well my 3 weeks of travelling are finished. pretty happy about that. In the past few weeks i saw Pittsburgh, Nashville, and Boston, logged over 1500 miles of driving, got to hang out with a bunch of cool folks, most notably my bro Josh. fun times but good to be home.

forgot to mention this before, but last week i was eating a crab wonton and chipped a molar. very unfortunate. my teeth are terrible. i keep good care of them, but it’s in the genes. soft teeth. after further investigation of the wonton, it appeared that there was a piece of crabshell in it. I guess that explains how i cracked my tooth…or not. I mean, a diamond shard i could understand, but a crabshell? anyway, upon further investigation of the tooth it was clear to me that the tooth was not in good shape. it had already had a cavity and was a bit brown in spots, which frankly, is gross. i think i’ll change the subject.

that terrible week i was waiting for with my NFL picks finally came. I’m 4-8 right now awaiting the Monday Night winner. I’m still in first place, but someone is tied with me now. And lots of folks have caught up. But hey, it’s a marathon, not a sprint, and I’m happy to still be competing. Next week I’ma show em.

Dunkin Donuts is my friend.

i am in the mood to sell things on Ebay. Things that i don’t want so that i can buy things that i do want. i’ll post some of the auctions up here if/when that happens.

later…b

so much to post about, but it’s too late to post. it’s almost 1:30 in the morning, and i have a work conference starting in less than 8 hours. here’s the highlights though

drove to MA with Parker today. Took us 5.5 hours, which is phenomenal time. we made 3 pee stops, all on the side of Rte. 95. A cop stopped by at the end of the last one, and wanted to know if everything was alright. i assured him everything was, just a 3-yr old with a full bladder.

drove past an 11-car accident today. i didnt see the accident, just the 11 cars on the side of the road. and thanks to the rubberneckers, i had time to count them all.

highlight of the day was hanging out with my brother Josh. He’s 2 years younger than me and lives in Boston. He’s a manager at The Paradise in Boston, which happens to be the first place U2 ever played in the United States, in case you ever want some good U2 trivia. He showed me all around the club, which is a pretty amazing place. Got to meet alot of the folks he works with. Then we watched the Monday Night Football game together at this great sport’s bar called T’s. I had a blast hanging out with him, i wish we could do that more.

oh, and as for the title of this post, i bought some water at the gas station but accidentally left it on the counter. as i was walking out of the store, the lady behind the counter said “you forgot your water”, only it sounded like “you fuggutchawaddah”. i had to laugh. gotta love massachusetts.

time for sleep

ok, so i’m watching football this afternoon and i see a commercial for Saw III. How fast are they chugging out these movies? Didn’t the original Saw movie come out last year? And is there really that much of a demand for this stuff? I don’t get it…and speaking of things i don’t get, here’s some other random things I’ve been thinking about lately…

I’m not one of those people who passionately prefer Coke over Pepsi, or vice versa, and as a result I’m getting bored with the following conversation:

“Can I get a Sprite please?”

“Sierra Mist OK?”

“Yeah”

Maybe I should do a better job of figuring out which line of beverages the place sells before I order, but I think it should be universal that when I ask for a Coke, I just want a cola and when I ask for a Sprite, I want a white, carbonated, citrus flavored, caffeine-free beverage. I mean, let’s face it, Sprite, 7-Up, and Sierra Mist are all the same product in different packages anyway. You know it’s true.

Here in Lancaster County they have a county-wide trick-or-treat night. This year it happens to fall on New Year’s eve, but in years past it has been on a weekend night a few days before halloween. The whole concept is foreign to me because in Massachusetts you went trick-or-treating on Halloween night, no matter when it was.

I think it would be fun sometime to just walk around a restaurant and go up to other tables and ask “How’s everything today?” like those restaurant managers do from time to time. And then if people actually had a complaint I would say “Oh, I don’t actually work here, I was just wondering how you were doing.” Am I the only one who gets that urge?

