stuff i'd like you to see

Was creeping facebook and some like 14 year old kid that goes to...

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 23:20:40 -0400

Was creeping facebook and some like 14 year old kid that goes to Byron has this as his prof pic. I hope that this kitten lives in Byron. I want it.

Photo

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 18:13:25 -0400

dadsonvacation: Don’t sit on that! Thanks Joel. HAHAHAH I...

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 17:55:45 -0400

dadsonvacation:

Don’t sit on that!

Thanks Joel.

HAHAHAH I have soo many vaca pix of chuck wait I could send to this blog!!

THIS IS HOW IT WORKS… “yOUR YOUNG UNTIL YOUR NOT....

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 17:52:00 -0400

THIS IS HOW IT WORKS…

“yOUR YOUNG UNTIL YOUR NOT. YOU LOVE UNTIL YOU DON’T. YOU TRY UNTIL YOU CAN’T. YOU LAUGH UNTIL YOU CRY. YOU CRY UNTIL YOU LAUGH. AND EVERYONE MUST BREATHE UNTIL THEIR DYING BREATH. YOU PEER INSIDE YOURSELF, YOU TAKE THE THINGS YOU LIKE, THEN TRY TO LOVE THE THINGS YOU TOOK, AND THEN YOU TAKE THAT LOVE YOU MADE AND STICK IT INTO SOMEONE ELSES HEART PUMPING SOMEONE ELSES BLOOD.”

Happy Veterans Day from the Veterettes!

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:33:40 -0500

Happy Veterans Day from the Veterettes!

Haha

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:23:32 -0500

Haha

Recent events in my life have led me to realizing that this song...

Thu, 11 Nov 2010 17:08:48 -0500

Recent events in my life have led me to realizing that this song is literally my anthem.

“Although there’s pain in my chest I still wish you the best with a fuck you. And fuck her too.”

This song makes me feel good. First stage in getting over it, actually being angry!

Trying to make positive changes in my life right now. I owe it too my family and friends that have been there for me in a big way the past couple of months. Love you guys!

Nick Thune just joined us on the bus.

Tue, 13 Jul 2010 09:39:00 -0400

Nick Thune just joined us on the bus.:

Photo

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:28:00 -0400

Going int Mission Control

Mark, Me, Sharon, Kaitlin!

In a nod of the Space Station

Best pool ever, Dallas

Downtown Houston

About to bike the bridge, San Fransico

Whole crew on the Golden Gate

International Space Station. LOok at it...your taxes are paying for it!

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 22:17:56 -0400

International Space Station. LOok at it...your taxes are paying for it!

Las Crusas, Lubbok, Dallas, Houston, Baton Rouge, Birmingham

Sat, 10 Jul 2010 16:57:00 -0400

Las Crusas, NM- Day off. Selpt in. Went swimming. Ate Subway. WENT TO ECLIPSE with Kori, Julia, and Mark. Mark loved it. I’d forgotten how unfortunate the Twilight movies are.

Lubbok, TX- Um, I really can’t remember this day at all. Oh yeah, I had to count all the merchandise in the entire bus. It was awesome.

Dallas, TX- There was a really awesome pool behind this mexican food place that you could swim in and they would just come out and bring you drinks and food! We spent allll day there. It was so relaxing.

Houston, TX- GREAT DAY! Got up early and hopped into a rented mini-van with J&K, mags, June, Julia, and John and after a quick stop at Starbucks for some energy, we headed to the Johnson Space Center, aka NASA. We went into an escort only entrance and met up with our own pirvate guide, John Paul. John works on the floor at mission control for Thermal Systems of the Space Station, and is also a huge Mates of State fan. Jason got an e-mail from him a few weeks back asking if he wanted to come in for a private tour. The tour was AMAZING! I can’t stop raving about it. We got to the see the training area for the new astronauts that are heading to the space station and go inside all the Mach Ups (full size replicas of the space station and shuttle). Got to see the cockpit, where they sleep, how they cook their food, their bathroom, and the machines they use to make their Urine and CO2 into Water and breathable Oxygen.

After that we headed to mission control where we got to go in the mission control room that was used when we put man on the moon, and was also used for the Appollo 13 movie. And also the mission control floor that is used today to communicate with the space station. We got to sit at the desks, and see live video feed of one of the astronauts fixing the toielt on board.

Some interesting facts; the international space station is only about 250 miles from earth. It takes 3 days to get to the space station (bc the shuttle has to catch up to it in orbit) but only a few hours to get back to earth. Every 90 minutes the sun rises or sets on the space station (so astronauts have 90 minute days and nights), but they stay on a 24 hour schedule. There are six Americans living in the space station. The space station is about as big as a 5 bedroom house. Becuase the Bush Administration stopped the space shuttle program at NASA we have to pay the Russians to take us to space. Obama also did a lot of funding cutting at NASA.

