Monday, September 27, 2010

no focusing today I guess.

maybe God wants me to focus on his lovely creation as demonstrated by the fantastic weather today instead of my 2 tests and reading quiz that I probably should have spent more time preparing for this weekend.

meh. tests shmests.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

2.5 months

so, I haven't written for about 2 and a half months. I've had stuff going on, some things more important than other things. but from previous experience, keeping up with a blog can be tough. and when you put it off for as long as I have, it becomes harder and harder to pick up and write because you're just thinking "oh man, I should write a blog entry, but it's been so long and I still need to write about blah blah blah." at least that's what happens to me. regardless, NO EXCUSES.

I want to write about the last 2 and a half months in detail and give pictures and all that fun stuff too.

july 11. triathlon.
I finished a triathlon. it was actually quite fun. I don't know that I will do one again though, because training for running sucks by yourself during the summer. also, training for the swimming portion is impossible, because the most difficult part was breathing in really cold water. I am really glad that I discovered my love for swimming though, and I totally demolished on the biking portion because of how much I rode my bike this spring/summer (which has slowed down since moving to a horrible hilly part of iowa city).

july 16-18. pitchfork music festival.


my brothers and I have gone for the past 3 yearsish. this year, kate and thurston (wife and son of trent) came, and amber(girlfriend/recent fiance of trevor) came as well. ports also joined us in chicago after work on Friday, though he and donny only came to the festival on saturday. isaac, sara, and andrew were also there all weekend, among some other assorted ames folks.

it was generally a really great time from what I remember. we missed tallest man, which was sad. however, seeing washed out gave me a complete new love for them (and by them I mean one guy, Ernest Green, who is also a babe), beach house proved to be wonderful once again, lcd soundsystem were way better than I thought they would be, wolf parade was great as expected, panda bear was interesting (but great), best coast was great, netherfriends was great, modest mouse was okay, robyn was rad, real estate was new to me and pretty cool though I haven't checked them out since, and sleigh bells, who I for some reason hadn't listened to before, were super rad and fun. I would say bandwise, that was pitchfork for me in a nutshell.

the pad thai was as good as I remember it being. I was very pleased to have kate and thurston hanging around at the back of the B stage for saturday and sunday so I would have somewhere to camp out and chill/take naps when I didn't feel like standing up and being in the sun.
I say with confidence, however, that hanging out with this adorable little dude was probably the biggest highlight of the weekend. he's the coolest nephew ever and also takes really cute pictures. I think trey can agree with this as seen in his blog.

july 19. candy claws.

the monday after pitchfork, trey and I opened for candy claws at the mews. it was a pretty fun time though it didn't end up being the best show that trey and I have played together. I think that we have just been making music that is going in different directions, and that is perfectly fine, because both things are pretty neato.

candy claws was pretty delightful though the sound and volumes weren't fantastic. they were really nice people, and I felt bad that their van had recently exploded and burned up a good portion, if not all of their instruments. I have been a big fan of this band for the past year or so and their new album (hidden lands) has is just as pleasant and heavenly to my ears as the last was.

july 20-23. st. louis.
the day immediately following the candy claws show, porter and I packed up and headed to st. louis for a little vacation and fun times.

we went to the st. louis zoo, which is FREE and totally awesome. I saw a red panda, as seen here, and they quickly became one of my new favorite animals, as well as the snow leopard, which I did not get a picture of because it was being a big old cat and sleeping in some difficult to see place. I was hoping to see a rhino, ant eater, and grey wolf, but they were all hiding. the bears were all really neat though, and the lemurs started screaming and going nuts at one point.

we also went to six flags, which was a lot of fun, but miserably hot. we waited in line at a couple of rides, getting very close to the actual riding, only for the ride to get shut down because of weather. we hardly got to enjoy hurricane harbor because of the signs of rain, so that was sucky, but it was still a pretty good time.
roller coasters are neat, but I got pretty nauseous from riding them all day. we managed to demolish this container of watermelon after quickly retreating to the car from the torturously hot weather. we also went to a couple of free museums, and of course rode to the top of the arch. THE GATEWAY TO THE WEST. it took a while, but it was totally worth it. overall, the trip was a success and good time and we managed to not spend too much money.

oh yeah, and we also went a few miles out of our way to stop by the american gothic house. the lady there was really friendly and took our picture for us. they provided clothes to slip on over our clothing, attached by velcro in the back. pretty classy I would say.



july 24. birthday.
I'd guess the next important thing that happenened to me was probably my birthday. I turned 20, which isn't really that big of a deal in hindsight. there wasn't a huge party by any means, though sara and andrew made me some pretty rad cards and I got some pretty rad presents from my family and friends (including a really awesome record player that has been super handy that was passed down from denise, an animal collective dvd that I still have yet to watch from jp, and getting my car detailed from my parentals).

