Just a quick thank you/acknowledgement to 423smith for not only letting, but asking, me to post (what were you thinking?!). Even playing a single show in our hometown has enough exciting, chaotic, important, funny, and notable moments that it can be hard to keep them straight after a day or two. So, if nothing more, this will be a good place for me to just jot things down, keep them straight.

It’s the day before we leave, and a lot of things are running through my mind. I’ve never been away from home for more than a week. Even when I went to college, my entire family moved house at the same. I drove myself to college in Illinois (from New Jersey). As I was arriving in my new home, they were arriving in theirs - a place I had to yet to see. So even college wasn’t like leaving home: it was more like simply moving into a new one.

So, I’m a little overwhelmed from a practical standpoint. Here it is my last day, and I’m finally making a list of things to do and buy.

Of course, that’s the last thing I want to do.

What I want to do is see all of my friends. Or no wait, maybe just a close few of them. Or, no wait, maybe just one special person. No, maybe all of them. Or maybe just my bandmates. Maybe have a big, Thanksgiving-like feast. Or maybe something small and safe to eat - something that won’t upset my stomach.

I am probably the last person who should be writing a journal about this. Every time I go to really connect with what this tour means, I pull my hands away from the keyboard. It means a lot. And I suspect more than I even know.

I keep thinking about all the support we’ve gotten here. There’s Matt from Ear Farm who’s not only blogged about us countless times, but is riding with us on the entire tour to make a documentary. There’s a guy named David, a fan from NJ, who booked about half our tour. And yet, he’s so grateful to be on our guestlist (we wish we could give you more). There’s Tammy who’s designed our t-shirts, flyers, (and a website that’s being built), and her husband Andrew; together they have seen fit that I have a cozy sweatshirt and shoes without holes. There’s Nick Brown, who created our cover art for our EP, on which we’re touring (he’s not only a friend, he’s a roommate… and he may actually be my brother). There’s Victoria, who booked shows in Austin and welcomed us on the bills. And she got us AAA. There’s the Jones Street Boys who had us join them on their bill for our tour kick-off show (Jones Cube was amazing, by the way). There’s Insound who have featured us in all kinds of ways. And there’s the anonymous person who dropped off a US Army bag filled with about 20 pounds of tour-supplies. I’ve missed a lot of people, I know, but I’ve got to keep this to a reasonable length.

The point is, we’ve had staggering support.

And I can say this: For reasons such as the people above, I have never once, in all my time in NYc, ever wanted to leave. Every time I’ve been on a plane that’s lifting off the LaGuardia or JFK runway, and NYC banks and fades away beneath me, I have felt sad. But this is the first time I have ever been really excited to leave. I am going to see places in the USA that I never thought I’d visit. And I am also going to old homes of mine (Champaign, Austin, Chicago). I’ll be meeting a lot of new people, and I’ll be seeing a lot of old friends and family.

And I’ll be doing it with my best friends, who also happen to be the most talented people I know. And almost every night, we’ll get to play music. No work. All music and talking and driving and sleeping.

It’s hard to suppress a smile when I think of that.

I guess I just keep going back to last night. We were all at the bar, and Matt - the bass player, the guy I’ve known for a decade now (and have been in about 15 bands with) - simply said, “Man, I can’t wait to leave.”

Yeah. Enough said.

This entry was posted on Monday, March 5th, 2007 at 12:09 pm and is filed under Daily, Goes Cube Winter/Spring Tour 2007. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.