10/07/07 Norman, OK

Hello home. You are as exactly as I'd like you to receive me. My bed is as unmade as the morning I left you there three weeks prior. My curtain was already drawn and successfully blotting out the setting sun as if to say "welcome home little guy, why don't you enjoy an early evening nap?" Which is exactly what I did. I kept my shoes on in case Becky got here before I woke up and I dreamt about deserts and highways. Perhaps it was as a recalling and recapitulation of what my brain has stored in the last few weeks. I woke up sweaty and decided to listen to some jams. I turned my stereo up loud and listened to whatever the fuck I wanted to. Alone Time. We left five till 8:00 and loaded in at the Opolis located four blocks from where we live. It's strange how Norman feels exactly the same as it did as when I left. As though time were stopped, the movie paused. Save for the random structures that seem to wait for me to leave town to newly erect or newly fall like the new liquor store within walking distance or Sonic drive-in raised on Lindsay Street. Dinner was nice, soup at Bison Wiches. The show was bittersweet. In a business sense, the turnout was dismal for a hometown return show. In a friend sense it was lucrative and successful. I took in as much Zookeeper as I could, knowing it was our last time playing with them for a long while. I played the tambourine on I Live In The Mess You Are real hard for them. Later that night we went to the bar and all had drinks. After that they came over to the Halfie despite their impending 14-hour drive to Atlanta to hook up with the Good Life for a weeks worth of dates. Most of us drank beer and a few drank coffee and in a sobering moment Chris Simpson and Seth Woods performed for us acoustic renditions of Two Part Invention and Modern Life. Look, I don't cry really that often. And only really when I'm touched by something beautiful instead of things that are sad. Depressing things dehydrates me; truly incredible things pull my tears out like the morning warmth does the dew. I cried a little when they sang those songs for us. I felt as present as I did standing in the ocean a week prior. And I guess if I could pick my favorite moment from the entire tour that would be it. Lying on Scott's bed, ten minutes before our woeful goodbye.