lox & legs summer tour 2008!

yo friends,
greetings from humid & summery chicago. we have big news:
me & emilyn are hitting the road once more for the lox & legs summer 2008 tour-o-rama! (other possible names: no pants tour 2008! no tears tour 2008! no punching tour 2008!) we'll be driving around with our dear friends dan o'stretch (both lox and legs, on bass guitar) & emily hope price (on amazing vocal stylings & cello for a few new england shows)!

we're traveling through the midwest for a whole week & the east coast for another -- amazing amounts of driving! amazing amounts of music! give your friends collective heads-ups -- this is our first time through alot of these cities, & we're playing with & opening for some really awesome people, so we hope you can make it out to sing with us when we stop through town.
love,
anna.

LOX & LEGS SUMMER TOUR 2008
all shows with emilyn "life partner" brodsky

thu july 31st
south union arts
chicago, IL
(venue closing/tour kickoff party!!)
1352 s. union
8PM, all ages, BYOB, donations
w/ the thin man, cactus's (nashville) & elephant gun

fri aug 1st
bremen cafe
milwaukee, WI
901 e. clarke
9PM, 21+, free
local support TBA

sat aug 2nd
escape java joint
madison, WI
916 willy st.
7PM, all ages, free

sun aug 3rd
exploration iowa
campfire show
sweetland station, IA
banks of the mississippi
3PM, all ages, free
w/ marc hans, denny garcia, & jimmy berg

mon aug 4th
the blue fugue
columbia, MO
120 s. 9th st.
7PM, 18+, free
w/ open mic features

tues aug 5th
pops blue moon
st. louis, MO
5249 pattison "on the hill"
10PM, 21+, $5
w/ phoebe claggett

wed aug 6th
the cinemat
bloomington, IN
123 s. walnut
9PM, all ages, $4
w/ josh morrow

thu aug 7th
firefly coffee house
ft. wayne, IN
3523 n. anthony blvd
7PM, all ages, free
local support TBA

fri aug 8th
the lakeshore theater
chicago, IL
3175 n. broadway
10PM, $15
w/ amanda palmer & vermillion lies
buy tickets here

sat aug 9th
your inner vagabond
pittsburgh, PA
4130 butler st.
8PM, all ages, byob, $6
w/ chet vincent & the big bend

sun aug 10th
kyle cassidy's house
(west) philadelphia, PA
email anna@theanna.com to be added to the guest list
5PM, potluck/byob
w/ birdie busch

mon aug 11th
meattown, usa
new brunswick, NJ
215 hamilton st.
7PM, all ages
w/ giant explosion

tues aug 12
mansion TBA
westchester, NY
7PM, all ages
w/ anthony da costa

wed aug 13
the silent barn
brooklyn, NY
915 wyckoff ave
queens/bushwick
L to halsey, M to myrtle
7PM, all ages
w/ kate ferencz & kyp malone (of tv on the radio)

fri aug 15th
the lily pad
cambridge, MA
1353 cambridge st.
inman square
10PM, all ages, $5-10
w/ emily hope price & nicholas beaven

sat aug 16th
guy's backyard bash
portsmouth, NH
37 coffins ct.
5PM, all ages, byob
w/ guy capecelatro III & emily hope price

sun aug 17th
slainte
portland, ME
24 preble st.
9PM, free
w/ emily hope price & lady lamb the beekeeper

mon aug 18th
the monhegan church
monhegan island, ME
8PM
w/ emily hope price & local support TBA

links to all these venues & artists are up here

can't wait to see you!!
xo
anna.

08 IS FOR OUR KIND OF LADY tour.

i'm going on tour in february with some dudes (again)!
i still feel like the tour should be called the "'08 IS FOR OUR KIND OF LADY" tour, the quotation a drunken text i got from my best friend on new years eve. the full text reads: "thanks for calling before i got too drunk to call you. i love you and FYI 2008 is for our kind of lady." isn't that such a nice text? most all of my lady-friends have agreed, 08 is definitely the year of the lady. (this tour name has no political insinuations).

the tour also might be called PRESENTS & LOVE TOUR 08, because the tour contains both valentines day & my birthday, both of which i am VERY excited about. so you can decide which you like better.

i'm touring with the indubitable dylan metrano of tiger saw (myspace.com/tigersaw) and joe arnold, impeccable jazz fiddle player of summer tour fame will be accompanying my sets. we'll also have friends in certain cities hop on stage. you seriously DON'T want to miss it. plus we're driving all this way in the snow. lots of snow. if nobody shows up we will have traversed in vain.

mark your calendar & forward this to your friend that's in that town over there who would come out to see us play.

