My Summer Vacation (Part 1)

It's been a little while, but there's been quite a bit going on round here. With all good things, it's best to start at the beginning and work to the end. So after classes let out in the spring semester, I got approval to run my master's thesis experiments. I was told that my progress in grad school was exceptional, and that I should expect to present my Master's Thesis in the Spring 2005. Spring 2005? Geezus H. Christ on a pogo stick! I was totally expecting to take till the fall of 2005 to finish that, but if they think I can do it, then I can do it. I'll have plenty of participants once the fall semester starts.

In June, I went to Bonnaroo! I was part of a caravan that started out of College Station, TX at about 5 pm Wednesday evening. We ended up getting to Manchester, TN at 7 pm. It was a great weekend, but it had its difficulties. First, it was hell to get my mic stand into the "taper-friendly" festival grounds. What kind of facists are these people!? I mean, we all know that mic stands are part of the taper's equipment. I was able to get it into the grounds every day by just being reasonable.

It rained on Saturday and Sunday. I was leaving The Dead show and my foot managed to find a 2' deep mud hole. My poor cell phone died instantly under a deluge of watery muck. I was able to tape quite a bit on Friday, and got 1 show on Saturday. Sunday was a different story. I was setting up in the exact same spot that I had been at for the Robert Randolph Show only 8 hours earlier (Robert Randolph ended at 3 am and I was setting up again around 11 am), and this dumbass security guard tells me that my mic stand wasn't allowed in. He gets his supervisor...man my taping sucked that day. So much so that I ended up erasing the stuff I got on Sunday. It just wasn't worth it, ya know?

I had a magic mushroom that I was saving for the Trey Anastasio show, but this guy told me that some kids died from poison mushrooms. Well, with that kinda rumor floating in my head, there's no way I'd touch that mushroom. I mean, even if it was ok, my trip wouldn't be good. I'd be freaking out about whether or not I was dying. Not good, ya know? Anyway, I didn't even make it to the Trey show. We got back to camp at around 7 pm. The rain was pouring down pretty heavy so I decided to crawl in my car and wait it out. I ended up falling asleep and I didn't wake up till 5 am Monday morning. I needed that rest too 'cause I was driving back to my folks house. As I was heading out, I picked up a hitchhiker. He gave me 50 bucks to get him to Nashville. I was more than happy to oblige. Sanchez, if you're reading this, thanks.

More to come...