Your comments and responses to the stuff I have sent in or posted means a lot to me. I am still floored by Aunt Renee’s first line to her comment on my video. And Mama J, that video you had Gina send me, was so cool. My wife and I were able to watch it together on messenger earlier. There is that line in the song, something about wishing on the same bright star, it’s totally true. My wife and I talk about looking up at the sky at the same time all the time while I am here. And Gina, thanks for letting me contribute. Being where I am right now, it’s tuff to feel apart of something back home…I am watching my son grow and learn to walk through photos and webcam, and that’s hard for me. Being able to feel apart of this makes my days better here. Thank you so much, seriouslly…thank you. I now understand why Chi is fighting so hard, I would never want to leave this family either.

I have the embroidery place here and i had these tabs made that say OneLoveForChi on them and me and my friends are going to wear them on our uniforms everyday, they will be under our shoulder pocket flap cuz they can’t be visible, but we wear tabs there all the time that say our platoon motto or nicknames. Here are pictures of them:

And lastly, last night on mission, I wrote something while we were waiting to head back to base, just some stuff I was thinking about dealing with Chi and how him and the band became a apart of my life. I wanted to share it:

So I am just sitting here, looking at the stars and waiting to finish this mission and head back to base. I am listening to my iPod and the Deftones are playing of course. I was just thinking about Chi and for some reason right now, I can hear every note he is playing. I can almost see him jumping around the stage and pickin’ that bass. I remember the first time I heard the ‘Tones. I was like 13 or 14 and it was on MTV, when they used to play music. It was the video for My Own Summer. I remembered thinking it was the coolest video ever and what the hell are they doing in that water with that shark swimming around and that dude has some crazy dreads! But there sound was so different than the other stuff that was being played back then. The next time I heard them after that, I was like, “Oh, these are the guys with that dude with the dreads.” I was hooked. I wanted dreads too. But that never happened. But I was sold on a new style of music, and it really changed things for me…though I wouldn’t know how until years later. I started dressing different, tried to take up skateboarding, even tried growing a goatee, but my dad always made me shave the “dirt” off my face. I made new friends who liked that music and it was great. Still friends with most of them to this day. We even tried starting our own band during and after high school. But we were too busy having “fun” to practice, but we all still play, I even had my wife mail my guitar to me over here in Iraq. I don’t mean to say that the Deftones changed my life or anything, but when I saw that video and heard the music, it definatley had an impact on me. Fast forward a few years, I started dating this girl in the fall of 2003. After about a month of dating, we went to a Deftones show with a bunch of my friends. It was our first concert together and we even had like a tail-gate party before the show. We were all playing beer pong and all that good stuff at like noon. Got to the show, and I ended up super drunk some how. I was wearing sandals and thought it would be fun to venture into the pit during Poison the Well. Well, I lost one sandal and my new hat and lost my big toes toe nail. But I didn’t care and actually didn’t realize the toe thing til the next morning. After we got our faces rocked off by the Deftones,  I found my sandal in the wake of destruction…but not the hat. We were driving back to my friends house to continue the all day/night Tones fest and I started feeling sick…and I was so embarrassed that I might puke in front of my new girlfriend. She noticed me starting to dry heave…as did my friend who threatened to kick my ass if I puked in his brothers truck. Well, she noticed and took off her sweater and held it under my face! Needless to say, no vomit from this guy in her sweater that night, that would killed everything! But, that night…that is when I realized that she was different than the other girls I had met. Not just cuz she offered her sweater to use as a hefty bag, but while at the show, holding her in my arms and listening to the “Organized Chaos” which is the Deftones,  seeing her enjoying “my” band and singing along, I just knew. Six years later we are married and have a beautiful son and have done so much together. Now, that may just be a boring old story to most, but to me, its my story and I will never get tired of repeating it. When I heard about Chi’s accident, I was shocked. I mean, I don’t know the man, don’t have a cool story to tell about meeting him like other people, but I was just shocked and sad. This is my band. There is no way he isn’t in the studio finishing the new album with the rest of the guys. Don’t get me wrong, that Vega is a bad ass bass player and a good friend of theres, but he is not Chi. And I know that’s not fair, but it’s the truth. When I saw video footage from Bamboozle last month, they sounded great and Chino looked thinner. But who was that guy just standing off to the side holding that bass guitar? There is usually this wave of energy and hair jumping around on that part of the stage. I don’t know, I have mixed feelings on how the band is moving on…but everybody copes differently. I just can’t wait until Chi recovers. I know he will. There is no doubt in my mind that our brother, as I call him now, will be putting smiles on faces again. I read in a previous post on the OneLove site that if God wanted him he would have taken him already. I cannot agree more, he is still with us. He is teaching us all something right now by doing nothing at all. Look at all the support that site has received! All these stories, all these people wanting to help and pray for him. There is that little graphic at the bottom of the pages with the little hearts showing where all the visitors are from…every single continent on this earth has a heart on it. (Still cracks me up to see Iraq on there though all alone.) But my wife see’s that and knows it’s me. But what he is teaching us is that there are so many caring people in this world who can come together for one cause. Race, creed and social status means nothing right now. Especially with the way things are right now in the world, it is amazing to me. I cannot wait to read in an email or blog post that he took another step forward, and another. But right now, just like I am doing at this moment in Iraq, we are waiting. Patiently, some more than others, but we are waiting for you Chi…and we will all be right here when your battle is over and you have been declared the winner.

OneLoveForChi,
Matt

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