FEB 10
HOUSE SHOW
NEW BOSTON, IL
206 clay st - 6pm - w/ glowstorm & marc hans

FEB 11
THE CINEMAT
BLOOMINGTON, IN
123 s. walnut st. - 9pm - 21+ - w/ ben laatsch & nathaniel seer

FEB 12
THE BARKING SPIDER
CLEVELAND, OH
11310 juniper rd - 7pm - 21+ - w/ chris reynolds

FEB 13
THE DRAGON'S KEEP
FORT WAYNE, IN
2608 lower huntington rd - 8pm - w/ ben laatsch

FEB 14
BREMEN CAFE
MILWAUKEE, WI
901 e. clark st - 10pm - 21+ - open mic feature!

FEB 15
THE RATHSKELLAR @ MEMORIAL UNION
MADISON, WI
800 langdon st. - 5pm - all ages

FEB 16
THE FIXX
CHICAGO, IL
3053 n. sheffield - 7pm - all ages - w/ outpost

FEB 17
SKIBO CAFE, CMU
PITTSBURGH, PA
5000 forbes (university center) - 7pm - all ages - w/ boca chica

FEB 18
THE BLACK LODGE
KINGSTON, PA
22 w. bennett st - all ages - w/ election day

FEB 19
ADELINE'S APARTMENT
WASHINGTON DC
house show, email for details

FEB 20
THE FIRE
PHILADELPHIA, PA
412 w. girard ave - 9pm - 21+ - w/ boatload of madmen, the no cultures

FEB 21
CT/JERSEY
TBA

FEB 22
THE MIDDLE EAST UPSTAIRS
CAMBRIDGE, MA
472 mass ave - 8pm (i'm first!) - 18+ - w/appomattox, wye oak, sweet thieves

FEB 23
THE BLACK SPOT
HYANNIS, MA
10 ocean st - 8pm - all ages

FEB 24/25
NYC TBA

FEB 26 (BIRTHDAY SHOW!!)
THE CO-OP
SUNY PURCHASE
7pm - all ages - w/ emily hope price & emilyn brodsky


i'm so excited i can hardly wait. come! make us feel popular! expect tour blogs galore from the road. & lots of pictures. can't wait to see you out there.
!,
A.

(image by the ever-on-top-of-it jeff brown).

pumpkins and gratefulness.

i'm starting to write a love song to lubbock. i'm at a 4-song point where i have unfinished songs all over my bedroom floor, or depending on the day, shoved into my suitcase. my mom goes to school in lubbock, texas, the birthplace of buddy holly, and i'm here with my sister for the holiday festivities. i made the green bean casserole again this year PLUS lemonade pie. it's been pretty great. in general, alot has happened in my life since tour. i'll keep it brief, but try to be interesting, because everyone wants to feel like their life is more interesting than it actually is, especially on the internet.

so. i've moved to chicago and am living in an apartment. it's gorgeous. it has large windows and trees outside and tall white walls and is right near the train. there's a clarinet-playing neighbor upstairs and a metal-blasting neighbor downstairs, but surprisingly the noise isn't that bad, especially compared to my mom's neighbors here in texas. i think they have four dogs that play soccer upstairs. but anyway. i've settled & am starting to love chicago in the fall and in the winter transition, even though the summer is unbeatable.

i've been working quite a few day jobs, most of which will remain unnamed but some of which involve singing, which is nice. everyone says that crappy day jobs are what influence your creativity & make it pop. i'm definitely not at that point yet, in fact i'm at the point where my day jobs cause me to be too exhausted to be creative. and furthermore, the tour was so amazing, and moving away from all those boys (& emily) was totally a downer, so i'm sure that being musically lonely has something to do with my lack of motivation. still, finding an apartment, a job, a car, a new social network - that takes about all the gumption that sometimes one person can muster, so i'm trying very very hard not to kick myself over the lack of new songs. plus i've been so busy getting my new website up & putting together the tour compilation that i feel like my music is just as much of a business as my day jobs are. anyway, now i'm just babbling.

