#Tim is just the mom of the group and brian is the dog. | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

grapevynerendezvous · 3 years

Photo

KFRC’s 21 Golden Rocks, Volume 1 - Various Artists

This was my first rock/r&b song collection album. How I got it is kind of vague. It certainly has the feel of listening to radio with just a few slight differences. There’s no DJ introducing the songs as they started and/or talking over the songs as they faded out, no commercials between songs, and I could choose when I wanted to hear them, how often, which ones, in what order…okay, so the songs were on the radio and now they could be on my record player. All the better. It also familiarized me with some songs I hadn’t heard, or heard very little. Since the majority of the songs were hits in 1966, with earlier ones going as far back as 1963, and one in 1967, the chances were that I heard most of them throughout ’66 & ’67 - when I really started paying more attention. It took me awhile to warm up to rhythm and blues music, I suppose one could say black music in general. I look back to some of the 45s that we had over time, courtesy of my sister and my mom. There actually are some songs that I had always enjoyed in that genre, but I just hadn’t gotten used to the newer ones yet. Sam Cooke comes to mind, but I think my sister kept that one even though I have most of those 45s now. As time went by I started appreciating the r&b songs on this album, as well as others that I was hearing more and more. It is evident that at this early stage it was reasonably important that I had this collection of music. Only three of the 21 songs are on albums I ended up owning. At the time I got it I already had albums with Hello Hello by Sopwith Camel and Laugh Laugh by The Beau Brummels, while later obtaining the Love album with My Little Red Book as the opening track.

Side one

Hello Hello - Sopwith Camel

1967 No.26 Billboard * recorded 1966

Album Sopwith Camel • origin San Francisco CA

The only song from the year of this album’s release. It was the first hit single by any band in the San Francisco Psychedelic era. There is more about the band in my posting about LP25.

Psychotic Reaction - Count Five

1966 No.5 Billboard * recorded 1965

Album Psychotic Reaction * origin in San Jose CA

The Count Five were the first San Jose band to have success in the “garage band era”. Psychotic Reaction was discovered by KLIV DJ Brian Lord. I saw Count Five with some original members including vocalist Kenn Elnerr perform Psychotic Reaction at Longstock XXI in 2013 in the Santa Cruz Mountains CA.

The Duck - Jackie Lee

1965 No.14 1966 Top 100 No.8 R&B Billboard * recorded 1965

Album The Duck 1966 * origin Los Angeles CA

His real name is Earl Nelson and he had been in The Hollywood Flames in the ‘50s and was lead vocalist on Buzz Buzz Buzz. He had been in the duo Bob & Earl with Bobby Boyd, who later recorded Rockin’ Robin as Bobby Day. Nelson united with Bob Relf for a further Bob & Earl period. Jackie was his wife’s name, and Lee his middle name.

Little Girl - Syndicate of Sound

1966 No.8 Billboard * recorded 1966

Album Little Girl * origin in San Jose CA

Little Girl was originally issued on Hush Records in San Francisco.and became a regional hit with help from KLIV radio. Bell Records picked it up and issued it nationally. In the early’70s Syndicate of Sound played at a DeMolay event I was at. I got to know co-writer Bob Gonzalez in the 2010s. He still performs in the South Bay Area as of this writing. Syndicate of Sound performed a few shows after I met Bob and I saw one of them at the Santa Clara Fairgrounds. Original guitarist, and lead singer of Little Girl Don Baskin, was there, but since passed away in 2019.

Dirty Water - The Standells

1966 No.11 Billboard * recorded 1965

Album Dirty Water * origin in Los Angeles CA

The song was written by producer Ed Cobb who had lived in Boston, and which explains references to that city in Dirty Water. Drummer Dick Dodd, who at one time was on The Mouseketeers, sang lead vocal on this and most Standell songs. Boston sports teams regularly play Dirty Water at their events. The Standells have played at Fenway Park five times including at the 2nd game of the 2004 World Series.

Little Latin Lupe Lu - The Righteous Brothers

1963 No.49 Billboard * recorded 1963

Album Right Now! * origin Orange County/Los Angeles CA

Their first single, this song was a moderate hit for The Righteous Brothers before their first major smash You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling the next year. Bill Medley said that he dated a “Lupe Laguna” in high school. I saw Medley perform solo at Circle Star Theater in the ‘70s.

Laugh Laugh - The Beau Brummels

1964 No.15 Billboard * recorded 1964

Album Introducing The Beau Brummels * origin San Francisco CA

This was their first hit single. It was written by guitarist Ron Elliott and sung by lead vocalist Sal Valentino. I saw Valentino perform as a guest with Jackie Greene in 2005 at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz CA. There is more about the band in my posting about LP29.

Hey Joe (Where You Gonna Go) - The Leaves

1966 No. 31 Billboard * recorded 1966 (3rd version)

Album Hey Joe * origin San Fernando Valley-Los Angeles CA

A popular regional number, the Leaves recorded this song three times, with the final success of the third after new guitarist Bob Arlin, who used a fuzztone, had joined the band. They originally heard the song done by The Byrds at a club called Ciro’s. Johnny Echols of Love claims that The Leaves first heard Love’s version as well. The Leaves ended up releasing it before the Byrds version was released on their Fifth Dimension LP. The second version by The Leaves was released before the Love version came out on their first album, but was not successful as a single. Other notable versions were by Tim Rose, and Jimi Hendrix, plus LA’s Standells, Music Machine and Surfaries had also recorded it.

Baby Scratch My Back - Slim Harpo

1966 No.16 Top 100/No.1 R&B Billboard * recorded 1965

Album Baby Scratch My Back * origin Baton Rouge LA

Born James Isaac Moore in Lobdell LA, Slim Harpo was a leading exponent of Swamp Blues. His stage name was derived from his mastery of the blues “harp” harmonica. It was his most successful single, others of which included I’m a King Bee (’57) and Shake Your Hips (’66).

Pushin’ Too Hard - The Seeds

1966 No.36 (1967) Billboard * recorded 1965 reissued 1966

Album The Seeds 1966 * origin Los Angeles CA

Originally released as You’re Pushin’ Too Hard in 1965 when it became a regional hit and started being played extensively by an LA DJ after the album was released. After a new single of it was issued in November ’66 as Pushin’ Too Hard, it lead to it reaching national charts. Some radio stations banned it in the belief it was about a pusher of illegal drugs. Rather strange since it would have actually been an anti-drug song. The song is often cited as an example of garage rock in both celebratory and denigrating manners. I have seen keyboardist Darryl Hooper play with a recent version of the Seeds, and with Chocolate Watch Band in 2015 and 2019 all at at The Chapel in San Francisco CA.

Good Lovin' - The Young Rascals

1966 No.1 Billboard * recorded 1966

Album The Young Rascals * origin Garfield NJ

This song was originally recorded by Lemme B. Good (Limme Shell), and a month later by The Olympics with revised lyrics, which was a moderate hit for them. It is said that Young Rascal Felix Cavallere first heard The Olympics version and it was added to the Young Rascals’ repertoire, using those same lyrics and basic arrangement as The Olympics. It was the band’s first real hit, being only their second released single. They went on to have five other top 10 hits including two more No.1’s, in the meantime changing their name to The Rascals.

Side 2

You Turn Me On (Turn On Song) - Ian Whitcomb (and Bluesville)

1965 No.8 Billboard * recorded 1965

Album You Turn Me On * origin Dublin IE/from Woking Surrey Eng.

This is one of the only two British Invasion songs included in the collection, the other being technically Irish. (the Irish Invasion?) It was self-penned by Whitcomb and was the only one of his four Billboard songs over the years to reach hit status. He went on to be a record producer, author, and occasional actor. He eventually moved permanently to the U.S. and still performs as of this writing.

Sweet Talkin' Guy - The Chiffons

1966 No.10 Billboard * recorded 1966

Album Sweet Talkin’ Guy * origin The Bronx New York, NY

This was the group’s third Top 10 hit single. They ended up touring in Germany, and in England where members of the Beatles and Rollings Stones were in the audience on one club date.

Along Comes Mary - The Association

1966 No. 7 Billboard * recorded 1966

Album And Then…Along Comes The Association * origin LA CA

The band is famous for their rich vocal harmonies which lead to some major successes for the group in the ‘60s. This was their third single, but the first one to become a hit on Billboard. The next single, Cherish, hit No.1 the same year, as did Windy in 1967 with Never My Love at No.2 that year. The song refers to a once-disillusioned man’s tribulations being comforted by Mary and improving his life. It’s also been said that “Mary” refers to marijuana. It’s unclear whether composer Tandyn Almer ever confirmed that one way or the other. Over the years The Association has had an enormous amount of singers perform in the group over the years. They are still active, with the founder Jules Gary Alexander still on board, as of this writing.

Baby Do The Philly Dog - The Olympics

1966 No.63 R&B No.20 Billboard * recorded 1966

Album Something Old, Something New * origin Los Angeles CA

The Olympics started out as a doo-wop group in the late fifties, having their only big hit, Western Movies, make No.8 Top 100 and No.7 R&B on Billboard with one other top 10 song on Billboard R&B. They released a number of other singles until their last one Do the Philly Dog. They made no further singles following this. Charles Fizer died from a bullet wound in The Watts Riots of ’65. Not long after Melvin King left after his sister died in an accidental shooting. With line up changes the group continued after the mid-60s but with little success. They continued performing in the ‘70s on the oldies circuit in the U.S. and elsewhere.

Hang On Sloopy - The McCoys

1965 No. 1 Billboard * recorded 1965

Album Hang On Sloopy * origin Celina OH, Union City IN

Originally titled My Girl Sloopy when written by Wes Farrell & Bert Berns it was an R&B hit for The Vibrations in 1964. Before changing their name to The McCoys, they were called Rick & The Raiders. Rick & the band backed the Strangeloves, who were actually three writer/producers, at their last performance of a tour. The Strangeloves then recruited 17-year old Rick Zehringer (later Derringer) and his band to record Hang On Sloopy in New York. It later became the official song of the State of Ohio, unofficial fight song of Ohio State University, a signature song of the Cleveland Indians, and played regularly at Cleveland Cavalier games.

Hello Stranger - Barbara Lewis

1963 No.3 Top 100 No.1 R&B Billboard * recorded 1963

Album Hello Stranger * origin Detroit MI

Barbara Lewis wrote all the songs on her first album, Hello Stranger. She had eight other songs chart in the Billboard Top 100 through 1967, two of them which she had not written, peaking at No.11 in 1965. She was out of sight for awhile the next decade but resurfaced in 1977. She retired from singing in 2017 for health reasons.

My Little Red Book - Love

1966 No.52 Billboard * recorded 1966

Album Love * origin Los Angeles CA

This was Love’s first single on the Billboard chart and was a moderate hit. I remember it being played quite a bit on Bay Area stations. It was their version of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David song. Bacharach criticized the altered chord changes in Love version, but the song “became a garage rock standard, per Mason Stewart in his AllMusic song biography. It has also “been credited for its "punk" quality” by Stewart and others. I got to see My Little Red Book, among other songs, performed live by Arthur Lee & Love at Great American Music Hall on January 16, 2004, while Lee was still alive.

Solitary Man - Neil Diamond

1966 No.55 Billboard * recorded 1966

Album The Feel of Neil Diamond * origin Brooklyn NY

This, Neil Diamonds’ first single to chart, was a moderate success on Billboard and remains one of his personal favorite songs. He had written some other successful songs that were covered by others up to that time. It had already been thought by some, but in the 2000s Diamond finally realized, that Solitary Man was about himself while he was trying to write and sell songs up to the point when he went to work in the Brill Building. It was followed by the higher charing single, Cherry Cherry the same year. Neil Diamond has gone on to be one of the the most popular, best selling music artists of all-time. He still performs to sold-out audiences.

5 O'Clock World - The Vogues

1965 No.4 Billboard * recorded 1965

Album Five O’Clock World * origin Turtle Creek/Pittsburg PA

This was the second of back-to-back No.4 singles on Billboard, the band’s best success as The Vogues. They had one non-charting single (released twice) prior to that as The Valaires. The only other time of Top Ten success was in 1968 when they had back-to-back No. 7 singles. Their last studio album was released in 1971, followed by several unsuccessful singles through 1974. Although they continued performing by 1983 there was one original member left. Their manager in the meantime had trademarked the name and assets of the band. What followed was a classic case of many multiple bands using the name The Vogues, resulting in legal actions, and even Congressional testimony regarding the Truth in Music Act by that original member Chuck Blasco.

Gloria - Them

1965 No.71 Billboard * recorded 1964

Album The Angry Young Them * origin Belfast IE

This is the other non-American single on the album, the band being Irish. It landed in the U/S. during the British Invasion period. This garage song staple, written by Van Morrison, was the B-side of Baby Please Don’t Go in the U.K. and as such, was not included on the UK Singles Chart on it’s own. It was only moderately successful in the U.S. as a single while the Shadows of Knight (SOK) version issued later in the year rose to No.10 on Billboard. Them’s version topped that SOK version only in places it could be played. One of my earlier memories as a teenager involved hushed whispers about songs like Gloria and Louie Louie. One could listen to the American band’s version of Gloria and think, so what. It turns out that many radio stations would not play Them’s version because of the line “She comes to my room”: Oh my. The SOK version went, “She calls out my name.” In either case, Gloria is a classic. Van Morrison left the band in 1966 and has gone on to be a beloved songwriter and performer. I saw him on a double-bill with Bob Dylan at Shoreline Amphitheatre in Mountain View CA in the 2000s.

