[ Friday, June 23, 2006 ]
Oh my God. Three days in a row. What's going on?[ Thursday, June 22, 2006 ]
I'm scrambling around trying to get everything together for this weekend. I'm not sure how we're going to get everything loaded in the Jeep. It looks like we're going to be gone a month.
Dave's on his way home. We should be leaving in half an hour. Especially since there are so many stops along the way (still have to pick up my dress from home). And the rehearsal tonight is an hour earlier than we'd planned.
This time tomorrow we'll be getting ready for the wedding, getting ready to witness Billie say Bye Bye to Singledom.
Congrats Bill!
~ Rebecca 1:29 PM [+] (0) comments
Ohh. I've been on cloud 9.[ Wednesday, June 21, 2006 ]
The Ani DiFranco concert at Moonlite Gardens in Cincinnati was amazing. The tickets were all general admission so after standing in line for about an hour and a half we entered the gardens & headed directly for center stage. We were in the equivalent of the second row. It was just amazing. I don't know that I can really put it into words, but seeing her performing live was the best birthday gift I've ever received. When she came on stage & started playing the guitar, I teared up. It was unbelievable.
The ride up there not so fun. It was so hot. Even with all the windows down, it was oppressive. By the time we got home last night, our legs were weak after standing in one spot for so many hours & we were stinky & absolutely wet with sweat. After thirteen hours of sweating all your body fluids out, nothing holds up. Nothing.
We made it home around 1:30 last night.
But it was at least 2:30 before we unwound & could go to bed.
Dave had a good time & I was so happy that he did.
As amazing as these last few shows have been, with Ani (second row) last night & The Black Crowes (third row) last month, I can see how it would be so easy to sell what you own & just follow the band.
It just takes you to a different place.
But tonight I'm in my usual place. In front of this computer with the dryer running its hardest, a heap of clothes beside me in the laundry basket waiting to be folded & the washer lid up waiting for another load.
The attempt to eliminate filth is important. (A half-hearted scribble that never really made its way into a poem.)
We're packing, trying to get everything together so we can leave for Berea tomorrow for Billie's wedding. Packing for the weekend is hard enough as it is. Packing everything you need for the weekend plus everything you need to be a bridesmaid is awful. I've got a list a mile long.
But I'm having fun tonight.
My playlist has grown over the course of the evening.
I started out with some Iron & Wine & now it's just gotten crazy. Neil Young. Canned Heat. Bob Dylan. Willie Nelson. The Band. The Allman Brothers Band. Buffalo Springfield. Johnny Cash & little George Jones thrown in. God we're rocking tonight!
So many good songs. I love it.
I love how they just take you back in time. To a certain moment. To a specific parking lot. To one person. Or maybe just a period of time in your life. A decade. A year. A month. A second.
Here's a line from last night that just floored me. Even with the heat I had chills.
"just show me a moment that is mine
its beauty blinding and unsurpassed
and i'll forgive every moment that went by
that left me so half-hearted cuz i felt it so half-assed."
That line just grabbed me by the shoulders & said "Listen, girl. Listen hard."
And I have.
I've been listening to that song today & thinking.
Thinking.
Thinking.
Thinking.
Last night I read a review of one of Ani's early albums, Little Plastic Castles. And one line in the review read 'Even if you're not a fourteen-year-old girl with issues, listen to this album.'
Isn't that all we are sometimes. Underneath everything. Sometimes we're still just fourteen-year-old girls with issues. Twelve years old. Eight years old. I think even when I'm old, I'll still feel like a little girl sometimes.
I hope so.
Playing 'Ring Around the Rosies' with Cody & Alana this week made me feel alive. Watching Cody laugh when he fell & try to say 'again' through the laughter--that made me feel alive.
And I loved it.
It didn't leave me half-hearted at all.
Cuz I didn't feel it half-assed.
~ Rebecca 10:37 PM [+] (0) comments
'a happy birthday to me a happy birthday to me' sing along everybody![ Sunday, June 18, 2006 ]
Today's my birthday & honest to God that was the song going through my head this morning when I woke up & made my way to the bathroom. Because even though I sometimes still feel like I'm 12 or 13 or even 16, my bladder knows I'm getting older & the john is my first visit of the morning.
