June 29th, 2004 10:55 hours CST currently listening to: "Black
Metallic" by Catherine Wheel.
Well, around 10:30 last night, my account was overdrawn by around $1,700. This morning it was only overdrawn
by $200. So, things are improving. The mystery plane tickets along with two other purchases were cancelled. I only
hope that BankOne's security team traced who the tickets were sold to. And my rent check did go through,
so that's good news.
I've decided to finally cut my hair. I'm tired of this shaggy haircut I have right now and I'm getting it
chopped next week. Not all the way, but certainly nowhere near as long as it is now. I wanted to get it cut before
the wedding this weekend, but the bank account snafu kept me from making an appointment. So, you'll see a new Jeremy
at the show next weekend. Woot.
June 28th, 2004 16:45 hours CST currently listening to: "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" by
The Smiths.
So it looks like around $1,700 has been charged to my debit card. The transactions were debit transactions which
means that 1) they had to be done over the phone and 2) they new the verification code on the back of my card.
It's damn near impossible to read that thing up close so there's no chance that it was photographed while I was at some
ATM somewhere. My guess is that a site online where I'd placed an order got cracked, and that's how my information
was leaked. There were 3 charges to a Home Depot in Wisconsin, two mystery purchases equaling the same amount and
then a whopping $1,300 purchase for plane tickets on Tap Air Portugal. This will most likely lead to the authorities catching whoever did it as the plane
ticket(s) will obviously be registered to somebody. I don't yet know if my rent check, which is paid through
my bank's online bill payment system, was processed. That was supposed to happen today, but now..... who knows.
So, yeah, this sucks ass. The lucky thing is that I found an
envelope of cash in my sock drawer that I had been collecting from airiel shows and CD sales, so I'm not completely
fucked right now. I'll still be able to get food, a present for Heather and Shawn's wedding this weekend and
actually get TO Heather and Shawn's wedding this weekend.
The bright side of today is that I had some DVD's arrive. And the coolest thing was when I was walking back from
the bank this morning. I was parallel with this family of 4. The mom was pushing some young female toddler in a stroller
and she hit a pot hole. The kid went flying out of the stroller and landed face first in a puddle. I was too pissed
off to laugh, but I did manage to think "it's nice that someone's life is sucking just as much as mine right now".
Sucks to be you, kid.
June 28th, 2004 09:35 hours CST currently listening to: "Seaforth" by Auburn Lull.
I'm extremely stressed out right now. Everything was cool when I woke up. A little tired and hung-over, and
then I checked my bank statement online and my jaw dropped. I don't know if I have the patience to deal with Quicken
or some other money managing software. My statements online seem to help a lot, but they're not up to the minute.
I'm pretty sure that what has happened right now is an error, but I have yet to call and find out. I also got caught
in the rain without an umbrella on the way to the train this morning. Grrrrrrrr.
Friday nights' MarioKart Double Dash-a-thon went over extremely well. Mischa and I just sent a long Ethernet
cable down the hallway. You can't pick what characters or carts you want when in LAN mode, which I realized
makes a lot of sense, as everyone would be scrambling for their favorite characters each damn game. You also can't
pick King Boo or Petey Piranha either. This also makes sense in the end. We started out with Yasemin and Tobias.
They both did extremely well and Tobias' taunts of "you guys suck!" out my window kept me in stitches. Aric showed
up shortly after Heather and Nikola. When Yasemin and Tobias left, Steve and Matthew showed up to fill in. So, we
didn't have a full 4 on 4 match up, but it still rocked.
Saturday was way lazier than it should have been. I had a highly informative conversation with Yuka that
lasted the bulk of the morning. Japan is going to rock.
I got to Hope's around 4:00. Matt and Griff showed up and
we took off for the Route 66 Demolition Derby in Joliet. This fucking owned.
