Nickspace!

When people asked me this week where we’ve played or where we were going, I would inform them of how I’ve felt like a pinball the last few weeks. I feel like we’ve just bounced between Stockton, Angels’ Camp and Modesto for the last 2 weeks straight!

Starting at Monday, we played in Angels Camp at Foothill-somethingorother. The youth leader we worked with is named Dusty, and his youth room is a renovated 3-car garage on the church’s parsonage. A lot of friends from around the area we hadn’t seen yet came out of the woodwork. We had a full room, and one of the best audiences I’ve seen in our band’s recent history. Props, folks, props.

Tuesday was a day off, so we drove to Modesto to visit our friends the Gendles of Generation New Hope. We ate a ton of food at their expense. We are very lucky they like us.

Wednesday, we met a funny 82-year-old woman at a music store called ‘Buck’s Music’ in Modesto, then led worship at 3 River’s Christian Fellowship. Their pastor Scott used to live in Oregon, and his family seems to miss living in the promised land.

Thursday, Joey and I got up before the sunrise and drove back to Stockton. Pastor Paul of Stockton informed us of some really cool flea markets we could hit that morning. Lu opted to sleep, but we went with our friend Josh, who knows those flea markets like a pro.
Later, we drove back to Modesto for Lu. We also met the Gendle ladies for a showing of a certain unnamed James Camereon Box-office giant in magnificent third-definition. It was glorious, but rather long.
After the flick, we drove BACK to Stockton to see Josh and Paul. We were supposed to spend the evening playing at an open mic downtown, but it was cancelled that night, so we went out and hyped the one we were setting up for Friday night.

Friday: If you missed that last paragraph, guessing what we did this day might be tricky for you. Pastor Paul wants to give his community something to do late on the weekend that’s safe and worth leaving your X-box for, so he converted his sanctuary into an all-ages open mic/coffee bar. They’re hoping for full bands, solo acts, comedians, magicians etc. It was their first attempt, and they had a turnout of about 30 or 40. We had a blast playing there.

Saturday, we went to the Gravity Church in Lodi, CA. Pastor Jason was really cool and let us stay at his house for the evening.

Today, Sunday, we got up at 5:30, got our affects, and drove back to, you guessed it, Angels Camp! We led worship again at Refuge with our dear friend Pastor Shawn. We left so early because we had to stop back in Copperopolis to pick up our recently pressed and FINALLY available Donkey Album! We’re finally actually kinda proud of something on our merch table. We didn’t get very many, so grab em while we got em.
Oh yeah, back to the day. After church, we finally watched some olympics. We went with our friend Mark from Sonora to an Angels Camp pizza place and watched the Gold Medal Men’s Hockey game between the U.S. and the Canooks. Needless to say, we were not thrilled by the outcome of the game, but we were very thankful that we got to see it.
Then we led worship for the evening service at Refuge, and got some dinner at Taco Bell for the third week in a row. I feel like it’s becoming a tradition or something.

Tomorrow morning, we’re driving far away to Bakersfield. I feel like I’m going to really miss being in this area. It’s starting to feel like a second home or something.