10.01.06

Working on the solos for the Prince set Guns Down is doing on Halloween. Not sure if I can pull this off, but I will give my best effort. I have never played a solo before and I decide to start with Prince. I am either very confident or very dumb....

10.06.06

Guns Down is officially done. We are going to play two more shows one October 14th and one October 20th, and record the songs we wrote over the last year. I do not have the words to tell you how upset I am about this. "Devastated" can't begin to describe what I feel right now. I feel like I lost my best friend.

10.13.06

Guns Down practices are getting tedious and awkward. I wish we could bow out of these last two shows and the recording.
Jeff (new GD drummer) and I had our first practice with the new project. The
keyboard player, Zack, really impressed me. Des showed up and we wrote music for one song. I really hope she does decide to sing for us. How cool would it be to have band with my wife? Having a hard time finding a place to practice and a name, but we'll come up with something for both I am sure.

10.14.06

We played our second to last show tonight at House on the Hill. It was fun, but I feel really fucked up about this whole thing. After our set I took off and walked around the block a few times, just trying to clear my head. I felt like an asshole because I didn’t watch the other bands play. I just couldn’t be in that room any longer. I am going to miss this band more than I can put into words. I am getting really depressed.

There were a lot of drunk kids at the show which is bummer. Nothing can put an end to an all-ages venue faster than drunk kids. John recorded our set tonight so I look forward to listening to that. Right now I can’t.

We played with Zoinks! I have always liked that band. I listened to a few songs, but had to get out of the crowd and be alone for awhile.

10.16.06

Depression is a mother fucker.

10.19.06

Tomorrow is the last time I get to play with Guns Down. I don't know how to feel about this. Playing in this band was one of the most important and fulfilling times of my life. To have people connect with something I helped create is an incredible feeling. I don't know what to do with the rest of my life.

10.20.06

Tonight was the last Guns down show ever. It went well. I am glad we got to go out on such a positive note. I had a lot of fun and we played great. It’s such a shame that a band who can throw down like that is going to quit. We played with El Cerdo tonight. Jay, the guitarist, is someone I have known for many years. He’s a good guy and the band was amazing. We had them all over for dinner after the show and caught up on a lot of things. I am thinking about moving to Oregon or Washington. El Cerdo is from that area and I really like that chunk of America. I wonder how Des would feel about that.

Kamikaze Attitude played tonight as well. It was their first show and they ruled. I really like that they played their first show at our last show. I kind of feel like we passed a torch or something.

10.25.06

So NameMeNoone’s Wheeler House show was very odd. We show up, set up and chat with the Wheeler Kids for a bit. The touring band (Sharktopus) shows up and asks if another band they are traveling with can play. We all say yes. They seem cool with it all. A few of the members of Sharktopus go down stairs and check out the basement. Then they leave and say "we'll be right back". Well, they never come back. Fatality never shows up. No one shows up. So we decide to play for the three Wheeler roommates. It was a blast and we played well. A fun show but very, very odd. One really good thing about the show is I had FUN. My depression over Guns Down faded a bit and I feel like music is important to me on some level again. I am going to continue on with NMNO for now and try to keep music in my life.

The last Guns Down show was a really good time. It was a great way for the band to exit. I had fun (sort of) and it was VERY emotional. I feel like I got some closure. Still not sure how much I want to do the recording but I'll do it and try to make it fun.

10.27.06

I’M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!! I don’t know how I managed not to mention this in any of the previous entries. So here’s the deal, Dave Howe his roommate Chris, Des and I, along with Mary Crawley, Tom Gordon, Des’ cousin Amanda and some other folks I don’t really know yet are leaving today to hit LA. Hans is coming up from San Diego and meeting us there too. I am really looking forward to this trip.
OK twelve hours later, we are here. The drive was cool but very, very long. We had to take the long way from Reno to LA so we could stop in Sacramento to pick up Chris’ sister who Dave is smitten with. She seems really cool. I read the script for Dave’s TV show on the ride, it’s good. Better than a lot of shit I have seen on TV. Chris set up the hotel and tickets for Knottsberry Farm tonight. The plan was we’d all be on one floor of the hotel, that didn’t happen. We are spread out all over the place. Des and I are sharing a room with Amanda. Tonight we are going to the Knotts-Scary Farm. I guess they do the park up all Halloween for the weekend. There are signs everywhere saying the event tonight is sold out. That means crowds, which I don’t so well with.

On the way to the park we got separated from the other van while trying to park. Dave, Hans, the girls I don’t know very well and I parked first and tried to get something to eat before going in to the park. That didn’t work out. Chris called and said they were in line, so we’d have to eat park food. Yummy. Once we were in the park and all together we got some of the worst pizza I have ever eaten and then it off to hit some rides. The park was so damn crowded we waited in line for well over an hour to ride a two-minute rollercoaster. I like rollercoaster’s, but my body hates them. This one was fun. Des and Amanda chickened out at went to another part of the park while we were at the rollercoaster. The place was packed. Amusement parks in the dark are a very different place. There park staff dressed up like various ghouls and goblins scaring the crap out of people left and right. We were only able to do the one roller coaster due to the crowd. We spent a lot of time just walking though the see of people and looking at stuff. We left the park at around 2:00am to head back to the hotel. Tomorrow is Disney Land.

10.28.06

I woke up pretty early today. We all had breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant as group. The trip has been a lot of fun so far. I love hanging out with Dave and Chris. I don’t get to hang out with Tom too much so it was nice spending time with him, and I never get to see Hans so I was really happy to hang with him for a few days. It’s awkward hanging out with him sometimes because he has a thing for me, but it’s worth it because he is funny as hell and a kick to be around.
Having Des there was nice, when ever Hans got too flirty I could hide behind her. The Hotel we are in one exit away from Disney Land. From our room we look out over Angel Stadium. I haven’t been to DL since I was really young, and I think this trip is my second time there ever. I was really looking forward to it.
There is an open air mall you have to walk through to get to the park. They had some cool shops. I really dug the Lego Store. Disney Land really have there shit together. There are signs telling you how long of a wait each ride is and on average it takes about half that to actually get through the line. The whole park was done up for the holiday. The Haunted Mansion ride is re-done every year to look like The Nightmare before Christmas, which is my favorite animated movie. We went through the mansion twice. I added two more watches to my Nightmare collection at the gift shop. We hit all the major rides. I had a blast on the Indiana Jones ride. I had so much fun hanging out with this group. I want to plan a yearly trip. Some of us are planning on moving away from Reno in the next two years and Hans already lives pretty far away from us, so it would be nice to set up a yearly trip to meet up and hang out. After Disney Land the plan was to go back to the hotel get in costumes go to a Goth club Chris had found out about. I had no desire to do this. That plan got squashed (not by me) so everyone dressed up and went to go eat at a place in the open air mall across
the street. I didn’t bring a costume, and was really tired. I went over to eat and then walk alone back to the hotel. The rest of the group was planning on wandering around the mall. No thanks.

10.29.06

We woke up a little bit late today. The rest of the crew had already packed, eaten and was ready to go. We got our shit together and climbed back into the mini-vans. Des and I were riding in separate vans. There was a smoking and no smoking van I was in the non-smoking. We made good time and got home in about ten hours. The ride was fun, we all talked and laughed. I feel asleep for a while with the MP3 player on. This weekend was exactly what I needed, goofy fun with my core group of friends and making some new friends. After a shit-storm of a year, it was nice to be with people I care about acting like a total goof.