12x12x12 Pictures Part 2

Let's just jump right in here - the other 6 pictures of my 121212 for 2014!

Top Left - This was a rough one, but a big "life experience" this year. Life hadn't been going so great, so I worked on this big plan to see some people up in Washington I hadn't seen in ages. Everything started falling apart - people all of a sudden weren't going to be around or just stopped answering me, a guy I was sorta seeing totally bailed on me, it just seemed doomed but I was determined to still go and just enjoy a good weekend. I got up to Seattle and I was leaving my car when I forgot I wanted to grab something from my backpack in my trunk, then just threw it back in the front seat instead of opening my trunk again. I got back a few hours later and... yup. Window smashed in, backpack stolen. There was nothing super important in there (no money/computer/etc) but it was a super shitty feeling and I've never had something like that happen to me before, and it was like bad piled on top of bad. Plus, that was the best backpack I've ever had and I can't find a new one just like it anywhere (and obviously don't remember the name of it). Life lesson, etc etc but it still sucked.

Top Middle - HOME! This was taken when I was able to make a surprise trip home a few months ago. Miss that place. A lot. 

Top Right - Kishi Bashi. I was front row for his show at Wonder and it was SO AMAZING. That guy is so talented and it's been great watching his career grow. He is pretty cool interacting with fans and he just released his own coffee (yes I ordered 2). Read my Kishi Bashi history here (I know I'm sorry, without Facebook all my pictures don't link right I'm sorry). Besides coffee, he releases a lot of cool stuff (fun colored vinyl, handmade stamp post cards) and just always has such a positive vibe. And his music is ridiculously original and fun. 

Bottom Left - Woo boy. Snails Pace Race has made a huge life comeback in 2014. We played the game as kids and randomly later on also, and for some reason I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to play it so I bought it and brought it to some HOBY stuff. Smack talk ensued by the truck-full. Also I enjoy that this picture has Branson's door tag in it because he was a big part of many HOBY shenanigans this year and it was the first time he was able to go to HOBY NYCentral.

Bottom Middle - this is a picture of Multnomah Falls just outside of Portland. I stopped here on my way to Idaho and also brought my mom here when she visited. I'm glad I was able to share this with her, and it makes me remember her and Kevin's trips out here, and how much I love this city.

Bottom Right - I took this at probably the most moving and personal concert I went to all year. This is a picture of Bryan Poole, who played guitar for the longest time in of Montreal and who was always my favorite, playing with Elf Power (Jamie was there too and I kind of flipped out a little). It was amazing to be able to see BP and have him play my favorite guitar (on Everlasting Scream, no less). I was right in front of BP, and after Elf Power, the girl standing next to me said "You just looked so happy during that... you had a smile on your face the whole time and it was so awesome to see... and nice shirt" (Stay Rad). However, the thrilling part is they were opening for Neutral Milk Hotel. Jeff asks that nobody take pictures of his shows, and I respect that, so I don't have any pictures of him during the show (yes I do have one of him crossing the road beforehand...). Being able to actually see NMH live was such an amazing experience, and it's impossible to put into words who this band is and what they mean to so many people and how actually spiritual it feels to stand right in front of Jeff and sing along with Holland, 1945, with hundreds of other people. When he stops playing and just asks us to sing with him... so much of it was completely surreal. AND somehow I snagged a setlist from their first night which is proudly displayed on my wall o' musics in my living room. I cannot wait to see them one more time in Eugene next year before they possibly hang it up for good. 

It was a pretty eventful year. Now if I could only make some 2015 goals...

12x12x12 Pictures Part 1

I enjoy taking pictures and being able to look back on moments, but I try not to get too crazy with it. It really annoys me when I see people at concerts have their phone out the entire show - you gotta experience it! Without experiencing it what good are the pictures?! Anyway, so sometimes I miss cool things, but I'm ok with that. Chelsea posted about a 2014 photo challenge, and I thought it'd be cool to flip back through my photos from the year and reminisce a bit and pick out 12 important photos from the past year. What I liked about the "challenge" especially is this part of the description - "Tell us about your year's greatest lessons, stories, insights, sorrows, and triumphs!" So I picked some pictures that were NOT of happy memories, but are still a part of my 2014 experience. Here we go!

