Colorado Sunny in the Sky

I’m actually writing this a week and a half after the fact (7/13), but I’ll do my best to make it interesting.  This should have had a post per day really because quite a bit happened.  But here-it-goes…

Friday (7/1)
We got up early (~6am) and took a Southwest Boeing 737 to Denver. The flight was pretty uneventful aside from the take off and landing which I always enjoy. I listened to about 110 minutes of The Moral Landscape by Sam Harris while Caitlin and Lorelai slept. The Denver airport was a new experience. They have trams to get from the gates to the baggage claim where we had to go to a separate claim for our car seat; no sign or anything. We waited about fifteen minutes before someone came along to tell us. We waited about an hour for Jessi and Michael to pick us up in their Subi (Subaru Legacy); during the wait Lore danced, ran around, asked loads of questions, chased flies, and acting the way you’d expect a three year old to act after a flight that lasted multiple hours.

Aside from having to sit longer the drive from Denver to Buena Vista was nice. We chatted about various things that I don’t really remember; catching up and me asking about the surrounding landscape mostly I think. It was hard not to notice the number of gun shops and liquor stores.  At one point during the trip I read something that said, “The second amendment is what makes the others possible.”  True statement.  I slept and Lore had fun randomly waking me with pens and other methods that amused her. We stopped by an old western looking hotel in Fairplay/South Park City for lunch, I had a BLT before making it to our temporary lodging.  They had lots of Kenny and the western-type merchant district; besides that it didn’t seem very South Park-esk… perhaps if they imported more snow and a talking towel.

After passing it a few times we found our lodging place tucked away off the road leading to BV.  It’s a decently sized yellow house with a deck wrapping around the second story.  There were several entry ways on the deck partitioned off a couple bedrooms at a time so separate groups could inhabit and depart individually.  The down stairs had a couple more rooms off of the communal kitchen area.  One of those was the room Lore, Caitlin, and I shared.  Outside the communal kitchen there was a barbeque, a patio table & chairs, and about 5m² of synthetic turf to goof around on without dealing with the dusty desert.  Beyond the turf was a rock planter bed, a bit of dirt with a ants going about their anty business and a steep hill laden with shrubs and woody plants going down to the fast flowing Arkansas River.  The Hartkop parents, Tom and Mickey, were already there waiting for us; they inhabited the other room off of the kitchen.  Lindsay and David came an hour or so later.  We mostly played with the “dragonballs” Jessi got for Lore in between vegging with a drink in our hand and getting various elements of cooking equipment to work.  The igniter on the propane barbeque didn’t work so David had to get under the burners to light it manually and the oven flipped a breaker which is behind a locked door.  It also didn’t take Caitlin long to lose one of the dragonballs to the river.  Delicious ribs, spaghetti, salad and fruit were prepared by Mickey and helping hands.  Lots of talking happened before heading to bed.

Saturday (7/2)
I got up with the sun, showered and went outside to avoid waking anyone else.  I spotted two antlered deer which were already running from me.  Wandering around I saw an old military convoy truck, cacti, weird dirt mounds that I presumed to be evidence of moles, and a little rabbit.  It was pretty spectacular to see the rolling and rocky mountains raising up in a 360° display.  Five or six swallows were darting up and down the hill leading to the water catching bugs.  I was sitting and watching them on a large rock bisecting the planter-bed when Tom let Lorelai outside to find me.  After getting her dressed I took her on the meandering route I took over the surrounding desert-ish field of sparse, sharp little plants.  Then we ate a bit and played with balls and couch pillows as people started waking up and coming down for the Solar Roast coffee that Tom put on.

People went various places while Caitlin, Jessi, Lore, and I went in search of a park for Lorelai to play in.  We got a tour of the little town before settling for a tree-shaded little play structure and swings.  Taking a path across a water channel we got to play on some boulders too.  Before too long we met up with Michael, Tom, and Mickey of which Michael was in search of a deli that sold an egg sandwich with croissant as bread.  No such sandwich was found so after Tom and Mickey went to meet on of Tom’s old college buddy’s the rest of us went to a steak house and had various foods other than steak.  Jessi, Michael, and I tried an amber beer from Colorado’s Dillon Dam Brewery… the dam beer was tasty and good for a couple chuckles.

