Cold Like December

So my 'winter break' was pretty sweet.

Didn't have to work on Xmas eve, so I went home Tuesday night, hung out with Jay and Lore a bunch, had Wafflehouse for the first time ever with Sheena and Jay, and it turns out I gained about 4 pounds.

I painted my room last week, and now I'm on the hunt for new curtains, and hopefully a…duvet.

Shit looks tight, can't wait to paint everything else I don't like.

I need a waffle iron, and perhaps I can gain 4 more pounds.

Also, someone stole my head unit/radio whatever out of my car monday morning.

Yes!

Reading is starting to lose it's charm.

I miss this week.

Thanksgiving

So thanksgiving ruled.
Aside from my brother/mom telling me what to do regarding my haircut and a suit that fit awesomely, it ruled.
Hung out hard with some good friends, saw a bunch of people I haven't seen in a while/rarely see.
Ate a bunch of good food, and most importantly, I cut down a tree.
I hope I have the day after christmas off.
Snowboarding soon!

Reading Pizza Tour 08

Today, Evan and I are going to eat pizza, all day.
I love america.

I fucking hate speeding tickets.

Last weekend I went to boston for the first time ever.

It was pretty sweet, saw some good friends, and bands.

Ate at this place called spikes, it was awesome.

Monday went to the Have Heart/Blacklisted/Let Down/Ceremony show in baltimore by myself, it was a lot of fun, baltimore kids are nuts.

Bummmmmmin'

Miss these days. 

Dude Room, Dude House R.I.P.

Front Yard!

Stoked!

Case of the Mondays

For breakfast today I had 3 pancakes, and a vanilla coke.

it…was awesome.

Tonight I start a new tube of toothpaste.

Remember that song "livin' on the edge" by aerosmith? well, they wrote it about me, specifically the hook in the song.

They just knew the kind of life I'd be living, so they went ahead and jumped the gun on writing a song about it.

A sad day

So The First Step broke up and played their 'last' show this past weekend. Truly one of the best bands around, just really solid dudes, playing straight forward positive hardcore. Never had a bad time at any of their shows, throughout the years, was always amped to see them, and never let down. It's crazy to think that 5 years ago Cold Like December was playing shows with them in Easton, 5  years ago. The crowd at the show was just a perfect mix of people, not one bad apple it seemed. Everyone looked out for each other, no bullshit, just caring, honesty, the edge, and dedication, haha. It's only been a few days, and I'm still bummed that I won't see them play again.

Well, I guess that's how things go. Anyways, a bunch of people stayed at my house after the show, 3 people from boston, and 5 from canada, and evan, ahah. They were all super cool, and we pretty much just talked about hardcore and everything related until about 430, which is alright in my books. The next day (sunday) I took the canadians to vegan treats, they were all vegan, I believe. They were way into it, then I showed them how to get to the highway, and hung with Jay, and tossed the ol' frisbee around. 

This week is really quiet at work, which is nice, I'm making evan a few zines to save him a couple bucks at kinkos, so that's keeping me busy. There's talk of both a project x cover band and earth crisis cover band this halloween, and I'm hoping to be porcelly, I'd be way into it.

Other than that, just itching to get snowboarding. and I got a new phone, the lg dare.

It's pretty sweet. that's it.

A new giant opens tomorrow morning, I'm gonna try to check it out before work and hopefully get some free shit.

super-brad

So, in my recent memory of dreams that I have had, there have been a few where I've been able to fly, last nights' being one of them. I started out at my parents house in easton, only being able to go so high, and then coming back down, I had to start out by jumping a few times, but would then be able to 'take off' When I did get up, I started flying down southwood drive, where at the first intersection, was this really old style bridge, that of course isn't there, that I fly under, and picked up speed. I followed some sort of animal, ended up back at my parents house on the roof where some woman was looking for me, possibly to kill me, and I hid on the roof behind the chimney. She eventually looked up, saw me briefly just before I managed to I think kick her head/cover her eyes, and get away without her knowing my identity.

Then I woke up at 3:00a.m. in bed, not flying, or being able to.

This past weekend was really good.