Top Left - the most depressing snowstorm of my LIFE. I'm not a big news/weather watcher, so one morning I took off for Roseburg for an appointment with my electrophysiocardiologist. Slowly, snow started blowing lightly around the highway and kind of out of nowhere traffic just STOPPED. I was checking twitter and the news and there was a really big accident (18 cars + tractor trailer I think) about 30 miles ahead and snow started falling like crazy. I left at 10am I think, made it about 1 hour south by 2pm, turned around and headed back, and got home by about 7 I think. It was TERRIFYING. Roads hadn't been touched and it just kept snowing and traffic basically was not moving. There was one hill where it seriously looked post-apocalyptic - there was one narrow path where you could drive through in a 4 lane highway because cars were just turned every which way, and beyond that barely anybody had been driving so there was snow piled up and ruts everywhere and I am just SO thankful I made it home safe that day. The picture was taken in the original traffic jam where I was questioning all life decisions.

Top Right - HOBY NYCentral, my home! This picture combines a great view of Lake Ontario at Camp Hollis, and the Mattecini twins! We tried convincing the ambassadors that Andrew and "Randrew" were twins with moderate success.

Middle Left - Kevin came to visit this summer and we were able to go to the coast and see some HOBY friends. These are our happy birthday faces.

Middle Right - HOBY Oregon facilitators. Enough said.

Bottom Left - ok so I didn't TAKE this picture but it is one of my favorite for sure of the year. This was taken at MusicFest Northwest (MFNW). A few months beforehand I realized I absolutely love the band Man Man and was determined to see them at MFNW. I actually skipped the band playing at the other stage before them and listened to their soundcheck instead so I could be up front and can I say worth ittttttttt!! First off, Honus Honus is so friggin cute. They started their set and he's jumping on amps and stuff, and before I know it in the middle of the first song he comes over and puts his hand on my head and his head on his hand and is singing like he's praying for me. It was kind of awesome and their whole set was amazing.

Bottom Right - Sometimes I forget that I'm an adult and if I want to do something, I can do it. I was going through a bit of a rough time this fall and of Montreal was coming to town. Obviously I had tickets for the Portland and Seattle shows which I got months beforehand. I had some time off and felt like I needed to get away and be by myself and clear my head... so I drove to Boise to see of Montreal before they came to Portland. It was super spur of the moment and I didn't really discuss it with many people, it just felt so right to do at the time, and I didn't need anybody's permission to do it if I wanted and I felt like I needed it. So I just drove ridiculously far. The show in Boise was... different. Definitely not a Portland show. of Montreal has been such an important band to me the past 10 years and listening to them as I drove through the mountains of eastern Oregon where I can't even tell you how many tumbleweeds rolled by really helped me sort things out in my head. Oh and this is Kevin being Falcon Vein. I love that man. 

Thanks again Chelsea for the idea! I'll be back soon for part 2!

These are a few of my favorite (weird) things

I like some weird, off-beat things, and what better time to share them than Christmas time? I'm always sad when I bring them up and literally nobody has any idea what I'm talking about. I'd like to talk about some things that I really enjoy that you might have never heard of, and if they sound cool, encourage you to check them out.

The Up Series. I think Andy (Randrew to most of you) introduced me to this. This is a series of documentaries following a group of kids in England. They took a bunch of 7 year old kids from totally different parts of the country and lifestyles and income levels in the 60's and interviewed them. All of the kids were ridiculously cute, and they were all interviewed and asked a bunch of questions - What do you do for fun? What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you think of the opposite gender? etc. Then, they check in with them (at least the ones who agree to continue the series) every 7 years. Of course it's trying to make a statement about what kids are born with and where they end up, and it's just really interesting to see them grow up, and compare their "phases" to your own. For example, this one girl went to a boarding school (Q: who will raise your kids when you grow up? A: a nanny) and went on extravagant trips, and when she's 21 she's chain smoking and obviously super rebellious. She reels it back in, but I don't want to spoil it for you! At least the first two movies are on Netflix Instant (7up and 14up), and I think up to 56up is out.

The Kleptones. This is a band I discovered in high school and they've stuck with me. They're a mash-up band (klep-tone - get it? so clever) but unlike Girl Talk (who I also like) they generally just use 2 or 3 different song per track. And they have all of their stuff free to download on their website. I first listened to A Night at the Hip Hopera which is hip hop songs laid on top of Queen songs! LOVE! They did a similar album with The Flaming Lips, and one called 24 Hours, where they had times associated with each song and ideally you listen to that song at that exact time of day. I've always wanted to try actually doing that but never have. They're fun, dancey, original, and did I mention their music was free?? They also have a lot of movie/tv clips (Lebowski, Clerks, Aqua Teen, etc) Here's one of my favorite songs, Stevie Wonder and Jet -

Chicken Wing Pizza. It blew my mind when I moved to Oregon that it seemed like nobody had heard of chicken wing pizza. It's the best thing ever, and the best I ever had was actually in high school and you pretty much bribed the lunch ladies to get a corner piece. It's a ton of cheese, chicken, and hot sauce. Some places put blue cheese on it, but I prefer NOT to and to dip it in ranch dressing. The IGA at home has the 2nd best (usually) and I always get it when I'm home. Sometimes we have to add extra hot sauce to it, but it combines some of the best things in life - pizza and chicken wings.