I think from the 18th birthday on I've pretty much had the worst luck ever on my birthday. I remember quite a few birthdays in a row just sucking. The last 3 have not been bad though. And I remember thinking, maybe last year, that the bad luck birthday streak may have ended. Yesterday, I thought it was back. I had a beautiful day for the most part. Dad took my Jeep to have the air conditioner fixed & get an oil change while I watched Cody. On my way to pick up the Jeep & give his truck back to him I kept thinking about how great it would be to just turn on the air conditioner in the evenings after the Jeep's been sitting in the sun all day & it's 405 degrees inside there. I thought about how great it would be to not have my face melt off every day on my way back home. How my drive from Campton to Grassy Creek wouldn't be accompanied by the need to vomit. How I wouldn't have to drink 5 bottles of Gatorade just to make it through the trip without dehydrating or dying from a heat stroke.
Ok. So maybe I'm exaggerating a little. But on those days when it's crawling past 90, inching into 92, 94, it's m effing hot.
I took Dad's truck home. Went inside to get my keys. I asked "Did they fix it?" Dad just shook his head 'no'.
I heard my heart plop all the way down to the basement floor.
Then he handed me the $150.00 receipt which read 'traced wiring problem for a/c, worked a minute, then quit'.
I thought my head was going to go through the roof.
Twenty dollars for an oil change. One hundred thirty dollars for jack shit. I just bawled. I could still cry over it. I don't care to pay that much to have something fixed. But I hate paying that much for nothing. For absolute nothing.
So my heart was heavy last night.
But apparently, that was only day-before-birthday bad luck. Cause when I stumbled to the computer this morning & checked my mail, I had these waiting on me.
Oh, I was so tickled when I saw the subject line 'Tubing in Red River' in my inbox. Then when I opened those up I couldn't quit laughing. Technology is just the best.
So right now I'm doing laundry cause this afternoon we're leaving for Ohio to see Ani DiFranco. (The reason I needed the air conditioner fixed yesterday. I just hope we don't get stuck in road work or something, cause we'll die. Literally die.)
But I'm so excited about the concert!
Birthday concerts rock!
a happy birthday to me a happy birthday to me, everybody sing!
~ Rebecca 9:45 AM [+] (0) comments
[ Wednesday, June 14, 2006 ]
Today's Birthday Boy!
Cody turned three years old today. Last week I'd say "This weekend's your birthday!" He'd say "Please, please." I thought that was so incredibly cute. He had a good time today opening presents, swimming, getting to ride his new motorcycle, playing with balloons. When he opened his presents he oohed & ahhed over everything, even his new pens & markers & crayons & folders. That tickled me...to see him as excited about the smaller items as he was about the bigger toys. He's a special little boy. I don't think any of our lives would be the same without him.
~ Rebecca 11:03 PM [+] (0) comments
This was the scene beside our house this evening. The elderly couple we rent from have a huge farm strung up & down Grassy Creek. This evening they were cutting grass & baling hay. I don't think there's anything prettier than rolls of hay in a field.
~ Rebecca 9:05 PM [+] (0) comments
Dad's coming over in 30 minutes to pick up his tiller. Beverley's bringing my dress for Billie's wedding so I can try it on. She's redoing the bodice. She went with me to try it on for the second time. In the dressing room I broke down & bawled like a baby. I'm sure it was easily heard through the flimsy walls. The store owner, who when I first tried it on just gave me blank stares & said 'I don't know what else we can do.', still didn't seem to know how to alter a dress. We told her we could just take the top off & redo it. She seemed amazed. She seemed like a moron.
Dad let me & Dave borrow his tiller last week. Neither of us had ever operated one. As I went out the door Dad said 'Good luck. It's gonna shake you all over the place.' We got it up on the hill where our little garden spot is. ( Never mind that it's the middle of June & experienced gardeners have had their plants/seeds out a month before now.) The first row didn't seem that bad. The tiller was shaky, but it wasn't that hard to keep it in place. It took a long time to till the first row. By the end I was thinking 'What's all the fuss about?'. Dave started in on the second pass. About halfway through the tiller started whining. It kicked into overdrive & started slinging dirt all over the place. My eyes got about as big as saucers. I wished I had paid attention to Dad tilling at some point. I wondered, 'Is this normal? Does it do this all the time?'. We kept on tilling. It didn't slow down. It was my turn to take another pass with it. I did. But it was way more difficult to do. Hanging on the tiller was like hanging on to a big hyper dog trying to go this way & that. Every now & then it would hit a rock & bounce up. Finally, I told Dave he had to take over. I didn't want to pansy out but that thing was jarring the shit out me & walking me up & down that hillside. I talked to Dad the next day. Apparently, it's not supposed to go that fast.
