Working for the Weekend.

Sorry for the lateness of this, but it's been a strange trip. After a long week of playing catch-up on my video editing duties, I was ready to let loose. And that is pretty much what happened.

Friday

The day started early with the four of us waking up at 6:30 AM. We were showered and out the door by 7:30 and parked outside of the KOMO TV station in Downtown Seattle by 9:00. The station was directly across the street from the Seattle Space Needle. Our location was no coincidence however. We were waiting for the producer of a show called N.W.A., an acronym which any rap fan would find amusing, especially when the target audience is women ages 35 - 163. The camera man for N.W.A. (Northwest afternoon) knocked on our R.V. door around 10:30 and the four of us found ourselves onset and being interviewed by hosts Natasha and Kent around 11:00 AM. The interview was almost as much fun as it was terrifying, but it was harmless and seemingly over before it began. We spent the rest of the mid-day outside of the TV studio looking for people on the street to ask them questions about their jobs. It was a nice, healthy switch from the typical scripted question and answer format that we have become accustomed to. I'm hoping that street interviews like these will become an increasingly large part of our project. We met a lot of people and ate lunch at a Greek restaurant called "The Grecian Corner". After lunch we decided to head down to Pike's Fish Market. Zach and I had been looking forward to catching some fish for about a week. On our way, we decided to stop off for a drink at Pike's Brewery, a local micro-brewery paces away from our goal. Gotta have a drink first right? We interviewed the owner who was nice enough to take us on a tour of the facility. No free beer though. Worth a shot. From there Zach and I continued our mission bringing with us a new dreamer, Noah. As has become the case, the Captain gave his 15 second pitch, and Noah, Zach and I found ourselves behind the counter practicing our fish catching. The key is to hold your hands out in front of you and go with the momentum of the fish, placing one hand behind the fish's dead head and one underneath the end of the body close to the tail. The same principles you would follow if you were trying to catch a sleeping baby, except for the fact that baby's usually aren't slimy in consistency and don't have tails. Never mind. Catch a fish and get back to me. Once our goal was "overdelivered"*(I'll explain later), I found myself having a weird deja vu-like feeling. Something told me that I was going to run into some one that I knew, even though I had never been to Seattle and knew of no one that was living there at the time. Normally I'd keep these thoughts to myself, but given that everyday of this trip has brought about an even more unusual experience that the last, i decided to say something about it. "I feel like I'm gonna run into somebody I know out here. I just have a feeling." The guys probably thought I was losing it. A few street musicians and a magician's act later I found myself following my colleagues down a narrow walkway cluttered with merchants, vendors and washed-up musicians. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw an extremely large hand pointing in my direction. I turned and saw that the monstrous hand was connected to the equally impressive arm of Zach Verdin, a kid that I grew up with playing little league baseball with. I've known Zach since we were 6 and 7 years old. It was crazy. Not only that I had called our meeting, but that it was with him of all people. It was nuts. Nothing like that has ever happened to me. Probably never will again. Zach invited us up for a couple of drinks in exchange for a copy of The Rough Draft LP. We spent the rest of our Friday night drinking and playing video games at Zach's place in Renton, Washington.

Saturday

The departure of Captain Sprinkle Pants' Fun Boat to Hell was delayed by breakfast. We left awake and full and off to see what Spokane had to say for itself. We arrived at David's Pizza where Mark the owner beer-ed us, fed us and talked about why he loved, the pizza. We pretended to listen as we tended to our food. Once full Mark took us to Fast Eddie's, a Tucson-esque bar and grill. A few drinks later we found ourselves outside of "The Boulevard" in downtown Spokane. What began as a ploy to avoid a $5 cover charge, ended in a 15 minute, 4 song Class Project performance. Another sprinkly 15 second pitch success story. The crowd was less than receptive. The performers were less than sober. It was all that it needed to be. Saturday ended in the David's Pizza parking lot next to a fire truck turned pizza oven. Weeeeird.

Sunday

A hungover Captain woke up at 6:30 AM and drove to Missoula, Montana where we ate lunch and bought out the Army-Navy store. Some people bought oars, while other more sane people bought bandanas, hats or camera bags. I spent the rest of the day avoiding my work and catching up on my sleep. Noah and I are now sitting in Arvydis in a KOA (Kampground of America) just outside of the West entrance to Yellowstone National Park. Long sentence. Long weekend. * Overdeliver - verb: meaning: to shamelessly scramble after lying, truth stretching or "overpromising". Also see: bullshit.