Here are the pictures. I'll try to explain
some of the things you're looking at. Obviously the first one is Hope and the second one is Griff. 3 and 4 are just
a glimpse of the field while I was waiting in the stand for the others to go get cash and beer. I found a $10 bill
in the steps on my way to our seat. Kickass. The beers were absolutely huge. I saw some of the most disgusting food
ever. Funnel cake, chili cheese dogs, nachos, and anything fried you can think of. Rachel would love this place. Shots
5-7 are obviously us. The weather was perfect. We could see the moon the whole time. Shot 8 is of this truck that ran
around spraying water all over the place. I guess they want to have the arena as muddy as possible. Shot 9
is of Griff playing some wicked air guitar. The music they were playing in
between matches was utterly horrible. And speaking of horrible.... the chick who
sang the national anthem sang in a different key for every star on our flag. Griff, Hope and I were trying so hard to
suppress our laugher, as I'm sure we'd get a beat down by the patriots
all around us. Three fucking tractors rolled around the arena with American flags on them during this assault on our
ears. Shot 10 is the dirty old man masquerading as an announcer. Shot 11 is the lead car from each of the
teams. We got to vote on which team had the best paint job. Voting, by the way, is determined by how loud you
stomp your feet. Shot 12 is the startup of the first mach. Team Extreme vs. Orange Crush. Team Extreme was the underdog
in this series. They had never won a single match in three years, UNTIL TODAY. I didn't realize that a demolition derby
is essentially roller derby with cars. You try to make 5 laps around the track while the other cars block for you.
You can't really see it in shot 14, but that's one of the cars from uh.... I forget what team. But it says "death is
cool" on the side. 15-17, more carnage. The two guys sitting in front of us were really cool. They explained the rules
to us and shared stories of other derby's. At this point I was heavily nursing the whiskey in the flask that I had
tucked inside my jacket. The action got exponentially better. 18 and 19 are just shots of the women's-only match. This
was a straight forward, one on one match. The two "celebrity" drivers were local radio DJ's and they sucked ass. The
one who was dressed in pink had her car out of there inside of 2 minutes. She was boo'd repeatedly. I think shot 21
is of Griff and me showing our distaste for that match. I know it's nearly impossible to see, but shot 22 is a
fist fight that broke out at the end of the last match. Awesome. There's another one of these things on the 31st of July
and damnit, we're all going.
Griff also posted a good review of it and a video on his livejournal
here.
Sunday was pretty cool. I had a great workout that morning. I then got on my scooter and rode over to the studio
to get the In Your Room master cd's back from David. He said he's about done with his chord progression for the remix
and he's about to turn it over to Aaron for his treatments on it. I can't wait. I dropped off tickets at Jeff and
Kim's place and then met up with Mischa and Meredith briefly before the weather turned to shit and I came home to take
a nap. Practice was pretty cool. We've got a pretty solid set list. We're assuming that we're only playing for 30
minutes, so we're only gonna do 6 songs. We decided to go out drinking. We were going to see Fahrenheit 911 but
opted just to drink more. We ended up at this terrible club called Boogie Nights that's supposedly some retro disco
thing but in reality, it's a cologne heavy GQ orgasm. I hated this place from the start. I'd had 2 makers and cokes,
a shot of Jamesons (thank you, Cory), a beer and then a shot of Goldshlagger at this point. I was doing pretty well.
So much so that I decided to show my distaste for the giant yellow Humm V parked next to my car by rubbing my nuts on it.
Yeah, that's my version of grass roots guerilla action. I rub my balls on things. Man, I was drunk. John took off
and Zeeshan, Cory and I ended up at Durty Nellie's. At this point I wasn't feeling so hot, so I had one last beer and
called it a night.
That leaves me here. Tired and confused as to what's going on with my checking account. I'm calling them right now.
June 25th, 2004 08:50 hours CST currently listening to: "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis.
I had an awesome workout last night. I didn't eat that well during the day, but for some reason I just had all this
energy and I ran and ran and ran. It felt great. Or maybe it's because I'm getting back into the habit of
working out. Or maybe it's because I'm so excited about going to Japan this fall and meeting Yuka and
learning Japanese that I can hardly sit still. Well, whatever it is, I like it.
I met up with Brian, the manager from Helen Stellar, right after work. He gave me 20 posters and 250
handbills for the show on the 10th. Awesome. We're still gonna hand out our own flyers, since we'll have our
version of the discount ticket on there.
I finally cleaned up my place last night. That rug in the living room seriously needed to be vacuumed.