Infinite Jest. This book (by David Foster Wallace) is one of the most amazing thing I've ever read. It's clever, it's intense, it's difficult, it's long, it's crazy, and it's hilarious. It basically took over my life while I read it, and for month afterwards. There are about a billion characters I could never keep straight with weird names, a crazy tennis-based world domination game scene that's probably my favorite passage in all of literature, and a pretty intense puppet show. It's so hard to even succinctly say what it's about... it's set during a time (modern though, not really "in the future") where the government sells years to companies (for example, it's not 2005, it's The Year of the Trial Sized Dove Bar), Quebec wants to secede, most of the Northeast US and Southeast Canada are covered in toxic waste and left alone, a video tape is so entertaining people who watch it literally cannot stop, there are some people very serious about grammar, and a lot of it takes place in a drug rehab facility or next door at a tennis academy. How these worlds interact and what is left up to your mind to fill in is genius and I just completely love his writing. I laughed so hard at some sections and some are very emotional and personal. I'm not eloquent enough to explain how awesome this book is and all of the really cool literary thing DFW accomplishes and just how off the wall so many of the great parts are. One of my favorite books, and as soon as I have 3 months of my life to waste I will be reading it again.

Decemberists - The Calamity Song - took my favorite scene out of the book. Eschaton goes SACPOP. Friggin Kittenplan. I seriously want to go re-read this scene right now for the 12th time.

I can't explain why, but I really like kids educational songs. Not necessarily to learn anything from them, but they're just great. For example, I really like Schoolhouse Rock songs, especially Schoolhouse Rock Rocks. But even the original ones are fun and catchy and I can't tell you how many times I've sung along in my car about how to write a check (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiTC4S5FsCg). A lot of bands I love have been on Yo Gabba Gabba, so of course I really like those songs as well. I mean, bands like of Montreal and Apples in Stereo being adorable and singing about brushing your teeth and how bugs can be your friends? I'm in.

I'm pretty sure this is gonna need a part 2 at some point...

OR/NY differences

I've lived in Portland for over 1 year, and in Oregon for more than 4. How crazy is that to think about?? The questions I get asked the most are "why did you move here from NEW YORK?!?!" "what do you miss?" and "what are the big differences between Oregon and New York?" Here, I'd like to address some of the big differences between Oregon and UPSTATE New York!

One thing I think is genius is how Oregon deals with their highways. In NY, all the highway exits are in completely numerical order. No matter how far apart the exits are, exit 15 will always be followed by exit 16, 17, 18, etc. In Oregon, the exits are marked by miles. Exit 15 will be at mile 15 of that highway, and if the next exit is 5 miles away, it will be exit 20 NOT exit 16. I like it because you know how far you are away from where you need to be. I know I have 5 miles to go between exits 15 and 20, I don't have to wonder "Ok so Exit 15... I wonder how far til exit 16..." like I do on the Thruway in New York, and you don't have to worry about thinking "Oh man did I miss it?!' cuz you can just look at the mile markers and see what mile you're at. Another thing I really like is light-staggered merging lanes. This kind of freaked me out at first, but now I love it. Basically, the really busy entrances to highways are 2 lanes, with a red/green light above each lane. Each lane gets 1 car to go per green light in their lane, and it switches back and forth between lanes with a brief pause in between, so you don't have 2 lanes trying to randomly merge while getting on the highway, and then that whole mess trying to merge INTO the highway. Traffic still sucks, but it just seems organized so much better than the massive free for all that it is sometimes on 481 or 81 or anywhere else I've gotten stuck in crappy traffic in New York.