While at NASA I was also lucky enough to get to see Mark, Sharon, and Kaitlin, our great family friends that live in Houston and Mark and Sharon both work at NASA. I got to eat lunch with them in the empoloyee cafeteria and catch up. We could’ve talked all day (it had been 9 years!) but we all had to get back in time for sound check.

When we got back to the bus Mags and I ventured out in the rain and went downtown where we saw a cool modern park and Minute Maid field. Then we took a bike taxi back to the bus. Had dinner later with Kori’s dad at a really good Viatnamese place.

Baton Rouge, LA- Wins the award for Sketchy-est neighborhood on tour. Kori and I were followed by a man in a truck who got out and tried to take our picture, and honked at multiple times. The heat was sweltering! We played soccer and all got drenched in sweat, of course there was no shower! In true tour style we washed off in some fountains you could run through downtown. Did merch that night. Not many people bought stuff. But I did get like 6 bucks in tips!

Birmingham, AL- So far, so boring. Somehow my family back in Minnesota turned off my sim card on my phone so I don’t have one of those.

Maggie and I on the floor at Mission Control; in NASA, Houston,...

Thu, 08 Jul 2010 17:35:11 -0400

Maggie and I on the floor at Mission Control; in NASA, Houston, TX. With Tom and John two of the Thermal Systems guys for the Space Station. In the background you can see live video feed to the space station where one of the astronauts is working on fixing the toilet. It was an amazing behind the scenes tour!

Winnemuca, San Francisco x2, L.A. x2, Tuscon

Sun, 04 Jul 2010 17:47:53 -0400

Winnemuca—

A small town in rural Nevada. Beautiful view of the mountains. June, Mags, and I took a looooong walk around town. Mags was determined to get to the top of the mountian, she didn’t quite get hat it was like a mile walk even to get to the base, so no need to say we didn’t make it. Later we played soccer in the sorching heat and went to the pool until we had to exacuate to the bus because of a dust storm. I went to Jack in the Box for dinner…greasy goodness. After that I met up with John, Stacey, and Kenji and we went to meet Mark and Jason at the casino. Turns out in Nevada it’s 21 to gamble so I was booted out faster than Mark lost his weeks pay.

San Francisco Day 1—

Best day of tour so far. Was up with the girls in time to see the drive over the bay bridge into San Francisco, which was awesome. Once we arrived at the club (which was in a totally sketch-tastic area, saw my fair share of crack heads and escorts) we parked and Jason took the girls and I on a mini tour of the city. First we hit up Mel’s Diner for breakfast, then rode the trolly down to Fishermans Warf where we saw the sea lions, and a weird guy that was painted like a robot gave the girsl some candy. Jason let them eat it.

We met up with Kori and Julia in North Shore at a cool little coffee house, got some iced mochas :) and went back to the bus. After a little regrouping, Kori, Mags, and me hopped in a cab to go see the Full House house. It was THE best! Didn’t see Bob Sagget but oh well maybe next time. We walked through a hill top park and down to a vegan restaraunte where I had a suprisingly good chocolate shake. Then we went shopping in this “stellar” hippie district. While there I did something a little crazy; which I will not post here because I want my mom and dad to freak out wondering what it was that I did.

Later that day we went over to the hotel which was so cool. I was one of those never judge a book by its cover type things. The outside was…. but the inside was 70’s style with a bath water warm, salt water pool! We went swimming and had dinner at the Great American Music Hall (the club which was from the 1930’s and had sweet oldschool ornate decor).

San Fran day 2—

The next morning everyone woke up bright and early and we headed out in taxi’s down to the bay where we all rented bikes to bike down the bay a ways and across the golden gate bridge. Biked up 3 of the steepest hills i’ve ever seen in my life, but besides that it was AMAZING! We ended up in Sasalito which is a fancy little tourist town with million dollar houses covering the side of a huge hill/cliff. While everyone else caughtt he ferry back to the warf. Stacey and I stayed to try and catch a bus to the red woods. It didn’t end up working out but we got a delicous greek lunch and gave our left overs to his homeless guy, whose super cute up crazy weiner dog bit me! Think I got rabies?

We rode the ferry back to the warf, and after getting lost in a good way biking through San Fran we returned to the hotel for some much needed pool time! That night I also did merch.