Cat hair, cat hair, cat hair. Things should be pretty clean for tonight. We still need more people for our
MarioKart Double Dash session tonight. I think we have 6 confirmed people and we'd like to get at least 8-9.
June 24th, 2004 08:40 hours CST currently listening to: "Outside" by The Heart Throbs.
There's something icky with the butter that Au Bon Pain uses for their omelets. It gives me that same weird
headache and gross feeling that I got as a kid whenever I ate Mac 'n Cheese. Bleh.
It's so nice to have my scooter working. I rode around yesterday right after work to pick up some much needed
items: two GameCube controllers, a GameCube broadband adapter, bungee cords and drain-o. Mischa and I are hosting
an 8 person MarioCart match on Friday night. You are more than welcome to come over. It's going to be BYOB, I'm
guessing. My fridge is pretty empty right now. We're going to have to lock our cats in our bedrooms so that we can
leave the apartment doors open so people can walk back and forth. It should be fun. I played it for a while last night
to brush up on my skills. The AI in that game is so fucking unfair.
I can't wait to start learning Japanese. Yuka is already helping me a bit here and there. It's going to be
great. Maria was over at Mischa's last night with her photos from her trip to Kyoto in March. I can't wait to go!!
June 21st, 2004 11:30 hours CST currently listening to: "Ride On Shooting Star" by The Pillows.
Friday night I went to the Double Door to see The Assassins and finally pick up our
comp tickets for the Double Door show on the 10th.
I talked to David for a while. Brock showed up and I hung out with him. Kerry,
Chris and Harper were there as well. We got The Assassins to do an encore of "Is
You Stuck On Glue". It was great.
I made it to the gym Saturday morning, and then got my scooter up to scooterworks. The clutch cable problem
was a real quick fix and now I know how to adjust it if it gets loose again. I also bought a rear rack. I've needed
one forever. It's designed to hold a spare tire, but my spare is under the left cowl, so this way I can hold more
stuff with it. I went to the grocery and got stuff for Hope's BBQ. The weather was fantastic. Griff, Jason, Cory,
John, Kerry and a guy named Ed were there. I used the new rack to make an emergency charcoal run. This thing has
already paid for itself, baby. We all ended up at Danny's and Jason got rightly sloshed. I take back a few of the
things I've said about him. He had me in stitches the entire time. I'm sure we were a little loud and annoying
for the other people in the bar, but whatever. When he dances by himself, it's just too damn hilarious too ignore.
We decided to unleash him on Johnny Love's house party, but it was $5 to get in and the cops had just shown up,
so that was a dud. We all split up and went home at that point.
Sunday was constructive. I did laundry and also did a little work on my scooter. I put on my new parking medallion
and realized that my the sticker on my license plate had expired in March. WTF? They never sent me a renewal form!
Grrrrr. So I brought in my registration form and I'm going to get a temp sticker from a nearby currency exchange
until they get me my real one. While I was out there, the dumb ho-bag on the 2nd floor started blasting The Best of
Paula Abdul. "Best" is a rather suspect phrase. I messaged Mischa telling him that I would help hide the body if
he ever decides to kill her, since he lives right above this woman.
Practice went very well. Zeeshan is working out great with the songs we worked on. I also showed that new song
I just wrote to them and it already sounds awesome. Cory just has a way of finding all the sweet spots. Right now
I'm working on getting this blasted pop up window thing to work for the comp tickets on the airiel site. I think
Yuka came through for me and showed me the script problem I was having. Woo!
June 18th, 2004 10:50 hours CST currently listening to: "Hey Barbara" by Beaumont.
I forgot to shave today. WTF.
June 18th, 2004 10:20 hours CST currently listening to: "En Pleurs" by Beaumont.
Well, my throat is still sore, but there are no other cold symptoms. So who knows what the hell is
wrong with me.
All I know is that these grapefruit flavored Halls throat drops are AWESOME. You know, I could be insane, but
I swear when I was a kid that Froot Loops had 100% of your daily amount of vitamin C. Why did that change?
