well, happy valentine's day, y'all!!! hope it was a good one...i guess i have a couple of days to catch up on...it feels like it was kinda busy this week...i think i was stressing about finding a car...i'm using my mom's right now, so i'm not too rushed into buying a vehicle...although i think i really do want that subaru impreza...whether to go w/ the wrx or not is the question...



alright...so wednesday night, it was the day after amy's bday (amy, my buddy pete's wife who's also my buddy) and so a bunch of folks from hyde park came up to my hood to take amy to cafe delucca's, which she loves...pete called me, and rt happened to have just come over to watch the next installation of bruce lee movies (the chinese connection). so rt & i walked over to cafe de lucca's and hung out w/ the gang for a while. i was glad rt finally got to meet amy...and it was good to see pete & sam again...it's been so long since i'd hung out w/ those guys...



after cafe de lucca's, rt & i went back to my place...there happened to be a rerun of a nascar race on espn classic, so we watched that for a while before starting the chinese connection...bruce lee goes crazy in this movie...and of course, everybody dies again...after the movie, rt showed me some beginning kung fu moves...high block, inside block and outside block...i need to practice these dilligently cuz it's all i know so far...i fully plan on kicking some ass this summer...preferably rt's ass...



thursday night, rt came over on his way home from his sister's...it was a nice night, so we went for a walk looking for trouble...rt wanted to practice some kung fu, ya know...we did a few moves, practicing the stuff he'd taught me the day before... when we got home, we watched conan the destroyer for a while...then we launched into a series of OLD sitcoms...three's company...head of the class...perfect stranger...charles in charge...family ties...it was so awesome, bringing back memories...



so friday...i didn't go into work cuz there was a rumor about snow...so i dialed in from home...at lunch, rt & i went to the texas bar & grill...i was glad i got to see him a little bit for valentine's day...these flowers are from rt...he picked them out for me @ trader joes...the cool thing was that i wouldn't tell him what kind of flowers i liked, and there were all these roses around for valentine's day...he figured out that i wasn't a rose girl, and he actually guessed that my flower was the daisy, so he picked out a mixed bunch that had some daisies in 'em...



last night, i got together w/ the girls for my friend tina's bday and a valentine schmalentine party, where we ate lots of yummy food like caviar ($2.99/little jar @ trader joe's), pate, brie, and other stuff and my cousin brought her entire bar...and then we watched a cheesy chick flick (sweet home alabama)...it's always good to get together w/ the girls...last year at valentine's we went out for tina's bday and then went to friar tucks where we all got drunk on vodka lemonades and jello shots and lost our voices doing karaoke...that's when i did my infamous punk rock version of dreams by the cranberries...



alright...i'm falling asleep...i'm going now...

well, rt and i never made it to the evanston subaru place to see the impreza wrx...here's why...SNOW...LOTS OF FLYING WHITE STUFF EVERYWHERE...it was damn scary driving my frickin' rented minivan...we were all ready to go...i head out of my apt to go pick up rt at 6pmish, and whaddaya know, it's blinding flurries out there! i had to run upstairs to get a snow scraper cuz rental companies don't want you to bother cleaning the snow off their vehicle before getting into it...at least that's what i gathered since the last 3 rentals i had did not come equipped w/ such a device. so yeah...white stuff everywhere...i get to rt's and he was just waking up from a nap, and when he looks out the window he flips out cuz that snow had gathered in the span of his 20 minute nap. so i'm like, there's no way we're driving up to evanston in this mess, i don't care if rt drives an outback wagon...so yeah...we didn't go...



instead, we went to see shanghai knights @ rt's little bro's theater downtown...we pretty much had the theater to ourselves...we both enjoyed the movie thoroughly, although i'm such a wus i didn't keep my eyes open for the whole thing...rt kept holding my arm down so i'd watch, but somehow my hands would still keep flying up to my face...it was kickass, man...i love owen wilson...he's like the same character in every movie...except maybe that one serious war movie he made...and jackie chan is always fun to watch. i like movies in which girls do kung fu, so i liked this one a lot.