After lunch the Subi took Lorelai and I back to the lodge for a nap.  People went to the store or something at some point.  David had his Canon EOS out snapping photos and eventually ended up showing Lorelai how to take pictures with it.  Some time after waking and playing with the balls some more I think guitars were brought out.  I got to act like a guitarist, even though I was mainly playing bass lines and power chords, as Michael led the way with what chords he knew and Tom followed along on his banjo; yeah, dad would fit right in with this back porch melody tinkering.  Eventually Lindsay and Mickey’s food concoctions came out for us to eat.  Chicken, corn on the cob, a green salad, a noodle-ish salad with artichoke hearts and (I think) a good amount of vinegar.  If it was vinegar that’s probably why I had a couple helpings.

After dinner I got to help finish off Tom’s Jagerita concoction, Jagermeister with margarita mix blended with ice, that got left in the freezer from the night before.  After that was some fruity pink thing with tequila. We did various things vegging and talking.  Caitlin showed Tom Weird Al’s I Perform This Way video and a couple others while Lindsay was off on the planter bisecting boulder braiding Lorelai’s hair.  David was wandering around with his camera and I think Michael was in Tom’s room softly playing on a guitar.  Jessi and Mickey must have been cleaning up because I recall them coming in and out here and there.  I also impressed Lorelai with how high I could through the dragonballs and catch them.  Eventually the eight and a half of us eneded up in the 8 person hot tub chatting about life, business, and acting silly until it was time to head to bed.

At some point in there I was watching an ant carry a crusty worm for a while when David came along and we talked about various nerdy things like the roaster he’s designing and some other stuff I don’t remember.

Sunday (7/3)
The next day Michael, Jessi, Caitlin, Lore, and I headed to Pueblo not too long before noon.  The mountains were amazing as the route we took (HW285-50) went along the river.  More sleeping and being awoken by Lore.  We took the spine of a mountain along Skylinedrive which looked over HW50 on one side, Cañon City on the other, and had a great view over miles of land stretching to peaks of the Rocky’s.  Stopped for lunch at Pizza Madness in Cañon City before later arriving in Pueblo, dropping our things off and chilling for a bit before going to a 4th of July party with friends of Jessi and Michael’s.  We were shown the layout of their home and their gardened yard area.  Very nice place you have here.

That party started outside with tables, lawn chairs, and potluck type foods laid out.  I met the hosts Cain(?I think) and Jenny. There were others there but I don’t really remember their names.  While hanging out winds started picking up and throwing stuff everywhere so we all moved inside.  Caitlin and Jessi went to the video store while everyone was in turmoil.  Michael, Cain, and I sat in the kitchen and chatted about stuff.  Lore was going between the guy and girls groups.  I think the girl group had some science tarot cards or something; I’m not sure what that was about because I only glanced that way to check on how Lore was doing while paying attention to Cain and Michael’s conversation about plants.  Eventually Caitlin and Jessi came back with movies and we headed back to the home to watch Battle for LA before heading to bed.

Monday (7/4) – 4th of July
Another long and busy day.  I woke before everyone, showered and got ready.  Lore and Michael woke at some point.  I put a Aristocats on for her and drank a french press with Michael. Michael took off to do business stuff at Solar Roast.  Jessi was awake at some point and I helped her get the kitchen ready for breakfast.  I dried dishes and cut up watermelon.  She did everything else including the preparation of eggs, bacon, and other fruits.  Lorelai was well into Singing in the Rain by the time we ate and Caitlin got up.

