I'm getting sick of wanting what I don't want, and getting what I can't have. I'm also finding that it's easier to cope when I'm drunk, but it's the drink that gets me into trouble in the first place. How 'bout that?

Backstreet's Back (Alright)

Well, I made it back to Vancouver in one piece (barely - man was I hung over the day of my flight). I must say that it was quite nice to come back to somewhere familiar and be able to sleep in my own bed (bedbugs or no), not to mention showering in a normal shower. Matt had the weirdest "shower" at his place I've ever had to use. Apparently it's European, but I'd sooner call it annoying. It's basically a big bath tub with a hose thing like you see on some kitchen sinks that you have to hold whilst you attempt to lather up and all that. I just ended up turning on the bathtub faucet and sitting under it, trying to get wet. I never thought being able to stand in a shower would seem like such a luxury.

So, on my first full day back I managed to get up relatively early (seeing as I'm still on Eastern time), play a lot of guitar, nearly nail down that Pussycat Dolls cover I'm attempting, get groceries (consisting mainly of olives, Triscuits and wine), and record my new Starflyer vinyls onto my computer. I also pulled out my Vox amp modeler that I bought back in Burnaby. Cleaning my apartment is on the schedule for tomorrow, but Char says she might be able to get me some work as an extra for a TV show tomorrow, so we'll see. Making any sort of income would be nice, especially seeing as I've vowed not to get another day job if at all possible.

Speaking of which, I'm really, really trying to get my own stuff going, and will hopefully play a couple open mic nights while I'm in Vancouver these next couple of weeks. I'll get out there, play a few songs of my own, and see how things go. I feel like I might finally have the motivation to do my own stuff that I've been lacking up to this point. I guess I need to have someone light a fire under my ass to get me going, and it feels like maybe the whole quitting my job and needing to find a way to exist might be just such a fire. God help me, but I really want to make this work. As I think I mentioned in previous posts, quitting my job and getting out there feels like about the best thing I could have done for myself.

I think that's about it for tonight. I'm feeling pretty tired, so I think I'll retire and maybe read a bit of my Algernon Blackwood book before I fall asleep. Nothing like tales of the Mysterious and Macabre to give a guy pleasant dreams.

Unfortunately there is a mechanical failure with your aircraft...

Yup, that's what I just heard the lady on the speaker say. Thankfully she said it while I'm sitting in the Airport Terminal in Ottawa, and not in the air.

I'm breathing sighs of relief, however, now that I'm sitting here safe and sound and everything that needed to be taken care of has been (I hope). The extra CDs have been shipped off, the gear returned, the van gassed and parked, and now I'm just waiting to catch my flight to Toronto, the means by which I'd be getting there probably the thing I was most stressed about until I booked the flight this afternoon. Turns out rental car companies will charge you an arm and a leg if you return the car to a city other than the one you rented it in. News to me. This meant a lot of online scrambling to try to find a viable mode of transportation to get me to Matt's place. The problem with the bus or train was that I'd have to find a way from the airport, where I was dropping off the girls for their flight, to the respective terminal/station. Then it dawned on me as I was eating a bowl of Cheerios: perhaps I could fly. Dad always says how flying is about as cheap now as taking the bus, and he was right. I ended up finding a flight for a little less than $60, before tax. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. Cheaper than renting a car, even if there wasn't that crazy "one way" charge on top of it all.

Yeah, so hopefully the plane they're switching ours for doesn't have a mechanical failure too. I'm seeing the passengers walk by that just got off of it, so that's a good sign. Nobody seems too maimed.

Oh, and one more thing: I'm glad to be alone. As much as I've had a good time on the tour, you can only be around the same people for so long before the smallest annoyances become intolerable. I'm pretty sure I've been a bit intolerable myself. It really hasn't been that bad, actually, but I'm definitely ready for a break, as are the girls, I think. Give me a little bit and I'll be ready to get back on the horse, though.

And I think that's that. I'm looking forward to the time ahead of me and everything it entails: Toronto, Van, Drumheller, Van, home. After that, well, I'd better damn well be making enough on music to pay rent, beit my own or Bella or whatever comes my way. No day job for me, I'll tell you h-what.

C'est Fini

Just got back from our show in Fredericton, and I must say that I am a happy man. The show turned out to be a really great time, and I quite enjoy Fredericton. It seems like a pretty small city, but the people are great. This was probably the most well attended show of all of them, so that was really nice, and the crowd was all into it, which totally makes for a good time. I can't say as my performance was particularly inspired, but it was solid, at least.