i'm starting to host an open mic this coming week. hotti biscotti is fantastic - a small little bar that used to be a coffee shop with very cheap drinks and lots of loving regulars. the sound system is great and there's a giant sequin curtain behind the stage. what better setting?? if you play instruments or want to do an irish jig in front of some logan square folks, you should stop on by. wednesdays, 9 PM. i'm also playing at the elbo room in december - a big chicago milestone for me - and i couldn't be happier. the holiday season is suddenly feeling overwhelming and busy and full. that's something i've missed about school - having a full schedule. of course i've loved the downtime, but i get the most inspired while on the move, so a long to-do list is the best setting in which i can accomplish things.

i've finally (well, almost finally) finished putting together this compilation of the summer tour. we recorded a bunch of shows and i've been in the editing stages of the process for the last few weeks. unfortunately my protools started going crazy & now i have three songs that still haven't been bounced, and so until i figure that out the compilation remains in the balance. but it should be available by next week & all of the covers look amazing, so i'm feeling pretty accomplished.

the required thankful list for this season: good people in my life of all sorts, snuggling, warm food on cold days, airplanes, socks, fresh cut flowers, familiarity, scary newness, opera, public non-smoking laws, to-do lists & post-its, working cameras, avocado, city streets, city skylines, good books on the train, throat coat tea, the internet, music.

pretty basic, but i'm feeling ok about that.

i'm a tree that grows hearts.

8/1 5:00 PM

the tour is over! we're driving to pittsburgh listening to bjork and i'm having major high school flashbacks. we did make it to the grady tavern on time for our show - in fact in time for dinner and a show, luckily. manchester, "the city of village charm" didn't seem to have much open, and we got excited when we saw a sandwich place called roast beef on wry, but it was closed & presto! the grady tavern had food to spare! we were featured on indie night - !!! - & played with some great company, including dan & liz, who were just awesome. manchester, oh, man. at the end of the night the owner made me a delicious root beer float to take with me. he had hair like george washington and was very sweet. maria set up & promoted really well, so we had some great folks there to listen, and some just there to drink, but we had a lot of fun.

(getting carsick. taking a break.)

now it is the second! 8/2

currently driving from pittsburgh to chicago. we spent last night at alderson with eric & laura & eddie. it was awfully nice to see old friends. but i'm getting ahead of myself. after the grady tavern we stayed with meg, a friend of mine from way back in the day. we had a nice morning and meg prepared a ton of food for a barbeque in the backyard, but there were major thunderstorms. luckily we headed into the gazebo & ate all the delicious food inside the storm without actually being inside the storm. it was very nice. emily slept & read her book alot and we all caught up on old times and had a lovely afternoon. emily, andrew & i headed out to see the simpsons movie, which was of course terrific, and when we got back the house was playing a big game of cards. it was a lovely night. the next day we trudged further north up to boston where we hung out & had huge dinner with my entire family, which was great. i have three little sisters, two of whom were engrossed in harry potter (which they'd finished by the next day) and one of whom is in love with andrew. my older sister also came over with her cat who i cat-sat for two months ago and is huge now. it was really nice to be home and relax & try on outfits for the show. i was more nervous than was reasonable for the tts show - the entire tour i've been absolutely fine, never jittery before a show, only ever excited to see friends who i know are coming out. this show, though, just flipped me out completely. i wanted everyone and their mother to be there, and i wanted it to be great since it was the last show, and i wanted us to be flawless because i wanted to impress everyone from high school plus my dad. a bunch of people did come out, we did play very well and have a great time, and despite the issues with the gingerale tasting gross, we had lovely drinks and dancing. emily played really well, too, and it felt like a great way to end the tour. since i was home (staying in my high school room, which my younger sister grace already has started moving in to) i made a bunch of doctor's appointments and coffee dates with friends and spent monday running around. they gave me a scope at the ortolaryngologist (throat doctor!) and my vocal cords are doing just fine, although they're covered with mucus. this is due to the intense consumption of alcohol, coffee, and chocolate on this tour, topped off by not taking my medicine. i also have "prominent blood vessels", which are kind of the beginning of nodes, but they've been there since high school, so i'm not too worried about it. getting a scope is terrible, though - they spray your nose with numbing spray that you have to swallow and makes you want to throw up. then they put the camera down your nose and into your throat, which also makes you want to throw up, where they ask you to sing while they video your cords, which practically makes you throw up. it's pretty gross and uncomfortable. i also went to the dentist, one of my biggest fears, and when i told them about the tour they wrote me a check and bought the cd for the office. i felt like getting paid made my visit much more manageable. that night andrew & i rented movies with my sisters and had a semi-slumber party with popcorn and sweet tarts and freaky friday, the lindsey lohan/jamie lee curtis version. my sisters aren't interested in jodi foster, which bummed me out, but it was still a fun evening. tuesday was joe's birthday, so the boys went to the battle green (the birthplace of american history!) and then we took joe to walden pond. i bought him an oreo ice cream from the truck as a present and we walked around the entire pond. i grew up swimming there but had never actually walked the whole path - it was really beautiful, and a perfect day for it. then we headed back to connecticut (right through manchester, a third time!) to xci in danbury, where we played folk the system, the folky show on tuesday nights. chris the dj was very cool & we had a great time in the station, including some people who called in during our live set to ask who we were (despite our incessant theanna.com plugs during the set). that night we went to westchester & stayed with emily, so it felt like the real last night of tour. in the morning i overslept and then went swimming again, which was absolutely perfect. when i came back into the house emily had gotten us a bagel & veggie & lox spread, which was also perfect. we chugged on back to pittsburgh and went our separate ways last night. it's weird, feeling like the movement is coming to an end. the trip toady has seemed impossibly long, but the idea of stasis doesn't really appeal to me yet either. not knowing what chicago is going to hold is both exciting & terrifying, as one would imagine, and not having the band with me is the scariest part of all. still, the tour has been kind of a perfect experience (and definitely a perfect summer experience), and no question has been great considering it was my first tour. the car seems strangely empty, and not having eddie & joe following behind is also kind of lonely. we put 4450 miles on the car all together! logistically, alot of electronics broke, i lost my best bracelet, and we left some things behind here and there, but the AC worked the entire trip, our car top-loader never flew off, and we only got slightly lost twice. we broke even money-wise (i've sold over 40 CDs in 3 weeks, which makes me the most excited), got a ton of new names for the mailing list, and got to see a lot of the country. next time i want to go further south and further west. now it's time to go through all of our pictures, put up songs (i'm going to make a 16-song tour album, one song in every city - it should be up on the music page in a few weeks), and start making a new life in chicago. tonight i'm going to start that by having dinner with andrew's family, maybe renting a movie, and sleeping until all hours tomorrow. it's pretty much been the best summer i could've asked for.