——————————————————-

KFRC 610 “The Big 610” and “Boss Radio” was a Top 40 rock and roll AM radio station in San Francisco CA. Prior to that it was purchased by RKO-General in 1949 and had an MOR (middle of the road) music format. The station was originally licensed at 1110 kHz in 1924, then 660 kHz a three years later, and finally 610kHz in 1928. The change in 1966 blended into “The Summer of Love” era and KFRC became the dominant station in the Bay Area through the 1970s. The station was responsible for two important events that occurred during that period. One was The Beach Boys Summer Spectacular, which included many bands, held in 1966 at the Cow Palace in Daly City. The following year, on June 10 and 11, they hosted the very first rock festival ever held, Fantasy Fair and Magic Mountain Music Festival at Sidney B. Cushing Amphitheatre on Mount Tamalpais in Marin County. It preceded the Monterey Pop Festival by one week. The only band on this album that played Magic Mountain was The Seeds, although there were many great upcoming local and national acts there. KYA 1260 was their chief rival in San Francisco. Another station I listened to a lot in the Bay Area was KLIV 1590 in San Jose. The fact is I listened to those stations more than KFRC overallI. Both of those stations preceded KFRC in the Top 40 format although KFRC held its’ own once it entered that arena. Of course any top forty station was fair game if they were playing the right song while I was cruising around. All these stations are gone now; sold, changed frequency and/or call letters, and of course, formats. It was a “golden” time to be listening to music radio though.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KFRC_(defunct)

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/comp/various-artists/kfrc-the-big-610-21-golden-rocks-volume-1/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KLIV

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sopwith_Camel_(band)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Count_Five

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Nelson_(singer)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syndicate_of_Sound

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Standells

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Righteous_Brothers

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Beau_Brummels

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Leaves

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slim_Harpo

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Seeds

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Rascals

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Whitcomb

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chiffons

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Association

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Olympics_(band)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_McCoys

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Lewis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(band)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neil_Diamond

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Vogues

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Them_(band)

LP32

1 note · View note

yeskraim · 4 years

Text

Sanguine snowman, iguana invasion, Chicken Dinner Road: News from around our 50 states

Alabama

Reeltown: The baptism of high school football players on the 50-yard line in their football stadium has drawn complaints from a group that pushes for separation of church and state. After more than two dozen Reeltown High School players were baptized on the field in November, the Wisconsin-based Freedom from Religion Foundation demanded an investigation. “There is a strong relationship between conservative Protestantism and football at the high school and college level,” said Michael Altman, a religious studies professor at the University of Alabama. Altman said the Wisconsin group “is doing its best to call attention to a practice it finds unconstitutional by trying to take a local story national.” Tallapoosa County Schools Superintendent Joe Windle told Al.com he found no wrongdoing. The baptism was not conducted by the school, he said.

Alaska

Anchorage: Smoke has risen miles above a volcano on one of the Aleutian Islands, the Alaska Volcano Observatory says. Lava flowed down the side of Shishaldin Volcano on Unimak Island on Saturday, and smoke rose more than 5 miles high Sunday, Anchorage Daily News reports. The National Weather Service issued an alert for pilots Sunday, as plumes were recorded 30,000 feet in elevation and extending up to 90 miles east. The volcano observatory tweeted late Sunday that the ash emissions ended about 8:30 p.m. The largest island on the Aleutian chain, Unimak is 120 miles northeast of Unalaska Island and about 700 miles west of Anchorage. The same volcano erupted two weeks ago, officials say. The volcano was quiet until seismic activity increased Friday, says geologist Tim Orr of the volcano observatory.

Arizona

Phoenix: The state has agreed to pay $100,000 to settle a lawsuit by a former corrections officer who alleged his coworkers and supervisors repeatedly harassed him over his status as a transgender man. The lawsuit, which was tentatively settled Thursday, alleged colleagues used derogatory terms to refer to the officer and put his safety at risk by revealing to inmates that he had undergone a gender transition. The officer, who filed the lawsuit under a pseudonym due to safety and privacy concerns, alleged that the Department of Corrections responded inadequately to his complaints and that the harassment continued after he was transferred to another facility. Unable to tolerate the harassment, the officer resigned in 2016 after working nearly 11 years in state prisons in Florence and Douglas, according to the suit.

Arkansas

Fayetteville: CLL16 – a new high-yield, long-grain Clearfield rice variety developed by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture – will be available to rice growers from Horizon Ag in 2021. Karen Moldenhauer, professor and rice breeder for the Division of Agriculture’s Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, says CLL16 has excellent rough rice yields, averaging 205 bushels per acre, slightly better than Diamond, which averages 204 bushels per acre. CLL16 is resistant to blast in Arkansas growing conditions, Moldenhauer says. It has demonstrated good milling yields, averaging 63% whole kernel and 69% total milled rice for samples from Arkansas Rice Performance Trials across the state.

California

Oakland: Homeless mothers who were evicted last week from a house where they were squatting plan to move back after speculators agreed to sell the property to a nonprofit organization, it was announced Monday. Wedgewood Inc. will sell the home to the Oakland Community Land Trust, which buys and fixes up property for affordable housing. The group plans to allow women from the group Moms 4 Housing to return, Mayor Libby Schaaf announced. The city helped negotiate the agreement with the land trust and Wedgewood after a public outcry following the evictions. “This is what happens when we organize, when people come together to build the beloved community,” Dominique Walker of Moms 4 Housing said in a statement on the holiday honoring civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. “Today we honor Dr. King’s radical legacy by taking Oakland back from banks and corporations.” Wedgewood also agreed to work with the city to negotiate a right-of-first-refusal program for all its other Oakland properties, a city statement said.

Colorado

Denver: A sheriff’s deputy who was pulled over by state troopers while driving three prisoners in a transport van has been charged with traffic offenses including reckless endangerment, authorities said Monday. Denver Sheriff Department Deputy James Grimes was charged following an investigation into the alleged aggressive driving incident, the Colorado State Patrol said. Grimes and the driver of a second vehicle were allegedly racing in and out of traffic as they traveled northbound on Interstate 25 on Thursday while under observation by a state patrol aircraft. Grimes faces additional charges of reckless driving and speeding in a construction zone. Grimes and another deputy who was with him in the prisoner van have been reassigned and placed on leave pending an internal investigation, the Denver Sheriff Department said in a statement.

Connecticut

Hartford: State lawmakers plan to resurrect a bipartisan proposal that attempts to help older workers who often face age discrimination when seeking employment. The bill would prohibit employers from requiring a job applicant to list their date of birth and school graduation years, information that reveals a worker’s age even though prospective employers are not allowed to ask about age during interviews. Supporters said the legislation is aimed at addressing the discrimination older online job applicants often face. West Hartford Sen. Derek Slap, a Democrat, said this move could level the playing field for older workers in Connecticut and “give them a chance once they get into the application process to get that interview and make a case.” Slap said Connecticut has the sixth-oldest workforce in the U.S. Recent U.S. Census Bureau data show more than a quarter of the state’s workforce is over age 54.

Delaware

Dover: Legislation aimed at settling a minor controversy involving dogs and eating establishments has passed the state House of Representatives without a dissenting vote and now goes to the Senate for consideration. The bill has broad bipartisan support, with more than a third of the General Assembly sponsoring or co-sponsoring the measure. House Bill 275 specifies that the owner of a food establishment may permit leashed dogs in the business’ outdoor patio area or beer garden, regardless of any state regulation to the contrary. The Delaware Division of Public Health inadvertently sparked controversy last summer when it took a renewed interest in an existing state regulation that prohibits pets in food establishments, including in outdoor areas. The ban does not apply to service animals.

District of Columbia

Washington: A local startup is betting the skies are the future of food delivery with no delivery fees, no tips, and no worries for rumbling stomachs hoping to avoid getting so hungry that the sensation turns to anger, WUSA-TV reports. Shehan Weeraman and Nick Adimi named their company Hangry after becoming annoyed and exasperated by homemade food. “We got really lazy to cook, and we just decided to order a lot,” Weeraman says. “We realized we were paying like $10, sometimes more, for delivery that would take us sometimes over an hour to arrive.” The engine that drives this enterprise is a drone with a basket attached by a rope to the bottom. Hangry plans to partner with area restaurants and other establishments to deliver its products. Users would be able to meet the pilotless aircraft at a designated drop site, then scan a QR code to pick up their food.

Florida

West Palm Beach: Invasive iguanas burrowing into the soft dirt around an aging dam have cost the city $1.8 million in emergency repairs. Employees noticed last year that water was seeping around the edges of a decades-old weir that controls water delivery in West Palm Beach, the Palm Beach Post reports. South Florida’s green iguana population has exploded since the last prolonged cold spell in 2010 reduced their numbers. They’ve become infamous for nuisance pool pooping and munching on ornamental landscapes, giving rise to a cottage industry of iguana-removal experts. They are also becoming an issue for agencies in charge of managing the hundreds of miles of canals that channel water throughout South Florida, says William Kern, an associate professor in the entomology and nematology department at the University of Florida’s Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center.

Georgia

Atlanta: One of Republican Brian Kemp’s first acts as governor involved revamping the state’s handling of sexual harassment complaints and placing State Inspector General Deborah Wallace in charge of the issue. Kemp now wants to expand Wallace’s office, adding $435,182 to fund five new positions in his proposed fiscal 2021 budget, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. Kemp’s budget proposal must be approved by lawmakers. The expansion, which would represent a 43% budget increase for the small agency, comes as other state agencies are being asked to trim their budgets amid a revenue shortfall. Kemp also proposed an additional $250,000 in the current year’s budget, as the agency already brought on new staff to handle complaints.

Hawaii

Honolulu: A man suspected of stabbing a woman and killing two police officers last weekend wandered his neighborhood recording people with a camera mounted on his hat and rigged a barbecue grill to blow thick smoke directly into neighbors’ windows, a lawyer for residents said. Jaroslav “Jerry” Hanel, a handyman who lived in the home in exchange for his work and faced eviction, stabbed a woman in the leg Sunday before he fired on responding authorities, killing Honolulu Police Officers Tiffany Enriquez and Kaulike Kalama, police said. A fire at Hanel’s residence then spread through a normally peaceful neighborhood at the far end of the famed Waikiki Beach neighborhood. “It was pretty clear he was out of control,” said attorney David Hayakawa, who represented three neighbors in obtaining restraining orders against Hanel. Police have said Hanel is missing, and they’re almost certain he’s inside the burned house.

Idaho

Boise: A lawmaker says that Chicken Dinner Road in southwestern Idaho is a historic name and that he is opposed to an animal protection group’s request to rename it. Republican Rep. Scott Syme on Monday introduced a concurrent resolution urging fellow lawmakers to support the existing name. Concurrent resolutions do not need the signature of the governor and don’t have the force of law. People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals in July asked Caldwell officials to change the name to what it said is the kinder and simpler Chicken Road. Syme said the original name stems from a 1930s resident famous for her chicken dinners who helped persuade then-Democratic Gov. C. Ben Ross to improve the road in Canyon County.

Illinois

Springfield: Gov. J.B. Pritzker has signed a law that eliminates driver’s license suspensions for most non-moving violations. The Democrat signed the “License to Work Act” last week. It takes effect in July. Pritzker says it will allow tens of thousands of motorists to have driving privileges reinstated. That means more people will be able to work. “Illinois now recognizes the fact that suspending licenses for having too many unpaid tickets, fines and fees doesn’t necessarily make a person pay the bill, but it does mean that people don’t have a way to pay,” Pritzker said. He said license suspensions are too harsh a penalty for “a practice that reinforces cycles of instability.” Each year authorities suspend more than 50,000 licenses belonging to people who can’t afford to pay tickets, fines and fees. According to Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, a study shows 42% of those who had their licenses suspended lost their jobs.

Indiana

Indianapolis: Hoosiers’ electricity bills could rise and several state utilities may face obstacles in their plans to phase out coal-based power generation in the coming years under politically charged legislation that would help a struggling Indiana industry. House Bill 1414, filed last week by state Rep. Ed Soliday, R-Valparaiso, would require Indiana utilities to prove that any plans to shut down a power plant are either required by a federal mandate or otherwise in the public interest. Though the word “coal” does not appear in the language of the bill, advocates and analysts say the legislation specifically targets coal-burning plants. The proposed regulatory requirement follows similar but unsuccessful legislation last year and is raising concerns among not only environmentalists but also some conservatives who see it as heavy-handed favoritism.

