Road Trip of Wonder: Part 2

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet as Mumford and Sons. Fact.

Just the day after I visited the doctor to get antibiotics to tackle my tonsillitis from hell, I was already furiously making plans to try to see as many of my friends as possible. I thought originally that I’d be staying until sometime that weekend, but I added a destination to my trip that made it important for me to leave on Friday, and being sick had sucked away nearly three days of my visit already. I ended up being able to meet up with Malyssa and her on again off again friend/open relationship co-conspirator, Tony on Tuesday. Mom and I picked them up after a nice Vietnamese dinner and a quick rendezvous with some cats at a Petco downtown; and we all headed over to the Dandelion Café where there would be an open mic Spoken Word happening that night at which I was planning to recite. It had been so long since my last poetry reading that I was a bit nervous, but the whole thing was such a blast. I felt so much support from my mom that totally made up for the little spat that Myssa and Tony ended up having at the end of the evening. We ended up dropping Tony off at his place and kidnapping Myssa for a couple of days, as much for my benefit as for hers. There was more wine and there was more hookah, and some pool action, I believe. I think it was the next day that Kate came over and we got to hang out all night. There was definitely pool action that night. We were wild, if I do say so myself! It was so incredible seeing Kate again and being able to catch up with her. She is so beautiful and inspirational and has such uplifting stories (and outrageous ones these days), and being with her was very clearing for me. We got to swap stories and catch up after so long playing phone tag. The next day, after saying my goodbyes to Kate and Malyssa, I got the chance to visit for a little while with my long lost buddy, Aisha. She’s a wonderful woman, very proactive and sure in her beliefs. She says she aims to get out on the road as I am, but somehow just can’t get her foot out the door. I keep trying to motivate her to just get up and do it… I find that people get so caught up in what they are supposed to be doing, and they forget to do what they really want to. There’s no point putting it off, I think. You never know what tomorrow might bring, or if you’ll be around to enjoy it.

I tried to see as many people as I could, and ended up just having a few intensive visits with a handful of friends. I think it ended up being better that way. I was too sick to have enjoyed a big get-together like I originally intended, and a mellow scene was really just what I needed in the end. I drove away with my heart full of love and whole to do list of pending adventures. It was a bit hard to leave without knowing when I’d be back again. I usually have some sort of time frame of when I’ll return- even if it’s a year away; and, to this day, I have none. This may, in fact, be the first year that I won’t be home for Christmas.

But I digress. I left Florida on that Friday, September 17th, on my way to Arlington, VA to see Eric Schwartz at the Arlington Draft House. I had met Eric, if you remember, at Billy’s CD Release show in San Diego earlier this year (the trip just before my purse was stolen). He’s the one with the puppy dog eyes. : ) I read on his Facebook that he would be playing in Arlington, and I figured, since I was going to be on that coast, I might as well drive up to see him. It was going to create a bit of back-tracking later on, but I didn’t mind. Eric is a fantastic person and I would drive any distance to support him. I passed through all the places that I would later be spending more time in, South Carolina, North Carolina, and Highway 58 to Chesapeake- each time with a little twinge of impatience at having to wait to see my friends when they were so close by. However, the drive was beautiful, I was feeling rejuvenated and excited, and I was so ready to see Eric the next day. I spent the night in a truck stop after a beautiful sunset and a brief glimpse of fall in a few red trees I spotted just off to the side of the highway. I made it to Arlington by around noon the next day and I plopped myself down out front of the venue to take in the scenery. I passed most of the afternoon going back and forth between the Draft House and my car to nurse the meter (which would only allot four hours of parking at a time- inconvenient considering my intent to stay for about 11 to 12 hours) or to take naps. I eventually migrated inside to the bar area after finding no comfortable conversation or patch of sidewalk outside. While sitting in the bar, I overheard the bartender and one of her customers talking about where they were from. The bartender mentioned being from Houston, Texas- a place I had just visited- and the customer was from North Carolina- a destination on my list that week. I ended up joining in the conversation and we talked jovially about my road trip and the adventures I’d already had. I mentioned a few places on my list for the remainder of my trip, and when I got to Spaghettifest, in West Virginia, the bartender, Bridgette, looked pleasantly surprised. She laughingly told me that her best friend was dating the drummer from the band, Midnight Spaghetti and the Chocolate G-Strings. What a small world! She told me that I would have to talk to Ryan, the drummer, and tell him that Bridgette from D.C. says hello. I told her that I would be more than willing to send along her message. I spent until show time chatting with her and the other ladies about travelling, music, comedy, and beer; and finally tore myself away in time to get a good seat right up front in the theatre.

The host of the evening was a cute little Indian woman. She played up her nationality in her jokes and definitely got the laughs flowing. It was something along the lines of: “Let’s just go ahead and take care of this elephant in the room. And, you know, it’s convenient that it’s an elephant… considering… my culture.” Teehee! She introduced us to Eric’s opening act, and the giggles cascaded. He played around in various areas, mainly sticking to relationships- past and present. Like bringing a drunk girl home only to find that she had peed on the floor of his bedroom, at which point he proceeded to rub her nose in it and hit her with a rolled up newspaper. And finally- Eric! It was such a pow-wow of a show. In fact, Eric spent so much time on digressions he actually had to cut his act short and skip the new songs he had planned to perform. According to him, the show the night before had been so much better… but all I knew was that he was hilarious. I think the last live comedy I had seen was back when I took Myssa to see Dane Cook or Stephen Lynch way back in the day. There were two people who jumped out to Eric while he was on stage. First was a girl to my right at the far edge of the stage, sitting with her friend. They’ve since been compared to Ren and Stimpy… which I realize is a bit cruel… but at the same time is pretty fitting. Eric was in the middle of his show when he looked over and immediately exclaimed, “Hey! You’re from the Disney cruise!!” He had a quick conversation from the stage after having randomly recognized these ladies from a series of shows he’d done for Disney on one of their European cruise lines. It was pretty funny. The other girl he recognized was Erica, a loyal follower of his from Facebook. She ended up getting excited at one of his jokes and accidentally flipping over a little bowl of Honey Mustard dipping sauce that had come with her dinner- allll into her crotch area. Eric pointed it out to the entire audience, and brought buckets of hilarity with each reference to the incident throughout the night. Eventually he just took to calling her Honey Mustard.

