Living Life

Okay, so i'll try to make a recap of all the notable things that have happened since I left - i'll try not to make a novel out of it as well. Sorry it has taken me so long.

January 6th -8th

Said goobye to the fam and went to Minneapolis-St.Paul International airport. Flight was delayed by an hour. Arrived in Los Angeles, had no gate for our flight and had to wait on the tarmac for 20 minutes. Finally got off the plance, checked in for my flight, killed some time. Boarded the plane but because of a storm, had to wait on the runway for 2 hours. Lucky, was able to sleep during most of the 11 hour plan ride - a first for me, usually I can't sleep on planes. Landed in Nadi, Fiji at 8am. Hung out, ate some breakfast and waited for my flight that was scheduled to leave at 12:15. Found out that our flight would be delayed until 12:45, then dealyed again until 2:15, then again until 3:30, and again until 4:15. Spent 8 hours alone in a tiny, tiny airport with no AC and bastard kids running around and screaming at the top of their lungs. Finally went to board my flight, walked out onto the runway right as a torrential downpour started. Got onto the plane soaking wet. Arrived in Brisbane around 7pm. Got to say hello and hug Rosie for the first time in over 2 months. Went to our hotel, ate some food, fell asleep.

January 9th -

I knew that Silverstein (the band that we had toured with this whole past summer) were suppose to play in Brisbane that night. I talked to their bass player, Billy, over email a little bit but still didn't know the details of their show or if they had time to hang out in Brisbane. Rosie and I decided to spend the day shopping around different neighborhoods for places to live. While looking for apartments in an area called New Farm, I looked out my window into a cafe and who do I see? - All the Silverstein guys. Rosie pulled over quickly and I ran in and asked them what was on the menu for today and they about shit themselves. Hung out with them for a while, had a juice and caught up. As we were getting ready to leave, I looked across the room and saw my buddy Nick Lucas, whom I had met in London a couple years ago but hadn't seen in probably a year. I ran over to him and said hello and he also about shit himself. So it was a great time seeing old friends and what a great introduction to my new life in Australia. I took it as a sign that we should concentrate on finding a place in the New Farm area.

After more apartment searching and some dinner Rosie and I checked out the show which was a lot of fun. Kids in Australia love Silverstein. They had a great reaction and played a great show. Aftewards, Rose and I went back to our hotel and I got some much needed, jet lagged sleep.

January 10th - Present

Since then, Rosie and I have spent the last two weeks in Rosie's home town of Byron Bay. It's a great little town right on the ocean that has beautiful landscapes, great shops and places to eat, and plenty of tourists. It's settled down a little now, but the town just had an influx of kids on school holidays clogging the streets, beaches and hotels. The tourists and the weather has kept us at Rosie's house, just relaxing. Up until two days ago the weather has been pretty rainy and cloudy, far from the lazy, sunny days on the beach that I had imagined. But now things are backt o normal. The sun is out and it's bloody hot.

This past Saturday (which would've been Friday for you Yanks) Rose and I packed up a lunch and went to Whites Beach, which is a little secret beach a little ways from Byron. It was like something out of the movies. It was a beautiful day, we had the whole beach to ourselves, and we had a great swim. Here's some photos of our day there....



The walk to the beach



Whites Beach



The view from my towel

When we got home, I felt a little uncomfortable so I took off my shirt, only to see that I had been sunburnt to hell. It could've been a lot worse for spending all day in the sun, but it still hurt like hell.



You might not be able to tell how bad it got from this photo, but here is Rose and I with our sunburn and me holding a aloe vera leaf from the plant outside of the house - that little guy was my savior. I opened him up and slathered all the fresh aloe goo all over my sunburn and it really did the trick.

So that's it for now. I'll post again probably later tonight with the story of the 5 mile rainforest hike that Rose and I did yesterday. Word. See you then.

Letter From Australia

It's been a while since my last post and a lot has happened. Let's see...Our Europe ended well and a great time was had by all, I played my last shows with Comeback Kid and they were a blast, Festivus and Christmas were both full of holiday joy and awesome hangouts with family and friends, made a last minute trip with my Pops down to Chicago and Springfield Illinois to visit family, chilled with my parents and watch tv for new years and it was the best - a lot went down.

And then it was time for me to leave. I spent my last days in Minnesota, U.S.A. spending as much time with my family and friends as possible. Even with the impending doom of having to say goodbye to my loved ones for a long time, I was still able to have some fun, some good laughs, and make some good memories. I threw a going away party at my parents place 2 nights before I was set to leave and it turned out to be a huge success. There were friends, food, and root beer a plenty.

I won't go into detail about saying goodbye to my friends and family because it's impossible to articulate what I went through those last two days, but suffice to say - My family and friends are the most important things in my life and I will miss them dearly.

Now, however, it's time to begin again. I'm stoked to have a clean slate and to have Rosie by my side as we start a new life down under.

I've been Australia three days so far and I'm so excited to live here. The air is clean, the sun is bright, the ocean is beautiful, the days are long, the food is delicious. I'm having a great go of it so far.

I'll write more again soon. Including a hilarious story of the it's-a-small-world variety and my awful plane rides over here. For now, I just want to sit back, relax and enjoy not wearing a winter coat and long underwear.