Oceans

Press play; read ahead.





Well don't I just take the cake for being a bad blogger. Sorry guys. I've been busy, just not really with anything exciting. Erik and Demian came home last Monday late at night, and we hung out catching up for a while. Tuesday Erik and I went to Demian's place to hang out and unload their truck. They had accumulated a lot of stuff along the way and the truck bed was full. A lot of random things they got from Burning Man, and a whole fuckload of rocks. Between what was in the truck, the camper, and what's still in the Jeep out in Portland, they said they have about 500 or 600 pounds of rocks. They're big into rocks (obviously) and went on rock hunting trips and to quarries and stuff. So we unloaded that and then their friends started showing up to say hi. The first 10 or more days of October here were in the mid 80's so we were just hanging out outside enjoying the weather. We were going to go see Chromeo that night at First Ave so we were killing time. We decided since it was so nice that we'd bike to the show. So around 5 oclock or so we loaded up the bikes and drove into the city to their friend Kevin's house. Still had time to kill so we hung out some more, blasting music from the trike (for the first time in over 4 months. It was really nice!). Finally it was time for the show so we jumped on the bikes and headed out. I think there was around 14 of us on bikes. Some people drove, for some lame reason, but most were on bikes. It was a nice ride down to the show, all of us happy to be doing it. When we got to the show, we had to figure out a way to lock up all the bikes to the trike so no one would steal it. The speaker box is lockable, but you could still wheel the whole thing away. So we locked 5 bikes to it.

As we were standing on the sidewalk (completely blocking it, too), I saw a guy trying to get by BuBu. So I told him to move out of the way to let him through. Then Demian sees the guy, and starts pointing and trying to say something. Finally he gets out, "You're that guy! P-Thugg. Shit!" The guy just smiles and says yeah. It was the keyboard player from Chromeo walking around before the show. So then Demian says, "Not to be a groupie or anything, but can we get a picture of you with our gnome?" Which then led to a discussion about Jerome, and then the group picture. I somehow got relegated to camera man, so I'm not in it, and it's on Demian's camera, so I don't have it, unfortunately. We let him get on his way and then went into the show. Somehow Demian got Jerome into the show and we went to stake out a good spot. The opening band was almost done when we got there, but they were pretty good. They were called Mayor Hawthorne. I wasn't familiar with them, but it was enjoyable. We danced around a bit with Jerome, but when Chromeo came on, Yogi ran up and grabbed Jerome and ran off. Turns out, he wormed his way up to front and center with Jerome and was dancing around up there. Chromeo saw him, and loved it. They were interacting with him; it was awesome. So after dancing our asses off for a couple hours, the show was over. We headed back out to the bikes and decided to take a ride to Tom's house. It was about a 45 minute ride, and it was a blast. We hung out there for a few hours before Erik and I biked back to the truck and went home. I think I finally got to bed around 5 in the morning.

Wednesday was recovery day for everyone. Erik was gone by the time I got up, and I guess they all met up at the beach to spend the day in the sun recovering from the night before. Since it was their coming home, Demian's birthday, and a Chromeo show they all partied pretty hard and weren't feeling too hot. I just hung around the house all day and then went and hung out with Kaija and the kids. Was a pretty calming day for me.

This past Monday, my friend Joey (who used to work at the BP) found out she has breast cancer. She goes in for surgery tomorrow. So she's been kind of freaking out about that, so I've been trying to hang out with her and try to keep her calm. She's only 39, so a little on the young side for it, but still not completely unexpected. She's doing relatively well, considering, but she's still pretty nervous. It really sucks, but hopefully all goes well. And if not, I guess we'll cross that bridge when it comes.

So that and work is pretty much all I've been up to lately. The Friday after Erik got home, we went and bought tickets to see Puscifer for when they come here in November. So that's pretty cool. We saw them last year when they were here, and it was probably one of the greatest shows I've ever seen. It's not just a rock concert, either. Maynard bills it as a 'cabaret show'. It has comedy, video skits, and music all tied into one. It's really interesting. I can't wait. Puscifer has a new album coming out this week, but they started streaming it online right after Erik came home, and I kinda thought the song above was fitting.

What's going on with you guys? I feel like I haven't been around lately and don't know what's going on. So what's going on, blogland?!

Hope you guys are well!

143

_Kevin

P.S. Don't you just love getting paid to blog? That's one of the greatest things about working at the BP. I'm sitting here at 9 oclock on a Sunday night, writing a blog post, listening to Bad Religion, and getting paid to do it.

Not my video, but this is Chromeo playing at First Ave. We were off to the right over by the stairs. Not great quality, but it gives you an idea.



Here's one of their videos so you can see what they're like.

THEY'RE BACK!

Sorry I've been a bad blogger lately. I'll post more in a couple days. But the next 48 hours are gunna be PARTY TIME!

If You Wanna Make A Move, Then You Better Come In

Hey.

So, some stuff's been happening. Let's start with the bad.

