Long Time

I haven't updated this blog in a long time. I have been extremely busy. What with KODIAK ending and all, Priceless in the middle of making a new album, $6,000 in dental and medical bills. A lot to handle. I guess things just get serious when you turn 21. My trip has been postponed indefinitely. I will still move. Its just going to take longer. Its discouraging to say the least, but I am still motivated and smile at the thought of it.

Focus

I turned 21 last Friday. It has been a week filled with drinking and laughing. Also a week of spending boatloads of money. I actually tapped into my savings account yesterday. I am so ashamed I could cry. You might say, 'come on! It was your 21st birthday!'. I would say, I am going to Iceland in a few months and need to save every penny. This can't continue, it has only been a week and drinking is becoming a habit. What makes the pressure to drink even stronger is the fact that 90 percent of the time Kodiak plays at some kind of club, and generally alcohol is available and expensive. I need some positive encouragement about my trip. I think I am going to tell everyone my plans very soon. As soon as my passport arrives I think.

I told the rest of the band about it. They seemed bummed about Kodiak being out of commission for a while. But I will most likely only be staying for 90 days, returning, then Kodiak can run its course and I can return to Iceland asap. Its all so real to me now. Before it was something I was afraid of and getting stressed about. But now its just, yeah I'm moving to Iceland for a while :) Its a good feeling. As long as I can save some dang money!!

Untitled #2

Everything seems so impossible.

I'm not a student, I don't have a specialized profession, I don't have family in Iceland, I'm not an athlete. How do I gain residence? I had no clue it would be this hard. But my dad is right "if it were easy we would all live in Iceland" Throughout my endless Internet travels I have met some incredibly helpful people. Very knowledgeable, ready and willing to lend any support they can. Yet all of the people that have moved from the US to Iceland that I have talked to have had certain reasons for living there mostly having a relatives or a spouse in Iceland. The best suggestion I got was to go for the three months that I am allowed to, make friends and try to find a job. Then get all of my forms filled out and begin processing. But that means I have to leave the country. Which I suppose wouldn't be too big of a deal since my aunt lives in Belfast Northern Ireland. But it is a bit of an inconvenience as far as money goes and there are no guarantees.

I am lucky that I still have a long way to go until August. All of these snags I am encountering are just fueling me more and more to make it happen. I will go to any lengths to get to where I am going. I will get the number for the head of immigration if I have to. As soon as my passport gets to me Its off to D.C to chat with The Embassy.

Until then. More research.

Passport on it's Way!

I left work early yesterday to get to the post office before it closed at four. I made it there at 3:41, I didn't expect to see anyone in the line for passports. I mean really, don't normal people have theirs by now? To my surprise there were people in their 60's applying for the first time ever. I am so glad it didn't take me that long to make a decision like this.

The gentleman in front of me in line was around 45 i would say, getting his passport for the first time for a trip to the Bahamas that someone was paying for. I sneaked a peak at his birth certificate, turns out he was born in the zip code we live. So he very well could have been here his whole life. Pretty depressing I think. Anyway, by the time the line had moved once I was about 6 people behind and it was 5 minutes till 4, I thought I wasn't going to make it and they would tell the people in line to leave and come back tomorrow in the three hour time frame that they process passports. The lady doing it was very nice, she brought out a red ticket and gave it to the last person in line and had him tell anyone else that got in line behind him that it was closed after he went in.

I finally went through the door and went through the motions of getting my very first passport. I raised my right hand and swore that everything on the application was true, signed my name and gave the government $100. Now I play the waiting game, I can't really apply for anything until I officially have my passport in hand. Afterwards however, things get interesting, afterwards I spend hours in the Icelandic embassy asking every question I can think of. Then I spend hours on the computer talking to people in Iceland about finding a place to live, making friends, finding people wanting to join a band and all that good stuff. Things will get very interesting very fast.

Long Weekend

I didn't think that I would be all that excited to play the show on saturday, but suprisingly I got the old feeling back, went out there and did my thing. I forgot how good shows are at The Red Shed. Besides some of the IA62 fans being kinda douche like, It went really really well. Makes it kinda difficult to stay focused though. Since it went so well and I saw plenty of new faces, what if Kodiak takes off before August? What if by default I can't go to Iceland?



Last night I went to see Avatar with Zeke. It was my third time seeing it and his first. I think he really enjoyed it. To me it is perfection. There has never been a better movie. Now that I am going to Iceland I looked at the movie in a whole new light. To me Iceland is the closest thing to Pandora on Earth. The thoughts of just wanting to go there and be on Pandora instead of earth are completely diminished. I am going to Pandora in August to live. Its one of the best feelings in the world. It will be a bit colder though :)

Untitled #1

I've been thrown a curve ball, big time. I would rather not go into it. There is just a chance that because of health issues my move could be postponed. It really makes me wonder if I am supposed to be going or not. I feel nothing but Iceland now. That's all I really want, its all I see and its all I dream. But that might be my problem. Now that after all this time, family is becoming an issue. What can I do? Regardless of what happens I am pressing on with my normal plan, I can't afford to wait around and find out whats going to happen.

I got my passport pictures taken last night. I'm headed to the post office on Monday to get the whole deal processed. Strange and new for me, I've never had a passport before, never had use for one. After that I have time to wait around. Up to six weeks processing time. Although I'm sure they come sooner than that a lot of the time. Is there really all that much to process? How many people can really be applying around this time? What really goes into the processing? I am twenty one years old, have no criminal record and have lived in the same place virtually my entire life. I feel like my passport should be the easy one.

I have to play a Kodiakshow today. I hope it goes well. This will be the first show we have ever had where we didn't practice for it beforehand. I'm not worried. I will go there, talk small talk with a bunch of people I don't know and pretend to be their best friend for a few minutes, My band will barely talk to each other, we will play, watch the last band, say how much we loved playing there and then go home. Then we go and do the same thing next weekend and the weekend after that. Shows used to be fun for me. Feels like a chore now. I don't really know why. I think it heavily has to do with the attitudes I see in everyone in the band (besides Danny) its such a careless attitude, They have no care as to what happens or what we are doing.

Iceland needs to come sooner..

Passports and Concerts

I checked my bank account when I woke up today and my tax return has come in! Time to pay some bills. Also time to go get my passport. I will probably go to D.C. during the week to the passport office, let them know I am applying for a Visa and that I need my passport as soon as possible.

My band Kodiak has a show on Saturday, and again next Friday. I am trying to be as enthusiastic as I can be. But in light of everything that I have been thinking about and planning, its difficult. I really love that band. I love playing shows and I love my friends, but I don't have the same drive that I did before. I suppose it started when they took my Internet access away from me at work, I was using my free time at work to contact booking companies for our tour in May. As of today we only have three of those dates booked. I would say that its up to the rest of my band to try to book the rest of the dates. No one else seems to have the drive ether. It shouldn't be my full responsibility anyway, I would think they would have the same drive as me to book these dates. We will see I guess.

Ether way. Kodiak would be my only reason for staying here longer than August. If something happens and I find that the band is getting somewhere and we are making progress beyond what we have ever done, then I would be glad to stay in the U.S. a bit longer. Its hard to write songs these days, its really hard to get shows, and I personally think the hardest thing out of everything is keeping people interested. Refer to my previous post about people who claim to "love" music around here. That might explain it.