(no subject)
I called in sick today. I didn't want to, but I got less than 3 hours of sleep last night before meeting Edie at the church at 9am for Dave's Memorial Service. He was cremated weeks ago, but today was the public celebration of his life. I helped arrange and set stuff up, and cried a lot and had a massive headache by the time we got things squared away at her house after.
It was very beautiful and very moving, and incredibly touching to see so many people there. Especially as it was on a Monday morning at 10, and everyone in this town either just got up, is just going to bed, or had to take time off. His best friend of 35 years spoke, and his hands were shaking, and he was so eloquent and touching, everyone was crying. Then Jovan . . . God. He did Let It Be by The Beatles on the piano, and sang it, of course, and it was gorgeous, but when he had to speak . . . He practically broke down, and it was so hard watching him. I was trying to be strong for Edie, but God . . .
Anyway. She said she was glad that part was over, now she just had to figure out the day to day stuff. Like bills and cars and paperwork and so forth. What a mess. Stupid life. Stupid death.
On happier notes:
Ginger got here on Tues, and we were supposed to go to sleep early so we could be bright-eyed to drive to San Diego at 3:30 Wed morning. That didn't happen. The drive did, just not the sleep. Giggled like maniacs until 1:30. So we went to San Diego with two hours of sleep in our systems and had a marvelous time, thank you. We did the zoo till 3 on the first day, checked into the hotel, crashed for 2 hours, then went to see The Matches.
Who, by the way, were gloriously awesome. I got goosebumps when Jon sang Darkness Rising. It was a great show. So much fun. Helped that Shawn remembered me from Vegas. He remembered stealing my camera-phone to take a picture in the bathroom. It was hilarious. Ginger gets all shy and quiet around them, so I did most of the talking, but between them, Shawn and Jon managed to talk us into going to the show the next night in LA.
Which was nuts. But we did. We checked out of the hotel a day early, went back to the zoo and saw the rest of the animals (pics to follow) and got really really lucky both days, because we had a lot of animal movement. They weren't all just sleeping and stuff. Also, we saw a guy propose to his girlfriend during the Sea Lion show. They pulled her up to do the volunteer stuff and get kissed by the Sea Lion and all, and then they called him up and he got down on one knee and she said yes and I went gooey. This can be a dangerous thing, but I was fine. Promise.
So we left the zoo, again at 3, and sat in the car for 3 hours up to LA. They played The Knitting Factory, which is a block away from The Chinese Theater and Walk of Fame and all, and the road was closed due to some Hollywood premiere (where we saw Monk from the other side of the sidewalk and Ginger got all excited) so we found public parking just up the crossroad by half a block. We got to the show just in time to see the openers (who were also fab, but more on that later) and saw Shawn who said hi and all and then they played again. It was great again, and even different. They changed a few songs, swapped them out for others, so it was nice to get a slightly different set. Plus they played Katie (said with a southern accent by me, apparently. Kay-tee) off the old album, which I wanted to hear last time they were here but didn't. Excitement abounds.
Then we drove home. Not fun. Midnight to 4:30. We got stuck behind a police-escorted oversize truck who took up 2 lanes for 40 minutes, causing a long line of cars. Was exhausted by the time we collapsed into bed. I so didn't want to get up the next day, but we kind of had to, cause we had tix to go see Panic. And wow, they've gotten better. I've seen them twice before and wasn't impressed either time, but this show was really good. Bden's voice was much much better, there were less theatrics and more songs, and it was a good mix of old and new. Now Ryan just needs to get his voice down.
Then there was a mix-up with Ginger's flight, and we managed a three hour nap before I had to take her to the airport at 8:30 in the morning. Always sad. I'm such a wuss.
Ok! So. This band that opened for The Matches. Well, there were two, and Scissors For Lefty were also very good and entertaining, but the first one Vogue in the Movement were so so good. OMG. Like, really good. I went a DLed their 4 songs after the first concert. They have these two band members . . . We didn't know their names (which are Ryan and Bryce) so we called them Hair and Stupid. Hair was sooo hot. It wasn't even funny. And poor Bryce. He's probably a really nice guy, but he was the bass player and all cocky and stuff on stage, and I looked at Ginger and said, "That's Ricky! That's Stupid!"
Ricky is a character I'm working on for a future book. He's the ex of a main character, and Bryce just embodied him. It was scary. But the band was really really good, so we made a point to talk to them the second night, and I've friended them and all on MySpace.
So that was that.
