The Day I Saw The Naked And Famous

Enough time goes by, I forget how to write in a blog. I forget what the purpose was. I forget what happened the past couple days and I freak out because if I didn't write it down, it might as well have never happened. Enough time goes by, I wonder if I've lost the drive to keep it going. Hell, enough time goes by and when I finally find time to sit and write, Blogger has a brand new (and sexy) layout and I'm posting this entry from a MacBook Air. Who knew? 

I suppose the purpose of this blog was to document big life changes, both for me and for my friends. In that case, it should be mentioned that I started the TESOL Masters International program at Sacramento State on Monday. I've got four classes and six textbooks. I take the bus because it's free for students and obnoxiously convenient. The campus is surprisingly beautiful, much nicer than SSU ever attempted to be. I haven't had the time or energy to really just wander around and admire it all, though I've got two semesters and plenty of time to soak it all in. There are dozens of students visible at any given moment (something SSU lacked) and so it always feels like there's something going on. Saw the library today. The school is big, but not so big that you won't see classmates around campus. I'm one of six TESOL students, so my teachers know me pretty well already--at least on paper--and that makes me feel special. This doesn't mean my classes will be any easier, but I feel like I've got Peace Corps karma on my side. Surely they don't want to send some illiterate asshole overseas to represent Sac State, but I'm not an illiterate asshole. I just need to make sure I buckle down and give this program all the attention it deserves. The good news is that I want to. I want to get A's and learn and better myself and actually become the sort of kick-ass teacher I think this world needs more of. So that's good. It's going well. I've got "How To Teach English" and "Grammar" and "Writing In The Social Sciences" and "Linguistics" on my plate. Nice that they all sort of work together. When this semester ends, I'll be diagramming sentences like a mofo. 

In the meantime, Jenny's 19 days from South Korea. 

We're holding on tighter and tighter as the day approaches, though unfortunately having school start when it did means I need to spend some of that time in books and homework. We squeeze in as much time together as we can. We fill each other's ears with sweet things and hug and touch and savor every second. The nights are tough because they signal the end of another day, the opposite excitement you get from counting down the days to Christmas. I could list a million things I still want to do with Jenny before she goes, but life is life and we'll do as many of them as we can and save the rest for the future. In March, maybe. Or next summer. Or three years from now. 

Tonight we're going to see The Naked And Famous at Harlow's. 

As a recap of recent events, for the sake of not forgetting, I should mention that Lance sold me his MacBook Air for 600 bucks. I love it. Jenny and I threw a successful impromptu barbecue on Sunday. Work at Old Soul is the same, though they've got Landon (from Weatherstone) working nights to cover scheduling conflicts until the owners figure out who to fire. I met a guy on the bus today and we shook hands and said "My name's Chris" at the same time, which was weird. We're new best friends. Iven and Andy and I are still looking for a house to rent. Still reading "Trainspotting." Still working on my book, though Iven gave me some great feedback that I want to take advantage of (should be adding a whole new layer to the plot). It's officially called "Shepherd's Ark." Found out through the grapevine that Shaun is no longer in a long-distance relationship with Chelsea. Jenny got the last of her official documents and is now totally prepped for her new adventure, packed suitcase and all. Paul started writing in his blog again. I want to start making videos now that I have a computer that can handle such a hobby. My financial aid dwindled to half its original size rather quickly but it was all necessary, mostly. I'm a little stressed about getting my dental work finished. Otherwise, there's really nothing to worry about besides homework and a heart-wrenching trip to the airport.

Update: The Naked And Famous put on a great show. Jenny and I met Andy at my place for some pre-partying and a listen to the new Modest Mouse album I bought minutes earlier. We negotiated with Kelly to have her switch her will-call name to mine so Andy could have her ticket. Next, we met Rob and Chris and Lacey, then the N & F played, rocked the house, and most of us went over to Ink for a delicious late-night dinner. It was surprisingly refreshing to hear the N & F play live. I hadn't really thought much about them for a few months and here they were, a real live band, playing theses songs I somehow knew so well.

- Left to Fry

The Day I Paid Off A Bad Debt

Wells Fargo lets you title your transfers between accounts. I imagine the overly organized people use labels like "For Groceries" or "For Rent" to keep track of where their money is going. I've never done that. I'm not all that organized. But today, when I transferred 3,460 dollars and 33 cents from my checking account to my credit card to pay it off completely for the first time in over two years, I titled the transfer "Fresh Air." 

