June 26, 2009 – Philadelphia, PA
It’s like riding a bike for the first time in years…you kind of suck at it at first, but eventually everything starts falling back into place and your hands and head start to synch up and the frets your fingers land on start to hit with 90% or better accuracy. The fact that I never touch my guitar outside of being on tour is starting to show, and I am starting to get worried that this is some kind of foreshadowing of my life. We played what I would consider to be my best “First show of tour” with Mose tonight, with Dan being my 2nd favorite Mose drummer. We have to leave for Skatopia early, so we are all taking naps before we leave at 6 or 7am. I spend most of the evening finishing my book as opposed to sleeping, wishing I would have remembered to order my mom some flowers for her birthday tomorrow.
June 27, 2009 – Rutland, OH
I slept most of the way to Rutland, only coming down from the loft occasionally to eat some bread we brought with us. After an exhaustive travel day we made it Skatopia, which is best described as a world where people whose whole perception of punk rock is the Casualties and NoFX, combined with a certain infield of a NASCAR race feel. People are shooting fireworks everywhere, bonfires are everywhere, cars were set on fire, it is essentially what a 14 year old kid would imagine anarchy to be. The collective mindset of everyone who buys into Skatopia is that of a bratty 13 year old that would rather shoot roman candles at their friends that do anything constructive, never the less positive, with their life. I am almost glad that this place exists in the middle of nowhere, so long as they all stay the fuck away from me.
June 28th – Driving.
Kyle Knight pointed out that I am not a “happy camper” this morning, and he is right - I hate being dirty. I will wear the same shirt for a while and I may go a couple days without showering, but I hate literally being covered in dirt. Some crust punk made fun of me for vocalizing my discontent with being filthy…which I can only assume he thought would somehow diminish my mood or cause me to feel bad about myself. This kid making fun of me for being clean is one of the biggest compliments I can be given. The more and more that I differ from these scumbags, the happier person I am.
We end up staying with some of Matt’s family just outside of Athens, OH.I never want to return to Skatopia again for the rest of my life.
June 29th – Athens, OH
Its almost 3am and I’m not tired. Sometimes I wonder if the only emotion I ever feel is varying degrees of anger. TS said he saw me crack a smile the other day and I really hate that people can count the number of times I have looked happy on one hand, and I equally hate it that the people close to me consider it some kind of novelty to see me present myself as happy or having fun. We spent all day cleaning the bus and all I want to do is eat a fucking burrito.