When I first moved here, I listened hard to try and see if I could hear an accent from Oregonians. When I was in Roseburg, I definitely could hear some southern twang from people who lived way out in the woods, but for the most part nobody seemed to have much of an accent. However, there are some different word people use instead of ones I'm used to. Instead of asking if you want a bag for your purchase, people often ask if you want a "sack." There was a huge "are you saying PEN or PIN?!" debacle with a co-worker once, which I think is a problem I've had with a few people here. And it took me MONTHS to realize that this weird word "awnry" that everybody was saying was actually ORNERY. What the heck?! How is it possible everybody thinks that word is pronounced that ridiculously? I DID have a few people approach me and ask if I was from somewhere else, which I found weird because I feel like I couldn't hear an accent from people, so they'd shouldn't be able to hear an accent on me, right? Wrong. A lot of people asked if I was from Minnesota, but the vast majority of people said I sounded like I was from Wisconsin or Chicago. Chicago, really!? I asked what it was about me that sounded weird, and a lot of people said "Something about your A's. You didn't sound like you had an accent until you said the actual word 'accent' and the A is just weird sounding. Definitely Wisconsin." Since when were Oregonians experts on Wisconsin accents, anyway?! I say no, I'm from New York and nobody believes me. I say "No, no, upstate New York" and they still don't believe me. I usually have to get to the "I'm closer to Canada than NYC, dangit!" stage before they understand.

Another huge difference is the WEATHER!!! Summers get up to the same temperatures as they do back home, but they are so dry compared to the gross humid summers we get in upstate! I've had a few people from places like Utah comment that it is so muggy here, and I always laugh at them and said uh no, this is the driest heat I've ever experienced, please visit Syracuse in August and get back to me. But they're from the desert so I guess I can understand. I think because of this change, my allergies have been completely different than they used to be. Back home, I'd have a few completely miserable weeks of allergies that consisted of sneezing constantly, runny/stuffy nose, and itchy/watery eyes. Here, I get just insane sinus headaches. I don't sneeze much, my eyes don't bug me, it's just crazy pressure in my sinuses. And of course, Sudafed is prescription only here (there's another big difference!). I think it has to do with me not being used to the dry heat and probably just a different set of allergens. Also, I remember so many summers where the high was, say, 85, and the low during the night was, say, 79. It just never cooled off (remember, this is also like, 90% humidity so it's just GROSS) at night. You couldn't open windows, go for a walk, enjoy a cool night on the porch. It cools off significantly just about every night here. You can always have the windows open at night and enjoy a nice breeze or cool air. Winters are long and rainy, but I am completely OK with that. I feel like we get rain like NY gets snow, and you don't have to shovel rain so I feel like we come out ahead. It's dark and dreary but I do not mind at all. You're still able to go out and enjoy the outdoors and not need to defrost your car every morning. However when we DO get snow, everything shuts down, which is kinda nice...

Speaking of cars... I don't really enjoy this difference because it makes me feel like New Jersey and that just makes me feel gross, but we can't pump our own gas. There are signs telling you it's illegal, too. A highlight of every road trip to California or Washington, or trip home, is pumping my own gas! Especially in Washington: I enjoy getting looks from people at gas stations because of my license plate. I feel like I've caught them watching me, wondering if an Oregonian is going to be able to figure out this strange and foreign contraption. I wanna be like "New York born and raised, I GOT THIS!"

Dunkin Donuts does NOT exist out here, which my family has gotten used to because sometimes I make multiple trips a day there when I go back east. There really are Starbucks everywhere, but another thing there is a ton of are drive through coffee places. Like it's just a tiny building that is ONLY drive-through, usually on both sides, that have coffee and sometimes smoothies and tea and stuff. And they all try to have catchier names than the rest. I feel like Dutch Brothers is the original though and there are very die-hard Dutch Bros fans here.

Do you feel like these differences are weird? What would you like to know about living in Oregon or New York?

Why have friends when you can have best friends?!

If you know me, I've probably asked you to be my best friend. I mean, why have friends when you can have BEST friends? Rule 2! And if I haven't, I apologize, however - I DO consider you my best friend! I like to make fun music playlists sometimes, and a few years ago I had a friend who wasn't doing so well so I sent him a care package and included a "BFF Mix" for him to listen to. It's gone though minimal changes over the years, but I thought it'd be cool to share it and explain it a little bit. I listen to it when I'm down sometimes and remember all the really awesome people I have in my life. Here goes!

Track Listing
of Montreal - She's my Best Friend. This one's pretty obvious. It's SUCH an amazing VU cover though. "She's my best friend, certainly not the average girl. She's my best friend, understands me when I'm falling down."

The Muppet Movie - Life's A Happy Song. Super adorable. Life's a happy song when there's someone by your side to sing along! Talks about what it's like to have a best friend walking though life with you. Someone to explore with and make things with and be there for you.