I've known this all along, but it really only hit me today: Astronautalis is my favorite band. I have to thank my volunteer gig at KRCB for leading me to them a few years back. 

1. Astronautalis

2. Modest Mouse

3. Brand New

4. Mumford and Sons

5. Marcy Playground

Jake and I look like we're related. People are catching on. Today there was a flash flood of customers around ten or so and during that mad rush, with Airborne Toxic Event playing in the background, I couldn't help but laugh and appreciate the chaos. Jenny and a handful of other friends were passing through and for an hour there Old Soul felt like a sitcom episode and that's when I love my job the most, when it's at full speed, when I'm actually having fun. Of course by eleven I'm tired and start counting down the minutes to my afternoon nap, but at least the morning was a blast. 

Pre-Flight Lounge with Jenny, Meg and David, followed by the Backdoor and Petra's. The old jukebox, pondering the fate of Downtown Sacramento, night riding to Old Town, the lounge singer's last show, "You're supposed to start dancing at the beginning of the song," Greek food and French fries. 

Today my mom and her lifelong friends, Kathy and Rhonda, kidnapped me for Kathy's birthday and I was totally high when my mom called six times to wake me from a "nap" and I took them to deVere's to drink and cover my awkwardness with booze, which helped, and they talked me into going to Pizza Rock and drinking more and my mom talked about who would take Loren if my mom died (worried, suddenly, because her friend passed away yesterday from pneumonia) and Kathy turned 41 and acted like it was the end of the world and Rhonda told me about Ashley and her baby. Nice to spend time with people who love me unconditionally and whom I love unconditionally in return. You need to keep family in your life. These are the three women who raised me, more or less, not counting my grandmother. I owe them more than I can imagine. My mom loves Jenny, by the way. She's never been so positive. It was nice to hear. After Cedric came downtown to pick them up, I got dropped off and went home for a few seconds.

After that, Old Soul was having a Reading Partners Volunteer Party down the alley and so I went and mingled for a minute with Kelly and Daniel and Nick and Chris and Jack and Jason and Manuel, the principal of Peter Burnett. I picked an orientation day on the 24th, at Old Soul. I'd been drinking since 4, so the two little glasses of wine certainly added fuel to my social inhibition.

Then it was dinner with Jenny after she got off work. A romantic little Saturday night on the town. We only have so many nights left...

Yesterday marked my One Year Anniversary of living in this house. 

I'll miss my window the most. Second place goes to the backyard (and the bonfires, of course). Third, the eclectic qualities (the old toilet, the kitchen table, the jungle outside, the noises and the stairs). Fourth, the location (I really ought to be closer to Sac State, anyway). Fifth, the bragging rights. 

Not to mention all the memories, which have been obsessively documented in the past 200 blog posts. I wonder how many phases I've gone through. How many passions, thoughts, feelings and dreams I've gone through. How many people I've met and how many I actually know. I wonder if I had any inkling in the slightest that I'd end up where I am today. Did I know that Sac Press wouldn't pan out? Did I know I'd apply to the Peace Corps? Did I know I'd go back to school? Did I know Jenny and I were on a path to meet? 

No. 

So now Jenny's moving away. I'm moving out in October. I'm going back to school and I'm doing something new with my life. I have no idea where any of these developments are going to lead. I may end up going to South Korea next summer to do a little teaching before being shipped off by the Peace Corps. I might figure out that teaching isn't for me. I might publish a book (fingers crossed) and open an entirely different path that I can't even imagine right now. Maybe I'll still be writing in this blog in a year. It's bizarre enough to have 200 entries recalling the last twelve months in this old blue house. I can't imagine where this endless evolution will lead me next. 

All I know for certain is that my credit card is paid off.

And now I can breathe.

