Sunday, September 06, 2009

4 states, 3 bands, 1 day!

Holy crap.

Saturday was INSANE.

I started out in beautiful Downtown Keene, NH. The boys of Instrument were playing Keene’s big music festival. Poor Ben was sick as a dog, but he managed to put on a hell of a show. “11th Hour” rocked!!! Proof again, that with the right sound people, that song is AMAZING. I’m wicked proud of them! They were a big hit with the event’s organizers and it sounds like they will be invited back.

We hung out a bit after the show and apparently, I have D-dar. (My ability to know where D was at one point amused Ben.)  Aaron, Amanda and I continued our bonding in a Subway over stolen sandwiches. We made Ben identify every dog we saw and D was blown away by his ability to find Walkers crisps in a candy store. (We got this entire lecture about how potato chips are called ‘crisps’ in London and how he had prawn ones when he was overseas.) By 3, the boys were exhausted so we had to part ways.

Which meant I had plenty of time to get to UCONN for the Marching Band Preview Show.  (By way of Putney, VT… there’s a yarn store right off of 91N that I had to check out.)

I spent some time with Melissa, Jersey and the kids before moving over to where Steve and Ellen were hanging out. I have to say that it was nice to see a lot of people I knew. So many that I hadn’t seen in YEARS - like since before Ohio. I was so amused - I was with Rittner and we sang the Alma Mater the RIGHT way. (We’re backing our MEN…) But… I don’t know. The band is this whole thing now - they have trucks and a pit and the drums are on stands during warm up. (Seriously, drumline, WTF?!) They’re so big! I mean, the drumline has a cymbal section leader, a bass section leader, a snare section leader and a tenor section leader. It’s just…weird. It’s like they’ve sold their soul to athletics. Oh wait, they did.

That said, I’ll probably rearrange my travel schedule to be back in CT on the 26th. It just seems like the right thing to do.

After the preview show, it was time to go to Hartford and see All Crazy.

I had so much fun at the show! I couldn’t stop shaking my booty and yes, “New Hampshire” was definitely in the house! Spent a lot of time talking to Soup afterwards. We talked a bit about Instrument, groupies vs. friends, and why the hubby doesn’t come out to play as much as we all wish he would. He said something that was kind of in line with what both the Honey and the co-worker had said to me. It really made me think - I’m still thinking about it and wondering how to get there from here. Like I said the other day, this wasn’t the life path I was planning on walking - but this path is MUCH more interesting. And it’s kind of similar to the path one of my (celebrity) heroes took to get where he is today. Hmmmmm.

Since I live so far away, and we have a habit of closing down the bars with the boys in the band(s), everybody gets worried about me driving home. While I am pretty stubborn about making it home, there are plenty of hotels along the Mass Pike and 495N. I’d prefer to not have to stop halfway home, but there is a VERY nice Holiday Inn in Boxboro that I’ll crash at anytime. (Highly recommended, btw.) Anyhoo, Soup always tells me that he worries about me driving home, so last night he gave me his cell phone number. I happily added him to my List O’ People To Text When I Get Home (which is getting incredibly long!).  The married woman scored a boy’s number!

So to recap - New Hampshire, Vermont, Connecticut and Massachusetts. Instrument, the UCMB, and All Crazy.  All on Saturday.

I get a couple of weeks off and then I’m Cincy bound, baby!