Spokane, WA

After spending over 15 hours in the van I was more than ready to get the hell to the show. I pulled the 3:30am- 6:00am shift, and then I was out, but since we’ve got seven people with us I had to sleep on the floor. I sleep really well, but woke up with my hips killing me since there is only some carpet covering the metal flooring of the van. We played this place before a few times, the last time was about two years ago, and the venue changed, I like this building better. We loaded in and waited for project to show up and do their sound check. Nothing too exciting, the venue is next to winery, so it smelled like booze out front, I kept looking around for a homeless guy or some drunk Spokane scene kid, but they didn’t show up until later. Our set went well, no local bands, just the tour tonight, so it came our time to play pretty fast. The kids seemed into the show, but no noise ever came out of them, maybe it was the way the room was, but they were silent after almost every song. I checked with the other bands, they had the same problem, so it wasn’t just that the crowd thought we were crap. Tonight is kind of the first night on the tour for us, no going home now. I’m sitting in the green room right now and there’s all these signatures from bands that I’ve never heard of, and they’re dated from 1995- 1996 era, old school. There are some sweet band names though. I can see ‘Big Dirty’, ‘Fluffy’, ‘Space Spackle’, they were on it back in the day. Today was a slow day, nothing crazy. The only slightly funny thing was some scenester kid was trashed and told us to move out of Spokane as fast as we could, his reason, because he’s been going to shows for over five years and no one recognizes him. Lame. He must really not belong here if no one remembers who he is, it tears him up so much he needs to get shitty to make himself feel better about it all. I mean, what life is worth living if no one at a rock show remembers who you are and won’t let you in for free? Portland tomorrow, I get to sleep in a bed tonight, it’s gonna be great. Later: We are in our hotel room and Jeff, my brother, Brandon & Ryan from Spoken are all playing Halo, they're super stoked right now, I'm not as stoked being that I kind of hate Halo.

Why Is It So Early

Well, we started our tour last night in Roseville, and things couldn't be better. All the bands are great, the two shows we've played so far have been great, people have been crazy at the shows. Since Friday night a lot has been going on, rides on drum cases, people getting hit in the head, police chases, football tossing with Jimmy Eat World, my car breaking down and getting flat tires, circle pits (it's funny to watch), long drives, no sleep, dirty laundry, geek talk about Halo (not me, others). I don't know, so much, so little sleep, it's hard to think. Tonight, or this morning, is my last time in my own bed for nine weeks, I'm excited, but kind of stressed out about all the stuff I have to do before we leave, mainly I need to do laundry and pack my bag, and say goodbye for a while to all my Chico friends. Once I get into tour mode I'll be set and have my thoughts together a little more. Day off tomorrow, drive to Spokane, Tuesday Spokane, Washington. Goodnight.

I thought I saw an Osmond, but it was just a regular Mormon

Well, I spent the last day or so in a van driving to and from Salt Lake City, home to the all mighty Mormon. I actually spent so little time in the town I didn't even see one, I think. We drove the twelve hours there, played our set, hung out for a half hour and drove twelve hours back. But we didn't leave our friendliest eastern state (Nevada) without stopping and living it up a little, and by a little, I mean A LITTLE. The idea was to eat somewhere crappy, so we picked the Peppermill Casino. The one in Reno is great, $5.99 breakfasts after midnight, but not in good ol' Wendover. I thought the $7.95 steak and eggs was going to be great, but it wasn't, I think they finished cooking my food first and put it under the heat lamp because my 8oz. steak seemed to have shrunk down to about 4oz and one of my eggs was very cooked, very hard yolk. It was all worth while, though, when I won a little bit of dough playing the penny slots, I was up thirty cents at one point, but then I blew it all, three times in a row. I felt it was three dollars well spent. Then I drove for a while, thinking I could make it to Reno (about 450 miles) not quite, I was 175 short, I realized when I almost hit that smart ass wolf in the road that I should end my shift, so I got some gas, forgot to put the gas cap back, and went to bed, I woke up just in time to see the southern end of Chico, it was beautiful, but this trip was not really worth the time I spent in the van, I still don't really know why we even went there, no offense to the kids that were there, you all were great. On another note, I love my IPod, it's probably one of the best things I've ever purchased, besides that stock in cardboard I purchased when I was eight.

