The end of an era

So I am going to bid this blogspot adieu. Fear not though my loves, we're headed for bigger and better things. As it turns out, tumblr is way easier for me to update from my phone which will allow for much better communication. Also, for your convienence and mine, you can now just go to http://www.yearofathousandroommates.com. Fancy huh? Tell your friends. So the site is hosted at yearofathousandroomates.tumblr.com and will hopefully be more exciting. For now the old posts will stay here but new stuff will be there. Good? Good.

grand rapids, mi

right now i'm sitting in the computer lab at a college i don't belong to nor ever went to. brian and i are working on putting together some handmade artwork today after a good nigh last night. yesterday was a serious of pit stops to fix sweet pea, my lovely 93 plymouth sundance, and after hours of wind swept hair we were quite excited to be able to close the windows and reapply the air conditioning without watching the temperature gauge go through the roof. that was a wonderful feeling.

when we stopped for gas we decided we were hungry, and since both of us are trying to eat well, we debated internally and aloud for what was probably way too long in the snack area of the food mart. we eventually decided on pretzels, and dipped them in our great value crunchy peanut butter. not too shabby, no high fructose corn syrup, and only a few stabalizing chemicals we barely knew about.

we then left for phillip's to stretch our legs and relax with a beer after a near 7 hour drive. phillip had invited a bunch of friends and had a nice big garage for us to play in, as well as a cooler full of beers. again, not too shabbby. we relaxed and hung out with phillip and his friends, told stories, listened to music, met his mom and generally enjoyed not being in the car. but then i got a few messages from my friend echo in grand rapids and decided we would head up that direction. brian and i are planning on going into canada so i can do some more writing for the book and so we can visit some old friends, so getting up this way seemed to make the most sense. we pulled into echo's area around 4 am. luckily death cab, circa, and communipaw kept me awake and moving in these early morning hours while brian dozed in the passenger seat. the moon was shining brightly and the roads were near empty so i blazed down them in hopes that others were under the same moon sleeping well in their beds. if i can't be somewhere i want to be here, in the moment. there are other places i'd sometimes rather be, and other people with whom i'd prefer to be spending my time, but that is not my place, it would seem. so, we much enjoy these moments. i'd thought we'd get to echo's around 230 or 3, but forgot there was another time zone change. whoops. sorry echo. but we got there, woke her up and soon fell asleep among new cat friends and their kittens.

this morning brian and i woke up and headed over to meet echo for lunch and then walked around grand rapids. i like this city, and Proxy-Connection: keep-alive
Cache-Control: max-age=0

ter the last time i was here it holds a special place in my heart for being so welcoming and loving. after a walk around the park after lunch we said our goodbyes to echo and brian and i headed for a bookstore and now to this here lab. and that's that. there are no rules, and if there are, well, they just don't apply. i hope you find fun and laughter in your hearts.

On the road again

I have a slowly healing wound at the base of my right hand pointer finger that I'm wearing like a badge of honor. I spent the days prior to and the morning of my brothers wedding chopping vegetables and cheese, cutting up roast pig, cooking salmon, preparing fresh cole slaw. Now, yes I am mainly vegetarian, but seeing as the pig was going to be prepared regardless of my protest and I'd offered my full services for the weekend, well there I was. After lots of last minute scrambling the day of the wedding I took a relaxing dip in the pool, showered, got dressed and prepared for the onslaught that is close to two hundred family members coming into what had been a mainly relaxing space. But it was great. It was wonderful seeing so many people I'd not seen in a while, the ceremony was beautiful and fun and during and after I built a nice buzz. Throughout the night I restocked drinks and food despite protests from my brother and his wife. I was kind of enjoying that people saw me as a bit of a leader and efficient worker. After taking pictures and eventually making a half drunk but decent speech I changed into jeans and a tshirt. You might think this a bit too casual but by the time the bride and her father danced, he was in shorts and sandels.

I'm jeans and a t I danced drunkenly with friends and started saying goodbyes. By around one am it was mainly friends who would be stayin over. The twenty or so of us danced until about three at which point we decided we needed to do work on the fourth and freshly tapped keg. Suffice it to say all shirtless guys and bride doing keg stands while the remaining gals laughed and took photos is pretty much a great ending to a great day. Around four I built a tent out of tables and table clothes and went to sleep in the backyard. A few hours later my parents woke me up breaking down all the tables and chairs. I disk have much choice but to get up and help so possibly still drunk and definitely tired I got up and got right to work. After an hour or two I knew I'd not be able to sleep after workig and drinking last nights now cold coffee. So a dip in the pool and some sandwiches a shower then goodbyes. It'd been am amazing week or so but I must get back to my life of nomadic movement, continue on my path of potential emotional destruction.