Iowa

Davenport: City leaders are condemning a homeowner’s snow display depicting a figure gunning down a snowman wearing a Bernie Sanders shirt and another adorned with a Democratic Party hat. Mayor Mike Matson said he’s asked the police chief to investigate the display. “My personal reaction is that it’s terribly wrong and an embarrassment to our city,” Matson told the Quad-City Times. Homeowner Donald Hesseltine laughed off such concerns, saying he created the display to “mess with” friends who support Sanders, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for president. “It’s just to make people cry I guess,” Hesseltine said. “They’re crying, so I win.” The display includes a mannequin topped with a military helmet that’s holding a rifle and chainsaw, as well as a can of beer. The rifle is pointed toward the Sanders snowman, which has red-dyed snow near its head.

Kansas

Lawrence: The University of Kansas will close its School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, but departments within the school will remain open, and students will not be affected, according to a school official. The closing at the end of the academic year will change only the administrative structure for languages at Kansas, said John Colombo, interim dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. The degree offerings and curriculum will not be affected, he said. Budget problems prompted the closing, The Lawrence Journal-World reports. One staff position will be lost because of the closing. The director and co-director of the school will return to their respective positions within their academic units, Colombo said in an email. The creation of the school about five years ago did not increase enrollment for language departments or raise substantial private support to sustain the language programs as anticipated, he said.

Kentucky

Henderson: Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear have teamed up on an effort to expand the new Green River National Wildlife Refuge in western Kentucky. The two leaders on Tuesday announced the approval of federal Duck Stamp funding for land acquisition to expand the wildlife refuge. Duck Stamps can be purchased by hunters, conservationists and stamp collectors. The stamps provide revenue to support federal conservation and outdoor recreation. Last November, federal and state officials announced the wildlife refuge’s establishment with the acquisition of the first tract – a 10-acre parcel donated by the Southern Conservation Corp. McConnell and Beshear discussed the issue before the new governor took office. Beshear has since given his approval so “Duck Stamp” funding can be used to support land acquisition from willing property sellers to expand the refuge.

Louisiana

New Orleans: Revenue from food and drinks has increased from a new $1 billion terminal at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, according to a recent report, which could mean more flights are added in the future. There was a 32% increase in food and beverage revenue in November 2019, compared to November 2018, The Times-Picayune/The New Orleans Advocate reports. The new terminal opened Nov. 6. A 46% revenue increase from drinking and dining options was recorded in December 2019, compared to the year before. The numbers were included in a report to the New Orleans Aviation Board last week, airport spokeswoman Erin Burns said. More non-airline revenue means it’s cheaper for carriers to fly in and out of the airport, and thus the airport is more attractive for airlines considering adding flights, the newspaper reports.

Maine

Yarmouth: A massive elm tree nicknamed Herbie is long gone, but it will live on, thanks to cloned trees being made available to the public. At 110 feet and more than 200 years, Herbie was the tallest and oldest elm in New England and survived 14 bouts of Dutch elm disease thanks to the devotion of his centenarian caretaker, Frank Knight, the late tree warden of Yarmouth. The duo became famous after Knight spent half of his life caring for the tree, which he referred to as “an old friend.” Knight realized he couldn’t save the town’s elms as they succumbed by the hundreds to Dutch elm disease. So he focused his efforts on Herbie. Over five decades, Knight oversaw selective pruning of Herbie’s diseased limbs, plus applications of insecticides and fungicides. The tree was cut down Jan. 19, 2010, as the 101-year-old Knight looked on. Knight died two years later. But before Herbie was chopped down, the Elm Research Institute in New Hampshire worked with Knight to collect some cuttings from Herbie to preserve the tree’s legacy with clones. The hope is that Herbie’s descendants will have some resistance to Dutch elm disease.

Maryland

Salisbury: As rising seas drive saltwater farther inland, state officials are urging local governments, drinking water suppliers, farmers and others to start preparing now for a saltier future. Gov. Larry Hogan’s administration in December released the state’s first plan to combat saltwater intrusion. The 76-page report doesn’t forecast how widely impacts will be felt, citing a lack of existing research, but it identifies the resources facing the highest risk, ranking agriculture at the top. Wetlands, coastal forests, freshwater streams and aquifers also are in danger of turning salty, according to the report. Melting ice at the poles and the ocean’s thermal expansion – both triggered by climate change – are causing seas to rise across the globe, carrying salt into new places above and below ground. Saltwater intrusion is of even greater concern in the Chesapeake Bay region, climate scientists say, because the area’s land surface is sinking.

Massachusetts

Boston: No Charlie Card required to board these MBTA trains – just about $500 cash. The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is auctioning off seven vintage subway cars. To make room for hundreds of news cars coming in the years ahead and to comply with safety laws, the MBTA removes salvageable parts from inoperable trains, then puts the cars up for auction. “The old cars are sold to the highest bidder, usually for the scrap metal,” MBTA spokesman Joe Pesaturo told The Boston Globe. “Old cars are retired after they are no longer capable of providing safe and reliable passenger service.” Made by Boeing and Kinkisharyo in the early 1970s and ’80s, the cars have sat idle for at least three years, according to the auction posting. Bidding for the lot of seven cars – Orange Line subway cars and Green Line trolley cars – starts at $500. The auction ends Jan. 28.

Michigan

Detroit: A national competition is underway that seeks artists’ proposals for a planned public sculpture outside the main entrance to the TCF Center downtown. The Detroit Regional Convention Facility Authority and its Art Foundation say the proposals for the permanent sculpture cannot be taller than 30 feet and no more than 8 feet in diameter. Artists must register for the competition and are encouraged to consider physical placement, material and size in their proposals. Themes may reflect positive changes and growth in Detroit and southeastern Michigan, the area’s strong spirit of innovation and design, the global impact of Detroit, and the region’s renaissance. Proposals will be reviewed by a jury of expert panelists. The winning proposal will be awarded a budget of $250,000 to support the sculpture’s conceptualization, fabrication and installment. An additional $50,000 will go to the winning artist.

Minnesota

St. Cloud: State troopers will be carrying more than 600 kits to give to homeless people who need clothes, food and toiletries. The Department of Public Safety collected donations and assembled them into “Care and Go” kits. “A lot of times people will think it’s just a metro issue,” said Booker Hodges, assistant commissioner of law enforcement in the Department of Public Safety. “In greater Minnesota, our troopers do encounter quite a few people who are homeless.” Hodges said he wanted to start the program in the Department of Public Safety after seeing a similar initiative used in Ramsey County for recently released inmates. Hodges said he hopes to have kits in place by Feb. 1. He said the “goal is that every state trooper will have one in his or her squad car.” The kits include socks, T-shirts, toothpaste, conditioners, hand wipes and feminine products. They also include protein bars and water.

Mississippi

Meridian: The state will pay $3 million for a fence to keep wild animals off the runways of a military base. A Navy official said the state’s job-creation agency, Mississippi Development Authority, has offered a grant to pay for the barrier at Naval Air Station Meridian. The new chain-link fence would be built inside an existing fence surrounding the base, and the bottom of the new fence will be buried deep, the Meridian Star reports. Deer, cattle, hogs and coyotes have reached the property in recent years, and a farmer reported that a hunter killed a sow near the fence last month, said Jim Copeland, community planning and liaison officer for the base. Pigs have a low center of gravity and can cause a plane to lose control if they are hit by the nose wheel, Copeland said.

Missouri

Jefferson City: The state Supreme Court on Tuesday gutted a voter ID law that has been called “a solution in search of a problem.” In a 5-2 decision, the court cleared the way for Missourians to vote with non-photo IDs like current utility bills and bank statements, as well as Missouri college IDs, without having to swear they are who they say they are on penalty of perjury. Republican politicians had said the law combats voter fraud. Studies say the kind of fraud voter ID detects is practically nonexistent. Judge Mary R. Russell wrote for the majority Tuesday that the sworn statement requirement was “misleading,” “contradictory” and ultimately unconstitutional. Two dissenting judges, both appointed by Republicans, argued that the court could fix the issue by editing out “contradictory” language or prohibiting voting with non-photo ID entirely. Russell called both ideas “nonsensical.”

Montana

Billings: Federal environmental regulators say the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs violated an order to repair a public water supply system serving about 1,300 people on the Crow Indian Reservation. Environmental Protection Agency officials said in a letter that the bureau has repeatedly missed deadlines to complete repairs following concerns last spring about potential water contamination. Last March, a main line on the Crow Agency water system broke, prompting an advisory for users to boil water or use alternate supplies as a precaution. The concern was that loss of pressure because of the line break could have allowed contaminated water to seep into the system through cracks and joints. EPA spokeswoman Lisa McClain-Vanderpool says the Bureau of Indian Affairs has completed enough required work that there is no longer an imminent public health danger.

Nebraska

Waverly: A woman who fell off a bridge while stargazing has been transferred from a Lincoln hospital to one in Omaha, authorities said. Lindsay Kroger, 37, of rural Lincoln, had gone with five other people to the bridge about 2 miles southeast of Waverly to look at the sky early Sunday morning. She leaned back, thinking there was a support piece behind her, but instead fell 27 feet to the ice below, the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office said. She was flown to a Lincoln hospital and then sent Monday to the Omaha facility.

Nevada

Las Vegas: Organizers of a protest of new city ordinances affecting the homeless say 12 demonstrators were taken into custody. About 100 protesters blocked a downtown street Monday to voice their opposition to two laws that ban camping. They had tents, sleeping bags and cardboard boxes. One ordinance prohibits camping on sidewalks if there are available beds at a shelter. The second bans sitting or camping on city sidewalks during street cleaning hours. Violation of either law could result in a misdemeanor. Police Lt. Jeff Stuart says about a dozen people were arrested after they refused to move from the road. It was not immediately known Tuesday what charges they might face. Opponents of the ordinances have been protesting since the first ordinance was passed in November. Supporters of the measures say they are necessary for public safety and sanitation.

New Hampshire

Concord: The state is holding a weeklong celebration of wine. New Hampshire Wine Week includes the 17th annual Winter Wine Spectacular, which benefits EasterSeals New Hampshire. The event, on Thursday, attracts more than 1,500 guests who get to sample more than 1,800 wines. A new event, “Cellar Notes: An Evening of Wine and Music,” will be held Wednesday evening at the Rex Theater in Manchester. It will feature a panel discussion and tasting.

New Jersey

Jackson: An ad in the Waze navigation app is misdirecting motorists headed to Atlantic City’s Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa into the wilderness of New Jersey’s Pine Barrens, police said. Jackson Township police posted on Facebook that officers in recent weeks have had to help motorists who followed the directions into the Colliers Mills Wildlife Management Area, where they became stuck on unpaved roads. “The wildlife area is comprised of more than 12,000 acres, mainly located in Jackson and Plumsted townships, which is about 45 miles away from the actual Borgata Casino in Atlantic City,” police said. The Borgata is off the Atlantic City Expressway. According to police, the problem stems from an orange ad logo in the Waze app. The address on the ad is correct, police said, but the location pinned with the ad is actually in the Colliers Mills wildlife area, police said. Waze was working to fix the problem, police said.

New Mexico

Santa Fe: The Democrat-led Legislature is looking for new ways to bolster a lagging public education system and open up new economic opportunities by legalizing recreational marijuana and providing tuition-free college education, as a 30-day legislative session begins Tuesday. Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham is pushing for new investments in public education that include $74 million in new annual general fund spending on early childhood programs. She’s also calling for the state to underwrite tuition-free college education for residents. A state scholarship fund from lottery proceeds already covers 60% of in-state tuition, and at least $35 million is needed to cover the remainder plus fees. Record-setting oil production is producing an economic windfall for state government, with state economists forecasting an $800 million budget surplus.

New York

Battenville: The state is planning restoration work on the early childhood home of women’s rights advocate Susan B. Anthony. The house Anthony’s father built in 1833 in Battenville is water-damaged and in rough shape. The state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation bought the foreclosed property in 2006 but has done little to preserve it. The Albany Times-Union reports the agency now plans to invest $700,000 this year on the Greek Revival-style house where Anthony lived from age 6 to 19 when her father managed a nearby cotton mill. The official Susan B. Anthony Museum and House is in Rochester, where she lived for 40 years while she was a national figure in the women’s rights and suffrage movement. No plans have been developed yet for the Battenville house, beyond preserving it. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution giving women the right to vote, as well as the 200th anniversary of Anthony’s birth.

North Carolina

Raleigh: An appeals court on Tuesday upheld the legality of a legislative session Republicans quickly called in December 2016 to push through laws that weakened the power of incoming Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper. The unanimous decision of three judges on the intermediate-level Court of Appeals affirmed a 2018 trial-court ruling that declined to declare as unconstitutional the procedures used in calling and passing legislation during the three-day session. The group Common Cause and several citizens who sued in 2017 argued that the rushed session – announced and convened mere hours after another legislative session on Hurricane Matthew relief – violated their right in the North Carolina Constitution to “instruct their representatives.” The GOP-dominated General Assembly used it to pass laws that in part diluted the governor’s powers.