After the show, Eric went to the merch table to sign autographs and take pictures. I headed that way, too, but hung back to give everyone else time to chat with him. I’d already met him and hung out with him anyway. I wanted everyone else to have a turn as well. And besides, it would give me a chance to have more of a one-on-one chat with him without a few dozen people trying to press in. I got to chat with Erica a.k.a. “Honey Mustard” for a little while, and we promised friend each other on Facebook, and slowly the crowd around the merch table thinned out. Finally, after Ren and Stimpy left, I was the last one left. Eric came forward and went to introduce himself and thank me for coming. I mentioned Billy’s show and suddenly a look of familiarity flashed across his face. There were a lot of “Wow!”s and “Oh my gosh!”s and he was thrilled to find out that I’d driven from Florida just to see his show. “Well of course I did… you’re kind of amazing” was my general reply. He extended an offer to me to join him and his friends at a bar nearby called the Liberty Tavern, and I accepted, and when he left to freshen up is when I met Julz. She was working the merchandise table, helping Eric out for free because he was a friend and she’s incredible that way. She and I started talking and realized that we’d already sort of met before at Billy’s Washington D.C. show. She had been the one who sold me my buttons, and was the one who would soon be having the kidney transplant that Billy was so excited to find out about that night when he ran off to dinner with that girl. Haha! And here we were, hitting it off. Soon, after a quick ride back to my car by Julz and Eric, and a short drive down-town thanks to the GPS on my new hand-me-down phone, we all reconvened at the Liberty Tavern. It was absolutely packed! We headed inside where Eric met up with the friends who had invited him and we stood in a wobbly circle swapping stories and yelling over the hubbub around us. Eric bought a round of drinks for everyone… which pretty much consisted of pineapple juice and seltzer water. None of them are really big drinkers, and I was enthralled by the fact that we had come to a tavern and no one would be having anything alcoholic. It was quite refreshing, actually. Eric was having a conversation with the people who had invited him out, so Julz and I huddled together and had a conversation of our own. We come from completely different backgrounds, but both have a strong foundation of love in our lives and are both looking for the same connections in everyday life. It was beautiful to meet someone that I felt so connected to- something I had missed so much after moving away from my original love-inspiration/guru, Kate, in Orlando. We exchanged phone numbers before parting for the night- something she insists that she doesn’t usually do with random fans of her friends- and made loose plans to see each other again before I left the east coast. I drove to a rest stop off the highway heading south and spent the night.

The next day I called up Mer and Tony, my wonderfully amazing Jason-loving friends in Charlotte, North Carolina and gave them a heads up as to my arrival time. It was a long drive, but full of such excitement and anticipation at seeing these great friends that the time seemed to sail by. I found myself in their neighborhood before I knew it, and stopped by the local grocery store for some almond milk and fruit before heading to their driveway. I was greeted by Tony and Kayden, who, now three years old, has grown so incredibly much in the six months since I last saw him! We did some catching up while waiting for Mer to finish work, and as soon as she came home the reunion was in full swing. We exchanged stories and CDs, played with water-powered rocket ships and sidewalk chalk, examined cats and rats and THC (they did, anyway… I’m more of a casual observer). Mer and Tony have been trying to get me to smoke with them nearly the entire time I’ve known them. It’s become a kind of running joke with us. I’ve sworn to smoke for the first time with only them and/or Jason Mraz and/or Bushwalla. It makes it easier for me to say no to other people I hang out with- which is kind of nice. I don’t feel any pressure or temptation at all when I’m hanging out with David and his fiancée and they ask me to smoke with them. I say, nope, sorry, I promised someone else. It’s pretty funny. These days I’ve bumped it up to only in the case of having Mer, Tony, David, and Rachel in one place at one time (preferably with Jason and Billy, too) will I smoke. We get a laugh out of that, but I digress. So Mer and Tony offered and I respectfully declined, and that was that. We had a spectacular time. A couple days after I showed up on their doorstep, we finalized our plans for our trip to South Carolina. We had all bought tickets for the Jason Mraz concert in Greenville, and we decided to make the 3 hour drive down together, although in separate cars seeing as I would be continuing on to Charleston the day after for the next show, but they would be heading back to North Carolina for their son and work and other grown-up type responsibilities.

And so, after dropping Kayden off at Grandma’s and running a few errands, we end up, the three of us, in Greenville, North Carolina.
And that, my friends, is a story in of itself, and therefore where I must leave you in this episode of my road trip adventures.
I am so excited to write about Greenville, but Starbucks is closing in two minutes and I’m going to be kicked out. I will continue these adventures soon. I promise.
I love you, and I love my life, and I love the fact that, as of yesterday, Julz has her new kidney and it’s working fabulously, and her new nickname is Pisser! X D <3