Jessi and I cleaned, corked, and packed a cooler while Caitlin prepped herself and Lorelai.  The cooler didn’t fit in the Subi’s trunk.  So Jessi put the stuff in a bag.  We went around Pueblo getting shown the sights and stopped at the downtown Solar Roast location to meet with Michael.  We sampled some wares, which were very tasty, while being shown the layout and the present roaster that David designed and built.  Eventually we went away, came again for Michael, then headed up to Bishop’s Castle.

The drive was pretty, as usual.  Bishop Castle was pretty cool.  We explored the main portions of it and traveled up the highest tower.  I had Lorelai firmly in hand because she didn’t want to be left behind.  Caitlin didn’t mind being left behind at all… she pretty much insisted upon it.  The meeting hall was the most impressive part; the steel, glass, and wood work Jim Bishop was capable of made an impressive display.  The dragon head coming out of the front of the building was pretty radical too.  We stopped by the gift shop to fulfill some requests as well as getting Lorelai a red gem and myself a globe pencil sharpener.  The lady at the cash register was nice to us when we came up a few cents short; after walking away I vowed to my comrades to donate $50 to the place but upon reflection (which may have actually been something pointed out by Michael) she probably just didn’t want to deal with the card charge.  I plan to donate, but just a more meager amount to compensate our shortage of cash and the awesomeness of the location.  There’s a lot to say but most of it you can get from wiki.  My impression of it was wonder and curiosity.  Jim Bishop is a dedicated fellow and I admire him for his individuality and resolve to maintain his freedom despite government objections. 

Heading back we had lunch at a road-side restaurant, I had another BLT, then went back to Solar Roast to buy coffee for people back home and let Michael get his car.  Lounged around back at the house.  I got to lay in a hammock for the first time ever… so could have fallen asleep rocking in that thing.  Jessi helped Lorelai make a path rock with her hand imprint in it.  We went inside and watched The Town to avoid the mosquitoes.  It was a pretty good movie, one of those worthy of watching if you’ve already seen the block-buster movies.  Tom, Mickey, Lindsay, and David happened by for one last interaction.  After the movie it was time for bed.

Tuesday (7/5)

We all got up early, packed up the rest of our stuff, and said goodbyes to Michael. Jessi, Caitlin, Lore, and I stopped for McDonald’s on the way to the airport.  We talked and Jessi told us about a couple things along the way.  We said our goodbyes infront of the big tent airport, I hadn’t noticed how tent-ish DIA was when we arrived.

Caitlin went to get us food while Lore and I hung out and watched people, planes, and a moth similar to the ones we were chasing the night before.  Boarded the plane, took off, landed in Reno where people departed and others boarded, we took off, and eventually landed in Portland.  My mom picked us up and drove us home safe and exhausted.

Happy July 6ths!!! I guess… or something… n stuff

It’s been an interesting weekend. Lets see, when did it begin? Saturday after work. Yes, I’ll start there.

I went over to Rachels house. FYI, Rachel is a friend whom I’ve known since I was a freshman in high school. She came up to me and asked if I wanted to be in a band with her and this drummer guy named Justin. Anyw00t Dude, she got a Dell. And a shelf to put it on. And some tiki lamps that Travis(her BF of long time) was setting up.

So the guys got put to work, Travis on those Tikis followed by a dryer problem. I set up the shelf then got her computer happy and online. I popped a couple beers in the process. I’m not a beer drinker, but it seemed like one of those occasions.
We later watched Sideways, a worthless movie that kept me wishing it would get to a point. Any point. Sure, it had some funny parts, and it kept me interested. It pretty much reminds you of those crappy things in life you already knew. It got late, and I got to sleep on the futon.