North Dakota

Bismarck: A new agreement between the state and Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation means bighorn sheep could be roaming the reservation in the next couple weeks. North Dakota Game and Fish director Terry Steinwand says 30 to 40 bighorns will be brought to North Dakota once they are captured on a Montana reservation. They’ll be released in the Mandaree and Twin Buttes areas. The Bismarck Tribune says the state-tribal agreement includes a provision for a ram hunting season. Williams says that will depend on how well the animals do in their new habitat. The pact is the third such agreement between the state and the tribal nation. The others are twin agreements with MHA Nation in 2008 related to hunting and fishing access issues and a 2017 pact with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe for an elk hunting season.

Ohio

Columbus: The state Supreme Court has rejected a recommendation that tools used to measure offenders’ suitability for being released after an arrest be made available to all judges as they make bail decisions. Requiring the availability of so-called risk assessment tools was the top recommendation of a task force commissioned by the court last year to examine Ohio’s bail system. The tools – there are several nationally – look at a variety of factors, including defendants’ age, criminal history and past failures to appear, when analyzing what type of bond conditions should be set. More than 70 courts in Ohio already use them. Supporters say the tools are a more accurate way to examine the two most important factors that judges consider when setting bond: Will the offender skip out, and will they pose a public safety risk if released? Detractors say the tools can be racially biased, are costly to smaller courts and improperly override judges’ own experiences in setting bond.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma City: A lawmaker is seeking to repeal the state’s controversial permitless carry law that took effect last year. Rep. Jason Lowe, D-Oklahoma City, who tried to prevent permitless carry from taking effect, filed legislation to repeal the law that allows most Oklahomans to carry a firearm without a permit. The legislation faces unfavorable odds in Oklahoma’s Republican-controlled Legislature, where majorities in both the House and Senate overwhelmingly approved of permitless carry last year. The Legislature also passed similar legislation in 2018, which was vetoed by then-Gov. Mary Fallin. House Bill 3357 would repeal the permitless carry law dubbed by supporters as “constitutional carry.”

Oregon

Salem: A beloved but decaying piece of artwork created from an industrial eyesore faces limited, costly options, according to an action plan from the city. Restoring Eco-Earth, the massive mosaic tile sculpture at Riverfront Park, would cost an estimated $475,000, and removing what was once an acid ball and repurposing the site would ring in at $680,000. “What would that say about Salem if they scrapped it?” said former Mayor Roger Gertenrich, who chaired the Eco-Earth project 20 years ago. The community turned the 25-foot-diameter black tank from the long-gone Boise Cascade paper mill into a colorful, one-of-a-kind globe. It once held liquid and chemical gases used to cook wood chips into pulp and has been a fixture of the riverfront since 1960, when the tank was floated up the Willamette River from Portland. Volunteers logged more than 30,000 hours to transform it, but more than 86,000 tiles have failed, and asbestos has been revealed underneath. Eco-Earth’s fate lies with the Salem Public Art Commission.

Pennsylvania

Greensburg: A defense attorney says he expects to appeal the murder conviction of a man who asserts that his now-deceased twin brother was the shooter. Jurors in Westmoreland County deliberated for about two hours Friday before convicting 30-year-old Darrelle Tolbert-McGhee of first-degree murder in the shooting death of 32-year-old Michael Wilson. McGhee had asserted that he was in Florida at the time of the April 2017 slaying in downtown Jeannette. He said the shooter was his twin brother, Dwayne, who was killed in a shooting 13 months later in Wilkinsburg. The Tribune-Review reports that defense attorney Tim Dawson said he was surprised by the speed of the verdict. “Apparently, they convinced the jury beyond a reasonable doubt that one identical twin committed the murder rather than the other,” Dawson said.

Rhode Island

Pawtucket: A woman is taking legal action against the city for handcuffing and arresting her 13-year-old daughter after a fight with another student, the American Civil Liberties Union says. Tre’sur Johnson, an honors student who had no prior disciplinary infractions, was charged with disorderly conduct and kept in a police station holding cell for about an hour last June, ACLU lawyer Shannah Kurland said at a news conference Monday. The ACLU is representing the girl’s mother, Tiqua Johnson, who is seeking $100,000 for physical pain, emotional distress and other damages. The school and police violated state law that bars the arrest of someone on misdemeanor charges, Kurland said. The brief confrontation at Goff Middle School involved physical contact, Kurland said, but neither student was hurt, and it was quickly broken up.

South Carolina

Greenville: Twenty-four years ago, the Greenville County Council passed a resolution, with three members opposed, condemning homosexuality as incompatible with their community values. Today, an Upstate group representing members of county’s LGBTQ community says it is time for the current County Council to reverse that action. Terena Starks, the diversity officer for Upstate Pride, together with the board of her organization sent an open letter Thursday to every member of the council. The letter, which is posted on the organization’s website, also links to a change.org petition, which by late Friday had drawn more than 1,200 signatures. Upstate Pride has gotten more active over the past year, most notably with the Upstate Pride Festival last summer.

South Dakota

Sioux Falls: Prisoners at the South Dakota State Penitentiary are trying to raise money and awareness about Native American women who are crime victims. The nonprofit organization Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women says Native American women are more than twice as likely to experience violence as any other demographic. The inmates made 200 pairs of earrings and raised $5,000, which they donated to Urban Indian and Health of Sioux Falls and Rapid City. Connie Hopkins, vice president of prisoner support, tells KELO-TV the money will be used in a variety of ways to bring awareness to what some say is an epidemic when it comes to Native American women. “It’s going to help them get more media out there or pay for fliers or to help people travel to go look for these women,” Hopkins said.

Tennessee

Memphis: The state’s college athletes could financially benefit from the use of their names, images and likenesses under legislation introduced by a pair of lawmakers from the city. The bill would allow athletes to sign contracts to advertise for local businesses or other companies and would also prohibit schools from “discriminating against players based on donations by coaches to universities.” “It’s time we treat college athletes like everyone else in America and allow them to earn money in the free market,” Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown, said in a statement. Kelsey and Rep. Antonio Parkinson, D-Memphis, each brought the legislation to their respective chambers months after a University of Memphis basketball player, James Wiseman, was suspended by the NCAA.

Texas

Austin: The number of foster care children who slept in state offices, hotels and other temporary housing spiked last year, as the child welfare system continues to grapple with recruiting and retaining specialized foster homes. Last year, the monthly count of foster care children who did not have a home for at least two nights totaled 678, a 49% increase from 2018, according to data from Child Protective Services. Many of them were teens, and most slept in state offices. The number of foster children without placements has increased every year but two since 2011. The problem became particularly acute last year amid the loss of 197 foster beds across the state, lengthier discharges from residential treatment centers, and an uptick over the summer in foster youth who rejected the placements assigned to them.

Utah

St. George: A new survey has found that in the Beehive State more than anywhere else in the nation, divorce doesn’t necessarily mean contention. USAWillGuru.com, which provides will and testament information, surveyed 5,000 divorcees across the country and asked if the divorce ended on good terms. Utah has the highest percentage of amicable breakups at 79%. Neighboring Nevada ranked the lowest, with only 15% saying their marriage ended amicably. The survey also looked at what percentage of divorcees include their ex in their will. According to the survey’s findings, 12% of divorced Utahans include former spouses in their will. Loni Stookey, a licensed marriage and family therapist in St. George, said there’s a “strong family element” in Utah that may contribute to why parents try to split on good terms.

Vermont

Montpelier: The state House on Tuesday unanimously approved a proposed constitutional amendment to make clear that Vermont prohibits slavery. The Senate passed the proposal last session. Vermont was the first state to abolish adult slavery. The state Constitution currently says no person 21 or older should serve as a slave unless bound by their own consent or “by law for the payment of debts, damages, fines, costs, or the like.” The amendment would remove that language and add that slavery and indentured servitude in any form are prohibited. The proposed constitutional amendment must be considered by the 2021-2022 Legislature. If it passes, the question will be go before Vermont voters in 2022.

Virginia

Richmond: The state Senate has advanced legislation to scrap the state’s Lee-Jackson holiday celebrating two Confederate generals. The Democratic-led Senate voted largely along party lines Tuesday to pass legislation that would make Election Day a state holiday instead of Lee-Jackson Day. The legislation now goes to the House for consideration. Lee-Jackson Day, established more than 100 years ago, is observed annually on the Friday preceding the third Monday in January. It honors Confederate generals Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, both native Virginians. Critics of the Lee-Jackson holiday view it as a celebration of the state’s slaveholding history that’s offensive to African Americans. Many cities and counties have opted not to observe it.

Washington

Seattle: State Attorney General Bob Ferguson is challenging the lavish personal spending of bankrupt anti-tax activist and candidate for governor Tim Eyman, saying Eyman’s assets must be preserved so he can pay his debts to the state. Eyman’s been spending an average of nearly $24,000 a month over the past year, The Seattle Times reports, citing his bankruptcy filings. At the same time, the state is seeking more than $3 million from Eyman, including $230,000 in contempt-of-court sanctions for failing to cooperate with Ferguson’s campaign-finance case against him. Eyman’s expenses include legal fees, a vacation to Orlando, rent on a Bellevue condo, $4,000 a month in unspecified business spending and at least $2,400 to buy 97 Starbucks gift cards during a 10-month span. The first month after filing for bankruptcy, he ate out on 20 days. Last February, he made 74 restaurant purchases. Last month, Eyman reported meals at three separate restaurants to celebrate his birthday.

West Virginia

Charleston: People interested in portraying historical figures for the West Virginia Humanities Council’s History Alive program can submit proposals through Feb. 1. The council is seeking proposals for portrayals of influential people who have made important contributions to state, national or international history. The roster of characters now includes Gabriel Arthur, Nellie Bly, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Ostenaco, Theodore Roosevelt, Sacagawea, Charles Schulz, Harriet Tubman and Mark Twain, The Herald-Dispatch reports. The council will consider portrayals of historically significant people who are no longer living, from any period in history.

Wisconsin

Madison: All day care centers, child care providers and children’s camps would have to test their water for lead under a bill the state Senate approved Tuesday. Current state law requires anyone who cares for at least four children under age 7 less than 24 hours a day to obtain a license from the state Department of Children and Families. The state agriculture department licenses recreational and educational camps. Under the bill, child care center operators, child care providers, group home operators and camp runners would have to test water from every source in their facilities for lead contamination to obtain or renew their licenses. If the water is contaminated, the applicant would have two options: They could stop all access to the water, come up with a remediation plan and supply drinkable water in the interim. Or they could come up with a plan for supplying drinkable water on a permanent basis.

Wyoming

Cheyenne: A second Democrat has entered the race for an open U.S. Senate seat. University of Wyoming ecology professor Merav Ben-David, of Laramie, announced her candidacy Saturday at the annual Women’s March in downtown Cheyenne. A native of Israel, Ben-David has lived in Wyoming for 20 years. She says she decided to get involved in politics to get more involved in decisions affecting ecosystems worldwide. She says her goal in Washington, D.C., would be to develop new sources of income and industries in Wyoming, where fossil-fuel extraction is a critical part of the economy. Another Laramie resident, community organizer Yana Ludwig, announced her candidacy in June, the Wyoming Tribune-Eagle reports. Three Republicans including former U.S. Rep. Cynthia Lummis are running to replace U.S. Sen Mike Enzi, who plans to retire in 2021 after four terms.

From USA TODAY Network and wire reports

Read or Share this story: https://ift.tt/3avFXD2

The post Sanguine snowman, iguana invasion, Chicken Dinner Road: News from around our 50 states appeared first on Gadgets To Make Life Easier.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/36QNoSl via IFTTT

#IFTTT #WordPress

0 notes

sandiegodjstaci · 5 years

Text

Veronica & Nathan's Chilly Swiss Park Wedding

Of all the San Diego DJs calling America’s finest city home, Veronica & Nathan chose DJ Staci to rock their Swiss Park wedding on Saturday, November 3, 2018. The following write-up is based on San Diego DJ Staci’s crazy organized & detailed outline for this Swiss Park wedding.

SWISS PARK WEDDING CEREMONY

Prelude ➔ “Better Together” – Jack Johnson, “Bubbly” Colbie Callait, “I love the way you love me” John Michael Montgomery, “You make it easy” Jason Aldean, “Tennessee Whiskey” Chris Stapleton, “Banana pancakes” Jack Johnson, “Die a Happy Man” Nelly, “This I promise you” Nsync, “Lets get married” Jagged Edge, “You had me from Hello” Kenny Chesney

Family Processional ➔ “I’m Yours” – Vitamin String Quartet

Groom/Groom’s Mom/Officiant Processional ➔ “Somewhere over the Rainbow” Instrumental

Bridesmaid Processional ➔ “Like I’m Gonna Lose You,” Vitamin String Quartet

Bride Processional ➔ “From this Moment,” Shania Twain (not duet version)

Recessional ➔ “Lucky” Jason Mraz & Colbie Callait

THE COCKTAIL HOUR & DINNER MUSIC

While San Diego DJ Staci offers couples pre-set cocktail & dinner playlists to choose from, Veronica & Nathan opted to hand-select their background music for their Swiss Park wedding.

