Last weekend we had a show in Tucson Az. We borrowed Sinai Beaches van. I wish we would of had that thing going to hellfest and back! It has crazy room for each person, has a TV and a playstation. Talk about nice. Having those luxuries made the trip go by quick. The show was at scrappys. I really like that venue. When we got there, they had vegan chili mac for us. I have never had food go through me so fast! vegan chili mac… never again. We headlined, and I think we played well. I met a bunch of cool kids, Doozer, Sam, and some other people. We stayed at this kid Jordans house. He had cats so I had to sleep in the van, sitting up in my seat. That part was the low light of the trip. The highlight was vegan donuts! we bought about 20 dozen of them (20 x 12 = 240!). Tucson Tim met us at the bakery. The drive home was cool until we hit California, and the sky opened up and dumped ass loads of water on us. Driving was sketchy but we got home ok.

Jason and DBo have moved out. They found a really cool loft style apt on the 3rd floor of a house in Redlands. Its pretty nice. I�m happy that Jason has a space of his own now. He likes decorating and things like that. I�m going to try and name their apt. "Courage house", since they are both Courage Crew and the only courage crew guys in the IE.

Jason Keller left for PA on Thursday, Amy left for Bakersfield, D-Bo was back in town. I love hanging out with D-Bo. I love that Bleeding Through is doing so good, but I don�t like the fact that I only get to see Derek a few times a year.

Friday D-Bo and I went to glasshouse to flyer the Sinai beach Throwdown show. Sinai came out in x-mas gear. CJ was an elf, mike d was Santa, and everyone else was reindeer, and yes they threw out presents. During Throwdown there was a gnarly fight. 4-5 guys destroyed this kid. He was on the ground rolled up in a ball, and then someone grabbed a fire extinguisher and started to bash his face in with it. That kid was done. I felt bad for him. There were several fights during Throwdow, which bummed me out, but I love seeing Throwdown, so it kind of leveled everything out for me. I handed out an ass load of flyers, about 700 or so. I hope my wedding show goes well.

Friday I drove to Bakersfield and back. I had my war driving rig (net stumbler) in full effect for the drive there and back. I was surprised how many AP�s you can find just by driving on the freeway. Pasadena is a gold mine. The wedding was cool. I didn�t know anyone there, besides Amy, but she was in the wedding party, so I had to chill by myself all night. The drive home went fast though, and that�s a good thing. I ended up chilling out with Eric and D-Bo.

Yenny�s Christmas sweater party was awesome. Tons of people showed up at Yenny�s house. I would imagine it was close to 50 people or so. The night was mellow, hanging out with friends, telling stories, and eating tons of food all while wearing outrageous Christmas sweaters. Once the white elephant gift exchange started up, things started to get wild. Some of the best presents of the night included a broken TV, a trapper keeper, a box bullets, a penis shaped lufa, and a pair of old speedo's stuffed with hot dogs. There were close to 40 presents in all. It was a good time to be had by all. I love my friends.

So my kidneys weren’t shutting down, I think I just had crazy body aches from getting another cold. I swear, I’m the sickest person I know… and no I don’t mean sick as in "sick ink" or "sick dirt bike, bro!". I mean sick as in "I am never well". I really think I have "Josh Highlands disease". Once the first of the year comes around, I'm so going to the Dr.

I have taught notPopbot a few new tricks. She hasn’t been online to chat in the last few days, but she has been busy doing other things. Lets just say that she knows A LOT about lyrics these days. Speaking of which, the notpop lyrics database is doing really good. It's growing really fast.

Jason Keller is leaving on Thursday and wont be back until new years eve. I’m going to miss playing Unreal Tournament with him for the next few weeks. We havent got around to patching that hole in my ceiling yet either. I guess that will have to wait until the New Year.

Ryan Gregson fell off of his mtn. bike and shattered his wrist. He had to have surgery, and pins and plates placed in it. That means no guitar for a whole. That poses an interesting question? who will play guitar in xdeathstarx while he heals? We have a show the first week in jan in AZ. I’m guessing that Eric will drop off of vocals, and play guitar, and thommy will come back for one last show with us. I just did the paper work on it… this will be the 7th formation that xdeathstarx has played in, and there has been 13 different people that have been part of xdeathstarx at one point in time. I don’t think many bands have stats like that. maybe its not such a good thing.

Yennys is having a party on Sunday after church. That should be good. I have to go to a wedding in Bakersfield on the 18th for Amy best friend. I have only met her once. The wedding should be good, but I don’t look forward to driving to Bakersfield and back alone. I tend to fall asleep when i drive long distances by myself. Time will tell.

GRRRR…. PAIN!
I’m sitting here is pain, pain like I haven’t felt in a long time. I think i pulled a muscle on the right side of my back. It hurts deep inside, like I broke a rib…. But I haven’t gotten hit in the ribs in a long time. Im thinking that I pulled a muscle moshing on Saturday night for plague: The red letters at Koos, or my right kidney is shutting down. Either way it sucks. The show on Saturday was fun though. I like the new Koos.

On Friday I took off of work and went to see Dylan and get my hair cut. I love getting my hair cut at hawleywoods, even if it does mean a 2 hour drive one way in traffic…

The show at glasshouse was out of control! I was nervous about playing that big of a stage, but once i got out there, that all melted away. The stage was so big I didn’t have to worry about knocking into the other guys as we played. Kids seemed into it, which is a bonus. I ran the merch at the show. We sold everything that we brought with us, including our new hoodies that rockett had made for us earlier that night. It was possibly one of the best times I have had on stage. I got to meet a bunch of new people also. It was just a good night in general. I'm also glad that NIV is back in action.