and the city lights just blur.

The rain today was really beautiful and it came out of nowhere. The smell just reminded me how good it is to be alive. I think this summer has really allowed me to come into my own and finally be truly comfortable in my own skin.

I'm happy. Now, I'm going to take a bubble bath and then go to bed early. It was nice to have a quiet night tonight.

love is a tired symphony you hum when you're awake.

Oh, goodness. Life really has just been getting better and better as each day passes. Not a day passes by that I don't use the phrase "I love life" at least ten times. I am surrounding myself with amazing people focused on amazing things - mainly music. Every day is just a new opportunity to make music and practice my drumming and create something out of nothing and I love it. I've still got a long way to go with drumming, but I can see an improvement in myself, even just from the beginning of the summer. Others see it, too, and it helps to keep me going.

June is coming to a close, which means that some important dates are speeding closer and closer. My birthday is on the 21st and I'm already thinking about my party. I've decided to have a day long event at the house. I'm going to have the drum set and some amps and shit outside and anyone who wants to jam can. We're going to swim and barbecue and talk and then when the sun goes down we'll drink a few beers and make more music. It's gonna be fun. I'm looking forward to it.

I've made so many new friends this summer. For starters, Deena. She is honestly the last person I saw myself spending my summer with but I'm glad the stars aligned and led us to each other. It's been a while since I've had a friend that's a girl down here so it's nice. Then there's Thomas and Jeffrey, Alton, Rick, Brad, etc... I've also gotten closer with Brady, which is cool. They're all just incredible people and it blows my mind that I'm so lucky to know them. Lately, all I've been doing is just basking in the awesomeness that is my life. 24 days until my birthday, 27 until I'm off to Aussie land, and I'm excited to see where this life will take me.

Summer 2008 - The best summer of my life, without a doubt.

holding hands, skipping like a stone.

I am about to go to sleep, but I wanted to do a quick update with a photo of the tattoo that Gabe did for me. It was free and I love it. More details about the situation tomorrow, I promise. But for now, here is a picture of the beautiful outline.

Oh, and I got my very first bee sting today. It sucked.

the chase is all you know and she stopped running months ago.

I just dyed my hair hot pink. It was supposed to be red, but I'm digging the pink. It's fun.

Tonight is Deena's birthday party and I'm stoked. It's going to be chock-full of jamming, beer, and good times. But before I go, I need to get my ass on the treadmill. I'm on week three of the Couch to 5k program and, I don't know if I'm more out of shape than I thought, but it's getting kind of hard. Especially in this heat. Oh well, I refuse to quit!

poor little baby, sorry, you can't shake me down.

The days have been flying by before I can even catch my breath. We've been constantly jamming, recording, and writing songs, along with consuming ridiculous amounts of beer and the occasional bowl or two. It's been incredible.

Last night, Deena, my brother, and I took shrooms. The bro only had about half a dose, I had three, and Deena had two. It was the most incredible night. We spent the first hour or so chilling in my room, smoking cigarettes, and listening to Mars Volta and Queens of the Stone Age, me on the floor wrapped in a blanket doodling strange pictures with permanent marker. I had to pee, so I left the room and all of a sudden it was like a realized there was an entire world outside of my room. We ventured outside and spent the next four hours talking and dancing and playing music. We recited silly, spontaneous haikus and contemplated life. We finally had to come back inside, seeing as my mom would be getting up for work soon. We came back to my room, danced some more, then my brother hit the sack. Deena and I stayed up until past 6am talking and then she passed out. I stayed up for a few more hours, just laying in bed, watching the sunrise, then I finally drifted off to sleep at around 8am. The whole night was just fantastic, everything was right and my cheeks were aching from smiling so much.


It's time for me to hop in the pool now. Summer has been absolutely amazing so far. It's funny the way things work out sometimes. Life is so strange (in a good way).

i'm right here, and i ain't going nowhere.

I have been such a waste of space the past couple of days. I sleep 'till past noon, don't do anything all day, I haven't worked out since Friday I think, and I have been drinking for the past three nights. From those three nights, I've realized one thing: I have become a serious lightweight compared to my tolerance a year or so ago. I was pretty tipsy after... four beers. It's actually kind of nice, though. Regardless of my complete sloth-ness, I've had a good time. We've jammed a lot and it's been really great.

