how the time does fly. we're in portland right now after some fun adventures with fischer up in seattle and boise. the rest of omaha ended up being really fun. we went to brother's, a neighborhood bar a few blocks away from laura and finished off the night by going back to her place for some youtube classics: tim and eric, george washington, dan deacon lizard and sang some third eye blind. dietz knew every word. man after my heart. haha.


driving all the way across western nebraska AND wyoming proved to be quite the arduous drive but saw some of the craziest landscape i've ever seen in my life: enourmous skies, vast expanses of flat, barren land and gorgeous clouds. we stopped in SLC and met up with one of steve b's friends, justin, and watched tons of arrested development. so good. followed only by one of the best vegan breakfasts i've had all trip at vertical diner. yum.


next stop was boise for some basement show action. all the kids were super nice and there was some awesome pop-punk happening and trampoline action. jason and ilya played hella video games and we got entertained by a wizard. i went to sleep on the couch early, amidst burrito making and linux chatter. indeed.


onto seattle the next morning where we met up with justin and jason clackley at their nice apartments and watched saved by the bell episodes (jessie singing "i'm so excited"? check yes!) the next day was their tacoma show, so after hanging out at jason's work, elliott bay (rad coffee shop/book store in pioneer square) we left to eat sandwiches at quickies (seitan awesomeness served by a man with the most incredible dreads ever) and then went to the viaduct for the show. it was kind of a shithole but there was a drawing of jason clackely in the bathroom (which trelayna freaked out about so we had to take a picture) and it was still a lot of fun to see every one and hang out on the couches.


after being harassed by jason's cat, revolver throughout the night, in the morning we all made breakfast and watched can't hardly wait (which continued to be referenced throughout the day. most amazing 90's soundtrack. hands down) after much dawdling and some more coffee, we headed down to the re-opening of the zine library and ate tons of free food (mighty o!!) there was a park across the street so we proceeded to watch the crazy gymnastics and huge chess board (why can't they use their hands?) in the perfect weather. shortly after we headed down to their show at the holy mountain which was a far cooler space and got to hang out with noam and giel on the porch of the bar next store and talk about (compare, swap stories) about all our travels. got some good chat time in with mambo (did you know they make pbr lite?) and the dudes from zann and everyone seemed to be in far better spirits. we heard a lot about the bainbridge show the following day and the promises of the pool party but had to regretfully decline.


we left the next morning after having vegan cinnamon rolls at cafe flore and met up with crossett at his house in portland. after some switching and wrenching, i borrowed his cross bike and we headed up north to polo. it was nice to see casey and damian again (even though it'd really only been a few weeks since they left chicago... haha) and see everyone kill each other on the court. we rode down to the bluffs to watch the "trains humping" and then to the bye and bye for tasty vegan bar food. after a dirt section and a wrong turn, we made it back to crossetts and got through half of willow before i totally conked out.


the next morning we headed back to hawthorne for breakfast at cup and saucer and met up with damian downtown for some whole foods and park action. after checking out bike central, we began our trek to alpenrose to meet up with crossett and ride the incredibly banked track. it was totally deserted so it was fun just to mess around on it and take some pictures. after we were all
tired of riding, we went to albertsons for some bbq supplies and the longest line ever because of a new cashier. once we got back to the house, we listened to nick's new tapes from the bins (oakland soul, anyone?) on the boom box and bbqed on the tiny grill. charlie made us watch a christian rock video followed by some other terrible VHS at which we decided to head up north to meet up with casey for birthday 2.0 at the karakoe bar, alibi. Augie was back in town and
got serenaded complete with a lap dance from some dude singing tina turner. quite a few people made it out, crazy pictures were taken, me and christina butchered the shit out of paul simon's "you can call me al" (to which todd told us we did a terrible job at convincing him of paul simon's amazingness) and sang the entire "teenage dirtbag" song even though i wasn't up there. i thought the waitress was going to cut us off at some point as the pitchers didn't stop coming for 4 hours, but she humored us well in the face of all the rowdiness.


two more days left in portland and then BACK TO SAN FRANCISCO. east bay race. after party. the dovre saturday night. box dog race. theives. so much going on!! i can't wait.