This was a truly epic week, worthy of a truly epic writeup, but I’ve been having some of the worst luck in the world lately, computerwise, and I’ve spent 20 of the last 16 hours in transit and am literally melting this chair with summer tour stench, so I’m going to take a shower and try this fresh in the morning, when my thoughts are collected and my kid brother isn’t harassing me to get out of his room.

Show Day

This insomnia is getting out of control. It’s five in the morning. I don’t know why I’m still up. Maybe if I recount my day from start to finish it will simultaneously edify the reader and bore me into much-needed oblivion.

9:58am – Wake up. As self-employed musicians with little to do before noon, we have a strict policy of waking up in the single digits unless we absolutely can’t help it, mostly so we can look our friends (and selves) in the eye with that ounce of self respect that comes from waking up before ten.

9:58am > 11:50am – High-fives with the rest of the band, which is then bathed and fed.

11:50am > 12:06pm – Fiasco at USBank that I’d rather not talk about, involving me, a single teller, and a customer in front of me who, from all outward appearances, spends the full sixteen minutes trying to exchange a grocery bag full of old $1 bills for new ones. I leave because the fifteen cents I’d put in the parking meter is about to run out.

12:06pm > 1:30pm – Band practice. The evening’s setlist is finalized, harmonies and “yeah” parts are worked out for Spin Cycle, Mexico, Amicus. I am six minutes late. I am not offered a smoothie.

1:30pm > 6pm – Errands are run, flowers are bought, grandparents are visited. I fill out a survey in exchange for a free Fatburger coupon, which needs to be used in the next 24 hours. I return to USBank and am avenged.

6pm > 8pm – Leisure time with Misha, Jack, and an “action salad.” Wardrobes are selected and deployed. Van is cross-checked and prepared for takeoff.

8pm > 9pm – Traffic, but just a little. We outsmart it and are only fifteen minutes late.

9pm > 10pm – Sharky’s. I share my new trick with the lime and the seltzer, but there are no takers. I get a call from Clea and realize the foam animal masks she loaned us are back at the apartment. Misha and I are freaking out.

10pm > 11pm – SWLLC brings it like a sack lunch.

11pm > 1:45am – Post-show pinball, bouncing from friend to friend to fan to gear pile in the alley behind the Hotel. Some people go home, the rest of us continue to shuffle from cafe to bar to sidewalk bacon vendor to bar again before realizing we have to be up in [x] hours, at which point we say our goodbyes and call it a night.

1:45am > 5:30am – The abovementioned insomnia.

I hope that was as helpful and informative for you as it was for me. I’m going to bed now.

Cheers,
Dave

I have to be at work in less than 7 hours, but sleep is the enemy of man and I’ve been getting way too much of it lately. I also feel like I need to throw this thing some meat every few weeks or it’ll turn on me.

Misha and I just wrapped up one of our semiannual web design summits, and this year’s theme was: “Why Does Our Website Suck So Bad?” I’ll spare you a straight reading of the minutes, because they’re not only dull but classified to a level you can’t even comprehend, but the bottom line is that speechwritersllc.com currently has more Achilles’ heels than a Greek millipede, and we’re taping them up even as you read this.

For example, here’s a picture of Jack standing on a car:

Our new website is going to have a lot more pictures of Jack, as well as of cars. This is just one of the many things we’re doing to ensure that your browsing experience remains as fulfilling as possible, day after day.