Flying on a plane has forever changed for me after seeing the pilot episode of LOST. For 2 reasons actually. #1, Now when i fly, in the back of my head I’m hoping the plane doesn’t rip apart in two halves…can’t say I ever entertained that notion before, and #2, I actually think there’s a chance that I could survive if that did happen.

Gummi bears are the seasoned veterans of the candy world. They always know how to deliver, they never try to do too much, and they’ve been around for longer than you can remember.

The fact that “_____ for Dummies” and “The Idiot’s Guide to _____” are two of the best-selling book franchises in the nation tells some people that as a country we love to learn. It tells me that as a country we have pretty low self-seteem.
Headed to Boston tomorrow…updates to come.

let’s tie up a couple loose ends…

i went 8-5 last week in my NFL picks. i’m not sure how i keep pulling these things out, but somehow in the first 1/3 of the season i’ve built a 4-game lead over the guy in second place. I don’t feel good about Week 7 at all, in fact, i just switched 3 of my picks, something i almost never do once i’ve made my selections. so we’ll see if this roll will continue. i’m sure you all are dying to find out. haha…

Got some neighbors coming over for dinner tonight, so that should be fun. Erica knows them from High School (yeah, that was only 8 years ago for her). It’s fun to have people over who aren’t in your normal hangout rotation. I’m really looking forward to it…

I’m really thinking about getting a nice phone for christmas. A blackberry or a Treo perhaps. I’d be much happier spending $200 than $300 on it though, so i don’t know if i’ll take the plunge…

Jordan’s moving into his apartment today. I’m excited for him…

I havent switched Auto Insurance for, oh, probably 5 years now. I just got off the phone with a broker who got my name from our financial advisor and he’s going to be able to save us around 40% on our auto insurance. huge. monthly payments will go from about $130 to about $75. and that’s with upping our limits from a paltry 15/40 to 100/300. why didnt i do this sooner?

Guess that’s about it for the news as of this moment. I’m sure the incomparable Buddy Watts will be happy that this is short. I’m hearing rumors all the way from Texas to PA that my long posts have brought him a great deal of annoyance lately. Buddy, i was thinking about you when i saw Don the other day. Reminded me of the trek to Messiah College we made and made me think that i miss hanging out with you…

oh and Jeremy, sorry the Mets let you down. Time heals all wounds, but while you’re still feeling bitter about it, take that angst into the studio and keep cranking out that killer record. i’ve had that daylight song in my head off and on for days now…

Enjoy a great weekend of rest this weekend everyone, or whatever it is you do on saturday and sunday…

bryan

Just got back from a whirlwind tour of the Southeast…here’s what went down.

Mon – 10:00am (Huntsville, AL) – Yesterday was a long day of travel. I was basically moving very fast from 2pm until 10pm between driving and flying. it was enough to give me a migraine and some nausea. But I slept well in this La Quinta last night and this morning I checked my email and watched SportsCenter without getting out of bed. if only every monday morning was so relaxing. We’ve got a 2-hour drive north to Nashville ahead of us. it’s actually a little cold here as well, good thing i brought my Brasil Track Jacket that i picked up at Target for $12 a few months ago on the clearance rack. gotta love the Target Clearance rack…it’s a thing of beauty.

Mon 3:00pm (Nashville, TN) – Geof and I finally made it to Andy Osenga’s house. We piled in 1 car and headed out to this southern cooking place called Monell’s with Andy and Randall Goodgame. Jeremy Casella met us there. The food was amazing. and we were stuffed. Lots of great convo. Lots of good food. I enjoyed the meatloaf, which is something that i dont think i’ve ever said before. We stopped back at Andy’s house for a few minutes to hang, and then left Andy and Randall to write for the new Caedmon’s record. The plan is to stop by Katy Bowser’s house to take pictures for her website, and then meet Jeremy Casella for coffee.

Mon 6:00pm (Nashville, TN) – Met Jeremy Casella for coffee at Bongo Java. We got to talk and ramble about lots of stuff for a while, which i loved being able to do. He’s a cool guy, and he’s probably reading this, so let me also say that he is a wonderful human being. Before he left, he played us a few tracks from the CD he’s in the studio recording now and it sounded amazing. really cool and really different from what i expected. so i’m really excited to see what the finished product sounded like.

