The Canadian Tour Adventure

This blog may take on journal like elements from now on, because I want to journal and record this tour so i can look back on it later and remember. So sorry if it gets boring. I like to write entertainingly, which journalling isn't always, so this may be a short lived online journal.

The first day was really rough. It started out rough and just got worse, for me anyways. After waking up roughly and realizing I had a lot to do yet i kind of pulled it together and got it done, in time for the van to arrive. But they were running late and were a bit ticked that they had to pick me up, since I had been unable to get a ride to their place. There had been a bit of friction during the last week because I was really busy taking care of stuff I should have done earlier and working at my stupid job while they were all practicing and preparing and stuff. So this was a rough start, and then Jer told me we couldn't take my recording stuff, which was a huge blow. I really wanted to take that stuff so we could record shows or albums along the way, and then drop the gear off in winnipeg so i'd have less stuff to worry about once I start thinking about actually moving. So I spent the whole day with that in my head on top of other things.

We played a show at a Christian music festival nearby (on the same bill as STARFIELD!!!) which went poorly and had poor attendance because we were slotted during registration. Then we headed out into the mountains, when I started talking to Jer about having the recording stuff along. He either saw that it was really important to me and decided to pacify me, or he legitimately wanted it along as well, cause we turned around and drove a good 45 minutes back to Abbotsford to get it. That was when things started looking up. We had a nice drive to Kelowna and set up at a friend's place there.

Yesterday was a pretty slow day until mid afternoon when we went to set up for the show. Our show was at an evening church service. We decided to record it so I spent a lot of time setting up the computer and mics and hooking everything up and testing it. In the end we got a decent sound out of the whole thing so I was happy with that. I almost forgot the suitcase with all my mics in it, so that would have sucked.

Today was the third day of our tour, which we again spent in Kelowna. It was a nice warm day and we got invited to a very nice mansion-like house with a pool, foosball table, pool table, etc. We spent the afternoon there, which was fun. We had a BBQ for supper, and I ate too much. We then piled in the van and headed down the mountain to get to our show, and i got pretty sick. We played a very stripped down set in a coffee shop, which was relaxed. I lounged on a couch with a glockenspiel on my lap, playing it like a slob, but still playing pretty well. Then we went for ice cream and a walk by the lakefront. I went to a public bathroom in the park, and was just standing at the urinal when a cleaning lady walks in behind me and starts wiping down the sink! I finished up quickly and tried to get in there to wash my hands, but I felt so awkward about it, and she was taking up so much room with her cleaning that I just walked out of there. Then we climbed Winnie the Pooh. He was pretty big and I'm a very bad climber, so I needed some help.

On another note, tour has been a definite change of pace in my life. For one, living as a community with 5 other people is an immediate change. I've determined to try to work as hard as I can at everything we do so nobody ever feels like I'm not pulling my weight and I never worry about them feeling like that. I've had mild success so far, as things continue I'll need to do that more. It's a bit of a shift because I usually try to get by with the least amount of energy as possible. Some might call it laziness. I can also be a little idiosyncratic with needing to do something mindless before going to bed, and not wanting to talk to anybody when I wake up, so these are things I am needing to try to moderate and control a bit.

I've made some other conscious decisions in my personal life, effective as of the beginning of tour. All of these changes to my life as of three days ago have had a weird mix of effects on me. It's not often in life that you wake up every morning with that feeling of "something is very different today." You know, like that first time you got a girlfriend and you woke up the next morning remembering "I have a girlfriend today! Yesterday morning I didn't, but today I do!" And then you randomly remember it repeatedly during the day and perk yourself up. It's really quite exhilirating. And conversely when she breaks up with you, it's weird to wake up the next morning remembering that, feeling the weight and the hopelessness that doesn't seem to leave. But either way it's a unique and rare experience. It's life at its deepest and richest. In this case it's hard and sad, empty sometimes, but not hopeless. I'm dealing and will continue to, and it feels good to do that.

Whew I almost lost this post cause I navigated away and it disappeared. Thank you Blogger for auto saving now.