my" and "cinnamon girl" and the like (even harder). Today I hooked up my guitar through my octave pedal, a fuzz pedal and an analog delay through my bass stack... I think this will be my new hobby. 

Also, along the lines of music, Nik and I have this amazing idea called bootgaze. I don't want to disclose much more as it is top secret, actually, it will never sound like it does in my head, but if it does (or sounds a million times better) it could lead to bill cosby billions... or just a few garage band recordings for smiling purposes.

Toodles.

Saw this preview on vacation and totally forgot....

Has anyone seen this movie? I have got to see this.

Thats it guys, I quit.

I thought about going on a rant about conservative economics and how I don't know if those ideas ever would've worked in any society, and that I especially don't think it would work today, but I don't know enough about it to make such a statement. Also, I fucking quit. I don't want to hear about it anymore you jerks. Stop telling me that the economy is bad. I don't care anymore. Other things I don't care about anymore... Anything NOT trivial. I will from now on only be interested in weird societal quirks and funny stories. The only exception will be my watching of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report because they just make fun of anything that matters and that is what I need. I apologize in advance if I brag about my self perceived superiority by knowing less about current events than anyone else. After all, ignorance IS bliss. I am going to try to revert to my college lifestyle regarding worrying about, well, anything. I will not, however, revert to my college lifestyle regarding drinking. I would die. Also, I would probably lose my job and my house. Oh crap, I'm gonna lose them anyways! The economy is so bad!! EEEEEEEEK!!!!!!!!.... Maybe I ought to care a little bit.

...and we're back

So, vacation was relaxing as heck. I was looking forward to that forever  and it did me good. OK! so some funny stories that I can remember right now.

My 13 year old cousin has this blinking safety light designed to put on a bike that says "Be Safe" on it. So, he strapped it to his belt buckle and walked around saying "OVERSIZE LOAD!!!!!" I fucking lost it, and the best part was he didn't mean it to be dirty at all. I don't know if he ever quite got the joke, but I was crying laughing. 

On the plane there was a middle aged dood in the aisle seat and I was at the window. This guy was AWESOME. He was wearing these workout sweatpants pulled up really high with his white turtle neck tucked in. Did i mention he had that leather phone case on his waist band? Did I have to? This guy thought he was the shit. He was a part of some weird "basketball camp" that was on the plane that was all 30-50 year old short white doods... Who knows... Anyways, he's standing in the aisle with his feet on the seat in his best like George Washington pose, and the flight attendant needed to get by so she kinda gave his shoulder a rub and said excuse me. You should've seen this mother fucker's face light up. He gave a quick brag to his other friends about "the rub" and continued talking about how sweet the basketball shorts they had made for the trip were. God he was such a douche bag. The reason this is taking so long to tell is I want you to not like this guy so you can find this funny.... So later the same flight attendant came by and of course the guy had to make small talk cuz I think his wedding ring was telling him to like Frodo or some shit. So, she says, "Oh, you're from Chicago. There are a lot of pot bellies there." This guys face turned to stone. She was obviously referring  to the restaurant chain, but this dopey mother fucker thought she was talking shit about his gut. Needless to say his friends gave him a ton of shit about it and I got a good little chuckle.

I can't remember any more stories, but If I think of some later I'll add it. 

When I got home Schmitt worked on getting the final mix of the Bright, Brilliant record. It sounds good and we should have it mastered soon. Hopefully we'll have some way to distribute it so everyone can listen and send us to the top of the billboard charts. Also, I ate a steak tonight and it was good. Real good.

Oi VAcation.

I'm out in Tahoe and I love it. I got lucky and right when I got out here it started storming. There was like 8 feet of snow in 4 days. Every day was a powder day. I still can't believe how lucky I got. While out here I came to the realization that I really like it out her... a lot. I say this every year about this time for a few months, but I REALLY want to move out here. This place seems to just suit me and somehow I feel almost more at home here than I do in Chicago much of the time. Except tonight. So today we went to the Dew Tour which was at Northstar. We got to see Shaun White and a bunch of other people fly through the air while spinning at a ridiculous rate while getting really sunburned and taking free stuff from booths. It was really fun. At night there was a concert in the village. The opening band was called Tweak Bird. They were OK, two piece band sounded pretty good. Most of the crowd laughed at them because, I can only assume, they didn't sound like the pop punk or whatever the fuck it is those kids listen to these days (GET OFF MY LAWN) Anyways, the main act was Chi-town's own Common. He is, to my pleasant surprise, a great entertainer. I loved the show. I, however, HATED the crowd. Everyone was just dumb. I can't even describe it. Dumb fucking kids who just kept pushing other people out of the way to move up closer because obviously their shit was more important than anyone else's. One girl actually looked at me and said "I'm trying to get to the front cuz this is my night off." I almost punched her in the face. I guess this shit happens everywhere but it especially aggravated me tonight. Also, free concerts make for such a relative melting pot of crowds. I was standing next to a lady that was probably 45 years old who was "waving her hands in the air like she didn't care" and I fucking loved it. Maybe it's not the location, maybe I'm getting old and crotchety, but either way, I still had a blast today and I would've gotten away with it too, if not for those damn kids.

