hug it out, bitch.

so i'm not in bama anymore... at the end of the trip, i got to watch a bonfire burn in the middle of a field while setting off fireworks and listening to venom. also: drank from spacebags and puked in someone's living room, and went to hank sr.'s grave. i spent my last night in a dorm room in tuscaloosa, then drove to memphis the next day, went to the goner store and drooled over that which i could not buy.

i got back to chicago on the 25th for a relaxing few days, then megabussed to cleveland overnight on the 30th. i saw my good pals the luxury units open for the okmoniks and it was FUN FUN FUN as all git out! it turned into a great big dance party where i somehow ended up on some creepy guy's shoulders. i should've punched him, or had SOME kind of negative reaction, but i was just having too. much. fun. we drove back to the east side drunk and blasting the first ramones album. fuck yeah.

my dad is moving to chapel hill, north carolina for a year at the beginning of august, so while i was home, i had to clean out my room, which for various reasons i NEVER unpacked despite having lived in it for 2 years. looking through it all, i found tons of spice girls memorabilia, 4th-grade journals, photos of nashville "friends" that i was never really friends with, and a ton of other shit that i have no use for but don't really want to get rid of.

being in cleveland made me think about a lot of new things... for the first time EVER, the thought of moving back there crossed my mind. the bands there seem like a real friendly little community, and i have such a fucking great time with alex and joe and leo when there's something to do. in general, it made me think about moving away from chicago fairly soon. (more on that later...)

but it also inspired me to, gradually and painstakingly, get rid of or consolidate all of the SHIT that i have needlessly been collecting over the years. i am an extremely nostalgic pack rat, so this may be next to impossible. but in the words of my favorite film of all time, "it's time to make a clean cut here, corky."

anyway, i'm back in chicago now. big knife started recording our tape, and had two shows! one was a hipster BBQ on the 4th, where the audience largely didn't seem to give a shit, and the other was opening for plaguebringer at ronny's, where THE NATION OF METAL (and our biggest audience yet) gave us a huge thumbs up.

yesterday i applied for a receptionist job at the chicago yacht club!! it seemed really promising. i went in there in the blouse and pencil skirt that i'd just stolen from village discount, stockings and sensible shoes, and knocked em dead.

i am now a young urban professional.