Wakes up, hang/goof off for a till about noon when someone descides to make b-fast. With orange-champaign. I think that any alcohol that early is bad for me because my head was pounding the rest of the day. After b-fast and Die Hard I went home. Shower and rested mom and I go to portland for that blues music thing. I dropped mom off and went to Powells to do some reading. Half an hour of figuring out where I should park. Then finally I’m in the store and find where the damn books I want are. I sit down to read and keep falling alseep. LOL!! So I gave up and tried to find my way back to the water front. Another half hour of driving around I parked on the other side of the river for free and hiked a couple miles to the starbucks where mom was. I got a caffinated drink, walked over to a grass patch and fell asleep. Wake up drowsy and disoriented, we hike back to the car and drive home. I don’t remember much after that… I think I just slept some more.

I have two more days off to go over… but now I have to work. Horray for waisting time!

Rockin’ in the Medford Lands

I just got back from the land of Ford on Medication. Med. Ford. Get it? Har har!!… yeah, I’ve been in a bus for 6+ hours, give me a break. So sunday morning I was up bright and early and lindsay takes me to the bus station… we had about 20 minutes to get from lindsays house to there. Needless to say, we made it due to some superior navigating… and driving, of course 😉 Anyway, hugs from lindsay and made a brisk walk twards the door. The bus was already borded and the bus driver seemed suprised to see me. Two minutes after getting a seat in the rear (only two seats open on the bus). 7+ hours later I was in Medford (~2pm) and calling Justin to pick me up and tell him where the bus station was in a city I haven’t lived in for a million years.

So we drop off my stuff at Justin’s apartment and say hi to Sara; his GF of 3 years as of next month! WOW! Kitty grew! Yes, that’s the name of their cat, most of the time. We chilled… I had a couple *jingle*”Hot Pockets”*end jingle*. Watched a horribly edited version of the Matrix for a while. “Jeepers Creepers!”, “Shucks!”. The time came to goto Dougs(guitar/lyracist) before show #1.

Tangent: Justin is in a new band with a geeky sounding name, “Nothing Error”. The name in itself has some interesting implications, the more I think about it the more I like it. But what’s in a name? You may have heard of 3 Day Girlfriend last time I talked about Justin. They’re no more. Nucular Implosion; in other words the singer/lyricist face turned into two really big cheeks and whenever he talked poop came out. I wasn’t there of course, so I can neither conferm or deny.

UN-Tangent: Loaded up a van went to le’ show location(Grants Pass)… waited in a pub for 2 hours because of cunfusion and/or miscomunication and/or/most likely retartded planning on the part of ppl who are not us. We waiting most of that time for food. When it came there was a vat of frys. Enough for David(bass player) to plea me and Justin to mooch. We obliged, naturally. Shows start at the little coffee shop hole-in-da-wall. The room was small… crowd was smaller. Got a wall of noise blasted at me, I lost some hearing… we went home.

Next day wake up… go out n’ do stuff… poor w/nothing to do… went back to the appt. to play video games. Hi Sara on luch. Bye Sara on work. Watched Tenatious D video. Jack Black is freaking nuts. In a unusually cool way. I don’t know… I find the sick psycho extremely entertaining.

Anyhoot, Time to goto Dougs before show #2. Nothing Error was one of 5 bands to open for Presidents of the USA. Or POT USA, if you like. Kitty on my foot and I wanna touch it. Millions of peaches, peaches for me. Old man on the back porch… and that: Old man is meeee. Ring a bell? Kinda cool, I listened to these guys in high school. EARLY high school/late middle school… does this make me old? or them old? Either way, it was pretty cool to be able to sing along to such random and catchy lyrics. As fate/insanity/lack of logic/planning should have it, POT USA used Nothing Error’s equipment since they require just about everything to be there except for their few choice pieces. I.E. guitars and cymbles. I’m jumping ahead tho.

We got to the Roller Odessy at around 4. That’s when they were asked to be there for sound checks and shtuff you know? And yes. For those unMedfordites out there, that IS a roller skating rink. A damn old one from what I could tell. Anyway… I got a roady back stage pass thing. We take the stuff out of the van. We wait around for the stage ppl to get their shit together until about 6 or so. I see a theme going on here… two days… two concerts… there on time… lots of waiting around.

