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Mid-January, Rain - January 13, 2012
Almost Midwinter - December 14, 2011
Saturday, Noonish, Sunny - November 05, 2011
October, White - October 31, 2011
October, 2011 - October 04, 2011


October 19, 2004

11:46 a.m.

My Travelling Star

Thursday, October Seventh, 11:18pm

A rainbow of great proportions followed us here to Austin from Dallas this evening. As it finally faded, the sky grew amber and rose and sang in a great voice while the sun went down.

Our day began at 5:30 this morning, as we had to leave by 7:00 for the airport. We'd done all the last minute things the night before and were plenty tired. My payment for not enough sleep, and bad napping on two airplanes, is the sinus headache that has been recurring and plaguing me for several weeks. I dislike the thought of another three days of Prednisone if it gets worse again, but that was the only thing that knocked it out last time. I brought it with me just in case.

Beyond that though, and the fact that it's 80 degrees during the day and I didn't bring any shorts, things are great. The plane was a little delayed and Chris got lost with the rental car trying to pick us up at baggage claim (Dallas Fort Worth airport is a maze), so we got a late start on our two hundred mile ride to Austin. We were just in time for a little rush hour. I snagged another semi-nap in the large back seat until we found a place to have dinner, and we managed to get here after dark. We only got lost for a little while, and then we were at our hosts', whom we'd never met before. The man works at a radio station where we'll be playing next March, and his wife is a health care lawyer, acting as a much needed liaison between patients and the troublesome health care companies.

It's sometimes so interesting to me how we come into people's homes as complete strangers, and after a couple hours of talking find out the most amazing things. It turns out that this woman was stationed at Ramstein Air Base in Germany in 1969, the same time we were there. It sounds like she was in my sister's seventh grade class, though she didn't have the yearbook from that year. I have to ask Rose if she remembers this woman's name. And the way we found this out was so circuitous, talking about our respective mothers' deaths, my mom and dad's marriage, and then I happened to mention something about Germany. Then we talked about how, as military children, we so often have no one in our lives that was present when we were small, who remembers what happened to us and how the schools were and who our other friends were. This theme keeps coming up for me lately. Hmm.

So tomorrow we pick up a keyboard stand, then go collect CDs we sent from our friends' house, and then probably more (real) napping and then to the gig.

*******

Carol and I shared backaches from the strange beds; we opted to have me upstairs in their room on an airbed rather than in the living room on the slanted sofa. On the connecting flight yesterday we saw Ted Nugent, who was approached several times by fans and handed out guitar picks, probably with his name on them. He flew first class. Carol aspires to flying first class, since coach is so very tight and uncomfortable; Chris and I immediately knocked that idea down, saying that the flights were overwith soon and wouldn't she rather have the several hundred dollars still in her pocket? Still, if you're making enough for it not to matter, it might be fun.

I brought my guitar on both planes this time, and though they were full I still found a place for it in the overhead. And nothing was missing this time at destination.

We did the necessary errands today, stopping at Jonnie and Calvin's to pick up the CDs we'd sent ahead, and chatting for probably 45 minutes before continuing on. We'll be staying with them next week. They're the artists/architechts who turned their little one floor bungalow into a three story fantasy. I get to sleep on a futon mattress on the floor, in the studio where Calvin hangs his beadwork and sculptures. He said he has a new tapestry that's 8 feet tall, which will be hung by the time we get there Sunday. Jonnie is finishing up renovating another bungalow nearby, which she will then sell for a profit. Last time we were here it was in progress -- kind of mapped out but not much actually visible.

They're always full of amazing stories, and we'll have another big dinner/chocolate taste-off/dance party while we're there. I think this time we'll get Chris to marinate some scallops and shrimp, and we'll do shish kebabs outside, and Carol will make her famous tabouleh which we'll stuff into red peppers. Jonnie is very excited about a Kurt Weill/Bertold Brecht CD she's gotten, and then there's some Samba (or is it Mambo?) thing she'll put on for the dancing. All the wigs, props, costume jewelry, tutus, fuzzy animal slippers, percussion instruments and other theatrical paraphernalia are ready for the great debauch.

