week in review
okay, so thats kind of a lie. it’s not really the week in review, it’s more of a weekend in review. anyhow.
wednesday: spent all day doing a database assignment, washing clothes, and getting my shit together for chicago. went to bed at 3:00 after doing 6 hours of homework, burning 20 cd’s or so, packaging 180 cd’s into sleeves with flyers, doing 4 loads of wash, and taking 1 shower.
thursday: woke up early, started packing. kept finding more shit to do, wound up missing my 11:00 (which i really needed to go to, but it no longer matters since im probably failing). found MORE shit to do, skipped my 12:30. dropped off my DB project at 2:00, and started the drive. checked to make sure we had the 4th row DMB tickets about, oh, six THOUSAND times.
the drive was a little rough. it was fairly straightforward, and we made good time (driving at 90 an hour or so), but it was REALLY windy the whole way, and so i had to compensate to stay in my lane (to the point that any time i would pass under a bridge, the car would veer off sharply to the right.)
checked into the hotel at about 8, orded italian delivery, took a shower, and went to bed shortly thereafter.
friday: woke up, got dressed, and drove around looking for the arena, hoping to catch the soundcheck and maybe meet the band. that’s a negative in both cases, by the way. so we left there about 2:30 to go eat, went to a taco bell (we wanted something small, as we were getting real food with charlie and katie at 5.)
we robbed taco bell blind — there was one of those little vending machines in the dining room that had rubber balls for 50 cents (you know the kind — drop in the quarter, turn the little crank, get a ball.) there was some cool super-balls painted like pool balls, and we decided we wanted one. laura went up and dropped in her 50 cents, and got this ugly-as-shit multi colored rubber ball. i dropped in my 50 cents and got a 12 ball. laura really wanted the pool ball, so put in another 50 cents. then she turned it about half way, and realized that if you turn it half way, then turn it back, the machine dropped out a ball and didn’t eat your money. so, for about 6 bucks, we left with $21 with the rubber balls (42 balls.)
charlie called, so we went up to dominican (katie’s school) to meet up with them, then we went to TGI Friday’s for dinner. sat around and bullshat there for a while, then went to the show.
the show was awesome. busted out some classic tunes, some new stuff, and relatively little ‘everyday’ stuff. (setlist available at http://nancies.org/tour/reviews/042602.html.) the new album’s going to be phenominal, im really looking forward to it.
as we were walking to our seats, emily t. (who we met in vegas) recognized us and pulled us off to the side. so we went with her after the show and tried to find something to do, but the radisson (which was supposed to be ‘the place to be’) was dead. we sat in the lobby, and this guy dan came up to us. he went to the show, and started talking to us. turned out to be very knowledgeable of dmb, the scene, et cetera — it was nice to have a conversation about it with someone who knows what they’re talking about. at about 3 am, we went back to the hotel and went to bed.
saturday: woke up noonish, got showered and dressed, and went to meet up with emily t. again. went to the radisson and met up with a bunch of guys who knew emily. drank some beer, and then went to dinner with lani and that cool motherfucker drew. it was exceptionally hard to try and meet up with the two of them and go somewhere to eat, but thats not their fault — traffic was horrendous and we were running out of time.
got to the show at about ten to eight (we skipped the opener, because, well, we all thought he really sucked.) night two was INFINITELY better than night one. our seats were better (dead center row 4), the set was better, and the people around us were better. (setlist available at http://nancies.org/tour/reviews/042702.html.) during jimi thing, when boyd started going nuts on his first solo, his sunglasses slid off and hit the ground. dave stopped playing completely, walked over, put on the sunglasses, and started dancing around the stage like a maniac. absolutely hilarious.
handed out the free cd’s before and after the show — you wouldnt believe how hard it is to get some people to take something thats FREE. and apparently, handing out FREE THINGS at allstate is illegal. commie pigs.
then we went back to the radisson. there were TONS of dmb fans staying there, and they all had signs posted on their doors and left their doors cracked so people could get in. so we went from door to door, floor to floor, and if it was an open door, if there was a dmb sign on the door, or if it was room 420, that cool motherfucker drew would kick in the door, and we would all go in and chill in the room, mooching free pizza and beer, when appropriate. the folks at room 420 didn’t open the door, but the whole hallway reeked of pot so bad that people were getting contact highs. there was one non-dmb fan who left the door open — we went in his room like we owned the place, and he got pissed and threw us out.
so we did that for a while, then came back to the ramada and drank more beer. at 2 am, we went to bed.
sunday: got up and checked out of the hotel, went to shedd aquarium. very cool place. saw all kinds of fish and dolphins and whales. saw this bad ass little fish that would swim to the bottom of the tank, eat a mouthful of sand, and spit it out somewhere else, digging a little hole. but the coolest thing i bought? a clam hand puppet that has a tongue and two long beady eyes that you can control with your fingers. bad ASS.
left chicago for home at about 5:30, stopped for dinner, and got home around 10:30.
a little background info first: we’ve lived at our current residence for about 15 or 16 years now. never ONCE have we had a problem with water leakage, basement flooding, rain water, anything like that.
apparently, now we do. it figures that the fucker would flood with rainwater as soon as I start living down there. so, i’ve been shopvac-ing the water off the floor, using hair dryers, space heaters, towels, anything i can find to try and dry the brand new carpet — not that it matters, because it ALREADY smells like mildew (for those of you who work with me, it smells like the trashcan full of dirty rags.)
great. so, thats my week. i’ve got more shit to post up here, but i’ve rambled on long enough for now. ill post more later – im off like a prom dress.