Laughin'

When we first rolled into Jacksonville we went to the guitar center because Trevor needed to pick up a drum head. They were closed but some woman who apparently is a big deal in Florida saw them reject trevor and she asked them if they help him as a favor. Oddly they did though we still have no clue who this woman was. After that we went to panera and ate some food. Me being the industrious upon scavenger I am asked the girl at the counter if she could hook us up and at the end of the meal she came over with two big boxes of bagels for us. It's amazing what a smile and polite question can get you. The fact that the guys were amazed too didn't hurt.

After eating we split up and some guys got a hotel while a few of us went to the punk house where my buddies drew and Jason from the band evergreen terrace live. I was really excited to see them as I spent all last summer sharing a bus with them on warped tour. I loved hanging with them and missed our fun times. When we got there we drank some beers and caught up. Eventually they went to bed and we crashed out. In the morning we went to panera again to enjoy their free refills and wifi as well as the air conditioning. Once we'd relaxed enough we headed for the beach to enjoy the Florida sun. At the beach finding parking for a van and trailer is near impossible so we asked this bar if we could pull behind the building. Surprisingly they said we could provided we come in and have a drink. Twos our arms. So we enjoyed a drink and were asked to shotgun a beer before we left. I've never been asked to do that in a bar so I couldn't turn it down. After pouring maybe as much beer down myself (luckily I was in my swim trunks) as in my mouth we headed to the beach. The water was amazing, perfect temperature, and there were many beautiful people half of which would probably land us in jail, unfairly. Damn hormones in milk and meat.

I'm not going to lie, when I spend the day at the beach I love the idea of drinking a cold beer and eating some seafood. So we asked around and found a decent local spot. On the way we passed a tattoo parlor and on a whim we walked in to ask about prices. You see we've been talking about the possibility of a tour/bro tat for a bit so now seemed as good a time as any. The artist, Shannon, at first street tatttoo quoted us a good price and we said yes. Insane. When the content was suggested nobody could agree, and then something we'd been saying a lot came up. When we are having a great time with our friends we say, "we're laughin'" or you/I'm or any version of it. So rather than decide which version we simply decided on "laughin'" and amazingly ten of us agreed. And that was that. While half of us dined on oysters, crablegs and hush puppies the other half were getting ink put under their skin for life. Laughin' for life. Life. Amazing. I love it. And all of this before the show. It was a full day.

We'd been told that the bar where the show was going to be was more of a straight punk bar than anything but since we'd had such a great day we didn't really care if the show ruled. This tour has not had the greatest shows but we've had an amazing time together and since we're all broken goes home tonight we've spent the last few days just trying to have a blast. The bar turned out to be what we were told but all things considered it was a rad show. Afterwards we stuck around and closed the bar and just generally enjoyed what would be the tail end of our time together. At the end of the night we web back to the punk house for some shut eye.

This morning we reconveined at the panera as seems to be our custom. I really live all these guys and quite enjoy just brig able to sit around doing nothing with them, talking over coffee. It's a rare and beautiful feeling especially since there's so many of us which really allows conversations to bloom and grow. We then took our final leave of this breadbox and headed for Gainesville. The short drive took us to trevors cousin, randy. After a short respite we headed to the movies to see the hangover. Good time good friends. After a but more relaxing and pizza eating we got to the show, I read a local paper and then it was show time. So here we are, the last night with tourmates which is always sad, all of us in different states of our own hangovers, and me with the knowledge that tomorrow I start my playing leg of the tour. So that's that. I'm excited while dealing with a variety of internal issues. Here's to hoping for great things. I send my love.