Speaking of jamming, the drum set still hasn't been reassembled, which means I haven't play in about two weeks or so. I'm dying. God forbid I actually set it up, you know. But really, I don't want to haul the bass drum up the stairs.

Anyways, so I woke up at 2pm today and have spent the afternoon cleaning, rearranging, and decorating my room. I smoked a little bowl and have been feeling good since. I'm also listening to the new N.E.R.D. album, Seeing Sounds, and I think I like what I hear. I'm still not fully decided, though.




PS: I found two disposable cameras in my desk and I have no idea how old they are. I'm really looking forward to getting them developed and seeing what's on 'em.

PP$: I need money (i.e.: a job).

for a clown fish, he's not that funny.

Okay, here is my recap of the past few days. Wednesday, my brother, a couple of his buddies, and I drove out to Kerrville to go to the folk festival. It was amazing. We were greeted with the phrase "Welcome home". There was a beautiful, old piano near our campsite and I snapped a few good shots of it on the camera.

After hauling the tent and supplies to the campsite in the extreme heat, we set the tent up and tried to escape into some shade, but to no avail. We were cooking in the sun when a nice old hippie dubbed Papa Duct Tape invited us to his campsite to get out of the sun. We drank beer and chatted with him for a while, then he gave us a tour of the grounds. We met more old hippies and some very nice people. After the tour, we headed to Camp Mixed Nuts and jammed with some of the folks there. Later in the afternoon, we headed up to the stage and watched a show, which was good. We spent the rest of the night drinking Steel Reserves and wandering, chatting, and basking in the great atmosphere. Unfortunately, we had to get up and head out the next morning, but it was so great that we're thinking of going back again soon.

Last night, Mike and I headed out to the Fareview concert to show our support for Ray. It was good to get out of the house and see some live music. The band played very well and I met a bunch of new people and had a lot of fun. Afterwards, we headed to Aaron's house and hung out there for a bit, then we headed to some guy's apartment. We basically just bounced around for the rest of the night, eventually wound back up at Nick's and I crashed on the couch for a couple hours before heading home.

I love my friends and I can't remember the last time I was this happy.

damn it feels good to be a gangster.

Right now I can't collect my thoughts enough to do justice to how amazing the past couple of days have been, but a lengthy update is soon to come. I'll try to get one in later. I promise.

come on, take a little walk and tell me - who do you love?

I can finally swim again. The tattoo healed nicely and I'm very pleased with the final product. I'm already thinking about my next tattoo. First, I was thinking about getting a dinosaur on my wrist, but lately I've been really wanting a chest piece of some sort. I don't know what to get, though. It's got to be something that I put a lot of though into because a)chest pieces are big, b)they are quite visible, and c)it will be expensive. I want to do something involving like a globe or the galaxy or something and then have some words along with it. I was looking at quotes last night and found a couple good ones.

You know what would be awesome? If for my birthday, some of my friends pitched their money together to get me my tattoo. Hint hint. Not that anyone even reads this anyways.

I've lost about 5 pounds since I've been home. Awesome. Now I'm going to go eat some cereal .

how can i see the road if i'm looking at the signs?

I went shopping with my mom today and got some really cute new tops, along with tampons, Boca burgers, bras, a dress, and string cheese. This is about as exciting as my life gets, sadly. I got a new sports bra, as well, and it does a wonderful job at securing my tatas, I must say.

I started the Couch to 5K program today. In fact, I just got off the treadmill about five minutes and I'm sitting here, sweating. I'm using some dude's podcast as a guide while I run. Today was basically comprised of intervals of walking and running. After about the 6th running interval, the narrator was like "You should feel the effects of your runs, but shouldn't be tired or out of breath". All I could think was, "Yeah, well it probably isn't 100 degrees where you are, buddy."

My brother is having a party here tonight because one of his friends is turning 21. I think I will join them, but I'm not going to drink. No sir, not tonight. Well, maybe one beer. I do have a six pack of St. Pauli Girl in the fridge...