- Left to Fry

The Day Financial Aid Came

A message under the cap of my root beer tells me, "The planet: they're renting it to you. Fight the power." Jenn and Nick broke up a while back and now Jenn wants to move. Daniel says there are two rooms available to rent in the apartment above his, which would be perfect for Iven and I, and now I'm really starting to realize that my plan to move in with Iven is more than hypothetical. I'm moving on October 1st. I am. I'm also the richest I've ever been now that my financial aid has arrived, while flirting with the biggest debt I've ever been in, and the adult thoughts in my mind lean toward investments or repayments. Hell, I could completely pay off the Great Dental Recovery in cash if I wanted to. Tomorrow. Better yet, I can get textbooks. Crazier still, I could get fired and be okay. Interesting I'd say that because yesterday's memo certainly put everyone's job on the chopping block, hinting that our school schedules were so inconvenient that someone would have to be let go. Today I think Jason assured me that I was in the clear. Next week's schedule looks like a dream. School starts on Monday. Orientation went well. Met all my teachers. Got inspired. Only six kids in the TESOL Masters Program. Six. And only one (me) doing it the Peace Corps way. Got more paperwork. Shook some hands. Afterward, I couldn't find the place to get my student ID, wound up wandering the tree-happy campus, witnessed a sorority sing-along, gave up and took the bus home. Bus ain't so bad. Bonfire that night, the slowest-to-start bonfire of all time. Opens with Iven and I ranting about work, plotting our move, getting stoned and having trouble with the fire. Next comes Brady, then Alan, then Drew, then Drew and Alan leave to get food, so it's just the three of us for a while. We're playing Speed in the background and it's such a calm evening, we smoke more weed. Kelly arrives after a dramatic day and gives us a play-by-play. The fire refuses to light despite our best efforts. Samir and Sarah show up not long before we hear the jingle of Murphy's collar and Julianne closing the gate behind them. The newly-single and change-seeking Jenn comes with her friend, Kaitlyn, but they leave a little bit after Tessa gets there with her sister, Amelia. Alan returns from the Garlic Shack with Drew, who gives his hamburger a 4 out of 10. It finally feels like we have a good group with an even gender ratio. Mary comes by--this being her last day at work, a week before moving to New Orleans. Glad she made it. Daniel's there soon after. Rob and Sarah swing by and I find out Rob films weddings and needs a video editor and Sarah's a professional self-made photographer. I'm impressed. Jenny comes home from work and joins us with a beer. Movie goes from Donnie Darko to the new Tron. The night ends with a talk about Twitter and the open rooms in the apartment above Daniel. Totally doable. Everyone leaves around midnight. I'm awake five hours later, going to work. It's my Tuesday. Megan checks her school schedule to see if she can clear anything up, make more room for Old Soul, but then she's like, "Fuck that. I choose school." Good move. She seems aware that she'd be the first to get fired from scheduling conflicts, should it come to that, especially when this girl came by today with a billion years of coffee experience and the right availability. Coffee is a brutal world sometimes. I hardly feel like my job is safe. Tamara came back from her European travels today. Long time no see. No word from Meredith since those Peru photos she posted a couple weeks ago. Started making a chess board, found unintentionally awesome animal-themed pieces at the Dollar Store. Finished the third draft of my book. Looking at agents, now. Getting hopeful. Had a solid talk with Jenny about our relationship after September 19 and we both agree that nothing should change, save for the ocean between us, that she'll be in South Korea rooting for me while I'll stay in Sacramento and root for her. I like that. Saw Fright Night, liked it, and Another Earth, which I liked a lot. Spent an afternoon at Kelly's studio, editing while she continued to unpack and clean. Had a birthday dinner for Lance at Hot Italian with some of his friends and Tyler, who was there for the boots but stayed for the pizza. Good stuff. Nice people. Happy Birthday, Lance. Iven put in his one-month notice at work. I want to get a job at the writing center at Sac State. I want to do everything that those teachers were talking about at orientation, the tutoring, the assistant teaching, the CATESOL conferences... Feeling that had me down about all the dull parts of work, the wasted energy. Made me want more than ever to sell a novel and never work again just to have the time to do all of these things I want to do. Old Soul will do, for now. Not sure how long "now" is. I'm guessing until December. With my financial aid, I can afford a ticket to South Korea. Gotta get my passport. Gotta finish my dental / medical forms for the Peace Corps. I'm excited to start classes. Excited to root for Jenny. Excited for the Naked And Famous show next Wednesday. Excited, slowly but surely, for Fall. 

