G: June
24th Tuesday: Molly comes to stay with me and Katy while the Looneys
and Alison go to Origins. She's distracted by treats when Alison
leaves, a few moments later notices and runs around the whole house
looking for her, then settles in by my side as if to say, "okay, I'm
with you now."
I take John to the airport very early the next morning.
The
next day, Thursday the 26th, I pick up Amethyst at noon and we head
over to XM studios for a free concert/album recording of Carla Ulbrich.
I got notice of this through her mailing list. After my experience at
DC101 the week before, I was unprepared for how nice, fancy, and hugely
extensive these studios were. We saw her show and laughed and clapped,
then went on a tour of the whole place with her. Not only were there
countless radio studios, we got to see different departments and their
cd library. Someone in one department gave everyone on the tour a free
cd. I didn't feel the need to so I didn't interact with Carla, but
Amethyst told her how much she enjoyed the concert. We had a great time
and hoped to get invited to more such things. We might be on someone's
list from XM now so fingers crossed.
Rich had sent along an
invite to a free comedy show in Bethesda for Saturday night, so I went
to where it was and looked for it. I missed it at first because the new
comedy club (family friendly, clean comedy) was in the building that
used to house Thyme's Square, a restaurant I hadn't been to in quite a
while but was planning on eating at the very next day with Izolda. So,
that was fortuitous, finding that out the night before and not going
there and finding out while hungry.
So, I saw Dave Wade as I
came in, and Rich showed up a moment later. We got seats and hung
around for quite a while before they announced that the show would
start an hour late. So we left to find some food or beer. Rich and Dave
got something at Potbelly Sandwich Works. I needed to go move my car to
a longer meter, so I left them there and after moving my car (and
accidentally paying for over an hour longer than the meter needed to be
paid for) I walked around looking for something snacky to eat.
Eventually I got some potato chips at a Starbucks in the Borders, went
back and found they were selling samosas at the show. Anyway, I didn't
expect much at a free, clean comedy show, but the MC wasn't bad, the
first guy was a bit better, and the headliner,
Joey Vega, was quite
enjoyable. He did do some adult situation matter and innuendo, but no cursing. So that was fun!
So,
Izolda and I picked a new restaurant for Saturday to have lunch. I'd
always wanted to try Java Green, and she wanted to go to Montgomery
mall and get an ear piercing.
Even though they weren't anywhere
near each other, we had the time so we head out. There was a backup on
the B/W parkway, so I pulled off to try to find another route with the
TomTom. After driving in circles for 20 minutes, we got back on the
parkway, it didn't look that bad anymore and it really wasn't. However,
we missed another turn on the way into the city and ended up on the
wrong side of the river. It took us a lot longer than it should have to
get there, but the menu was exciting. Also, expensive. And, we both
ended up not thrilled with the dishes we got - but I still think they
have stuff I would like. I really liked the vegan chocolate milkshake,
but I can make that at home. I got a dessert recommended by the
cashier, and it was pretty good - a vegan raspberry cheesecake. Iz
couldn't believe I didn't get one of the many chocolate offerings. I'm
not sure why I didn't. I just took the word of the cashier that the
cheesecake was best.
Getting out of the city and to the mall was
a bit more trouble, but we made it and had a nice time. I got some Rock
Star soap at
Lush
(loved it when Petra brought some to me from England many years ago), a
couple of pairs of cheap sunglasses, and we tried out a new place that
sold shaved ice, coffee drinks, and gelato. I had them make me a frozen
blended decaf soy mocha (which I can also make at home, sorta) and
Izolda had this thing they make with gelato at the bottom and flavored
ice on top.
That night I went to a party that Dorian invited and
took me to in Riverdale. It was the birthday party of a woman named
Tina I knew a little from the Festival of Lights craft fairs - she
makes and sells fused glass jewelry. They had a Johnny Cash cover band
playing, and they were pretty amazing. Sounded just like him. There was
lots of food and I had sangria and ciders. As a storm rolled in
everyone got everything inside and the party continued. I hung out with
my friends from Greenbelt plus some other folks I don't see much, like
Becky and Judy. I had a very nice time and we stayed pretty late.