The week has been kinda weird. I haven't felt well, but I'm doing alright. I had a one on one session with Zeeshan
to get him up to speed on a few airiel songs. Sunday's practice should go pretty smooth. Two nights in a row now
I've gone to the Double Door to pickup our tickets for the show and Phil never showed up. I'm going there again
tonight to see The Assassins play, so hopefully they will be there this time.
A bunch of us went to Dark Room last night. I had a really good time and didn't get drunk at all. I had a few
light beers and that was it. I'm making an effort not to drink so much. I'll save money and I may lose a little
weight. Griff is hilarious. Nicole is fatally cute. She tried to do a back flip, sort of roll thing out of the booth
right in front of me and she was wearing a skirt. She was a little drunk too. My friends are a crack team of ninjas
when it comes to avoiding contact between two people. We're awesome.
I already miss Hannah. She called me from the airport and I think she started to cry when we said goodbye. We said
that we'd see each other tomorrow and it really made me sad. Hope and I are going to try and compensate by grilling out
tomorrow. Hannah won't be around this summer, but we're not gonna let that stop us. That, and Jason won't be there
so the BBQ should be a little more orderly.
I really want a new hair style. I don't think I'm meant to have long hair. Hope suggested I go back to that mod
cut I had back when we played the Tavern. Trouble is, my "creepy corners" are getting worse and that's not gonna be
easy to maintain. We'll see. I have that wedding to go to on the 2nd, so I'll definitely make a decision by then.
If you have any good haircut ideas that would work for me, let me know.
Even though I don't have the money for it yet and I probably won't have the vacation time available, I'm going
to Japan this fall. It has been decided.
June 15th, 2004 11:25 hours CST currently listening to: "In Between and After" by All Natural
Lemon and Lime Flavors.
I think I'm getting a cold. I'm drinking some cinnamon tea here at my desk while I'm freezing my tits off
right now. Yesterdays conversations consisted of embarrassing camp stories, vibrators and vomiting. Not in the
same story, but good times nonetheless. Cheers, Ayca.
It's great to be talking with Yuka again. I've really missed her.
I went with Hannah to see The Chronicles of Riddick last night. It's a B -. Not great, but the sci-fi fan in
me still loved it. I was actually quite disappointed in it, really. I hate it
when you go see a sequel that treats the audience like retards that haven't seen
the first movie and then they throw all this pointless dialog your way in an attempt to get you up to speed. If you didn't see Pitch Black, why would you bother seeing COR? Well,
because just like the last one, it's visually impressive despite have a shit plot and, uh...... it's a sci-fi movie,
guess. Vin's performance is pretty vanilla. He had a better character in Pitch Black. They really should have made
COR a prequel instead. For the people that aren't going to play the game, it would be rad to see how he gets his
eyes and to see why he's such a wanted criminal. I have no clue as to why Judy Dench was in this movie and neither
does she. The other thing was that there didn't seem to be much continuity between the first movie and this one
in regards to appearance. yes, I know we're now dealing with a few planets and none of them are earth, but the
cast in the last film looked a lot more normal as opposed to everyone in their freaky Star Trek outfits. Although
Riddick manages to keep his oh-so-nifty tank top from the last film on the whole time. The movie looked too much like
Dune with some Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection mixed in. All Mercs must be slimy, rugged, sweaty, leather clad bikers
in the future. At least Johns looked normal in the last movie. Go see it. Just don't expect anything major to
happen.
June 14th, 2004 08:35 hours CST currently listening to: "Tomorrow" by Morrissey.
BORING weekend. Instead of the normal 3 1/2 hours it takes for me to drive down to Bloomington, it took
6 1/2 this time. It was pure hell. There was construction on I-90 in Gary, Indiana. yeah, I know. Why bother?