unique new york.

7/27, 6:29 PM

traffic. traffic traffic traffic. i haven't been very good at blogging since we haven't had much downtime (weirdly we've had days off, but they've been more full then tour days. more to come on that). i didn't take many pictures because we were all over the place and my camera's clunky, so i'm picture-less. but oh man, is my heart is broken. i just discovered that we lost the recordings of five years, the mirah cover, hexagon, family band, and philly from our knitting factory show, which was the best. the absolute best. my friend liz was recording for us, and i'm not sure how it didn't work; i was hoping nothing would go wrong, but i also forceably handed her the device and asked her to record it after a quick how-to lesson, since emily was social-butterflying, SO i probably should have known it wouldn't be perfect. but man! the funnest part of the set! all of the banter! it's really unfortunate. big sigh. really unfortunate. deep breath out, it'll be just fine. ugh. no, no, it'll be just fine. (this is how i talk myself down from most disappointments, usually just for more time.)

we went from jersey to philly & it was great to finally be on the road again. in philly we had a wonderful show at the green line with lots of old friends & emily of the weeds played a wonderful set & we had a celebration dinner & fancy beer at monk's with pretty much everyone, including kyle cassidy who was so kind to host us. it was great to see all of the people i've missed and for a few minutes i wondered if i should move back to philly. i'm pretty sure chicago is right for me, but i felt very nostalgic, nevertheless. the next morning after i stopped into wxpn to visit old friends, we headed to new york for the kf show. it was fantastically fun. we'd expected more people but new york is one of those places where everyone just is, so lots of old friends showed up and we had a very fun time with lots of drinks and dancing and duets and tambourine and fun fun fun. the sets all sounded really good, too, so it's a bummer that we don't have the set. it's ok! i'm over it! trying to get over it! so the next morning we headed to the 9!1!4! to swim and eat delicious lunch and nap. emily's mom and dad are very good for hosting relaxing, suburban bliss. sometimes her dad is more aggressive than relaxing, but we had a very mellow, awesome day. we had a show at jon booth's house that night, and although the crowd was sufficiently under-aged and chatty, we had a great time and did lots of sing-alongs. i sang a song with da costa, who i'd met the night before, who's just awesome. i want him to be in my band, but we'll see how that goes. he probably has to finish high school first. ugh, prodigies. THEN we had two entire days in new york. having days off is so strange. it's great, but it also feels like we should be doing more, like we need to keep moving, like we're going stir crazy, mostly because we are. but since it was new york we had plenty to keep us busy - we all had different friends in the area, and i got to visit with a bunch of my favorite people like christine and liz and hannah rose and anna, as well as meet a bunch of andrew's high school friends. emily's mom also took us to see emily's housemate/our friend carla's show, which was AMAZING. eurydice at the second stage theater. until august. i'm not even kidding. everyone should see it. amazing. there was lots of weeping and stuff with fathers and music and words and memory. it moved me more than a show's moved me in a really long time. so much weeping. afterward emily & willie & i had fancy lady dinner, later to be joined by liz, and then we went to more fancy beer. the fancy beer tour. the ladies with feelings tour. the muscle rub tour. the sheetz (wawa) tour. the only with penne tour. the parking ticket tour. the GET AMPED tour. the electronic catastrophic tour. the followed heatwave tour. it's weird that we only have three shows left. we're definitely playing this radio show on tuesday, so we've extended it for two days, but it feels strange that we're surging up, getting amped and jumping back in the car after we've been so relaxed for so many days, just to do three shows & then go home. people keep asking if we're on the last leg of tour, and i always wonder why tours have "legs". i'd expect wheels or wings, or even feet, but people give them legs. ugh. andrew threw my water away at the last rest stop (by accident, but oy!) and man am i thirsty. we're running late to our manchester show because of major traffic and i'm feeling very ugh. lots of ughs. i hope i get a bit more amped before we have to play. 18% battery life! time to open the windows and hope we make the show on time.

johnson's iced corn & ararat carpets!

7/22 12:34 PM - put on your red shoes & dance the blues

i have decided that jersey isn't all that bad.