- Left to Fry

The Day After An Exciting Trip To The Laundromat

Last night Jenny and I are about to leave the house to go do laundry, one of the least exciting activities known to man, when what sounds like galloping can be heard outside of my house. Loud. "Was that a horse?" I ask, just as Jenny watches an officer on horseback breeze down the alleyway, yelling loudly in the direction of the parking garage. "Yeah!" she calls back. We both hurry downstairs with our laundry bags to see what's going on. Cop cars pull up to the entrance of the garage. The horse comes running out from the bottom floor and the cop ducks under the LOW CLEARANCE sign. Next thing, here comes John from the bike shop who says to the cop, "I think he went up," and points toward the garage roof six floors above us. A cop on a bike exits the bottom floor, pedaling quickly around the building. A helicopter shows up. Spotlight drops on the alleyway. Jenny and I go over to John and ask, "What did you see?" and he says some guy came running down the alley and yelled, "Hey! Give me a bike!" but kept running before John had a chance to react. That's crazy. This guy must've done something crazy to require a 3-Star GTA rating so quickly. But John says, "The cops love it. It's just a game." Jenny and I watch the situation unfold. More cop cars. The helicopter starts speaking, giving a description of the runner (black shorts, striped shirt, white male), circling overhead. The searchlight scans the city. A cop car reverses quickly from the scene and bolts down Capitol Avenue. After nothing much seems to be happening, Jenny and I continue toward the laundromat. I think about how much adrenaline that guy must be feeling, having all this authority hunting him down. I can hardly imagine how that must feel. We get to the laundromat and the usual shady characters are hanging out, albeit with a tad more shade when it's at night. Almost immediately we overhear them talking about the guy who the cops were looking for. They know him. He ran through this laundromat just moments before being chased down the alley by the cop on the horse. They also apparently didn't like him very much, laughing about his situation. Jenny and I peacefully clean our clothes and read our books and take the lighted sidewalk home.

I like Jenny's point of view of the night. 

Lots of 90's hip-hop at work today. Nostalgia is so weird.

Other new things: Working six days next week, including the day I asked to get off because of orientation. Looking forward to seeing Fright Night and Another Earth. Megan goes back to South Korea tomorrow. Kelly came back from LA. Mary's in New Orleans looking for an apartment. Heard from Sean. He's doing good. Jade is in Portland visiting her mom, whose sick. I'm reading "Trainspotting" and still trying to figure out how to build my own chess board. I'm editing the second draft of my book, reading it out loud, with Jenny's much-appreciated help. The weather's been super nice. No dental appointments scheduled, yet, though I know I've got to keep on that, and we're coming up on a full year of living in this house. I anticipate some important financial decisions in the near future that are making me feel like an adult, and I don't know how I feel about that. The dream of summer is slowly fading to fall. 

- Left to Fry

The Day The Bonfires Resumed

Let the editing begin! Jenny finished reading the first draft of the story and chopped it like a ninja with her green pen, giving me some good pointers and ideas for how to smooth the edges. So that's been good. 

It's hot. Jenny unbuttons my shirt, concerned.

"How are you living?"

"For you," I say.

Lost a game of chess to Jade after work. 

Jenny and Megan finished some paperwork for their lives overseas and sent it to the proper government institution. Yesterday Jenny and I spent some time at her brother's and her dad's. Good family time all around. Baby Joe was adorable. Dinner was delicious.

I hung out with Brady and Ana in their apartment talking about religious loopholes and inequality in the workplace. They have an adorable cat.

Starting to look at apartment / housing listings.

Mellow bonfire. Iven and I got drinks at deVere's. Met up with Megan, Julianne and Murphy. Drinks on the patio. Chicken sandwich on a pretzel bun. Jenny joins us. Another round. We head back. Set up the backyard. Start a fire. Drew, Alan, Brendan, Michelle, Patsy and, for a short while, Jessica and her posse show up. Jessica doesn't like working at Oak Park. Patsy and Brendan share jaw-reconstruction stories. Michelle finally picks up her blanket. Twilight is discussed as Mormon porn. Jenny and I leave to get Greek food. Another chair breaks. We put out the fire soon after 11:00.

Seven days to Sac State orientation. Twelve to the start of classes. Fourteen until the Naked And Famous show at Harlow's. Thirty-three until Jenny goes to South Korea. And everything in between.

