temporary blog

i am going on a blog hiatus. dont check back for a while.

hole in one, beautiful mountains, ramble patches

this weekend was grand. i escaped thinking about life for 3 days by going camping with the roommates. we went into the mountains about 2 hours from l.a. friday, me bryson and kyle went and set up camp and walked around the mountainside. there was an abandoned skilift intermingled with another frisbee golf course (yeah, i think kyle may have known that when picking a campsite). there was also a government test facility that looked mighty creepy. we made grilled cheese. we tried to hang out with some college kids down the way (who were making alot of noise) but they were incredibly lame and unaccomidating. so we just went to bed early.
the next day we woke up with the sun and brought bryson to the lake so he could go fishing. sadly, he didnt catch anything (nor did anyone we saw). so me and kyle went and climbed up a cliff to occupy ourselves. kyle ripped his shorts on the way up, the beginning of his misfortune. it was funny.
then we went back to camp and met up with zack and bouncer dan. they were really happy to be off work so that brought a new energy to the crew. we all ate and went to the frisbee golf course. it was so beautiful. it was basically just a 2 hour excuse to take a walk through the mountainside. during this time i did something not many people can say they have done in their lifetime. i shot a hole in one! the other guys have a deal that the first person to hit a hole in one gets 100 bucks from the other guys, because they thought it would never happen. sadly, i didnt make that deal, because i usually dont even get close to the hole. but 280 feet later, i am the happiest camper on the course. i ran all over the place as all five of us screamed and jumped and celebrated. bouncer dan even lifted me off the ground and zack was throwing dirt like confetti. i didnt get hundreds of dollars, but i did get a great memory.

however, the course had bitter plans as well as jubilant ones. i threw my only frisbee into a ramble, or a bryer, or whatever the term is for a bunch of very thick thornbushes. i looked for it, couldnt find it. i stepped out but dan and kyle, being the gentlemen they are both went in looking for my disc. then in a moment of utter hilarity and dispair, both dan and kyle lost their balance. dan just scrapped himself up, but kyle...kyle fell hard. he tumbled twice and landed on his back, stuck in the thorns, yelling "greg! i cant move! help me! help me! greg!" i was right there so i jumped in and pulled him to his feet. zack laughed the whole time. i was really worried for kyle, his legs and arms looked like jim cavezel from passion of the christ. but then kyle started blaming it on me and so i began laughing at him, because he was being a bit of a baby. then the mountain smiled on me again and i ended up finding 3 discs.

at the bottom of the skilift, but not the mountain there was a beautiful view of a city and there was a tiny sign surrounded by rocks. so we had a rock throwing contest. that was intensely fun, lots of smack talk, lots of rock throwing. i even won one of the tournaments.

then at night we had an amazing shishkabob dinner, inspired by kyle. it was wonderful. steak, chicken, sausage, peppers, tomatoes, mushrooms. the only thing missing was pineapple. but im not complaining. then me and zack played some music by the fire. then there was alot of talking around the fire. i felt very honored to be in the presence of 4 guys who really cared about their faith and had such strong opinions about their views. it was cool to talk for a while. but after a few hours my brain wanted to play music and be quiet, but they just talked and talked! so i went for a walk and talked to God instead and thanked him for my awesome life. i then tried to call kelly but i had no reception so i went back and fell asleep.

britney spears and bear fights

this is good. a night worthy of a blog (in my own eyes anyway). i dont have pics for a while because my camera cord is broken. but you all have good imaginations so im sure youll be fine.

tuesday i woke up to kelly calling me at her lunch break. i was groggy and complaining that i didnt have anything to do. she reprimanded me a bit and said, um you are in l.a.! you better do something! so i got off the couch and went out. i went to a bunch of thrift stores looking for weights for zack and a russian hat for kelly. i found nothing. but i did get to drive around alot. thats always nice. then i stopped at a little coffee shop called amsterdam. i looked at the l.a. times magazine for things to do.

then i noticed that they had an open mic that night, so i went home and got zack to come along. it was worlds nicer than the bar scene. about 20 or so people and all were very cool and supportive. i did my standard britney spears, hit me baby one more time, cover. i camped it up beforehand and said, "this song got me through alot of difficult times." and i shut my eyes mocking emotional intensity. no one got it until i sang the chorus, then they all laughed and said to themselves, ohhhhh he's being silly. then i played one of mine, and people seemed geniunely interested. zack also rocked the stage with a couple of his originals. it was encouraging and fun.

