Rapid City, SD

Jeanne was at 4 cm dilated yesterday so we had to head out quick. Plan was originally to drive to Mitchell, SD then see how it was. After talking to some people we decided to go to Wall, SD which makes it about a seven hour drive. This is on top of being up since four in the morning, working at the grill for breakfast, then Ted & Wally's where I froze about eighteen ice creams (with a big special order for a festival) which put me finishing just before 5 pm when Jeanne called, and a total of about 25 miles of biking.

Anyway, we made it to Michell and Jeanne was better so we stopped here about 2 am and crashed immediately. In fact, Jeanne's contractions stopped once we left Omaha, but it's good to be out of town.

She didn't go to the concert Friday, so I went with Todd since we've not hung out as we're on opposite schedules at the grill. I got off of work at TW's at 3 and dropped Jeanne and Ayana off at her mom's, picked up beer, went home, showered, and went to get Todd. Todd was not answering his phone. I stayed outside his place for a while, kept calling him. Finally he answered and had just gotten off and was about to shower and realized his ringer was off. I went into his place and had a beer.

Once showered, we drove to the hospital so he could give Sam his keys and took a while. I texted him that we needed to leave as it's now about 5, and the concert starts at 6:30 and we needed to prime ourselves. Sam and his girlfriend came out heading back to their place then Todd came out. He had a footlong Subway that Linda gave him with tons of meat on it and said Hanook was telling him not to get me drunk.

We stopped at Bucky's so Todd could get his deal and then headed over to the casino. De La Soul was starting soon but we just got there so we parked at the end of the parking lot next to some bushes and drank and ate. After about an hour, I poured a cup full of gin and we walked in and De La Soul had just finished. By the time we walked around to the entrance and got in, Public Enemy was just taking stage so I quickly worked my way up front. Once they started I did my pogoing deal to work my way up. I ended up next to some guy who doesn't like people rocking out to music at a concert, which I pointed out to him when Todd caught up later.

Public Enemy was great. They had a DJ plus a band so it was rocking. They also were able to play the "Bring tha Noize" version they did with Anthrax. "Shut 'Em Down" was crazy. Flavah was great and they were both next to each other rapping and doing their stuff. I hate that Flavah did that reality show and people (of course) have this image of him as a crackhead when he's just zany and realizty shows will (of course) show the more entertaining aspects to an audience. He's smart and on point and you can tell by his monologues throughout his set. There was some article a bit back that talked about how this guy was surprised because Flavah was a good cook and made amazing fried chicken. As if he's some fucking idiot who couldn't pull shit together because of some lifestyle choices and character flaws.

Ice Cube's set was beginning to end crazy. He opened with "Natural Born Killaz" which I did not expect him to play, since he did it with Dre, but he had a dude with his crew. So from the first song I was jumping around and rapping along. Part way during the set it went silent and heard, "You are now about the witness the strength of street knowledge," and I went beserk. He went into "Straight Outta Compton" and did just his part, but taking me back to seventh grade being one of the first gangsta rap songs and album I got into, it blew my mind. I took some pics that look like some guys flashing the West Side deal. But if you look close, the hands are eighty times bigger than others. This is because Ice Cube had inflatable West Side hands on stage. He played a good amount of stuff from Predator which is my favorite album, so I was all right. The stage was right off one side of the casino and there's all these kids looking out their window at the performance. He closed his set with "It Was a Good Day" and the place went off.

Ran into Dave Goldberg, my friend Erica, and Jaime from work.

Finally made it to Rapid City in our hotel and went grocery shopping, ate, showered, and timing these contractions. Super tired.