Monday, August 25, 2003
Baseball & Boredom
The advantages of our little lay-over in Wisconsin are that we've all cleaned our clothes, we've cleaned up the van (though it is getting a bit ripe in there . . . we probably should have left a window cracked tonight), and I've had a chance to rest my voice. Also we've saved money on food thanks to Amy & Dan being super nice and actually feeding us (some ziti the guys were raving about made for tonight's dinner). The disadvantages are that there's not much to do, we're all a bit bored and still tired, so some of us are a little more grumpy than we had been up to this point.
I succeeded in not saying a single word all day today, which of course is making me a little crazy as the guys don't always interprete my gesticulations properly which results in us all getting exasperated. So that probably doesn't help ease the hints of tension that have arisen today.
Today's big event was a trip to Miller Park to see the Pirates take on the Brewers. I'm sure I'll blog about the park and the game in my baseball-themed blog after tour. For now I'll just say that it's a very fun place to see a game. It's very much like a minor league game on a major league budget, lots of bells and whistles and games and such. Which is good because the pitching was so horrendous for both teams (final 10-9 Brewers on a walk-off single by Richie Sexson) that the 3-hour game felt much longer, even for a hardcore baseball enthusiast like myself. Many types of sausages, helmets full of cheese fries and some ice cream were ingested. To order I'd write what I wanted on my scorecard and show it to the concessions person. I told you I didn't talk all day.
Chris and Dylan both nodded off at the game, I'm sort of surprised at how tired everyone is. Part of the problem is that we've sort of lost our sense of time, both in terms of what day/date it is and what hour. Right now the clock on Amy's computer says 2:09am, but I could swear someone just told me outside that it was only 12:30. So I have no idea if it's 2:09 or 1:09. Honestly, I can only guess. After the game we did laundry, Chris, John and I played some wiffle ball by the garage. I then took a nap while everyone else watched the Home & Garden network. Honestly, I wasn't tired. That stuff literally bored me to sleep.
I woke up kind of grumpy and had a small helping of ziti which made me feel a little gross because I overate at the game and topped it off with a giant Rice Krispies Treat on the way home. We then stared that the TV some more and decided to "hit the town."
Milwaukee on a Sunday night . . . yeah. Not so much. We eventually found some bars open on Brady St. (thanks to Dan's advice), chose one with a pool table, but wound up playing Golden Tee. I've never played before, but I can see the attraction, as there's an actual physicality to the game beyond pressing buttons. Chris fell asleep at the bar and I drove us all home. Thrilling.
Anyway, up early tomorrow to drive to Minneapolis. Jamie plans on catching up with his friend Tooey, I hope to catch up with the best man from the wedding I attended in Chicago last week. Then a gig. I hope this not talking thing does the trick. I'm pretty dubious about my ability to sing four days in a row after the way my voice crapped out, but I'm optimistic about being able to make a good showing tomorrow night. I'll worry about the next three after that. Anyway, I should probably get to bed (though I've got that sort of anxiousness that comes from not having done anything since 4:00 . . . the one where going to sleep feels like admitting that the evening was a failure . . . I hate that feeling). The good thing is when I wake up I can being speaking again (though I should take it easy and try not to talk too much if at all in the van on the way to Minnesota), though I'm a bit nervous about what will happen when I do.
I succeeded in not saying a single word all day today, which of course is making me a little crazy as the guys don't always interprete my gesticulations properly which results in us all getting exasperated. So that probably doesn't help ease the hints of tension that have arisen today.
Today's big event was a trip to Miller Park to see the Pirates take on the Brewers. I'm sure I'll blog about the park and the game in my baseball-themed blog after tour. For now I'll just say that it's a very fun place to see a game. It's very much like a minor league game on a major league budget, lots of bells and whistles and games and such. Which is good because the pitching was so horrendous for both teams (final 10-9 Brewers on a walk-off single by Richie Sexson) that the 3-hour game felt much longer, even for a hardcore baseball enthusiast like myself. Many types of sausages, helmets full of cheese fries and some ice cream were ingested. To order I'd write what I wanted on my scorecard and show it to the concessions person. I told you I didn't talk all day.
Chris and Dylan both nodded off at the game, I'm sort of surprised at how tired everyone is. Part of the problem is that we've sort of lost our sense of time, both in terms of what day/date it is and what hour. Right now the clock on Amy's computer says 2:09am, but I could swear someone just told me outside that it was only 12:30. So I have no idea if it's 2:09 or 1:09. Honestly, I can only guess. After the game we did laundry, Chris, John and I played some wiffle ball by the garage. I then took a nap while everyone else watched the Home & Garden network. Honestly, I wasn't tired. That stuff literally bored me to sleep.
I woke up kind of grumpy and had a small helping of ziti which made me feel a little gross because I overate at the game and topped it off with a giant Rice Krispies Treat on the way home. We then stared that the TV some more and decided to "hit the town."
