all in a day

I love my job, Here are a few reasons why.
1. I can bring my girlfriend whenever she doesn't have to be at her 9-5
2. Simon is the best 10yr old in the whole world
3. I get to hang out and have fun

New Bruises

Here we are. Jb and I in my living room working on new Bruises songs. This new EP is going to be a bit different. First, we are writing everything in our own houses and using garage band as our songwriting base instead of jamming as a full band in our practice space until the song comes together. 2ndly we are driving to LA to work on preproduction with Michael Eisenstein (Letters to Cleo). WE have never really worked with someone who is a musician and can listen and give us an ear and help make our songs the best they can be. This past year has been really tough for the both Jen and I. OF course, all we've wanted to do was play and write music, but life doesn't always allow you to do the thing you love. Finally, almost a year later, we are emerging with some new material and probably our most honest EP yet. In writing we are figuring out that we're changing, our music is growing along with us. WE don't have a drummer, we've given up our practice space. WE are literally playing and writing music right now because we really love it and it makes us happy. Next time you see The Bruises live who knows what the stage will look like. There could be 4 of us, 6 of us, or just 2 of us and one rocking laptop. This video was taken on a Monday. Neither of us work on Mondays. Jen came over to help work on a song I started but needed her to finish. That's the way all of our songs go. WE need the other one to put in that secret ingredient and make it complete. Can't wait to record !

The love of art

Tomorrow my little sister Hannah is auditioning for "So you think you can dance". Whatever happens, I'm so happy she is giving it a shot. I'm glad she is being brave and going after her dream. She is such a beautiful, sweet girl, and she is really an amazing dancer. I'm not just saying that as a sister, I sort of can't believe how good she is. I'm so proud of her and know that dancing is what makes her truly happy. I love chasing the dream. Shit, I'm 30 and have no intention of stopping....just shifting a little. I love my sister so much. My sisters. Love them both. Miss them both.
Cat took me to see Wicked Recently. WOW. I cried about 6 times. When I see people living their dream, a dream that most people think might be too far fetched, it gets me. I cried because it was beyond amazing. The costumes , the singing, the story. I cried because I thought it was amazing that some person sat down and wrote this musical. I cried because I thought of all the hours, tears and sweat these people put into this show, I cried because it truly moved me. As we were leaving I turned to Cat and said "I want to go again". Jenni and her girlfriend saw it last night...FRONT ROW. She said she could see their sweat. . . I'm a little jealous, but SO grateful I was able to see it. I saw "The Color Purple" in NYC and I swore it changed my life. I feel the same about Wicked. Maybe I was meant to be a broadway star?!!!! ; )

There was also a mistake in our show during the song Popular. Glenda tried to jump on the bed but didn't make it and the witch started laughing and they had to do some ad-lib . I'm not sure everyone caught it, but I did. And I loved it. That to me is how you define a true artist. Things don't always go as planned and you have to improvise .
I can't wait to go see another show and cry my face off . I love the arts!!!

I also recently went to the Moma museum to see the Richard Avedon photos. They were beautiful. I had no idea you could take pictures until I was in the last set of the exhibit so I snapped this one of Janis Joplin



And speaking of beautiful things, check out Cats bike! For our anniversary I got her new tires and a new chain:



And she got me a tattoo. My grandpa isn't going to be very happy. Last time I was home he told me to STOP getting tattoos. I said I wasn't going to get anymore, but apparently I did. I hate to disappoint my elders! But then again, Everyone I'm going to grow old with is covered in them so we'll all be wrinkly old tattooed broads together.

All in a weekend

4th of July weekend was a busy one. I just now uploaded the pictures and videos that I took and decided to share. FIRST of all, I need to say that fireworks in the city suck. Did I already post a blog about that? I don't know what I was looking for, but it just doesn't compare to the open skies of home.
Maybe this was a span of 2 weekends, but it included bloody mary's at Zeitgeist, darts at the Kilowatt while "killing time" waiting for Little Star Pizza to open. After beating Cat at Darts ( Seriously, I needed to say that because she beats me at every single thing we do) we realized Little Star had a long wait so we started to walk home. . . which is a far ass walk. Stopped by a place we had wanted to eat at for a very long time called Spork. This place turned out to be amazing. WE were slightly shit-faced at the time but enjoyed our meal SO much. WE like to split everything, so we got an appetizer, entree and a dessert.
ON with the pictures already!

Cat working on her $11 bloody


Me..probably a little tipsy



Darts!!


Our clean plate at Spork after our delicious goat cheese appetizer


Cat on our way home from Fireworks


The city on the 4th of July from Bernal Hill



Finally, the video of the big firework finale. Um, I thought the show was just getting started at this point. ITs really hard to watch the fireworks from Miles away on top of a random hill surrounded by hundreds of people in the foggiest place on earth. Check it out:

I'm a sucker for a dancing baby

This is hilarious

Summer

Today we went to the Alameda Fair. WE mainly went for the food, to gorge ourselves until we couldn't move. I don't think I've ever been to the Fair as an adult, so we also made our way directly to the beer garden and enjoyed pricey yet delicious brews. Cat played games and won me 2 fish (which I gave to JB) and a Kenny stuffed animal as well as a stuffed frog(Lola is chewing on that right now). After 2 beers we decided going on a ride would be a grand idea. Fuck. WEll, I chose the TIlt a whirl because it was my favorite as a kid. ( I will post the video of Cat N I dying as we hold in our vomit). I was doing one of those things where you start to pray to god that the ride ends fast..like "dear god, please make it stop I promise I wont drink any more beer". But it seemed every time I would close my eyes to pray our little tilt a whirl cart would head off into an endless spinning parade. We were not feeling it at all. Needless to say me and Cat were out for the count for a good hour. WE had to lay in the grass and drink water water and come to the realization that being old kind of sucks when it comes to riding rides. I was pretty sure my day was ruined, but after a corn dog we were back in the game!