it's one of those days where i've been meaning to post all day, but never had a chance to. my earlier post was going to be about my crashing caffeine buzz and drinking that last little bit of mocha that is all chocolate and cold coffee…still a potent combination.

but i'm not anywhere near a caffeine buzz, by this point in the day, crashing or otherwise. i've had lunch. i've finished all my work for the day. i'm getting ready to leave. but i thought i'd sit down (still on the clock) and type something into the little blogger window.

i was up front, trying to print some documents before i leave, and this guy comes in and needs some help getting started in pagemaker. so i set him up and i'm showing him the ropes in 30 seconds or less. he's this gnarly lookin' gay dude and he's just leaning over me, totally invading my personal comfort zone, which is admittedly a large area of space. he's all up in my shit, chomping on his gum like a fucking cow. it took everything i had to keep from drilling that fuck in his gum-chewing face. i just wanted to knock him the fuck out. keep in mind it had nothing to do with him being gay. it was about him crossing that line of comfort. and that fucking gum. i'd punch anyone that was crowding me like that. unless it was a pretty girl. then i'd just ask her to move. if she refused, then i'd punch her. i guess i'm not the nicest guy in the world.

but i never claimed to be anything else.

the ex called again last night. i guess subtlety isn't working. time for me to just say "brian wants to try to carry on with his life in a more constructive manner. thank you." or something like that.

the live and/or rare mp3 of the day (or so)
coalesce – supernaut
in these black days vol. 3

coalesce kicking ass all over supernaut. sometimes happiness is just crazy guitar lines and insane screaming. bitchin'.

i ended up getting stuck at work for an extra hour and a half tonight. they kept loading my plate with shit that needed to be done right then, so i was going slightly crazy. the thing is, though, i'm thinking about staying over every day for the next two weeks, just to pad that paycheck before tour. that should be a nice tactic. do that and work an extra day and i should be set.

a friend gave me a copy of the newest dj shadow. i have yet to listen to it. i've heard it's really good.

in the "what the hell?!" category: apparently the kentucky lawmakers are doing a lot of drugs. i wish i knew where they were gettin' their shit…

i went to taco hut again today. i figured i'd use my free meal. i made sure to go to a different one, though. i didn't want to take any crazy chances that they'd fuck it up again. well…i place the order and show the woman the card. she gives me the meal, no questions asked, and then forgets to take the card from me. so, thus far, i am going to end up with triple my money back because taco hut screwed up my order. i think that about evens out. maybe. we'll see how long i can ride this card…

and now the return of…

the live and/or rare mp3 of the day (or so)
converge – snowblind
in these black days vol. 2

taken from a 7" series of current hardcore bands covering black sabbath. i'm gonna post my five favorite tracks this week. this one is converge totally rippin' snowblind like crazy mofos. obviously. marvel to the samples of ozzy from an actual sabbath concert…

okay. so i figure since i slept late and forgot it was easter, therefore inadvertantly blowing off my family, i should make a little post to bipolar.

yeah…i'm still a little ticked about coalesce cancelling the other night. how lame is that?

i just got back from ye olde taco hut. i ordered the cheese pizza combo and brought it home. well…i cracked that fucker open and bit into the pizza and it was just nasty. i'm used to the cheese being like rubber, but the shit was cold and the crust was hard as a rock. so i plow my way through it, mainly just because i'm freakin' starved. well…then i get to the breadsticks. they were burnt, yet still cold and they, too, were like chewing on stone. fed up, i packed what was left of the "meal" up and trucked it back down to the point of origin. keep in mind that, while i may be hell on the foodservice industry, i have never taken something back because it tasted like shit. never. i had to get back in the car from home and drive back to that shithole, so by the time i got there, i was downright pissed.

so what else is new?

so i take it in the front door, my hateful little smirk on my face, and tell the lady at the counter what the score is. she walks off to go get something, and comes back with this little conversation goes down…

her: this card will get you a free meal the next time you come back. we're really sorry about this.
me: no no no…see…i asked for a refund. you're just trying to give me more food. that just means i have to come in here and play russian roulette with your crap food again. i want my money back.
her: let me get the manager.

they always seem to think i'm gonna be intimidated by the manager. fuck that. i told her the food was crap, pointed to their conveniently placed sign that says if i don't like it, i get my money back, and got just that. my money back. and i took the little card for a free dinner, too. all the while sipping my pepsi from the combo.

