I'm Kevin and this is my life. I'm 22 years old, I'm trying to figure out what the hell to do with my life while working a dead end job, and I'm gay.
Email is in my profile for MSN or whatever.
Hey guys. I feel like I've been a bad blogger lately. Sorry about that. I guess I've been busier than I thought.
Anyways, Erik and D left of their trip the Thursday after the party. I heard from them this past Tuesday (maybe Wednesday) and they had made it to Mt Hood, so that's good. I fly out to see them this Tuesday, and will be gone until Sunday. It should be a good time.
My friend Joey, who works at the BP, finally got hired as an electrician. She graduated with an electrical degree two years ago, and has been waiting for a spot in the union to open up. So last Tuesday she started that. So, I'm now a full time employee at the BP. Been working a lot trying to get trained in for closing, learning all the paper work and whatnot. Not terribly fun, but the money will be nice.
My friends Kaija and Ian had their second child, a son named Callum. Been trying to spend a lot of time with them and the kids. I can't believe they have been married over 2 years, and have two kids. Addy, their daughter, will turn 1 tomorrow. Time is really flying! It's crazy.
Hopefully once I get back from my trip, I'll be making enough money to finally buy the audio interface I need, so the band can start recording our album, and we can finally get that released. I feel like I've been talking about that forever, and I just really want it to get done. Doing it yourself kinda sucks. But it's cool at the same time, because you're doing it all yourself. I talked to a friend of mine at Erik's party, and he said he'd be willing to play bass on the album for us, which would be sweet. He is by far the greatest bass player I know, and I'd say better than a lot of the people in the bands on the radio. He's no Matt Freeman, or Les Claypool, but he can play a bass amazingly. I've briefly mentioned an old Minneapolis band here before called Morris (NOT to be confused with Morris Day, or Morris Day and The Time) that he was the bass player for, and I can't believe he wants to play on our album. I said it'd probably be boring for him, but he thinks it'll be fun, so that's cool. If you care, go HERE to hear Morris.
I guess that's about it for now. I'm pretty tired, but thought I'd give you guys an update, so you knew I wasn't dead.
That sounds like a pretty good description of the weekend.
I guess it all started on Friday. Erik and Demian towed the camper to go get a new hitch for it, something about better weight distribution and sway control, whatever. Around 8 that night, I get a phone call from Erik, and it turns out that after they put the new hitch on in the parking lot, they got on the highway and when they got to about 45mph, the camper started to sway and bounce all over the road, and eventually jackknifed. Fortunately, they didn't hit any other cars, and no one was hurt. After the camper jackknifed, it swung the jeep and camper around in a 180, and crossed three lanes of traffic. Surprisingly, nothing broke, and they're still set to go. Although they've switched their departure to Wednesday morning.
Had the party on Saturday. After our location for the party backed out, we ended up having it at our house. My parents went to my grandma's for the night and gave us free reign, as long as nothing broke, and the cops didn't show up. 1/2 isn't bad. Before the party, Erik and I went around to some of the neighbors' houses to let them know what was happening, and to call us if it got too loud, before calling the cops.
Around 5 in the afternoon Erik, Demian, BuBu, Rocky and I started grilling some food, and getting everything set up. They got 2 kegs of beer so we set those up in the back yard under the deck. Over the next 3 hours people slowly started to show up, and it ended up being a good turn out. Probably around 100 people over the course of the night.
I had set up my band's PA system in the basement for music, and had the windows open so you could hear it outside. It was pretty loud inside, but pretty good outside. As night fell, we started a bonfire and all the black lights came to life in the camper, as well as that stereo. So we had two different sources of loud music.
There ended up being three mini parties within the one. One out back with the fire, one inside, and one out front with the camper. Since I was the only sober one, I was running between them all night, trying to keep things under control. Around 1 AM, I walked from the front to the back, and was presented with a well organised, yet impossible to play, game of kickball. The only light was from the house and the fire. But they even had team names and rules. People were pretty drunk, and first base was right next to the fire pit, so it was a little interesting, but no one got hurt.
Around 2, Erik wanted me to give his friend Jessica a ride home, since she had to go feed her baby. So just as I'm walking from the back yard out to the car, I hear the smoke alarm go off. Great. I run inside as fast as I could, and see that a bag of homemade rice krispy treats that was on the stove had caught fire. Apparently, the burner knob had gotten turned and the bag caught instantly. So I walked into the kitchen seeing 8 inch flames on the stove and some drunk people freaking out. So I grabbed some water and got it out. The people around me said they'ed let it cool for a bit, and then clean it up. So I nervously left to take Jess home, after finding Erik, and rather forcefully telling him to keep things under control until I got back. It was the most tense 20 minutes I'd had in a while.