Regardless, this tacked on an hour to my trip. Then there was some massive collision around mile marker 149 on
I-65. This took 2 hours to get through. We were stopped for so long that I rolled down my windows, shut off my engine
and read a book. People were out of their cars and playing catch in the grass median. By the time I got to the
accident site, the wreckage and everything was already gone. Too bad there were no survivors on the side of the
road for me to put a voodoo curse on or something. *shakes fist*
I went straight to the Blue Bird. The place is a lot brighter than it used to be. They also resurfaced the
stage and it no longer has that grimy, flat black painted wood look to it. I bumped into Rob Dietz, who I haven't seen
in about 4 years. Saw Eric Weddle and Heath as well. The band that was playing when I arrive had a fucking accordion and
a sax player (kill me). Then, once the stink of body odor hit me, I felt like I was back in Bloomington for real. Good grief,
I forgot how stupid college towns can be. I freely admit that living in a city like Chicago has made me a bit jaded
toward my old life. I got a hold of Kacey and we met outside the Video Saloon, Bloomington's version of Gold Star,
except there's twice as much fucking cigarette smoke. While I was there, I bumped into Fawn Russell, who I haven't
seen since she graduated High School in '94. She's dating Ivan Record, who I also got to talk to. Staying in Bloomington
stunts your growth as a human being, I swear. There's nothing going on with these people.
I didn't do much on Saturday besides laundry. Dad and I went to my cousin Katie's high school graduation party
and I gave her the only piece of advice I could: "even if you don't graduate, once you're done with school,
get out of Bloomington". Dad and I drove around Bloomington for a while and he gave me the dirt on what's going
on with certain upstanding citizens there. I am amazed at the amount of housing being built down there. The farm
lands are disappearing and condo and apartment complexes are springing up out of the ground. There is no booming
job market and I can't see normal college students living in these places, so who the hell is living there? It's
incredible. I couldn't get a hold of Kacey for the wedding we were going to go to, so I cooked dinner for my parents
and then we all went to go see the Stepford Wives. It's honestly pretty funny, mostly due to Bette Midler, who is
the best part of the movie. Don't get me wrong. Nicole Kidman is easy on the eyes, but it's Midler that steals the
show.
Sunday was pretty nice. I made french toast for the parents and then mom took me out shopping for some new dishes
and silverware. I also got some new towels. Woot. I went over to the Gibbs' house, which was such a crazy experience.
I hadn't been to that house since I was in high school. All these memories flooded back to me. I've known Jeff and
Kevin since I was 4. We swapped stories about all the battles in the backyard and the time that Blue Jay dive
bombed my head twice because it had built a nest close to the sandbox. The pool was the epicenter of the
whole house for us. Running through the living room to get to the pool, while cutting your feet on all the legos that
littered the floor between you and the water outside. The slide that would set you on fire if there wasn't enough
water on it. Good times.
Oh, and Bloomington is cicada central. I remember these damn bugs 17 years ago. They're ugly as hell and they're
EVERYWHERE down there. The lawn is so full of holes that it looks like it's been aerated. There are cicada shells
all over the place and dead cicadas all over the driveway. They're so loud in the back yard that you can hardly
hold a conversation.
So yeah, that was my weekend and while it was nicely nostalgic, I was bored as hell. I should have brought my
Xbox or something. Tonight I'm gonna hit the gym and then go see the Chronicles of Riddick with Hannah. Yeah!!!
June 11th, 2004 10:00 hours CST currently listening to: "Fascination Street" by The Cure.
There's something really depressing about finding out that a gift you gave someone got passed on to someone else.
I don't know why that makes me feel sad, but it does. I was better off not knowing, but that's what happens when
I read everyone's online journals. Hopefully my old bike will get some good use, despite the fact that Harper
already called the candy cane paint job "weird" and he's going to repaint it. If you love something, set it free.
If it comes back, set it on fire.
I'm broke as hell. I discovered that the bills I was receiving from Northwestern Medical were in fact the
co pay I owed them for the Memorial Faculty Foundation, and not the Hospital, which I had already paid off. So,
yeah. I'm pretty much fucked for the next week. Luckily I'm staying with my parents in Bloomington this weekend.
That means free food and laundry and the booze is so damn cheap down there.
The point of the trip is actually for my dear friend Kevin, who I've known since I was 4. He just graduated
from med school and his parents are hosting an open house. I haven't been there since maybe high school.
