time for an update.  or a recap.  or jeez, at least a post!  there’s been a lack of time and internet connection that has affected my ability to blog.  i have the capability of blogging from my handheld, but i think my tendency to want to be completely and utterly thorough may hamstring me…  i’ll see if i can release my grip on myself in the coming weeks for the sake of more frequent blog entries.  or maybe not…  i am a firm believer of quality over quantity (and that’s what twitter is for right?  banality after annoying banality?)  so, just let me recount while i’m here…

hmm, where did i leave off?  oh yeah, chicago.  seeing one of my oldest friends is a serious perk that will always bring me back to this city.  got to see the first NFL game of the season and see rabid Blackhawks fans continue their Stanley Cup celebration with this massive Stanley Cup replica beer “dispenser”.

played for some new folks and moon high alums (punks, if you will). it’s a loving term.

on to sheboygan, wi.  everyone just seems to love to say that word.  sheboygan.  it is, in fact, a cute town, and the venue i play there is a great little oasis.  had an awesome surprise in seeing a friend from the law firm where i used to work.  wonderful to catch up.  he’s a constitutional law professor, as is his wife, so i got a little window into the current climate of the supreme court and recent high profile rulings.  maybe i’ll understand a bit more when i hear nina totenberg’s updates?  i don’t know, my retention level is suspect.

milwaukee provided one of the better soundbites of the tour so far…  “when i see your name i think, “pythagorean”.  hmmm.  i guess there are worse things?  nicest venue owner may go to the sugar maple, a beer connoiseur’s haven… 

iowa city!  home of corn!  i was struck by how really pretty this state is.  almost calming, all that corn.  was great to see a close friend who’s doing fantastically as the head coach of a division one sports team - inspiring to see a friend’s hard work and patience pay off.  i think i’ll be rooting for iowa any chance i get now, and not just because their colors are modeled after the steelers.  go hawkeyes!

iowa state’s “m shop” was a great little stop.  pretty campus.  i didn’t mention my allegiance to the hawkeyes during my set.  i think that was a good decision.  looking forward to going back there.  thanks for the hospitality, cyclones!

ah, colorado - if not for it’s mountains toward that western edge, it is close to looking just like iowa.  but it’s plains are for some reason not as picturesque.  maybe it was the weather.  anyway, the mountains do eventually come into view and so does the memory of really liking this city.  however, i have to admit, not as much as i do it’s neighbor, boulder.  i love boulder!  so much hiking and biking!  although i came to town unsuccessfully fighting a cold, i swear i could feel myself getting healthier (in a body, mind, spirit sort of way) at the first sight of mount sanitas.  met some great new friends and am already planning my trip back.  maybe it will be for longer… much longer…

at the summit (yes, i touched the pole!)

on the walk “home”

great shows in both towns, and lots of new followers scored.  thanks friends for puting in some elbow grease and putting butts in chairs.  i need butts in chairs, people!

a stroke of good fortune put me in jackson, wy next.  a wonderful host offered sage advice on exploring the area and a day/night of camping in grand teton national park ensued.  was amazing to be able to fit this into the tour schedule and have such great weather to do it.  yes it was on the chilier side, but, as long as the sun is out you can’t really go wrong by me.  cries of “where’s the wildlife?” were answered with jaw-dropping sightings of bison and elk.  no bear, which is probably best.  overused phrase of the day:  elk bugling.  more animal encounters actually happened in yellowstone (which is just up the street), but the tetons really were more interesting to me, so, i’m just going to give all credit to the GT.

jenny lake

the main attraction

missoula, missoula.  what’s happened to you?  maybe it was just the gloomy weather or the remnants of the flu bug (one must take every opportunity to use this moniker at the onset of upper respiratory distress, fever, or just general lousiness of feeling), or the fact that brad pitt and tom skerritt weren’t there.  but, i just didn’t feel the love for missoula this time around.  maybe i’ll give her another chance.  just not stay overnight. 

the never-ending mountains of montana made up for what it’s most liberal city was lacking in my eyes that day.  robert redford would apparently agree with me (see:  location).  montana = most beautiful state to me.  rolling hill after mountain after running river after rolling hill, hands down most picturesque state i’ve seen. 

no way that washington state beats out montana in my mind, unless you are just going to stay in coeur d’alene.  pretty stunning there - baba wawa thinks so too.  people that live there are apparently super proud of this - it is hard to find an establishment that doesn’t have coeur d’alene in it’s name.

off to gonzaga university for a great show at the crosby student center.  didn’t know bing crosby went to school here.  i don’t really know much about bing crosby but i think i should.  let’s learn together.  wow, ahead of the pope?  i digress…  great show here, playing for lots of enthusiastic undergrads (and grad students…  i know, you reeeally went out on a limb to come - thank you!) after being calmed by the tranquility of the impeccably manicured lawns on campus.  preshow, with bing:

more driving…  more subway sandwiches…  actually, let me stay here for a second.  i don’t know what happened, but i actually like subway now.  just the veggie delite (why forgo the “ight”?  maybe the “ite” subliminally influences my sandwich choice?).  but still, this is a huge turnaround.  i mean, we’re talking i couldn’t even walk past a shop in the past without commenting on how much i couldn’t stand it, and now i’m craving it?  maybe it’s the new breads?  my love of “the biggest loser”?  seriously, my mouth is watering right now.  ??!?!?!  sponsorship anyone?  really, i just want to work out with bob harper…  love his energy!

and now i’m in portland, oregon.  home of wonderful coffee.  i have definitely had some subpar offerings in the past couple weeks, and today’s espresso made up for them all.  really cool venue that i played here last night, albeit a little creepy.  the woods, a former funeral parlor (that’s done nothing to take your mind from this fact), turned into a great listening room.  there was a really crazy radio frequency bleed going on during the sound check…  every time i plugged in my amp (using an aer compact 60 for this tour and really liking it), soft voices seemed to emanate from the walls - first it was serious right wing radio, then came something that sounded like something from the 50s.  i don’t know which was scarier - the ignorance of the former, or the ghostly implications of the latter.  luckily the able soundperson (i’d say soundlady, but, i don’t want it to come off like “lady *insert_high_school_mascot_here*”…  anyway, now you know it was, in fact, a more than capable female) resolved the issue and a fun and relatively non-creepy time was had by all.

so, i’m all, err, you’re all caught up with what’s going on with me.  to sisters, oregon tomorrow (yes, that’s the name of a town) and bend, oregon on sunday…  then a couple days off and to california i go.