Milwaukee on a Sunday night . . . yeah. Not so much. We eventually found some bars open on Brady St. (thanks to Dan's advice), chose one with a pool table, but wound up playing Golden Tee. I've never played before, but I can see the attraction, as there's an actual physicality to the game beyond pressing buttons. Chris fell asleep at the bar and I drove us all home. Thrilling.
Anyway, up early tomorrow to drive to Minneapolis. Jamie plans on catching up with his friend Tooey, I hope to catch up with the best man from the wedding I attended in Chicago last week. Then a gig. I hope this not talking thing does the trick. I'm pretty dubious about my ability to sing four days in a row after the way my voice crapped out, but I'm optimistic about being able to make a good showing tomorrow night. I'll worry about the next three after that. Anyway, I should probably get to bed (though I've got that sort of anxiousness that comes from not having done anything since 4:00 . . . the one where going to sleep feels like admitting that the evening was a failure . . . I hate that feeling). The good thing is when I wake up I can being speaking again (though I should take it easy and try not to talk too much if at all in the van on the way to Minnesota), though I'm a bit nervous about what will happen when I do.
Sunday, August 24, 2003
. . . wheels go round and round, you're on my mind . . .
No that much to report today. Saturday was our big drive day. We left Pittsburgh just before 1:00 loaded up with some make-shift breakfast foods from Co-Go (local quickie mart). I had a Hostess blueberry pie. Told you I'm trying to eat better.
Chris got us to Indiana at which point Jamie took over. During that first leg Jamie and I chose some pictures for the tour page, check 'em out. We had some minor technical problems uploading them late last night, so the captions will have to be added later, apologies for that (which reminds me, that guys is snorting wasabi, which is totally legal).
Nokes said he had never been west of Bucknell University (half way across Pennsylvania), and I don't think any of us had ever been to Indiana or Wisconsin before. I know I've never driven into a different time zone before yesterday. So we've got that going for us.
Dylan won $10 on a scratch-off card at one rest stop. Dinner was a Hardees burger and chili cheese fries at another.
Despite pre-tour anticipation that we'd be at each other's throats by now, things are actually less combative as with a little bit of fatigue we're all pretty silly. I think everyone is really having a good time.
We pulled in to Oak Creek (a suburb of Milwaukee) around 11:00 local time last night (I think). We're staying with Nokes' sister, Amy, and her husband, Dan. They have a beautiful apartment here. It's like an oasis of normalcy and decency in the middle of our roving idiot show. Amy made us some delicious nachos last night and as I write this is making us omelets to follow the fruit salad that greeted us when we woke up. They're very nice people, which makes sense as Nokes (whom I've actually started calling "John" now that we're here) is one of the nicest people I know.
Today we're off to Miller Park to see the Brewers play the Pirates, then we'll come back to do some laundry.
My voice got no better yesterday, probably due to trying to talk over the sound of the van and whatever music was playing (and over the other guys at times), so I'm going to attempt to not talk at all today, if not tomorrow as well. We'll see how that goes, but Jamie said he'll help out by punching me in the groin if I speak. He's so caring.
Chris got us to Indiana at which point Jamie took over. During that first leg Jamie and I chose some pictures for the tour page, check 'em out. We had some minor technical problems uploading them late last night, so the captions will have to be added later, apologies for that (which reminds me, that guys is snorting wasabi, which is totally legal).
Nokes said he had never been west of Bucknell University (half way across Pennsylvania), and I don't think any of us had ever been to Indiana or Wisconsin before. I know I've never driven into a different time zone before yesterday. So we've got that going for us.
Dylan won $10 on a scratch-off card at one rest stop. Dinner was a Hardees burger and chili cheese fries at another.
Despite pre-tour anticipation that we'd be at each other's throats by now, things are actually less combative as with a little bit of fatigue we're all pretty silly. I think everyone is really having a good time.
We pulled in to Oak Creek (a suburb of Milwaukee) around 11:00 local time last night (I think). We're staying with Nokes' sister, Amy, and her husband, Dan. They have a beautiful apartment here. It's like an oasis of normalcy and decency in the middle of our roving idiot show. Amy made us some delicious nachos last night and as I write this is making us omelets to follow the fruit salad that greeted us when we woke up. They're very nice people, which makes sense as Nokes (whom I've actually started calling "John" now that we're here) is one of the nicest people I know.
Today we're off to Miller Park to see the Brewers play the Pirates, then we'll come back to do some laundry.
My voice got no better yesterday, probably due to trying to talk over the sound of the van and whatever music was playing (and over the other guys at times), so I'm going to attempt to not talk at all today, if not tomorrow as well. We'll see how that goes, but Jamie said he'll help out by punching me in the groin if I speak. He's so caring.
