Don't Let The World Bring You Down

Hey everyone.

Well I didn't make it to the battle of the bands last week like I wanted to. I was waist deep into a audio install in Cory's car, and didn't finish until almost midnight. Oh well. My buddy's band won, so they're moving on to the next level, sometime in July.

Wednesday-boring. Parents left for Idaho, and then I played some frisbee golf with Paul. That's it.

Thursday I was supposed to go up and babysit, but I got an early morning call saying Doug poked himself in the eye with a stick (don't ask) and he wasn't going on his trip, so I wasn't needed. Great. Had they told me the day before (when it happened) I could have gone with my parents to Idaho. So now I have nothing to do for the weekend, and I'm bored out of my mind. So I decided to go up to their house anyways. They didn't need me to babysit, so I just got to hang out all weekend instead. Still had fun, although I didn't make any money.

A few interesting things did happen while I was there though. Right when I walked in the door when I got there, Mik (Ryan's friend who is basically living with them now) runs up to me, shirtless, and gives me a big bear hug. He hugged me for a good 20 seconds before he let go. He's pretty cute, although his ego is a bit large, so that was a nice little surprise to start the weekend. On Friday we're hanging on the couch watching a movie, and Mik comes and sits next to me, shirtless (the a/c broke so it was pretty hot in the house), puts his arm around my shoulder, his leg over my legs, and kisses me on the cheek. Then he stays there and cuddles with me for the next few minutes watching the movie. Then he gets up and walks away, no words spoken. Weird. I don't think he's gay, but he sure is acting like it. I have no idea of what to make of it. But he's a nice kid so the attention is nice.

Since all the beds were full, I slept with James in his bed. Thrusday night was fine, other than him stealing the blankets all night, but again things got a little interesting on Friday night. He went to bed before I did, and when I came in I did my best not to wake him up. I failed, but he only looked up, and then rolled over and went back to bed. It was a little early for me, so I had some trouble falling asleep. After about an hour I got up to go pee, and when I came back and got into bed, James rolled over, spooned into me and layed his head on my chest. So I threw an arm over him and tried to sleep. It was pretty cute, I don't think he knew he did it. At some point I woke again, but didn't move. I was just laying there, when I noticed the bed was creaking a little, and kinda bouncing. Apparently James thought I was still asleep, because when I looked over at him, he was lost in his own world masturbating. Woah! Not what I was expecting to see at 3 AM. So I rolled back over and gave him his privacy. But I knew when he was done when I felt the bed shake and I heard a poorly stiffled moan. After that he feel asleep and neither of us spoke of it. I'm pretty sure he doesn't know I caught him, but hey, he's 14. He's always horny. At least I was.

And the last interesting thing, well more annoying than anything, was I managed to drop my cell phone into the lake while trying to untangle the tow rope for the tube. My aunt ran over the rope and it wrapped around the motor. So I tried to unwrap it, and it feel out of my pocket into the water. It was only a couple feet deep, but it was really weedy and it took us a couple of minutes to find it. I finally got it and ran inside to try and dry it out. I hit it with a hair dryer for like 10 minutes, but it still wouldn't turn on. Oh well, stuff happens. So tomorrow I'm going to Verizon to get a new phone. Could be worse I guess. At least I have a phone.

That was pretty much all the stuff worth mentioning that happened up there. I came home on Sunday and went to Wyatt's house to watch Slo-Mo record his guitar tracks. He got them all done that day, and we're all pretty happy with the results. We grilled up some chicken and then called it a day. Thursday Wyatt starts recording his vocals, so we'll see how that goes. After that, hopefully next Sunday, I'll lay down the bass tracks and then we're done. We're going to send it to Aaron's dad who will master it, and then we can release it. I can't wait!

Today, nothing. I threw a round with Paul, and went to the chiro. Then sat around waiting for my parents to get home. They got home around 6, and we hung out while they relaxed from all the driving. Pretty boring trip for them, except for some intense weather. Wedding was good, but short. They spent 41 hours at the camp where the wedding was, and 43 hours in the car there and back. They don't think it was worth it. But if I was there to do the driving, they probably would have liked it more.