Cocktail Music ➔ Carrying your Love with Me – George Strait, Bubbly – Colbie Callait, You Look so good in love – George Strait, It’s your love – Tim McGraw/Faith Hill, How do I live – LeAnn Rimes, It must be love – Alan Jackson, Wrapped up in you – The Country Gentlemen, Just to see you smile – Tim McGraw, She thinks my tractor’s sexy – Kenny Chesney, Angel – Shaggy, Rayvon, In case you didn’t know – Brett Young, Let me hold you – Bow Wow, Neon Moon – Brooks & Dunn, Don’t take the Girl – Tim McGraw, Check Yes or No – George Strait, Forever and Ever, Amen – Randy Travis, My boo – Usher, Strawberry Wine – Deana Carter, Be with you- Enrique Iglesias, I can love you like that – John Michael Montgomery, She’s got it all – Kenny Chesney, Where the green grass grows – Tim McGraw, Must be doin’ somethin’ right – Billy Currington, Your Man – Josh Turner

Dinner Music ➔ It’s a great day to be alive – Travis Tritt, Unconditionally – Katy Perry, She don’t know she’s beautiful – Sammy Kershaw, Lay me down – Sam Smith, Any man of mine – Shania Twain, Watermelon Crawl – Tracy Byrd, If I could make a living – Clay Walker, Everything I do – Bryan Adams, I can’t help falling in love with you – UB40, If you leave me now – Chicago, Can’t fight this feeling – REO speedwagon, Waiting for a girl like you – Foreigner, Babe – Styxx, Good morning beautiful – Steve Holy, I’ll Be – Edwin McCain, I do – Mark Willis, Fallin for you – Colbie Callait, Collide – Howie Day, Someday when I stop loving you – Carrie underwood, HOLY – Florida Georgia Line, Still Fallin – Hunter Hayes, When you say nothing – Allison Krauss, What a girl wants – Christina Aguilera, Truly, Madly, Deeply – Savage Garden

SWISS PARK WEDDING RECEPTION

MC Welcome ➔ “Good evening! Welcome to Veronica & Nathan’s wedding reception!!! I am the Master of Ceremonies, DJ Staci. Please take your seats so we can officially welcome our guests of honor. Be sure to post your photos today with #H—–PartyOf2. Are you ready to officially introduce our guests of honor?

Grand Entrance ➔ “Feels” Calvin Harris ➔ “Ladies & gentlemen, please get on your feet to welcome FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER…Mr & Mrs. H!!!

➔ Newlywed Welcome/Thank You Speech

➔ Dinner Blessing ➔ Uncle of the Bride, Dan G

6:10 PM ➔ Buffet Served: Tacos (DOC Suzy will dismiss…announce: don’t eat cupcakes yet)

6:30+/- PM (once last table dismissed) ➔ Toasts ➔ no champagne pour ➔ “Ladies & gentlemen, I hope you are enjoying your meals. May I have your attention please for the toasts. Welcome our first speaker:

1) Father of the Bride, Ramon S

2) Father of the Groom, David E

3) Mother of the Bride, Deidra S

4) Best Man & Brother of the Groom, Jordan H

5) Grandmother of the Bride, Norma B

6) Maid of Honor & Sister of the Bride, Alicia S

7) Aunt of the Bride, Vondria B

8) Bridesmaid Rachel L

7:30 PM ➔ Photo booths open

8:00 PM ➔ Formal Cake Cutting ➔ “Can you feel the love tonight” Elton John

➔ First Dance ➔ “I Swear” – All for One ➔ fade early: yes (1.5/2 mins) ➔ “Let’s welcome Mr & Mrs. H to the dance floor for their first dance as husband and wife.”

➔ Father-Daughter Dance ➔ “I’ll be there” Josh Turner ➔ fade early: yes (1.5/2 mins) ➔ “Now let’s welcome Veronica & her father, Ramon, to the dance floor.”

➔ Mother-Son Dance ➔ “My Wish,” Rascal Flatts ➔ fade early: yes (1.5/2 mins) ➔ “Please welcome Nathan & his mother, Peggy, to the dance floor to share a special dance.”

➔ Group Photo on Dance Floor

➔ Open Dancing

➔ Shoe Game

➔ Garter Removal ➔ “I wanna sex you up” – Color Me Badd

➔ Garter Toss ➔ “Pony,” Ginuwine

➔ Bouquet Toss ➔ Single Ladies – Beyonce

➔ Money Dance ➔ Announce “switch” every 30 seconds ➔ “Look at me” Carrie Underwood, “Yours” Russel Dickerson, “All of Me” John Legend, “How would you feel,” “Tenerife Sea” – by Ed Sheeran, “Can’t help falling in love” Elvis Presley, “This” Ed Sheeran, “Make you feel my love” Adele, “Back at one” Brian McKnight, “Thinking out loud” Ed Sheeran, “All my life” K-Ci & Jojo

➔ Open Dancing

10:45 PM ➔ Last Dance

10:50 PM ➔ Sparkler Send-Off ➔ “Get Lucky” Daft Punk

VERONICA & NATHAN’S DANCE MUSIC RECIPE

Dance Music Rating ➔ swear words OK later

***NO STROBES***

Play A Lot ➔ Usher, Nelly, 90s Hip Hop/R&B, EDM

Play A Few ➔ Country slow songs, Classic Rock, Oldies

Spanish ➔ 3 or 4 max, requests OK

♥ M U S T – P L A Y S ♥

Devil Went Down to Georgia, Grease Megamix, Pony, Spice Girls, BeeGees, a swiss polka, Selena, Suavemente, Can’t Feel my Face, Baby Got Back

♥ P L A Y – I F – Y O U – C A N ♥

REO Speedwagon, Bellamy Brothers, Styxx, Danza Kuduro

♥ D O – N O T – P L A Y S ♥

jazz, Sherry – Four Seasons, Who Let the Dogs Out

SWISS PARK WEDDING FLOOR PLAN

SAN DIEGO WEDDING VENDOR LIST

Here is the amazing team of San Diego wedding vendors I had the pleasure of working with on this Swiss Park wedding:

Venue/Catering ➔ Swiss Park

DJ/MC ➔ DJ Staci, the Track Star

Photography ➔ Erica Ann Bader Photography

Videography ➔ Sonny Rolon from Ryan Films

Flowers ➔ Sea of Flowers

Photo Booth ➔ Pixahoy

Desserts ➔ DIY

Again, I was honored to be the one and only San Diego wedding DJ Veronica & Nathan trusted with their Swiss Park wedding. Thank you!

Follow me

Like DJ Staci's vibe? Get instant access to her San Diego wedding DJ pricing here!

GIVE IT TO ME BABY

#female san diego wedding dj #swiss park wedding #Real San Diego Weddings #San Diego Autumn Weddings #San Diego Estate Weddings #San Diego November Weddings #South San Diego Weddings

0 notes

mollyohmolly · 6 years

Text

the first half of age 26

(now five years ago, last half of 2013)

