Chapter 6
2014
My granny passed away in March. There was always so much mystery in my Granny’s home. The last time I was there I sat where I would always sit in the living room when the whole family was together. I sat on the floor since there was no chair there. I forgot about everything and listened. I began conversing with whatever mystery was in the house. I confessed my knowing and welcomed the mystery to leave the home and join me. No judgement of the past; just a good path forward. I got a weird feeling; perhaps from just being so weird lol, but I indeverned the feeling and walked around the home looking for something and I checked each room. I didn’t find anything so I told the mystery to come with me and I left. As I was putting the garage door down, I remember looking at the little keychain of a native American and I felt good the first time since my Granny had passed.
The Uhaul that my brothers picked to use to get the stuff from my granny’s house had the bay of fundy on it. I took this as a sign and insisted we go to Nova Scotia for a family trip.
I told Brad and Josh that I needed to stop jamming the new little band.
April 30th I went to Brillobox to see Badboxes play
May 24th a jingle I wrote was played in a commercial for tv and radio that was broadcasted all over Pittsburgh region. It was for a business, Iron City Vapor lounge.
August I saw 4 moose while hiking skyline trail off the cabot trail. Cape Brenton Highlands Park.
October 16th Me and Jordan took my grandma to the meadows casino in Washington, Pa.
2015
People came over for Wassell’s bachelor parry and my bed was in my kitchen, which was the first time that it felt weird to me.
I printed off some paper from the pos system and wrote my two weeks notice to quit working at The Cheesecake Factory and then handed it to Chuck, the general manager who didn’t want my paper and said it didn’t have to be an actual notice.
June my left arm was in a lot of pain so I asked Dr Roger Stewart if he could help and he started rubbing my arm and made it feel better immediately.
We took a family trip to Alberta, Canada to see Banff and Jasper National Parcs.
August 22nd I went to Club Cafe to see Wicked Chief and Cold Roses.
Derek, RJ Wigton, and myself started a band called “Blue Jay and the Bats” We had 2 songs, Anstronaut and Closer to the Sun.
October 30th Churn opened in gibsonia. I played acoustic guitar
Early in November, Jimi, Pat, and Ben came over for a Victory Lane reunion jam session. It was rough, but fun. It didn’t last too long until Ben and Jimi left. Me and Pat hung out for a little afterward.
December 13th I went to the Four Chord Music Festival with Yellowcard and Anti Flag.
2016
February 24th I went Where’s the band? concert at Mr Smalls Theatre with Jake.
May, The Mondaze had our first practice in years. We were very rusty and a lot of the songs had been forgotten, but we picked some of our favorites and started jamming again.
In May I was laying some mulch, the next morning I had a bullseye on my thigh. I went to med express and he drew a line and said if the red goes outside go to hospital. Then the red did go outside, but I didn’t want to go to hospital so I went back to med express where he told me to go to er, kinda annoyed. I ended up getting bit by a spider. I spent a few nights in the hospital before it started to get better. I watched screen savers with peaceful music most of the time which was confusing to the nurses and dr’s. My roommate was an older man that snored very loud. The pens were in the playoffs and I watched and continuously asked a staff member for help so he could watch the game with me. Ivy also brought me a buffalo chicken pizza, which was one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me. They ended up giving me something through the IV that helped the wound.
July 29th I went to see Bush and Chevelle at Stage AE with Spurks. Gavin got off the stage and walked right up to us while singing Little Things.
Family trip to Vancouver Island and Washington in August.
October 16th Friend the cat moved in with me. I kept her upstairs separated from Tony for the first day.
The Buried Toilet Treasure Map
Hiding in house while people looked at it to buy it.
2017
April 25th I went to my first meeting with the international dark sky association. The meeting was at the Allegheny Observatory. Dianne Thurscheck gave a tour after the meeting.
May 11th I went to see The Red Hot Chili Peppers with Spurks at PPG Arena.
May 13th was the first annual Millvale Music Festival. The Mondaze performed at the Double L Bar and it was our first show back.
May 15th I went to see Jimmy Eat World at The Main Stage in Morgantown, WV. Beach Slang was the opener. I bought an extra ticket and Jimi came with me. It was awesome!
May 22nd I played solo at Club Cafe. I played Like Jenny and Maladaptive Daydreamer. Rishi, Paul, and Derek also played.
June 17th The Mondaze played at Drinks.
August 3rd I finished my goal to 100 recorded songs in my studio. Feel Good Forever was song 100
Road trip to Acadia National Park in August.
September 24th we had a my Grandma’s birthday party at her house. She wore her Almost Cool shirt to surprise me.
October 31st I handed out candy from the stoop of the Millvale Office. I wore an army helmet and had a wizard cape on. I also got Kinniburgh Graphics as a client in the day.
November The Mondaze went to Innovation Studios to record Spider, Feel Good Forever, and Wonderful.
November 26th I heard and then saw a black and red rooster outside my house.
November 28th The Mondaze played the Millvale Christmas tree lighting
2018
March 31st I went to see Punchline play at Mr Smalls Theatre with The Morning Light. I went by myself and got pretty drunk. I saw lots of friends and had a really good time. I even held the door for a bunch of strangers.