Belle & Sebastion - I'm A Cuckoo. "I'm glad to see you, I had a funny dream and you were wearing funny shoes." This song I feel like is about reminiscing with a friend you haven't seen in awhile about fun times together.

Kishi Bashi photo cred ME!

Ingrid Michaelson - You And I. Ok sure so this is more of a love-love song. But I feel like it's saying that even if you don't have two nickels to rub together, you still have each other no matter what, and that's the most important. "I will help you read those books if you will soothe my worried looks and we will put the lonesome on the shelf."

Kishi Bashi - Q&A. This song is SO simple sweet! "You are the answer to my question, you are my accomplice in a crime, you are my wing woman and did I mention we were together in another life?" Just what a best friend is, sung sweetly with a beautiful violin accompaniment. It also kind of makes me sad because so many of my friends are so far away, and I imagine them being here and being my accomplices and wing women :)


Weezer - My Best Friend. I could literally quote this whole song. Pretty on point description of a best friend.

Ben Kweller - Mean to Me. I feel like I hear a lot of people say someone/thing "doesn't know what they/it mean to me." Well then TELL THEM! There's been a lot of shitty stuff going on in the world lately, and I've been trying to make sure people know what they mean to me because, sadly, you never know when you can't anymore. Unfortunately, throughout my life I've not been all that great at doing that, and I'm still not a "comfortable with talking about my feelings" person. I'm sure there are a lot of people who don't know what they mean to me, but I really have some of the best friends around.

Flight of the Conchords - Friends. First off, if you haven't watched Flight of the Conchords, do it. There's one particularly funny episode that is centered around the idea of friends. "If you cross the road and a truck struck you I'll scrape you up and reconstruct you." That's a friend right there.

Queen - Friends will be Friends. Queen was the first band I ever really discovered and got into on my own, so they will always have a special place in my heart, and this song helps. "When you're through with life and all hope is lost, hold out your hands, cuz friends will be friends right til the end." Thankful I have a pretty endless amount of people who fall into that category.

The Beach Boys - Friends. Another oldie, but pretty great. About memories and helping each other out, even with simple things.

The Avett Brothers - The Perfect Spare. "I want to have friends that I can trust. That love me for the man I've become not the man that I was. And I want to have friends that'll let me be all alone when being alone is all that I need." I had something written for this, but I think this quote is just perfect.

Ben Folds Five - Alice Childress. "I think about my friends. Sometimes I wish they lived out here. But they wouldn't dig this town.""Try not to think about it." It sucks so many BFFs are so far away but, to be honest, I feel like a lot of them wouldn't necessarily love living here. Portland is a WEIRD place with strange weather. It's hard thinking about everyone who isn't here and all the fun we could have if they were.

Weezer - All My Friends Are Insects. Dude, your BFFs don't always have to be people!

Hospitality - Friends of Friends. "Cuz you've got friends who are new friends. And friends who are old friends. And friends lookin' out." I have friends I've had for 24 years, and friends I've had for 2 months. It's so nice that by adding new friends, you aren't taking anything away from old friends. It's awesome to have friends who know everything about you, but then friends too who you are brand new to and they just learn about the you that you are now.

OK Go

Japandroids - Younger Us. This song reminds me of college in a big way. I feel like this is about a friend who understands the crazy spontaneous you, and is by your side doing silly things, and you have the same ideas about what crazy silly things are fun. "Gimme that night you were already in bed and said fuck it and got up to drink with me instead."

OK Go - I Won't Let You Down. "Maybe all you need is someone to trust. I won't let you down." Fun dancey song with a good message.

Dance Hall Crashers - Cricket. I first heard this song because Ashleigh, a BFF from high school, made me some awesome mix cds. It's another song that's kinda more love-love, but it's sweet and still BFFy and fun to sing along to. "I will always hold your hand, I'll never let you fall."

Dana Buoy - Call to Be. "All our life, this is just a call to be true to you."

She & Him - If You Can't Sleep. Zooey has such an adorable voice. Sweet lullaby.

The Beatles - With A Little Help From my Friends. Duh.

Grateful, pt 3

I've been giving this topic a lot of thought since starting this. I've also come up with some things I'm very ungrateful for, and will probably eventually do a companion piece about that. But onto gratefulness!

