memorial day weekend

saturday, we woke up and rode bikes to the farmers' market, where we got mostly lettuce and radishes, and a loaf of ciabatta. from there, to unicorn cafe for chai, then to whole foods for soy milk. sop at the bank to deposit checks, then home.

at home we switched to the car, and drove to a few garage sales, where i got various bike parts and a pot rack and some jazz LPs (mostly coltrane). at the garden center, we got pine bark mulch for the yard, and then we finally picked up some chairs and a table for our yard. home, to spread the mulch and set up the furniture.

saturday evening, we went to loagan square to eat with xan and andrew. they got a new grill, and we had thin-cut carne asada, grilled, and cut into tortillas with guacamole and lettuce and radishes. there was wine, and we listened to some new recordings. i sort of fell asleep in a chair, since i am a lame.

sunday morning, di and i woke early, packed our bikes onto the car, took seth to my folks' house, stopped by the shop o pick up posters, and went to john & christy's. transferred our bikes to john's minivan, and the four of us drove to champaign. we checked into the union, ran into nissa and michael, and ran into some other folks on the quad.

john and christy went out to ride around champaign, and di and i rode around the south end of campus, then into urbana. we stopped by carle park, a spot we frequented early in our relationship (summer of 92), and rode past the houses we used to live in on oregon street and high street. wonder what it would be like to own those houses now, and to live in them. north, through downtown urbana, the library, the courier cafe, and into crystal lake park, where we rode all the paths and winding roads. reverse the trip, heading back to the quad. di went up to nap, i visited with some folks on the lawn. people wandered off to various commitments, and i wen up to see di in our room.

around 5, we left wih john and christy to ride up to jupiters for pizza. we met up with michael and nissa, who were kind enough to transport my prints from the union. over the next hour, most of the people who came into the place, or walked pas the window, were people we knew - the whole grover gang (jason's old band), various band members playing later tonight, the girlfriends (now wives) of those band members, classmates, friends who live near us, but whom we only see in champaign, etc.

7pm he doors opened, and we grabbed some good seats in the balcony, to be far enough away to no be overpowered by the music, but still able to see everything. the high dive filled quickly, and many "hey, wait! i know you!"s were exchanged.

driver has no cash played first, hilariously, with bill on a heavily effected ukelele and big frank singing. bob rising was the drummer, and though he's put on some weight, he's still fun to watch, and was charming in person.

corndolly played second, and surprised everyone by really not seeming to have lost much of the energy they had 15 years ago. they did well, aside from some very forgivable dropped solos, but the vocals were on, and rachel's crazy right hand made her bass playing always dramatic.

dick justice, i think, were the weird surprise of the night. i never really saw them much back in the day, aside from their extremely hilarious acoustic sets at bandjam each spring. since college ended, i have become friends with jim, and seen him play guitar and sing in other bands. his was probably the most powerful, exciting set i've seen him play. galen the drummer is nuts. he was only wearing underwear by the end of the set. they stopped to hanks all the bands that had ilved in c-u between 88 and 95, the time that jim had lived there, and they even mentioned spoon (my old band; not the *good* spoon, from texas).

the moon seven times played way too long, and while there was nothing wrong with their set at all, they never really interested me.

mother played fifth, and i think this was the high point of the evening for me, as i still actively listen to their music, probably once a week. i don't know if i was the fact that this band got to me when i was young, or what, but they blew me away. his was about as excited as i've been at a rock show in the last decade. baltie is a great guitar player, and joel and colin had only a few lapses in perfection. i lost my voice singing along.

honcho overload closed out the night, and they did not disappoint at all. honcho shows were always as much a spectacle as a music performance, and they pulled out all the stops for this evening. smoke machines, halogen lights, strobe lights, and the house lights really transformed the space well. the thing that was missing, i thought, was that all five band members looked bummed to be playing. they played perfectly. loud as fuck, the bass was huge the guitars screamed, and bill was as weird, polite and sinister as ever... but they looked like they wanted to be somewhere else. i screamed along with bill anyway - "something never happened" - and the people in the place went nuts like they were 23 years old.

here were some drunk people, and i was sweaty. di and christy had left about halfway through mother's set, and john and i hung out at he bar for a while, catching up with folks. when it was tim to leave, we decided to ride west on church street, into champaign, pretty much as far as the road would take us. it was some time after 2am, warm outside, a light breeze which seemed o be at our backs whichever way we rode. no one was out, the street was dark and flat. nice ride, smooth, long. we turned around after a while, just before mathis, and came back on university ave. didn't see any cars on the whole ride, i think.

as we entered the campus area, we took at look at green street, with the staggering drunks of former fraternity brothers and their moms. we rode back to the union, put our bikes into the van, double-locked the girls' bikes with our locks, and found all the doors to the union locked, except for the front door (eventually).

i returned to our room, showered, and went to bed around 3.

monday morning, di and i got up around 8 or so, tried for the continental breakfast at 9 (only bagels remained), and found espresso royale downstairs after some wandering. we walked the quad, talking about the specific buildings, and soon met up with john, christy, michael and nissa for breakfast at a diner in downtown champaign, one of the few places open on memorial day. we got pancakes and eggs and potatoes, and said goodbye to nissa and michael. the four of us drove north, though i managed to fall asleep a bit.

in logan square, we transferred our bikes to our car, and headed north to pick up seth, then back to our house.

di and i were sort of unsatisfied with the amoun of biking we got downstate, so we got out the touring bikes and rode up to highland park along the greenbay trail - 22.7 miles. we got home as the sun was settling down, made omelette with mushrooms from the farmer's market, and a salad with radishes. we ate out on our new lawn furniture. i watched an episode of battlestar galactica laying on the living room floor with seth, then went to bed.