on the way home from the movie, the roads were treacherous...on the 290, right before rt's exit, we saw cars at a standstill w/ flashing cop lights up ahead, so we slowed waaaaay down...then out of the blue, this black sports car about 30 feet ahead of us goes out of control horizontally across 3 lanes of traffic and crashes at a high speed against the wall of an overpass...rt & i saw the whole thing, and it was surreal...the SOUND was unbelievable...it brought me flashbacks of my accident...then this white minivan comes from behind going way too fast and careens in and out of traffic and gets out at our exit...we saw the dude get out of his van and check it out, then he jumped back in and got back on the highway...rt says he thinks the dude bumped other cars on the highway...as we exited, we saw like 3 other accidents pulled over to the side...it was nuts...we were so happy to make it home safe and in one piece, but i was too scared to drive home then...i had to wait a couple more hours before i could venture into that minivan...rt had me call him and let the phone ring once just so he knew i made it home ok. i bet he fell asleep before that...



so it's good to be alive today...and i'm listening to uncle tupelo...



so my rental doesn't have a cd player...i mentioned this before, right? so i was listening to WLUW, loyola's college radio station...sometimes i just love listening to college radio because the kids are so BAD...they were doing the news, and this one girl reads one segment, and then she's like 'well be right back after a short break.' and you're expecting some public service announcement or something...instead what you get is total silence for 30 seconds...and then you hear the girl go 'ok. we're back now...' i'm sure there was supposed to be a commercial in there somewhere, but it was just funny to have total dead air for all that time...it was cool...

so sunday night, flying home was not very fun...i got to the airport like THREE hours before my flight because of the heightened security, which was even more heightened in nashville cuz gool ol' dubya was coming to the city the next day...so i had a good 2.5 hours to kill...i wandered around the halls of the airport bored out of my skull...i did find these really funky rainbow colored drumsticks that say GRAND OLE OPRY on 'em for rt.



they did have an interesting photo exhibit by some woman whose name escapes me now...a lot of the photos were from new york city. i have to admit seeing those photos up there made me think i could do that too...so why don't i? uhm...i dunno...i like being able to pay my bills? one of these days...speaking of photography, rt asked me last night what i wanted to do in the next year...i told him i've been thinking about getting more serious about my photography...i've even thought about rearranging my work schedule so i'd have a day off regularly to spend on photoshoots and what not...we'll see...



anyways, my flight was delayed sunday night by like an hour while they covered the plane (which was a fokker-100 btw--josh had to look up my flight info for me cuz i had no idea what time my plane left, and he started cracking up when he saw i was gonna fly in a fokker...i was hoping the laminated airplane info sheet would say FOKKER-100 on it so i could steal it, but it only said F-100...) with this deicing formula...that plane was packed out...it wasn't all that big...only like 21 rows or something.



so i had to rent me another vehicle when i got into o'hare...would you believe that enterprise, where i had my reservation, was out of cars? so guess what i'm driving...yup...a MINIVAN! ha ha ha!!! this will be the closest i ever come to being a soccer mom, i guarantee it...yeah, i really need to buy me a car...i'm scared to death of the insurance rates though...i've had the worst driving year of my entire LIFE...i was great for so long...and then BAM! BAM! BAM! SPLAT! it SUCKS...rt & i are going to look at a 2002 subaru impreza wrx tonight...rt really pushed me to get an allwheel drive vehicle for safety purposes...at first i wasn't too keen on the subaru, but everyone i talked to kept drooling when i mentioned the car i was considering, and the more i looked into it, the more i decided that's what i wanted...now rt thinks i'm getting it cuz he wants it...little does he know that i've been inducted into the subaru cult...oh, it's true...once a subaru owner, always a subaru owner...



i'm bringing my cat aberdeen (abby) home tonight...poor thing...it's gonna go stir crazy in my apartment...oh well...



i have no cd player in my rental van, so i'm listening to a tape rt lent me called wreck--soul train. i have no idea which is the artist and which is the album name. it rocks though.

ok. the following is adapted from an email i sent to my friend on saturday night (actually, sunday morning ~ 6:30am). since it captures the weekend for me and i'm too lazy to type it all over again, i'm just gonna cut and paste for the most part...photos to follow...