Cruglethor. I never came up with a better name for my car. I tried out "Carpe" but it seemed too cheesy. I always name vehicles with the same starting letter as their model, so I currently have Cruglethor the Civic. I bought her right after graduating college. Originally I had completely sold myself on getting an Accord and thought Civics were so ugly. Mostly the crazy slant of their front windshield. However, I found a beautiful 2009 with 7k miles on it. We've been through so much together and I am SO grateful I picked her out 4 years ago! She's been so reliable and just great, and I know I've put her through a lot. Right after getting her I drove down to DC with tons of stops to/from. Then, a couple weeks later, I packed her up and drove her across the country with my brother (please please please read about our adventures here, written by Kevin/Tug/my brother). She's taken me on countless Seattle and coast trips, a handful of California trips, and everywhere in between. And saved me from a few deer and kept on running. Cruglethor has made so many adventures possible and I feel like I need to come up with some exciting way of commemorating her 100k (which should happen by the end of year, we're at 94k already in just over 4 years)(I drive a lot, hence my gratefulness for her).

Ugh snow. Beautiful Cruglethor though!

Books. This kind of goes along with the gratefulness for music. I read a lot in spurts, but my bookshelves are bursting at the seems with exciting choices. It's so hard to live this close to Powell's and not be constantly buying things. Reading is so great. It can take you to a completely surreal place, describe things you could never imagine on your own, and be able to make you feel things that can be so outside your realm or describe something you're going through perfectly. I remember being in high school and doing book reports - senior year you had to do 3, but could be pretty much any book you wanted. The thing that sticks out to me is realizing that I OWN this book. I can write in it, I can highlight it, I can leave my own notes in it. This may not seem like some huge revelation to some of you, but it was to me, and still kind of is. I underline passages that are meaningful to me, I write page numbers in the back, and I scrawl notes in the margins. There are some specific books I go back to at certain times and know there passages or notes I want to re-read that may currently be helpful to me. There are some books that are super meaningful to me that I've written all over and I'd never let somebody borrow because of the same reason I don't share some music - too personal, too private. I'm grateful books can do that for me. On a larger scale, I'm grateful I have the ability to read and enjoy books, and thankful I had parents who encouraged me to enjoy reading.

24 Hour Stores. Or stores open late or on holidays. My pharmacy only closes on Thanksgiving and Christmas, which sucks, but I am SO grateful for those people who work holidays. I do NOT think that people should work on major holidays like that, and I make it a very specific point to not go shopping on holidays. However, there have been times where I needed to go buy something on a holiday. My clearest memory is this past Christmas when my smoke detector battery started beeping incessantly at me. I went to a 24-hour store to buy a battery and made it a point to thank every person I saw working. When I can, I try to volunteer for holidays so that others with family in the area they want to spend time with are able to do that. Also, sometimes I get out of work late or far away, and appreciate going to a store that's open when I get home.

Games. Board games and Holy Board made up the vast majority of my summers for a few years. I feel like while my friends were out getting drunk and doing stupid stuff in Albany, I came home, worked, and hung out with my brothers and hometown friends. At least once a week we would have people over and play Holy Board (a game with washers our Uncle introduced to us) and various board games - our favorites being Apples to Apples and Balderdash. Sometimes Cranium. And Price Chopper! And often get IGA chicken wing pizza (BEST STUFF EVER). Holy Board Summer League was so epic! We had our own teams, tournaments, and theme nights, and it was so fun getting everybody together once a week. We even had t-shirts and keychains made and had a pretty eventful Holy-Boardapalooza.

Kevin displaying our shirts. And his mustache for our Holy Board calendar.

I'm grateful for the memories of those summers (and winter gatherings we had), being able to spend time with my brothers and friends, and some of those nights were the hardest I've ever laughed! I still have my mini-washer keychain on my keys, even if the paint has completely faded! I also remember one time Andy and I took our Holy Boards and played all around the Hobart campus before Kevin became a student there. Just lugging those bad boys around from open field to open field! They were always a hit at graduation parties, too. Such awesome memories!

That's it for today. My next one might get a bit sappy... fair warning.

Gratefulness 2

All right. Day 2. Let's do this thing.

Facebook. It almost physically pains me to say I'm very grateful for Facebook, considering how many times I've thought about deleting it for various reasons. Facebook is frustrating, time wasting, annoying, and jealousy-inducing. However, I am so grateful for it. Without it, honestly I'm not sure I would have had the guts to move across the country. I would have been so sad to leave everybody I've ever known and basically just drop out of their lives. It's let me keep in touch with friends from high school, college, HOBY, etc. without being in the same state, or even same country. I've been able to stay in their lives and keep them in mine. I've been able to share my adventures, crowd source questions/opinions, get recommendations, keep up with friends, and basically let people know I'm still alive! Not to mention staying in contact with HOBY groups. I can't begin to count the amount of laughs I've gotten from our various groups (Matteson Family Summit, The Business, Morning Motion Club, plus a ridiculous amount of others). Also, seeing HOBY alumni thrive and do amazing things is so worth keeping my Facebook. It would suck to not know about Morgan's Girl Up and all the incredible things she's doing with that, all of our South Canadians and their Hospice swim, or to miss all the inspiration in our Motivators group. They make me laugh, they inspire me, and I'm grateful social media is around at least so we can stay in touch.