july 29-august 1. move-out, move-in.
I packed up all of my stuff at my place on 6th street in ames, eagerly awaiting the day I could just move to iowa city already. after a slow process of packing things up at certain times and cleaning and staying at my parents at other times, I moved a bunch of boxes and junk from my mom's van on that friday by myself in the rain. it was generally fine except that marian was being a huge butt-tard and was so nervous from riding in the car that she pooped. in the car. and I almost barfed. I also managed to lock my keys in the van while I went to wal-mart to try and buy a bookshelf and assemble it before I headed back to ames to finish cleaning and ogden for my birthday party/trey's going away party. it was generally a pretty stressful day. I came back the next day with the rest of my stuff to see that marian had barfed on the carpet already. luckily, she has only barfed once or twice since then.

so, I used to watch the-n when it existed on the noggin channel at my parents. in between episodes of degrassi, they would show these sweet videos and clips of people's lockers at their high school and occasionally their bedrooms and stuff. it would never show their faces, but they just had like the coolest stuff and I always wanted to have the-n do a little video short about my room or locker or something. since they stopped doing that, and I also now realize that it is ridiculous and creepy, I am just going to post some pictures up here of how my little room/area have turned out. it's only because I actually know you all.

this is the wardrobe that porter and I built. it works perfectly and I couldn't possibly be happier.


I'm generally really pleased with how my room has turned out. even though it is probably half the size, if not smaller, than my room at my last place, it is a lot homier and comfortable to be in. I love it. although sometimes I can hear someone sneeze right behind me in the apartment next door which creeps me out. also, plants are awesome. double also, the thrift and consignment stores in iowa city have proved to be just wonderful.

this is my little study area that is now separate from my room and more a part of the living room that is also downstairs. it's been really wonderful having my desk separate from my room, let me tell ya.

I want to put something huge on this wall, like a giant piece of fabric or a tapestry of some sort. I just need to cover up this white brick, and it's hard to hang things on brick so I can't just cover it with pictures and things. if anybody has any suggestions that wouldn't totally clash with the couch and rest of the room, that would be sweet!

august 6-8. portland.

after immediately settling into my new pad in iowa city, I managed to snag a plane ride to portland to visit trey with my parents while they went out there for a wedding. he had just moved in and we just hung out and stuff. unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures with treynor. especially unfortunate because it's the last time I will have gotten to hang out with my best pal before christmas.

we played cribbage, drank coffee, rode bikes, watched angry beavers, ate out with our parents, went to an awkward party, and did other pretty average things that siblings do. but that's pretty much what we do best. it was great. also, portland is an amazing place with awesome weather. I think everyone should live there at one point in their life. I hope to one day live along the west coast somewhere, preferably in oregon or washington state.

the next week or so.
I don't remember what happened after I got back from portland, but I'm pretty sure I just passed the time getting settled in and buying things and hanging out before school started. I also tried to find a job and failed. after almost getting my dream college job twice, I am still currently jobless.


august 17. tennis.
what an adorable band that I got the opportunity to open for at the vaudeville mews. I hadn't heard of tennis before ladd asked me to play this show, but I listened to their myspace and it was pretty rad. before I played the show, I had read about them some on pitchfork and whatnot. they were really awesome and really encouraging and nice. it was also one of the better shows I've played, and a lot of people that I didn't expect to show up did, so that was neat. I have tennis's cassette tape and I listen to it often. it's really joyful and catchy and it has that surfy guitar that I have come to love so much.

august 18-21. chicago.
denise needed to go to chicago to deal with stuff to get her visa so she could do her aupair stuff in germany, which is where she is currently. turns out after driving to the suburb of chicago that her aunt lives in, riding the train (which was pretty neat) into the city, and waiting 2 hours at the german consolate, there was nothing that she could actually do to get her visa for germany while still in the united states. regardless, we saw adorable foreign people speaking in different languages while waiting around, and I got to actually spend some time in the city of chicago outside of going to union park for pitchfork. we also went shopping at the 3-story forever 21 which was not at all worth it, and ate at this louisiana restaurant that had a giant wall full of hot sauce and it was difficult to find anything on the menu that wasn't spicy. denise's friend from camp and 2 of his friends joined us for dinner and we all went and walked through central park a bit.

aaaand we went to the bean. I don't even care, I just wanted to see it regardless of how cliche' that makes me. also, I feel like this is a band photo or something.

we did some more shopping in this other suburb of chicago and watched tons of crappy chick flicks. it was a really great way to end our time with each other before denise would depart for germany for 3 months. christmas is going to be a pretty big reunion party for all of us, and I look forward to it very much.
denise and I decided that since we were both going to be learning german this semester, that both porter and trey should learn german so that we could just speak german all of the time instead of english.