I had to drive five hours to pick up my buddy brian in Ithaca where he'd had a wedding himself. Unfortunately he had to sit in a cafe for so hours and talk to questionably fun people. When I got there I was wasted tired. I got some food and made nice with the locals but we decided to make our way to my friends in buffalo. Four hours later brian and I were finally relaxing in my friends living room watching a movie. Still tired. When my boys got home from their night out we all caught up and I got to sleep at about three. Up at nine to eat with chris so still wasted tired almost hallucinating. But breakfast was good and seeing chris even better. Am eventually I somehow ended up in chris' tattoo studio gettin work done. I really wanted brian to get the work he wanted as well but there wasn't much time ad I felt weird trying to haggle with my friend who offered to tattoo me. I still feel bad and lie I navigated the situation poorly. So while I ended up with an amazing piece I wish I couldve worked things a bit smartly.

It was then off to kent Ohio to meet up with greg and laura whom I'd seen recently but was still quite happy to see. Brian and I made a stirfry with tofu and then greg made us watch the strangers with liv Tyler, who my new tattoo oddly resembles, and I'm only partially ashamed to admit that the movie scared the shit out of me quite a few times. That sort of all suspense meets anxiety type of horror does not agree with my hippy heart. Still I enjoyed it in a potentially masochistic way, at least enough to see how people could get addicted to the rush.

This morning after a breakfast of cantelope brian and I headed towards Illinois and I anxiously kept my eye on the ever high engine temperature. But after an emergency gas station purchase cum repair and today after quite a bit of speculating and subsequent coolant filling I believe we fixed the problem. Look at us. A couple of mechanics are we. Ha. Ok, off to get to work. Sorry it's been busy.

the big day

today my older brother is getting married. i've spent the last few days shopping, cutting vegetables and cheese, making drinks, creating bbq sauces, meeting new family and friends, taking dunks in the pool and drinking beers. it's been a wild ride of good times and warm feelings. i feel blessed to have a new extended family that have given up their home to our ridiculous invasion, took us in and allowed us to live comfortably. i'm definitely impressed with everyone's openness and positivity and think it bodes well for a life filled with beauty for my brother and just about sister in law.

tomorrow i leave for my two week tour with my buddy brian (the waltz) but i've been terrible about getting information out to the masses. i realize this is stupid, but i've been so busy thinking about all of this stuff that i've just not had the time to sit down and sort everything out in my head. i suppose i'll have to do that at some point today, and if not tomorrow before i leave. oh well, we'll see what happens.

how are all of you? in all my traveling and hanging out, i've not checked up on you? i'd love to hear how the world is treating all of you, both those i know, and those i don't. i hope splendidly. i send my best and will be sure to let you know how the upcoming travels and exploits go.

a thousand pounds of cheese

i'm up in massachuetts shopping, preparing, and generally readying for my brother and soon to be sister in laws wedding in a few days. i shopped all day with my parents, navigating the western mass towns, visiting destinations that all seemed to somehow be about 1.5 miles from each other, not enjoying traffic cirlces and trying to figure out how much cheese and vegetables 180 people might or might not eat in a 10 or so hour period. it's wonderful to see my family, especially my brother and his lady, a wonderful couple that give you faith in love.

in the coming days i'm headed towards canada with my buddy brian and i'm quite looking forward to it. we'll be meeting up with many old friends, i'll hopefully be getting a tattoo finished and eating at new york subway burrito, paying too much for booze, and laughing my ass off. the laughing is purely a function of good times, not the high priced booze, i promise. still, i have a car that i paid 500 dollars for that's taken me over 40 thousand miles, great kids to see and a variety of untold adventures i'll enjoy unfolding.

i'm also currently reading many good books about food and how it's shaped our culture, and between that and talks with an amazing mate, i've decided that i think i might want to stop eating fish. it's hard to do so when the next few days have been planned around the fact that i will in fact eat sea dwelling animals, as many attempts have been made and dollars spent to ensure that i have animal protein at my ready, but once that all commences, and i'm back in my own mini world, i think i will revert to a purely vegetarian diet. i think that will make me feel better about many things, and i'll keep you updated.

tomorrow will also bring the beautiful arrival of my younger brother, whom i miss dearly, and will also allow me to discuss our upcoming collaborations prior to his leaving for eight months. i'm so excited for him to study abroad, but know too that i will miss him and eagerly await his arrival. it's strange to think such ways seeing as he's not yet left. but, we predict these things. so, we'll drink wine, spend evenings with loved ones and feel blessed. we'll see the union of a couple that we wholly believe in and be happy. and this is how it should be. come the morning of my departure i will give hugs and well wishes and then back off into the world that is sleeping on floors, writing, making friends, reading, singing songs, drinking and wondering if there is a place for me to eventually lay my head on a more (semi)permanent basis. i question these ideas every day, but love that there is existence for me, that there is beauty and that there is love. i send all that i have to you, and hope you're doing the same. i also hope you receive it fully. laugh loudly, love deeply and live completely.