I
don't have any more notes from that weekend so I don't think I did much
except hang out with the doggies, taking them on long walks in the
woods.
The next Wednesday I went to Thom's and he and his kids
and I drove to Georgetown to the 1789
(http://www.1789restaurant.com/main/index.shtml) for a surprise
birthday party for John's stepfather David Strother - his 70th. I
didn't look up the place before I went so I didn't know it was quite so
fancy. My brown slacks, brows stretchy shirt, and nice sweater did
alright, though. All the guys were in suits and the ladies in dresses.
Oh, well. I had some champagne and a lovely, delicious, exquisitely
prepared but rather small dinner of vegetables and fava beans. It was
well rounded out by hours devours, bread, salad, and dessert, though.
And it was nice to sit with and talk with May, James and Kristen.
Friday
was The Fourth of July First Friday held at Marlene and Kevin's place
near Front Royal, VA. I drove and brought Katy and Gary Bumblebee. When
we got there we set up our tents. It was a great, wild party. There
were fire poi and hula hoop performances, a big bonfire, some
fireworks, food, neat people dressed funny, and a fair amount of dogs.
A pair of little eskimo dogs were there and one took quite an interest
in Katy. Although old and neutered, he tried to hump her repeatedly.
His owner was pleased as the dog didn't generally like other dogs and
had been showing his age recently. She was happy he had such a good
time, and Katy didn't mind. There were also a pair of pugs, the
household dog Dusty, and Molly, who was there, of course Andy, Kristin,
and Alison. Later the eskimos left and a big sweet black lab showed up.
I
had a good time, but felt tired and turned in a bit early. That didn't
work well since I'd been used to staying up much later, so the music
and noise from the party ended up keeping me awake. When I'd finally
drifted off, someone came over and started unzipping my tent, waking
me, then walked away calling out, "Hey which tent did you guys say I
could go sleep in?" The music was still blaring quite loudly, at 3 in
the morning, and I started to get irritated because there really was no
reason for it by then. The party had died down to a handful of people
chatting around the fire, and the music was this grinding rave music
that just churns on and on with that heavy beat. It was great for
earlier when there were performances, but not really good for anything
else going on (unless there was dancing, which there really wasn't).
Finally around 3:30 someone turned it off and I went to sleep. But Katy
woke me up around 6am wanting out of the tent. After a while I got her
back then had my best 2 hours of sleep then got up. There isn't much to
report from the morning and I took a long nap when I got home.
That
night (Saturday July 5th) I went to the New Deal with Chris to see a
belly dancing show - or at least that's what I thought. But really it
was belly dancing type music - a really great band playing it - with
occasional belly dancing. Sage performed and so did a couple other
people. It was a nice night. Afterwards, Chris and I went to Ralph and
Mary's new house for his birthday party, which had been going most of
the day, but we only stayed a little while (and danced a waltz to Ralph
& Co. playing) because I was exhausted.
On Sunday I was present in my studio for Greenbelt's
Artful Afternoon, except when I snuck down to the gym to see a
comedy juggling show featuring doggies.
That
evening I went to Renee and Alex's to rehearse because like last year,
we were going to be the cheerleaders for Smells Like Nirvana at the
*two* Weird Al concerts the upcoming weekend. We had one more rehearsal
during the week, and we were ready. We changed a couple of little
things in the routine, making it better in both of our humble opinions.
On
Thursday July 10th, it was Kristin's birthday at the Looney's and so it
was time once again for the cake-stravaganza (my birthday and
Renee's were coming up soon). Andy made a vegan chocolate cake for
me, a chocolate angel food cake for Kristin, and started a new
tradition of taking the egg yolks that he used to have no use for from
the angel food cake and making creme brulee for Renee (who doesn't eat
chocolate).