Moving Mountains

Last night I was supposed to pack. I did about 10 other things instead which were things I really did want to do before I left, but now I will have to pack at like 3 am tonight, which is fine. I drank a Coke Zero at 9ish last night and couldn't fall asleep until 2. I don't know what I was thinking there. More importantly, I had this dream that I was driving an old VW vanagon, like my dad used to have 15 years ago. It was manual transmission and I was really good at it, even though I don't know how to in real life so that was really fun. This morning I tried for a second time to open up the pump on top of the new face wash I just bought. It's pretty embarassing that I can't figure the damn thing out and I really hope it's broken, because I don't know what else to try... Thank god I'm gonna be back in the mountains tomorrow. I wonder if I could ever take them for granted if I lived there.

Blahg [sic]

I'm sick as a mother fucker. I woke up with the cold sweats and had the worst headache I think I've ever had for about 4 hours today. I had really fucked up dreams last night and one of them I really wanted to remember but all I can remember no about today is headache. All I've done is sleep all week. I thought that was supposed to keep me healthy. WTF!

I had a dream last night that I was back in high school sorta except the school was huge and had dorms and EVERYONE wore orange 70's style gym uniforms. Awesome.

Is it bed time yet or WHAT!?

This weekend I slept. Alot. Friday I ate dinner with Kara and her P's at Italian Village. We drank a bit of wine and went back to her place and slept till noon. I woke up and went home and hung out with my friend who I ski with in New Lenox. His daughter, Lauren, is almost 3 and she has gotten huge since I saw her last in like October or November. On the way home I bought a case (12) of wine that is not too bad for 45 bucks at Bizios and got a free 6 pack of Hershey's bars. WIN!
I had tentative plans that night to play music with friends, but everyone was busy. Kara came over later and we watched a documentary about art and a mockumentary about teaching. We both passed out in the living room at like midnight. I ended up sleeping 'till 11. We did some unnecessary shopping in Matteson which included a jaunt through Lincoln Mall LOL! Old Navy is cheap. We ate dinner at Balagio which moved to where Leonas used to be in Homewood. I ate some mother fucking chicken. I went home and Kara went home. I went to sleep at 8pm then had a really hard time waking up at 8am. Wowzers.
Today the toilet at work was clogged. I tried to hold it and wait till someone else fixed it but then I had to go too bad and fixed it myself. It was gross, and I'm mad at whoever left the toilet clogged all fucking weekend. Right after I went to the bathroom my boss, who's 60ish said "HEY!" So i stopped. "Band: Cold......" I respond, "Play". "Yeaaaaaaaaaaaah those guys are goooood."

Last night I played hockey outside in Hyde Park. It was pretty amazing and REALLY cold. My old hockey friend told me about it so I dragged my dad up to skate and he probably loved it more than I did. It was 5 bucks and just a pickup game, but it definitely had that pond hockey feeling. It was really dark out there and it really rejuvenated my "passion" for the sport. I'm actually really excited to play in my game tonight, which hasn't happened in a loooong time...
SO! It was cold! Sub zero temps= no feeling in my toes, when I got into the warming house and took my skates off it felt like someone had a lighter held up to my toes. It is now more than 12 hours later and my big toes is all tingly and weird. Everything else on my body was warm however. I was wearing long underwear, 2 pairs of sweatpants, a long underwear shirt, a half cotton half wool shirt, a fleece hoody and a down coat on. I got a bit sweaty. Also, because the air was so cold it was really hard to breathe. I felt like I got a good workout, and good preperation for snowboarding in a couple weeks.
After the game my dad and I stopped at applebees cuz it was the only thing open in Matteson and the food was actually good or it just tasted good cuz I hadn't eaten in 10 hours. This morning has been frustrating because my boss tells me 3 different things, then decides which one he likes best then gets mad cuz I don't read his mind. I finished his shit and he seemed happy though, so whatever.

