Seaside Sleepwalker

There is a song inside this body
It puddles around the heart and mind
It isn't beautiful, but it tells of truth
Sincere and serene
Each day brings a new line, if only I could remember
But clouds will be clouds, and pass on by

So I suppose I should introduce myself in this first little post of mine. After months and months of encouraging me to get a blog and start writing, Lindsay has won the battle and I am now officially blogging my life, stories, events, ideas, perspectives, likes, dislikes, songs, lyrics, poems, Haiku's, rants, blah, etc.

I am a 21 (almost 22) year old living in the dry desert heat we call Ahwatukee (Phoenix's suburbia "heaven"). In all honesty, it aint for me. Never has and never will be. I was born in Torrance, California, basically the Los Angeles coast town. The beach, the ocean, have always been my true home. If I was able to, Oceanside would be the place where I would currently be typing this as Lindsay works in her studio, Emerson sleeps peacefully, and our kitten runs around and attempts to climb the Christmas tree I have been too lazy to take down so far.

But for now I am living in Phoenix, with my fiance, love of my life... true SOULMATE, Lindsay Marie. We met twice, most notably the second time on the 4th of July at a mutual friends house. We are not your typical young couple, we have a beautiful son named Emerson Jude, whose shaggy blonde surflike hair is already attracting girls to him (No, seriously, I am in trouble, he is a stud). I work full time at a law firm as an aspiring paralegal (currently in the assistant stage). I study criminal justice at University of Phoenix. The most notable hobbies of mine are guitar (odd story, my first guitar was to be delivered on 9/11/01. Obviously, it was here a few days later.), getting tattoos, classic cars, anything surf or beach, skateboarding (I quit a while ago, really wanna start again.), and music in general. If I began to list my favorite bands or styles, it would be an essay so I wont really go into that too much. I currently am playing guitar in a band with two friends from a previous Circa Survive type band. Our style is along the lines of Jimmy Eat World (Clarity era), Brand New, Goodbye Tomorrow, Sunny Day Real Estate, old school 90s emo, etc. It's going ok I suppose, me and Steve have done previous projects before that ended up in me ending my part in it. I guess I just haven't found my true self in music. The stage is really all I care about, and the current progress is killing me because it's been since November 30, 2007 since I have played a show. It. Sucks. Seriously.

Musically, I have really been finding out what I have wanted to do lately. I have been reading up on alternative Zen Buddhism books such as Saltwater Buddha and Hardcore Zen lately and listening to immense amounts of melodic hardcore bands such as Sinking Ships, Comeback Kid (loved them for 5 years now actually), Verse, and Champion. I realized that, I really need to start doing vocals for a hardcore band. Not some tough guy thing, something that I can really sit down and write about my 21 years of life. Trust me, I have seen and experienced things you wouldn't believe. I will definetely touch base with MOST of those subjects in the upcoming posts. Basically, I love writing (Thank God Lindsay got me back into this) and I am a lunatic onstage. I believe there is one youtube video of me playing (If you search Brailen last show or something like that) and I ended up giving my ex best friend a concussion. Unfortunately that's all my proof of my on stage antics and honestly that was a very, very mellow me (last show, I didn't care). I have broken many guitars, amps, straps, walls, etc. and that's with being constrained by a guitar. Me with just a microphone.... now that is my zen. Chaotic, but still, my ultimate ZEN.

I have a lot more to write, but this is long and honestly I don't know how many will read it, but that is ok because this is definetly a good way for me to keep my writing in an actual organized website that I can never lose and forget about.

I'm sure Lindsay needs to go on now and do her thing as well, haha we are a blogging (almost) married couple. This is what happens when you are straight edge (Yeah, I finally admitted it after years of avoiding the title) in a town where all your old friends want to drink, do drugs, or end up changing too much for you to recognize anymore, this is our escape. She does a better job at this than I do though.

So yeah, this is the beginning of my blogging life. Hopefully I didn't bore ya too much. If I did, I apologize, if not, then hello and hope we become good friends :)

-Brian