boo to the 5

So really the 24 Days of Awesome turned out to be more like the 22 Days of Awesome and 2 long-ass days of driving that were only partly awesome. what gives?  right around 2200 miles total from Spokane to LA (in a rather round-a-bout sort of fasion) and all kinds of good people along the way.

Today i landed in Placentia, CA at Andy's (his name is not a funny color because he never blogs anymore....guilt.) folk's house. I'm so grateful that they agreed to take me in while I register at school and find a place of my own.

I logged 525 miles today. I added a few miles so that I could pay  dollars to drive across the Golden Gate Bridge. I glad I did because then I crossed over to I5 and had the, straightest most uneventful drive of my life. The first few vineyards and orchards were pretty. then all I saw for 400 miles were vineyards, orchards, and dead grass. Luckily, i was prepared. Today's music selections included:

• this dope-ass mix that Katie made me for the drive
• Jeremy Enigk "World Waits"
• Frightened Rabbit "The Midnight Organ Fight"
• Damien Jurado "Caught In the Trees"
• Bruce Springsteen "Darkness on the Edge of Town"
• Wilco "Sky Blue Sky"
• Patty Griffin "1000 Kisses"
• Margot and the Nuclear So and So's "The Dust of Retreat"
• Sarah Masen "The Dreamlife of Angels"
• Bob Dylan "Blood on the Tracks"
• Ben Lundquist "Afterthoughts"

maybe today was awesome afterall...minus the swass.

Hustler's grab your guns...

...your shadow weighs a ton

driving down the 101

I added 423 miles yesterday all on the 101, but i started out the morning hittin' the surf with my bro. it was a gorgeous morning at the south jetty and the good Lord did grant us each our one good ride (which for me means I paddled into the biggest wave of the day, stayed on my belly for a bit cuz I was nervous, and then stood up for like 3 seconds). But you combine a little wave fighting, a little wave riding, and 9 hours of driving you get one tired Marc, so here's yesterday's post.

a few points of interest on the 101 run:

• the nicest rest stop ever is just north of Brookings, OR. It's nicely landscaped with a huge park and some trials, outdoor picnic area shielded from the wind, and clean (not new, but clean) bathrooms . there is a manned guest info station with free maps, and get this!...free wifi? what? at a rest stop? yes. God bless Oregon.
  
• somehow Dairy Queen has managed to put a restaurant in every Oregon coast town
• there is another interesting chain in some of those towns- the Wacky Tobacconist, which i thought said the Wacky Baconist when i saw it in the first town. I mean, how great would that be! A whole store for Bacon!
• driving for a few hours and then seeing a sign that says 373 miles to San Francisco is pretty discouraging 

This is how I roll

Right around 1300 miles logged so far...

hippie soap

the 24 days of awesome are going splendidly. I spent the last few days at the family lake cabin with my folks, my brother and his boys, and few friends who dropped in. Now, when you're at the cabin, bathing is definitely not required (which is not really different than normal for me, just a little more acceptable). After a few days there, and a particularly sweaty session of helping Dad with the roof, i found myself in need of a bath. Luckily we had some of this!
The 18-in-1 Hemp Peppermint Pure-Castile Soap from Dr. Bronner's Magic Soaps (aka the hippie soap) 18-in-1! Are you kidding me?! No, i'm not. I love this stuff. And there's another use they didn't think of- wakeboard binding lubricant. that's how we got started on this stuff. my wonderful sister-in-law was concerned about the dish soap we were using to get our feet into the boots. I'm sure glad she was! the uses i took advantage of this fine day were: shampoo, face wash, body wash, and mouth wash.

the process:

• dive into lake
• shampoo, scrub, etc. being careful to srub everywhere that needs it with a swimsuit on and without be too conspicuous, as there are probably neighbors watching
• dive into lake
• climb swim ladder feeling tingly and refreshed
• squirt a little more hippie soap in mouth along with a swig of water and swish
• go about day feeling awesome that you just bathed in a lake with hippie soap, knowing that there are still somewhere around 15 other ways you can use said hippie soap. awesome.
  

