1-8-07 - 10:25am
my string of bad luck hasn't quite run out yet. last night linda and i had a mixup with her wallet causing me to have to drive to santa fe and back. then i realized i forgot my sleeping bag and pillow. packing up this morning i ripped my pants on a stray piece of metal in the van. oh well, hopefully it's done now. we've got a camera on board now, so silly videos will be abound. I realize that this first entry is very specific to myself (dave), and i'll try to make the rest more applicable to all of us. more of our collective experiences.

1-9-07 (morning)
day two. we have just awoke from our slumber at our friends house in phoenix, well... tempe. this is our third time in phoenix in about 6 months. for as much shit as we talk about phoenix in the summertime, it's great in the winter. the show wasn't a rousing success, but it was fun. the few people that stuck around to see a random touring band headline had a great time. the hands on fire boys were dancing like wild men. anyway, we had a great time. then after a bit of denny's, with extremely slow service and a fairly underwhelming food (yeah, i know denny's is crappy, but this wasn't even up to that level), we passed out at Jason from hands on fire's house while he and his friends had an ali g marathon in the other room. we all just kinda passed out. it's easy to stay up and hang out for a while when you're on tour, but it's also easy to go to sleep. sitting in the van isn't extremely physically taxing, but there is a level of mental stress that does make you tired. so far, i have successfully spent $0 out of pocket for food. we took some of the show money to buy our denny's last night. i don't necessarily think that we should have, but that's what people wanted to do. but anyway, time to start packing up to head to LA.

1-9-07 (afternoon)
on our way to LA we passed by circles of palm trees that were all dying and rotting and dead. the last remnants of a "resort town". a barren wasteland with force planted trees in lovely patterns. now it's just a palm tree graveyard. it's a strange thought, so many areas of the country are overcrowded, and yet there is so much open land, even if some of it is virtually uninhabitable. it's hot where we are now, i'm sure it's pretty unbearable in the summer. russian circles = good times.

1-10-07 - 11ish am
drove overnight to san fran, stayed with jasper's sister, after rolling in at around 4:30. i haven't been very good at keeping up with this journal compared to last time. perhaps tour journals aren't actually interesting. we're spending the day in san fran, not sure what we're gonna do.

1-11-07 12:00pm
we're still in san francisco... aside from wierd sound issues on stage from all the bands, the show last night seemed to be a rousing success. we sold some merch, made decent money from the door, and our new friends from pteradon gave us a huge helping hand and gave us their cut from the door. it was amazing. it was great to play with foma again as well. we had a great time yesterday, we walked around the neighborhood and went to golden gate park. it was huge, and really gorgeous. it was a little chilly and really breezy, but it was very nice. san francisco is a nice city, however, i probably wouldn't want to live here. riding my bike around these crazy hills would be insane, however, we've seen a ton of bikers, and a lot of bike shops. it seems to be a very bike commuter friendly city. the club was nice, kinda upscale bar, but really great. the sound person was a girl, which was cool, and she really seemed to do a good job. everyone in the crowd said we sounded great. i've spent a little money on food this time, but way less than last time. last night we had INDIAN FOOD PIZZA. it was indian food, on a pizza, with indian spices and curry sauce instead of tomato sauce. it was a PAIN to get there (crazy san francisco hills and one way streets), but it was seriously great. now we are watching rocky 1 on tv (comcast on demand), at jasper's sisters house. i don't think we're going to end up doing much sight seeing today. but that's fine. san jose tonight... looking forward to it for real!

1-12-07 9:35am
just awoke in san jose. last night i wasn't entirely prepared or excited about the party that awaited us at our sleeping destination, but it was fine. good people to talk to, metal slug to play. the show last night was pretty much the best show on any tour ever. the shinobu boys definately know how to party. good kids, good times, we made a good amount of money from donations and sold some merch as well. our old friend alex (i heart metal) played, which was fun as always. it seriously feels like home anytime we hang out and/or play with those guys. it started a year and a half ago when we helped them out with a practice show, and has finally come full circle when they helped us out with a practice space show. i think their's probably went better, but it was seriously seriously seriously awesome. i don't know what else to say about it. our new bros in pteradon never cease to be awesome, they are now part of the san jo new mex connection. now it's time for oatmeal, then we visit jasper's sister's classroom. i think we have enough money for gas to get home. and if we can make enough money to make the money back that we've already put in for gas out of our pockets, then we'll be in super sweet shape.