His older brother Jeff (who is my age) recently got married and I finally got to
see them and some others for the first time in a few years. I made the mistake
of not getting contact info from any of them, so I'll be sure to do that this
time. Heath is going to be spinning punk rock at the Bluebird tonight. I'm hitting that place before I even go to my parents. I'm usually
wired when I get in from Chicago. I'm just gonna go straight there and start drinking. I've got nothing to do on
Saturday except flip channels and wash my clothes. I'll probably make beef stew for my parents or something. It's
gonna be rainy and stuff and beef stew always rocks anyway.
I almost made it to Neo last night. I even got dressed up and drove over there, but then couldn't find parking
at all and I drove around for 30 minutes and finally decided to go home. There's construction all up and down Clark
around Fullerton, making the scarce parking all that more scarce. I wanted to dance with Hannah one last time before
she jets off to Paris. Such is life. I'm gonna miss her.
Ok, I gotta stop listening to the Cure. This day is already too depressing.
June 9th, 2004 14:47 hours CST currently listening to: "Dear God" by XTC.
Ok, this is random, but it just occurred to me. This whole washing of the hands thing when I use a urinal.
I don't flush the thing using my hand, ok? I use my forearm or something. That way, I don't need to wash my hands.
Some coworker just gave me a dirty look and said "you're not gonna wash your hands after you use the bathroom?"
I responded with "if I have to wash my hands after touching my own dick, then there's more wrong with me than
a simple hand washing will fix. mind your own business".
June 9th, 2004 09:00 hours CST currently listening to: "Bradford Texas" by Blue Boy.
I hate money. In just 4 days I've managed to spend over half my last paycheck. Car tune up, oil change, and
a new timing belt, electric, gas, phone bills, insurance, and a new transit card. Sheesh. Good thing I'm going
home for the weekend. Bloomington is a cheap place to get drunk, and I'll get free food via mom and dad. That
rules. I'll make them french toast or something on Sunday. It's supposed to rain all weekend. While it sucks
being out in the rain, I'd honestly rather have that then hot and humid sunshine. Nothing more pleasant than
walking out of your house and then being covered in sweat in less than 5 minutes. Ahhh, summer.
June 8th, 2004 15:00 hours CST currently listening to: "Opportunities" by Pet Shop Boys.
DJ and I walked to lunch and saw a huge truck blocking traffic that had a picture of an aborted fetus on
the side. I seriously wanted to go get some chicken teriyaki at that point. No joke.
Maria got a new job. Rock on. She's going to buy a scooter. Rock on^2.
I'm making a bunch of sweet mix CD's for Hannah's trip to Paris. Right now I'm on "Manchester United! - and
why England kicks the musical ass out of every other country".
The new airiel CD is out. Go buy it!
June 7th, 2004 13:00 hours CST currently listening to: "16 Lover's Rain" by Hartfield.
My back is sooooo sore right now. I carried my pedal board (with pedals) down to my car and messed up my back
pretty good. Friday night was alright. Dinner actually kind of sucked but the event itself was great. Griff,
Kerry, John, Hope and Hannah were there and we had a fabulous time. Kerry even called me the next day just to thank
me for setting that up, because it was great. After dinner we went to Linsey's place for her birthday party.
Jason was there and he and Griff swapped some great stories about meeting members of Smashing Pumpkins. Griff's
story about meeting Keanu Reeves at The Metro nearly made me piss myself. After the party we went to Goldstar and
I drank a lot of jack and cokes. Not much else to report for that night.
Saturday was a busy day. I got on my scooter (the weather was gorgeous) and went to the new Sine Qua to
have Sheba cut my hair. I met up with Regina at her place and we rode scooters up to Zephyr's for food. I had
meatloaf even though I wasn't that hungry. I'm never at places that sell that stuff so I felt compelled to get it.
It wasn't bad. It wasn't great. I drove back to my place and then picked up Maria to go scooter looking. Honda
wanted FULL PAYMENT to test drive a Metropolitan, which we thought was bogus, so we went to Scooterworks and then
to the creepy as hell Barron Von Scooter. The guys in there were supremely spooky, but they did let Maria test drive
a People 50, which was right cool of them. They even gave her a tutorial. I stopped by Colin's BBQ at DJ's request
and had some more food (bleh), and took off around 7, I think?
