Things have kind of turned around for the better. The weather is beautiful, I'm in a better emotional place than I was, and the first of my friends is back safely from overseas. Plus, I got my tax refund, my check from Unborn, and my first decent work check of the year, so my bank account won't be empty until I buy all my summer concert tickets. I feel good about this.

Kim and I saw Charlie Deets last night at South Union Arts and this is the event page. Not in order: we danced and wore newspaper hats and looked at a study of girls doing the Soulja Boy dance on webcam and passed out flyers and got to talk to Charlie way more than usual at a show and then we left because a really bad band played after him.

Cincinnati Warped Tour on July 30th looks especially promising. I got a bunch of Warped music from Erica and Ellen, and i've been enjoying going through it (Four Year Strong is my MVP). And then two of my personal favorites, Disco Ensemble and Does It Offend You, Yeah?, got added. On top of that, I've been itching for a ginormous roadtrip like this for a while. We leave the evening of the 29th and party in Dayton, wake up bright and early the next day and go to the festival, and then go home the next day, probably after a communal breakfast of some sort. so far i count 8 of us trucking it from Illinois to Ohio, and i'm sure that number will grow. Let me know if any of you want a CD of the Warped bands i'm looking forward to.

It seems like everyone will be around this summer except Jared. Hopefully I can convince him to come in for Lollapalooza, because on lolla saturday last year, he was one of the best festival buddies I've ever had.

80/35 Festival in Des Moines is going to be where I celebrate my birthday. The Flaming Lips will play and there will be fireworks and my mind will splode. This is a good thing.

The Street Thieves (official Company of Thieves Street Team) are kicking into full swing, and I am officially the head of the operation... for now. We're pushing the Reggies show very very hard, and then they're throwing a very intimate pizza party to officially kick off the team on May 5th. We're stealing a lot of our ideas from The Dog & Everything team, cause I really like the way they were (are?) set up. I even got them to commit to paying attention to the suburbs this summer, which is something that they've never even tried to do. They treat a show in Naperville like they're on tour, haha. I'm very excited about everything going on, and if you want in, we'd like you to add us on myspace. www.myspace.com/cotstreetteam

Speaking of Company of Thieves: to anyone who will be in town and enjoys them, they're playing Madison Square Garden this weekend, and then they come back to Chicago to do a hometown show on May 2nd at Reggies. PBRs are $2 if you have a student ID. You need to be there in order to be cool, so think long and hard about whether you're happy with your current social status.