other than that, my weekend has been pretty low key. i got another phone call from the ex, last night. i met her at a bar i hate and sat there and proceeded to hate everything about the situation i was stuck in. it was a total booty call, i'd say, but i think i held my own. actually…i know i came out the winner in that situation.

end of story.

lesson: you fuck with the bull, you get the horns.
or…
"nobody fucks with the jesus."

damn straight. now i'm just gonna go rent the big lebowski and get it over with.

yeah…remember when i said my day sucked yesterday? well…it didn't get much better.

i left work and went to chris's art opening down at aslan's how. i felt bad because i was only stopping by for a few minutes, and since i was way early, i was the only one there. so i hung out with chris, told him i'd try to make it back in a little bit, and then hit the road to head down to the brycc house to see coalesce.

and then i got there and found out that they cancelled. apparently they had left their moneybag at cbgb's last night and had to stay the night in nyc and wait until 1pm to get back in and get it, making it impossible to make it to louisville in time for the show. so i stuck around for a little while and watched black widows rock the joint. i wasn't as into it as i could have been, but i was tired and having "one of those days." i did, however, pick up a copy of two unmastered tracks from their upcoming cd. sounds pretty good. (here's some proof)

but still…no coalesce.

so i went back to chris's art show and there were a lot of people there, so i felt a lot better. everyone was standing around and looking snooty while they talked about art. i told chris that i liked the one with the big pink tank and the other one with the skull and crossbones. he said that was pretty predictable, considering me.

then connor talked me into going to the rud to see carrie and kelly play a "second story girls" show. they played about five and a half songs and it was all good. i didn't drink.

i'm on the wagon until tour. this should be interesting.

by the way…you other girls need to get on the ball…when i have a bad day, there's nothing better than getting something like this. damn straight.

what does it mean when your horoscope has a typo in it? am i doomed? am i destined to make typing mistakes for the rest of the day?

damn it…i make enough of those, anyway…

today has been shit, thus far. i walked out of my house to a beautiful day. then i realized that i was headed to work. i rolled all the way in with the windows down and the moonroof open, blasting hot snakes the entire time. beautiful day. stuck at work. great.

so i arrive and end up having a discussion with the store manager where she basically told me that she just hired some other person from nashville to fill the open computer services slot. that's cool. except she gave her the shift that she had just promised me yesterday. what a double-talking whore. so i basically let it be known that i probably wouldn't be coming back after tour.

there's no probably about it. when april 24th hits…i'm gone.

other than that? well…it's storming outside, which doesn't make me feel so bad that i'm stuck inside, but still…i hate this place.

i'm leaving work a half hour early to go to chris's art show and then on to the coalesce rock throwdown.

hopefully my day gets better.

just because it's funny…

kate's description of my physical appearance, these days:

you're somewhere between a cute cuddly indie boy and a wino who'd spit in your face if you didn't give him spare change.

and she says this is a good thing…

on a whim, i decided to take that little enneagram quiz thing. here's what they decided to tell me about myself:

fives feel estranged from the world, consequently their mind is usually their best friend. gifted in analysis and making sense of things, they make great inventors and visionaries. the immense inner world of fives can become a dark hideaway.

spooky. and damn close to the truth, these days…

it's really a bad idea to have one of these crazy whirlwind weekends and then try to sit down and post about it. one reason is that you're completely exhausted and you're really tired of thinking about it. another reason would be that a bunch of people have already asked you "how was your trip?" and you're tired of talking about it.

but i don't really want to think about going to work yet, so here goes…

friday night: i got the wise idea to try to convince matt to go to michigan fest with me. we then promptly closed the bar and walked out into the night, as drunk as possible, vowing to meet up in the morning (or in a few short hours, rather).

saturday: late start (as matt said, about three hours late). no matter…i hauled ass all the way to michigan. this doesn't seem to bother matt too much, mainly because he and i have the same driving philosophies. right around nightfall, we cruised into toledo and i looked at matt and said "it's probably a bad idea to have the cruise control set at 90, driving through toledo at night." matt looked at me and said "yep." i turned it off and less than one second later, i blow past an ohio state trooper doing just under 90. note: your car doesn't decelerate much in the span of one second. miracle: the cop just let us cruise on past. i looked at matt and said "that's my free one."