Got to meet some great people, one of which being the guy that was DJing before and after our set. He was even nice enough to give me the very rare copy of Eric's Trip's "Love Tara" that I've been looking for all over. What a guy. Apparently he has connections in Europe, too, so he told us we could send him a package of a few CDs and he'd send them over sees to different radio stations to play.

Also met this crazy bonafide East Coast guy, with the accent and everything. That dude was hilarious. He introduced himself as Kirk "like the captain". Aww man, I can't even begin to describe him other than to say that if you know my affection for Tony (you know, "Tonee" Tony), I think I could love this guy just as much (in a different way than Tony, of course - there's only one Tony!). I'm definitely coming back here and I WILL hang out with this guy. We're going to have a kitchen party. He wanted to find a guitar somewhere and have "a sing-song", as he called it.

Thirdly, I met a girl! Can you believe it? Anyways, she seemed really nice and quite intelligent, so we'll see where that goes. Turns out she might be moving to Vancouver next year, so who knows?

And I think that's about it. A great end to a great tour. Now I need to get some decent sleep as I have to drive through a hurricane to get to Montreal tomorrow. Yeah, that's right, the hurricane I mentioned in last night's post. Look it up in the news. Apparently a bunch of people in Fredericton lost their power tonight, but the club was fine (thankfully) and the lights are on at the Motel, so I'm not sure which part of the city. It was a truly miserable day, though, with torrential rain and some insane winds. The girls and I walked from the club to a restaurant down the street and got drenched. Tiff made me laugh on the walk, though, because the guys at the club had given us each and umbrella and the guy said specifically to Tiff, "This ones really good", and it turned out to be complete crap, with the poky things sticking out all over the place. I took a couple pictures of it on her camera, so maybe I can get a copy and post it up. Hilarious.

Anyways, my trip out to the Maritimes was a definite success, and I completely intend to come back here in the future. Now I just have to figure out how the hell I'm getting from Ottawa to Toronto to stay with Matt next week.

Halifax/Sackville

Ok, so we just finished our show in Sackville, but I didn't have a chance to write about Halifax last night so I'll do that first.

Halifax ended up being great for a few reasons, one of which being that I've wanted to go there for a long time. It was actually a lot bigger than I expected, and seemed like a nice city. The view from out Motel this morning when we were leaving was probably the best as it was a little bit out of the city and it looked out onto a bay. Very nice.

The show itself ended up being a lot of fun, if not particularly well attended. Just like in Montreal, the show started late and the other bands took a long time, so we didn't even get on until 12:30-1:00ish, so most of the people that had come had already left by the time we got on. Thankfully the crowd that did stay was very energetic and seemed to have a really good time. We got to talk to a bunch of them and they all told us how much fun they had and how they were impressed by us, so that was good. I actually had one kid telling me how he thought I was such a good guitar player, etc etc, and how he was impressed that I didn't use a capo (on my electric - I mentioned you when that came up, Matt). That was really nice to hear, seeing as I don't consider myself to be a particularly skilled guitar player, and I don't often get that comment.

The best part about Halifax came as a surprise during soundcheck (we actually had to do our own sound, so I was mixing from stage and then jumping off while we were playing to preview the room mix). I was just about to check the bass and had adjusted the level on the board, so I had my back to the room, and when I turned around my Dad was sitting in one of the chairs in front of the stage. I almost couldn't believe my eyes, and it took me a while to actually register that he was really there. Apparently he and Carol were out here for a court hearing regarding one of Carol's nieces (long story), and they stayed a couple extra days so they could see us play. Man, what an awesome surprise. I was so glad to see him. So that pretty much made my night, although he couldn't stick around because he had to catch his flight at 5 am.

So that was Halifax. We rolled into Sackville around 3ish this afternoon, and I could tell almost immediately that I liked it. The bar we played at was kind of off by itself, across from the train station (which is still in service), and it really reminded me of Dalmeny. We ended up having about five or six hours or so before we had to load in, so we went and walked around this boardwalk that spans a wildlife preserve/pond thing, which was just great. I ended up sitting up in this little lookout tower thing for probably a half hour just chilling out and enjoying myself. The sun was shining, which took away some of the bite from the chill, and the scenery was great. There was a healthy dose of flat (apparently there's a big marsh around the town), combined with a lot of trees and some rolling hills, so it was very picturesque. We kind of just hung out and walked around town the rest of the time, and of all the places I've been so far, I could definitely see myself living here (I don't know if I've mentioned it in previous posts, but I've kind of been on the lookout for somewhere to move during this tour). It's funny that it'd be this nowhere kind of town, having seen all these different cities and stuff, but Sackville has definitely been the one place that's spoken to me the most. Of course, this isn't to say that I'll be moving out here any time soon, if ever, but you know, at least I have an idea of what I like. I was getting a little restless with all the cities, and it's nice to be able to realize what really appeals to me, especially when separated from the concept of "home" when I'm in Dalmeny. The small town thing isn't just about family, friends and where I grew up, it's actually the environment that I prefer.