Damn this is long. Sum up. Nothing Error finally get a sound check. We also get shown our room with catering… a table of food and a cooler or beer/water. Ppl finally got let in, including Sara who I met outside to make sure she got in free. Nothing Error plays, they sound good. I went to bed with a couple of their riffs in my head. We spent most of the rest of the time in the room with other roadys and friends. Laughter and joy had by all. Booze by most as well. Finally POT USA get up there… rocked the crowd. Rocked Justin’s drum set. Gave him some sticks… signed some sticks. Heard about more insanity on the side of promotions there… lol. Amatures. Not that I could do better… I don’t try swimming in currents I have no chance of making it though.

Went home warn out and tired from new memorys. Good times. Met some new cool ppl. Went to bed around 1am. Got up at 5:30am… went to the bus station @ 6ish when the bus was supposed to be there. Waited until 7 for the bus to take on passengers. Then crazy bus driver making up time got me to portland by 12ish. Not bad! lol. Anyway… lindsay is here gotta go. See you next time internet junkys.

WORD… AGAIN…

Hello, just sittin here on lunch again… sippin’ on a Bawls. I know, I know, that just sounds wrong. But see the website… www.bawls.com. Every other gamer on the planet talks about it, so I thoguht I’d try it. It’s not that bad… I don’t know if the caffeen is kicking in or not.

I went to Lindsay’s monday night. We had a tickle fight that ended with an elbow to my eyebrow. I was about to start up again when she noticed that my eyebrow was swollen like hunchback of nortor dam. I put some ice on it. Gave her a hard time about it. It’s not swollen any more… it just looks like I have a black eye. My boss actually thought it was make up, lol.

Anyway… Lindsay and I went to see Rachel last night(tuesday). Rachel is a old friend from High school. She’s actually the one that introduced me to my good pal Justin. Anyway, we went to some mexican restraunt. Rachel has this thing about alcohol. She always talks about it as if it’s the greatest thing on the planet. She’s been 21 for six months and she’s still ranting and raving about all the drinks I should try and blah blah blah. I have a few friends like that. Anyway, Rachel and I had magaritas. Times three. One of those had an extra shot in it. It was pretty funny cuz the waiter guy gave us one of those for free because it was my first time drinking magaritas. I think he was trying to get me a llittle tipsy. No worky. All it did was make me more tired than I was before.

We went back to Rachels place, and I finally get to meet Travis after all the years of Rachel talking about him. We watched Napolean Dynomite again… I swear, that movie gets better every time I see it. I so want to learn Napoleans dance moves… lol. Anyway, Lindsay was dong a good job of taking in Rachels hospitality in beverages. She had 5 beers and one and a half magaritas… the half one was realy strong. She got pretty damn funny… and she likes to dance alot when she’s like that. She swing danced and goofed around. So did Rachel and Travis. It was fun. In the end I drove Lindsay home. Good times had by all.

Now I’m here… late to getting back to work… and I don’t care because it’s FREAKING SLOW right now. NOTHING to do. Oh well… off I go anyway…

Holy Sunday Batman!!

It’s been a busy day. Woke up, with Lindsay. She spent the night, in an innocent way. FYI, we’ve been around eachother quite a bit over a few weeks without any inter-active melt-downs. We’ve had fun times, and I don’t just mean physically. She complained about how I was venting about her earlier on in my live journal, but I never say anything good. So there you have it, something a little more personal than I usually like to give 😉

Anyway, we went to breakfast with Justin and Sara. I had this great omlette. So good. Yummy. Then we took Lindsay back to the appartment so she could take her car back home… she had to work. The rest of us went in search of the place Justin’s band, Three Day GirlFriend, was going to play. It’s this little saloon in portland near burnside. Anyway, Justin wasn’t feeling so hot, so I dropped them off back at their hotel and went home to crash myself.