26 overall: not a banner year. I briefly toured a bit of the world, and I’ll keep that as my solace, but overall this will be remembered as a year of grave missteps. And will I ever learn? Yet to be determined. For the sadsack rundown, this year I: -gained 40+ pounds -moved back to Seattle for a sad, sort of humiliating summer -got two telephones stolen off of me -had a few falling outs -remained single for the duration -did not advance my career (read: begin) at all -drank myself into oblivion many, many nights -spent a stint homeless and broke -got fired -borrowed money from my folks -shipped my dog off to my folks since I was too much of a deadbeat to take care of him -am now laid up in my room because I tumbled down a hill blind drunk and rolled my ankle out and don’t have health insurance There were beautiful moments nestled in there, but they are momentary delusions at best. Began my year in maybe my favorite place on earth, a stretch of coastline along California Highway 1. I was living in a hippie home in Lower Pacific Heights in San Francisco with a ragtag group of weirdos, and I was working at a rock venue in the city’s trendiest/most rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. I was sleeping with a chatty blonde boy -- the lights tech -- half because we laughed a lot and I was lonely at the time, and somewhat because he lived around the corner from the venue. I convinced a Canadian boy I had met the previous summer to fly down for a birthday adventure, so he booked a WestJet. If you want something, ask for it. We had a great story if left adbriged - we met dancing in Vancouver one warm August night; lost track of my friends, got locked out of the house I was staying; he stayed up with me all night in a diner; took a bus back to the house as the sun came up over the (?) mountains. (Leaving out making out against a car, sleeping together.) I moved to San Francisco that autumn, and the next March I flew back up to Seattle to get Adderall/show off my California tan, he bussed down from Canada, and we had this idyllic weekend with friends and laughter that in some ways made me idealize Washington all over again. From there, we moved on to Skypes and sexts and adorable phone calls where I just listened really for signs of that damn Canadian accent in my lonely little bunk. My best friend from high school decided to move down to San Francisco from Portland, chasing the sun and good times and whiskey. Laura arrived the weekend of Bay to Breakers, a veritable bro fest. Our friend Lisa was there that weekend with her bro boyfriend Jeff, and we did the whole brunch/Dolores/Divisadero bar thing. I took her everywhere; things were not going to be so lonely. One night, Laura and Todd the light tech and I went to see Akron/Family show at the Independent on Divisadero. I was really the only one stoked for it, as that band had provided the soundtrack to many forlorn rides on the 595 from Olympia to Tacoma to Seattle during college, staring out at the gray Northwest. Turns out their sound had changed from foresty to bad electronica. Laura bailed and Todd walked home, and as I was walking home Nick the Canadian sent me a series of beautiful text that stirred my weary little heart after months of near-despair in San Francisco. “I don’t know what it is, but you get me in a way I’ve never been gotten,” is maybe the last thing I read before I felt plunged forward onto the concrete. So that was the night I was mugged, and the next day my mom and aunt flew into town, and there I was with bruises up and down my knees and thighs and a busted-up hand from punching a grown man in the nose with a strange shock of untapped strength. My heartsick mother replaced my phone with the newest model and we spent the weekend by her pool and exploring the city somewhat. She hated my house, but loved the wharf. Rented a Mercedes and careened down Lombard. Took a duck out, wore a sailboat shirt. Nice time, glad to have had it. I picked Nick up at the Oakland airport in an Audi we had rented for the weekend. He picked me up, he spun me. My hobby, as Stephen said, is importing boys. Tim, Hadleigh, Andrew, Brian, Jake: my favorite moments are at airports. I wore this white summer dress, he wore bright shorts. Went back to my house, my roommate Ryan called him a “Canadian ken doll.” We packed up the car with some tent, some muenster, and off we drove. Highway One is maybe one of the most magical places on earth, a stretch of impeccable California coastline. Craig and I first drove down years and years ago now, had dinner at Orson Welles’ old cabin, sat by a fire on a ledge at the end of the earth. So that’s how I wanted to spend my birthday, figuring that would set the tone for the rest of the year. Put on a playlist, drove into the sunshine, down long expanses of exquisite coast, his hand on my leg, his sideways smile in my periphery, all lips and hair and restless energy. Stopped in Santa Cruz, had lunch on the beach. Felt like we’d been together for years, a wonderful illusion. Bit of his temper towards others was cropping up. Didn’t care. His arm around me, always. He ran up behind me on a ledge. Stopped at coves, watched sea lions. Fell in love for a few days. Put up a tent alongside Big Sur River, then drove to the Henry Miller Library, got into a bottle of Bulleit and some Arnold Palmers. Watched a very formative band, one of my favorites, Two Gallants, play their melodies under soaring redwoods. Nick wrapped his arms around me while the singer smiled that golden smile, elbows rubbed off of his sweater, a brilliant perfect night, drove back, built a campfire, felt like it would never get better, and it never did. So for a weekend, we were this brilliant couple. We never could be: he lived on the other side of a border and it wouldn’t work. But we got along just fine, had the same sense of humor, had a great time because it was fleeting. The next day we took our time getting back to the city, stopping and climbing along bays and ravines in Carmel and old churches in Davenport and everything was wonderful. Met Laura at al our regular bars on Divis on Saturday night, got daydrunk with all my coworkers at the Chapel on Sunday, went to a fancy cocktail bar in the Haight, blacked out, made out, bought a grab bag of bullshit from the bodega for dinner the last night, made out, cuddled, cursed, laughed, cried, bonded, Monday morning my birthday came around and we rented another car called “Maple Syrup” and drove to Crissy Field and he took me to lunch at a French restaurant in an alleyway downtown -- drove him back to Oakland and after he checked in at the desk he came back out of the airport door and instructed me to give him “one more hug” before he flew away. Everything in California fell apart all at once. My $550/month sublet ended and housing was bleak. My parents wanted to ship Brogan back, but he had nowhere to go. Washington State wanted $800+ for my stint on unemployment. The Chapel was giving me a few measly shifts a week, and the money wasn’t stretching, and I couldn’t afford a down payment on lease in this tech-rich city. By fluke, I saw a Facebook posting for a $667/month sublet in Seattle with a group of Seattle University alumni that I somehow had ended up friends with. If I could reverse any decision, it would be this one. But I’m not sure; the summer that followed was one mistake after the next and the regrets would only stack and marinate, but maybe I’d have ended up worse. Maybe moving into Laura’s new apartment would have strained our friendship, maybe a lesson in humility was necessary, maybe it was just nice to have my dog around for a summetime and maybe I wouldn’t be in the apartment that I’m in now if not for a series of disasters. Or maybe had I stayed I would have met a great lad and had a great adventure and now I’d be splitting finances and writing for a living or I’d have lucked into some office job that I’d grow to resent, but wondering gets me nowhere. The fact is, I made a terrible choice, one that I thought would fix everything but just launched me into an awful, unshakeable depression that I’m only now beginning to see the other side of. I decided to move back to Seattle for the summer. With money that my grandmother had left me after her passing, I had booked a plane ticket from New York to Reykjavik to Amsterdam, and then a return ticket from Copenhagen a month later. It was very financially irresponsible, but fuck it, I figured. I doubted my ability to ever have my feet on steady ground, so I may as well get something out of the messes I make. So I moved back to Seattle for the summer. I can’t think of this past summer without cringing, fully. Everything I did was wrong. Everything was bad. I lived in Judkins Park, which is a good mile or two out from Capitol Hill, where I drank and worked and hung. I had all of these illusions of life back “home” after forgetting that I did leave for a reason; there was nothing left for me. It took me a few week to find jobs, and when I finally did, I took anything I could get. I got a job through my old manager at a new high-end restaurant called the Old Sage; the only job left was a fucking host. For weeks, we had to come in in the mornings to train and get the restaurant ready for open, taste scotches at 10am, and for what? So I could work the door at a total dud of a restuarant that was priced above what anyone was willing to pay on 12th avenue? They threw me a few shifts bartending at The Coterie Room down in Belltown, which was painful in its own way. The other job was a fucking GRAVEYARD shift at a hipster DINER that just opened, Lost Lake. Embarassing. So for 8 hours a night, from 10am to 6am, I would sling fucking breakfast food to drunk people who would have to wait upwards of an hour for the stoned cooks to put their mush on a plate and then I’d tip out every goddamn person in that terrible system and walk with like, $150 maybe, and then I’d walk home the 40 minutes to Judkins Park to save money and I’d try to make it interesting by trying to listen to a new album on the walk home every day, but all I’d hear is the familiar chorus in my mind: you’re 26 and walking home from a diner and you live a sad life and you should quit it all you fucking desperate idiot. And they’d do first call at 6am so there’d be this group of fellow idiots on the bar side at dawn and then I’d walk home listening to Wolf Parade: “I’m a disaster. I could not be burning faster. I walk into webs, and take my meals with weirdos.” Then I’d walk Brogan and sleep through the sunshine and hope it all would end. I did not end up with Nick. I was honest with him when he left San Francisco, saying I would not pine for him and that I couldn’t promise anything but that I’d of course love to see him again. We made plans to go to Banff for his birthday. A few weeks later, I was moving a few hours from him but it was too late. He went home to the girl he’d previously quit. She was plain, fit, dull but probably sweet, into yoga and beer and running, 27, and more importantly, local. I think they live together now. Well, fuck. My romantic life was one dud after the next and mostly didn’t happen because I worked around-the-clock for very little pay. Zach Tyerman returned home from med school briefly and we met up at Manhattan Drugs for drinks, then Poquito’s for dinner. We met on my roof the night Craig stole my passport to see me again; a few weeks later Craig and I were dating, and we did that for a few years. Zach moved in around the corner with a guy I had once dated, Ryan Calderon. He hit on my friends, he flirted with me. He was a goofy fellow; Craig and I would joke about it. Zach and I would study at Vivace or Roy Street a lot during the wintertimes. He brought me to dinner to meet his mother and all his aunts, and I won them over easily since I wasn’t dating him so I wasn’t nervous impress them. His parents would come visit me for brunch at 22 Doors. I wrote his essay for med school; he got in. Our friendship was predicated on never sleeping together, so as I got dressed and drank the first few whiskey lemonades of the night, I promised myself: don’t sleep with Zach. When I saw him, he looked sort of great. He had a new haircut, more gentlemanly, and he was dressed well, and age seemed to have softened his features in a nice way. And it was way he treated me: he had flipped the switch to on, and without the usual teasing contempt he reserved for women with boyfriends. He used to say I had some frustrating charm. And I only frustrated him further that night. In assuming sleeping with him might ruin our friendship, not sleeping with him was probably more damaging. We went to Carly’s going away party at Big Mario’s. She was flying off to Hawaii for the summer to be with her parents, who were negotiating a divorce. I’d be taking her room in the third floor of the condo until she got back, the very week I was leaving for Europe. Kaitlyn had decorated the bar with palm trees and tiki lights, and I showed up drunk, and I regaled Zack Bolotin and Shaun Callahan of the story of my very last night in San Francisco. While waiting in a bar on Mission Street, I was approached a man who offered me CINCUENTA for “in-house” services. Mostly I was offended by the price. (Also that night: left my purse with the keys to my apartment with all of my luggage in it at another bar. Right before my flight, while all of my roommates were out of town. Always a fuckup!) Anyway, between dinner at Mario’s we had segued briefly to Linda’s and picked up a friend of Zach’s from highschool, a kind, outdoorsy guy named Alex. And now at Mario’s, Alex had his hand on my leg underneath the table and Zach stormed off into the night. Sent some wild texts. Trying to make amends the next day, Zach seemed to take the whole thing very personally. “He should have read the situation!” and “I feel like you were doing this to hurt me for some reason.” It seemed a lot like when Zac found out about Andrew, so maybe it runs in the name. But anyway he didn’t miss much: Alex and I went back to Judkins, fooled around, and somehow when Kaitlyn and Carly got home, Brogan got out and bolted, and I ran FULL SPEED down Norman Avenue -- never sprinted so fast in my life -- and across fucking Rainier Avenue through traffic BAREFOOT and eventually cornered him and scooped him up by a parking garage maybe a half mile from my house and then realized I wasn’t wearing shoes. Alex invited me to a bonfire at his house the next day, to which I responded (sort of joking? but kind of not?) “I’m not going to Ravenna.” To this day, Zach kind of rudely alludes to this whole situation via text. Fourth of July was my first day at Lost Lake, so I went down and began that awful chapter. While there, I ran into Eric, a thirty-something man I had met the previous summer at a soul night at Chop Suey. We had exchanged numbers, but I ended up with a friend of his, a real weirdo named Aeden. There was still something about him that made me incredibly nervous. And our story had a very loose end. But not to worry! We tied it up that night. Todd flew up to Seattle for his birthday and we had an okay time. I picked him up and he was so incredibly chatty and I realized this was a terrible mistake and I was so irritated the entire ride up from the airport. But it was his birthday and he had flown up, so I figured I’d just show him the town and try to have a good time and not give him any illusions about this being a lasting relationship. So we did. Went to the docks, some bars, Belltown, walked Bro, had some good adventures, rented some cars, did poppers with Tim, made him dinner, he had the time of his life and he still waxes poetic about the week so all in all, I’d say it was his version of my weekend in Big Sur. Then I met Party Bro, a guy who came into Lost Lake at 5am in a puffy vest and a shiny cap and ordered chicken fried steak with a kind friend, then conned me into staying by offering to buy my Uber home if I stayed for first call. He was a real douche and I knew it and he knew it and that was that, I guess. He was unapolegetic about being a party fiend and in love with his own damn life. But I guess I figured that was what I needed; I was leaving in a month and I wasn’t trying to find a reason to stay in Seattle. This was a guy I had 0% chance of falling for. He tried to kiss me getting into the Uber. Then he came to a bar, Montana, where I was hanging with Drew and Brian who’d flown in and tried to kiss me. Then I figured I wouldn’t put out for him, because that’s the way to keep these guys around for a good time. He asked me on a date, a real date. He made reservations, he picked me up in his car, it was a warm summer night. I wore a little black dress and heels, he wore dress shoes, we looked great. He ordered a big platter of food on the back patio of Poppy, and I decided not to tell him how picky of an eater I was, and gamely tried the salmon. I’d like to think we both brought our dating a-game. Then we went to one fancy cocktail bar after another, and he didn’t let me pay a dime the entire night, and Doug Wargo saw us and whispered, “Whoa” to me. We went to Sun Liquor Distillery and then plain ole Sun Liquor and it was a great first date, and I could tell he was very well rehearsed at first dates. So that was an okay thing to distract me from the bullshit of the rest of the summer, there was some dancing, some nights at dives, a canned bullshit speech the night he introduced me to his friends, and of course after I slept with him it sort of petered out. On his birthday at Havana, Kaitlyn let him buy us shots and then told him she was not a fan, and then her and Carey and I sort of ran off into the night, so that was that. During Block Party -- all the roads in Capitol Hill get blockaded off and a bunch of bands perform -- I worked all three nights at Lost Lake, so I got to go all three days for free. It was okay. Not what it used to be, or I’m not who I used to be. It ended spectacularly: Party Bro came in to say hello and kiss me good luck at the beginning of my shift, and towards the end of the night he came in blackout drunk holding hands with a rando girl, and