1-13-07 10:30ish am
we got up early today b/c the wonderful girl that was so gracious to let us stay on her floor had to go to work. and get this... she works for MARK SUMMERS. yeah... the double dare guy. crazy time. she was an old friend of jasper's from high school, and was really cool. she stayed up and hung out with us and put up with all our silliness till a ridiculous hour. the show last night was okay. about as good as i expected. which was that we would drive a lot of people from the room and a few would stick around. the sound guy later told us that we were the loudest band that's ever played there, which of course was awesome for us. however, i think we came across the band that takes the prize for best band we played with on tour. they were called the parson readheads... check em out. the bands we've played with this tour have been significantly better than last time around. last time it was much more random. this time has been much more consistent and awesome. hands on fire, she's your sister, whirling dervish, pteradon, foma, shinobu, i sing the body electric, nate kavanaugh and the replacematts, chillin dogs, the parson redheads, pink and noseworthy, all good bands and great people. we've made a lot of friends this time around, and seen a lot of old friends as well. tonight is the last show, and is our return to flagstaff. we love flagstaff, and it's been about 6 months since we've been there. tonight we're playing a house show, which will hopefully be awesome. no word as to who we'll be playing with however.

1-13-07 10:03 pm
the last band is playing at the house show as we speak. errr... as i write. the show was great, it was loud, it was cramped, we set up in my friend matt's kitchen and rocked balls. it is cold and snowy in flagstaff. it's not snowing at the moment, but it looks like they've recently got snow, maybe last night. flagstaff is just about the same elevation and latitude as santa fe, so it's very similar in climate. i haven't found it to be super cold, i actually like it when it's cool and snowy. and outside is downright warm compared to the van. the lack of heat finally caught up with us. it's been chilly all tour, but nothing too bad, we've been able to tolerate it. but today driving from LA to flagstaff was seriously frigid. we had to take short shifts driving because it was so cold we were losing feeling in our feet. but like jav said as we were unloading our gear out in the snow and ice, we're living the dream. tomorrow will has breakfast with his sister (maybe) and we head home. hopefully the last of the snow has passed and we don't get iced over and crazy stuck tomorrow. but i think we should be fine, and we're going to try to get a jump on things early so we can give ourselves ample time to get home. i love tour, and this one has definately been the best, but i am always excited to go home. girlfriend, kitties, bikes, all good things. i know tour's not over but i feel it's close enough that i can start wrapping things up. it's the same generic tour stuff that we all love, new friends, old friends, new venues, new cities. so far, in our 3 tours, we've played in phoenix 3 times, flagstaff twice, la 3 times, oakland once, san jose once, san francisco once, provo once, denver once, austin twice, denton once, san diego once. going home i will once again miss shinobu, but now i will also miss pteradon. last time we went home we kept talking about POP, this time it'll be the parson redheads. playing in great clubs is great, but playing in houses and practices spaces can be seriously amazing. eating out and new places is great, but making peanut butter and jelly and eating oatmeal and granola bars is good too. and saves money. next time we tour in winter, we need heat. no question. but i guess this is what "paying your dues" is all about. drivin around in a busted old van playing your heart out for a living room full of people, or a club that's mostly empty. it sounds cliche i know, but there's really no other way to describe the feeling. we're actually doing something with our band, it's more than i've really been able to say about any of my other bands. playing local shows is one thing, but touring is something else. the blood in your veins changes. jav and will had a talk about how going on tour this time didn't feel any different than being at home. that it was beginning to feel normal. this is absolutely a good thing. going on tour should feel normal. because it's pretty much what we were meant to do.