Minneapolis

Long story short: Cory ate 2 steaks, Griff got engaged, John had a milkshake, Jeremy almost shot food and/or drink out his nose several times, and Arturo woke up face to face with a cat. Oh and we played a show. It went very well!

Long story long: I left home at 8:45 and got to Jeremy's by 9. I knew it would be a good trip after the fun we had loading up the cars. At the family restaurant in Mauston, WI we found the meaning of life and it's called Pleasoning. being Star Wars geeks, we talked about Mud Slug, general of the Ewok army. He was the one who cut the rope that swung the logs crushing the AT-ST's.

When we got to the Hexagon Club in Minneapolis, we loaded in and saw that we missed the meat raffle at 2. Damn. After that we hung out for a while with the guy responsible for getting us there, Christian. We went to his place and learned from Griff that Daddy Likes It Here. I can't remember the last time I laughed so much. Now I know what it's like to answer a craigslist ad. We had great sandwiches for dinner, some might say they were life changing. Mine was really good. I took a flyer from a street light pole from the day before that had a picture of the A-Team van stuck in the Death Star after having obviously crashed into it and Darth Vader and Mr. T staring out at us with their bad-assness that only they possess.

The show went well, and I think my black DVD player is dying out or something. I kept losing the picture and it got all glitchy. Sucks. I'll have to test it today and get a replacement if necessary. The other bands were great and nice people. Good size crowd and Airiel sold out the ear plugs provided by the club. Non-smoking bars are cool, but part of me misses the cloud of smoke. I hope the phrase "smoky bar" will always describe a current bar, not just something that once was.

Jeremy and I spent the night with my friends Alpa and Patrick in their lovely house. It was nice to see her again and great to meet Patrick for the first time. The door of the bedroom I was in didn't close all the way and the cats snuck in to hang out with me and scare the holy shit out of me by jumping on the bed to stare at me inches from my face while I was half awake after 4 hours of sleep. After that, I was indeed awake. We left and met up with everybody else at the Triple Rock Social Club for a helluva breakfast. Tons of food on each plate and it was so good. We made our next official stop, the now infamous Pine Cone Restaurant. This is where Cory had the 24oz steak and I had a roast beef sandwich covered in gravy and mashed potatoes. Griff fell in love and got engaged. Photos were taken outside and we were on our way. Lots of annoying traffic in WI, and some in IL but we got through it.

The gear was dropped off at the practice space, and my gear was moved from Jeremy's car to mine and I was home just after 10pm. If this is anything like the tour in September, I can't wait. For now all I can say is "buh-byeee!!!" (while waving and bouncing)