A Turning Point?

Wow... so I have no written on here in a while and I feel like I should probably get some things out...

I completely realized today... I hate my job. Not the entirety of it, just the part where I have to go to Schmitt Music. I love the part of going to hang out with teachers and being the person they can count on to help them make their program better. But the second I go to Schmitt Music I find myself getting somewhat depressed and sad realizing that I have to work for people whom I don't respect. I love my co-workers and I feel absolutely horrible that I cannot be the person they can come to with problems because I can't solve the problems for them. I used to be the one who they could come to and I would bring it up for them as a co-worker but ever since I got my promotion I can't do that because it just creates drama. I am not the only one who feels this way at schmitt. There are way too many over qualified people being paid not enough money who work there. That being said I am currently looking for a new job... this is unbenounced to anyone at Schmitt but I think that it is something that I need. I need a change after almost 10 years of the same boring job. I talked to one of my former co-workers and friends, Joe. He works for a cool side of Best Buy corporate where they deal with institutions and government establishments... I am going to apply for that. Hopefully something will work out that I can leave Schmitt on a good basis and move on to a better place with more room for advancement and better incentives. That being said there are a lot of other things going really well right now. I am starting to work out more... I joined the Y and Mike and I are going a few nights a week and playing basketball and then I go and run after work. I really want to get back in shape so that I dont get exhausted after a 3 hour band show.

Any ideas of cool places to work? let me know... I am looking...

Ah Mac Folk...

So I just the other day got a new cell phone. The funny thing is that I have gotten strange looks from my coworkers who have the prototypical "I-Life". See I just got a blackberry pearl… an all inclusive PDA, Web Browser, MP3 Player, Cell Phone device. And the best part is I got it for free (GO T-Punkt). So I show up at work and my friend (NAME HIDDEN FOR SAKE OF PROTECTING THE IDIOTS) says, "Hey!!! You got a new phone… oh, its just a blackberry…" which made me look at her like, "WTF!" Of couse she is one of the hip and utterly stupid people who waited for hours in line to get a craptastic, battery soldered, non-activated, piece of crap called THE I-PHONE. She proceeded to whip out her new worthless MP3 player… which is all it is good for until it can get activated, way to go Apple. I then proceeded to make fun of her for purchasing a $500 MP3 player.

Granted there are a couple cool things about the I-PHONE. It is fairly cool how it has a touch-screen and a nice smooth transition between screens and programs… or should I call them widgets. But for the most part it is a glorified Internet browsing, MP3 player. She then tried to rip into me buying a blackberry. She made some compelling arguments, always beginning with, "Why would you pay for…". The best part was after she finished her 25 minute rant on why I shouldn’t pay for a blackberry, I conclude the conversation by saying, "Well good thing I didn’t pay for it then…" which pissed her off something royal and caused her to have to take a break. This caused me to think about something. My friends are fairly super-intelligent with computers, and I know an ok amount, enough to get by. And I cannot count the amount of times we have quoted Max Hsu’s blog about the and I quote, "…intangible feeling of creativity…" and proceeded to laugh our asses off. So every time I get into conversation at work with the resident MAC users I just laugh at how computer illiterate they are. I also love how they are so protective of their precious macs. It is almost the same thing as when you make fun of someone whom you suspect to be gay and you tell them they are gay and they get super defensive. It is the same situation when you tell a person who owns a mac how stupid they are for spending double the amount of money on a computer that does the same job as a dell PC. The only difference is that intangible feeling of creativity.

What is the internet?

The internet is a series of tubes... and therefore can be put underwater and all the way to Venice... where they didnt have the internet on. I think they pissed off Al Gore. Oh well!

We are having an absolute blast and chillin in ITALIA! Getting some some while hanging out in Venice and today we traveled from Venice to Rome where I sit writting this now. We are here for another four days and then back to Berlin for a couple days and then HOME! Italy is absolutely amazing... beautiful... and filled with culture. It was amazing having a lot of nothing to do in these cities. There is stuff all around so we just wandered all day and eventually made it back to our hostel which overlooked a very popular canal.

I think we spent a good two hours yesterday just hanging out on the steps of a church and chatting. In the process getting a fairly good tan...

Today I am in ROME! Havent seen much yet but it will be nice to get out and do things in the next couple of days... the only downside is that Italy is expensive... but hey, I am on vacation right?!?!? I hope to be able to write another blog before I get back. If not, come help us move and you will hear all the stories that we can remember!

Ciao!

The REAL world beer tour...

Hi!!! We all made it here just fine and are having an absolute blast.

Our hostel in Berling kind of sucked... it was literally out in the middle of nowhere and took us like an hour each night to get home from... but oh well we were in BERLIN! We hung out at the bar called WHITE TRASH and listened to an ok cover band... JR is better. Drank a lot of German beer and had a great time!

Then we figured out how to get train tickets and hopped a train to Prague... This is where we had our first escapade of the trip... after finding our hostel which was awesome... right downtown and on a main street, we realized that we arrived almost 4 hours before we told our hostel owner we would. So we sat at the restaraunt across the street and drank beer for that time and then finally got into our hostel, cleaned up and took in some good Prague jazz. The next day we walked a lot... really a lot but it was so much fun! We decided that since we are drinking beer from all these different countries that we should make this our own world beer tour and make a poster of all these different beers when we get home. BE EXCITED!