we got to jersey on tuesday after our richmond house-fest & arrived at bill cashman (from the internet)'s. we had driven for most of the day & watched movies until we fell asleep. i can't remember what else we did that night. i think andrew & i went to the wawa & dunkin donuts, since nothing else was open. man has this tour been all about wawa vs sheetz. being in jersey so much, obviously, has upped our wawa patronage to a severe level. when we woke up on wednesday we went to the shore right before the rainstorm & looked at the people walking around. because it was a drizzly day we decided to see ratatouille which, honestly, was not quite as good as the incredibles, but was still reasonably funny. on the way there we were in THE biggest thunderstorm that i've ever seen with giant lightning bolts and flash floods; i wasn't feeling too keen on jersey. during the movie the sound went out a total of two times - once during the intro cartoon which we were late for and once during the final climax (of course!) but since it was about rats cooking it was pretty easy to follow without dialogue. emily & bill had gone to new york to get things done, and by the time they got back we were cozy with fancy beer and top chef reruns. they tried to get us to go to asbury lanes (the bowling! the scene! the drinks!) but i had long before made a pact with myself never to bowl again, and was about ready to sleep, so there was no partying that evening. the next day we went to the shore even though the weather was spotty. we jumped in the waves and laid in the sun and ate boardwalk food and drank drinks. i started thinking maybe it wasn't terrible in jersey. we shuffled back home (bill's house, the closest thing to home that any of us have at the moment) and nursed our sunburns and took naps and re-energized for the trenton show. emily had made a pact with herself never to visit trenton again, but this was kind of unavoidable. when we got out of the car a ten-year-old boy without a shirt told us to, "watch out, white people don't belong in this city". at that point we knew the gig would be awesome. we were all ready for dinner, so we headed to the marriott - the only thing open after ten - for food. we had a fun time back at the gig, despite the sound craziness & joe leaving his pedal. noah & the best thing ever had come to play with emily, since they're on the surprise tour, where they surprise people and then play songs. they did a terrific cover and overall the night was a success. then back to bill's for some more down time. downtime at bill's was unbeatable; his nana entertained us with stories and impressions and jokes while we all sat around the house; she offered many a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as well, which was always an appreciated gesture. after we had all rested from the mill hill show, we spent the next morning exploring cattus island, looking at mangled trees and finding secret shores. i was getting even more comfortable with jersey. we headed out to our new brunswick house show at the breadbox, which was fantastic. lots of good company (matt came from his work training!) and new friends and a great line-up. nick nj jumped on the drums with us for our five years cover, which was awesomely fun. i've decided i'm going to start an all-bowie cover band and only play house shows. i think that would be a great career move for me. anyway, after the bruns, we headed back (another time) to bill's for our fourth night of jersey-sleep. the next morning we finally hit the road to long beach island to see laura & rejoin eddie, our drummer, who's going to do the next week of tour with us. we had a fantastic reunion & biked on creaky bikes to the beach and laid out, jumped waves (huge! huge waves!), jumped off each others' backs into the huge waves, and thoroughly enjoyed the beach. this is when i decided that jersey is amazing and awesome. laura's parents have been going to lbi for her whole life, and they rent a house on the bay that's extremely charming. we had a great dinner together and the decided to practise in the living room, which led into a front-yard music-fest at sunset overlooking the bay, which was beautiful and extremely picturesque. after dark we all walked to the ice cream store, which had birthday cake ice cream that tasted like delicious frosting. i got the waffle cone with espresso chip. this definitely hasn't been the healthiest tour, but bill & i did go for a run together on my first morning in jersey (he did much better than me - i couldn't run to save my life after one mile) and we've been jumping around beaches alot this week, so i'm feeling alright. now we're on our way to philly - finally, a place not in new jersey? - and i'm super excited to see some friends of ours, as well as emily of the weeds, who i haven't seen since her newly-mama milkboy show last summer. the rest of tour is going to be, hopefully, amazing and awesome. we're spending a few days in new york with friends, playing a barbeque in connecticut, spending time with my family & friends in boston, and recording on a radio show (folk the system, WXCI 91.7fm in Danbury, CT, 9-midnite) on the very last day of our tour, the 31st, which is also joe's birthday! the last few days have been completely relaxing & fun, and i can't wait to be in transit again. rejuvenation! jersey. who knew?