then we went to a church that was down the street and it was pretty cool. we both agreed that their ideals and theology were on par with ours, but i got a pretentious vibe from the congregation. nevertheless, i plan on attending this church for a while.

i am filling out my apartment form today and it makes me wish i had a job so i dont have to lie about it. im sending apps to coffee shops now.

also, i am going camping this weekend. i think its a bit of a last hurrah for kyle before he gets married (the roommate i am replacing). should be tons of fun and full of bear fights!

life is lovely

to quote the famous ron burgundy, "I'm in love, and i dont care who knows it!"
i dont know why being 2000 miles away made me realize, but after putting up a bit of a fight to keep me and kelly a couple i just saw so clearly that i really love that girl! she is, without a doubt in my mind, completely worth the fight and the pain of distance.
so for the first time i told her long distance and it just felt like a weight off my back. it was just so nice to express it to her. i have been pretty excited about it and i dont know if this will embarrass her, but i just wanted to share that with everybody i know.

in other news, there isnt much other news. ive been watching way too much olympics. what can i say, michael phelps is a machine and i am entertained by sports such as the trampoline. ive also played more frisbee golf and somehow am kind of enjoying it now. i started running because zack never wants to work out and i need to lose energy somehow.

still no job. yes, still looking, thank you very much.

went to two more open mics. very annoying indeed. i hate the bar scene, it is depressing, no one cares about your music. i need to find coffee shop open mics where even if they hate me, they will still care about music. open mics are just an excuse for unfunny people to do standup. all they talk about is queefing, how jews are rich, asians talk funny, and how different black people are from white people. we get it people. ugh.
on the positive side, the sound guy said me and zack could pretty much have a set whenever we were ready to play one, although we wont really get paid. but still, pretty cool that we can play and invite people to it.

thats about it for now, sorry about the comment debacle, i now will say feel free to never comment ever again. i didnt realize everyone else looked at blogging so differently than me. i was annoyed for a while, but im over it. i probably will only blog now when something truly terrific or horrific happens, or if ive got a pic. todays pics are of me talking to kelly on my backporch and zack at frisbee golf. also a pic from when the bag busted open on zacks steps. hilarious. i will also put a pic on last weeks post.

The Classic Pig'n Whistle Night

well, my first bit of new happenings is that me and zack began an intensive
workout program to get in shape for halloween when we will be dudes
from that 300 movie. whether or not we will do this program for more
than a week is up in the air, but we are both struggling to walk up the
stairs we are so sore. also, i am going to send my resume to this friend
of zacks who says there might be an opening at a job where i would be paid
15 an hour to find errors in movies. i think i might take it until i find
something music related.

tonight i did what i said. i went to my first open mic at a place called the
pig'n whistle. it was such a beautiful thing. i love committing to something
because if i hadnt told kelly i would do an open mic this week i probably
wouldve wimped out. but instead i sat through 3 hours of pretty bad music
and comedy (with the exception of one comedian and one chick songwriter)
just so i could perform 2 songs. it was such a memorable first night.

the first cool thing that happened was zack got "butterflies" when that chick
sang her song. and when she got up to leave i said "go after her dude" and
without hesitation he jumped up and walked out the door. at least 5 minutes
later he came back all nervous like. he got her myspace, which is kind of like the
modern day digits.

so yeah, we waited for our turns to play. every comedian was pretty stupid.
and when nobody laughed (which is just the most painful thing to witness
in the entire world) every comedian would say "oh we've got a sensitive crowd"
or "oh weve got a religious crowd" and that annoyed me so much because
they were ragging on our sense of humor just because they couldnt bring it.

speaking of not bringing it...every comedian, this broad in the audience would
heckle. for a good 3 hours she knocked everybody. i personally thought she
was funnier than anyone else, but finally one guy in the audience was like
"shut the hell up and f*#king leave! let the artists perform!" and everyone
cheered. except for me. and except for her boyfriend. he was like, "you dont
talk to my girl that way!" and got in his face. they screamed for a bit until the
mediator guy got inbetween them. then some dude at the bar said, "tell that
b#@tch to leave!" the girl said, "this is america, i can say what i want" which
i had to agree with, altho i agree with the artists also. but then the boyfriend
realized what he said and ran at him. got in his face and said "you dont call my
girl a bia" and he said "im standing right here" and then they were all kicked out.

who do you think was the next act?
yep. yours truly. as the place was settling down i said oh zack, please dont let it
be me. then the mediator said, "well, that was awkward. next up greg...critadin?
man, good luck, we need something spiritual to follow that up." or something to the
effect of wow, dont suck.

