WESTSIDE STORY

I might be losing my crazy coffee job. Hopefully the guy buying it will keep it a bean bordello and keep me on (Cody too, why not...but the girls, especially that new Amanda girl, can eat one).

Panoramadness.

Wasn't Halloween a barrel of laughs?

I still have my dumb black hair (though I concede that my roots emerging pushes it into the semi-brown). I think I'll cut it soon.

I met with Damien and Elwood yesterday at RMR to discuss working on designing some things for the Skate Army. We talked turkey and decided on a modest wage per hour. I think we agreed on some gear thrown into the mix too. Perks, dude, perks.

A failed attempt at hitting wintery Norris was followed by a bad sweater party ( white, white, white ). I had attained a gem a few months back for such an occasion. The only person I know for a fact that was psyched was Nick dubbs. It was really hard to pinpoint his alcohol content, but was to the point of shouting "Food Fight!" standing next to the neglected, big birthday cake on the table.

This was following one of the worst first impressions I've been present for. I can't be sure what all was said, but an intentional mistake of the host's name, set off a multitude of bad blood aimed at the always good natured Nick W. I think, without knowing 'he was in the wrong', he kept up his normal good nature, only to be cut down by "Lyle's" entourage (he was scolded for the aforementioned suggestion of a food fight by a blonde friend of 'Lyle'). I'm sure that I've been in a similar situation, or perhaps I can just mentally project myself into one, but either way I sympathized with him.

There really were ups and downs at this social function; the bad mainly being what Nick was going through, and the good being pretty much everything else. I was equipped with three Rainiers and my beautiful attire (which I supplemented with a tie-dye I got from JBoy some time ago). Because of work early in the morning, I took necessary measures before the party and planned on drinking the beers I had on me. I ended up having one beer and giving the other two to Nick and Race, who were both too timid to approach the barrel chested beauty that was the keg.

In retrospect, it was probably good that they were hesitant, for any further action taken by anyone in our group could only reflect poorly on our clique.

Around 12:30, the residents said that we all (the whole party, not the kreamers exclusively) had to go. However, it couldn't be plainer that they were glad to see Nick and his dumb, singing, white friends retreating out to the cold, where we couldn't bum them out.

The drive home, which was snowy and bright form the street lights and really pretty awesome, was filled with discussion of what had just happened and trying to figure just why it had happened. Dropped off the troops and got home in time to get some REM.

MONTANA BIRTHDAY BEASTER BASH

This post only contains photos from the trip cody, nick, nate, and i went on at the end of the summer. I'll give you this link. I can't remember all the dates and facts and the craziness word for word anymore, but scattered memories and a sense of enjoyment linger.

Also if you haven't seen my sasquatch photos, they're on there as well. scroll to the right.

fun.

ARSENAL

the other day was flawless. nothing went wrong and i recognized it when it didn't happen. got up whenever, made my fave breakfrist followed by working on my bike. got some new pedals from agent J Boy that will do the trick.

the dudes in my house went and skated the park. skated well, but most importantly, had mad fun and good vides flowing. the weather was kinda turning, so the house it was. four of four searching their phone contacts for good news. Ropo is now our neighbor accross the alley so i went to see what he was up to.

well, you know po, so i hung there for a while and headed to get my tattoo touched up. i was not feeling a tat touch at that moment, but decided to bear it. evidently, i was four hours late for my appointment so i rescheduled it for the next day. dodged a bullet on that one. i went the next day and did the deed and i had him add hardware. it reads easier as a shred sled now, i think.

anyway, instead of tatting, i went up hyalite canyon with my buddy Travis go ahead and scroll through the other photos. he had his piece full as we rolled up there, a shot gun, and a twenty two. as we arrived, some german dude got there for the same thing: to shoot guns. a list of what he had/let us shoot: 1. twenty-two modified to look like an M16, 2. an M16 semi-auto rifle, 3. some 1942 WWII russian rifle with plenty of kick, and 4. a policeman glock pistol. he also had a legal semi-auto AK47 (this one he knew a code/cheat by holding the trigger just right so that the recoil caused it to fire in fully auto. unloading 20 shot bursts was legit.

got home, did someting, i don't know now, but the rest of the day went without a hitch.

SQUATCH 09

i just spent a week in helena. highlights of the trip were:

1. going street skating and finding a mini ramp.
2. miller's crossing
3. splitzers
4. beer
5. riding Kurt's motorbike (john and SpecK first time)
6. artsy photos
7. the lake
8. music lessons at Cindy's White's

eight, off the top of my head.

when i got home, my camera was waiting for me on my desk. therefore, i can share my photos from sasquatch. the leopard print lady was dancing by her lonesome in front of me outside the dance tent during crystal castles. it was wierd.

CANION FERRY

I still have to show you the photos i took at sasquatch. but I have to get my camera out of dan's van first. i'll do that sooner or later. whenever he's here next. maybe.

reporting on the 4th however, is what i can do.

i think we all blasted out of bozeman later than we wanted. but we all did. i hit up helena first to see the folks. they bought me a burger along with cody and evan. we got instructions of how to get to the spot that dan and kyle and whoever else went and scouted for.

they had found a good spot and had put their dumb tents up by the time we got there. matt, cody, evan and i were rolling deep in matt's care-a-van. loaded er up with goodies and met the others. the first night was when all the action happened. we sang and drank, and had several green trees vanish in the flames. marsh-mellowed out with sticks and embers, and enjoyed the lake, surroundings, people, fire-cooked food.

someone had some grill that was invaluable. three guitars, one of which evan was playing the drumbs on for about 30 seconds, sounded like 50 guitars and 50 drums to our red-neck neighbors. how do i know this? my brother's friend ryan was out there and had talked to them the following day.

so, the following day, i went on a little adventure to take dan to his parent's cabin. on the way, i saw a turnout that might have some fear wood. after dropping dan off, i mobbed around the roads around cunning fairy in jorda's little car, and found the spot. i investigated a collapsed shack. there was a mouse, and many spiders. i ended up loading the trunk with smaller pieces and had the bigger ones sticking out of the back windows. headed back. people asleep. got windy then and the sea was angry.

later it cleared up and some of the folks that had gone to town came back. this day was filled with swimming and greasy food and fair wurks so that night was much more tame. some outsiders, jordan's friend brought some of her friends out and that was good. anyway.

here're the photos. scroll LEFT through them. WARNING: some of these photos may disturb or scar(e) you, and i shot them all with my neato phone.

