It's my party, and I will steal a golf cart if I want to

Yesterday was my Birthday! I am now 33. That is old in dog years. Highlights of my birthday include:
1-Balloons in the office
2-Special day of Joe's Playlist on the Ipod most of the day
3-A present from Jars of Clay! Completely unexpected.
4-A toast from David Carr and Nigel James (Third Day road pastor)

5-2 bottles of Sparkling Apple Cider that several of us shared
Scotty
Jenn
6-A mission with Jenn to steal a golf cart and go on a joyride. Explanation: Jenn has started a list of things to do before the tour ends. One was steal a golf cart from the venue and go on a joyride. So we snuck out and found a golf cart parked in front of their production trailer. So we ran to it, jumped in and tore off at a whopping 5mph with apple ciders in hand. It was dark outside and I did not realize until afterwards that no one could have been able to tell what we were drinking. We drove all the way out front to the parking lot cruising through the isles until we found orange police cones. Then we slalomed down them until we were 100 feet from the police officers where I decided to u-turn. Upon doing so, I noticed an empty gravel parking lot to our left. I found the entrance and proceeded at break-toothpick speed. Fishtailing through the empty parking lot was a blast - especially with no doors or seat belts. Safety Second! Then we headed back to the office and as we passed people, Jenn would yell, "Joe is 33!!" and I would follow with a "Woohooo!"
7-The Count spent the day in the refrigerator. He was purple by the end of the night
8-Michael was at a wedding leaving us to do all his work. That made things busy.
9-And the best for last: I got several e-cards from Elizabeth. They made me laugh.

About Last Night

Here are some pictures from the Encore Jam last night. It's cool to see the show from the audience point of view again.

The Sunday Funnies

Check out the look Jenn is giving to the camera guys.

counting on the count

slick pix

Mike our Wired rep
Rick the merch guy
crew 1 bus & friends

Three musketeers or stooges - still up for debate...

It’s A Wonderful Life

People have been asking what a typical day for me is on tour.
So here it is, typically:

7:30am Wake up
7:45-8:30am Hang directional signs, schedules and room signs
8:30-8:45am Distribute towels, soap and shampoo to all the rooms
8:45-9:15am Change our forwarding phone number and get office set up
9:15-9:30am Breakfast
9:30-10:00am Make sure all of the above is done and verify tonight’s hotel
10:00-4:00pm Ticketing, stuffing envelopes, anything else that may come up
2:50pm Lunch
3:30pm-ish Restock the food on the buses
4:00-5:00pm Tickets to box office, prepare for meet’n’greet
5:30-6:30pm Supervise meet’n’greet with Jenn and security
6:30-8:30pm Prepare for tomorrow and the rest of the week if possible
7:50pm Dinner
8:30-9:05pm Make sure Third Day is ready to go on stage
9:05-10:00pm Check ice on buses and room towels. Hang tomorrow’s schedules.
10:00-1:30am Clean-up, repack equipment, shower, verify everyone is on bus

After the west (coast) was won.

Things that happened after the California show (in order of random thoughts):

1. Was bet $10 to eat an entire side container of guacamole. About a handful of guacamole. I don’t like guacamole. Guacamole, I found out doesn’t really like me either. So the feelings are mutual. Only guacamole fights back more than I can- I did eat it. I have still not been awarded the monies.
2. Watched “Back To The Future” with Elizabeth and Chelsea. Chelsea had never seen it before. So young…
3. Played pinball after the Sacramento show. It was “Spiderman”. If you hit the right places Doctor Octopus, Sandman, or Venom will move up and down revealing bonus point areas. I got 12,000,000ish in my high score, but the high score on the game was like 300,000,000ish. So close!
4. I packed everything I needed into 2 carry-on bags. In doing so, I did not have to check any bags. How did I do this, you ask? I packed all of my clothes (almost all – I packed enough clothes in an “outfits to underwear” ratio) and brought them last week. So All the clothes I will need are already on the bus! That’s using the old kidney!
5. I saw a guy get on the MARTA and pay with 13 coins. The fare is $1.75.
6. I saw a woman get on the same bus with a grocery cart.
7. I pulled a piece of glass out of my foot from a glass that Chelsea broke on the kitchen floor from the night before.
8. I changed shampoos from Head’n’Shoulders to Herbal Essences. So if I smell better than normal, well - better than I normally do because I know I already smell spectacular, than it may be from the shampoo. But then again maybe not – could be last night’s dinner rolling through.
9. On the flight from Houston to Dallas there were only about 25 people on the flight. Everyone got their very own row of seats! I also got the entire can of Coke, two packs of pretzels, and a pack of nuts! All on a 40 minute flight. The sunset was also a beautiful orangey-red.
10. I have also packed my 80’s arcade TV video game system. It’s a joystick that plays Pac Man, Dig Dug, Space Invaders and Xenophobe all with the same controller. I am hoping to hook it up to the bus TV.