Call me April cuz I be showering on these fools

Golden Shower

Hey Guys

Been a while since I blogged, which I say every time. From now on, I won't say that anymore.

Life has been super hectic, almost exponentially so. I'm constantly behind on everything. I should've finished the Mosquito King music video 5 months ago. Oopsies. I probably spend 1 hour every week on it. It's funny. I couldn't wait to get out of school and say goodbye to constant looming deadlines, but now I have the same problem from a company and passion that I, myself, have created (Planet Plum). It's a lot better though, because it's actually stuff that I want, and love, to do. I want to make stickers and print T-shirts. I want to book/run shows. It's great, and it's growing exponentially. I'm thinking more and more on how to distribute the load of it, and the biggest obstacle is that I feel bad asking people to do stuff for free. It's hard to grasp just how much other people love doing this stuff too. Anyway,

I bought a house!!

Yeah, it's official. I used the First Time Home Buyer Grant to buy a house. All I needed was 2k and good credit (lmk if you need help with that). It's an old house, like 1920's old. It's been consciously preserved, original windows, original hardword floor, and my favorite: original kitchen swing door (although it needs a little elbow grease). It's just going to be me and Adeline :) We spent the weekend painting the inside with family and friends. I bought some old fashioned milk paint for the job (made with just milk protein, limestone, and natural pigment). It's so beautiful. I can't wait to finish it fully. It'll house the new Plum HQ, which will take up the whole basement.

Socialism is awesome

I have a pretty big platform with Plum and Omaha Underground. This power should be wielded for good, especially when punk music is so engrained with politics. I want progressive political tables at our shows and I want to help spread the word about local mutual aid organizations and the like. I've spent some time looking into local groups. One of which was the PSL, Party for Socialism and Liberation. I had a whole meeting with them that led nowhere. They told me that in order for me to join the party I had to get interviewed by a lady... who overlooks all of PSL for 3+ STATES... who is constantly booked... and still hasn't emailed me after a month. Ok thanks guys, super efficient, super helpful. At the zine fair I vented this frustration with a socialist table, and the lady said 'oh yeah! I have a zine about the PSL.' She looked through a stack of zines only to pull one out titled 'Why I left the PSL.' LOL. That was just ridiculous. Anyway, I've had a lot of luck talking with Mutual Aid Omaha. They are doing the grassroots, community work. I have volunteered to create their new website, as soon as I have time.

It's Camping Season

I went backpacking mid-March on the weekend with the scorching 90 degree F Saturday followed by the freezing Sunday. I knew about the hot Saturday, and planned accordingly. I didn't know about the freezing Sunday. I only brought a blanket to sleep with, no tent, no sleeping back, and no tarp. I had a sleeping pad, but not for long. I didn't bring a backpack either. Say what!? Yeah, I actually turned the blanket into a backpack, making it a 2 in 1 (blanket = blackpack + sleeping system). I was going hardcore for this one, no shoes either. I wore these hippie socks I got from a 70's store. It was actually really nice to walk around almost barefoot, and I did walk around barefoot for a while. My biggest regret was not buying allergy medicine. I left it at work, and thought it wouldn't be worth it to buy a new one from the store on the way out. Wow, bad mistake. It was one thing to be freezing overnight, but it was another to have a constant drip out my nose too. Never forget, drastic temperature change will always be accompanied by gnarly wind. Cold wind will penetrate almost anything. I scooted next to the fire for extra warmth, then the embers melted holes in my blowup pad. I'll have to find a way to patch it up, but it was worth it for the warmth. If I could redo the whole trip, I would only change a couple things: bring allergy meds, and turn a sleeping bag into a backpack with a blanket inside.