Anyways, that's Sackville the town, and the show was a lot of fun too. There weren't as many people at the show as I had anticipated (especially after hitting #1 on the college radio here with our first record : ), but just like in Halifax, the ones that did come made it a lot of fun. I played probably the sloppiest set of the tour, at least in part to the beer and wine I had consumed before hand, but they seemed to love it anyway, and I still had fun playing. We got to sell and sign a lot of CDs, which is always fun, and meet a lot of people also. We even went out for a drink with one of the guys (who apparently bumped into Char earlier in the afternoon, whilst listening to the album) and I wrote him out this big list of good "Christian" bands because he does a Christian radio hour on the campus station.

Yeah, so that's pretty much that, and now I think I'll get into bed and maybe read a story in my new "Tales of Mystery and The Macabre" book that I bought in one of the bookstores here and then go to sleep. All this rock'n'roll has been taking it out of me.

Oh yeah, apparently there's supposed to be a hurricane tomorrow at 1pm. That should be interesting.

Moncton/Halifax

We stayed the night in Moncton last night, having driven from Montreal to New Brunswick, expecting to stay in St. John, but it was actually on the wrong highway. I was happy to be in Moncton for a few reasons, though, one being that when I was just getting into indie rock when I was about 16 or so, many of the bands I was listening to came from the East Coast in Canada, a few specifically from Moncton (Eric's Trip, Elevator to Hell, Moonsocket). I'd always wanted to go there because of that, and this was my chance. The other reason that I wanted to stay there was that I remembered while we were driving something I'd heard about "Magnetic Hill", which is this hill somewhere in New Brunswick where you park at the bottom of a hill, put your vehicle in neutral and then roll back up the hill you just drove down. I wasn't sure where exactly it was located, but turns out our hotel in Moncton was only about five minutes away, so I got to experience the wonder of Magnetic Hill. It was actually pretty cool, and it totally seems like you're being pulled up, but apparently it's just an optical illusion (which Char was only too quick to point out to me, as supposedly there's one of those in Abbotsford, so she's been doing that since she was a kid). At any rate, it was pretty fun. No Rick White sightings, though.

Now we're sitting in Halifax at the venue, which is nice and dry and warm, as compared to the weather out there, which is decidedly wet and extremely windy. Oddly enough the air is warm, though.

Didn't get to see a whole lot of New Brunswick beyond what I just described and whatever the headlights would reveal last night, seeing as we crossed the border around 8 or so. The drive into Nova Scotia today was pretty nice, though, despite being pretty cloudy and windy, but that kind of added to the effect. Some of the hills we'd drive up made it look like we were going to shoot right into the clouds, because they seemed quite low.

This is a pretty big deal for me to be here, because like I mentioned before, I've wanted to come here ever since I was a teenager. I'm not entirely sure what my impressions of the Maritimes are yet, but maybe once I'm back in Van and have had time to reflect I'll have an opinion. The drive through Quebec was really nice, though, especially the area right out of Quebec City, which was a very scenic, pastoral kind of place, with the St. Lawrence on one side, with some "mountains" (hills, I'd say) behind it in the distance, and fields bracketed by woods on our the other. Really nice. As far as scenery goes, I'd say this was my favourite so far. Maybe I'll marry some hot French girl and move out to the countryside and learn French.

Anywho, that's about it. I'm pretty tired right now because we spent a bunch of time driving around downtown Halifax because we got in quite early, and driving aimlessly around cities I don't know stresses me out and makes me tired. It also makes me grumpy, which Char can attest to. Oh well, she's the one that wanted to drive around there. I really enjoy Highway driving, and yesterday's 10 hour drive was no problem, but city driving isn't really my bag. Too much going on for my liking. When you're on the highway you can just listen to music and cruise. I bought one of those FM Transmitters for my iPod, which makes it even better, cos now I have my entire music collection at my disposal. It's a good chance to listen to stuff that I've gotten recently and haven't had the chance to really listen to. Right now I'm really, really loving Josh Rouse's "Nashville". I bought a Johnny Cash compilation, too, which we listened to today and I quite enjoyed. It reminds me of my Grandpa.

Yup, so I think I'll end it there. I'm going to try to figure out if I can put the pictures Char has on her phone on my computer. She's been taking this series of photos of me eating French Toast in various cities and then texting them to my Dad for fun, but I'd like copies of them. I don't even know if my Dad is getting them. He's about as communicative as the rest of us boys in the family.