I probably should read back on what I wrote before so I can remember where I left off, but I'm not going to. It's been such a whirlwind of fun shit, I don't care if I recap or not! Sorry for taking so long to write. The few times we stayed in hotel rooms that had free internet access, the computer was so slow...or I was so drunk...it was pointless to try. :)

But....

We got a new van. Woohoo. To be honest, I think we were all on the fence about a how we felt about a new van. Our old van was the epitome of comfort w/ DVD and four leather captains chairs, but the unknown (i.e. when the hell are we going to break down next) was too much for us to take. So, apparently reliability trumps comfort.

luckily for us, we didn't have to give up either.

Tuesday, May 27th -

i woke up at the ass crack of dawn to pick up our new van. we had played our jazz set the night before at La Cita (every monday @ 9:30 incase anyone is interested) and I got home around 2 am so I had very little sleep, but i was really excited about leaving town and touring that it didn't really matter much. i got up at 7:30 am, got to the van rental place by 8 am and left piloting our 15 pass van (w/ the three back seats taken out) by 8:45 am. hit a little traffic on the way to joe's parents' house, but arrived there around 9:30 where joe and john were already up and ready to load.

the van, despite being really large, was still a pain in the ass to load. it always takes a couple loads before you figure out the best pack so that was fine. joe opted not to take his "bed in a bag." thank god. that thing was so large, the bag itself could probably fit all three of us zipped up. john showed up w/only a couple suitcases, which was really unbelievable considering his need for clean apparel. he admitted how difficult it was for him to pack and that he would have to do laundry somewhere along the way. no problem.

we got on the road around 10 am and drove straight to SF. it was a lot faster than i had anticipated and actually more comfortable. we turned the bench seat in the back into a bed w/ a couple pillows and sleeping bags and it turned out to be a savior the whole trip.

we ran into a little bit of rain along the way, but w/ one pit stop in little panoche, where we loaded up on an assortment of strange snacks....dried fruit, dried vegetable chips, wasabi peas, unsalted pistachio nuts (unsalted?!?!?), and our favorite....hand picked by john himself, the best bag of beef jerky we've ever had. plus, that damn bag lasted us til portland where it was finished off by a good friend of ours, kevin who kept putting the meat snacks in his pocket and eating it from there...but that's later on..needless to say, joe was excited at that pit stop.

we made it to thee parkside in SF around 4 pm. a little divey punk rock bar w/ a large back patio and small stage. the bartender was cool and served us some delicious cold beers. they offered $2 taco's after 5 pm and $2 Pabst all night long. yuuuum...

since we were playing first, we set up our gear on stage to avoid having to do it later and left to eat dinner. our plan was to not hang in the bar for two reasons. one, we were about to spend the next 4 - 5 hours hanging out there and two, we're all drunks and would get too wasted to play.

thee parkside is kinda in the middle of nowhere and not wanting to drive, we walked to this cafe a couple blocks away. the axis cafe, suggested by thee parkside bartender, turned out to be an oasis in an industrial desert. this place was super cozy, the food was amazing, and we got to sit on sofas and big cushioned seats in front of a fire place. i even ordered a chardonnay...i am a girl after all...

the gig was fun. not too many people, but there was a girl (devil horns for her!) that had seen us play the House of Blues Anaheim when we opened for Bad Religion that had come to support. it was nice seeing a friendly face. AND, the owner, John, of Benders, another SF bar we had played earlier in may (and will play again Aug. 30th w/ house of broken promises) had showed up too.

we finished the gig and jetted off to our friend Billy's house (one of John Lord's Raiders buddies). ok. so, when you go on tour, you're supposed to stay in flea bag houses w/ crazy people right? but not us, this guy Billy's house is immaculate, enormous, on top of a huge hill, views of the bay bridge and the bay and all of SF, a HUGE pool table, and more. After staying at Jewels' house, I didn't think it could be any better, but it was. only this time, joe didn't have to stay in a pink girls room.

Wed., May 28th

We slept in as much as we could and met up w/ Billy for some lunch at his local Mexican restaurant...which has this goregous view of a stream and waterfalls and enormous vegetation....beautiful. drank margharita's and beer....yummmm....then drove off into oakland to find the Stork Club.

