The Refuge was a welcome respite from the rest of the world. Friendly people, great sound, a beautiful space and a great little stage. Wonderful music and long-lost friends all together in a field just shy of Frederick, MD.
I had ups, downs, mood swings and guitar strings and all of the above found some harmony with one another. The show was looking endangered for a bit as rain loomed in the forecast, and then it retreated slowly, so that day-of we were back to our original schedule (fortunate, since as far as I can tell most of the ilyAIMYites who made it out came for the original time and would’ve missed almost 2/3 of our performance under the rain schedule – come on friends, read yer emails!).
I thought too much, worried too much, maybe even planned too much – but Rain (the host, not the atmospheric event) and Dan Skeen (our sound engineer) had done enough of the above that I didn’t end up with anything at ALL to think about, worry about or even really plan. Set list. You stand there, I’ll stand here – and voila – full band ilyAIMY in the house for the first time in 14 months. Frisbee while you wait? Why certainly! Jimmy Stewart to start you off? Well that WOULD be nice, thank you! How about some amazing chili? Oh Hell yeah!
Yep. T’was a very, very good day.
A ways after our set as Ricky Wise and his Dirty Unit swung into action, I was definitely feeling a bit burnt on human contact. Almost as if he had a sixth sense about it… or some sort of Hosting Superpower, the perpetrator of it all, Rain (aka Peter) asked me around to the front porch to settle up and just chat. That moment of quiet was exactly what I needed.
In addition to meeting lots of PEOPLE today I ALSO met Brooks! Oh yes – the wee dog of Lacey Anthony who’s been a frequent feature of my VOMs showed up on Lacey’s shoulder – and it was so strange to realize that UNLIKE the HUMANS I’d met through VOM, this little dog had NO impression of me and yet I felt like I knew him. Fortunately he was friendly – I think it would’ve just broken my heart if after a full year of getting to see him almost every week he didn’t like me!!!