I'm pretty much on call for babysitting, so I don't know when I'll be back there. Pretty boring week ahead. Now that my dad is back, we're going to get back into the headlight issue. I really hope we get them working. And a new phone hopefully tomorrow. And then some more chiro appointments.

You know, when I type all this out, it seems like I have a pretty boring life. A lot of the same stuff, day in day out. Well the weekend up north was a little different, but at home it seems the same. Sorry if I'm boring any one. You could ask me questions about myself, or something you want to know, and that might make things less boring. I'm an open book, just ask.

And finally, I would like to send my congratulations and love to Paul and Layna, who just got engaged the other day! I wish them all the happiness in the world, and may their mariage last a lifetime!

Late,

-Kevin

This might be more palatable for you to listen to. Not as much screaming or high energy. The problem with having as much music as I do, I find something really good that I haven't heard before, or haven't heard in a long time, and listen to it A LOT. So I've been on an Incubus kick this weekend. Here they are playing 'The Warmth' from their second album and Red Rocks.

Within A Mile Of Home

An interesting weekend full of ups and downs.

So I went up to Lynn and Doug's place on Friday. I think I got there around 4 or so in the afternoon. Doug was flying, Lynn was running errands, Ryan was sick, James was at a friend's house, and Taylor was hanging out with their neighbor Kallan and Ryan's friend Mik. Since Ryan was sick, it was pretty subdued, at first. We just hung around watching crappy movies on tv for a while. Then James came home. And he brought friends. So all of a sudden it was everyone from before, plus Lynn, James, Jay, Jake, and Tristen. Right around then Mik left for the night, so that helped. But then another friend of Taylor's came over, Jenny, which was even worse because unlike Mik, she likes to talk and has a lot of energy.

Now the house is filled with four fourteen year old boys hopped up on sugar and caffeine. Great. So we all went outside to play some night games (minus Ryan). Just ghost in the graveyard and the like, which I haven't played in like 8 years. It was kinda nice to just be a kid again. After that, we all went downstairs so we wouldn't disturb Ryan. The boys started playing X-Box, and the girls went to Taylor's room to do whatever.

At some point the girls came back out, and wanted to play truth or dare with us. This could be interesting. So we started out, and everyone is nervous and doing truth over and over. Finally Jake (the macho, arrogant one of the group) started doing dares, and they got interesting quick. Started out as lick a sweaty, dirty sock, and progressed from there. At some point a gay comment was thrown into the mix, and Jake just flipped. He started saying all of this homophobic shit, and saying how wrong homosexuality is. Then I started to notice all the quick "fag" or "gay" comments he was making. After a little bit, it really started to get on my nerves, and I had to do my best to control myself. Both internally and externally. I did try and punch holes in his logic, by asking him to explain how something was gay or whatever, but without much success. If he wasn't 14, I probably would have punched him in the face. But that would also raise a lot of questions that I don't want to answer.

I just get so fucking tired of all the ignorance, intolerance, and hatred in the world, you know? Why can't people just accept the fact that homosexuality is not a sin, or a crime, or anything bad at all? We're just like them, but prefer the same sex. Big deal. I've noticed some of my friends share the same, "gays are bad" mentality, and it's really starting to drive me up the wall. Part of me wants to come out to everyone, so I can prove that there is nothing wrong with being gay, but the other part doesn't want to say anything. Mostly out of fear. There are certain individuals I know, although not really friends anymore, that do not like "fagots" and would love to beat the crap out of one to "teach them a lesson". I'm sure if they found out about me, they would love to come after me. We haven't been on the best terms for a couple years, and I can't even remember why. So we do our best to avoid each other. But they're one of the reasons I'm glad I carry a knife with me wherever I go. But I don't expect anything to happen, at least yet, so let's move on.

Finally, around 5 AM the kids started getting tired, and I realized I had a 3 hour drive ahead of me still. Great. So I decided to take a hot shower to wake myself up again. I also downed a pot and a half of coffee and about six mountain dews. I jumped back in the truck and took off. About thirty minutes later, I was getting really tired (surprisingly, what with all the caffeine and sugar I just drank) and was trying to stay awake. I was on I-35 heading north, driving 75 MPH, when all of a sudden a deer runs on to the road about 30 feet in front of me. SHIT! I slammed on the brakes as hard as I could, and hoped I wouldn't hit him. The deer got to the ditch about 3 feet away from my bumper and ran off. I started driving again (thankful no one was following close behind me at the time) and drove the last 5 miles to my first exit. I pulled into a parking lot and just sat there shaking, as the adrenaline pumped through my veins. After smoking a cigarette, I got back on the road and was wide awake. I made the rest of the drive fine, and didn't see another deer the whole way, thankfully.