April 4th was Almost Cool Reunion show with Scenes From a Movie, Time and Distance, and Mace Ballard. This was held at The Smiling Moose in the south side of Pittsburgh.
April 29th I went to the Look Out Loretta EP release show The Smiling Moose.
May 6th I went to see Jimmy Eat World at Mr Smalls Theatre.
I went to the millvale music festival with Robin. It was our third date and I picked her up. It started great, but she left me mid date for a combo of about 3 other people. I was drunk and didn’t even know what happened. She said I didn’t seem interested. I had her mom’s mother day gift in my car so she called me later on to get it back. This was when I should have stopped dating her. I wrote the song “Grant Avenue” about this day.
May 25th I went to see New Found Glory and The Movie Life at Stage AE. I had a lot of friends going so I went by myself. Robin also went and we hung out for a little. I also ran into DLY
I was going kayaking and ended up in the Sharpsburg Memorial Day Parade
June 5th I went to see Real Estate play with Ryan. It was at Mr Smalls Theatre and Habibi was the opener.
June 9th I went to see Hall & Oates and Train at PPG Arena with Robin.
June 16th The Mondaze played Mr Smalls Theatre with All in Uniform, Dash City Skyline, Vantage. and AMC dreaming.
July 1st me, Brad, and George attempted to make a music video for Wonderful. It was a lot of fun, but it did not work out.
July 6th I went to see Lit play at Jergels with Robin.
I went to the last Warped Tour with Robin. I watched Simple Plan, Eternal Boy, Reel Big Fish, and Bowling for Soup.
July 20th I went to see the Gin Blossoms, Tonic, and Punchlne play at Stage AE with Brad.
July 22th I went to see Taking Back Sunday and Coheed and Cambria at Stage AE with Robin.
July 28th I went to see Chicago and REO Speedwagonwith my parents at the Key Bank Pavilion.
August 3rd I played solo at Double L Bar un Millvale with Matt Austin. The Mondaze crew came out.
August 7th I flew to Montana with my parents and Jordan.
August 26th I went to the 5th annual Four Chord Music Festival with Robin.
August 29th The Mondaze played Club Cafe for a band house fundraiser. Ivy came and said goodbye, I was so nervous that I was going to be in for it from Robin that I didn’t say anything back. It was rude on my part. Robin was very mad that i spoke to her and she left early.
August 31st The Mondaze played a playr production show at Cattivo with Tiny Stills, Get Married, A Week in July, and Young Lungs.
September 4th The Mondaze opened for June Divided and Shane Henderson of Valencia at The Smiling Moose
September 5th I went to see Fallout Boy and Machine Gun Kelly at PPG arena with Robin. We had floor tickets up near stage in front Pete.
September 18th I went to see Guided By Voices with Ryan at Spirit Lounge.
Sept 26th I flew to Nashville, TN with Robin. We listened to a lot of bands and ate a lot of food. We took a tour of the Grand Ole Opry went sight seeing. We rode little scooters which was fun.
September 27th we went to the Grand Ole Opry for a tour.
October 20th I visited my grandma in the Uniontown Hospital. My aunt Paulette was crying and thought she was going to die.
2019
February 14th I went with Robin to see Jeff Goldbloom play with his jazz band at the Carniege Music Hall. They were really good and he talked with the audience which was really neat.
May 11th was the 3rd annual Millvale Music Festival. I performed solo at Bar 3 and The Mondaze performed at Happy Day Lounge
May 25th I was on the WPXI news yelling “fix that pothole, yea!” as I drove by a news team on the corner of Seavey Road and evergreen Road in Millvale.
June 16th The Mondaze opened for VISTA
June 30th The Mondaze played the open streets festival in Lawrenceville.
July 6th I went to see Blink 182 with Lil Wayne at Pavilion in Burgettstown. I went with Robin, brad, Katie, Wass, and Sham. Robin was in a horrible mood and pushed me at one point so we left. I remember thinking this is not going to work if you can’t have fun at a blink concert.
August 16th I went to see The Doobie Brothers with my family and Brad.
September 13th I went with Ryan to Andrew Bird at the Roxian Theatre. We ran into Steve and Pat.
September 17th I went with Ryan to see Built to Spill. Spurks came along. This was at Mr Smalls Theatre.
September 21st The Mondaze performed at Drinks in West View
September 22nd I played solo acoustic at a church on Mt Rotal Blvd in Etna. Afterwards I left on a journey up north. I made it to Cherry Springs State Park and camped under the stars. It was beautiful and super dark. I could see the milky way with my eyes.
September 23rd I woke up in my tent, packed up, and headed north. I went through New York into Vermont. I stopped briefly in Burlington. I then drove into Quebec. I was listening to the Harry Potter audio book Rielger gave to me to listen to. It was creepy how it started raining in real life and thousands of little toads or frogs were jumping on the road to go to higher ground and were getting ran over by all the cars. The road signs were in French. I kept driving and made it to the Atlantic coast.
Beginning of October we celebrated my grandma’s 90th birthday. I performed a song I wrote and it was super awkward.
November 15th I flew up to Boston to meet Jenny for a long weekend.