When I got home, things were still under control, and someone had cleaned up the mess on the stove, which made me happy. Around 3 or so, we decided to close the house windows, to try and cut back on some of the noise. But the drunk people were loud, and the camper was blasting music, so I knew it wouldn't help much. By about 4, I figured we were pushing our luck, but there wasn't much I could do. Finally, about 4:30, I see a cop car drive around the corner. So I run into the camper and kill the music, and tell people the cops are here. Erik came out with me to talk to the officer, and he just told us the music was too loud, and to shut up and go inside. Simple enough. Most of the people went in without a problem, but a couple people drug their feet. By this time, only about 20 people were there.
Over the next hour, people started to leave as their cabs showed up, and it was starting to die down. I was getting excited that I might actually get some sleep. Erik, Demain, Nate and I went out to the back yard, and found there was just a small amount of beer left in the second keg. So what started as them drinking it, quickly turned into them having a water fight, with beer. Throwing full cups at each other, spraying people with the nozzle, stuff like that. Well, the kegs were gone pretty quickly after that. Erik went and got some rope, and decided to hang the empty kegs from the tree. He left them hanging about 15 feet in the air.
Nate was starting to pass out in the yard, and Erik and D thought it would be a good idea to pour the garbage can full of ice water from the keg on him. So they grabbed it and tried to sneak up on him, but he saw them. Instead of trying to run away, he just accepted it and threw his backpack away to keep it dry. Then he tried to tackle them for the next couple of minutes. It was hilarious, and not a bad way to finish off the night, at 7 AM.
I borrowed Nate's moped to go to the gas station and get some cigarettes for people shortly after. I was about a block away, and the thing ran out of gas, so I had to push it the rest of the way. Kind of sucked, but it's light so it wasn't bad. More annoying than anything. Got gas and smokes, and headed back home thinking I could finally get some sleep. But no. The 10 or so people left had gotten a second wind, and the party was picking up again, along with the music volume. I guess they figured it was after 8, so they could get away with it. I went down and turned it down and told Erik I was going to bed. He was sad, but accepted. I made it up the stairs and almost to my bedroom door when the music turned 'itself' back up. I said screw it and just went to bed anyways. The music was so loud, it was shaking the walls and all I could hear was it and the drunk people outside on the deck, right outside my window. I was in limbo between sleep and awake for a long time, and finally around 1 PM, I think when my parents came home, the music stopped and I finally got to sleep. I woke up at 4, and only my parents were home. They said Erik and everyone went to the beach to sleep. Seemed weird, but whatever. Hung around at home and told my parents (most) of what happened at the party. They weren't concerned about any of it, even the fire, and were proud at how well I'd handled it. I just told them it was from years of practice. Erik finally came home around 10 PM, having not slept at the beach, and crashed.
It was a pretty early night for me on Sunday too, since I hadn't gotten much sleep either. My parents thought the kegs in the tree was pretty funny, and they were there until I woke up today.
So that's the weekend in a nutshell. Saw some good people, had a good time, and some awesome memories. Now we'll just have to see if they leave on Wednesday. I'm sure they will.
Well, that's about it for now. My body still hasn't caught up on sleep, so I should probably get to bed.
Hope you guys are well!
143
_Kevin
Erik and D raising the trophies (and yes, Erik is wearing plaid pants, a leather jacket with tassels, and a cowboy hat. Don't ask.)
Pretty tired tonight. I spent all day at work on my knees....and not in the fun way. My boss, being the cheap ass that he is, decided we needed to paint all the pumps. But he didn't want to pay a painter to do it. So I had to. He gave me some shitty knee pads, but they didn't really help. By the time I was done my knees were bleeding. Not what I signed up for.
Anyways, Erik and Demian have finally set an official date to leave, and have made plans for their going away party. The party will be on Saturday, most likely starting in the afternoon with one last bike ride, and then go well into the night, or even Sunday morning. So that'll be a long day. Then they are going to leave on Monday. Not sure when, but they're pretty much set to go. Just have to tie up a few loose ends and then take off. They finally got the solar panels hooked up to the camper, and they're now running completely off solar. I thought it was pretty sweet that they were drinking beers that were chilled by the sun :-P
I'm still pretty sad that they're leaving, even though I'm going out to Portland to see them at the end of June. I fly out on the 28th, then the next night we're going to see A Perfect Circle play. We'll most likely spend those two nights in hostels around Portland, and then on Thursday we're going to head up into Mt. Hood and set up camp for a couple of days. We'll do some day hiking trips and whatever else we can find to do, then I fly home on the 3rd.
I guess it still hasn't really sunk in that they're leaving. Probably because they've said they're leaving like three times now. But they both quit their jobs and don't really have a choice now, especially now that I have plane and concert tickets!
Well that's about it. Just thought I'd give you guys a quick update.
Hope you guys are well!
143
_Kevin
P.S. Has anyone heard from Paul? I know Layna was trying to get a hold of him, and I sent him an email a while ago and haven't heard back. I'm starting to get worried.
