when wednesday became thursday, i was in los angeles..
when thursday became friday, i was in the bay area..
when friday became saturday, i was in ashland oregon..
now, as sunday becomes valentine’s day, i am at home (the bay area), sitting in front of the computer, wondering about the immensity of the world..

these are some questions that i’ve been asking myself:

do they celebrate valentine’s day in other countries?
how many people are celebrating valentine’s day with the same person that they celebrated it with five years ago?
how much money will hallmark make tomorrow?

i read a brilliant quote today.. something like, “love is a hot shower that doesn’t leave your skin pruned”

good morning..

i have recently woken up on my buddy’s couch in ashland.. last night we drank jack daniels and pabst.. it was a relaxing night..

the last few days have been absolutely insane.. i got back from las vegas on sunday at 11:30am, after spending a brilliant weekend with my best friends in the world and going to bed at 5:30am and waking up at 6:30am.. dave picked me up and then we rented a u-haul and then we lifted lots of heavy furniture into it (again, my twig arms realized that skinny men should not live this phat as i lifted our plush oak loveseat into the truck)..

we spent all afternoon lifting and unlifting things (our stuff, dave’s parents’ stuff, etc..)

we finished around 10pm and passed out within the hour.

we woke up the next morning at *8am, ran a bunch of leaving town errands, went over to dave’s parents house for a last meal (lamb, delicious), and then started packing out of apartment and into the van.

dave was remixing an old song that we had been touching up, and i played van tetris for about five hours.. around 7am, the end was in sight, the song was done, the van was **ridiculously packed, and we went back to dave’s parents house to sleep.

we woke around 3pm, left town at 5pm, got into ashland at 10pm after listening to an amazing book on tape that we’ll probably talk about too much at upcoming shows (about greek history.. it’s really fantastic), got to ashland, and started relaxing.

goodbye portland. hello california. goodbye rain. hello sun.

*all stated times are averages of dave and i.. he pretty much always wakes up an hour earlier than me, because he is ultimately a better and more noble person, and i am an amazing sleeper

**/unsafely

happy birthday to us…

yesterday, dave and i turned four..(that is, on January 21st 2001, dave and i met and played guitar for the first time.. it was in my dorm room at pomona college (smiley 210).. we played some of our old stuff for each other (pocketful of quarters, madeleine albright), and then started working on songs in progress (anodyne was our first collaboration). at the end of the night we traded our old demo cd’s, and the next day (today, four years ago), we named the band.

it’s a momentous birthday, because politically, it signifies the start of our second term.. so last night we threw ourselves a big inaugural/birthday party at our house in portland.

we went to pick up the keg in the early afternoon (Henry’s private reserve), and as we strained to bring it up our porch stairs, we realized that men this skinny weren’t meant to throw parties this phat. after the keg excursion, we cleaned up the house and reminisced about great band memories.. we found and listened to a tape of our first show ever (january 25th 2001), pinpointed the show when we started playing guitar while standing (RPI, spring 2002), etc etc.

the event was semi formal. dave looked smashing in a trim blazer and i was decked out in all black with a checkered pink and black tie. people started showing up around 8:30p.m…. we played a short set in the practice space in the basement later in the evening.. most of the guests were out of the house by 4:30a.m.

this morning dave and i are both a little slow going about our business.. we both agreed, just two minutes ago, that it would have been nice to share the night with more of our “down from day one, or relatively close to day one” fans.. hopefully we’ll see you all very soon.