Chico Party (kind of)

So lately there hasn't been a whole hell of a lot going on around town. Lots of down time, no practice until next week, so I'm mainly bound to the house, but I've found some interesting projects to do. I've tackled the weekly lawn mowing, but instead of waiting until the evening I decided to do it early morning, well, not actually early, but early for me. With that out of the way I rearranged the living room, cleaned some floors, changed some light bulbs and fixed holes in my clothes. That's all there was to do around here, so I went out tonight, and I realized for the millionth time in my life that people in Chico pretty much suck. That's not saying everyone is a bunch of idiots, but the vast majority is. Why do people need to get all dressed up to get shitty drunk and look like an ass, you could wear your normal, everyday clothes and get shitty and end up looking the same to some drunk girl/ guy that won't want to remember what went on come the next day? I guess that's what comes with living in Chico, and I figured after 23 years I would realize that. I think I'm just ready to leave for a while, I've been in town all summer and I'm ready to get out and play some shows. This afternoon we were people watching downtown and there was little 10- 12 year old kid playing his violin, he was pretty good, and people kept giving money to him, he must have made at least fifteen bucks in a half hour, we were joking about he did crank, and all of sudden he packed up his money and his violin and took off, probably to get his fix in down by the creek, his parents should keep a closer eye on him.

Oh Canada

So I made it back safely from Canada, but just barely, not really. The trip went over pretty well, besides getting over the border and back again. The drive to SF went smoothly, no problems except that we had to park our van in the international terminal, then walk all our stuff a mile to the other terminal. We flew to Seattle then connected to Edmonton, Alberta on a smaller plane. Our flight crew was pretty nice, except for this larger stewardess, she thought she was hilarious, like Rosie O' Donnell funny, she thought. The rows in the plane were about two feet wide, this woman was about three, so there was a lot of ass touching elbow action going on every time she walked by. Overall, she sucked, I didn't like her, but it was a short flight. Once in Canada we had to go through customs, which was a lot less painful than we had heard. They made us pay taxes on the merch we brought in, not too steep, and the guy let us put our guitars through the x- ray machine so we could see their insides. We got to the hotel, went to sleep and woke up early the next day to go play the show. The amphitheatre the show was at was really nice, except it was outdoors and it was ass- cold out there. We played, kids had fun, we had fun, we ate some food, hung out with geese and seagulls, even got a seagull to pick up a smoking cigarette butt, it just stood there with the thing smoking in it's mouth, I wish I had a picture of it. That night we hung out in the hotel. They had a nice bar in there, so we had a drink. There was a Russian guy in there drinking some interesting drink, we asked what it was, he said it was a Sea Shanty, it was made with Grasshopper beer, Clamato juice, lemon, salt and pepper, probably one of the best things I've ever had. We had most of the next day to hang out, but no transportation, so we spent some time at the stores across the street from us, a super shopping center, a liquor store and a cigarette/ gas station. The liquor store had a lot of nice Canadian beers, the superstore had tons of food, and the cigarette store had lots of Canadian cigarettes. They don't have normal American cigarettes there, no Camels or Marlboros, they have all these other brands that look like boxes of condoms and are all exactly the same, just different brands. They also have a law that a certain percentage of the package has to have warnings on it, so they have nice little warnings (some are pictured above). Around 2pm we left for the airport, sat in there for three hours, went through customs again, they drilled us about what our trip was about (or aboot, as they say), finally they let us pass, we got on the plane, flew home, and our trip to Canada was complete, I'll post more little details soon.

Stepping into the year 2000.