then tried to text me some bullshit - so I put my phone down on the counter behind the bar, never to see it again. Felt like a real fuck up - hadn’t had the phone for more than a month or so since the last one got mugged off of me, and now it was gone again, and for what? Some scumbag I was just hanging on to so I could feel a little less lonely for a little while? Cool. Spent some nights with Nicholas, as has been our way for years and years, but by now it meant less than ever. Whenever I look back on a bad time, I try to rationalize it by considering maybe some good came of it. I did this for San Francisco round one: at least I got to ride out my crippling loneliness in solace, and also I got a great friendship with Drew. Out of this summer, I got a surprisingly great friendship with Carey. The first few weeks in Seattle, I stayed in his room downstairs while he was on a motorcycle trip through Southern California. It was great because the doors opened to the yard, where Brogan could frolic. I spent those weeks with Kaitlyn, a solid friend, and Carly, a peripheral friend. They complained about weird passive-aggressive text exchanges with Carey, a weird poster he’d hung in the bathroom, and the general living situation with him. He wasn’t so bad, I countered. “You’ll see,” they forewarned me. He returned, I moved upstairs, we shared some whiskey, and then we just sort of got along really well. He got along with Brogan. We had the same interests in life, although despite being a stoner, he was way more motivated than I was. Not a hard feat. We were into the same music. We cared about similar things. Liked the same beer and whiskey and bbq food and that made for a good summer hang. We had met summers ago, had practiced our Spanish on each other at cafes, and then had a fairly unspectacular session together before a Weakerthans show, so all of that was out of the way. Things were cozy. Kaitlyn was getting involved seriously with a guy, and so it was just me and Carey a lot. We’d hang on our computers, stay in an watch TV, ride his bike to the bank, grocery shop, share car2go’s to the hill, grab drinks or dinner, catch shows, drink beer, plot our lives. Spent a lot of time on the T-docks along Lake Washington. It was like the best parts of coming home to someone without any of the messiness of a relationship. One night at Judkins Park, I felt this weird desire to just tell him everything that made me tick somewhat incorrectly, just because I felt like at that time it wouldn’t affect his opinion of me really because it didn’t matter, but at the last moment decided against it. I didn’t know how to begin to phrase it. We were in a car2go, headed to the hill like usual. Fuck it, I figured, I like this friendship at the very basic, well-functioning level that it is. All of this would ultimately implode while I was in Europe, but for a few months Carey was one of the people I was closest to, if only from proximity. I do remember nice nights: -Tim got tickets to Hairspray! and it was weird and we almost left and it was raining hard but we were dressed up and it was fine -Seeing Elway with Carey and Peter at El Corazon - the pop-punk soundtrack to our summer -Brian came to town for Block Party weekend in July -One night at Montana with Tim & Drew & Brian and then also Party Bro -Wandering around the hill with Feven -Going to Fisherman’s with Kaitlyn, where we used to work, and getting the tour from Jim -Seeing a lot of sunrises -Seeing a lot of sunsets -A lot of days spent at Madison -Block Party with Kait and Carey -a lot of cab rides -Drew packing up my room -kareoke at Pony with Tim & Stephen and then also Ryan McMichael, in town from Paris -Dom sleepover -SubPop festival in Georgetown -weird rose wine night at some fancy place in Eastlake with Kait and Erin -Marc driving up from Portland and little adventures - exploring Seattle -weird perpetual flirtation with weird Linda’s bartender - a loose end that will likely never get tied up -knowing it was all fleeting But mostly I’ll remember how weird it all felt. Saying farewell to Seattle was all too easy. My illusory trip in March had been washed out by a stale, sad summer. My time there was dead and gone. So I did what I’ll look back on as truly idiotic: I left with absolutely no plan, and not enough resources to return to anywhere. The government had tapped my bank account and drained some money for my unemployment debt, and living in Judkins Park had cost more than the $666 rent, with storage, cabs, and general well-being. I was bloated from eating diner food all summer, and had maybe $1200 amassed after everything for my trip. I quit my jobs with very little notice, so as to burn the bridge and not tempt me to just return to them when I got back. I planned on bringing Bro to NY while I was away so my folks could watch him, but Carey offered to watch him for help with the next months’ rent. Because Bro was acclimated to the house and oddly adored Carey, I figured it was best to leave him be rather than hurtle him across the country. This decision maybe would come to overshadow my summer in Seattle as one of my worst decisions of the year. So off I went. I flew to my parent’s house in upstate New York, and Tim arrived the next day. We hung with our old friend Erika, who had since had two children with one more on the way, and had also gotten married. It was strange. I was sleepy. We spent all day gathering last minute supplies, like locks and weird sheets and walking shoes. (The locks were too small, the sheets were pointless, and the shoes were only broken in by the end of the trip.) Then we packed up our bags, they drove us to JFK, and we boarded our Icelandair plane. Look, I won’t ever regret this trip. There’s a million minute things and some very large ones that I would absolutely change, and a lot of it is within me. I went on this trip very, very lost. I went without a plan, and even less of a game plan for when I returned. I didn’t expect to find the answers out there, but I was hoping that it would at least give me some perspective, or I’d gain some interesting experiences. I’m getting old and I’ve got to get out there any way I can, and I did. All that aside, I went about a lot of things the wrong way. Timothy and I agreed from the get-go that this trip would almost certainly at times try our friendship, and it certainly did. But this friendship’s endured bouts of bullshit before and it will again, oh well. First stop was Iceland. I had become transfixed by the place via Google Earth many moons ago; I’d spun the globe and found this strange land where people actually lived, and a little lagoon where people swam, and it seemed otherworldly. (Years later, my sister would become transfixed and sully my interest a little, but nevermind that.) So we booked the free layover and a hip hostel by the water. Got my first passport stamp at customs. Bought a few bottles of liquor at duty-free. Took a shuttle to our hostel, and our very first night, things went awry. I was anxious to explore, but Tim was cranky and didn’t like the taste of his vodka and just wanted to Skype with his boyfriend. The hostel was a ghost town -- off season in September -- and I sat in the dead but beautifully curated lobby and wondered how the trip would go. We had absolutely none of it planned, minus a few vague ideas: for me, Barcelona was a must; for us, the labyrinth in Berlin was a long-time plan; and for sure, our flights were leaving out of Denmark. It was fucking freezing in our hostel room that night and the next and the next. The next day was better, we explored downtown Rejkjavik -- a small town by any stretch of the imagination -- all of the magical street art and skate parks and rad dads in thick sweaters and the whipping wind and the little shops and cobblestone walks. Then we took a shuttle with a nice Canadian couple to the Blue Lagoon, and it shot straight up to one of the more surreal, magical moments of my little life. The drive there looked like we were scaling the moon, and we drank vodka 7up out of Icelandic water bottles. We changed in futuristic locker rooms where I shared awe with an older Canadian woman. “Look at where we are now,” I must have repeated several dozen times to Tim. And then I spun around in the warm water memorizing every curve of each hill and every plume of smoke and the expression on every placid face, like I used to when I was young, and I filed it all away for when everything else gets bad. We drank some expensive beers and paid via our wrists, and then I had a truly spectacular exit: we ran to catch the bus, Tim pulled my arm to lead us to the correct one, and down I went, headfirst into a beautiful glacial spike. Boarded the wrong bus and then the right bus with a bleeding head gash and napped the whole ride home. Tim fed me water and ibuprofen and made us friends for the night, and then I went out dancing with a fresh head bump. I’d eventually fall in every country I visited, but the first fall is the deepest, and I gashed a hole in the only pair of jeans I’d brought with me, day two. Same ole story, different backdrop. But Iceland was weird and magical and met got my first taste of traveling life, where everyone hails from far-flung places and asks each other, “How many months have you been out?” Met a cute girl from Baltimore - danced all night - drank water - Haarlem - dance clubs - regulars - beautiful intriguing blondes as far as the eyes could see - winding streets, whipping wind - met some rando, deliriously stylish Icelandic students in a closed-up Mexican shop/drank their tequila - the next day was one of the most painful mornings of my life: hungover to hell, freezing, massively dehydrated, and with a gaping head wound. Veronika from Baltimore left a bottle of alcohol and a note in her wake, off to drive off towards the Northern Lights, never to be seen again. But that’s how it goes. And later I got drunk on that traveling life and also a Mexican writer’s Mezcal - walking down the hall to a huddle of chairs by the window, seeing their silhouettes in the light from the water and the mountains - seemed unreal. Some Canadians, a German girl, two English blokes, the Mexican, and once we drank everything up, we went downstairs to where a man named Magnus was hosting a bunch of beautiful, sweatered musicians grown and raised and grisled up there, with a set by a man named Snorri. And so the night went - up a hill just following along, a feeling I felt once in the Hollywood Hills - in a corner of a bar with a softspoken man who studied caribou in Greenland - dancing to a song I vowed to remember as I recorded the moment away in a small room - every moment stranger, colder, kinder than the last. We barely made it out of Iceland. I stayed awake all night, just Tim, the caribou man now, and me in that cold 8-bed room. Got us up for the 4am shuttle to Keflavik. Babysat Tim the entire time, nausous and obnoxious. Got on our flight to the Netherlands, Tim vomited while we were taxiing. Then again. Cruised in to another odd world, this one with long swathes of colored fields (tulips!) and long rings of canals. Then we got to Schiphol and my card was rejected at the ATM, despite forewarning my bank of impending travel. Also, despite paying the $25 for international service, that was also a fluke. Exchanged some cash at an exchange to get by, Tim bought us Burger King in Schiphol for being such a baby, and I secured a place to stay via Couchsurfing. The address was maddeningly confusing and the directions even murkier, but we got on a train and winged in and finally things were feeling foreign, with all the gibberish on the signs. I’d found a nice Scottish lad to put us up for a few days, and he had a flat on a canal in Leidseplein that his corpo job put him up in and he let us stay in for free. It was lovely: white walls, exposed beams, two floors, very modern. It looked exactly like where Craig would live and how he would keep it. The lad was nice, his speech very garbled. He gave us the entire top loft, which led to a garden patio. Spent about four days in Amsterdam. It was my first European city, so I drank it all up - the bikes, canals, flower shops, buildings from the 1500s on, cafes, languages. I had never visualized Amsterdam much. The Red Light district was disarming, fantastic looking women framed in little windows offering themselves up. Not sure what I expected there. In some windows, they were doing mundane tasks, like snacking or texting or removing nail polish. Went to the photography museum and saw a photograph of Newburgh, New York. By a canal, flipped through an entire photo book of self-portraits over several decades; watched a man’s body degrade, shift, had to briefly confront my own terror of aging, already felt. Ate an expensive breakfast and realized we ought to start scrounging around grocery stores to save our cash - hated having to give so much consideration to money but necessary. Smoked in a weed cafe, but all the weed in Europe is cut with tobacco. Tim found a massage chair, changed his world. Found a really old cafe, felt really weird in it, got lost on the way back. Still a lot of fresh panic from that mugging last spring. Didn’t go to any of the big museums or the beer tours because I don’t know. I’ll save that for when I’m older. This trip was, as I’ll repeat often, the sampler platter trip. It seems like a very American way of saying I’ll dip my feet in a few seas or whatever. Went out with Iain, our host, nice bloke. Kind of was over Amsterdam and the cold after a few days and ready to journey on though, and convinced Tim the sun was what we needed. Years ago, I planned to do a semester in Barcelona. I had spent a semester in New York studying art, which consisted of just going to galleries and museums and plays and ballets and operas and concerts for a few months and somehow getting college credit for that. I lived in the ground floor of a classmate’s fucking $7 million dollar brownstone while there, and I split the roommate with my classmate Kate, and we plotted replicating the program in Spain. And we hammered out the details and I saved up several thousand dollars to do it and then when the time came Kate -- working parttime as a florist in Olympia -- did not raise the funds and then my relationship fell apart and I moved into a terrible apartment in Capitol Hill and postponed the trip to the winter, then the spring, and then by summertime my grandmother had passed and my cousin was getting married, so I spent it back in New York instead, and I never went to Barcelona. So if there was one fucking place I was going on this trip, it was Spain. It seemed like the place where I belonged, if that’s such a thing -- I loved the language, and I loved all the stereotypes -- the siestas and the long nights and the lax sense of time and the beaches and the dancing and the casual drinking and the small plates and it seemed like it would fit well with my idealized self. So we went. Tim chose the hostel, I whined, it was kind of the worst -- a lot of younger kids, a late-night hallway brawl, not much charm, but a big patio and, you know, a place to sleep I guess. Food was cheap. All was well. We arrived unexpectedly the first day of Barcelona’s biggest festival, La Merce. Just a wild party in the streets waiting for us. I’d met a South African bro on the plane ride, who at first weirded me out because he never moved from the middle seat when the aisle was open, but was rather nice, spoke with a vaguely British/Afrikaans accent. We ventured out on their relatively simple train system to where the festival was, along the way met a cute guy from Seattle, now studying mathematics in upstate NY at Cornell. Brilliant! The festival was brilliant as well and perfect and wonderful and all else, and beer was a euro on the street, and we wound our way through these little alleyways to find a bizarre dance with a bunch of gigantic puppets, and children building human towers in white with red sashes, and drank Manhattans in some pub, and danced to this African woman who was intensely wonderful and I promised I’d look up though I had no reference. We caught a train back - walked the wrong way drunk - Tim was pissed and drunk and weary of me probably - furious - walked ten paces from me and I’ve never felt such weird tension, disappointed - ended up getting in a cab and it was playing this British kid Jake Bugg - “Broken” - his voice was wobbly, maybe a little contrived - but at that moment it broke my heart in a million little ways and I couldn’t shake it and I felt rejected kind of cruelly by a friend and it was sort of crushing - this came at a time when I felt wholly rejected, kind of cast off, adrift, and I needed something, anything, because I was not enough for myself. We acted the next day like nothing had happened, as we do. We met up with the South African, Stephen, at Barceloneta, and for the first time I swam in the Meditteranean, and it was warm and lovely as beaches tend to be. We agreed to meet up again, and a memory burnt into my mind is meeting up again at the Arc de Triumf for the festival that night - Stephen in his backpack, but further off, for some reason a perfect image: Sam Hopkins, the Cornell baby genius, leaned up against the ark, one foot up, with a bar of dark chocolate tucked into his flannel, hair askew. We had a lovely night and then another and then they, too, were gone from our lives, with vague promises to meet again in Capetown or Seattle. On a Sunday we climbed Montjuic for another part of the festival that allegedly included a circus, but instead ended up at an EDM festival. I was out of sorts with Tim and it was weird when maybe it could have been wonderful if I didn’t live so much in my goddamn head, or wasn’t so sensitive, or maybe if I took more of the molly that our new Swedish comrades offered up. There was another girl named Ally that only fueled my crumbling spirit, although I can’t place why. But there was a bunch of sweet humans, and we had a good night, a Pernilla and a and a, should have took more drugs maybe, should have let go for once, but the fear was burrowing into me and I felt it hard that day