C&C always have a little argument about staying with her brother, who lives in town. He and his family are very very very devout Christians, the kind who will endeavor tirelessly to convert everyone in their field of vision. Chris is one of those who will willingly enter into debates about hell and sin and so forth, fleshing out the arguments like a philosopher, without any danger of getting converted. But he really doesn't like going there to visit for long. They're compromising by staying one night (while I get to be in Neverlandia already with Jonnie and Calvin). Their kids are home schooled and so sheltered from the world I think they'll be ill equipped to deal with it once they're actually in it. Carol's brother is very very very polite and conservative and for some reason he calls me "Miss (Last Name)" instead of "(First Name)." I was there one afternoon with them, maybe two years ago, visiting in the living room. It was very uncomfortable. There didn't seem much to talk about. They're not the kind of people you can just tell jokes to.

Anyway, I'm secretly relieved that I'm not enough in the family loop to have to honor this particular obligation. I'd rather go to Neverlandia where I feel soul-expanded and giddy and bawdy and joyous and there's a huge rosemary growing over the front rock ledge and the bathroom smells like lavender and there's always good wine at dinner and I get all sorts of ideas about how to use color in my apartment.

********

Some good news is that my resident sinus headache seems a lot better today, and as there are no red leaves here I'm hoping that's been the major cause. I love New England but I seem to be somewhat allergic to the Fall.

One of our hosts recently said she got a series of acupuncture treatments for allergies (or was it asthma? Doesn't matter, I have both) and it helped a great deal. When my budget settles down into something I can discern, I might look into that.

Almost time to make some sandwiches and head out to our first Texas gig. This is at a UU but it's not church related -- just a found space. We booked it a year and a half ago.

********
Monday, late afternoon

After a good night's sleep in the loft above Calvin's office (C&C are in the art gallery adjacent, as it turns out), I woke late to another gorgeous day, and everyone up and scattered. My mates were supposed to be staying over at Carol's brother's house, but things ran so late there, the cooking is so scary, the atmosphere so uncomfortable, that at 11:30pm they called to say they were coming back. Chris and Calvin stayed up a while, upstairs in the Bali Room, playing ping pong, but I went to bed and read for a while and then when things settled down, fell into a blissful sleep.

We had lemon grass soup from our favorite Thai place last night -- Calvin and I picked it up and brought it back -- and spring rolls. I'd had a(nother) unexpected bout of what I'd term "a cameo by Montezuma" -- I've been having this about once a week since I moved -- on the drive yesterday, so I wasn't sure what I should eat, but the soup was fabulous, and no repercussions. I also played my new songs for them, rather badly since I hadn't played them in a while, but they loved them.

Carol went early to yoga this morning so I didn't see her until lunch time, by which hour Jonnie and I had already hit the local thrift stores. I came without shorts, so I'm now the happy owner of two recycled pairs, and a top for each. My friend Red has told me so much about the Goodwills here -- New England's versions just don't compare -- and I lucked out. I'm not only climatically compatible, I'm stylish.

Speaking of stylish, Calvin has these fish pants I love. they're made of a sort of denim like fabric, only they're a little baggy like harem pants and they're printed with tropical fish on a sort of turquoise blue background. Jonnie said they come from a cooking store nearby, so Chris went out while the girls were shopping elsewhere and got himself a couple of pairs. This has spawned fishpant envy among the rest of us, and as we're having our semiannual Fete on Wednesday, we've decided we all need fish pants to be in the clan. So I guess tomorrow we'll have to get out to the purveyor of trout trousers and secure a couple more pairs.

I'm sitting here in the kitchen wearing my new favorite mask, which consists of a pair of black rimmed glasses with fuzzy pink eyebrows glued on and a big, green, rubber gorilla-like nose with upper teeth. One of the arms is missing from the glasses so you can't do anything really strenuous in them, but they're good for repeated laughs.

Chris is out back, where the workshop is, and I hear a sort of circular saw -- I wonder what they're making. Earlier, he helped Calvin hook up a midi keyboard that goes with a music program he recently got on Ebay. Whoops, I just heard a clank and several people say "Ow." I hope we still have the same number of guitarists in the house.

