I’m at Rowan’s again. I’m not quite sure how I keep ending up here. I really need to go visit my mom, hang out there for a little while, but I keep ending up at Rowan’s place.
This last week it was kind of understandable. I had to do a little bit of driving Rowan around – back and forth to Frederick, and in our current environment, staying at his place so that I’m not using gallons and gallons and gallons of gas is really a neccessity. Wednesday night I drove back from our First Stadium Gig (!) (not as big of a deal as it should’ve been, but still fun to say) with Rowan, peeling down I-270 and making good my getaway and listening to Tom Bianchi all the way home. But Thursday afternoon found us turning around and driving right back up again… Tinsmith had a show in Frederick at the WestSide Cafe, and on a whim, they’d asked me to open for them. Anything to occupy my brain right now is pretty much a good thing, and besides, maybe I’d sell some CDs, and I was gonna be up there ANYWAYS…
Frederick has its moments and its beauties. It’s odd, because it really projects itself as a small town, but I think it’s actually supposed to be the second-largest city in Maryland. I like winding through its streets, almost lost but pretty much knowing where I’m going – direction-wise if not literally turn-wise, and we got up to Rod Deacey’s club just in time to meet up with Brooke and set up for a sound-check.
Tiny audience, but a couple of ilyAIMY fans were there. Our friend John remarked that it was the first time he had ever seen playing out alone. I think I worked extra hard knowing that I didn’t have Heather to back me up, and I played a pretty hard set. The audience seemed pretty into it, and the owner, Rod, seemed very pleased too. I’m using the word “seemed” cause there’s a follow-up story that might not be exactly Journal material.
In any case, just as I was finishing my last four chords of LooseN… you know the one’s… the E minorish one, and then the C and F# and the G? But you know… with the capo on third, of course… right right… those… this gorgeous woman came in.
It had already been a night for eye-candy. When Rowan and I came to the door, laden with guitars and stands and merch, a woman opened the door for us with green eyes that literally caught Rowan and I up short, standing on the porch, I think we both took a step back and a gasp. The woman who works the bar, slinging coffee, also spectacular eyes…
But the woman who walked in was a goddess of piled hair and curls. I cursed the timing of my set, walked off the stage, and as I passed her table, I heard it…
She was the pterodactyl to my raptor!
We got to talking and I eventually ended up out on the front porch playing to her and her friend. They stroked my ego pretty effectively, but I was going to be smitten with anyone who did a good pterasaur call. She was a teacher, a painter… and I didn’t get her number. Just handed her a postcard and asked her to come to a show, like a dumb-ass, treating her like any other listener.
Sigh.
Friday night, Heather and I played at the Pourhouse in Westminster, MD. That was our two year anniversary for the Trip. I can’t believe we’ve been Living like this for two years. On the one hand, I barely remember another Life, but on the other hand, having survived this long has been a huge accomplishment. I have a couple of friends out there who have done it for longer, the record I think is ten years or so, homeless and wandering…. but most of my friends who’ve even ATTEMPTED to do anything like what Heather and I have done have given up at the two or three year mark.
Though, I guess by THAT definition, I hope to be “giving up” by the third year or so too – I don’t really want to go TOO much longer without a place to call my own… but I don’t see the finances coming together to support that any time soon. Maybe a friend will strike it rich and let me have a tiny room in their new mansion that I can call my own… a place to hang my toys and my strings and to close the door and close the world off and I won’t be beholden to ANYONE…
That’s beside the point.
Friday night looked to be a failure. Heather and I had planned a camping outing for a bunch of friends, a gathering sleep over thingie. Lots of things came down in the way of making that happen, unfortunately, not least of which being that no-one who was invited was interested. Add to that that absolutely no-one that we knew other than Heather’s family came out to the Pourhouse Friday night, and we were fearful that our two year anniversary was going to be a pretty sad affair.
Five minutes into the gig, the big noisy table o’ teenagers walked out in the middle of our first song, leaving a table of Lloyds and a table in the back avoiding our eyes… no sign of my pteradactyl, all sorts of negatives.
Thankfully, the Pourhouse gets a lot of foot traffic, and they were also having a drum circle later in the evening, so eventually the place filled back up again, and with a lot of rhythm oriented people who wanted to make some noise. We ended the night with Counting with about 15 additional people playing percussion, all of which managed to stop at exactly the right time!
Saturday night had no such silver lining. We played to the girl who worked there and a couple of friends of hers that came in to visit her, and again, a table of Lloyds. That was a really hard night because we’d invited the whole band out to Westminster, MD to play to about 4 people, one of which was being paid to be there.
Ugh – eyes unfocusing. I’m going to have to type some more later. Rowan introduced me to Half-Life 2 tonight… 6 hours ago… and I’m JUST writing this, and my eyes are
drooping… of course, I’d probably STILL be playing that damned game if that helicopter hadn’t dropped a fucking BUILDING on me. I swear, whoever the bad guys are, they sure have a LOT of resources to focus on little old me. Rockets and depth charges and men parachuting from the sky… I don’t like this fan-boat stuff, scares the Hell out of me… I keep fearing that the same thing’s going to happen as did in Alice – that some giant fish is going to rocket out of the water and eat me… I’ll scream like a girl, pull the plug on the computer and not be able to sleep for days.
Just like last time.
I’m not proud.
G’night.’