I got to the cabin at about 8 AM and went straight to bed. I was lying there trying to sleep, when all of a sudden my heart started racing, I started shaking again, I got extremely hot, and I couldn't breath well. I started freaking out and grabbed the fan next to me to try and cool off. I tried to control my breathing, and after about 3 minutes I began to calm down. I don't know what the hell happened, but it scared the shit out of me. I was up there by myself in the middle of nowhere. I would have been screwed if something had happened. But fortunately nothing did.

Woke up a few hours later to more rain. It seems every time I go to the cabin it rains. Oh well. Hung out watching movies and tv for a while and then started playing my bass. I am the temporary bass player for the band, and am in charge of writing the parts for the demo. So I got to work coming up with new riffs and whatnot. I got two songs done, and then had some dinner. Spent the rest of the night watching movies and then went to bed rather early.

Sunday was basically the same, just shorter. I got up around 10, and had to leave at 1 to make it back in time for practice. So after lunch I loaded up the truck and started the long drive home. I got home a little after 4, and practice was at 4:30. Perfect. Went to Wyatt's place and started hammering out the rest of my drum tracks for the album. Got them all done in one or two takes, and then we called it quits. We have to move all the mics and re-due the levels for the guitars, so we're going to wait until Thursday to start recording that. Hung out at home for a while, and then my buddy Anthony called to hang out. He's staying at a hotel with his dad right now, so we went and hung out in the hot tub there for an hour or so. Then we went to Perkins and grabbed a bite to eat. I dropped him off at the hotel and then came home and went to bed.

I didn't do hardly anything today. I woke up and wanted to go play some disc, but Paul wasn't feeling well so he didn't want to go. I suppose I could have gone alone, but what fun is that? So I went on a bike ride around town for a bit, and then went home. I played some drums for a couple of hours, and then hung out with my mom for the night. And now here I am. Pretty boring day.

Tomorrow I have the chiro, and a battle of the bands I might go to. We'll see. My friend's band is playing so it would be cool to see them again. Wednesday my parents are leaving for Idaho for my cousin's wedding. I was going to go with them, but I have to babysit on Thursday/Friday so I can't go. I didn't really care about the wedding, because I think they're boring, but I was really looking forward to the drive. If you haven't figured it out yet, I love to drive. So a 20 hour drive across country is perfect for me. And I thought it would be cool to be in the same state as JJ. Although the wedding is in Coeur d'Alene instead of near Boise. But still, it would have been cool. So JJ, if by some chance you see a gold minivan with a Minnesota plate that says LATER, that's my rents! I doubt it, but you never know.

I'm sure I'll be back on before the weekend, but I'll be babysitting my cousins Thursday/Friday. I just hope I don't have to see Jake again. I don't know if I can control myself again. But it'd be cool to see Tristen, I really like him, and started to bond with him at the cabin. We'll see.

Well that's about it. This seems really long. At least to type it, maybe not to read.

Everyone be well, and take care.

-Kevin

I've been listening to a lot of Flogging Molly lately, and this seemed like a fitting song.