- Left to Fry

The Day We Came Back From Truckee

Here's our idea. Here's our experiment. We might be crazy. But let's see. Let's just see. Because this summer has been amazing. This summer has been perfect. I couldn't have pictured any period of my life feeling as exquisite as it has these few months, yet here it is. It is around me, within me. It is unbelievable. It is impossibly deep yet astonishing simple. Love as all it can be. Love the way it should be. This summer has given me a glimpse of how to love unconditionally, how to coexist harmoniously, how to feel so unique and connected at the same time. How to be me and us and you and we. How to share. How to trust. How to view the world and how to take of advantage of all that it offers. Every day. Every moment. Jenny, you've changed me and inspired me and brought so much happiness to my life that I can't imagine this world without you by my side. It will be tough. It will take a lot of getting used to. But the fact that we're strong enough to run full speed at our diverging paths gives me hope that we will be in each other's lives for a long, long time. We have a lot of adventures to do in this lifetime. Some together, some apart. We have big choices to make and experiences to embrace. Some together, some apart. When we cross paths again in some foreign country by some sparkly sunset, we can share what we've learned and see where our future leads from there. 

In the meantime, we spend the weekend in Truckee at my grandma's house. Big dinners and a warm family gathering. Two lovely dogs. Hikes through the forest, through the neighborhood. Warm weather, clear skies and comfy beds. A sister who tells on me because I let her have a sip of wine, a mom as the independent happy woman I love, a grandma enjoying time with her family, Christian the family friend whose been around since before the Courthouse Coffee days, and Jenny feeling like such a natural part of the group it's like she's been there all along. We spend Friday and Saturday night there, come back Sunday morning. 

Trevor's memorial. I hadn't really thought about the other people that I'd see there until the morning of, when Bryce asked for Amy's number. It was nice to see him again, and Nancy, who I haven't seen in ages. Plus Amy, a recent mother, who I haven't seen since I don't remember when. It was a thoughtful ceremony. Food for the guests. A poster-board covered in pictures of Trevor. Flowers. Green balloons. A pastor said a few words, then the family spoke, then friends. All these faces from my past, grown up, holding babies, talking about work and being adults... It was sort of a trippy experience. While the group had a jovial attitude and kept the mood up, there weren't many dry eyes at those benches because Trevor was loved and a really good person and it is undeniably tragic to lose such a life. He was overwhelmed by the ugly side of the world and saddened that there could never be enough love to make it better, and so he spent the last few weeks soaking in the beauty of nature before taking his own life. You'll be missed.

Then I went hiking in Hidden Falls with Jenny and Iven. The timing was right for a hike with death heavy on the mind. Seeing nature. Smelling fresh air. Swimming in the creek. I hadn't been back to Hidden Falls since the last time I went with Sean, so it was nice to remember all those memories at the same time. Afterward it was dinner at Strings, then the 7:40 showing of Final Destination 5. Sort of a morbid day to see such a grizzly movie about death, I realize... I was pleasantly happy with the movie and glad they took decent advantage of the 3D. Loved the references to the other films. Probably one of the better ones of the series. Consensus: I'm still a fan.