L.A. days 1&2—

I woke up to my first ever glimpse of the Pacific ocean at the Pier in Santa Monica, CA. Julia took the girls to breakfast on the pier then, we went down to the beach for some running in the waves. The huge seaweeds (i mean huge, like 5 feet!) kept sticking to us but we toughed it out because this was the Pacific ocean goll darn it!

When we got to the club Mags and I went directly to it’s shower, it was creepy and obviously cleaned by men. Then we went to lunch and a vintage clothes store with stacey. The part of L.A. we were in was all Mexicans, everyone kept saying bonita, bonita (spanish for Beautiful) to mags and June because they are so blonde. And there were roosters and chickens in some of the yards.

The next day we went to a park, and had pancakes which cost $35! It was def. not MN prices! J&K met with producers while I was with the girls, then we met up with them to go back to the bus for a nap. It was an early show that night, so the girls and I got to go! Mags was loving it, dancing her head off and even going on stage to sing one of the songs! June, however was a little dazed by the whole thing, esepcially when we brought her up on stage for the final song. But she loved hanging out in the green room with free energy.

Now here I am in Tuscon, AZ on the 4th of July in the 97 degree weather. There’s a big celebration here at the club tonight called “Indie-pendence day.” 7 bands plus mates, and a 20 foot water slide. We are staying at a haunted hotel just above the club that apparently Billy the Kid stayed at once. The rooms are old western. We tried to go to a park to play soccer but there is no grass here so we played in this random gravel parking lot. I CAN’T WAIT TO SHOWER! Merch tonight again :) and hopefully some fireworks!

Me and my bro-seph at show in Minneapolis. More recent pix to...

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:12:00 -0400

Me and my bro-seph at show in Minneapolis. More recent pix to come.

Denver, Wyoming, Salt Lake City

Tue, 29 Jun 2010 00:04:33 -0400

OH hey….It’s been a few days!

First wanted to say thanks to everyone that reads this! You are the best!

Imma shout out esepcially to Ken G. and Penos! I’ve gotten to get to know them better over the last week and they are so cool! They teach me about New York and are both super funny!

So Denver was pretty cool. The show was at the Bluebird theatre which is right on Colfax, a main drag in Denver. It was so neat to be walking down the street sweating profusely, look up, and see huge snow covered mountains! We watched the U.S.A. world cup game at a pub near the club, then Kori and I took the girls to the Denver Zoo. Quality Zoo; lions, baby giraffee, sea lions…top notch. Except for the weird woman stroking the hair of, and talking to, her two goth-ly dressed dolls , for whom she rented a wagon to walk them around the zoo in (it was freaky I guess you can watch like documentary type shows about it: TrueLife-I treat my creepy dolls like they are my children)

It started thunderstorming so we had to call a cab to get back to the club. It was my night for merch, so I counted in and had some time to chill before the rabid fans attacked the t-shirts and cds. Scott worked Free Energy merch so it was cool to hang with him. Some crazy (drunk) fan was obbsessed with him and it was really funny. I also liked her cuz she bought like one of everything I was selling in an effort to hang around him more. Also got to see cousin Betsy! It was really great to see her, I was a little bummed we didn’t have more time to talk but it was all good. After the show we backed up and rolled out of town at about 3.

Woke up at noon the next day in Rock Springs, Wyoming.

[Sidenote: HeyByron kids…lets not ever complain about Byron being the most boring town on eath again, k cool.]

After, I ate breakfast with Kenji and John at Village Inn, I spent the day wondering aimlessly around walmart and kicking dirt. However! That night was a different story! It was Kenji’s birthday and so we and half of Free Energy went out to celebrate! We tried to go to almost every local place in Rock Springs, but they kepts putting up their closed signs as soon as we drove up so we ended up at an Applebee’s just down the road from the hotel. Personally I don’t have a problem with Applebee’s, it’s fimiliar to me! But the east coasters are used to premium dining experiences around every corner so none of them even knew what to order. I had to fill them in about half off apps, which lead to discussions about MN accents and who calls it pop and who calls it soda.

After we all were full of the greasy goodness that is Applebee’s we went back to the bus to give Kenji a suprise cake and little party. Then all the adults headed out to a bar. Suprise Suprise…it was closed! So they came back and we all played Mofia until the wee hours of the morning. It was so fun, I was secretly/selfishly glad that the Rock Springs bar was closed :)

Woke up the next morning in Salt Lake City, Utah. City of 70% Mormans. It’s a beautiful city….well at least the mall was! It was outdoor and huge and had a memorial plaza for the 2002 Winter Olympics that were held there in Salt Lake. Part of the plaza was a fountain that did like a little water show to music. It was really awesome, and waaaay to refreshing looking not to be played in by every single kid at the mall. After spending all morning there, we came back to the bus and got to meet a bunch of Julia’s neices and nephews and John’s girlfriend Stacy (nice, sleeve tat, chill) who will be traveling with us for the next few days. Well all went and played a game of soccer with two mates of state fans that happened to be walking by! Was in the sun like all day which really tired out the girls..and me!