Return To Earth, Return To All That's Normal

What a weekend. Totally what the doctor ordered. The drive up was pretty uneventful. I stopped at Lynn and Doug's house on the way up. Turns out my youngest cousin, Taylor, got chickens. So they now have eight little chicks running around. Spent some time playing with them and harassing my cousins before jumping back on the road. I got to the cabin around 1 am, and started getting the cabin back to running order. Turn on the water, water heater, air out the rooms, stuff like that. Shortly after I crashed. On Thursday my grandparents showed up and we got the rest of the cabin going. Hung out with them for a while and then a little after dinner my parents showed up with Kodi. spent the rest of the night relaxing. Friday, again a lot of lazing around, until around 8 pm when my aunt and cousins showed up. Then all hell broke loose. The oldest, Ryan, didn't come, so the middle, James, brought a friend along, Tristen. They all started running around and being crazy kids while the rest of us had a bonfire. I finally went to bed around 1. Could not sleep at all that night, so ended up getting up at about 6 am. My grandparents were just getting up, so we hung out on the deck enjoying the quite and then I helped them make breakfast. After breakfast, my mom and grandpa went out fishing for the day, and the rest of us went into town. On the ride in, James really wanted to listen to Gogol Bordello, so we listened to that, and got both James and Tristen hooked :-P. Looked around Main St. Hayward for a while, and then made the journey back to the cabin. It's about a 15 minute drive, again filled with Gogol. A little after we got back, my mom and grandpa got home with their fish, so we fired up the grill and had a nice fish fry. Was pretty good too, since I don't like fish. But there's something about fresh caught walleye that I like. Had another bonfire that night, and I went to bed rather early, since I didn't sleep much the night before. On Sunday we went golfing. Well, they went golfing, I just rode along. My back still isn't very good, so the last thing I want to do is twist and bend a lot. Normally I love to golf, so it was rather sad. But we all had a good time nonetheless. After wards, we went to a great little tavern for lunch and had some really good burgers and pizza. It's my mom's favorite place to go. She claims they have the best pizza and onion rings. That night we had another fire, and then played some gin. We have a tradition of playing gin with everyone when we're all there. So it was 5 people per team, and surprisingly, Tristen, who had never played the game before, was the best player and our team won. It's a pretty cut-throat game with us, so there were a lot of harsh words being thrown around. After that we all went to bed. Monday was kinda sad, because it was our last day there. But we made the most out of it and spent the day out on the lake. Normally we would go out everyday, or close to it, but out schedule just didn't allow it this year. So we cruised around the lake and stopped at a sandbar to let the kids and Kodi go swimming, which they all enjoyed. Once we got back, we started the long battle of packing everything up again. After what seemed like hours, we had everything loaded up and we took off, leaving my grandparents up there for the week. Again, pretty uneventful drive home, just battling traffic. Normally I would have left later to avoid the traffic, but I wanted to get home and go for a bike ride while there was still light. After unloading the truck, jumped on the bike and rode around for an hour or two. Then I was really beat so I went to bed pretty early.

Tuesday, I had a chiro, and that was it. Just hung around the house, and then played a round with Paul. Went for another ride that night, and then turned in. Pretty boring.

Wednesday, I find a package at my door. My new headlights! After my accident, the brackets got damaged, so after looking online, found that it was only an extra $20 to get projector headlights instead of the stock ones. So I called Paul and he came over to help put them in. The high beams didn't work right, but we ran out of daylight so we left it for today. Headed up to the BP and hung out with Aaron for the rest of the night.

Today, I woke up early so I would have time to fix the lights before band practice. Paul came over, and after spending a long, long time on the phone with the company, got it figured out. Now I just have to wait for the sun to go down so I can double check the brightness of the lights is right. Biked over to band practice, and tried to get into it, but all of us were tired so it wasn't a very productive practice. After about 2 hours we called it quits, and I biked home to eat dinner. And now here I sit.

One of my grandparents friend's died this week, so they came home from the cabin early. Which means the cabin is open. So what would one do with nothing to do and an open cabin? That's right. Go up. So tomorrow evening/night I'm going to drive up there again. I tried to get someone to go with me, but since it was short notice, no one could. So I'm going up by myself, which is also nice. I like having some time to myself where I can do what I want, when I want. Although, it would be nice if Gabey lived here, so he could come up with me like he wanted to last week. Sorry buddy. So I probably won't be on for the next couple of days. My phone internet is kinda weird. I can check the blogs, but I can't post or comment. Oh well. I should enjoy nature, right? I hope all of you have a fun, safe weekend, and I'll talk to you when I get back.

-Kevin

The view off one side of the deck



The view off the other side



A view of part of the lake from the pontoon



Fire!



I realized I talk a lot about my band, but you guys have no idea who or what we are, so here is a rather poor quality video of us playing a song I wrote entitled, Anthem, from a few months ago. It has changed some since then, but it gives you a general idea. Right now, it is the only instrumental we have, but I don't like our singer, so I'm not going to post one with him.