So much has happened in the past week!

1. Sydney Rose has embarked on her newest adventure moving to Oregon.  I finally wore her down and she allowed me to accompany her up there; however, she didn’t allow me to drive once (she was making a point that she could do it on her own).

The first day she played her music.  The second day she didn’t turn on the radio or mp3 player once.  She did however insist on playing car games.  We took turns naming off the 50 states, we did it with Wisconsin being the last, and we played Twenty Questions.  We laughed a lot and I’m so glad we had those last two days alone together.  Looking forward to her coming home for Christmas.

2. Missed my flight back home in Portland; first time I’ve ever done that.  Grrrr.   Portland traffic SUCKS!  Just saying.   Got on the later flight all stressed out, but the Bloody Mary and the affable conversation with an older gentleman sitting next to me helped to ease the pain to San Francisco.

3. The little twin propeller plane to Santa Barbara put me right back on edge; should have gone for a second Bloody Mary.

4. Back home on Wednesday and I bought a new car because I officially handed off mine to Sydney in Oregon.  I got myself a new Nissan Sentra.  Cute little guy.  I think he’ll do me right.

5. We had our final band practice on Sunday in preparation for our debut performance. Sydney Rose tagged along (spending as much time together before she was to leave town the next morning).   Christine actually sang on one of the songs. I hadn’t heard her sing before. I told them how great they sounded and Charles said they needed to get me a mic too. Horrified I said NO WAY, I can’t carry a tune. Syd chimed in with, “Have her lip sync!” To which Charles instantly deemed Syd Rose band manager.

6. I did it!  I made my band debut at Bombay’s Wednesday night (no lip syncing).  I was nervous, yet excited.  Having worked about 15 years in radio, I don’t mind being in front of people, but I’ve never played an instrument for anyone, and up until July, I had never played with a band. My band mates Charles and Christine Law made this girl’s dreams come true.  Tommy Marsh joining us made us sound actually pretty good!

7. Thank you Amanda for loaning me the dress (I had to follow Christine’s mandate of dresses and boots).

8. Thank you Jonny Reese for the shot of Patron as soon as I got off the stage.

9. Thank you Diego for the :15 video you posted on Facebook.

10. My dad was there to support me, he even wore a VenturaRocks.com t-shirt!  After the show he asked if he could have the pick I used to play guitar.  Could you die?  Too sweet.

11. My best buds were there to support even though I warned them I would suck.  It was quite a rush creating something out of nothing and seeing people respond to the music.  Charles Law is an amazing songwriter and I was super scared I would make a mockery of his song, “Corrine.”  But with Tommy’s help it sounded pretty damn good!

12. As for “Sweet Dreams”, it turned out that there was a guitarist in the audience who actually played on the original with the Eurythmics as a session player (he allegedly has the Grammy to prove it).  Seriously, this could only happen to me.  We played the Marilyn Manson version which sounded a lot more like a White Stripes version and he came up afterwards and said, and I quote, “I like your feel.”  I’ll take that!

13. Just saying…my band debut was everything I thought it would be.  I had a blast!  Thank you Christine and Charles Law!  Your generosity humbles me.  Love you!

14. From the “You Never Know Who You’ll Run Into” file:  Having breakfast at Art’s Cafe here in Ventura this week and a crew of nice looking young men (probably in their 20s) arrived and sat in a nearby booth.  The waitress asked where they were from as they came in a Mercedes Benz Van.  It turns out that Gary Young was one of them.  Shook his hand as he recently won the Gold at the X-Games in Barcelona for BMX Park riding.  Nice guy.  They were on their way to Santa Barbara for a demonstration at one of their sponsor locations.

15. The Saturday night before Sydney left, Molly, the anti-social cat, actually slept with Syd Rose. So, there is some minuscule amount of devotedness in her cold stone itty bitty kitty heart.

16.  From my “Favorite Facebook Posts” file:
“Let’s not get carried away by the fairytale okay, Pinocchio was a Goddamn liar.”  – Bodhi Elfman

Thanks for listening!