Carol is napping; it's almost 6:15 and we haven't made any moved toward dinner yet. They eat late here. We're taking out again from the Thai place. OH -- Jonnie took us to see Little Jo, which is the bungalow she's almost through renovating. It's so fabulous, and she either did or oversaw all the work on it. She got this roomful of tile for free, when Lowe's or someplace was trying to make room for a new shipment. So the kitchen and bathroom are wonderfully tiled, all by her. The light fixtures are also gorgeous, sconces and ceiling lights -- and she explained to me how to wire in a new fixture so maybe I can replace the old, plain, ugly ones at my place, on my own.

Later, rousing games of Boggle and perhaps some Running Ping Pong.

********

Midnight

Nothing more wonderful than a lavender and cypress bath, in the semidarkness, in the sunken bathtub, after running ping pong. I placed last in Boggle, though I did come up with some impressive words, and we weren't keeping score in ping pong. Carol and I tried playing lefty, and without our glasses; Jonnie and I went one better by playing lefty, blurred, and with one eye closed. Eventually Jonnie, who is still recovering from a long bout of asthma/allergies, sat and knitted while the rest of us played doubles.

Tomorrow we'll hike to a lake, and I'll probably go see a political movie called �Bush Family Fortune: The Best Democracy Money Can Buy,� while C&C go to her dreaded brother's house again for dinner.

It's getting down into what feels like the mid or low 60s at night now, which feels quite cool after the 80s day. In the back yard is a three story tower Calvin and Jonnie built; the top houses several solar panels (they had to build it that high because the trees are that tall) and a hammock. It's a great place to get some lying-down meditation in, on a nice day. There is also a fire pole in case one wishes to slide down instead of going down the metal ladder/steps. On the second level is a plank bridge with just chains to hold onto (kind of widely spaced and at waist level, so if you're prone to vertigo you won't try it) that goes to the balcony outside their bedroom.

It turns out that the workshop project that was going on this afternoon was Chris and Calvin, altering the keyboard stand. Carol uses a scissor stand, but we started having trouble checking it with luggage -- they used to bungee it to the keyboard case but it's cumbersome and the airline doesn't always allow it -- so this time we just bought one for $20 when we got here, intending to leave it somewhere and call it a travel expense. Then Chris, Mr. Ingenuity, got the idea to shorten the legs so it could be fitted into the lid of the keyboard case. So they were sawing them off and making removable inserts out of PVC pipe that can be assembled at destination. Voila: portable, packable stand.

********

Tuesday, 5:05pm

Good hike down some amazing limestone formations, to a river, and I forgot my camera so you'll have to take my word that it was splendid.

I finished Lucy Grealy's Autobiography of a Face last night, or rather this morning around 2am. It's a book I'd recommend, though it is wrenching. Lucy had a certain form of cancer in her jaw at age 9, and the resulting surgeries and treatments defined the rest of her life in ways that none of the rest of us will ever imagine.

I got into a little snit a few minutes ago over a press release -- our publicist needed something I had no idea she'd need before I left home on Thursday, and I don't have access to it, so I had to reconstruct something rather lame from our bio -- and I chose to get mad about it instead of admitting to myself and everyone else that I just didn't want to appear inept in front of her. Too bad we often get to the bottom of things after the fact, when it's too late to be really, really real.

Fortunately there will be plenty of other now moments in which to try again.

Incidentally, they make squirrels very large here. I just saw one out the back door that looked like a cat. And speaking of animals, our hosts are caring for a friend's dog this week and she's a beautiful Rhodesian Ridgeback named Rosie. She's a dark brownish red, and just the hair along her spine grows toward her neck instead of back and down. We took her, and their older dog Blue, on our walk today and they had a ball swimming in this very clear, light green tinted water. She's lousy at coming when called but is very good at fetching sticks.

********

We saw the Bush Family Fortunes movie last night; yet more reasons, if we needed any more, to stop the madness now. The writer for the BBC who made the film was there to answer questions and talk a little � of course I can�t remember his name right now. It dawned on me the other day that Connecticut is predisposed toward Kerry anyway, and my vote might make more difference if I lived in a swing state. Anyway I thought I pretty much understood about the Florida voting debacle, but there was more I didn't know about. There's always more when it comes to deceit and treachery, isn't there?