Last week, my grandpa's sister (my dad's aunt, or my great aunt, if you please) passed away. She had been suffering from dementia for a couple of years, but held together pretty well. She lived up in Duluth, MN. I hadn't seen her in a few years, but when I was a kid I remember going up there and visiting her a lot. Everything about that town was so amazing to me, and I loved going up there. So last Thursday was the funeral. I had to work, but talked to my boss and she said I could come in whenever, and to take my time. The time frame sucked though. I got home from work around midnight on Wednesday, ate some food and decompressed like usual, and fell asleep around 3:30-4. I had to wake up at 5:45 to get ready, and we had to be at my grandparents' house by quarter to 7. Usually, it's only a 2.5 hour drive from my house to Duluth, but my parents were riding up with my grandparents, and I was following. Plus there was a decent amount of road construction on 35. So in all it took us about 3 hours to get there, right on time for the 10 o'clock visitation.

I got to see some family that I hadn't seen in a while, and it was nice to catch up, even if it wasn't under the best circumstances. I was wearing my black suit that I bought when my grandpa died, and everyone kept saying how nice I looked, until I pointed out my shoes. I didn't want to drive all the way up in my dress shoes, since they're fucking uncomfortable, so I wore my hiking boots like always. Was planning on changing when I got there. Well, since I'd only gotten about 1.5 hours of sleep, when I walked out the door, I thought I'm wearing shoes, so I'm good. Not until I pulled into the parking lot of the church did I realize I forgot the dress shoes. So I was in an all black suit, with dirty brown hiking boots. Since everyone kept saying how nice I looked, I said they'd start expecting that from me, so I had to keep it low class somehow. It got a few chuckles.

The service was a service. More or less the same as any other funeral I've been too. Originally, my grandpa was supposed to be one of the pallbearers, but with his age and health, I was asked to step in. So I had my first experience with that. It kinda creeped me out. Also, it wasn't as heavy as I would have imagined. But I guess having six people carrying takes off some of the weight. Since I was bearing pall, I had to go to the graveside service too, which was a first for me. But I must say, standing in the sun in an all black suit, with no wind, when it's 78 degrees out, kinda sucks. Was really sweaty. After that, I said my goodbyes while everyone else went to mingle or whatever. I was off to work. My mom was worried about me driving on such little sleep, but I said I'd be fine. Which was true, until I started blanking out, and couldn't really remember that I was driving. It all seemed like a dream. So I stopped for some caffeine and did some jumping jacks and kept going. Got to work around 6 and had an incredibly busy night, since everyone was getting ready to go out of town for Labor Day. Got home around midnight again, and crashed around 1. What a wonderful night's sleep that was.

OK. Enough of the sad. On to the good! Where to start....

First off, I talked to Erik the other day, and they successfully survived Burning Man. They are currently in Yosemite for a couple of days and then are going to Death Valley. I asked when they would be coming home, and he said in October. The 4th is Demian's birthday, and he wants to be back to see Chromeo play that day. But they also want to see Further at Red Rocks the weekend before that, and don't want to rush, so we'll see. But they're slowly working their way home! I can't wait to hear all about it.

I finally got my audio interface to work properly. I ended up having to re-install windows on my computer, and somehow that fixed the problem. Just sucked that I had to back up my whole hard drive. Took flippin ever! I still haven't reloaded all that back on. I haven't found a time where I won't need my computer for 9 hours. So now we can FINALLY start recording our cd and get that out there. I'll keep you posted on that.

And finally, the big event.

My friend that I work with, Aaron, has been looking to buy a house for the last few months or so. He talked to a mortgage guy and got approved for a loan, got in contact with a realtor who has been sending him houses and stuff. It was decided that I, and his friend Nicky, would move in with him. His mortgage guy did some calculations, and his monthly payment should be around $700 a month. Which works out to about $233 a person, plus utilities. Which is pretty damn cheap, since we'll be in a house.

Anyways, he met with the realtor yesterday to look at a house, and then called me last night to ask if I could cover his shift for a couple hours today so he could meet with her again. So I said sure. Then he comes running into work today with a big smile on his face, and says he put an offer on the house. !!! Sweet! I'd seen pictures, and we'd driven by a few days before and I saw it from the outside, and I really liked it. Around 1500 square feet, and a HUGE back yard. Then, I get a phone call from him earlier tonight, and they accepted the offer. There are some things that need to be fixed before he can close, but the seller is paying to have it all fixed, which is nice. If all goes according to plan, he should close around 11/11/11. So come mid November, I'll be moving out! Fucking finally!

I like living at home, and it's free :-P, but it'll be nice to finally get out on my own. I'm 21 for fuck's sake. So I'll be living on the Greater East Side of St. Paul, which is a whole new world for me. I've never been a big fan of St. Paul, because the streets confuse me. In Minneapolis, the streets are more or less in a grid shape, and they go numerically and alphabetically. Not in St. Paul. The joke is that the streets were laid out by a bunch of drunken Irishmen. Guess it's time to learn.

So that's been my life for the last little bit. Some good, some bad. I'll keep you guys posted on the cd and the house.

Hope you guys are well!

