i am delirious!

This past week has been one of the most hectic of my entire life! In case you don't know, I work for a company called CUI; we sell things. Well, I don't sell things. I buy things. Fun computery things. At company meetings I get introduced as "Our I.T. Director," but around the office and at happy hour I am referred to as "Dude," "Hey!" and sometimes (if e-mail is down for longer than 10 minutes) "Douchebag." Fortunately, no one wants me at company meetings. And I don't want to go to any post-cubicle happy hour. Honestly, I don't think I'm punctual enough for either... which is how I happily run CUI's I.T. department.

For the past year, I have been preparing to move CUI's entire network from northerly suburbia to southerly suburbia. (That's not a metaphor.) Balancing this job with music has been a chore, to put it mildly. The past two weeks have been especially hellish with prep. I've also been moving into a new house with Bret and Shelley, who decided to get married last weekend. Clearly they did not consult my schedule before making wedding plans. Because I've had no time to organize my head, let alone my new house, our first floor is so full of music gear that I have no room to start soundproofing, which is (aaaaaa!) another project hanging over my head like a bloated sperm whale. Bret's schedule seems no better, because he postponed his honeymoon so that our band Crosstide could play too shows during the most complicated weekend of my life. What a guy!

So, last Friday morning at 10am, I dismantled our old server room and phone system as the company packed up all their machines, desks, filing cabinets, coffee mugs, and promotional paperweights from uselessofficejunk.com. By 1pm I had all the stuff unpacked at the new facility. By 4pm I had assembled, configured, and turned up a (albeit, VERY basic) data network and a successful phone system. I don't know if any of you realize how amazing that is to turn up two networks like that, but as a seasoned I.T. dork, let me just express it in two very technological words.

FUCK YEAH

Then we partied. Unfortunately, I had to be at work the next morning at 8am. I spent the day in front of a server rack. Then I left for a last minute Neverland practice, before two separate load-ins and soundchecks at two separate venues... The only thing to prepare for the upcoming night was to order several consecutive glasses of rubbing alcohol, or something similar. We (Crosstide) played at midnight, and enjoyed every minute of it. Highlights included spontaneous Replacements lyrics, a drum solo (wtf?!), and Rian punching me really hard on stage. Afterwards, we loaded up and went to the MusicFest NW afterparty, where we added some lovely peeps to our crew and played a Neverland set at 3am. Yes. 3 o'clock A.M. Oh, and just to clarify: Neverland is a Michael Jackson cover band. Yes. MJ. I got home at 6am.

I went to work at 10am. I left at midnight. I came to work today at 7am. I am still here. So if anyone wants to question my productivity level lately, I just have two technological words for them...

OK, I'll save it. Here are some pictures of how much of a geek I am. First, the old server room... Observe!



And now, the new beat... Respect!



All you I.T. peeps know what I'm talking about. This room is the shit. That is all. I am not going home for a while, but when I do, I'm making myself a tropical drink, pouring it down my shirt, making another one, pouring it on Bret and Shelley's cat (they're honeymooning, I can do anything I want), and then drinking the third. To life! To music! To 3Ghz dual processors!