Got to the place early in the afternoon and dropped off our equipment so we could go to Telegraph to shop and meet up w/ my friend Anthony. Got to Telegraph around 4 pm, walked up and down the street trying on shoes and clothes. bought a couple things and found the local music stores and spent the rest of our afternoon there. Met up w/ Anthony and drank some beers at Raleighs on Telegraph and got to the gig around 8 pm.

now, let me just say, when we met up w/ anthony, he was dead sober. he had just gotten off work and met up w/ us for a couple beers before the gig. at raleighs, we only drank 2 pitchers between the 3 of us (john has his own beers) so when we got to the stork club, we were all still pretty sober.

it was empty in the stork club when we got there. not much was going on. supergiant had started to set up and we walked around the place to check it out. it's actually a lot larger than i had initially thought. there's a large back room w/ two pool tables and a bunch of pin ball machines. joe threw a couple quarters in what turned out to be the BEST pin ball machine any of us have ever played. SouthPark! it was a multi ball extravaganza, if any of you play pin ball. so much so, our fingers got exhausted and we had to trade off. and to top it all off, there was a toilet bowl in the game that you had to get your ball into. sooo fun.

our gig was fun. john's friend Rhino showed up and we played to a small, yet excited crowd. got some good props from the bartender and sound guy after we played and got me a glass of cold jamieson as a reward to finishing the set. we had taken all of our stuff down and were breaking it all apart when i got a nudge from joe saying, "hey, anthony wants jeremy (from supergiant, a super nice, gentle guy) to punch him." oh no. i turn around and see anthony completely wasted, swaying back and forth like a metronome, his eyes half opened, trying to egg jeremy into punching him. i don't quite understand why he does this, but all i know is that it's bad news for all of us.

i grabbed anthony and pulled him away, but he was hard to handle. he kept going back to the supergiant guys to instigate some sort of strange fist fight and it was getting really hard for me to control him when rhino, the saint, came in.

now, before any of this had happened, john had always said rhino was the man. he's the guy that'll jump in at the last minute and save you. but, when you look at him, he's just a sweet guy, not too tall, but not short, stocky, friendly face, great smile. when he talks to you he's got this really nice quiet voice, so, not to say I didn't believe john, but it was hard to see friendly rhino turn into body guard....but, i was really really wrong.

as anthony was going back to the supergiant guys, rhino stepped in and took over the situation. i couldn't hear what he was saying, but all i know is that anthony stopped and somehow rhino got him to sit down and relax. after he spoke to anthony, i asked him how he did it, he said, "i'm the drunk whisperer." hee.

but, the night was not over. we loaded all of our stuff on the dark streets of oakland and were about to leave when the door girl came up to me and said, your friend is on the floor. i found anthony had slid out of his seat and was awkwardly and uncomfortably laying on the floor w/ his limbs going in directions i didn't think was possible at all. he was a dead weight and there was nothing i could do.

again, rhino stepped in and picked him up. w/ one arm on rhino and one arm on john, the two dragged the guy out and leaned him up against the van, where he proceeded to try to pee on our van. at that point, we had a meeting. what the hell do you do w/ a totally drunk friend in oakland. we couldn't leave him on the streets of oakland, we couldn't take him home cuz he was too drunk to tell us where his home was and we couldn't call his wife cuz we didn't want to cause havoc, so, we took him with us. we threw him in the back seat of the van and made joe take care of him for the 45 min. drive back to billy's while john and i contemplated what we were going to do w/ him once we got there.

i don't remember much from the drive, but i did take some video. as soon as i get it off my computer, i'll try to attach it to this blog somehow. unfortunately, my memory maxed out mid video so you only get the beginning of it. but, i do remember the look on joe's face each time i would look back, anthony saying, "you just punched me." and joe replying, "no dude, i didn't punch you, you head butted me." and joe's saying over and over again, "oh buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy, buddy." it was a mess.

we got to billy's house and john and i decided anthony had to stay in the van. there was no way he could go into Billy's gorgeous house in this state. we talked him into staying in the van and we all went inside. i got my sleeping bag and was setting it up on the living room sofa when we heard heavy footsteps pounding it's way up the front deck. i froze in horror hoping it would just go away, but when anthony banged on the front door, joe and i got scared. i said, "you go." joe said, "no way, you go." we both went cuz he kept banging, but then we couldn't figure out how to unlatch the door. so after 5 minutes of messing with the door (and by this time, it's 3 - 4 am and billy has to work at 6 am), we get the door open, i somehow get anthony back down the stairs and in the van. i convinced him that we needed him to sleep in the van so he could protect the gear and left him there to sleep off the alcohol.

The next morning, I was afraid to look outside. i had all these fears running through my head. what if he vomited in the van, or pee'd in the van, or got pissed and broke all the windows. plus, i didn't leave any windows open, what if it got to stuffy in the van. why i would care if it got too stuffy, i don't know, but i did and that made me go downstairs and open some windows for him. about half an hour later, john and i saw him w/ his bicycle getting ready to leave for work (he had to work at 10 am) and stopped him from leaving. he didn't realize we were south of san mateo, a good distance from berkeley. he didn't remember anything from the night before and we got him to work only 30 minutes late.

not bad.

looking back on that whole night, i think we'd have to thank rhino, the drunk whisperer, the most. we were supposed to go to his daughter's softball game (which they won) but w/ everything we had to do, were unable to make it. next time though, we've all decided we're going to the game. maybe we'll bring our instruments and play the star spangled banner for them!

a