Can't imagine not being able to keep up with these fools (and all the other HOBsters)! Photo courtesy of Heather :)

Kindness. I have kind people all around me, and I try to be kind to others. From holding the door for someone to letting someone at the grocery store with only a few items go ahead of me to paying for the person behind me in a drive-thru. A lot of kindness has been shown to me throughout my life and I try to pay it back when I can. Picking up a piece of litter on the sidewalk. Leaving a few quarters behind at the car wash. Tipping 100% on a small bill. It makes me feel good, even if I never see the person benefitting from my kindness. I'd like to say it's selfless, but it puts a smile on my face, too, so unfortunately I don't think it's completely selfless. I hope it brightens their day, especially if somebody isn't having the best time. I've been there, where I've been down and out and just something small has completely lifted my spirits and reminded me of all the good things in the world. A lollipop moment relative, if you will. I've been offered help from strangers, received surprise postcards/birthday presents/art/etc, had friends show up at the airport with signs and gifts, and had friends/family donate to causes that I believe in to support me (sometimes without ever telling me), among SO many other examples. I've definitely received my fair share of unsolicited help and kindness, and I like to keep that in mind and try to give back a little bit of the kindness that's been shown to me throughout my life. I'm grateful for kindness I've been shown, and the ability to show kindness to friends and strangers.

Surprise postcard!

Mail. I think it started in college, where I made up the saying "Mail - the 3rd best letter you can get in college." And now that my mail is mostly made up of catalogs and advertisements, I am super grateful for any mail from actual people I get. I love the random postcards I get from friends that I don't expect. The unexpected paintings. The Something Store surprises. I try to return the favors and send out random postcards/art/friendship bracelets/Something Store stuff as well, and it's always fun to hear somebody be excited and surprised about receiving it unexpectedly. But if you just think about it - how cool is the mail? I just drop something in a mailbox and it gets shipped across the country (or lost I guess... womp womp) and shows up at my friend's doorstep a few days later. Thank you to everybody who's sent me surprised mail, and to everybody else - I accept surprise mail!!!

Thanks for tuning in. Hopefully I can come up with some more exciting stuff for tomorrow :)

Gratefulness

I've seen the "gratefulness challenge" floating around Facebook a little bit, and when I saw Sarah B post it, I KNEW it was about to blow up with the HOBY NYCentral group. It's so Randrew! (I feel like that should be an official slogan or something). I lot of people have posted about the stuff that immediately came to my head - friends, family, health, access to clean water/housing/etc. I am super grateful for all of those (and touched on a lot of them in my Thankfulness post), but I wanted to try to come up with non-typical things and explain them a bit deeper, so I decided to make a few blog posts about it. Here are a few things I'm grateful for!

Music. Whether it's making music or listening to it, music has always been a huge part of my life. In elementary and high school, I was involved in pretty much every band we had. It was such an amazing experience, and I met such great people through it. I can't even explain what an awesome feeling it was to be with a big group of people, playing their own parts completely separate from mine but working together towards making something beautiful. I still listen to some songs we did in HS and can remember my parts, and remember playing them, and remember what parts I loved listening to and how my part intertwined with others. I get goosebumps sometime, especially listening to "October." The technically difficult songs, the songs that really made you be patient and pay attention to the feeling of the piece. It taught me a lot about hard work and perseverance, and how much that can pay off. It taught me to find a way of learning and practicing something that worked for me, which was kind of difficult. It taught me I didn't have to be the star, and how much teamwork and being the part of a larger whole is important and how good that can feel when you come together to accomplish something. It taught me to support my "teammates," too.