Friday
(July 11th), Izolda, Renee and I had lunch at Pita Pit, then got
pedicures and stuff. After a couple of errands Renee and I drove to
Baltimore and got to the Pier 6 Pavillion at 5pm. We had a few
horrible, terrible moments outside the gate. We learned over a security
guard's walkie-talkie from the previously barely communicado dude who
was in charge of "hiring" us that since they could not get a hold of me
via phone that day, they'd hired some other dancers for the parts. We
were in a bit of a panic, with me calling people I knew on the inside
trying to at least get some tickets left for us, until I saw Rachel,
Al's wardrobe mistress and cheerleader wrangler on the other side of a
barrier nearby. I called her over, quickly explained the situation, and
she let us right in saying, "Oh, well you guys got here before the
other dancers, you can be the cheerleaders." I think the
misunderstanding boiled down to her not being informed that since we
were experienced and ready to go, we didn't plan on getting there early
in the afternoon like they usually have the dancers do, so that they
can work out a routine and rehearse it. I had told the dude from before
that we would arrive later, and he said I should "do what I must."
Anyway, we were quite shaken, and I felt a need to take over the
dressing room in such a way that if the other dancers showed up, they
couldn't really displace us, despite Rachel's assurance that she would
take care of everything...
But we calmed down after a while and
went to catering. There we saw Steve (the bassist) and told him our
tale of woe. We hung out, and Renee chatted extensively, with Jim (the
guitarist), and Al showed up with his family soon after. He apologized
to me for the mix up and said it was all taken care of and not to worry
about it. I finally got to meet his daughter, and his wife mentioned
that a few days ago she'd just drank out of a mug I'd made and given
them. Al's daughter is about the cutest little girl evar.
Later I apologized to Rachel and made arrangements for us to show up late the next night as well!
The
stage manager, Hammer, checked on us every once in a while, and at one
point he took a little break and hung out with us in the dressing room.
That was pretty fun, he showed us some amazing tattoos on his arms of
various old horror film monsters, plus the girl from The Exorcist.
We
weren't able to watch the show from backstage, but from audience seats
with views that were nearly completely blocked, from the side of the
stage. Not really being sure when our song would come up, we stayed put
as we were to enter the stage from near there. However by the time we
got on we both had to pee really bad. Fortunately the adrenaline from
being on stage made us quickly forget.
Right before going on,
Hammer said something about it being nice to be working with women for
once, that he was sick of all the young girls they usually get. He was
in pretty high flirt mode with us.
As we waited in place, in
character (looking bored and unhappy), Steve came over to me and said,
"I guess now we see who got to be the cheerleaders!" Making me break
character and smile, but also relaxing me a bit.
The song
started and we did our routine and I thought I heard some loud cheering
and I imagined it was Amethyst (and it probably was), walked off to
backstage and headed towards the bathrooms, but not before giving each
other a hard (and painful!) high-five, because we both nailed it and we
both knew it. We were both pumped and excited and changed quickly and
headed back out to the audience area. I bought John and White and Nerdy
t-shirt and Renee got one for herself too. Then we went and found some
of our friends in the audience and sat down behind them. After the show
we graciously accepted all the accolades from everybody, then went back
to the dressing room too get the rest of our things. By the time we got
back out all our friends had been herded to the meet and greet waiting
area and we caught up with them there and almost everybody got their
picture taken with us. In attendance: Rich, Izolda, Dorian, Amethyst,
Donald, Valerie, TVTom, Janet, Kevin, Christian, and Laura (who we all
met that night). We got herded through to meet Al, and then slowly made
our way out to the parking lot. A few of us ended up going to Platos -
Kevin, Janet, Tom, Renee and I.