i played my first song. it got a polite hand clap. i didnt really put my heart in it bc of
nerves. then i played my second one which was the song i played at the battle of the
bands at semo. at the end, this guy in the audience said, "man, i really dig that last
song! whats it called?" and then some other guy said it sounded like radiohead...which
kinda sucks, but hey they were talking! then apparently the sound guy was saying
good job 3 times and i ignored him, bc i was nervous and elated that someone in the
audience enjoyed it. then i was so nervous i just sat down while zack performed
even though i was suppose to sing harmonies for him. i am a bad friend.

but the guy who complimented me gave me his email and said he wanted to jam and
i apologized to the soundguy for ignoring him and he said, "no problem man, you need to come early next week, because people need to hear your stuff." and my heart swelled up like a balloon.

zack met his future gal, we almost saw a fight, and after 3 hours of nerves and 5 glasses of water, i conquered my first hill.

dolphins and mooching and ecclesiastes

august is moving right along. the olympics are rapidly
approaching. i need to start getting things in motion!
today i got directions to the first open mic which is on
wed. night. i have been practicing alot and i am ready.

saturday i went to the beach for the first time.
i had forgotten how unforgiving those waves can be
if you attempt to fight them. me and zack both had to
take a break because our ears and limbs hurt so badly
from being thrown around like ragdolls. then i looked back
and exactly right where we were 10 seconds ago i saw a
school of dolphins dancing in the tide. when one wave was
coming down i saw at least 6 dolphins with one more air born!
it looked like the stapler in the jello on the first episode
of the office, only it was dolphins. so naturally, even tho
we were limping, we ran back into the water and chased
the big animals hoping they werent sharks.

then i had one of the most frustrating things happen. i left the beach
early and missed a party to go to my roommate kyle's gig. he told me
he had gotten one person on the guest list. i got there on time, i told the
bouncer. but he was a big ole douche. he said there "was no list" and
didnt know kyle. so i paid ten bucks, then ten more for a jack and coke.
i sat down and kyle was not in sight. i watched the performer playing
on the piano (she was god aweful, which was pretty encouraging, heh)
for about 30 minutes and begin to wonder what was going on. then i
found out kyle was in the OTHER room that played music....what?
so just to sum it up, i left the beach early, missed the party, paid 20 bucks,
and listened to crappy music, only to miss kyles performance. oh well,
i guess i did see dolphins.

yesterday, in my classic gregorian massicistic ways i went and played frisbee
golf again. i got a bit better, and dont loathe it now. but still, come on.
why is it ingrained in my male mind that if i suck at something i must
conquer it? although it was fun hanging with the guys, it was a bit of a wasted
day.

i read through ecclesiastes today and just remembered how amazing
the bible is. so many heavy thoughts to chew on. for instance, it says that
sorrow is better than laughter...and that the heart of the wise is in the
house of mourning. and this gives me peace for some odd reason. i sometimes
get stressed when im not totally happy all the time. i feel like i have to lie to
people so they dont worry about me. but man, sometimes im just not happy.
i think part of that is that i lose sight of what is important in life and i worry to
much about vane things...but yeah, sometimes i am just heavy and thats okay.

in other news, i am getting along swimmingly with my roommates. kyle is very
similar to my best bud in london. he is a great guitar player and we made up
a cool song idea last night. he also has a producers touch, so i may pay him to
help lay my tracks down.
it would be cool if we could start writing. bryson is cut from the same cloth
as myself. we are both thinkers who enjoy the occasional mooch. also, in classic
greg form, i am already gaining the reputation for my mooching abilities. i really
think i am misunderstood tho. i mooch yes, but i also have all of my food open to
the public. i really feel like the majority of the time my giving heart is completely
ignored because of my selfish tendencies...maybe im just making myself feel better.

week 2, getting comfortable, but not too comfortable

it has been more than a week since ive been here now.
i feel settled, and i feel like it has been a month since charlie
was here.
me and zack have practiced songs the past two nights.
i have found out about open mics pretty much every night
of the week! so as soon as i can gain the courage (within the
week, hopefully) i will start hitting those up.
i also updated my resume and wrote up a cover letter
and sent my first app. to an independent music company in
need of a temp.
today i felt useless and bored so i went on a run thru
the hills where all the expensive homes look down on the city.
it was intense.
i also gave myself a haircut. i look a bit silly.
also! i set up my computer and got internet and set up my
web cam. me and kelly talked in person for the past two nights.
i cant decide if it makes it easier or more difficult to be apart.