Mulling it over while not on vacation at all

Today my friend Rob asked me to go backpacking somewhere in the middle of nowhere sometime in April. I really want to go but probably can't because I get, what seems like, compared to all my jerk teacher friends, NO vacation. I'm happy to have a job right now though, so I shan't complain, however... I want to complain. 

*I got my hair cut for the first time in months this evening. I've gone to the same place since I was 12. Lately she's been giving me mullets. I think thats just her style, and when i ask for it a bit longer she thinks "it"means the back and only the back. I'm exaggerating but I did have to fix it with the help of a guy named "dirty" and i had a really fucking boring day today, so I thought I'd make it interesting, and if THAT'S interesting wait till you get a load of THIS............

 

*I trimmed my beard tonight. It was getting huge and awesome, but I pussed out after reading some careerbuilder.com article about keeping your appearance and keeping your job. Yesterday, I was thinking about a comeback if anyone ever made fun of me for having a beard (not that that would ever happen). My comeback would be something along the lines of trapping in the person's mother's flavor, if you know what I'm saying. I hope it never gets taken that far, because that is really disgusting and I don't know where I come up with this stuff. 

*Also tonight, I set up all my guitar pedals and turned them on and off making noise and it was really fun. It made me want a million more pedals to play with. 

*Also tonight... pizza.

Something I found out while talking to my cousin on facebook (aaaah facebook....) that some professional tour is gonna be in Tahoe while I'm there and all the best snowboarders and freestyle skiers in the world will be there, so that should be pretty sick and gnarly, so I'm totally stoked. Actually, I really am excited to go out there and ride and just be in the mountains. Which brings me back to vacation.

HW8, HWHAT?

Here's what I remember from this weekend...

Friday, the Hot Cops! played at the Elbo Room, then other things happened. Apparently Nik and I took a lot of shots according to Kara, but I swear I only took one... and other things. Daabers gave us a ride back to Homewood. His crazy ass went to bed at 3 and woke up at 6 or 7(???) and drove to Champaign to go to work. Thats rock and roll... On the ride home i was slurring my speech which never happens, and I could actually hear myself doing it and I was trying to stop. In retrospect, if i wasn't so drunk to not care, it would've been really frustrating. Saturday hurt for a little while. After some Subway and Cherry Coke Zero, I started feeling like a human, drove Nik to wherever the heck he lives, then Schmitt and J-Freezy came over for DOTK practice, which was fun as heck. Some new jams in the works... Too bad we're not gonna be able to practice for a few weeks. Also, the new amp is siiiiick. That night we went to the Les Savy Fav show at a church. Bananas. He came out in a priest outfit that stayed on for about half a song. The acoustics sucked, but the pure irony of the space made up for it. That night got drunk after that when I tried keeping up with Schmitt and Bo. Jim Beam is just so good. Sunday I couldn't get out of bed, and I hadn't eaten in awhile so I just kept getting weaker untill I REALLY didn't feel like moving. Awful, awful downward spiral. Actually ate at 5 for the first time. Irish nachos= nasty awesome. Super Bowl (yawn). Office (thats what HE said... cuz of the gay thing) Work (Ugh).

Ba-nude-na

I put this poster up in my kitchen this week. I love it. My goal is to have a themed kitchen like so many of my friends mom's had except instead of cow or pig or chicken or whatever themed, I want a banana themed kitchen, I'm well on my way. For a moment after I put this poster up however, I thought about my grandpa's house and how he has creepy, inappropriate nudes in inappropriate places around his house. Most people (my mom and aunts) found it offensive, but then I realized, this poster is hilarious.... 1 more in the win column.
Last night, I had a soccer game and a hockey game, I did not go to the soccer game because I was planning on playing hockey. Then I went to my eye doctor's house to pick up my new glasses. My eye doctor lives down the street and i played hockey with his son from the age of 6-18 so we ended up talking for 3 hours. I had no idea I was there that long, but it was kind of awesome to catch up.
Today I will spend much of my day checking ups.com and tracking my new bass amp that should be delivered today. I'm going to plan my lunch hour around its arrival so I can go home and bring it in out of the cold and maybe plug it in. Rock.

Munday

What better day of the week to start a blog. Today I'm working without glasses and I've got a wicked headache. I was late to work cuz I was trying to fix my broken glasses and also I woke up late on top of that. This week is going great so far. This weekend was awesome though. Thursday night was Animal Collective at the Metro, Friday was 80's Ski Movie Marathon Night. Saturday was Frightened Rabbit at the Empty Bottle, and yesterday we got he first draft of the Bright, Brilliant record which sounds pretty decent. Rock.