- Left to Fry

The Day After The AWOLNATION Show

Sitting on the windowsill reading "Neverwhere," I'm one beer into the evening when Iven arrives. I open the gate for his truck and wait in my room listening to AWOLNATION while he parks, comes upstairs, and I offer him a beer and we smoke that pipe. Two beers. Three beers in. We listen to AWOLNATION and I figure out the lead singer was in the band Hometown Hero, who sang the song "Say Eighteen," an old favorite of mine. How neat. Then we watch an episode of Wilfred. We talk about our future apartment. Iven, I realize, is a key figure in my transition from Sacramento With Jenny to Sacramento Without. I pay attention to the way people enter and leave my life, usually during the most monumental of life's stages, and how they influence me, how they change things, how I change them, how the relationships evolve and how we help each other make sense of the world. So Iven and I are good and buzzed and it's time to leave for the show at Ace Of Spades, a handful of blocks away. Weather's perfect. Comfortably out of our minds, we wander down 17 to R, joking about I don't even remember what, all excited about the show and the future, being 24 and loving it. There's a gathering on the corner of R and 15 and an Ace of Spades security guard in charge of lining everyone up with AWOLNATION tickets along the side of Bernarndo's, preventing the sidewalks from clogging the other bars' entrances. It's a big crowd. Luckily, it's a quick line. We're inside between opening acts so we don't yet have to yell at each other and it's not too long of a wait to order Pabst at the bar. Nice venue. Spacious. Big warehouse ceiling with multiple levels of metal factory floor to view the stage from. Four beers in, I start looking for a good place for us to stand. I check upstairs only to find another bar. More people. I start admiring all the faces, all the outfits, all the strangers here to share this event, to drink and dance. Of course I also look for Old Soul customers. Then Tessa texts me: I am here. Are you? Iven joins me with the Guinness some guy bought him for watching his drink ("I don't buy Pabst," he says) and I reply: In bar. Upstairs. The second act begins. They're called Wallpaper and it's upbeat dub-step hip-hop that thoroughly impresses. Iven's dancing behind the low-hanging TV that's playing a soccer game while I watch for Tessa from the balcony. The dance-floor is already full. Everything looks full. This place is a goddamn crazy-house by now and of course I can't find Tessa, but whatever. We go back downstairs after Wallpaper's set and find our way across the crowd to an alternate bar to the left of the stage. A screwdriver for me, Tom Collins for Iven. Still no sign of Tessa. I text Jenny: Just use my name at will call. Currently at bar to left of stage. We finish our drinks. We can see the stage pretty well from here. Getting drunk now. Conversation, movement, time... It starts to become hazy. We find a place to stand near the ramp and AWOLNATION is starting to set the stage. A guy wears a shirt that says "Blame it on my ADD." I see Jenny walk by and rush after her. Call her name. Tap her shoulder. We kiss. Iven puts her drink and two more for us on his tab. I think. Maybe I stop drinking. Jenny has great spot-finding skills, so soon we're standing near the lower railing with a perfect view of the stage and the bobbing heads of the crowd on the dance-floor, everyone blue from the bright stage lamps. A young girl wears bright pink headphones while carried on the shoulders of her dad in the back of the room. I take a photo. On the way back, some drunk guy says, "Hey! Take a picture of me!" and so I do. Iven disappears for a while and buys himself and the bartender a shot. Somewhere around this time, Tessa shows up with Miguel, her date. We all hug and shake hands. The band arrives. The crowd goes wild. Guitars are picked up, the drum set is manned, the lights go dim. Their logo glows on the wall behind them. The music starts. I'm completely satisfied. I've become quite attached to their album and love every song and to hear them played so loud and passionately on stage was totally rewarding. Like seeing a book-to-film translation that doesn't suck. We're dancing and singing. They're dancing and singing. Everyone's dancing and singing. Cheering. Clapping along. Kill your heroes and fly. Jump on my shoulders. Great stuff. At some point, Jenny asks Iven if he wants to stand closer to the railing, to get a better look. He interprets this completely different. Tessa asks, "Where's Iven going?" and we see him walking down the ramp, his hands checked by the security guy with a flashlight to make sure Iven isn't smuggling beer out of the designated area. Jenny and I realize he's going for the Pit, so we hurry after him, not to stop him but the join him. Why haven't we been down there the whole time? We squeeze and push our way toward the stage and spill into an open pocket. Perfect. Dancing resumes, also with leaping and hand-thrusting. Sweat accumulates. A lot of sweat. The band finishes, leaves the stage, comes back and plays "Knights of Shame," which is their epic eleven-minute party basket of awesome and it's the one I was most curious to hear them play live. The show ends. We sneak out early to beat the crowds so we can get a table at Burgers and Brew a few doors down. Tessa and Miguel meet us there. Iven feels like the fifth wheel, but he has a good time. We get food. Drinks (not me, not this time). We're high and sweaty from the show and share our good experience. I see Jessica's friend Alexis and make awkward How's-It-Going conversation. Everything tastes fantastic. I finish someone's beer. Jenny and I split the bill and we all walk to my house where we hang out in the backyard for a while, smoking, talking about who-knows-what and this-and-that, until it's my bedtime and the night comes to a close on a high note. 

 

Today, Jenny almost got hit on her bike by a car running a stop-sign at full-speed. It was some Final Destination shit, to be sure, because I luckily delayed us by about ten seconds by forgetting my bike-lock key in my room. Scary, sometimes, to think about how much of our life depends entirely on happenstance like that. I worked a fairly busy shift with Megan (always curious to see how much busier Old Soul is on a day when Meredith usually works) and we walked away with 35 in tips. She went to the Ganglians' CD release party last night. I was still wearing my Ace of Spades wrist-band, telling everyone how awesome the show was. Jessica and Peter came in, said they'd gone to my house last night for the bonfire only to find the backyard empty. Woops. There will always be more bonfires. I rode bikes with Jenny out to the Co-Op and ate lunch and we said goodbye and I rode home. Napped. Made plans with my family to go to Truckee this weekend. I was still in such a good mood from last night and it made work feel fun and fresh again. It does that. I guess tomorrow's pay day. Time flies.

- Left to Fry