Nah.

Chicago, IL -> Pittsburgh, PA

To say that it's been a rough couple of days would be underselling my mental agony and physical exhaustion. I tried to count up the hours of sleep I've had in the week that I've been back, but it depressed me too much to really do until now.

You all know how much I need my sleep. I'm barely coherent when I *do* get the requisite 8 hours.

I'm so out of my mind that I just typed the number 9 for the month of May, when we all know that May is 5. And I *really* had to think about it for about five minutes before I figured out why the date looked wrong.

Last night it was less than two hours. It is fortunate that we have six drivers in the car, three of which were far better rested last night than were we.

Our show in Chicago was sparsely attended, and by the time we got out the the suburb where our hotel was, they'd massively overbooked because of a computer glitch so they were unable to honor our reservation. They called all the hotels in the area for us, but they were unable to find a room for less than $275. We slept in the van in the parking lot of the original hotel and managed to go out of our minds with giddy laughter instead of crying ourselves to sleep that night. We probably got in the van at around 2:30am, were all up by 5am, and had to pick up the rest of the party (the other band has been finding places to stay via couchsurfing.com, which we were initially sketchy about, but since they've had such amazing experiences and we've had such horrible ones, we've had to second guess ourselves) at 6am because the drive today was 8 hours (not including breaks) and we lost an hour going east.

This stuff is brutal.

Pittsburgh is a good town, though. Seems interesting even if we hear that the city itself is pretty unsafe (we're in a hotel by the airport, and it seems pretty good!). The show tonight was the best yet, and despite our delirium, we've continued to laugh at things instead of let them get us down. Kind of amazing, really. I have a feeling it's the company I'm with.

Anyway, as I'm stupid exhausted, I must sign off. Only a 2.5 hour drive to Cleveland tomorrow. A good, long sleep tonight, provided my body isn't suddenly used to 4 hours of sleep and decides to wake up at 5:30 am. That would suck.

There are more and more quotable quotes all the time, and I can't keep up with them. (And the internet connection in the van is effed up.) I made a comment about someone's underpants (or seeming lack thereof!) that sent four exhausted idiots into peals of laughter while in the van last night. I'm still chuckling over it.

Oh, and the war wounds continue to add up. I don't think anyone has had too much broken flesh yet, but everyone is pretty battered and bruised up. That's what happens when you're packing and unpacking what must be at least a half ton of equipment every day. My knees are purple, a few spots on my arms are green, I've bitten my fingernails down the to quick, and I can't remember where I am, what day it is, where we played in which city, what happened in which city, or who said what to me with any accuracy of context. Completely wrong words have started coming out of my mouth in sentences that would otherwise be mundane.

So yeah, some sleep.