*begin transmission*



dude...



well, i pretty much hung out w/ noah & beth of ticklepenny corner & erik & jeremy of UHQ this afternoon...they both did showcases in little hotel rooms...



so bill does this afternoon showcase, and it's supposed to be just him & jake in this littly tiny hotel room, smaller than the room we stayed in at cornerstone...well, julie miller decides to join him on percussion, and 45 minutes before the set, bill talks to kenny [ed. note--kenny is kenny hutson who was a member of vigilantes of love for two years until around the tail end of 1999] on the phone and kenny's like 'i've got my mandolin' and he scoots on down to the hotel...so there's julie miller plopped down on the bed, drumming on a HOTEL TRASH CAN with a tambourine inside it, and at times she's shaking this plastic bag of little bells that they sell at craft stores...and there's kenny smokin' on the mandolin, and beth of ticklepenny corner is playing violin...beth was so cute because she's a huge fan of julie miller, and she was so excited that she got to play w/ her...bill gave this big huge speech before going into resplendent about all the fear and distrust in the land these days and how we need to start by preaching the sermon of forgiveness and love to ourselves and then to those closest to us, etc...and then they do this rendition of resplendent that was so gutwrenchingly beautiful...even bill loved doing that song w/ those people...he said that julie & beth were singing the same harmony parts, and at one point, he said the two women looked at each other as they sang, and that it was just such a precious moment for him...



then we all hung out at this bar called legends...bill, jake, kenny, kenny's roommate won, beth, noah, tim, erik & jeremy of UHQ, an irish singer/songwriter that they were all friends w/ named susan, derek becker, and mike wooten who's also now w/ wildwood and is bill's road manager for this tour...we ordered pizzas and drank...derek got the idea of buying noah a shot because he'd never done a shot before, and that turned into everybody at the table getting a shot...the poor bartendress...13 shots...not all the same...



we went back up to one of the hotel rooms, and all the boys got their guitars and harmonicas out and they jammed...they were playing all these oldies like neil young and bob and i don't even know who else...we all wished afterwards that we'd had a chance to record it...



bill's showcase at night wasn't until 12:45 am...it was just a few songs...he gave a whole big speech before solar system...they're minisermons, yeah, but when bill preaches, it sinks in for me...it was kickass...everyone was talking about how great it was afterwards--the UHQ guys, noah, etc...



after bill's showcase, we wanted to have a drink, but the hotel bar had stopped serving liquor...it just so happens that kenny's roommate won owns J&J's market, which happens to have the best selection of imported beer in town...it's also got a cool cafe vibe w/ couches and tables and chairs and what not...so we all piled into bill's van, and won opened up his store to us at 2am...we all got to pick whatever we wanted to drink and eat...it was awesome...then we sat around and talked...we started talking about favorite movies...it was so kickass to be sitting on a sofa next to kenny with bill right across in the other sofa talking about so many different movies...kenny is a frickin' riot...he knows like all the lines to ghostbuster, pulp fiction, and a bunch of other movies...



then someone picked up the guitar and they started doing old country songs....jake and kenny have an endless supply of them, and they just passed that guitar around between the two of them...it was soooo awesome...you know it's my favorite thing in the world, just sitting around watching boys jam...well, when it's boys like jake & kenny & noah with bill piping in every now and then...that is so awesome...



we didn't get back to the hotel until 4:30...noah & beth were staying in tim & derek's room, and we got into a discussion about god and all that jazz, and i didn't leave until close to 6am...it was good stuff...



what a day...this one will defiitely go down in history for me...



and of course i wish you'd been here...



rawk on dude--



*end transmission*

the following was written at o'hare before my flight to nashville:



i am sitting in chili’s restaurant @ o’hare. i always eat at sit down restaurants if i have a long wait before a flight. now technically, i shouldn’t have had a long wait. my flight to nashville was supposed to be at 7:01 pm. stupid me though decided to do the laundry after serene left this afternoon, and in between working, doing laundry and having lunch w/ rt, i just kinda ran out of time…i had to return my rental car which was another problem…i guess when you have a rental to return by 6pm on a friday and you actually want to make your 7pm flight, and you’re leaving from the armitage exit of the kennedy xpressway, it’s probably not a good idea to take off for the airport as late as 5:30 pm. what the hell was i thinking? well, quite honestly, i was being overly optimistic.