My clutch cable is all wonky. While leaving Colin's, I was switching from 2nd to 3rd and these loud noises
were coming out of the gear box and then I couldn't get it into 4th. I killed it a few times thinking that I was
in neutral, but I was only in 2nd. So once I figured out that it was stretched, I knew how to at least get it into 3rd.
Grrrrrrr. It might be easy to fix, but I've never done it before. I'm not going to have a chance to get it to
scooterworks this week and I'm gone this weekend. Boo to that. I stayed home and watched Indiana Jones movies.
Sunday wasn't a big deal. I chatted with Yuka for a while and bought a bunch of porn. It's been a while. Hah.
I then had lunch with Erika and we had a big talk about the drama that's going down lately. I never see her anymore.
She's moving into this huge place in Lincoln Square that has central air. I shall be seeing a lot more of her. Summer
is stupid.
June 4th, 2004 09:45 hours CST currently listening to: "Swollen" by Bent.
Ups and downs. Debbie is not coming to Chicago for the scooter rally on labor day weekend. I knew that was
too good to be true. Boo to her.
Hung out with Hannah last night. Ate pizza, watched Monty Python, played Crimson Skies. Split screen is the
worst thing ever and WHY THE HELL CAN YOU NOT USE THE DOWNLOADED PLANES WHEN NOT PLAYING ON LIVE???? That's
ridiculous. You can use the new maps but not the planes? What gives?
airiel is confirmed for Saturday, July 10th at the Double Door. It's us, then The 8th Grade, then Punsapaya,
then Helen Stellar. Brian says it may sell out. Imagine!
June 2nd, 2004 08:35 hours CST currently listening to: "Battersea" by Hooverphonic.
Ok, I'm in love. I'm in love with iTunes. Goodbye Audio Catalyst. It was nice knowing you and I will cherish
our time together.
I'm excited. I have some mix cd's to make for a friend. I haven't done this in a while. I still have the playlist
for the last one I made for Rachel. I may modify that one. I'm making at least three separate ones. Time to start
making my lists.
June 1st, 2004 10:00 hours CST currently listening to: nothing.
First off, I'd like to thank the academy.
Second, with the exception to Sunday night, my weekend was pretty much shit. Going out to SmartBar on Thursday night
on my scooter while wearing far too little clothing proved to be a bad idea. I took a sick day on Friday. Not because
it was 60 degrees without a cloud in the sky, but because I felt like complete crap. I felt feverish and weird. I
stayed inside on this gorgeous day and either slept or played Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. I didn't even shower.
I think I had left windows open during the night and I froze in my sleep or something.
Saturday was more of the same. I should have gone to the gym, but I didn't. I don't even remember what I did on
Saturday. I know I didn't go to Brock's party. Oh wait, I went to go see The Day After Tomorrow downtown with DJ
and Heather. It was good. The CGI was outstanding, except for the wolves. It was fitting that we were watching a
movie about the northern hemisphere freezing over while being in a freezing movie theater. It set the mood quite
well.
Sunday was a bit better. I went to the gym, finally. Practice was a bit stressful because I arrived to find that
the basement at the space had a ton of water in it. Multiple puddles. Luckily it hadn't touched my pedal board, and
everything else was either on casters or little rubber feet. The rug under Johns' drum kit was soaked through.
We dragged everything up to the garage and practiced there, after carefully wiping off all the patch chords and
power strips.
I discovered that my rent check had already gone through, much to my relief, so I decided to go out drinking
with my band mates and their friends from LA. We met up at the Clipper and there was some crazy trio of old men
playing on the stage. Their guitarist had his Jazzmaster covered in glittery stickers and old Betty Paige style
stickers. Mike, Sarah and Regina were really fun to hang out with. Regina lives here and has a scooter. Sure, it's
an 80's era plastic Honda, (I'm being a snob) but she's done her own repairs on it and I can't wait to ride with her. I drank lots of
jack and cokes and we did a few shots as well. We moved our party to Big Wig, where damn near everyone else was that
I know in Chicago. It felt good, considering that I'd been such a hermit most of this weekend. We were pretty much just
missing Hannah.