since then.
school has started and been going for a month now. I was pretty jazzed for all of my classes. I had to last minute drop my contemporary cinema class and take stars, galaxies, and the universe. I was a little bummed, but nonetheless excited to take an astronomy class with which the course book is called JOURNEY TO THE COSMIC FRONTIER. neato, right? wrong. this class is more difficult than I hoped and was kind of torturous for the first week or so of trying to figure it all out. it has since gotten better, and I think I will do decently. I have my first art history test on monday which I am pretty stoked about. I am happy that I love art history enough that I even enjoy studying for the tests. I have generally enjoyed this class and we haven't had any assignments or anything yet so I guess I am doing as well as I can be. my writing about the visual arts class has been my least favorite of all my classes maybe. my teacher is tough, but I recently found out that I can rewrite any of my papers within 2 weeks of getting my grade back on them. so that is pretty neat. I also know that this class will be pretty useful to me in my art history student career. my drawing class has progressively gotten better. I didn't really like my teacher to begin with, but he has started talking a little less and given us more time to actually draw during class. having to spend as much money on materials as I did really blew, but I guess that's the pain of being an art student. oh, also, I decided I will probably double major in art history and fine arts because getting a fine arts degree on top of art history is pretty much just a few extra studio classes, which I was wanting to do anyway. and last but not least, my german class has proven to be pretty awesome. I love german. the language is kind of silly and ridiculous but I really, really love it. I can't wait to take at least another 3 semesters of it and hopefully be fluent in it and stuff. my teacher is this big bald 26-year old german guy named Jens Althoff (that's pronounced YENS). he is really into hip-hop and football (not american football). he is intimidating and rolls his eyes all of the time but he has grown on me and we all enjoy him quite a bit. he is funny and generally entertaining and keeps things lively. a lot of the learning is just done through the participation in class so it hasn't even been that hard of a class really. hopefully I can manage to continue my 3.67 or better gpa throughout this semester. since I have this newfound love for school now that I'm not studying music, I am actually trying to take advantage of all the ways that the school and teachers want to help us to learn things better.

I'm not exactly sure how many years of schooling I am going to have left, but if I take summer classes, it's looking good that I might be done in less than 3 years. but who knows really, I haven't looked that close into it because I hate doing stuff like that.

veritas and salt company have been going super well. we have already almost out grown the blue moose for salt company and have had a successful 10 people increase at least at every service. we have only had 2 veritas meetings at hotelvetro (not including the one that I have to wake up for in less than 5 hours to help hand out programs at), which is where we are having it for the next year. I'm not great at determining how many people we have, but it seems like we have had a pretty decent turn out. I had to watch the little 2-3 year olds for the first service. I am hoping that I haven't signed up to try and do more with this church than I can actually handle. salt leadership, children's ministry, welcome team, (hopefully) music team... I'm sure it will be fine. it's not like I have to take time to practice the saxophone anymore... uuummmmm.... or maybe I should. I don't wanna talk about it.

I might start playing some shows in iowa city eventually, but I want to take a little break for now. oh yeah, I also played at this nebraska pop festival last weekend which I thought was going to be a huge drag, but it ended up being pretty fun. porter and I just packed up and drove down to omaha and drove back to IC after I played. It was a long night and we got back at about 5am, but it was probably the best show I have ever played. the sound guy was awesome. the couple of guys that played before me were really great, and the guy that booked this festival is probably the nicest most awkward person ever. I really enjoyed it.

let's see, what else is new and random...
I am going to try and sell clothes on ebay for the first time. I bought a pair of jeans off of ebay for the first time. I made granola for the first time. I have finally tried hookah. I'm trying to eat much healthier foods. I made curtains for porter with lisagrace's sewing machine. I want to start sewing things more often. I have acquired a bunch of awesome old records. I made my first collage. our 2 new friends micah and luke are really rad. mini-blizzards are awesome. windows make nice wall decorations.

as for sentimental stuff...
God has been very good throughout this whole process and has given me a lot of joy.
porter and I finally get to live in the same town again and it has been really fun and great.
I have started missing my parents and family and a few lonely souls back in ames quite a bit (that means you if you are reading this). it hadn't hit me until this past week how much I missed people, but I do. I guess I'm not as strong as I thought I was, but that's probably okay. we are allowed to miss people from time to time. maybe everyone should make a greater effort to visit iowa city. yeaaaahhhhhhhhhh!

gracious. it is too late. I should go to bed. marian is mad at me for keeping this light on while I have been making this blog entry for the last 3 hours. I was going to have to do it sometime, marian!


hopefully this is the last blog entry I will ever write that will be this long. I am impressed if you stuck it out this long. sorry if it is making you uncomfortable that I am addressing you in my blog. I will try not to do that anymore either.
loves.