Minneapolis is a very cold place in March. Someone told me yesterday that it was technically the first day of Spring, but you could not tell for shite. I had set an alarm to wake me and Sara up at 6:00am, but I hit the snooze button a couple of times and got up at 6:20. The snow outside cast a blinding white light outside and inside as well. I shook Logan awake and went upstairs to wake up Judah and Lauren. Judah was feeling worse than yesterday and since the show today was just an in-store appearance in a Chicago record store, we would cancel and give Judah a day off to recover. I couldn't really call anybody to cancel or notify for a couple of hours still, so I went back to bed. The bed belonged to B.J., the drummer for The Stereo, who we had met a few months ago when we played together in Stockton. B.J. lives with my friends Jacy and Bobby of End Transmission in a beautiful house that Bobby just bought. It was nice to see Sara after nearly two weeks of tour and she is going to drive with us today to Chicago.

Last night after our show with Mates of State, Jacy took Sara and I over to a house party that End Transmission were going to play. We showed up during a set from Minneapolis' Falcon Crest. They were really good and their bass player is a flailing maniac. A second band played, but I can't remember their name. Gravity something - from Denver. I was getting a bit tipsy by this time and I was anxious to see End Transmission play. They are pretty much my favorite band and have been since we played together in Cotati last year. The cops came a couple times and Tom broke a couple strings which cut their set a bit short, but it was awesome anyway. We went back to Jacy and Bobby's house and went to sleep.

So at about 10:00am, I awoke again to call Reckless in Chicago, The Ghost and Ezra to cancel today's show. Jacy arrived home from the store with a cake and hella sausages. It was Bobby's birthday and the plan was to barbeque some bratwurst in the snow to celebrate. Sweetness.

After a while, everybody was up and getting tea and stuff. Judah and Lauren were still miserable and Judah's speaking voice was barely audible. Poor guy. I gladly decided to partake in the mid-morning birthday bratwurst barbeque. Shortly after "breakfast" we gave hugs all around and headed off to Chicago. About seven or eight hours later, we arrived in Chicago and headed straight for my friend Zoe's place, where a bunch of our friends (including The Ghost) had just moved. Most everybody was at the D-Plan / Death Cab show at the Metro so we got the sick kids into the peace and quiet of Brian Moss' bedroom (we didn't ask - thanks, B).

My wife Sara, my dearest buddy Shane, and I all headed over to the Metro to try and catch a bit of the show before too late. Chris Walla of Death Cab (have we mentioned enough times that he is a prince?) had arranged to put us all on the guest list, but upon arriving we got a call from Chris saying the show was over. Dang. He let us into the Metro for a while anyway and we got to hang out for a little bit, which was nice. We went next door to a bar called Fuel and spent about an hour partaking in half price food and drinks before retiring to our friends' house with a 30-pack of Old Style.

Now, I know that in all of my entries in this tour journal, I'm either getting drunk or recovering from drinking the previous night. I want to clarify that I haven't been drunk every night. There are nights in between my entries - very sober and quiet ones - that Logan and Judah get to write about. This night in Chicago was not one of those nights.

When we got to Zoe's place, everyone had returned and we greeted all of our friends. Brian, Guy Jordan and Rand-Dogg of The Ghost, David Holtz of MadSkillz Design, Girl Jordan and Maggie Lundy (all recently located from California) were all hanging out and we talked well into the night. The party moved downstairs after a while and we tried to keep it quiet at first, cuz the sick ones were sleeping in an adjacent bedroom. That unfortunately became gradually less priority as an alcoholic haze engulfed each of our brains - mine especially. We played the customary Wunder Years drinking game that consists of bumping Snoop Dogg's 'Doggystyle' album and drinking each and every time there's a lyric that's derogatory toward women. Holy Jeez, didn't take long before that Old Style was gone and we were fucking F'ed up. We finally got to sleep at around 5:00am.

It was great to hang out with The Ghost in their new home. I miss those guys. Goodnight, little buddy.

Josh