The bathroom walls inside Bongo Java were cool. I took a picture because I’m a doofus.

Mon 10:00pm (Nashville, TN) - after driving around Nashville for awhile, we met up with Derek Webb at this cool place called Fido’s for a beer. We were all hungry so we headed over to the San Antonio Taco Company for some grub. It was incredibly good. i had a pulled pork burrito, a beef burrito, and a chicken burrito. And then i was stuffed. Not the best decision I’ve ever made at 11:30pm at night…but not the worst either.

Tue 12:30am (Nashville, TN) – so now i sit, stuffed to the stinking gills, on derek webb’s couch as derek, geof, and i all check emails on our laptops. their Mac laptops are giving my PC laptop dirty looks. the jerks. We’re going to crash here at Derek’s tonight and then head south with Derek tomorrow around lunchtime. It’s a 4-hour ride to Birmingham. should be fun. looking forward to hearing Derek play and seeing Don Miller speak tomorrow.

Tue 10:00am (Nashville, TN) – woke up this morning in the spare bedroom at derek’s house. we were up talking until 2:30am or so, which was fun. Derek’s into LOST now, so that’s always a plus. Talked about lots of random stuff, as folks tend to do when they’re tired. (editor’s note: I couldn’t post this on the blog at the time, but Derek and I talked about him re-joining Caedmon’s Call because I had heard some rumors from the band. Less than a year later he recorded Overdressed with them.)

Speaking of where i slept, Derek was telling us about their friend Allan Heinberg, who lives out in L.A. Allan writes for Grey’s Anatomy, writes comic books, used to write for Gilmore girls, and is obviously cool. He’s actually the Co-Executive Producer for Grey’s Anatomy, the #1 show in the country right now. that makes him me pretty cool in my book. and the fact that i thought it was cool to sleep in the same room he slept in a few weeks ago when he stayed with derek and sandra basically makes me uncool. and i’m ok with that.

About to leave Derek’s house. But before we do, I need to snap a pic of his guitars…pretty maids all in a row.

Tue 1:00pm (45 minutes south of Nashville, TN) – Uh oh. the temp of Geof’s truck starting to go up and the the gage was pegged. We pulled over and smoke/steam billowed out from under the hood for about 15 minutes. We were broken down on a major interstate. 30 minutes later Butch showed up to tow us into Pulaski, Tennessee.

We sat at the local mechanic’s place for over an hour while they figured out that the belt that drives the alternator and water pump was gone. Quick fix right? yes, until they found the huge crack in the radiator. ouch. these were not the best times.

an hour later we were back on the road in a rental car. Geof decided to get his car fixed and then i think he’s gonna sell the thing. We stopped at Chik-Fil-A for some energy and made it to the venue an hour before the show. Snuck backstage a few minutes before showtime and got derek to burn us a copy of his new double-disc project. no new songs, just different versions of other songs. Also got to say hi to Don Miller again, so that was cool. he was like, “wait, you dont live around here.” and i was like “yeah.” then we had a long fistfight and i won.

Had to get a picture with Derek and Don. They look happy, don’t they?

Tue 10:00pm (somewhere in Alabama) – Derek’s set lasted an hour and was pretty good. highlight for me was “What you Want”. Don spoke afterwards and it was intriguing as always. lots of good stuff to think about.

Funniest moment of the night was some guy who recognized me from pictures online because of the Caedmon’s Ecuador trip. He was even wearing a caedmonscall.net sweatshirt. haha, thats my website! i was obviously loving it!

so now i sit in a Sleep Inn in Alabama. excited about flying home tomorrow to see my best friend and my kids. Being away from home so much reminds me how much i love being there. These trips are fun for sure, and I’ve got some great memories and some pics to share, but there’s nothing like being with my family. man i cant wait. seriously, i cannot wait.

bry