SPACE ODDITIES

i was laying/lying in bed this morning and i felt motivated to get on it. so, if you can believe it, i'm posting again...this soon after my last one (which was a double feature). you all know this, but i'm pointing it out.

i'll speak briefly of the trip to helena:

cody, jamie mashek, and i took a trip. upon arriving, we split up to different families. i went to evan's and john was there. we started making music. we were doing a cover of a super-secret 80's one-hit-wonder. we lived the high life and worked on our masterpiece of crap. well, there's more than one way to soak a cat. we changed up our approach, deciding to do it accapella. then we had our master-piece. john and i met UK at millers, shared some drank, and headed for kurts to finish out the night. he has some insane japanese games for his DSI that i couldn't wrap my brain around.

the next day held the tile making party. i've already posted my design. the others, well, you're gonna have to wait to see them. they'll be located ON the skatepark that we all know and love.

later we skated. skated downtown spots that included, but were not limited to: grey/big/big grey lumpy, the arcade 2 stair, alley cat street jumps, cat walk bricks, dumpster diver dover, and many other well loved spots that can humble even the most well-to-do man.

i had brought along nick's handicam, so it was on. it was like the old days. upon reviewing the footy: gold.

evan and i stopped by the skatepark to see what was shaking. there was still some light out, so we tore it up. evan was trying some switch balance move or something.

that's about all i remember. but now i can present to you, the space party photos, of which i shot with my neato cell phone. i went to the extra work of getting them off the nets to get them on here too. you know the drill, just look through them in sequence.

non-facebooker(s) rejoice.

sasquatch photos up next. i'll wrack my brain to try and remember the sequence of events from that trip.

SANTA CRUZ: DAY4 AND DAY5

i'm just gonna finish this part up. and just a reminder, special K encouraged me to add side stories 'where they're needed'. so, anyway.

Day 4: Getting a late start in the morning, we all ate breakfast together outside on the deck. We bs'ed for a while, normal nonsensical references and further jokes based on even more obscure references.

This was the first day to skate the new Santa Cruz park for the latecomers. They were both amped on it. It has something to offer everyone. Everyone else was feeling the heat while I continued to skate.

After while, the suggestion to hit downtown (food, skate shops, etc.) which is in walking distance from the park. Good pizza and cokes, John and Ultimate Kurt got some shoes, John got an Anti-Hero Stranger deck.

Later we skated the Derby park. I didn't have anything for it so i sat that one out. We'd all had enough sun so we decided to sit on the cool beach (which was sunny) as the sun went down. We played frisbee and pet some dogs. Went home and barbecued some burgers and franks. (at this point, a bear attacked brandon, but we all picked it up by the scruff of its neck and tossed it back into the undergrowth) and talked life. Love these people.
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Day 5

This was our biggest skate day. We (mainly Repgnar) cooked an awesome breakfast and everyone got well fueled. Started the day well with [an indoor waterballoon fight].

Our first location was Scotts Valley where Brando knew of a new park. Boy, was it a dandy. Ledges; small, medium, and large tranny and mannies. I sadly neglected my camera this whole day. Jordan hung in the grass while we got gnarly. People did tricks and had fun. We had to cool off, so we hit up Baskin Robbins.

We set off for San Jose to skate the park that's in the enjoi video. We had a helluva time finding it, but it happened before dark. At first, i was blown away at all the little kids that would be getting in my way for the next hour or so. But you learn to just go. There was a bit of a mini-ramp section that was a perfect height, quickness, coping. I could've skated that all day. Everyone was pretty much done by sun down, and we took the windy road home. [ed. note: not the blowing wind, but when something curves a lot. i don't know how to spell it and i don't know how to google it.]

Got some beer. John and I went looking for Subway, drove around, saw some drama at the 7 eleven, called it quits. Got back and tore into the beer [pickles, and single malt curry powder]. we talked late into the night; gradually people went off to bed. Repgnar and I stayed up past 2:00 and he kept [stuffing his mouth with grapes]. everything was comfortably hazy, and we retired. everyone said their goodbyes before they hit the hay because Jordan, Kurt, and I would be leaving the next morning at 6:00 (which turned out to be 8:20).
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so there you have it. that is how i experienced Santa Cruz for the first time. now that it's been several months since then, i'll put in a little overview which may or may not be completely accurate.

SC was awesome. it's too bad that it's so far away and so much to get there (taxing on the wallet and the body). but it was worth it. the stop in the woods, on the way down, was sooo awesome, skating in the sun during the montana 'spring': so sick. i would feel kinda fruity telling you exactly how i felt about the whole thing, but just know that i'm lucky i found all these guys when i did at that point in my life. john and i were discussing that it's so insanely strange that all of us lived within a short proximity and that we all skate and have the strangest understanding of each other's weird sense of humor.

anyway, [i have a bear attacking me now] so i'm going to sign off. next issue will discuss sasquatch. i hope i get it done soon.