Chris was digestively challenged all night, apparently. This morning he woke up late and touseled, complaining that I gave him my "ass disease." I think he must have swallowed some green water yesterday whilst swimming.

And, I went to return a message from my friend Red last night, who is opening for us here tomorrow, and her (now ex-) boyfriend tearfully said she'd moved out the night before. I'd never met him; they had only been together about six months and were on the very verge of moving into a new house he'd bought. In the end I got one story from him and another from her, and while I know she has a history of instability, the truth in people's truth is laced with interpretation, so I decided it wasn't my job to interpret events.

We've had a spell of rain this morning but it looks like it's blowing over already. The sun's back out and I get to decide whether to keep my long sleeves on or switch to a t-shirt. We're grocery shopping for the Big Bash!! tonight, as well as looking into some shops -- I and my skinny purse. This is our last non-gig day.

1:47am

I won't be able to fend off the Go to Bed Fairy for very long, but a few notes about tonight... What a great Second Annual Fish & Chocolate Fling, this time with a couple of new guests and a magnificent cheesecake by Aaron, our friend and photographer. We didn't do any wild dancing this time; instead, we toasted marshmallows at the sunken fireplace and Jonnie showed us how she used to mangle a marshmallow back into its fluid state by constant kneading. Then it can be stretched like taffy between the fingers. Carol and Aaron joined in and I got some priceless digital movie footage (or pixelage) of Jonnie and Carol smearing marshmallow fluff on each other's faces, laughing wildly, while the dogs licked up the drips.

There were so many people this time, and the kitchen table is so small, that Jonnie fixed up the ping pong table upstairs for the eight of us. Having no table cloth large enough, she put a pastel floral print bedspread over it, then covered it in sections with her lace bedroom curtains. The whole effect was elegant. A couple of cool table lamps and a large, embossed, oval metal plate with candle centerpiece finished the picture. Huge dishes of grilled vegetables and tabouleh, feta cheese and olives, and a three pound slab of grilled mahi mahi appeared and disappeared. Then the cheesecake and of course the chocolate taste-off. I feel positively rotund.

Aaron helped me decipher some of the settings on my little camera, so I may be more adept in future at controlling light and color. He explained about getting a White Balance setting every time I shoot, so that for example low light settings won't keep making everything orange.

Our newer guests had to leave before the marshmallows. The rest of us listened to Bertold Brecht and Kurt Weill and Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. We discussed the many different kinds of toastedness for marshmallows -- like Alaskans have so many words for snow -- and the merits of getting the whole thing melted inside by the time it's brown enough on the outside, but not too brown. And the lights were dimmed and whoever felt the need could recline on one of the built-in couches for a spell.

Last of all, we went upstairs to look at a silly video that Jonnie and her sisters had made last Spring for their dad's birthday. It was badly filmed and uncut, just snippets of silliness or little sketches or songs, or impromptu tomfoolery, and had us in stitches. That, and the movies I took of the Marshmallow Caper tonight, reminded me of how irreplaceable the moment is, how important it is to pay attention -- certainly for the humor value, but no less for the marrow-sucking quality of each event.

********

Saturday morning, Marriott Courtyard, Dallas

Working out a slight headache before showering and collecting my mates down the hall for the much-awaited visit to IHOP. I've done all my data entry on the trip so there will be minimal tidying up when I get home. We've so far garnered 86 new names on the mailing list this trip. I think that's better than usual -- we're trying a different method of getting people to sign up, and doing a "free CD" drawing from the names before the last song of the night.

It all reminds me that I still have to address our problem with sending bulk mail when we get home -- just a little something I'm dreading, in case you wanted to know.

The Neverlandia house concert on Thursday was packed to the gills and

(got interrupted)

********

Saturday 10/16, 12:26PM

Toooo much time, I'm spending toooo much time with the band. I need to hear the timbre of other voices, see different faces, not be confronted with Chris's Inner Petulant Child and Carol's Absentminded Professor. It only brings out my Latent Bitch, who has secret conversations with my Hermit about how all the niggly things pile up and annoy me whenever I'm in anyone's company for very long. Anyone's. Even those I cherish most.