So, speaking of characters and Stupid and all, I've finally decided to do a writing journal. It's cda_cdj, and it's only got one thing up there, but check it or friend it if you want. If not, no worries. Most of it is/will be book related and all. We'll see.
And that's my past week. How've you been?
It was very beautiful and very moving, and incredibly touching to see so many people there. Especially as it was on a Monday morning at 10, and everyone in this town either just got up, is just going to bed, or had to take time off. His best friend of 35 years spoke, and his hands were shaking, and he was so eloquent and touching, everyone was crying. Then Jovan . . . God. He did Let It Be by The Beatles on the piano, and sang it, of course, and it was gorgeous, but when he had to speak . . . He practically broke down, and it was so hard watching him. I was trying to be strong for Edie, but God . . .
Anyway. She said she was glad that part was over, now she just had to figure out the day to day stuff. Like bills and cars and paperwork and so forth. What a mess. Stupid life. Stupid death.
On happier notes:
Ginger got here on Tues, and we were supposed to go to sleep early so we could be bright-eyed to drive to San Diego at 3:30 Wed morning. That didn't happen. The drive did, just not the sleep. Giggled like maniacs until 1:30. So we went to San Diego with two hours of sleep in our systems and had a marvelous time, thank you. We did the zoo till 3 on the first day, checked into the hotel, crashed for 2 hours, then went to see The Matches.
Who, by the way, were gloriously awesome. I got goosebumps when Jon sang Darkness Rising. It was a great show. So much fun. Helped that Shawn remembered me from Vegas. He remembered stealing my camera-phone to take a picture in the bathroom. It was hilarious. Ginger gets all shy and quiet around them, so I did most of the talking, but between them, Shawn and Jon managed to talk us into going to the show the next night in LA.
Which was nuts. But we did. We checked out of the hotel a day early, went back to the zoo and saw the rest of the animals (pics to follow) and got really really lucky both days, because we had a lot of animal movement. They weren't all just sleeping and stuff. Also, we saw a guy propose to his girlfriend during the Sea Lion show. They pulled her up to do the volunteer stuff and get kissed by the Sea Lion and all, and then they called him up and he got down on one knee and she said yes and I went gooey. This can be a dangerous thing, but I was fine. Promise.
So we left the zoo, again at 3, and sat in the car for 3 hours up to LA. They played The Knitting Factory, which is a block away from The Chinese Theater and Walk of Fame and all, and the road was closed due to some Hollywood premiere (where we saw Monk from the other side of the sidewalk and Ginger got all excited) so we found public parking just up the crossroad by half a block. We got to the show just in time to see the openers (who were also fab, but more on that later) and saw Shawn who said hi and all and then they played again. It was great again, and even different. They changed a few songs, swapped them out for others, so it was nice to get a slightly different set. Plus they played Katie (said with a southern accent by me, apparently. Kay-tee) off the old album, which I wanted to hear last time they were here but didn't. Excitement abounds.
Then we drove home. Not fun. Midnight to 4:30. We got stuck behind a police-escorted oversize truck who took up 2 lanes for 40 minutes, causing a long line of cars. Was exhausted by the time we collapsed into bed. I so didn't want to get up the next day, but we kind of had to, cause we had tix to go see Panic. And wow, they've gotten better. I've seen them twice before and wasn't impressed either time, but this show was really good. Bden's voice was much much better, there were less theatrics and more songs, and it was a good mix of old and new. Now Ryan just needs to get his voice down.
Then there was a mix-up with Ginger's flight, and we managed a three hour nap before I had to take her to the airport at 8:30 in the morning. Always sad. I'm such a wuss.
Ok! So. This band that opened for The Matches. Well, there were two, and Scissors For Lefty were also very good and entertaining, but the first one Vogue in the Movement were so so good. OMG. Like, really good. I went a DLed their 4 songs after the first concert. They have these two band members . . . We didn't know their names (which are Ryan and Bryce) so we called them Hair and Stupid. Hair was sooo hot. It wasn't even funny. And poor Bryce. He's probably a really nice guy, but he was the bass player and all cocky and stuff on stage, and I looked at Ginger and said, "That's Ricky! That's Stupid!"
Ricky is a character I'm working on for a future book. He's the ex of a main character, and Bryce just embodied him. It was scary. But the band was really really good, so we made a point to talk to them the second night, and I've friended them and all on MySpace.
So that was that.
So, speaking of characters and Stupid and all, I've finally decided to do a writing journal. It's cda_cdj, and it's only got one thing up there, but check it or friend it if you want. If not, no worries. Most of it is/will be book related and all. We'll see.
And that's my past week. How've you been?