So now we have some plants planted & a few seeds. We planted them Sunday after I came back from Billie's Bachelorette Extravaganza.
Cabin rental in June is almost impossible unless you book one early. It's been years since I've rented a cabin. We were pros at it at one time, booking one for a weekend & having awesome little parties. They're a lot more per night now. I guess that's okay if your a tourist. I kept waiting for someone to offer me the native discount though. As in, you're from here, I'll let you have it for less that $150 a night. That never happened. Every place to stay in the Natural Bridge/Red River Gorge area was booked for the weekend of Billie's Bachelorette party. We finally found a place. $82 a night. It looked like a little shack. The inside was straight out of 1977 & smelled just as bad. With a few renovations, the place could be cutesy & cozy & maybe $100 a night.
The Bachelorette weekend was fun though. We drove around Powell county listening to hits from 1995 & '96, laughed an awful lot telling old stories & just enjoying the company. Saturday we went fishing & canoeing in the gorge, a first for me. I was a little scared to try it & had decided that I would stay at the shack & let Billie & Sam go. Mandy didn't want to canoe either, so I figured I'd have company. In the car on the way to the gorge, I felt a little instant of 'Why Not?' so I said "I'm in. I'll do it." Mandy decided she felt comfortable riding in a tube behind the canoe. We were funny looking with three of us piled into the canoe & Mandy tied to it in a tube. As we started paddling up the river a man on shore took a pic & said "I've got to put this in the newspaper." I shouted my email address from the canoe. He wrote it down & said he'd send the pics. I so hope he does. I can't wait to see what a sight we were.
Canoeing was fun. A couple of times we had to get out & drag the boat across shallow spots. I got out to help Billie pick up the boat & fell forward into the creek. Everbody laughed. Billie got out to pull on the rope to Mandy's tube & fell forward into the creek. I got to laugh that time. By the time we were finished, we were all pretty much drenched. Except for Sam. Somehow Sam managed to stay dry.
We got ready to go get something to eat & head to the Silver Mine Saloon called Hosscat's by the locals. We swooped through Campton a couple of times before the bar. When we rounded the courthouse we spotted a guy ahead. Sam said, "Lord, what's wrong with this one?" He had what looked like bandages around his knee & the first thing that popped into my head when I saw those was that he'd been hit in the knees with a baseball bat. (Too many mafia movies.) When we got closer to him we saw that they weren't bandages at all, but bandanas. Tied around his knees with corner pointed down. He started hollering at us. GD, You're some hot M effers. We died laughing. Sometimes that's all you need to hear.
The Silver Mine Saloon had expanded since I'd been there last. They acquired a new layout & a new crowd. I didn't see many people from Wolfe County. Most were from Beattyville. We had a game we took to Hosscat's. It was a little spinner with dares on it. We customized ours. One dare was to "Do the Mullet Dance." We first encountered The Mullet Dance in Morehead at The Plaza, where we saw mullets of all creeds, types, religions & colors thrashing from side to side. At one point I had to do The Mullet Dance on the dance floor. It was much fun. I'm gonna do it more often.
One of the dares was to "Introduce yourself to a guy." However, Billie decided that she got to pick that guy & then proceeded to take pics of us introducing ourselves to designated guy. Sam landed on this dare several times. I landed on it once. But what a doozy she picked. Of all the guys in the bar, there was one & only one wearing a football jersey & a cowboy hat. She picked that guy. That guy was turned away from me talking to a buddy. I tapped him on the shoulder. When he turned around, he looked like he was going to knock my lights out. He never lost that look. I quickly told him what was going on, that I had to introduce myself & that we were having a bachelorette party for my friend Billie. His name was Arnold. Arnold had poor gums & grey teeth. Arnold scared the shit out of me. Billie didn't get to pick our guys anymore.
Hosscat's was fun. Not something I'd want to do every weekend or even once a month, but sometimes a little downhome country bar can be refreshing. Sometimes it reminds you why you don't go to bars much anymore.
The weekend was over too soon, though. We got our pics developed on Sunday. I got home around 4. We planted our little plants in the garden & told stories about our weekend. I showed Dave our pictures from Hosscat's. He's never been but maybe, nah, he'll probably not want to go there. Ever.
(There were 3 fights that night but the bouncers must have taken them outside fast. We never got to see even one of them.)
It's been longer than 30 minutes.
I thought I wouldn't be able to finish this but whattaya know, I did.
~ Rebecca 3:29 PM [+] (0) comments
