Road Dogs

Well, I guess its about time I update this thing.

First off, I'm glad I haven't really partied lately. I'm so much happier and have a lot more fun when I'm not completely smashed. I wish more of my friends would understand that they don't need to drink, or get high every night to have fun, I'm not one to ever smoke weed but these days I never hang out with people anymore who are sober and it bums me out...especially knowing you guys are better than that. But I won't go on a rant about this because its not my place to tell you how to live your life. I've just realized more than anything how it's progressively turned me into a happier person and I'd like to keep it that way.
Speaking of friends, I keep meeting the most amazing people. People who probably don't even realize how great they are. So I thank anyone new that I have met for giving me the privilege to meet you. You are all awesome. I enjoy meeting new, positive people who actually have a story to tell, and who willingly admit that they aren't perfect, who dont put on this front for the whole world to see. Its good when people acknowledge their flaws. And those of you who don't, you really need a fucking reality check. Especially those of you who pick out flaws on someone else when you don't even have the fucking balls to admit you're in the wrong. Pisses me off, realize that people make mistakes, everyone deserves a second chance.

So enough about that, I don't have a life anymore outside of work, but I'm actually okay with that, I'm siked to just work and go to school so I can transfer to a school in Boston, I need a huge change like that in my life more than anything. I've realized how fucking bummed I always am in Indiana. But right when I hit the road to head to a show, or just go on a trip it takes a load off my shoulders. I just need to travel and discover new places.

Example: last night,
Leann and I went to Nashville, Tennessee. I've been to Nashville for shows before but this was completely different, it was packed, and everyone was legitimately enjoying every moment of it.
When Have Heart played songs off their new album it was amazing how you could automaticallly sense all the different emotions in the room.
I listened to the new album on repeat on the way back home while leann was sleeping, it amazes me. I can relate so much to the songs. Pat Flynn's lyrics are absolutely phenominal, I really don't think I can stress that enough. PHENOMINAL.
When you are moved by lyrics like his its a fucking rad feeling.

Another thing that's phenominal is how leann always gets to sleep on our roadtrips and I'm always stuck driving, needless to say, I couldn't drive all the way home last night, so I pulled over and slept for 3 hours In a church parking lot in my car. And what's crazy, it didn't bother me at all, haha. Stuff like that is fun to me. Ask me why and I won't have an answer.

Time to watch wipeout though, I'll be updating a lot more.

I figured now that it's summer I will get one of these things.
I will start out by saying, starting with June 4th I have had the time of my life. There comes a point in life were you realize life won't exactly wait for you, and you have to just go for things. On June 4th I was preparing for what I figured would be the best roadtrip of my life, and indeed it was. Leann and I left for Pennsylvania on the 5th, the drive started out to be alot of fun, the mix cd's we provided for the trip got us in the mood for what we had ahead of us, and our GPS we named Salsa assured us we would make it every where we needed to be.
I must say, when you've been driving for 5 hours, your driving becomes a little shakey, so by the time I was turning onto our first on ramp from Ohio to Pennsylvania, I took it a little too fast, and a monster flew from one side of my car to the other. I started to smell something fruity, and when I said something to Leann she knew right away that a monster energy drink had exploded in the back seat of my car. When she went back to grab it, there was a hole in the bottom of the can and it was getting all over my car. When she rolled the window down to throw it out, she didn't roll it down nearly enough, it definitely didn't make it out the window, and exploded even more in my car and all over her by the time it hit the glass. It's well known that Leann and I can't do one thing right when it comes to avoiding messes like these. Speaking of messes and the backseat of my car, at that same moment we had not known a package of grasshopper cookies had fallen into my floor board. These all melted by the time we reached PA.
On that drive, we added a new creature to my car, a monarch butterfly Leann named Gypsy, but by the time we made it to the show in Lemoyne, PA she had died. After that, she remained the mascot of my car for the rest of the trip.
Lemoyne was only the beginning, Leann and I arrived pretty early, and decided to find the nearest mall, nothing good came out of that, except a massive smoothie for miles away, and this picture:

The show was decent, but seeing our friends was awesome. Our orignial sleeping plans for PA did not follow through, so we ended up staying with Dan and Hannah, probably the cutest/nicest couple ever, and the only place we had a real meal at our entire trip.
There is nothing like sleeping on hardwood floors, along with 6 other guys, but it was very enjoyable waking up to this in the next room:

Cam really knows how to get a good nights sleep. Thats for sure.
In the morning, Dan had made all of us an amazing breakfast, which included, eggs, baked beans, and toast. It was delicious.
By about 2pm, everyone was still hanging out because the show in New York was only 3 hours away, so everyone wanted to go get ice cream, Leann and I skipped out and decided to fill up, and go to a dollar store, which is where I found the most entertaining toy of the whole trip. It was a MASSIVE frisbee. I'm pretty sure this one object kept everyone entertained, people who weren't even with us were into it. I'd say it was definitely worth 5 dollars. By the time we got back to Dan and Hannah's we had to head out, we drove to this kid Ben's house where we met up with the rest of the bands. I had parked in front of an old lady's house, and threw a crystal light bottle at Leann, the old lady immediately came to the window and started watching us, right after she began to write down the description of my car, so i decided to go ring her door bell and see what was up, she had said she was going to turn me in for littering in her yard, needless to say I had to explain a bunch of stupid shit to her. And for some odd reason, right as she closed the door her house alarm went off. So we all halled ass out of there.
I'm trying to think of any interesting stuff that happened while we were driving to the show in New York, but I don't recall the drive being too exciting. I kept telling Leann on the way there how bad I wanted a real New York hot dog, and when we got to the show there was a hot dog stand outside, I was stoked. Too bad I didn't even get one.The show in New York was probably my favorite.Everyone's set was amazing, and kids were going crazy. Especially the drunk dude in front of Leann and I singing and dancing to us during the Madball set. Good times.
After the show we all decided to drive to Connecticut and just get a hotel. This was probably the most interesting ride, Chris and Dr. Cam rode with Leann and I in my car. I could of lived without Chris at the time, haha. I was basically falling asleep the whole time, due to my lack of sleep the following night. All I wanted to do was crash when we got to the hotel, but that is not even close to possible when you are with 15 dudes. I believe I got about an hour of sleep. Check out was at noon though, which was nice. We all had a nice breakfast at Denny's. Our waiter Jesus was nothing short of shitty. After breakfast we fit in a little nerf football in the parking lot of our hotel, then headed out to a mall in Waterbury, CT. We had a ton of time to kill before the show in Wallingford, which was only an hour away. We all kind of split up, and I took off with Leann and Unzie, i'm going to skip to the good part here when we were in another dollar store. Leann came up to me with bubble bath and told me smell it, as she was handing it to me I grabbed it, and it exploded ALL in her face. Unzie had missed the whole thing, but by the time he had turned around and saw the aftermath, neither of us could control our laughter, although Leann walked away insanely pissed, I tried taking her an American Flag towel to help her clean up, but she refused to talk to me. Unzie and I decided to just let her be, and went down to some massage chairs and got a massage, always good after being on the road forever. After being at the mall for two hours, and Leann getting over the soap, we decided to ditch everyone for a bit and head to a beach. Leann and I were siked to actually see some ocean. Too bad we had nothing to be siked on, the beaches in Connecticut SUCK. We drove around for a bit then finally decided to head to Wallingford. Can't say the Wallingford show was that great, just a bunch of 13 year olds pretending to beat each other up. I did get to meet Frankie though, and had to be saved from getting hit by a car, thanks Nate. This was the last Madball show of the tour, and Mackey Jayson had notciced Leann and I had been at every show for the past three nights, and figured he'd say whats up and thanks for playing frisbee with is girlfriends daughter. It's crazy knowing you're talking with the guy who played drums for Cro-Mags. Very over-whelming I must say.
Leann and I had planned on Connecticut being the last state we drove to, but that was until we met Jackie, Danielle, and Merideth, they were our long lost sisters. We had no idea how much we had in common until we started talking, and realized we have all the same friends.
As Leann and I were saying our last goodbyes to the bands, they came up with the crazy question to why were weren't just going to their last show in Maine. We really didn't have an answer, and this is where our second adventure begins. Leann and I stayed over at Jackie's house, and had a girls night with her and Merideth. First stop was Jay and Mikey's house, where Jay had made the BEST cake EVER, and they had the cutest kitten named alexis, but we only stayed there for a little bit until we headed to Jackie's. Jackie's consisted of girl talk, and major guy dissing of dudes we both know, it was awesome. It was also awesome getting a decent amount of sleep for once. In the morning Jay insisted of having breakfast with us all before we embarked on our journey to Maine. I decided I need to have more dunkin' donuts iced coffee's in my life. So good. We all said our goodbyes, and headed to pick up Danielle. Jakie, Danielle, Leann and I were about to be in for one long roadtrip. We got 1 gallon of gas in Connecticut considering it was $4.10, and drove to Mass before we actually filled up. When we arrived at the gas station, I stole a Mass key chain, I just had to. Leann and I both couldn't believe we were in MA, and on our way to Maine. It was about a 6 hour drive from Danielle's to Bucksport, ME. This was probably the most beautiful, scenic drive of the whole trip. I want to move to Maine now, I fell in love with that state. As we reached the state sign I pulled my car over so we could get a group picture in front of it, I would put that up but Leann is being lazy and not uploading the pictures, so I will be updating this as soon as pictures come to me. But anyways, we finally got to a destination close to Bucksport and stopped at some little ice cream place in the middle of nowhere to get some food and take a break from driving. Onion rings and french fries were the way to go. As we were leaving I backed into a car that had a bunch of old men in it. My luck of course. Good thing it did no damage to my car, and only scratched his. I got out to apologize thinking I was screwed, but the dude told me not to worry about it. From there I knew the rest of the day was going to be AMAZING, which it was. We finally got to the show in Bucksport, and it was a blast. My car got the name of clown car because I pretty much have everything you could possibly need in it, including a ton of camping games. The entire show everyone was outside just hanging out, playing frisbee, soccer, and shuttlecock. Danielle and I also attracked Outbreak, and Cruel Hand's windsheild with melted grasshopper cookies. It was a lovely sight. Definitely the best time. After the show in Bucksport we headed back to Portland with everyone for the end of tour party. On the way there Miles away was shooting roman candles at us from the van while driving, talk about a fun drive back. By the time we got to Smith St, the party had already started. I will document this party simply with pictures, just a few from my phone for now, this whole time Ash was taking pictures so when I get those I will be updating again.
We ended up leaving at 3am to get Jackie and Danielle back to Connecticut and it was fianlly time for Leann and I to come back to Indy. It was such a bummer, and such a long drive. 21 hours from Maine, home. My service engine light came on right when we got to CT for not having oil and Leann was freaking out, by the time we got home I had gone 467 miles on 0% oil and I could not walk for the life of me, my whole body was a giant cramp.
All I can say is, I miss everyone a whoooooole fucking lot!