the penne karl only comes with penne.

12:46 PM

richmond, virginia: hot! yesterday on the way here emily's computer started making chewing noises & eating away at itself. we rushed to a best buy, since that is the worst kind of noise a computer can make and computers are very important things. so we rushed to a best buy where, not surprisingly, they were unhelpful. we had a drink to commiserate and came back to macon's house, which is amazingly lovely, just like macon. richmond is really strange. it has the slow and heavy heat of the south, and the row houses and crumbly sidewalks and bright colors that trick you into thinking you're in the south, but really i think its new england, just hotter. we had a lovely dinner where there was a lovely waitress with some name that sounded like xanadu (but wasn't!) and who we tried to invite to our show but she was worried that she'd be tired, and she indeed did not show up. hopefully she got some rest. either way, she missed a great show. i'm now of the opinion that we should only play house shows - they're much more fun and usually have better turnouts than clubs anyway. morgan's house was brightly painted and there were lots of kids there to listen to music and we drank beer and chatted a bunch. herschell opened. he plays the baritone ukulele and wears tapshoes & pajamas. it was really fun to hum along to. herschell's spiritual advisor was a girl named kristy who i had a friend-crush on. she had the world tattooed on her forearms and was extremely friendly. we were supposed to go to a water park this morning, but water parks all cost over 40$, so we scrapped that plan & our friend-love will never be fulfilled. so as the night continued morgan sang some songs and did some poetry with her friend nathan, which was extremely fun. emily played a very funny set & a lot of people sang along. that's the thing about house shows - sing-a-longs actually work, and usually work quite well. we played a very fun set (see above) and the entire time i was hoping that i didn't melt into a pile of sweat. the house was very hot. beyond sweltering hot. ridiculously hot. so there were lots of fans and people mostly sat & fanned themselves with the construction paper fans that morgan had made for the evening. still, we had a great time and i had a little too much wine and overall it was a great evening. this morning we woke up to a popped air mattress and light flooding through the green and blue windows (see below). after deciding against a water park, we made the executive decision to split up - andrew & joe to the river (which i kind of wish i'd gone too, but the heat was too much) & emily & i to the italian restaurant across the street that's been calling to us with its garlic smell since we arrived yesterday. we had a tiny-sized debacle there, but it doesn't translate well to text; you just had to be there. now we're packing up and heading to jersey (we've decided this is going to be the secret-jersey tour) where tomorrow we'll look at the people at the shore and eat hot dogs and maybe use some self-tanner. jersey, my new home.