not so much to report, sadly

but i'm sure this will be another grand, rambling entry.
finished the last piece of the puzzle for the next record- at least as it stands in its current tracklisting. it's possible that the thing might be mixed too- i did a ton of variable mixes and they are all sounding really nice. nice and rough. stefanie did her last vocal and it was a first take and sounds very vulnerable. she's hell-bent on getting me to let her redo it. she even threatened to rerecord it herself. i ended up hiding the tape. i'm convinced that we must keep it- a coin-toss even confirmed it. i think she's just not comfortable with how vulnerable and nervy she sounds on it, but she never wavers. i like the melody she came up with- especially on the chorus because it was completely different to the one i'd done as a scratch vocal on that track (sadly we had to record the glockenspiel part over it). it's a nice little song- just barely over three minutes and it's one of two lead-ups to the end of the record. the other one being '4am train' which stefanie also did in one take and has begged me to let her redo. so that's it. i've got a cdr that's almost full of fresh mixes. i think i'm going to try and get one more song to fit on it (kind of a close call, really) and then i'll have a huge heap of stuff to go through and i'll be able to listen to the album as it exists at the moment. the plan is still to finish the other five or six extra tracks. i might even get started on a few stragglers that i think might be worth giving a shot as well. i'm having trouble getting the stringies together to finish a few more tracks- one more session with chris and katelyn would yield two more finished tracks and a third would be within easy reach as well... my own hurdle is to do a piano part that still needs to be done. tonight hopefully (i just need to be bold and go do it while no one's in the rehearsal room).
last night we went to bite for sam's husband ben's birthday party. it was a surprise! sweet! we took mass transit to the empty bottle for the first time ever. red line to chicago, chicago bus to western, walk north two blocks. it actually worked. it took about an hour and fifteen minutes in rush-hour but that's okay. i think on the way back it only took an hour. here's hoping it works as well at 2am (kinda doubtful). i met a bunch of people from kansas city and stefanie and i ended up talking to them the most. nice people. one of them comes into beans all the time and i'd already met him before. naturally i can't remember his name for shit. i think i even forgot his brother's name too already... crap. but it was a very fun night. i also figured out a solution for my money troubles at the moment- it's a relatively simple one. if you need more of the money that you would normally pay right to the credit cards, then just don't pay as much that month. there's so much going on right now that i just feel like it's a necessity. i'd like to think that i'll be able to make up the difference with my tips, but that's kind of a pipe dream.
we were offered a show at the record bar on august 19th. i really want to take it. i am still hoping we can get something together at the tap room as well the night after that. two shows would be awesome and i am convinced would make it a worthwhile trip- it would certainly cut down on the expense. what's more we'd get a nice relaxing trip to kc together for a change. i'm still looking to megabus it at some point in october sometime. the fares haven't been made available yet, but when they are i am pondering going back for a brief trip. i might do the completely sleep-deprived version. we shall see. also we are flying to portland over halloween weekend. the tickets are bought. the 29th- the 2nd of november. it's a lot of shifts to get covered when you look at it, but not really so much when it's going to be so spread out. christmas time is always the most difficult to get covered, but it seems to be doable (at least in a sense). it's not as busy once people start to leave town. it's nice to know exactly what it's going to cost us- just $100. as long as we act quickly enough. i'm also looking forward to not flying to kc. i don't know why, but anymore flying such a short distance seems to be more trouble than it's worth. in the case of portland it's a necessary evil. i'm a bit worried about it, but i'm going to try and not obsess about it so much. i might pop a bunch of pills before i get on the plane. i mean honestly, what's the point? i have a few long videos on my ipod as well- one is a spiritualized live set that's an hour and a half long. i think that would be worth watching on the plane. maybe twice. who knows...