so yeah, i missed my flight. the next one to nashville wasn’t until 8:54, so i suddenly had a lot of time on my hands. which was good cuz they pulled me over at the security checkpoint and that took like a zillion years. this was the first time i ever missed a plane. my family came close to missing our plane from tokyo to honolulu when we came to this country cuz my dad was buying a camera. i got a lot of use out of that camera when i was a kid…i have a vague recollection of running like the dickens through the toyko airport. i’m sure i thought it was all fun and games, and my mom was probably in tears…



i’ve gone through a lot of firsts this past year, huh? first time on my own…first time totaling a car…first time in austin, tx…first time missing a flight…i don’t mind missing my plane…gives me a lot more time to just relax…yeah…it’s been hectic the past couple days like you would not believe…



so ryan and the boys of serene arrived early thursday morning, and i went to work as soon as they got here so i could get out early…i got home from work around 2:30pm and i took the boys to penny’s noodle…they loved it…at least everyone but ryan loved it…it’s hard to tell how ryan takes to foreign food…after penny’s we went to reckless for a while…i picked up a nappy roots dvd for jesse…i miss him so much….i think we watched a movie…yeah, bottlerocket…man, i love that movie…i wanna marry wes anderson. i bet we’d get along just fine…yeah we watched a lot of movies...i found out after i left for work, the boys watched zoolander! it was frickin’ 6am! anyways, we went to the beat kitchen to load in probably at 8pm. the boys went on right at 9pm. it was a lot earlier than i was expecting them to go on…it was cool seeing jeremy drum…i’d been wondering how he’d be, and i have to say, that i can’t believe he learned all those songs like overnight to do this tour. i had fun hanging out w/ him before the show too. he’s a lot of fun! and extremely sweet. unlike ryan. sweet is not a word that comes to mind when i think about that boy…as much as i absolutely adore him…



anways, after the show, erik & i decided to go to lemmings for drinks. the others stayed at the apt and watched terminator 2. rt called me and met me & erik @ lemmings. we had a couple drinks, walked to estelle’s, there was no room for us, so we walked to spin cycle to see if jeremy was doing laundry, took pictures w/ tim duncan, and then went back to the apt. we finished watching t2 and just hung out…i was glad rt got to meet the boys…



after rt left around 3:30, we watched meet the parents (that’s like four movies in one day for these guys!)…ryan & i had a good talk…short but sweet…it really meant a lot to me that he considers my place a home away from home…i went to sleep close to 6 am. i got up at 9 to dial in to work…i got this snazzy new laptop for work, which is what i’m typing on right now…it’s sweet as hell…



the boys started waking up around 10ish…except for ryan of course…we left him at the apt. and i took the others to hilary’s urban eatery…they loved that place too! they have such good food there…i saw the boys off at around 1:30. they have a show tonight in louiseville, ky…i miss them already and so i’m listening to their cd right now…but they’ll be back in two weeks, so i’m not too sad…i just wish i could tour with them and take care of them…



after the boys left, i called rt, and he came over…before he did, i threw in my laundry @ the spin cycle, worked, started packing, etc…rt & i went over to café delucca…we talked about what car i should buy…i really want a subaru impreza wrx…rt says he’ll be so jealous if i really get that car, even though he knows i’ll let him drive it whenever he wants…he’s such a funny boy…



well, we’ll see what i think about nashville…my first time there…i’m looking forward to hanging out w/ derek, wildwood’s booking agent extraordinaire…we always have a lot of fun…although i have a feeling i’m gonna smoke a lot of cigs if i’m w/ derek…and i can’t wait to hear bill & jake play more, and ticklepenny corner & erik of uhq! yup. showcases every night from 11pm until 4 am! i just wanna see bill playing at 3am…i wonder if he’ll be cranky…



anyways, i was a bit frazzled earlier today, but i’ve had a great couple of days w/ my boys…i love those guys so much…even jeremy i took to right away, even though i really was hoping for jesse to be drumming on this tour…no one can replace jesse, but if it had to be anyone, it might as well be jeremy. he rocks. he’s a sweet drummer too.



alright. time to board that big iron bird in the sky…