Instagram, Bonnaroo couch festing, and summer boredom

Everyone has commented, "wow, you made it to summer, how awesome!" And on the exterior, yes, it's awesome. Not working for a stretch of 2+ months while still collecting paychecks certainly sounds like the American dream. But problems don't disappear during that time. Paychecks still come, but so do bills and other unexpected costs.

I've had a rough time adjusting to my newfound freedom, leaving me generally bored and thinking, "what am I gonna do until September?" I have various hobbies that I was excited to do, and I can, and do, do those things pretty much whenever I feel. Blogging. Starting an Instagram account. Reading. Porch gardening. Hating Scott Walker. Coming to Milwaukee, going to Brewers games. I'm still bored -- or at least, I feel like I'm just wasting time by doing nothing of importance. The real challenge in all of this is companionship. With all of my friends dispersed around the country (I love you all, but you suck for being so far away), it's tough to find new go-to people with whom to do things. Let's face it friends, we're an odd bunch into quirky things. Who else would grill out at 9 a.m. in anticipation of UEFA league championship soccer? Or go to a July 3 Brewers game in the 12th row behind home plate, then take a bus to Summerfest for Tiesto and fireworks?
I've gone to this shit alone before. I've even had a fun time raging it solo, save for a few moments of awkwardness. In every case, though, it's more fun to be with someone. Anyone.

As mentioned, I've taken to the social media apps to try to not only keep myself occupied, but try to enrich my knowledge of the social media stratosphere so I can attempt to implement it in my classes. I've definitely enjoyed the likes of Instagram, but still don't know much about it...I'm not even sure if non-members can view those picture posts that I make. It's linkable to Facebook (boo) and Twitter, but not blogspot, since that's a Google app. My latest addition was a picture of a car fire I witnessed 50 feet from my parking spot at Bayshore. Once shit started blowing up, I left to go shopping, trying to avoid flying fiery debris.

Finally, this weekend is the Bonnaroo Music and Arts festival, or whatever hokey name they've settled on for a grimy, hot, overpriced music festival not called Lollapalooza or Coachella. They're webcasting the whole shebang-a-bang, which would be way more sweet if the webcast didn't freez or shit out every few minutes. It goes through spurts, but overall so far has not compared to the flawless Coachella webcast. I watched parts of Radiohead last night, in between frozen lapses and inexplicable 30 second repeated loops, and Das Racist today.

Both were enjoyable. I love watching Radiohead's Johnny Greenwood on stage, laboring over his guitars and other toys. I'd heard of Das Racist before, and they were fun as well...three scrubby looking guys rocking the stereotypical MLB flat-brim hats and mumbling indecipherable lyrics, minus a song about Michael Jackson and millions of dollars, and another song that sampled a Billy Joel tune.

Phish gets the main webcast on Sunday, but I'll be seeing the real deal later this month (twice) and seeing Radiohead on Sunday night, which will most likely serve as my next gushing blog review come Monday.