Austin

For those of you who don't know, I moved to Austin this week. I have been wanting to move here for a long time and finally made the leap. My current situation is that I am unemployed, sleeping on an air mattress and my clothes are still in boxes. But, I have a place to live and have been spending quality time with the O-town(Olive)!

One reason I am excited to be here is because the music scene is amazing, and can rival most cities in the U.S. So wasting no time, Malinda (my roomate) and I went to an Album Release Party at The Parish on 6th Street. The band we saw is called Shearwater, and they were amazing! Whats cool about this, is that the band used a string quartet in addition to the five members of the original band in the recording of there new album "Rook." They are only playing two shows with this complete ensemble, one was in New York City, and the other we saw last night! Shearwater also had another special treat. They played every song from their new album, took a break, and came back to play a fantastic set of older songs. So if you get a chance to see this band, take it!

To end an already fun night we rode our bikes home through downtown at midnight, I love night riding in an empty city!

An Anniversary

Its hard to believe its been an entire year since my little brother passed away (May 7th 2007). Anyway, I feel like I should write a little bit about him because I don't want him to be forgotten. I wonder what kind of trouble he would be into these days, and how mad I would be at him for wreaking havoc! Joe would be 19 this year and have his hands full with a baby boy if he were still here. Not a day goes by that I don't think about him, and I miss him just as much as the day I recieved the tragic news. But death is a part of life, and I am thankful I got to spend over 18 years with that crazy kid. I have many stories that are funny about this kid, and many stories that weren't funny as a kid, but looking back I suppose he was only trying prepare me for things in the future.

Joe and I shared a room for much of our childhood and everyday I wondered what would happen next. Most of my family know this, but my fondest memory of him was the "Monster traps" he would build in our room. He would gather all the dog leashes, ropes and anything else that one would use to trap monsters. I would open the door to the room only to find a spider web of junk slung across the room. I would be fuming (as always) that I couldn't get to my bed. Looking back, maybe I was the monster, because I was the only thing he ever caught! "What is this mess?" I would ask. With the most serious voice a five year old could have he would reply, "I am going to trap a monster." He was probably thinking "Duh!" I would force my way through the leashes and junk that really had no purpose at all except to add cosmetic changes to a dull room. He did this on more than one occasion in order to feed his obsession with monsters.

I wish I could remember more from our childhood, but I suppose something is better than nothing. Thats my story about Joe for a sad anniversary. We miss you dude!