Finally, we made it to Vienna yesterday and our hostel rocks. It is super busy, a lot of people... and we probably got too drunk at the bar downstairs last night. But we were socializing and meeting people from all over the world so it was really fun.

Tomorrow it is onto Venice... then Florence... then ROME... then back to Berlin and home. I'll try to update as I can.

Love you all and I cannot wait to come home and hang out with you all again!

KJK

I should wear this.

That famous saying was spoken by Mike as some asshole in a gaudy cowboy outfit sang a friends song at Karoke one night.

I hang out at a hick bar... and I am not a hick. However, the more and more that I go there I am beginning to realize that it really isn't a hick bar. There were two main reasons that I went there a lot. One, my best friend and his brother worked there and I never paid for stuff, and two, I like singing karoke. In my past couple of visits I have realized that it really isn't hick... it is just more random and odd than hick. A couple of my friends would disagree but I think they think it is hick because people sing country songs at karoke... however they just do that because it is way easier to sing country than anything else...

The people here are very odd... there is one guy who is that typical biker guy. HUGE, wears a black leather vest, no shirt underneath, tattoos, chains, and is named COOKIE. There is also a transvestite who calls the bar home, a crack addict who is there way too often, a pregnant girl who drinks and smokes more than I care to talk about, and three people who take karoke way way way too serious. Some people would say... damn that is fucked up and I don't ever want to go there... but that is the exact reason why I go. It is so random and so odd that there is never a boring night.

In short, I will show up there every once and a while... play bocce ball in the back of the bar... oh yeah, they have a bocce court in the back of the bar, sing some karoke, drink for free, and party the night away. God bless Caspers.

Now stepping up to the plate.

So I am kind of freaking out. It is coming time that I need to actually step up to the plate, bite the bullet, and really bear down on some things. I leave for Europe in T minus 5 days... The day after I get back is my 24th birthday and I am moving into my new house that day... I have yet to become certified through River Falls so I can teach... I am being offered a cool new job at Schmitt... and I have no idea what I am going to do!

So Europe! I am so so so so so so excited to get on a plane with Brett, Ryan, and Mike, and spend two weeks bumming around Europe. I just got a new digital camera to record the entire adventure, and a badass new backpack. We have our plane tickets, train tickets, hostels booked, passports, and a general idea of what we are doing. But something is still missing... not sure what I am missing... but I am sure it will all pan out.

The house... oh I cannot tell you how excited I am to move into a house with these guys. I love my parents, I love being around them... but I feel almost like after coming home from college that I see them too much. Not in a bad way, but that I somewhat take them for granted, seeing them everyday, and having them to fall back upon at home. I think our relationship will grow stronger as I move out. I am looking forward to that the most, the getting to know my parents better by not being around them as much... if that makes sense at all.

The birthday... oh what an uneventful birthday this will be. The 24th... at least I can say I have accomplished what I wanted to do by that time. I wanted to be done with college and have a steady job... CHECK! I wanted to be living on my own... CHECK! I wanted to have a general idea of what I am doing in my life... CHEC... wait a second. I know what I want to do but am I doing it? I guess the most important thing is that I am content in doing it.

I wish I could write about my new job opportunity at the company I have been with for almost 9 years now... I'll let you know as soon as I do.

And so it was born...

A lot of my really good friends have told me to start a blog over the past couple of months and I figure that what better time to do it... The next couple of months are going to involve a lot of change for me, my family, and my friends.

I guess I will start now and move forward...

I am becoming busy again, which I love and hate. I love it because it means that I have things to do and I am loving doing what I am doing, playing music. I hate it because I don't get to see everyone as much as I would like. I just started rehearsals and shows for FUNNY GIRL at Bloomington Civic Theatre. I love the people there! Especially the brass section, with the exception of a few... oh well though! The actors are a lot of fun and really genuine good people to be around. So I am doing that this week and straight up until I leave for Europe... that's right EUROPE!

So yeah, Brett, Mike, Ryan, and I are leaving on May 11th to go to Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Venice, Florence, and Rome. We will be gone for a couple weeks and backpacking and doing the hostel thing! So so so excited because I get to go to Europe not being on a tour, not needing to be in a certain place at a certain time and getting to compete in beerfest.

Then the day after we get back is my birthday... a very uneventful 24th birthday. The very next day, memorial day, I am moving into my new house! No I didn't buy it... Mike, Ryan, Nick Ingles and I rented a place in Burnsville right by Crystal Lake. It is AWESOME! Big bedrooms for everyone and a big room downstairs for our music studio. We will be having a house warming party sometime in June once we get settled in.

Then once we get settled we are going to start hitting stuff hardcore with the bands. I just joined a funk horn band which is currently called Kronic Funk but we are searching for a new name. The band is an odd collection of people but I am excited to be playing with Dan, Shannon, Jeremy, and Jennings! Have no fear... Judging Ronald is still rocking and partying like always! We just competed in a battle of the bands and didn't win... but we were down a person anyway... hopefully we can start doing a lot more shows in the next couple months.

So that is my life right now... busy as can be... I will post more and be insightful or try to be as I get going on this...

KJK