Sometimes the Boss sings my life

There's a man on the corner singin' my life
And he's playing guitar with a rusty old knife
Each song that he sings rhymes with the true
And reminds us of something beyond the Blues

-Peter Case "Beyond the Blues"


On a rattlesnake speedway in the Utah desert
I pick up my money and head back into town
Driving cross the Waynesboro county line
I got the radio on and I'm just killing time
Working all day in my daddy's garage
Driving all night chasing some mirage
Pretty soon little girl I'm gonna take charge

(Chorus)
The dogs on Main Street howl
`cause they understand
If I could take one moment into my hands
Mister I ain't a boy, no I'm a man
And I believe in a promised land

I've done my best to live the right way
I get up every morning and go to work each day
But your eyes go blind and your blood runs cold
Sometimes I feel so weak I just want to explode
Explode and tear this whole town apart
Take a knife and cut this pain from my heart
Find somebody itching for something to start

(Chorus)

There's a dark cloud rising from the desert floor
I packed my bags and I'm heading straight into the storm
Gonna be a twister to blow everything down
That ain't got the faith to stand its ground
Blow away the dreams that tear you apart
Blow away the dreams that break your heart
Blow away the lies that leave you nothing but lost and brokenhearted

(Chorus)
I believe in a promised land...

-Bruce Springsteen "The Promise Land"


This is my life right now. I pray I'll have the faith to stand my ground.
Who Sings your life?

a mustache brotherhood 2

I hadn't intended for this originally, but it turns out the mustache brotherhood might me a series! I love mustaches. and brotherhoods.

Yesterday I started what I'm calling the 24 days of awesome. Awesome because i'm done worrying about getting out of my house, i don't have a job, my folks have a lake cabin, there are friends in Spokane that I rarely get to hang with but now I do, I like road trips, there are friends in other towns that I'll get to visit. Anyway, back to the mustaches...Sarah and Jo talked me into staying for one more day and the 24 days of awesome started with Goldy's!..correction: it started with me waiting at Goldy's for and hour before either of them got there. I saw a brother. I realized it was the guy from the record exchange with the really grandiose mustache, the kind that you wax up the ends of. wow. so much bolder than I.

me: "hey was that your mustache that got called out at the Wilco show?"
Guy from the record exchange with the gradiose mustach: "I don't know. Maybe it was yours."
me: "i told my friends [at the show], it could only be the guy from the record exchange."
GFTREWTRGM: "It was nice to be recognized by Mr. Tweedy."
me: "no doubt. no doubt." [laughter]
GFTREWTRGM: "what's you name?"
me: "Marc." [a shake]
GFTREWTRGM: "i'm Bryan" (i assume the 'y' in Bryan. not really sure why.)

We talked on about music and other shows we'd seen at the winery. By the end of our wait, Bryan's lady friend asked me to join their table, but i told them i had friends coming. Inside, I passed them on the way to the restroom. He called me by name and we joked a bit.
instant brothers.

i love my neighbors

as I was cleaning up and moving out this week, I found a few things I no longer needed, but thought someone could probably use them. I had a garage sale last week that took care of a lot of it, but i just kept finding stuff I didn't need. this is how we do it in the land of the hippies:

Fri, Aug 29, 2008 at 2:17 PM

Sat, Aug 30, 2008 at 9:31 AM

Someone even hung up the jeans for me to advertise! A few hours later all of this was gone and I put out a fresh batch. This was a relatively small batch compared to the rest of the days. My neighbors are great. When John, who I had only had a few short conversations with, was taking some tupperware off my hands a few days later he wandered up to my door and asked me where I was moving to. He used to live in LA and immediately started calling his friends over there to see if anyone needed a roommate. Hyde Park people, thank you for showing me how to be a good neighbor. I will miss you.

very clean and web 2.0

I experienced a little anxiety this week for the first time in...well i can't even remember how long. I'm generally a pretty easy going fella and don't often let stress get to me. This week however, I spent moving out and doing a big final cleaning of my house, the last of four roommates. Many thanks to Sarah and JoJo for all their help. So why the anxiety you ask? Well because at for my team at the church our direction on just about every project has been, "very clean and web 2.0" and this is what my house looked like...

Ken, your OCDness has infected me. I seriously couldn't function after a few days of this. I found some sanity by clearing a little spot on my rug, lighting some candles so that I could only see the clean spot around me, and playing a hymn or two on my guitar.

Speaking of anxiety, it was one of the many things my pastor preach on this week. He says we need to combat with humility...interesting...and true. I need to listen the sermon again. He brought the word hard, as usual. What a badass! Eat the Word. Gonna miss you church.