After my near death experience with the meat bee I realized I needed to live my life to it's fullest, so I bought an IPod. This is like a dream come true for me, I've asked for an IPod as my Christmas and birthday presents for the past two years, but never received one, and for some reason I kept putting off buying one myself, that is until yesterday. I found a good deal from apple.com so I went for it. I realized that carrying around a giant book of cds isn't cool and it's a huge pain in the ass. In anticipation of getting the IPod I have been loading all my cds onto my computer, and it's taking forever, I started last night and I am now almost on the Ds in my cd collection. Fifty cds down, 600 more to go, I've got my weekend planned, sit, watch some movies and put cds into my computer, I hope the IPod shows up tomorrow because I'm running out of room on my hard drive. I'll post pictures of me and my new best friend as soon as it gets here, I can't wait.

Don't Fuck with Meat Bees

meat_bees_fish
Originally uploaded by trevorsellers.

Just a quick note, don't fuck with meat bees unless you're totally covered up. I thought I could dig up their nest in my bushes and be totally fine, but I didn't count on the one bee waiting behind me to scare the shit out of me. While the other bees were busy trying to figure out what the hell was going on the hero of the bunch decided to get caught in my hair and bite my head, just once, but while I was running to the front yard it chased me, I'm pretty sure I lost it, but I keep feeling little things that I think is the bee. I'm jumpy as hell now and my head hurts a little, I don't think it got a good bite on me. So either hire a professional or be willing to burn down some bushes to kill the things.

Flying to New Mexico

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Originally uploaded by trevorsellers.

This past weekend, hours after my people watching experience, I was flew out to Albuquerque, NM. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:45am, so figure it out what time we had to leave to be in Sacramento on time. The first half was easy enough, just went to Las Vegas for a nice tow hour layover. I was running on zero sleep, and when that happens I am Mr. Dick. I wouldn't lay off of people, I noticed everyone's bad features and was extremely verbal about them, but everyone around me got a good laugh at the other people's expense. Flight leaves, we go to NM, we play a show, go to the hotel, sleep, wake up at 6:15 to leave for the airport for an 8:45am flight. We're waiting to check in and I can't find my wallet, I notice my pocket has ripped all the way across, leaving a nice hole for my wallet to fall out of. We call our shuttle van, no wallet, they call the hotel, no wallet anywhere, I even had to tell them to check the women's bathroom due to me being impatient and using that because the men's was occupied. But no wallet. Our driver went to check the hotel herself, walks into my room and it's right there on the floor, in plain view she said. I was happy to get my wallet and not miss my flight, but I was little ticked at the hotel people, did they even look? They didn;t give a shit, I could have been stuck there for another day because of their laziness. But, I made it home, no other big problems, just the fear I will lose something important up in Canada this next weekend, I could be stuck in the hell of the north, but I won't think about that.

On another note, high school kids look damn young, like they're 12. It scared me, they shouldn't be able to leave campus for open lunch if they look like they help using the bathroom. Just my two cents.

People Watch

ErnstDrunk
Originally uploaded by trevorsellers.

I spent my last Saturday night watching people from a corner bench in downtown Chico, and as weird and mildly creepy as that sounds, it was one of the best things I've ever done in my life, maybe. I'll give a rundown of the night's events.

Happenings

1. The first five minutes I was at my bench I saw a guy nearly get hit by a car. Now normally this would be something I would feel was well deserved by the almost crippled, but in this case it was the driver that should have been badly injured. The guy was walking through the cross walk, a woman pulled around the corner, not looking, and almost hit, his shoe fell off in front of her car, and when he bent down to pick it up she started to go again, dumb ass lady. This made me feel really bad for the guy, worse than I've felt about anything for a long time, I don't know why.

2. Some lame ass Chico, hippy types get pulled over right in front of me, I mean I was four feet away, so I got to see and hear everything that was going on. The cop said they were speeding and had expired tags, the driver tried to explain why his tags were expired, something about the moon not being in line with stars and so his tags wouldn't stick to the license plate. The two guys in the car were obviously stoned, the cop didn't seem to notice, the passenger also had to me on crank, he couldn't stop moving around. After ten minutes of the guy asking why he needed to sign his ticket, they were off.

3. Some creepy couple came and joined me. The guy was around 30, the woman, around 50+ and homeless looking, but they were ion the mood for love that night, so they took off after a short time to go find a nice bush or pile of dirt to do their thing in.

