Friday February 20, 2009

Gotta love days off. No alarm this morning, and I decide to say fuck it to trying to get an early start. I sleep till almost noon and the only reason I woke up was because of a call from Stin. He wakes my ass up around 11:45 or so asking if he can swing by and grab his bottle of whiskey that he left at my house a few nights ago. I tell him to come on over and take that as my cue to get up.

I cruise into the kitchen for my morning fix. Tool is already up and Shimon is over as well. Not sure when they decided to get their days rolling, but it seemed like they had been up for awhile. I get my coffee and head back into my room to check my e-mail and update the diary.

While I'm working on my computer bullshit, Stin drops by. I take a break to let him in and we sit around and discuss plans for later tonight. He is house sitting at his sister's place in Oak Park (about a solid half hour from here) and is going to be having a little get together. I assure him I'll be there after the band gets done with our show at the Bou tonight. He cruises and I go back to my room to finish my bullshit.

I get a call from Dave just around 2:00 or so telling me that we're going to have a practice at 3:30 before our show tonight at 7. I tell him I'll be there. I then decide to check my checking account balance to see if the overdraft fee had been posted yet. Sure enough, the fucker is staring me right in the eye the second I load the page. I grab another cup of coffee and prepare to go to battle with the bank.

I call them up and tell them all about the mishaps of yesterday. The girl looks up my account and tells me there is nothing she can do. I try and go to war on the issue, but it's no use. She's not budging and there's not a whole lot I can argue about. Unfortunately, my defeat with the bank ultimately ends with me having a negative balance in my checking account. On top of that, I have no cash on me whatsoever. My only option is to cash in my change and hope that I have enough money to put gas in my car. I throw all my change in a zip-lock bag and head off to the bank.

I have about a quarter tank of gas in my car when I depart from the parking lot. I cruise over to the bank and cash in my change. I had exactly $20.06. This works out perfectly. I now have enough gas to get to Dave's and to the Bou later on tonight and the extra twenty bucks will ensure that I can make it to and from Stin's sister's place. I become happy because I just made shit work. Go me.

After the bank visit, I head over to Dave's. I walk inside to find Dave and Ryan enjoying a feast of White Castle. I rock some leftover chicken rings that they didn't want and it's off to the shed to go over the set list for tonight.

We get out to the shed only to find that Tim, whom we thought was in there the whole time, was actually gone. We find out that he went with Dave's dad to the bowling alley and won't be back for another half hour or so. Dave decides to change all the strings on his guitar while we wait for Tim to get back. With my new found free time, I just rock out on a killer free-style session on my drums. Feels damn good.

Tim finally arrives about ten after four. We run through the set twice and finish just around 5:30. We start to pack everything up to get there by 6:15. Of course, we take our sweet ass time because what rock stars are ever on time to a gig?

We get to the Bou a little after 6:30 and set up all our shit. We've got a smaller crowd coming tonight because everyone is holding out for out big Double Door show in the city on Wednesday. But we get a decent audience, nevertheless.

We rock out our set, and even nail the two new songs flawlessly. After our set is over with, Dave T. and Chris decide to do a freestyle instrumental jam with Dave. I join the audience as we watch them all jam out for a good half hour. Overall, a pretty solid night.

After packing everything back in the car after the show, I cruise home for a quick bite to eat and to look up directions to Stin's sister's place. I cruise out of my place just around 10:30, so I'm already predicting that everyone is going to be completely shit-faced by the time I get there.

I arrive around 11:00 PM and, sure enough, everyone's already plastered. I crack open a beer and join in on the festivities. It's a little too late to play catch up, so I just casually drink. We all sit around the table playing card games and bullshitting with one another.

After all is said and done, most of the party leaves while Stin, Mary, Phil and myself stick around to watch Demetri Martin's stand up special. Phil and I decide to crash there (it's already just about 2:30 AM) so I call my car in to prevent getting a ticket.

Of course, it's already too late to call for overnight parking, so I just have to bite the bullet and hope I don't get a ticket. Phil decides to cruise out not too long after to get some late-night fast food from Wendy's. He comes back with two bags full of chicken sandwiches and burgers. We all max out on the food and then begin to get sleepy. Stin and Mary go to the bedroom to crash while Phil and I pick our spots in the living room. We throw on the first season DVD of SNL and both pass out within minutes.