and that night and even at some dark salon bar I would have loved, I felt so entirely out of sorts. I felt wholly undefined. And it’s not easy to snap out of it in a communal room with three German guys. We decided to slow our pace because the time we had already spent in transit was irritating and who ever is in a rush to get out of Barcelona? So I found the next hostel and it was a damn good decision. The next week was long and wonderful and cozy. Within a few minutes of settling in, we met a Slovakian girl named Nina and a French-Canadian boy named Dominic, and set off to the beach with them, and collected other friends that week. We found L’Ovella Negra, a little pub for travelers that offered sangria by the five-gallon bucket, and the hostel offered a full slate of activities mapped out on a chalkboard. That night we went to La Merce and then a club and there Dominic the young French Canadian, off to southern France in the morning, kissed me and we kissed again among all the characters along Las Ramblas and then I told him he should stick around a few more days and when we got back to the hostel he booked his bed for a few more days and then we made out in a space made for hanging out clothing to dry. Should have left it at that night, but no. He stayed. We collected more friends, had more adventures, went to more clubs and bars, went off to Sagrada Familia, insane and intricate. Connor came along, a big, moody young guy from San Luis Obispo. The “tour guide” for the hostel was a Polish girl named Kate, but she was so casual about her role, it actually made for a way better experince. Kind of a rather beautiful weirdo. A few more. I settled in with Dominic because, I don’t know, looking back I needed affection, and he was sweet and simple, and he liked little things like going to the Dia market together to make a simple breakfast, and maybe I just wanted that feeling of someone wanting to be around me so much. Ended up kind of hating myself for it, but not til later. For now everything was nice. Dominic and I went to Park Guell. We took naps, woke up at odd hours, drank one-euro wine by the bottle. Gave Tim and I the airing out from each other that we needed. Easily one of the best feelings was when we all decided to stay even longer, and lined up by the desk, and rebooked our rooms again. So Barcelona will always exist as this time in my life when reality was suspended and I was maybe the maximum amount of cozy one can be before death. Could never list half of what we did there. Decided on Berlin next, since we were eating up a lot of time in Spain. We only had a few bad moments in Barca. One night we agreed to go to a gay club for Tim, and everyone backed out, but Dominic and I still went and shored up enough euros for cover and drank shit beer in a musty room while Tim whined for a good half hour that no one would do gay things with him when we did, in fact, come hang. Another night we all took Adderall, and Tim became kind of a dick, and Dominic was kind of a youth about it and reacted poorly to his now-racing mind, and Connor disappeared for a solid 24 hours in the Barri Gotic, and I just felt elevated and chill like I always do when I take it. And while he was grouchily coming down, Tim and I squabbled a little bit about our tickets to Denmark, because sharing finances AND making travel decisions together was kind of becoming a burden. There was also the morning we left for Germany, because we hadn’t actually communicated about getting to the airport after the ticket-booking showdown, and when the time came Dominic, now claiming he loved me, took awhile to say goodbye to, and we had to run to Plaza Catalunya to board a shuttle, didn’t speak to each other once during that ride, and then RAN across the entire airport with our fucking backpacks, while all the while thinking: If we don’t make this plane, this might be the end of our friendship. So then there was Berlin. I broke down that night in my hostel, the Heart of Gold. Finally everything caved in. It dawned on me that I was heading “home” soon but that I actually did not have a home; my parents were in NY, my dog and belongings in Seattle, my best friend and a few solids and a job I guess were in SF. But they all felt like I was going backwards, without any forward momentum. I had an 8-bed room, but I was alone in it, and I slept for a solid day, and when I woke up I had no concept of where I was, and it was one of the eeriest feelings I ever felt, though peaceful. I had created nothing meaningful to return to. So I wallowed a bit. Berlin was cold and drab and I felt like I was coming down from Spain, and that familiar yearning for a sense of belonging. So a dull panic washed over me. Germany’s history is bleak, so attempting to distract myself playing tourist was futile, so I just wrote by the River Spree. A group of deaf people sat around me, the only person occupying a bench, and one stood in front of signing to them. Felt surreal, like a joke I’d laugh at later. I sat up late and read the internet in the lobby, also a 24 hour bar, the only area with wifi. It was meant to promote interaction over technological addiction, but in actuality it caused everyone to gather in the lobby to plot out their days on their devices, alienating everyone. One night, a lovely moment: a rando group of travelers gathered together playing music, a quiet performance of “Fly Me to the Moon.” My aircraft was grounded, and they offered to rebook me. “I’ll meet you anywhere in the world,” Dominic wrote from Toulouse. So I contacted my parents, upset, and they booked me flights to Paris, and I told Tim. Discouraged, I posted on FB about my flight being grounded/being bummed in Berlin, spoke with Carey about the delay, and got a message from Dana putting me in touch with some friends of hers. Had another bad moment with Tim the next day nearing the Berlin Wall, but kind of getting tired of telling those stories now. Doesn’t matter. Later he tried to make amends when he found a festival -- it seems we arrived just in time for their Reunification festival -- and I tried to muster up some excitement, but I’d been so weirded out in my hostel and with Tim it was difficult. Rode a ferris wheel with a Syrian, watched the poppunk band The Wanted perform, got a scarf for the cold, drank an Irish coffee. Taryn told me that if ever I feel weirded out while traveling, to find an Irish pub, and she was right. They’re the same everywhere. Checked in to Tim’s hostel since he convinced me it was better, but switched rooms to an all-girls rooms to allow us more space. Somewhat bolstered by the promise of Paris, and not ending the trip on such a sour note. But then Dana’s friend Warwick contacted me, and I met up with him and his wife and their friends in a little smoky pub in Nuekolln. In high school, I had a penpal named Colin, and he spent a semester abroad in Copenhagen, and he’d written to me about the Dutch concept of hygellig. Cozy. And I’ve been chasing it ever since. And then there it was, at Leidak. I drank nearly two liters of wine, got reamed at by the old German cashier in German, got on a random train, wandered around in a wino daze, and then there it was. I hadn’t taken to Berlin the way people told me I would - it was quiet and cold and harsh and bleak, and I used those descriptors to exhaustion - but a quiet, simple sort of night changed my mind, because it was so quiet and simple, and because the humans were so kind, and because I knew they had endless strings of quiet, simple nights drinking Dada cocktails at little smoky pubs and talking about this or that and maybe some nights were wild but all I ever wanted were the mellow nights I knew they experienced in abundance. I looked around: I would have loved to be a part of any circle of humans in that bar, and I heard snippets of their languages and laughter and I wanted in. I guess it’s that simple: I wanted in. I didn’t feel so much as I belonged with this particular set of humans as I felt I could belong somewhere, a feeling I hadn’t had in a long while. I made eyes with a bright-eyed boy across the way, and my next memory -- this one clear as fucking day -- was being held against him at a U-bahn station in Kreuzberg -- I remember because when we momentarily broke off from me I asked “Wait...where the hell are we?” and he answered, with his sloppy smile, “We’re in Kreuzberg” -- and note I don’t think anyone has ever kissed me quite that fervently -- he reminded me of a schoolyard bully, can’t place why -- and we ended up back at his large flat in Kreuzberg via taxi -- and goddamn if I hadn’t sifted through this night 200x since -- Laurence, you ruined Paris for me. I awoke in his bed with all my stuff back at the hostel in Mitte, but it was settled, I would stay with him for the rest of the weekened - “Now let’s go get you sorted” - since I was just wandering through, there was no pretense about a relationship, no bullshit. And so we went, and we got sorted. Found Tim. I made shit hostel breakfast with what leftovers I had, some stale bread, some scrambled eggs, and while I cooked he came and put his arms around me, a simple movement, but I still riding that high of a fleeting sense of belonging. He was a writer, teaching English, approaching 30, a bloke from Manchester. We napped at his place after wandering around Kreuzberg, and then he went and fucking kissed the top of my head just when “Slow Show” came on, unknowingly, and he held me the whole time as I promised not to fall for the loveliness and novelty of this stranger, but by then it was too late, si claro, he could easily shoehorn into being the next Nick: a beautiful taste of something I’d always want to drink some more of. Nick had done a similarly absentminded thing -- he’d wrapped me up into his sweater with him while waiting for the bus that morning in Vancouver -- and even then my heart was like oh no, oh no. And ever since, I’ve been giving up on decent guys whose only real fault is they never caused my dumb little heart to spike in some silly way. We met Tim at the labyrinth, a plan we hatched long ago. We drank in the corridor for awhile, then got the gold coin - a woman spun me and sent me off - first fright was own damn reflection popping up - crawled around in that wild, haphazard maze for awhile - standing there was Laurence, taller, eyes bluer, hair wilder - found Tim and the other Laurence, crawled on the floor to a neon-white room and danced and crawled back and went upstairs and kissed Laurence for awhile. Everytime you access a memory, it degrades like a shitty jpeg, so I try not to tap into these things anymore. We had dinner back in Kreuzberg at some Italian place and then fell asleep together again and woke up; I had a flight to catch and he had a match to get to, so he walked me to the bus stop and I said farewell and he went, nearly offended, “Wait a minute, kiss me goodbye.” So I kissed him goodbye and went to Paris to meet Dominic “under the Eiffel Tower at sunset.” Paris was doomed from the start. Never agree to meet anyone under the fucking Eiffel Tower at fucking sunset. Never flee to Paris as a means to delay figuring out your damn life. I never gave it a fair shake. Don’t even feel like thinking about it. Flew to Orly and stopped at a McCafe to charge up, got an awful message from Carey, checked my depleted bank account, I don’t even really want to go through this part of the year right now. It’s like a cloud fogged me over from the inside out. Blood went tepid. Can’t explain it. First few moments in France: I don’t know, what the fuck ever. You know what, Paris was beautiful, and odd, and winding, and I had some great nights, drank some great wine, met some weird humans, and maybe some other time in my life I’ll process it, but not now. Point being, by the end of the trip, I was a mess. And I had to catch a flight to Denmark from de Gaulles. McMichael had taken me to the train and bid me well - I fell one last time in the square before leaving. Gave me a strange smile, like we both recognized how fucked up it was, and I remembered him in his apartment on Melrose years ago, and again in his apartment in the first arrondisement of Paris playing “Life is a Pigsty,” wearing the same face. On the plane, tucked into a copy of a The Big Sleep I’d picked up at Shakespeare & Company at Laurence’s suggestion, I found a series of post-its written haphazardly by a drunken Dominic from his last night in Paris and it all slowly dawned on me. Between those and Carey’s increasingly agro messages, man, I crumpled. I’m weak enough as is, but damn. So Copenhagen was weird. Caught the train to the hostel Tim suggested in Norrebro, only to find it all booked up and in fact, every hostel in Copenhagen all booked up. Sent out some flairs on Couchsurfing from an Irish pub where the barman had a vague Manchester accent. Can’t explain the daze I walked around Copenhagen in, carrying my full backpack, feeling utterly defeated. Knowing that all of this navel-gazing and sorrow was overinflated and bearing down on a good time, but maybe necessary, no I didn’t realize that at the time. I just wanted to drift off into the sea and let go of it all. The trip was over, my escape was over, and reality was even bleaker. I could not have charted a rockier landing. And where to? What next? What did I have now? I saw so many lives pass in front of me that I wanted to try on for size, but not this one any longer. Melodramatic, sure, but I suppose in a foreign land all alone there’s some lenience on grand, sorry self-pitying. A Taiwanese man found me on CS and I met him and a few others at a lovely pub after being berated by my taxi for not having a chip on my card. Threw all my krona at him and ran in, backpack and all, to a rather nice place. Had a lovely night with another host and his surfer, a blonde book publisher out of Helsinki. Taoi ended up being kind of a weirdo, but nevermind that. Everything faded away for a little while. Called Dominic to apologize, and perhaps explain myself, wished him the best on his travels. So by the end of the trip, I was a real mess. I hadn’t combed my hair in a month, and it was curly as hell and nearly dreadlocked. I took my flight to Norway, where everyone has blue eyes and everything is polished nicely and beer is nearly 20 bucks a bottle and I was hungry and weary and broke and tried to sort of bathe in the good nights, the good humans, the good stories, the good hours, the good moments I’d memorized from every angle. There was no shortage, and I tried not to let the fear leak in to those, quarantining them to a kinder home in my mind. Took an 8-hour flight back to JFK. Was alerted at customs that it seems I now had two pink eyes. Rushed to the bathroom to clean up before seeing my parents, and there was my mother, and there was her vision of her lost-at-sea daughter: two pink eyes, matted hair, unwashed clothing, torn jeans, kind of gaunt and very tan. They fed me and let me sleep for a day or two and then I broke down in my parent’s bedroom and admitted I had absolutely no plan for what came next and not even an idea of what I wanted out of life and very little money and no way to take care of my pup adequately and all of this came from their 26 year old daughter. They went to work and when they came back, they offered me a bailout: I could come home for a little bit while I got back on my feet. Safe and sound in my bed, I almost considered it. But you know what, fuck that, fuck all of my whining about poor decisions, I love my parents and I know this offer was put on the table in order to help me out and ultimately get me back on the east coast and away from my haphazard nomadic ambling, but thank the LORD I did not take them up at them. It would be like redacting the past near-decade of my life. Ultimately, they gave me a grand as a loan to sort my shit out with the promise I’d repay it from a paycheck at a financially lucrative, upstanding job, and soon, but as it so happens I’m not that on it, but at least I’m not living at home. The following winter was one of the most depressing periods of my life. I entered into a phase of homelessness, unemployment, couchsurfing, meandering, freeloading, and just being a general degenerate while I tried to get my ducks in a row. And I pitied myself, dear lord did I pity myself. More, I despaired every decision that had led me to this life. Couldn’t pin it on any one thing - I was pretty consistently irresponsible. Realized early on I’d have to cash in on every ounce of good fortune I could, cash out really. So I did. I stayed with Nicholas for two weeks in Seattle while I collected Brogan, paid off Carey, paid Tim the remainder for our trip, moved my stuff from one storage locker to a cheaper unit, collected leftover checks, whatever. Got to Seatac, then to SFO. Stayed with Todd for a few weeks on 19th & Valencia in SF, WITH Brogan, but didn’t sleep with him so as not to make it any weirder, eventually he got weary of that arrangement. Shipped Brogan back to New York, stayed with Laura for a month. That took us the holidays. Couldn’t afford to go home for either, for the first time in my life. Thanksgiving Laura and I ate mashed potatoes at an Irish pub, and then drank at Pop’s. Christmas we ate at a Chinese restaurant, and then drank at Casanova. She left from Makeout Room to see about a boy, and so did the others we were out with, so it was just me and this stoner bro, so spent the night with him. Picked up every shift I could at the Chapel, working 6-7x a week. Agreed to a $900 sublet on 26th & Folsom for the month of January while I worked on setting up a living situation. New Years Eve was my last night at the Chapel though; worked the mezzanine bar alone, and when 12 struck I was just sort of there to watch it happen, stayed up into the wee small hours of the morning with my coworkers and then disappeared off of the schedule. Had to go in not once but twice to ask if I was fired, and finally Keith told me: yes, we’re letting you go. Per the owner’s requests. Cool.

favorite moments of the year: -blue lagoon -sam - arc de triomf -cab - pigalle -party bro - poppy -hallway @ kex

0 notes