4. The line for the bar across the street was immense, I mean it wrapped around the block, which is a little longer than normal. All the kids that came up to my corner and saw the line were baffled as to why there was such a long line for a bar on a Saturday night during Labor Day weekend in Chico, idiots.

5. A little strange guy came up, I remembered him from elementary school, he used to be deaf, no hearing aids anymore, so I thought he would still be friendly. He asked me if I needed a job or some extra money, "No" I said, he kept asking, so I thought he was trying to get at something, you know, "You need a 'job' or something for some extra money?" Finally he tells me I could earn two hundred dollars if I wanted to kill somebody for him, he made it sound so simple, just kill a guy for me that was being a jerk and I'll give you two hundred bucks, my bank's right here. I told him to go away from me, he offered again and I suggested he should go stand way over by the stop light, away from me. He asked a few more people the same thing and finally left. No reports of any murders yet.

6. A second couple joined me and the bench. They were nice enough, came from the bay area to visit some friends who happened to ditch them to go to a crowded bar. They were trying to get a cab home, but not actually trying. When the taxi would get close the guy would kind of flap his wrist around, looking really fruity in the process. Finally, after 30 minutes of this I got up and hailed a taxi for them so they would leave, his girlfriend was super bitchy and she needed to go somewhere else, far, far away from me.

7. Two more girls joined me, they said they ususally sit on the same bench Saturday nights and watch people, it was nice to have someone to verbalize my thoughts to. But when you have two nice, young girls sitting next to you, dudes will look for any excuse to try and impress them, so me, being the only other guy around, was the butt of these brouham's jokes. On two different occasions dudes asked me if I was a little bit gay, not gay, but just a little bit. They were so sure of themselves, too. They'd be like, "Dude, are you sure, not even a little bit?" What the hell, do I look a little gay? Maybe they were attracted to me and my Lyle Lovitt haircut and that made them feel super uncomfortable?

8. Two a.m. rolls around, the bars close and the streets are filled with tons of assholes trying to find the girl they're going to take home with them, most of them ended up leaving on pedi-cabs with their guy friends, anly to go back to their homes and make homoerotic jokes towards one another.

I walked home and thought about how interesting it was to watch the Chico in their natural habitat. Very, very interesting stuff, my only complaint is I wish I would have brought a notebook to write stuff down in, because I know I forgot a ton of things.

They feel like string beans.

I was never a big believer in karma, until Monday night. A mere three hours after posting a blog that made fun of some sorry sap kid, I started to feel kind of crappy. Not the kind of crappy you feel when you make fun of someone, I rarely feel that, but the kind of crappy you feel when your body shuts down. It started with a minor sore throat, then my back and legs started to ache real bad and I was feeling a little warm, so I headed home. My symptoms worsened throughout the night, my throat swelled up nice and big, my body hurt like I fell off a roof, and all the damn sweat, it wouldn't stop. So I stayed in bed all day Tuesday, shivering and sweating at the same time, not able to swallow, no appetite whatsoever. Wednesday comes around, after one of the longest nights of my life, and I visit the doctor. Now with a name like Immediate Care, I would have expected a little more immediacy when dealing with the patients, but no. The nurse kept looking at my chart, then putting it back and sitting down, but I was finally seen, and my doctor was very nice, she informed me I have tonsillitis and not strept throat, good news, and to save me money, she gave me medication samples instead of making me pay for a prescription. Last night wasn't as bad as the previous, but I was still pretty unsuccessful in getting a whole lot of sleep. I think the worst part is I can't swallow very well at all, so when I fall asleep I drool like crazy and wake up with crap everywhere, I can't wait to wash my sheets, I feel disgusting. My tonsils feel like some sort of tiny vegetable in the back of my throat, it kind of grosses me out. Took some Advil to help with the pain of eating, I'm just waiting for it kick in so I can eat, it's been a few days since I had a meal, saltines and yogurt have been holding me over for the time being, but I'm ready to move on to tougher things, like chicken soup. One last thing, court shows are some of the best stuff on t.v. if you don't have cable, and I think I'm starting to really think this.