we finally arrived in romulus, michigan and the fest right when small brown bike ended their set. we hung out for a bit, shot the shit with those guys and then hey mercedes took the stage. the new guitarist seemed to work out pretty well. matt enjoyed himself, which was good. then we promptly went outside to hang out in the coalesce van and consume cold ones with way too many people to list. many jokes were told about dewees' insane eating habits (think week old crave case and leftover hot wings) and death metal bands on japanese street corners.

then we went back in and coalesce proceeded to tear the roof down (not literally…that happened earlier in the evening). we then ended up back at the hotel, hanging with the gang(s). there was some one man jacuzzi shenanigans. we decided to go get food. at the little diner, the following conversation took place between me and sean from coalesce…

sean: hey…did your room come with a jacuzzi?
me: nope. i'd trade you, but i don't want the naked o'brien that comes with the deal.
sean: good point. you're better off.

we then went back to our room and passed the fuck out.

sunday: i vaguely remember hauling ass through ohio again and eating lunch at a denny's in toledo. i also remember some car locking his brakes up and skidding across three lanes of traffic, somewhere around dayton. matt and i pretty much just gave it a "what the fuck?" and moved on.

sunday night i slept in my own bed. bitchin'.

monday: chris and i headed up to chicago to see hot snakes. this was a trip i was really excited about before, but at this point i was just tired of driving. regardless, we went. as we proceeded through indiana, our nice, spring-like weather from kentucky changed into crappy snow. by the time we got into indianapolis, there were snow drifts on the sides of the road. insanity. we got to chicago without incident. we hit the record store, stopped at a friend of chris's house and had a beer, and then headed out to the show.

we met up with sebastian and his ladyfriend at the venue, and much catching up was done. selby tigers were pretty good. i lost interest in atombombpocketknife pretty quickly, as they seemed to try to play every song like it was the last one of their set. they also sounded pretty monotonous in their "rocking."

hot snakes took the stage and destroyed me. that's all that can really be said. they played a few new songs (here's the setlist) and they were pretty damn…awesome. sebastian took a picture of me kickin' it with rick fork.

"him? oh…that's my buddy rick. he's a pretty cool guy."

then we ran into a friend of chris's and my life became hell. he convinced us to go out to another bar with him after the show, guaranteeing us a place to stay. you never want to turn down a guaranteed place to crash in chicago, so we bit. we ended up at some bar called "the rainbo" or something. i parked around the corner on division, under the friend's suggestion. "there's other cars parked there. it's not snowing. it's cool, man…it's cool." that's when we went into the bar and proceeded to get completely obliterated. i ended up in a photo booth with a beer, as per a certain mr. dawursk's suggestion.

the rainbo closed for the night. we walked a block to another bar and then ditched that and took a cab to a completely different drinking establishment. i am, of course, completely oblivious to the doom that was happening at division and damen…

we hop a taxi back to the neck of the woods of my car, which happens to also be right around the corner from where we were staying. i didn't see my car on division (correction: i didn't see any cars on division) and i tried to point it out. the "friend" kept telling me "your car is cool, man…it's cool. it's just around the corner." i promptly made him walk with us to find my car. point: my car was not there. it had been towed due to some snow route signage. i punched a bus stop a few times and yelled. a lot. then we went back to dude's apartment and proceeded to call around and find my car. once it was located, we passed out and decided to go grab it in the morning.

tuesday: one huge ordeal later…i'm on the phone with work, telling them "i'm not going to be into work today. why? well…i just got my car back and i'm in chicago. seeing as i have to be in there in 25 minutes, i don't think i'm gonna make it." they relented, but made sure to tell me they'd need to see my receipts from the whole ordeal. bastards…you're just opening a fresh wound.

then chris and i ate at chipotle and decided it tastes like asshole. nowhere near the level of the mighty q'doba. we even started working out an elaborate burrito rating system. taco bell is a 1, q'doba is a 10. you figure out the rest.

then we came home.

total miles put on my car over the weekend: ~1300
total cops that i blew past in excess of 80 miles an hour and still didn't get pulled over: 3

i was tired and apparently i got a call from an ex-girlfriend about an hour before i came home. weird.

i just want a quiet moment.

hot snakes was amazing. chicago treated me like it's bitch. until i can write a proper post, have these pictures…

(photo courtesy of a photo booth and too much high life)

and here's me chillin' with rick fork from hot snakes.
(photo courtesy of sebastian and his own bad self)