The next day (Saturday the 12th)
I went to XM studios to see a performance and interview with Al for
their
Artist Confidential series
- Al had
put me on the invite list. I went to get on the parkway and it was
nearly stopped - and there was a helicopter overhead, so I am afraid
there was probably a terrible accident. I drove over to Kennilworth and
got on the parkway further south - and got there fine, a little late
but not too late to get in. It was funny, I knew somewhat what to
expect from my experience just two weeks before, but that had been so
casual I imagined that going to this would allow for some hanging out
time with Al. Instead it was very regulated so that the audience was
seated and waiting for the show, and afterwards Al left before any of
us could. Well, I imagine he left to the green room at least. Anyway,
it was a really neat, intimate show with maybe 40 or 50 people. The
interviewer talked to Al for a while, then would segue into a song (the
whole band was there performing), then would allow audience members to
come up to a mic and ask questions. I didn't know we'd be able to ask
questions, so I didn't prepare any in advance, and as the interview
went on I tried to think of something I could ask that would be
interesting, something I didn't already know, and not too personal. I
thought of asking something about his Hawaiian shirt and Van's shoe
collection, but a few minutes later the interviewer brought that up! So
I thought some more. I got up and in line to ask a question, but right
before they got to me, the interviewer asked how Al got into Dr.
Demento. He said a friend had recommended it to him, saying he would
like it, which he did and was hooked. He said his Mom didn't approve
because there would be some off color songs, so he'd listen under the
covers on a clock radio. The interviewer made some remark about that.
So when it got to me, I said I used to do the same thing with a clock
radio and a tape recorder under the covers, taping his songs off of Dr.
Demento (I didn't mention that this was because it was so late on
Sunday nights that I should have been sleeping). Then I asked if any of
his extended family were accomplished musicians, and if he was
encouraging his daughter to take piano or accordion lessons. He
basically said no to the first part of the questions and that his
daughter had just started piano lessons.
They did 5 or 6 songs
interspersed in the interview, including Wanna B Ur Lover, where Al
serenaded probably every woman in the audience, and when he came to me
stood up on my chair above me gyrating. It was funny.
Afterwards
as I milled about the lobby wondering if there was going to be a meet
and greet, or what, Ruben came out to see a friend of his, and we
chatted a little. He teased me for saying "Hi, I'm Gina" when it my
turn at the mic, but we were supposed to introduce ourselves, and I
figured that was better for radio and all. Not much later we were asked
to make out way out. Which I didn't mind doing because I wanted to get
to WedCon.
I drove out to the beltway and around to Bethesda to
Dominic and Karen's house. They were recently married and having an all
day gaming party to celebrate with their friends.
I was hungry
when I got there so I said Hello and Happy Marriage to the hosts and
then started making a hummous sandwich. Dominic said it looked good so
I made him one too.
I talked to Dave, and he called John, who
was on his way home from Canada that day. By then he was on the shuttle
to Greenbelt and said his Dad was going to pick him up and take him to
dinner and then he'd come to the party. I figured he'd get there after
we (Renee, Alex, and I) had to leave to get to the Warner Theater. But
we would come back to the party and I'd see him then. I went downstairs
and there were a lot of people there playing games. I started up a game
of pool with Dave, and RnA joined us after one game. I'm not very good
at pool, but I seemed to be better than the rest of them and I kicked
asses. Around 5:30 we left.
We
didn't have as much time to get ready so we got to it, and we couldn't
get a spot offstage to watch the show from, and we knew when we'd go
on, so once we were ready we were pretty relaxed, chatting with the
Storm Troopers (for The Saga Begins), the band, practicing a little,
and just hanging out near the stage but not close enough to see much.
But we made our own fun. I realized once on stage and dancing around
again that just like the night before, I started sniffling from the
fake smoke. I didn't feel like I was quite on target as the night
before but still put on a good performance. Kevin captured both
performances, like last year, and
here is a video playlist of all three performances. Unfortunately, the best performance is the darkest and you can barely see us. :(
So
we did the whole after show thing with our friends there (Kevin, Alex,
and Margit), with lots of pictures and then we were off back to the
party. We invited Kevin and I went with him. When we got there I went
looking for John immediately - people said "he was right here a minute
ago," then he came out of the bathroom and we had our huggy kissy
reunion.
Later we played GiftTrap, and talked with people, and
were among the last to leave. It was a great party! Since then, things
have been pretty normal. Went to the farmer's market and Dance night on
Sunday. That's about all.
All caught up! Yay!