A couple of hours later Jessica and Luc came over for a little get-together. We had yummy ribs and watched Patch Adams. I love that movie. After dinner I went back to the saloon where Justin and the band were waiting to set up. I sat around and talked to Sara while Justin exerted nervous energy on the Astroids machine and a beer. They finally set up, sound tested and played.

Three Day GirlFriend is a metal like band… sort of… don’t know how to classify them. It consists of Justin: uber drummer, Josh: Vocals, Dan: Guitar 1, Carrey: Guitar 2, and P..aul?: Bass. I always have troubles remembering his name because I don’t talk to him much. Anyway, they sounded pretty good. I was a little disapointed though because the sound wasn’t mixed right(I think). I wasn’t able to hear the details in the guitar or bass parts. Most of the time it just hit you as a wall of chorded noise changing in sink. Some of their songs have rad, distinked riffs; but I could barely pick them out this time around. I also couldn’t really understand what Josh was singing… but I guess that’s normal.

Anyway, now my ears are ringing like mad, I’m tired, I’m going to bed. Peace out everybody.

Ketchup

Wow, I just read through my LJ again… ahh memories. Kind of nifty… it’s like a time capsule. So much has changed since May! Two new jobs, I ditched the new car and got a POS in stead, I went to church(even though it was purely social), I have gotten drunk once since then, I’ve made a few new friend, and I have seen every cartoon on Homestar’s website and am a SBemail regular. Still living with my mum tho but with two jobs that will likely change once our 6 mo. lease runs out. I have cable now! BIG change. I got a orgasmic new mouse… Logitech MX 510 Blue, 8 buttons and ergonomic. Very comfy mouse. Oh yeah… I was going to sleep…

Why? Because. That’s why ;Þ

I got back from Medford about 12:30 this morning. A whole lot got crammed in to the last three days, accumilativly it can be summed up by the phrase ‘Kick Ass!’ It would make for a long story, but I’ll just give the highlights. I was proud of myself for making it to Medford in around four hours, a pretty good run for not speeding, too much. Get to the apartment of my old friend of 7 years, Justin Bullen. Sara, Justin’s GF of 2 years, is the one there to greet me. I tried finding the practice pad for Justin’s band out in the boondox’s, but no luck. Wake up the next morning to Kitty attacking my foot with razer sharp claws. It was on then, I played with the cat for about an hour before Justin and Sara woke up, my hands are decorated with about a hundred nicks and cuts now. They havn’t named their 1 year old little black cat so they just call her Kitty, or stupid, or shit-head depending on their feelings for the cat while their talking to it.

That day was filled with the wanderings of old high school days. Getting in the car and driving before we actually descide. Driving around a block a few times, getting odd looks from the locals. We eventually ran a few errands for Sara, then went to see my other family at Justin’s parents house. Had some laughs, talked of times and caught up. Then we went to meet with our ol’ pal Muttly at Abby’s. I don’t know his real name, but he made one of the greatest pizza’s I’ve tasted, The Muttly Special. Invented by him, of course. Instead of traditional tomato paste pizza sauce he uses ranch. Yes, as in the salad dressing. Top that with three cheeses, chicken, and bacon… the most filling and wholy unhealthy pizza you’ll eat, but oh so good. But I didn’t feel my arterys clogging until Jusin and I took a shot of ranch from the dipping sauce cups. Ahhh, it’s nice being around friends you can connect with again*dabs at a tear*. After that Justin and I went to Guitar Center and jammed on various instriments.

Did a few other things that would take lots of past explaining to understand their signifigance. Eventually wound up back at the house waiting for the party to start. Justin and Sara called up some friends and bought some booze. Sum up is that one person showed up with his GF. I watched them get drunk while watching American Wedding then Justin passed out in the bed and everyone else went to sleep. One of these days I’ll probably just say, “f’ it” take Justin’s bottle of Jack and chug it and get drunk. Just one of those wierd things that some how got hard-wired into my head that I’m thinking about igoring because I want find out how bad of a mistake it would really be.

I’ll tell the next day in my next update, after a shower.