Putting the girls to bed was not my favorite part of the day. June has figured out that a curtain doesn’t stop her from getting out of her bunk and running around. Also it didn’t help that when I threatened a time out all she said was, “I want time out, i like time outs!” Oh and p.s…I am not a fan of whoever made pack-and-plays so hard to figure out.

Once it was all said and done, and both girls were sleeping peacefully I did get an overwhelming sense of accoplishment. My goal is to be getting recruitment calls from the producers of “Super Nanny” by the end of this tour.

Tomorrow we have another day off. We’ll be in some town in Nevada.

Photo

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:33:21 -0400

Photo

Sat, 26 Jun 2010 00:11:00 -0400

New umbrellas

long lost cousin!

first cab ride with John!

future gopher

franns & buss

bffs for-evs

zackeus

MINNEAPOLIS! and Omaha

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 23:21:51 -0400

Minneapolis was most def. my favorite stop of the tour so far. Started off by a trip to Perkins with Kris and the family (j&k and the girls), and then a nap before Ris, Aud, Tan, and Zac arrived! It was so good to see them, I’ve missed them a ton! Once June woke up from her nap we went on a walk to the Washington Bridge, a walk that from the 400 bar should’ve taken about 5 minutes but ended up taking an hour because June had to splash in every puddle. Then my parentals, bro, brooke sheilds, and Abby came and we all went out to dinner after taking about 20 pictures in the club, in which Roxie had to give everyone bunny ears. Real mature mom! Just kidding. We had Chipotle for dinner. OMGOSH I LOVED IT! Then it was back to the club for the show. Because of the awful local comedian, I gained a new found appretiation for Todd Barry. All of us on the bus now miss him a lot and wish he was still with us! The show was awesome, Free Energy and MOS rocked, selling out the show.

The next morning June and I went to a park on the otherside of the Riverside Plaza apartments. Sketch. Kori, Julia, and I then went out for Thai food for lunch and had some quality girl talk time. Another nap later, I got together with Anne, Eric, and Cody to find out that I have been losing my mind! I’ve missed them! Anne and I are meant to be together, we knew this, it was just reinforced by our hanging out. The Morans, Todd&Kelly, and Diane&Jessi, came up to hang out for a while and we all went to Noodle’s which was a lot of fun hanging out with all the family. Cody and Adam came to the show to hang with me while I did merch that night which was sooo awesome. I pretty much did all of Free Energy’s merch for them too cuz they just all disapeared into the dungeon of a green room in the basement. It was cool though cuz after the show got to help take down and hang with all the crew. Micheal, our bus driver who has never done stand up ever in his whole life, went on stage and did comedy and KILLED IT! He was sooo funny! We were all so proud of him. :)

Also on a side note, I was chatting with the club owner and he really needs 2 good trumpet players to play back up for spoon at the bascillica block party so if any trumpet player reads this (ahem AARON!) and is interested lemme know…or you could just peer pressure aaron to do it cause it would be a super awesome opportunity and aaron is being a pansy!

Got to sleep in until noon today. When I woke up, Omaha Nebraska and all its sweltering heat was waiting for me outside. Besides the temp. this town has really impressed me. The club was the nicest we have seen yet! With a shower (which i got to use! :))),laundry stuff, and an awesome stage. Not to mention there was an Urban Outfitters AND American Apparel not more than 50 feet from the bus. [Yes dad, I spent money, but I couldn’t help it there was a sale!]

Tomorrow is Denver. Will get to see cousin Betsty and do Merchandise again. THen Sunday is our day off.

goooooood time in Minneapolis. More to come

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 02:59:44 -0400

goooooood time in Minneapolis. More to come

Chicago

Tue, 22 Jun 2010 22:06:40 -0400

Started the day out with June dumping her entire cup of milk over her head while the bus was still moving. Super. Actually it was pretty funny. Got to Chicago and spent the day going to parks. Its kinda funny, every park was filled with kids and their either young or ethnic nannies, every family has a freakin nanny! We also watched Free Willy and ate at Fiesta Mexicanna…I thought that place was only in Rochester? I guess not. Kori had to get a filling today at 5 and still sing the show tonight with her mouth numb! Oh! I also rode in my first cab ever today! It was memorable? Maggie gets to go on stage tonight with a bubble magician and be put into a bubble!

I’m so excited to be in Minneapolis tomorrow!!! :) :) :)