Now, even though I'm not in band anymore, and I can't remember the last time I opened my saxophone case, music still plays a huge role in my life. I love listening to music and going to see live music. I can't even fathom the number of shows I've been to since college. For me, I connect to a lot of music through the lyrics, and I think that's a huge reason I love of Montreal so much. His lyrics sometimes are so crazy and out there, but there's SO much that I can listen to and think, "yeah, that's EXACTLY how I feel." Sometimes, when you feel like no one understands you, music can just make sense of what you're going through. You know other people have those feelings and you can relate to that. Songs can get so personal that sometimes I don't want to share my favorite songs because I feel like that person will somehow know too much about me and what that song means to me. Then, there's also the nonsense fun music that just makes you smile and bop your head (of Montreal makes plenty of that, too, and often their emotional songs and their fun dancey songs are the same).

Man Man at MFNW

Then there are concerts! Concerts are SO FUN! You're in a room full of other people who love the same band and their music. You get to actually see these people that you've been singing along with for months, and sing and dance along with them in person. The energy of live shows is pretty amazing, and a lot of the bands I like a lot just have great live acts (confetti, stuffed animals, pig costumes, masks, band members crowd surfing, beach balls, confessions, etc etc). I try to get there early and be up front if I really like the band, and have been sung to and headbutted and handed setlists by lead singers and it's such a high. You basically forget everything else going on in the world and your life and just let go and enjoy the moments you have with these people who have made your life better and who you feel a real connection to through their music.

Art. Honestly, this one shocks me. If you could tell 7th grade me that I'd actually ENJOY art some day, I would have laughed so hard. I think I illegally got out of a year of junior high art because I hated it so much. It made no sense to me, I saw no purpose for it, and I wanted nothing to do with it. I'd look at "famous expensive art" and think "what the heck are you serious someone gets PAID to paint a canvas red?!" Now, I still don't understand a lot of art, but I appreciate having it in my life. I think I already told the story about how I got into arting (yeah I love that made up word so what), so I won't rehash it all here. Basically my brothers and I decided that we could make art as good as some of this famous stuff, and we didn't want to spend money on that decorating our walls when we could make it ourselves. So we did. I never thought I could enjoy creating art, and I was convinced I was just no good at it. I think that's the biggest hurdle I, and most people introduced to the Oswego County Art Collective, have to get over. I always tell myself - the worst that happens, I throw the painting away. Big deal. And I feel like that's a really good life lesson about trying things you're not sure you're gonna be great at. But now I love it and have been painting for a few years, and am so grateful I have found this kind of creative outlet.

A lot of the paintings I do are quotes or lyrics that mean something special to me from a band I really like. For me it's kind of been a way to tangibly have music that means a lot to me. The above painting is one I did of an of Montreal quote. (I showed it to Kevin Barnes, and he was like "Whoa, cool, really going back for that one huh?"Another reason music and live shows ROCK) I've tried the abstract "paint whatever" that Andy has mastered, and I've never felt all that good at it. I'd look at Andy's paintings and be like "I love that. I want to paint that." I wanted to do something of Montreal related, so I took a pile of their quotes and painted them on a canvas in different fonts. It came out great, and I really really enjoyed doing it. So I did it again. I enjoyed the planned creativeness of it moreso than the spontaneous creativeness. I could mull it over and come up with a cool design and quote and font, and make it come to life just how I pictured it. There's a lot of fine detail work, and I find that when I do that, my mind blocks everything else out except for what I'm painting and it's so refreshing. I am completely focused on the task at hand and can totally shut out the person who yelled at me for no reason at work earlier, or that I'm a little bit homesick, or that I have to deal with a broken window. It's a great stress reliever and allows me to try new things creatively. I think I was missing that for a lot of my life (one of my professors in college told me to stop being so creative once actually which kind of blows my mind because I'm not a naturally creative person - or at least I never thought I was!) and it's allowed me to think in different ways, really step out of my comfort zone, and explore something I never thought I'd want to explore. It's become something I really enjoy and look forward to, and I'm grateful I have that in my life now.

I know the list was supposed to be 3 things every day for 5 days. I feel like this got pretty long winded, and I have to be back at work in 8 hours, so I'll pause here and add a few more things throughout the next week or so!

What Am I Drinking Out Of? (2)

Here's a sticker I just put on pretty recently. Didn't think I had room for it. But I managed.

Joyful Noise is a recording company that does awesome stuff. What I've mostly done through them is get special of Montreal and Kishi Bashi releases - oM's tape box set, Kishi Bashi's Christmas flexi and some cool colored/packaged vinyl. They do pretty neat, original stuff. Like releasing all oM LPs on colored tapes in a wooden box. They have unique things a lot and I like to check them out sometimes for limited edition swag. And they seem to do a lot of stuff in conjunction with Polyvinyl which is sweet. 

Cassette tape box set