Jason was there and despite my previous encounters with him and alcohol, he was really making me laugh. Watching
him dance to techno music while being nowhere near the dance floor put a big smile on my face. It was going to socialize
and I'm glad I brought my band mates. John somehow fell on top of Linsey. Hard. Either he knocked her over, or she pulled
him over. I can't say which one I'd believe more. On one hand, John is rather clumsy and it's fitting that he would
make a scene in that sort of accidental way. On the other hand, Linsey was incredibly drunk and I could see her easily
giving him a hug and simply falling over, taking him down with her. I bought her a drink when I first arrived and then
refused to give it to her. When she wasn't looking, I poured in into the trash. I sat at a table with Ayca and Yasemin.
When I asked, she told me that she and Tobias have been together for a year and a half now, which I think is really
nice. There's a lot of ridiculous lying, sneaking and sleeping around in this big social circle of ours and I'm glad
that there are a few people in there that have their act together.
This brings me to the part where I'm going to look like a judgmental, self-righteous jerk. I'm going to speak
in hypotheticals here because I'm struggling with where my relationship stands with this person. I have a friend
who is male and is sleeping around with damn near EVERYONE I know. Most of you who really know me, know how rarely it
is that I actually go on a date. I'm not some depressed single guy by any means, I'm just really picky (I guess) and
I'm not dependent on sex. I'm honestly beginning to wonder if he's a nymphomaniac. I know that that's the female
expression for it, but I'm not going to bother looking up what the male version is. I never had a problem with it
before, but there was one girl that he knew full well was rather naive had very little relationship experience and he got involved
with her anyway, with the clear intention that it was going to go nowhere. Now, his stance has always been (at least
expressed to me by him personally) that he's always completely up front and honest with these women. Now, I'm wondering
if that's even OK. He really broke this one girls heart and he seems to think that he's standing behind this shield
of honesty and therefore innocence. He just told me a few nights ago that they had sex again earlier in the week.
It gave me a gross taste in the back of my mouth because I thought she had finally learned and accepted that he's
not worth her time and he doesn't give damn about her at all. To him, she's just sex. He's said so to me directly.
There's a point where I want to dish out some tough love to these people, but if he's being as honest as he claims to
be, then they should know full well what they're getting into and at that point, there should be a reason for me to
be bothered by this. Right?
And then last night I go over to his place because we were supposed to go out drinking. I knock on the door and he
unlocks all the locks and his hair is a mess, he's been sweating and he has no shoes or socks on. He told me in a
very "I'm making up a lie right now" kind of tone that he fell asleep on the couch. I replied with
"do you have someone over" and he laughed and said "mayyybe". I then discovered who it was by looking past him and
seeing this girl (different one) in the mirror. She saw me as well and the jig was pretty much up at that point. Now
this particular girl happens to have a boyfriend. At least as far as I'm aware, she does. Should I even be surprised
by anyone at this point? She said hi to me and as I was walking down the stairs to just get the hell out of there I
looked her in the eye and said "hey, how's it goin?" and I walked outside and got in my car. I'm not really sure what
it is that bothers me about all of this. Is it jealousy? I certainly hope not. Then what is it? Is it that I have
a resentment towards this guy who is a close friend of mine, and he's acting in a way that I find to be rather gross
(he's given someone an STD on purpose), and it's then reflected onto these other girls I know that are friends of mine
because they've chosen to have sex with him? There are a few girls I know that have completely blocked all of his
attempts of his to get into their pants and every month or so, I hear about another attempt.
Gah. I don't know. I don't know why it upsets me and I don't know why I'm even writing it in this journal that
even my mother can read. I'm sure someone's going to read it, figure out who's who and confront me about, but so be it.
Maybe it needs to happen. Maybe it won't happen. Maybe he'll get another STD and then once these girls ask why he's
pulling out plastic wrap while they're getting undressed, they'll finally wise up and get out of there.
None of this shit is any of my damn business.
In other news, the show last night in Elgin sucked. Nobody was there except for Marnie and a few friends of John
and Cory's. I had little to no (call it no) expectations for this entire event, so I wasn't even really disappointed.
Well, I was disappointed that I had to pay full price for alcohol. The FM thingy for my iPod was working well the
whole way home and I listened to a lot of Ladytron, which I hadn't listened to in a long time.