It’s 3:23 on a Wednesday morning. About 787 miles south of here, my mom is about to wake up and start her day; mine is still continuing from when I woke up off this couch at 10:30 yesterday morning. Currently, I’m waiting for Jeremy from Jumpstart Records to call Dave Kylman’s cellphone to tell me that he is on the way with Jena Berlin’s new 7”. Jon Loudon called Dave at 11:55 to tell him that he had just talked to Jeremy and Jeremy said it was going to be “a couple more hours.” I am not sure what constitutes as a couple more hours, and since Jon didn’t respond to my last text message, I can only assume that this thing isn’t going to happen tonight. But I suppose getting as little sleep as possible before an 8 hour flight, followed by an hour and a half layover, topped off with an hour and a half flight isn’t necessarily a bad thing. So I guess I’ll just stay up a little while longer and hopefully sometime soon this phone will ring.

South Philadelphia is a hell of a place. Double parking is allowed, so long as if you park on the outside you leave early enough so that those parked on the inside can leave when they need to. This kind of honor system seems contradictory to me, because every person I have come across in South Philly that I don’t know or haven’t been personally introduced to is kind of a dickhead. People seems very caught off guard when you say “thank you very much” when they give you change at the 7 Eleven. People act genuinely shocked when you hold a door open for them. I feel like there is a certain sense of rudness inherent to South Philly that just wouldn’t fly in Atlanta. Sure, when I was a little kid, I swore. In fact, I thought it was so awesome to use offensive language that I would do it at every chance I had. The thing is, while I was 12 years old and swearing like a sailor, I was very careful to make sure I never swore in front of adults, and certainly not in any other situation that would advertise the fact that I was 12 years old swearing like a sailor. This is not the case in South Philly.

Last Wednesday I played my first show with Jena Berlin, in what I think can officially be called a “train wreck.” I never once got to practice with the band, could hear nothing but myself on Jeff’s drumset, with no vocals or guitars to help me follow the song. We playing on a knee high stage that was set up over three or four lanes in a bowling alley in Asbury Park, NJ., and a couple blocks away, Billy Idol was playing a show at an outdoor venue. When I was sitting outside sending a text message, I heard Billy playing “Rebel Yell,” and sadly, this was the highlight of the night.

Thursday was insanely better. Things slowly began to click and our set was less of a train wreck and more of a typical house show. Jordan and I don’t have any gear in Philadelphia, which meant we had to borrow gear from the band Scream Hello, which meant anytime Jordan, Jon, Dave or myself bumped into any other one of us, we would get the shit shocked out of us. Being that this was a house show, we got shocked. A whole hell of a lot. This would not be the only night that this would happen

Friday we loaded up the van and drove to New Brunswick, NJ. No one likes New Jersey except for the people who live there, and I feel like they are all just so miserable that they don’t know any better. People from Philly hate people from Jersey. People from New York hate people from Jersey. The only person I know that lives in New Jersey isn’t pumped about the fact that he lives in New Jersey. I don’t feel like I am being over dramatic when I say that no one likes New Jersey. Having said that, they have produced three of the best live bands I have seen in a long long time: Static Radio, Scream Hello, and the Ergs.

Just like every other time I have been in New York, we got lost trying to find our way to ABC No Rio. After the Google Maps on my phone told us to turn left onto a road that we couldn’t turn left onto, we eventually found our way to the venue and played to a very sizeable crowd. There is no way to say this without sounding sexist so I am just going to say it…the fact that Tia and Rachael from Bridge and Tunnel are both worlds better than me at playing bass and guitar (respectively) really really really bums me out.

We woke up at 8:30 Sunday morning and drove from Greenpoint, Brooklyn, to Syracuse, NY. Barrie showed us to some vegan milkshakes and I ate 3 veggies burgers and a veggie dog for free. We also played really really well to a bunch of kids that new the words to Jena Berlin songs and were mad stoked to see us play. So all and all, great fucking day.

Yesterday and Today, I slept.

Tomrrow we fly into Frankfurt, before finally ending up in Amsterdam. After that, who knows what the fuck is going to happen.

Its almost 4:00 in the morning. Jeremy isn’t calling, I’m going to bed.