So all the kids on my block have become very fond of me, like whenever I'm outside, they swarm over to me, and, well, they basically just ask about Hobbes. One kid in particular, makes me wish they never saw my dog. His name is Carlos. He's this 5 year old, or so, kid a few doors down, and anytime I go outside with Hobbes, I just hear 'PUPPY!' and he comes blazing up the sidewalk. Every time he asks the same questions such as, can I pet her, ew why is she peeing, where are you going, why are you going to the park, what kind of food does she eat, why are you feeding her, you know, basic, stupid, kid shit. Then he always signs off with, 'one more pet, and one more hold' and while he says one more hold, he awkwardly picks up Hobbes, and I say, everytime, please don't do that, she really doesn't enjoy that at all. Yet he persists. 

When I work outside, I set Hobbes up on a pillow inside the front door, so she can watch me, without the concern of her running away. This has been the occasion 2 times, and of the 2, Carlos has tried to open the door after I said repeatedly, don't open the fu… door! ( I really do trail off, and I don't swear in front of kids ) He's tried I think 3 or 4 times, then he just yells at Hobbes through the door, and smushes his face on the window. What the fuck. Then he tries to help with the yardwork, by shoveling smoothed dirt, trying to pull tools out of my hands, and asking for a piggy bank (back) ride. The one girl who hangs out, Elitza? I think, whatever, she said that they (kids) have to do whatever Carlos wants or else they get hit. Rad.

More updates on Carlos to come!

house!

So I pulled all the weeds, and unnecessary foliage (except for this stupid grass/hay/straw plant) out of my front 'yard' in preparation for plants and grass. I was talking to my boss, and he said I should hold off until the spring to plant for best results, but the grass can go in whenever. 

I think I'll go with kentucky bluegrass. 

all good things…

so the trip is over, here's a brief recap of where I left off in albuquerque, NM.

We woke up fairly early, and after some doing some errands, we were back on the road. Our first destination was the four corners. dumb. Then we were on route to the Grand Canyon. We hauled ass and got there with about 20-30 minutes left in the sunset. I can't begin to explain how beautfiul it was. We parked the car in a lot at the top of the canyon, and crashed there that night. Looking up at the stars with no light pollution was surreal, like being in a planetarium. We woke up with the sun, and got to catch the sunrise over the grand canyon which was equally as magnificent as the sunset. I took like 150 pictures there alone. 

So we got back on the road at about 9:30 towards Vegas, with a stop at the hoover dam, meh, we got there at about 4:00. Had a quick shitty lunch and decided to see the dark knight at a theatre there, movie ruled. We got out, and after charging my phone and making some calls, we hit the strip to find a hotel. Lucky for us, we booked a room at the travelodge for 60 bucks! Long story short, I lost 40 bucks, then won 22.50, and Lore and I found out that though Las Vegas is the 'city of sin' they are ashamed of their strip clubs, and left us high and dry in our search for them on the actual strip. We didn't go off of it, cause we weren't trying to get stabbed. got to bed around 4 and woke up around 10 to get on the road for the final leg of our trip to cali.

I got behind the wheel and took us to ronalds donuts (vegan donuts) it was delicious. Then we drove through the unforgiving desert, and through the reasonable CA traffic to LA/Hollywood. I got an uneccesary pair of jeans, and we got back on the road to santa barbara. I managed to get us a place to stay through the girl (angel) we were staying with, she got me in contact with her friend sara, and after getting to the hotel and waiting a bit, showed up with this kid darrin and manny mares, and we crashed with them. 

Friday was the first day of the fest, I got some sweet stuff, let down played, reign supreme played, it was a good day. Got some good hanging out in, and met some rad people. 

Saturday was more or less, bands I wasn't really into, except for end of a year, which were really fucking good. I fell asleep really early that night, manny stayed with us that night as well.

Sunday was the last day, mother of mercy played, and it was sinking ships last show. They played really well, even though I didn't hear 2 of the songs I was hoping for, and I'm still bummed that I won't ever see them again. Went to dennys after the fest for an awesome boca burger and fries with Ki Seok (the geeks' singer) this dude preston from CT (solid) angel, lore, andrew, and manny. greg and ray from the mongoloids approached us and asked if they could crash on our floor, and I also saw my b9 lunch bud lynn there. all in all, and awesome last night in CA, and an awesome way to end the fest.