we woke the birds

this morning, at 7 am, i was on the g train coming back from williamsburgh. seriously? seriously. just so you know, the last few days i've been staying up until 5 or 6 am while in the apartment, but this is mainly due to the fact that i hate going to sleep and have no real reason to get up at any specific time. but, riding the train when it's fully daylight out, in the same clothes from the night before, obviously having not slept and among people doing morning routines, well, there's a feeling of shame that comes with that. then again, perhaps it means i won, that i lived the day.

the day started out innocently enough, with me writing, playing beatles songs, listening to music, reading. and then i talked to buddy brian and we decided to go out and get in some trouble. so, i hopped on the g train and headed up to meet spencer at his tour bus in williamsburgh and then we'd meet up with brian. i ended up catching brian right before i got to the bus, so the two of us went and hung out with spence and the cobra dudes. we then left for what was supposed to be a fifteen minute walk to a rooftop party, but what really ended up being about a forty minute walk to bushwick where we showed up to a house that was disgustingly hot and sweaty and a roof that apparently was no longer the location of the party. after getting yelled at by the dudes who lived in the house multiple times, we decided to just pound a few beers on the street and then head back to williamsburgh. seeing as it was already 1 am and we'd barely even done much but walk, spencer decided to go to sleep and brian and i met up with amazing old friends of mine, val and betsy. i haven't seen them in possibly years but we still talk reguarly and miss the hell out of each other. we met up at union pool, as it was an obvious landmark, but didn't want to drink there due to crowded hipsterdom, so we made our way up to the alligator lounge, which while not way better in the hip sense, it totally rules because with every beer you buy you get a pizza. amazing. i've still been eating mainly raw stuff, though for dinner i had to roast all of the veggies that were starting to turn, as i didn't feel good about eating them raw. but, pizza rules, and when it's free and you're drunk, it rules even harder. so we ate pizza, drank beers, traded stories, caught up and generally loved. after we left brian headed home and i joined val and betsy back at her place to hang longer and harder. we picked up some more beers and had a blast. val said if i was going to make him come out late, as they were originally planning on going home to bed, that he was going to keep me out late. and late he did. well, early i suppose is more appropriate. still, while i hated myself crawling into bed at 8 am and subsequently back out at a time considered evening by most, i'm extremely happy that i got to spend such an awesome night with people i love and miss dearly. so, today was another relaxer. sure, i've been lazy, but i'll be back in nonstop movement grind soon enough. i guess you could argue these are all the weekends i never get. then again, who needs weekends when you're life is party?

i caught a mouse

this morning the cat was laying with me in bed, and then got under my chest. yea, it was weird. i couldn't for the life of me figure out why she was so interested in my decidely unimpressive torso. then i felt something little move, looked down and saw a tiny tail. somehow, a baby mouse had found its way into bed with me. impressive. obviously a girl. ha, i'm an ass. but in standard cartoon fashion the cat played with the mouse a bit and then let it escape before i could catch it. so, i got out of bed, ate some fruit, played guitar, listened to the beatles and read "fast food nation." overall, quite a lazy, but enjoyable day. i'm allowed these short respites, no? i figure, seeing as i didn't even get back into brooklyn until 4 am, i could relax today. sure, that works.

last night was awesome. my buddy brian and i split a 40 minute set at a bar in trenton, nj where i have lots of friends. after spending the day in new brunswick, and sharing dinner with my brother i was relaxed and ready for a fun night. so, we played a great show, brian really killing it and me playing without a mic cause i love the intimacy. also, brian just got his cds mailed to him, his first solo record. so exciting. congrats brother. anyway, so while i had to fight a talking backround audience, the people up front were amazing and supportive and yet another night was spent with me feeling swollen with happiness and excitement. so many people had such great things to say and were so kind and giving.

the bands that played were awesome as well, which made both brian and i miss playing in rock bands. nick from ape up is an old buddy and a killer drummer, so watching him was great and the ruining totally ruled. i've played a bunch of shows with their singer nick recently so to see the full band was awesome. so many great friends, beers with loved ones and laughs abounded. after it all though i had to take it easy and then drive back to brooklyn to take care of the little ones.

oh, and then this afternoon, i caught the mouse. i put him in a cup and let him out the front door. i kind of feel bad, because i don't know if he'll find his family, but at least the cat won't kill him. good luck little buddy.