When I eventually write for a living, I'll stay at home more.

How can someone lose their phone EVERY OTHER DAY? And their glasses on alternate days?

Well, the good news is that Chris's virus/amoeba/bad thing has seemingly cleared up and he was able to eat a real breakfast this morning. We have one more gig tonight, a day off tomorrow, and then home Monday. And we played a good gig last night. We've sold out of our latest album so tonight we'll reduce everything else to $10 and take mail orders for $15. It's the "Going out of Texas" sale.

Sunday, late morning

Well, it didn't work. You just never know about a crowd. We're a little bit in the stix here, and they weren't a buying crowd -- though they were effusive enough, and the room was full. So much for unloading all the CDs before we leave.

This couple has had 14 foster children, a few of which they've adopted over the years. Right now they have four, and I think three are adopted and one just got here a month ago. That's rather amazing. Carol has a song she wrote about adoption -- all the kids in her family came from different circumstances -- and we decided to do it last night. Our hosts' son then wanted us to sign the back of his electric guitar with our silver Sharpie.

Okay, you all remember the Kung Fu series from the 70s, right? Those of you who were already born by the 70s? Remember at the beginning where it showed him growing up at the monastery, and he�d have to walk that long strip of rice paper and try not to make any marks? And his master would say, when he could do that, it would be time for him to leave? Okay. TV trivia question complete.

We're sleeping here in a popup camper. It's plenty large and is under a sort of carport area, adjacent to a large work building they call, for some reason, The Whale. That's where our bathroom is. They warned us we might hear coyotes last night, but what we hadn't counted on was every person's dog for about ten square miles, yarking away until the wee hours of the morning. Also, our respective beds are at either end of the popup, in those extension things that open up, and as they're off the ground (just on stilts I imagine), every time one of us shifted position in bed or walked across the camper, anyone in the other bed would feel a small earthquake and wake up. Between the barking and the yarking and the howling and the earthquakes, and Carol and I shuffling around in the total pitch blackness trying to find the door latch so we could go out and pee, none of us slept until possibly 2:30 or so, and even thereafter it was fitful. I kept getting trapped in uncomfortable positions because I knew every move would cause a seismic reaction on the other side of the trailer. When Carol came back from The Whale, she accidentally kicked the metal step outside with a loud CLANG; when, later, I got up to go out, I couldn't find the door latch because it's at about shin level; coming back, the door wouldn't close smoothly so I gave it one more tug and it slammed, and I whispered, "Sorry!" because I knew damn well they were awake. Then I heard Chris's voice from the darkness saying, "Kwai Chang, you have torn the rice paper! We work with you again tomorrow!" and we all burst out laughing, because it was 1:30 and no one had slept for even one minute yet.

As if that all weren't enough, around 7:30 or so the accumulated dew decided to pool up at the edge of the carport roof and drip loudly onto the 8" of popup canvas that was sticking out the side. At that point we pretty much gave up on consecutive sleep and just lay there until it was time to get up for omelettes.

So we have this free day, and it's overcast and no one knows if it will rain, but we missed the horse parade at 8am (hey, we were just getting to sleep) for their annual Trail Day. There's a vinyard but the weather might not cooperate, and we do have to go check out a possible venue for next year, so we'll do that and maybe see a movie. I have to say it's quieter now than it was all night, so there might be a nap.

********

Tuesday, home

Well, this entry was way too long, and thanks to anyone who has dragged their eyes all the way throug it. I thought of breaking it up but I have too much to do already � just slap the thing in there and get it overwith! What I was going to say about the Neverlandia house concert was that it was packed, and Red did a great opening set, and Jonnie�s father did another of his Pilsinski presentations � it�s a totally made up language that sounds somewhat Romanian, and he�ll tell a little funny story in English first and then repeat it in Pilsinski with all the same gestures and inflections and it�s a hoot. He used to entertain his daughters with this when they were growing up, and it turns out to be a wonderful adult diversion as well � especially since he�s not an actor or anything, he�s just someone�s elderly dad who�s funny as hell in a homespun way.

And, on the bottom line, I made a living the last two weeks, and that�s a grand thing; the glow that inspires is outshined only by the glory of being home.


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