The drive out monday was miserable, the weather was crappy. It was a blur until we made it to a red robin somewhere on historic route 66, then andrew drove for about 9-10 hours. I picked up somewhere in southern utah (I think) which sucked, cause it was night time and there is a ton of shit I would have loved to see down there, as far as natural rock formations are concerned, but whatevs. It was a steady switch on and off between me and andrew from there to chicago, except for our shittily worn tire somewhere outside of denver that we had to get changed. I did however, drive through the rockies at sunrise, which was breath taking. I really want to get out to vail to snowboard at some point, cause it was really nice looking. Getting a couple hours of lousy car sleep here and there and then getting about 2 on his floor in his apartment in chicago didn't make the rest of the drive home any fun. Lore and I departed chicago at about 9am wednesday morning, and after stopping at a lot of rest stops and shit we got back to reading, PA at 11:30pm, where I stayed up till about 3:30 and went to work at 8:30.

So, all in all, the trip was flawless and amazing. ~6,600 miles, $1,200 for gas and car rental, hashed 3 ways equalling $400 a person, which was the price for a plane ticket, not including parking/rental car. We saw so much awesome stuff, and would do it again in a heartbeat. I still feel like I'm catching up on all that lost sleep, but I should be ok by next week. I think next year for S&F, I'll be taking a plane though, haha.

So here are a few pics that lore took, that I like!

Lore, Me, Andrew, at some rock in New Mexico.

hahaha.

Our album cover.

(L to R) Chrissy from seattle, Preston from CT, Angel from IA, and Brad from PA haning outside of the venue.

The Final Supper in a Denny's.

(L to R) Lore, Ki, Preston, Brad, Angel, Manny 

The furthest place from here.

So, here's my first post from the road. I'll start from the show on friday night at the church.

SO, Mike, Evan, Lore and I went down to the verse/have heart show at the church in philly on friday night, and got there a little late, no biggie, just missed foundation. Everyday dollars played, I went outside, then Verse went on and killed it, best set of the week, easily. Have Heart was up next, and the night before I had asked Pat if they played the intro from the demo anymore, he responded by asking their guitarist if he wouldn't mind playing it tomorrow (friday), he said he didn't, I was stoked. So they opened with some other song, played a bunch, then the second to last song was the intro, and about 3 notes in, I immediately got on the stage, dove into a bunch of people, and moshed/slipped around for a minute and a half. After their set, Evan told me 2 things, 1) I was the only person moving during the intro, and Pat said 'this one's for Brad'  haha, it fucking ruled.

So me and Lore went back to reading, and got my shit together, and headed out around 4:30 towards Pittsburgh. Got there around 10am, picked up the rental car, and it was off to columbus OH to visit JVD. Got there, hung out with him, swam, and then it was off to Chicago to pick up our final road mate, Andrew Mcardle. Got there around 2, got some food at this vegan-ish diner, and were sleeping by 3…finally. 

Left Chi-town around two to depart for St. Louis MO. We got there around 7, saw the arch and walked around the downtown area kinda, it's a really nice city, got some sweet pictures, and a parking ticket, and were back on the road a little after 10. I took the rest of the driving to about Springfield MO, at about 3am, where we crashed in the car after eating at a truck rest stop, I got 3 pancakes and these awesome home fries, the syrup was really runny though, which stunk. Got an unsatisfying 2 hours of sleep, and got back on the road.

Andrew took this leg, from Springfield area to just short of Texas. We got some subway along the way and I picked up the driving from there all the way through Texas, and about halfway through New Mexico. New Mexico was stunning. 

I didn't shower or change today, monday, so all these pics look like they are from the same day…they aren't.

So here are some pics!

West Virginia!

pics to come soon, the wi fi here at whatever hotel we are at, is stupid!

Already looking good.

Weather forecast for Santa Barbara, CA for Thursday, July 24th, and Friday, July 25th. The Day(s) we should be getting into town for Sound and Fury.

Follow, Conform, Repeat

Hopping on the bandwagon.

I'm gonna use this bad boy to show pictures of shit to people, and occasionally let them in on my life.

Verse rules!