143

_Kevin



Oh yeah! I lost all my email contacts, so if you want me to have your email address, or whatever, send me an email so I get it back! Thanks!

'I Go Fag, You Die'

Heard that at work today. It irritates me that there is still so much hatred towards gays, and that it's still socially 'acceptable' to call things/people gay, fag, whatever. We live in a rather 'politically correct' world nowadays. Most people will at least look at you weird, if not say something, if you were to go around calling black people niggers, or asain people gooks, or assuming all middle eastern people are terrorists, or any of the other 'once acceptable' terms for people other than white. Shit, I'm surprised that they are still allowed to sell a chewing tobacco called Red Man, with a generic Native American chief as the logo.

I'm getting so tired of hearing people say all that. I can tolerate it when it's some random person, but when it's people that I know, people that I care about, it really tears me up. I'm glad no one in my family does it. My younger cousins do, but I'm trying to fix that. It's hard though when everyone they hang out with does it too. I did try to explain to them that there could be people around them that they care about, that are gay and no one knows, and that saying that really hurts them. They hadn't thought about it that way, so maybe there's hope.

I don't know. I like to think that it'll change, but I really don't know anymore. I wonder sometimes what the people around me would do if I came out. Most, I like to think, wouldn't care. But the ones that say all that shit all the time, I wonder if they'd stop, keep doing it, or just abandon me altogether.

The other day, I was hanging out with Anthony after work. He occasionally uses gay as a derogatory word, even though he doesn't have a problem with homosexuality, and has a lot of gay friends. He asked if it tore me up inside every time he said it around me. And so I told him, yes. But it wasn't as bad with him, since I knew his feelings towards gays. But I was glad that he acknowledged the fact that he said that around gay people, and that there might be repercussions.

I don't know. I need sleep. I'll fill you guys in on what's been happening soon. Going to the 'Great Minnesota Get Together' (state fair) tomorrow, so I should get some sleep.

Hope you guys are well.

143

_Kevin

Came across this video and thought it was cool. Vulgar, but cool.



This song was written about racism, but I think it holds true for sexuality too. One more reason to love Rancid!

So What Does It Mean When Your Mind Starts To Stray?

Why do we let our minds run away with bad thoughts?

I'm Still Here

Hey guys, guess it's been a while.

The past 2-3 weeks have been crazy. My boss's son got married this past weekend, and everyone that works at my station was going to the wedding, except me. So I got the short end of the stick, and had to pick up the slack. Did a couple of all day shifts and was working 50-60 hour weeks back to back. Not a whole lot to some people, but considering I've only been full time for a little over a month, it was a big jump. But on the bright side, I got a raise, so that's cool too. I think the straw that broke the camel's back with that, was about two weeks ago I went into the bathroom at work to discover a 'mess' on the floor.

Forgive the vulgarity of this, you can skip if you want. But someone took a shit on the floor. And it wasn't like it was an accident and they didn't make it in time. It was right next to the toilet, and was a 'full' amount. So I had to deal with that. Almost passed out, almost threw up, and almost killed someone. As I was cleaning it up, I started to get high off of the bleach, which is not fun.

So between everything else, and that, my boss did my 'review'. Word for word she said, "You're doing a hell of a good job, thanks for covering our asses, you get a raise." And that was it. So that was pretty sweet.

I am so glad that the wedding is over, and hopefully my life will get back to normal. Not much else has been happening lately, since I've been working so much. But I think I might buy a gun. I mentioned before that I got a .357 from my grandpa when he died, but the thing is too damn expensive to shoot. So I think I might buy a 9mm. Much cheaper to shoot, and I've always wanted a semi-auto pistol. Not sure though. The one I want is about $600-700 new, which I don't think I can justify spending. Might look into buying a used one though.

Got an email from my brother the other day. He and Demian are heading towards Burning Man. They'd been talking about that for a while, but I didn't think they were actually going to go. But I guess they are. They think they'll be pretty broke after that, so they'll probably start heading home after the man burns. Depending on how much money is left will determine how long it takes them to get home. It might be a mad dash, or they'll take their time and it'll be a month. Either way, it seems like by October, they'll be home. It's kind of bittersweet. I'm really glad they're coming home, and I can't wait to hear about every thing they've done, but i also don't want it to be over for them. It'd be nice if it could last forever, but we all know it can't. But they've been gone since the first week of June, so they've had a good run. Rather unproblematic too, although Erik mentioned something about San Francisco, but he wouldn't go into details. Just that no one got hurt or arrested...

So that's about it for now, I guess. I'm looking forward to things calming down and being normal.

Oh! My friend and first sponsor, Robin, is back in town after graduating school in Cincinnati, so I'll be getting together with him for the first time in 4 years soon, which I'm excited about. For those of you keeping score at home, he was also the drummer for Morris, who I've mentioned before. I'll post more once it happens.

So yeah, that's been my life for the last few weeks. Work, work, shit, work. But I'm making money and staying out of trouble, which is a good thing, right?

Hope you guys are well!

143

_Kevin

Go Back To Sleep

So very tired...